The Search Box Just Got Smarter
Google announced at I/O 2026 that the search box is transitioning into an "intelligent search box" — one that flips into AI Mode or AI Overviews with a thought. That single change ripples through everything SEOs have been optimizing for over the last decade. You're no longer just fighting for a blue link. You're fighting to be cited inside an AI-generated summary that the user never leaves.
This isn't a hypothetical shift. It's happening now, and it's already reshaping what SEO professionals consider their job.
A panel of SEO practitioners at WordCamp Europe — hosted by Kacper Bartoszak and featuring Alex Moss from Yoast, Pam Aungst Cronin of Pam Ann Marketing, Jovana Smoljanovic Tucakov from Melograno Ventures, and David Cuesta of AMDSEO.es — laid out exactly how this is changing the game. Their conclusions aren't radical, but they're uncomfortable for anyone still treating SEO as a purely technical discipline.
The short version: brand is the new backlink. And if you've been optimizing for clicks instead of citations, you're already behind.
Why Citations Beat Clicks
Here's the uncomfortable truth most SEOs don't want to hear: when AI synthesizes an answer for a user, the click-through rate drops. Dramatically. The user gets their answer without ever visiting your site.
Pam Aungst Cronin put it bluntly during the panel. She said we used to optimize for traffic, and technically we still do — but when the AI is doing the synthesis work for the user, chasing clicks becomes a losing strategy. The real prize is being recommended by the AI summary itself.
That's a citation, not a click. And citations don't come from backlinks alone anymore.
They come from brand recognition. From being the name that surfaces consistently across the web. From having enough authority and visibility that an AI agent trusts you as a source.
Cronin's line — "brand is the new backlink" — isn't a catchy soundbite. It's an accurate description of how AI retrieval systems actually work. When an agent needs to answer a query, it doesn't just follow links. It weighs sources by authority, recognition, and consistency. Your brand name is the signal that tells the system you're worth citing.
SEO Is Merging With Marketing (Whether You Like It or Not)
Jovana Smoljanovic Tucakov captured the broader shift perfectly. She said SEO teams used to treat their work as a niche function — one small part of the puzzle. Today, doing good SEO or GEO means looking at the entire marketing picture.
"You need to approach it as brand strategy, product marketing, SEO tactics we were already using — but upgraded on a much higher level," she explained.
This is the part that makes some SEOs uncomfortable. It means your job description just got bigger. You can't just optimize meta tags and build links anymore. You need to understand brand positioning, PR strategy, social presence, and how your product communicates its value.
David Cuesta took this further when discussing smaller businesses. Established brands already have recognition and authority baked in. Smaller companies? They need to work harder to distinguish themselves through unique content, local visibility, social amplification, and creating something competitors simply can't replicate.
The playing field isn't level. But the panel agreed that clarity and consistency can close some of the gap.
Making Your Brand Understandable to AI
The panelists converged on a practical theme: businesses need to make it easier for AI systems to understand who they are, what they offer, and why they're different.
Alex Moss led with the technical fundamentals. Structured data matters more than ever. Entity understanding and disambiguation — making sure every page on your site is clearly about one thing, with semantic HTML that leaves no room for interpretation — are non-negotiable.
He called it "data integrity": the less work AI systems need to do to interpret your content, the less likely they are to produce inaccurate answers about you. Bad structure means bad citations. Or no citation at all.
Jovana Smoljanovic Tucakov focused on product positioning. Strategic pages need to clearly explain what a product does, whom it serves, what problems it solves, and why customers should trust the claims being made. And this messaging needs to stay consistent across your website, PR campaigns, social profiles, and every third-party mention.
Inconsistency is the enemy. If your About page says one thing, your press releases say another, and your social bios contradict both — AI systems will be confused. And confusion means you won't get cited.
The Experience Advantage Nobody Can Copy
Google added the second "E" to E-E-A-T for a reason. Experience matters.
Pam Aungst Cronin argued that most businesses completely misunderstand what Google means by experience. Adding an author bio isn't enough. Content needs firsthand observations, real projects, specific events, concrete examples — the kind of detail that shows how expertise was actually acquired.
This is where businesses can create something AI simply cannot reproduce. An AI agent can summarize information, but it can't describe what it felt like to solve a specific problem at 2 AM. It can't share the lesson from a campaign that almost failed before turning around.
Cronin pointed to Reddit as proof of concept. Reddit's visibility in AI answers isn't a loophole — it succeeds because the platform contains authentic human experiences. AI systems seek original information sources, not recycled summaries.
David Cuesta echoed this from a different angle. He noted that promotional activities like PR campaigns — even when they produce nofollow links — can significantly improve AI positioning. The mechanism isn't the link itself; it's the brand awareness and authority those campaigns build.
"Many times it's all links that are nofollow, but they are working very good positioning in the AI," Cuesta said. Translation: visibility compounds.
What the Next Decade Actually Looks Like
The panel's most speculative segment focused on where search is headed in five, ten, even fifteen years. Predictions varied, but one thread was clear: AI agents will increasingly handle research, comparisons, and transactions on behalf of users.
Cronin predicted that websites may function less as destinations for people and more as interfaces for software agents. Moss pushed back slightly, noting that context matters enormously — consumers might let AI purchase routine items, but larger decisions involving significant money or personal preference will likely still involve direct human evaluation.
Cuesta suggested AI agents may increasingly coordinate appointments, scheduling, and planning even when people remain responsible for final decisions.
Nobody on the panel claimed to know exactly what search will look like in a decade. But they all agreed on one thing: the businesses that win will be those building recognizable brands and publishing genuinely useful, experience-based content.
Traditional SEO isn't dying. It's merging with branding, marketing, reputation management, and user experience into something broader — and harder to game.
What to Do Right Now
If you're still treating SEO as a purely technical exercise, the panel's message should feel like a wake-up call. Here's what actually moves the needle in an AI-driven search landscape:
Build brand recognition. Publish consistently. Get mentioned in PR. Show up on social platforms where your audience already is. The more your brand name appears across the web, the more likely AI systems are to cite you.
Make yourself structurally clear. Invest in structured data, semantic HTML, and site architecture that leaves no ambiguity about what each page is about. Disambiguation isn't optional anymore.
Write from experience. Include firsthand observations, specific examples, and real project details. Author bios help, but they're not a substitute for content that demonstrates actual expertise in action.
Stay consistent everywhere. Your website, social profiles, press mentions, and third-party citations should all tell the same story about who you are and what you offer. Inconsistency confuses AI systems — and confused systems don't cite you.
Stop chasing shortcuts. The panel largely rejected the idea that long-term visibility can be achieved through tricks. Focus on quality, products, users, and marketing. The shortcuts don't scale.
The fundamentals haven't changed. They've just gotten broader.