After reviewing 5.5 million LLM answers, we found something surprising: UGC and community platforms like Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia influence 48% of the results that determine which brands appear in AI search. The implication is massive.The threads, comments, and tutorials happening off your site now carry as much weight as the content you publish on it. At AirOps, we analyzed exactly how this shift is unfolding and how brands can earn visibility by building authority through community-driven content. Check out the full research below.

Take a look at the full research report: airops.com/report/the-impact…

MozCon NYC is next week! If you have a ticket, lucky you-it's officially sold out! A massive thank you to our incredible partners: @JourneyFurther (our amazing Headline Sponsor) @base_searchm @Brainlabs @sejournal @CallRail @AirOpsHQ @Linkbuildinghq @onerhinoweb @sixthcitymktg Your valuable support enables us to take this show on the road to New York with all the trimmings you'd expect from MozCon, including an all-star speaker lineup, actionable takeaways, and plenty of networking opportunities. We can't wait to see you all next week in New York! 🗽

I'm gonna be a judge at the @AirOpsHQ hackathon and CMO round-table this Weds in NYC. Still time to register! airops.com/nyc-hackathon

🚨 Third-Party Sources Drive 85% of Brand Discovery in AI Search 👇 @AirOpsHQ conducted a research identifying that : * Third-Party Sources Account for 85% of Brand Mentions in AI Search * Listicles Drive 9 in 10 Third-Party Mentions in AI Search * Product Pages and Homepages Drive 26% of First-Party Visibility in AI Search * 68% of Brand Mentions Are Often Unique to a Single AI Model * Brand Recognition Compounds When Owned and Earned Channels Align "When on-site and off-site channels work together, visibility doesn’t just add up - it amplifies. Owned content provides the depth AI systems draw from, while earned visibility signals validation and relevance across the broader ecosystem." Read more: airops.com/report/the-influe…

The @AirOpsHQ team crushed it by building brand visibility by topic and comparing your brand against competitors.

At @brightonseo , our CEO Alex Halliday broke down why visibility in 2025 doesn’t look like SEO in 2015. - Users now spend 2x more time with answer engines than Google. - AI-driven signups are already >8% at brands like Webflow. The signals are shifting too: - Structured, list-driven content gets cited more. - Fresh pages (<3 months old) see 3x more visibility. - Third-party mentions carry 2x the citation power of your own content. To keep up, modern content teams need new AI skills like content engineering and experimentation to move fast and anchor their brand’s messaging. Do you have the right skills in place to compete for visibility in 2025?

Learn more: airops.com/opportunities Book a demo to see it in action: airops.com/book-a-call

Our mission at AirOps is simple: help teams win AI search. But AI search isn’t about chance. It’s about knowing which opportunities matter most and acting on them faster than the competition. That’s why we launched Opportunities. For the first time, brands can move from AI search insights to prioritized actions in one system. Teams at @webflow , @DescriptApp, @tryramp and more are already using Opportunities to: • Track visibility insights to see exactly where they stand • Prioritize the most relevant content opportunities • Refresh, create and engage onsite and offsite to drive real growth Cut the noise and focus on the opportunities that matter most. Now live in AirOps. Book a demo to learn more.

See our launch announcement: airops.com/blog/win-ai-searc…

We’re thrilled to announce early access to our newest release in AirOps: AI Search Visibility → Action Too many teams are stuck watching dashboards, unsure what to do next. Visibility doesn’t drive pipeline. Action does. Visibility insights and action are now together in AirOps. It’s not just a dashboard. It’s a flywheel for performance: ✅ See where you're losing ground in AI search ✅ Know exactly how to win it back ✅ Act with speed and precision ✅ Train your team to adapt on repeat We’ve helped 100+ teams go from insight to action, built for teams like Webflow, Descript, Carta, and Gong. Fast-moving. Revenue-focused. Relentlessly adaptive. Book demo & join our Visibility → Actions early access. hubs.li/Q03zt_jj0

We analyzed 𝟭𝟮,𝟬𝟬𝟬+ 𝗨𝗥𝗟𝘀 and found something surprising: Most top-ranking Google pages are 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗟𝗟𝗠𝘀. Why? Because they lack structure. 🤯 Here’s what the best-performing content did have: ✅ Rich Schema: Cited pages used 3x more schema types (FAQ, QAPage, Article). More structure = more surface area for extraction. ✅ Heading Hierarchy: Pages with sequential H1 → H2 → H3 were 2.8x more likely to be cited. Good formatting = machine trust. ✅ Lists, Lists, Lists: Cited pages had 17x more list sections than top Google results. LLMs want skimmable, step-by-step answers. #ai #seo #marketing #growth

Here's the full report, b/c ranking on page 1 isn't enough: airops.com/report/structurin…

In our latest AirOps study, we analyzed 𝟭𝟮,𝟬𝟬𝟬+ 𝗨𝗥𝗟𝘀 to uncover a crucial insight: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵? The key structural levers that move the needle: → Using rich, multi-type schema increases your chances of AI citations by 13% → Well-structured heading hierarchies (H1 > H2 > H3) nearly triple citation rates → Content that contains clear, easy-to-read sections drive nearly half of AI citations. What’s the big picture? 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗿. Structure and extractability separates the cited from the ignored. Want to know what distinguishes the content that gets cited by AI from what just ranks in Google? Check the report below:

🚨 CMOs: your job is being eaten by AI AI search, automation, and shrinking teams are stripping away the two things CMOs were once hired for: - Building and scaling a large marketing team - Budget allocation through campaigns & tooling investments Startup CMOs now get less than 18 months to prove they matter. Meanwhile, AI Overviews & AI search steal the click on one in eight US searches and rising. 📉 Stay the same, and you and your budget are next. The CMO role isn't dying but the slide-deck CMO is. You have a choice: → Operate: small crew, high leverage, prove influence inside AI answers and AI-resilient channels. → Decorate: decks, traffic goals, headcount growth. Which path will you choose? 🧠 To help marketing leaders navigate this, join Guillaume "𝑮" Cabane and the AirOps team next week for crucial answers. Save your spot: lu.ma/55oh6npp

Want to learn how to use AirOps to drive visibility and revenue from the experts? Join our next LIVE AirOps workshop to see exactly how to stay ahead. What you’ll learn: 1️⃣ How-to's on driving pipeline with AI search and AEO 2️⃣ A collection of our best workflows to show off 3️⃣ Empower you with the fundamentals of workflow building 4️⃣ Live Q&A to tackle your burning questions You'll get exclusive access to the very tools and workflows we’ll share. Save your spot: hubs.li/Q03v3TD30

The winners in both traditional and AI search will be those who truly understand user alignment. Here are the uncomfortable truths about content in 2025 that Eli Schwartz shared on a recent webinar: 1️⃣ Your traffic is dropping because it should be 📉 Organic clicks have been declining for years—and that's actually healthy. Google answering basic queries directly means users get what they need faster. The traffic you're losing probably wasn't converting anyway. 2️⃣ You're wasting resources on low-ROI keywords 💸 Playing the volume game is a losing strategy. Be ruthless about which keywords actually drive business outcomes. As Eli put it: "If someone types this keyword, sees your content, then puts their phone back in their pocket...all that SEO effort was for nothing." 3️⃣ Your technical SEO skills are becoming less valuable 🔧 The future belongs to strategic thinkers who can align content with business goals, not those who can tweak meta tags. SEO roles are being cut when they can't demonstrate real impact beyond traffic. 4️⃣ AI isn't killing search but is fragmenting it 🧩 The shift to AI-powered discovery is gradual, not sudden. Your challenge isn't surviving the "death of search" but optimizing for multiple surfaces 5️⃣ Attribution is getting harder—storytelling matters more 📊 As zero-click results grow, pure analytics won't tell the full story. You need to connect content visibility to business impact through compelling narratives your executive team understands. The good news? As Eli said: "SEO is not dying. SEO will always be here...your job is more important than ever." But only if you adapt.

The most strategic hire growth hire you can make right now is a content engineer. While your competitors are building systems that scale content like software, you're still: • Publishing one-off pieces • Manually refreshing outdated pages • Watching AI overviews eat your clicks • Missing AEO citations that drive real growth Content engineers aren't just another marketing role. They're growth architects who: → Build refresh engines that update hundreds of pages with AI-generated insights → Create automated QA systems that maintain brand voice at scale → Design structured content pipelines optimized for AI citations → Connect content directly to pipeline metrics, not just pageviews This is about systems that compound. One content engineer can 5x the output of your existing team while maintaining quality and brand alignment. Learn more about the top companies hiring and training content engineers: hubs.li/Q03t3sjT0

Join us on Friday with Eli Schwartz! @5le What Eli will share: → How to rethink success with exec pressure around AI Overviews, LLMs, algorithm updates → What drives readability for LLM visibility → An action plan to handle declining clicks and traffic Don't miss it airops.com/blog/webinar-eli-…

The old SEO playbook won’t cut it anymore. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is here, and agent engines like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews are deciding what content gets cited and trusted. If your content isn’t refreshed to be structured, fresh, and authoritative, it will be invisible. Content Refresh is our first line of defense in the AEO Era, built specifically for this new world of search. - Automate updates - Align with agent preferences - Win back traffic and visibility In the race to win agent attention, will your content win? Get the launch details: hubs.li/Q03r5J6h0