How AI Is Changing SEO: What Every Agency Owner Needs to Know with Vishal Mahida | Ep #853

AI isn’t replacing SEO — it’s rewriting the rules. Vishal Mahida from E2M Solutions explains how agencies can help clients transition from traditional keyword-based SEO to AI optimization — focusing on brand visibility across all the places large language models (LLMs) pull data from, not just Google.

What You’ll Learn

• Why SEO still matters — but it’s not enough anymore
• How to educate clients about AI search before they start asking you
• The difference between SEO and AI optimization
• What metrics to track in an AI-first world
• How to sell and deliver “AI Search Audits” as a new service

Key Takeaways

• AI Optimization expands SEO, it doesn’t replace it. Optimize for how the internet talks about your brand — not just rankings.
• Visibility beats traffic. Fewer clicks doesn’t mean less awareness; it means AI systems are pulling your info directly into their summaries.
• Your website is still your “source of truth.” It’s the credibility anchor AI models need.
• Agencies should start running AI search audits now. Track mentions, citations, and AI bot activity to understand your brand’s visibility.
• Educate clients before they ask. If they’re wondering how AI impacts search and you’re silent, they’ll find someone else who isn’t.

How are you preparing your clients to start thinking about AI as part of their SEO strategy? Are you educating them on what they can expect now that the SEO landscape is changing with AI-driven optimization? As an agency, you should be starting these conversations because you can be sure your clients are already thinking about AI, even if they still don’t understand its applications for how users will get to their content.

Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how people find information, it’s rewriting the rules of search altogether. Today’s featured guest is already running AI audits for his clients; he thinks all agency owners should be doing this. He’ll unpack what AI optimization really means for agencies, marketers, and business owners who’ve lived and breathed SEO for decades.

Vishal Mahida is the Director of Digital Marketing at E2M Solutions, where he helps over 100 agencies scale their SEO and digital marketing operations. With a 40+ person team specializing in SEO, PPC, and operations support, Vishal works directly with agencies on systems that drive measurable growth and keep them ahead of major shifts in the industry.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• SEO vs. AI Optimization, how search is evolving.

• Why Your Website Still Matters: Turning your site into a credibility hub in the AI era.

• Preparing your agency and clients for AI search across many platforms.

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Sponsors and Resources

E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.

SEO and AI Optimization: What’s Changing and Why It Matters

There’s a lot of buzz around how AI has come to change and maybe even replace SEO. Vishal clarifies that AI optimization isn’t replacing SEO, it’s expanding it. Traditional SEO focused primarily on optimizing for Google rankings, keywords, and backlinks. The goal was to get traffic from search results. But as Vishal explains, the modern search landscape has fragmented. Users now search on multiple platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude - not just Google.

This shift means brands must move beyond “ranking on Google” and focus on being visible wherever their audience searches for information. Whether someone asks ChatGPT for “the best roofers in Austin” or Google’s AI mode for “running shoes under $5,000,” AI systems are gathering and summarizing information across multiple sources in real time, including social platforms like Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn.

Think about it as building a multi-platform visibility strategy and ensuring your brand, expertise, and content exist across platforms that large language models (LLMs) pull from. “You’re not optimizing for one search engine anymore,” he says. “You’re optimizing for how the internet talks about you.”

Why Your Website Anchors Trust in the AI-Driven Search World

Will websites become irrelevant if AI answers everything for users? According to Vishal, websites won’t disappear, they’ll evolve. Think of them as your source of truth rather than your traffic generator.

When AI summarizes answers for users, it still references real content and authoritative sources. So, your website remains essential for credibility, events, and conversion, even if fewer users arrive there through traditional search. For instance, if someone asks ChatGPT about agency growth events in Austin, and you’ve mentioned your event across social media, your website, and podcasts, AI will likely include it in the results. “That’s how people find you now,” Vishal agrees. “Not just through search but through signals from every platform.”

Of course, your website content still matters. Are you answering the questions that people are asking? Or are you just optimizing for the keywords. Keyword stuffing no longer works. AI looks for answers, not just terms. People will ask LLMs questions and if you’re already answering them on your content there are more chances that AI results will find you and list your website.

New SEO KPIs: How to Measure AI Visibility and Brand Mentions

One of the biggest challenges agencies face is explaining to clients why organic traffic might be dropping even as visibility increases. Why? Traditional SEO metrics no longer tell the whole story.

So how should you report back? Basically, you’ll need to educate clients and start measuring mentions, citations, and referrals coming from AI platforms.

Vishal suggests tracking LLM bot hits in server logs and monitoring whether AI crawlers are visiting key pages. These indicators reveal how visible your brand is in AI-driven summaries and results. While raw traffic might decline, the quality of leads and conversions often improves. “You might get fewer leads,” he says, “but they’ll be more qualified, because AI searchers are deeper in their intent.”

Leads from AI chats tend to be more serious buyers who have already researched their problems. The shift, then, isn’t a loss but rather an opportunity to educate clients on new performance indicators that reflect where users actually search today.

How Agencies Can Lean Clients in the AI Search Era

When it comes to optimizing for AI, Vishal recommends a hybrid approach: combine solid technical SEO fundamentals with a new layer of AI-readiness. This includes making sure your site is clean, crawlable, and structured properly, while also ensuring your brand has visibility across other platforms.

At E2M, Vishal’s team runs AI search audits to check how often their clients’ brands appear in LLM answers. They even query ChatGPT and Perplexity directly to see what those systems “know” or generate about their brand and their competitors. From there, they reverse-engineer visibility by identifying which platforms, podcasts, or publications make brands more likely to get cited by AI tools. Mentions on Reddit, Quora, and podcasts count, even if they’re not linked, because they help build trust signals that LLMs detect.

Agencies, Vishal says, can sell these as AI search audits, AI content audits, or full AI optimization packages — new recurring revenue streams that build on their SEO expertise.

AI Won’t Replace the Human Edge, It Will Reward It

Agencies can’t afford to be “order takers” who wait for clients to bring up AI. If your clients are asking about AI before you bring it up, you’re already behind. Instead, agencies should position themselves as trusted advisors who help clients navigate the shift confidently.

Start those conversations with your clients now, or risk being replaced by someone who does. At the end of the day, people still want connection, which is why both Jason and Vishal agree that AI will never replace the human element and the strategy, empathy, and creativity that come from real human connection. People will always want someone that can help guide them through the new marketing trends. As Vishal puts it, “Business owners don’t have time to learn all this. They want someone they trust to handle it.” AI might make average easier, but human connection, data insight, and creative network will always be your edge.

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