In this talk, Rob will walk through the "5 stages of SEO grief" that marketers are experiencing as AI transforms search — from denial that AI Overviews are a passing fad, through anger at plummeting click-through rates and plagiarism lawsuits, bargaining with listicles and content "chunking," depression over whether SEO is finally dead, and finally acceptance of a new reality.

He'll share hard data on how AI Overviews have cut organic CTR, explore why traditional SEO tactics like llms.txt aren't the answer, and show how brand mentions across the web (not just backlinks) are becoming the strongest predictor of AI visibility.

Rob will close with practical guidance on how to actually measure AI search performance — including where to find the prompts to track, how to monitor AI referral traffic and bot activity, and which metrics (brand mentions, AI citations, branded traffic) matter for the future, replacing outdated ones like impressions, rankings, and CTR.