Hey Reader,

No WTSNewsletter next week while our team is all hands on deck for WTSFest Portland, but we'll be back in your inbox on May 13th!

Inside this week’s newsletter you’ll find:

• Shannon Vize on tracking AI visibility the right way
• Meet ​Nikki Parsons​ & her journey in search
• WTS May meetups & brightonSEO meet & greet TOMORROW​
• & Part 5 of Ellen Sartin’s series on AI visibility through local sponsorships 👀

Thank you to this week's WTSNewsletter sponsors: Finchling, MerseySearch, & withFrontier.

Let's get started =)

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Brilliant work by our brilliant members
​​
1) Aleyda Solis - A 3 Layer Framework to Measure AI Presence, Readiness and Business Impact​

2) Emma Moletto - How I stay up to date in SEO without feeding the FOMO​

3) Francine Monahan - How the AI Search Strategic Roadmap Turns Data into a Plan​

4) MJ Cachon - Technical SEO Checklist: The Complete Guide For 2026​

5) Tracy McDonald, Hannah Cooley & Marketa Williams - AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update​

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For future editions, if you’d like to recommend any articles (and yes, you can totally recommend your own work!), fill out this form:

Recommend an Article

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• Ideation that starts with the news, not a blank page: Instead of starting from scratch, every opportunity comes with data angles to explore - so you can pitch a story only your client can tell.
• Plan PR campaigns months ahead, not minutes before: Finchling finds upcoming events relevant to your brand - up to a year in advance - so Monday morning is planning, not panic.
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Our latest WTSKnowledge

Everyone’s talking about AI visibility, but as Shannon Vize explains, tracking it like traditional search is where most brands go wrong.

She breaks down how to:

• Understand AI search properly (it’s conversations, not keywords)
• Choose the right tracking approach (top-down vs. bottom-up)
• Focus on unbranded prompts to uncover real opportunity
• Spot visibility gaps using bot behaviour and citations
• Track what actually matters (share of voice, sentiment, high-intent traffic)

AI visibility isn’t harder to measure, it just needs a different lens.

Get your AI tracking right here →

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MerseySearch returns on Tuesday May 5th 💗
​[Spotlight Sponsor: MerseySearch]

​MerseySearch (hosted by brilliant WTSers Jo O'Reilly and Natalie Slater) is back with a community-led evening focused on Personal Branding: Optimising Yourself Online.

What to expect:

• Headline talk from Liam Quirk on building a personal brand through search
• Panel discussion featuring our own Hannah Smith, alongside Joe Hale, Jordan Japal & Zoe Ashbridge​
• Community-first atmosphere with plenty of time for networking and conversations

📍 Frederiks, Liverpool (L1 9BX)
📅 Tuesday 5 May 2026

Come along & connect

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Our latest WTSInterview

Meet Nikki Parsons!

Nikki Parsons is a marketing strategist with 13 years of experience leading digital, SEO, and marketing initiatives for global brands like Semrush, iQuanti, and GC Aesthetics.

Read Nikki's story here

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WTSFest Portland is NEXT WEEK!

In just one week, we’ll be in Portland 🌲💗

​WTSFest Portland is almost here! We can’t wait to bring our community together again in the West Coast 🫂

Here’s what’s waiting for you:

• 10 expert-led talks across 4 themes
• Actionable insights you can take back with you
• After-party networking (with therapy dogs 🐾)

It’s more than a conference at WTSFest: it’s the conversations, the connections, & the moments that stay with you long after the day ends.

If you’re joining us, we’ll see you there 💗

If not, this is your final chance - we’re almost sold out!

Last few tix

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WTS May Virtual & In-Person Meet-ups 🌏

VIRTUAL ⭕ SEO Circle: Content, Tech, AI & Beyond 🇦🇺 WTS Australia 🇨🇦 WTS Canada 💻 WTS Freelance 🏠 WTS Inhouse Community Chat 👋🏽 WTS Intro Call 🏢 WTS Path-Agency Meetup ⚡ WTS Speed Networking 🇺🇸 WTS West Coast Connect 🌐 WTSGlobal Day - Community Gathering

IN PERSON 🔍 MerseySearch 🐝 WTS x HiveMCR 🌊 WTS x brightonSEO 🌍 WTS Global Day - Search Africon Post Event 🇩🇪 WTSGlobal Day - Berlin 🇺🇸 WTSGlobal Day - Denver 🇫🇷 WTSGlobal Day - France 🇬🇧 WTSGlobal Day - Sheffield 🇦🇺 WTSGlobal Day - WiSDM Sydney 🇺🇸 WTSGlobal Day - Northern VA 🌲 WTSFest Portland

For dates & host info, head to our #wts-meetups channel on Slack!

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Your WTSFest conference countdowns

We'd love to see YOU at one of our upcoming full-day marketing events!
​
​⌛ 8 days - Portland on May 7th, 2026
​🎟️ 6 Final Call tickets remaining!

⏳ 155 days - Philadelphia on October 1st, 2026
​🎤 Speaker agenda now live

⏳ 324 days - London on March 19th, 2027
​🎟️ 17 super early bird tix (£299) before early bird tix (£399)

🎥 2026 On-demand Insights - From AI Search to Real Influence & Trust
​🎟️ $99 for all 10 talks

Our WTSFest Hub

Use our Dear Boss template to request budget to attend!

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🌊 TOMORROW at brightonSEO

If you’re attending brightonSEO, we’d love for you to join our WTS meet & greet - whether it’s your first time or you’ve been part of the community for years.

Why come along?

🤝🏽 Meet friendly faces and make genuine connections

💫 Feel instantly part of the community

👯‍♀️ Come solo or with friends, you’ll be welcomed either way!

And yes… there’s a free drink 👀🍹
Just grab a coupon from the brightonSEO leaflet/newsletter when you arrive and bring it along.

🗓 Thu 30 Apr, 17:45-19:00​
📍 2Bar (Brighton Centre)​
🎟 No additional ticket needed, just show up

WTS x brightonSEO

This event is for people of marginalised genders including: women, non-binary folks, transgender men, and other gender expansive identities.

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[WTSNewsletter Series] Improving AI Visibility for local businesses through sponsorships

Series Author: Ellen Sartin​

Ellen is the Client Success & Growth Manager at ZipSprout.

A research-driven Local SEO nerd with over 12 years of experience in marketing and business development, and a background in applied statistics and data analysis, Ellen explores how community partnerships between brands and nonprofit organizations drive real local visibility and engagement - and how AI is shaping Local SEO.

Missed Part 4? Check it out here!

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Each sponsorship placement helps connect your business with the communities you serve and gives search engines and AI tools more context about who you are, where you operate, and why your business deserves to be recommended.

But clicks alone won’t tell you whether sponsorships are helping to improve your visibility. I track the impact of sponsorship activity in a number of ways:

You can track sponsorship impact on AI surfaces by checking how your business appears when buyers search for local options.

Start manually in Google Search. Run the kinds of local buying and comparison queries your customers would use, then note whether your business appears in the AI Overview, how it is described, and which sources Google pulls in to support the answer.

Then check the same themes in AI Mode using more detailed bottom-funnel prompts. This helps you see whether your business makes the shortlist, whether it’s framed in the right local and service context, and whether the supporting sources reflect the sponsorship and community signals you’ve built.
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If you want to do this more consistently, you can also use a tracking tool like Xofu to monitor bottom-funnel prompt visibility over time. That makes it easier to compare prompts, spot changes, and see whether your business is appearing in the right decision-stage results.

From a standard organic search perspective, I track sponsorship impact by comparing a target URL’s keyword ranking and local backlink gap over time. After sustained sponsorship outreach, I find these pages often show up for terms they had never ranked for before, and overall keyword positions have improved.

If you want to track sponsorship referrals directly, you can ask an organization to use a trackable URL. But handle it carefully. Many nonprofits distrust links that look unfamiliar, and long UTM strings can trigger concerns about tracking.

If you choose this path, explain it in plain language, keep it clean, and expect some organizations to say no.

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Location: London (2 days/week)

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Location: Sydney (Australia)

Details & connect with James

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​​A reminder that everyone is more than welcome to subscribe!​

​Our goal is to amplify all the brilliant folks of marginalised genders in our industry - so the more people who subscribe, the more amplification!

As always, thanks for allowing us into your inbox!​

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