12 industry updates for YOU!


Hey Reader,

We had the best time last week at WTSFest Portland! You can check out our photo gallery here.

It was wonderful connecting with our West Coast WTSers - a huge thank you to everyone who joined us!

Next stop: Philly this October! 🥨

Thank you to this week's WTSNewsletter sponsors: AirOps, The Community Layer, & withFrontier.

Let's get started =)


Brilliant work by our brilliant members

1) Chandler Sullivan - What On-Page Factors Actually Impact Blog Performance?

2) Miriam Ellis - Whitespark’s Guide to Google’s AI Mode for Local Businesses

3) Rewati Khare - JavaScript SEO in 2026: What Google actually handles vs what still bites you

4) Roslyn Ayers - Automate the busywork: 8 SEO tasks you shouldn’t do manually

5) Sophie Brannon - How To Design URL Structures For AI Retrieval, Not Just Rankings

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If you’d like to recommend resources for future editions (& yes, please recommend your own work!), fill out this form:


The New Battle for Brand Visibility in AI Search
[Headline Sponsor: AirOps]

Right now, someone is getting a recommendation about your brand.

You're not in the room. You didn't write the brief. You don't even know it's happening.

The story that gets told about you in AI search is your most important marketing asset. And most teams have zero control over it.

Our WTSPartner, AirOps has just launched Quill - your new AI teammate that helps you win in this era.

A few things Quill can do:

  • Find drops in citation rates and queue up the fixes to get you seen
  • Catch competitor shifts and draft content on your behalf
  • Update outdated pricing or product references across content

The brands that figure this out first will compound their advantage.

Share your message with 9,000+ SEOs & Marketers -
Transparent pricing & details


Our latest WTSKnowledge

In an AI-first search landscape, great content needs to do more than rank - it needs to be understood, trusted & reusable across AI-driven search experiences.

Chioma Anunobi breaks down how to:

  • Move beyond keyword-first content to write with entities & intent in mind
  • Use storytelling to make content more clear, credible, & AI-friendly
  • Structure content so it’s easier to be summarised, cited, & surfaced in AI search
  • Build stronger E-E-A-T signals through experience & topical depth

The takeaway? Visibility now comes from creating content that connects ideas clearly - for both people and machines.



Our latest WTSInterview

Meet Brenda Benitez!

Brenda is a digital marketer with deep expertise in SEO and a new passion for Answer Engine Optimization. She believes the future of search is no longer about ranking pages, but about delivering clear, trusted answers wherever users ask questions.

With experience in content strategy, technical optimization, and analytics, Brenda helps brands adapt to the evolving AI-driven search landscape and build visibility that goes beyond keywords.


Community Building Live Training Cohort
[WTSPartner Feature: The Community Layer]

Our very own Areej AbuAli and Erin Simmons are hosting a LIVE Community Building Training Cohort - and there are only 8 spots left!

Community is becoming one of the most valuable forms of owned infrastructure in an AI-first world - helping brands build trust, visibility & genuine connection.

Across 4 live, 90-minute sessions, attendees will learn about:

  • Positioning community strategically
  • Engagement and retention
  • Scaling and monetisation
  • Live community builds and feedback

Designed for SEOs, marketers, founders, community managers, and anyone interested in building meaningful, people-first communities.

Open for all to join! We'd love to see YOU there 💙 💜

📅 Starts June 4
🎓 Limited scholarship spots available


The Shift to AI Recognition

Adapted into a WTSKnowledge from Aimee's WTSFest Portland talk!

A practical guide by Aimee Jurenka on why AI visibility is shifting from rankings to recognition - and how to build topic entities that help AI systems understand, retrieve and recommend your brand.

Inside the article:

  • Why rankings alone are no longer enough in AI-driven search
  • How AI systems interpret brands through relationships, entities & semantic alignment
  • What topic entities actually are (and why vague positioning hurts visibility)
  • A 5-step framework for building stronger AI recognition
  • How to measure AI visibility using grounding queries, prompt testing & mention rates

As AI search evolves, the brands that win won’t just be the ones that rank, they’ll be the ones AI systems clearly recognise and confidently retrieve.


Your WTSFest conference countdowns

We'd love to see YOU at one of our upcoming full-day marketing events!

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

⏳ 310 days - London on March 19th, 2027
🎟️ 12 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

Use our Dear Boss template to request budget to attend!


Upcoming WTS Slack AMA (ask me anything)

Working with data in-house can feel increasingly complex - just as you start to get a handle on your reporting, dashboards, and workflows, new tools and AI capabilities continue to reshape the landscape...

But you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.

On June 2nd, join us in the WTS Slack #path-inhouse channel for an AMA, featuring:


💬 How it works

  • Drop questions in the #path-inhouse channel anytime on June 2nd
  • From 4-5pm BST, Sam & Ray will reply with real, practical answers

Whether you’re trying to design data systems that actually get used, communicate insights more effectively to stakeholders, build “memory” into your reporting, or explore how AI can support your workflows - this AMA is for YOU.

Come with the questions you may not always feel confident asking, the systems you’re trying to improve, or simply the curiosity to sense-check your approach alongside others working through the same challenges! 💗


Director of SEO (Elite AI & Search Agency)
[WTSNewsletter Job Sponsor: withFrontier]

💰 $200k-$240k+ + bonus
🇺🇸 Fully remote (US preferred | exceptional UK candidates considered)

Hiring for one of the most respected specialist agencies in modern search. Small, elite team working across AI, SaaS, robotics, martech, and health tech brands.

This role is effectively replacing the founder in leading half the agency:

  • Own strategy across complex SEO + AI-search environments
  • Stay hands-on across technical SEO, AEO, and experimentation
  • Work directly with founders and senior stakeholders
  • Influence methodology, growth, and agency direction

Looking for an SEO leader with deep technical expertise, commercial sharpness, and strong AI-search awareness.


If you've made it this far, thank YOU!

​​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!

Please help us keep WTS free & sustainable

We pay our authors, speakers & team to bring you helpful content like this. We aim to always keep our content and community free and accessible.

If you've found value in WTS, please consider supporting us:

​☕ Buying us a coffee​
​📧 Sponsoring a WTSNewsletter​
​🤝 Becoming a WTSPartner​

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

​- Areej, Erin, & Himee


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