Strategic thinking

Written for the board room, not the marketing department.

Answer Engine Optimisation: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Why You're Already Behind

AEO is the practice of optimising your brand to be cited by AI-powered answer engines. The competitive window is open, but it will not stay that way.

5 min6 February 2026

AEO & AI Search

The AI Citation Landscape: Who Gets Recommended and Why

AI answer engines do not randomly select which brands to cite. The selection mechanism is increasingly predictable, and the implications for marketing strategy are significant.

5 min3 February 2026

AEO & AI Search

AEO and SEO: Why You Need Both and How They Reinforce Each Other

AEO and SEO are not competing strategies. They are mutually reinforcing systems. Companies investing in one without the other are building on incomplete foundations.

5 min31 January 2026

AEO & AI Search

The AEO Competitive Window: Why First Movers Win and How Long You've Got

AI search adoption is accelerating faster than early Google adoption did. The brands establishing authority now will be the default citations when the market matures. The window is measured in months, not years.

5 min28 January 2026

AEO & AI Search

AI Search: An Investor's Briefing on the Biggest Shift in Digital Visibility Since Google

AI search is reshaping how businesses are discovered. For PE and VC investors, this is a valuation factor, a due diligence blind spot, and a portfolio-wide risk that most deal teams are not yet assessing.

5 min25 January 2026

AEO & AI Search

Building Brand Authority in the AI Age: What Actually Gets You Cited

AI engines cite authoritative sources. Authority is not a feeling; it is a measurable set of signals. Here is what works, what does not, and what most companies get wrong.

5 min22 January 2026

SEO Strategy

SEO as Business Infrastructure: Why Bolt-On SEO Always Fails

SEO fails when treated as a marketing channel. It succeeds when integrated into content production, development workflows, and product strategy. The agency model is broken for serious organic growth.

5 min19 January 2026

SEO Strategy

The Death of the Free SEO Audit (And What Replaced It)

Free SEO audits are a sales tool disguised as a diagnostic tool. A genuine organic assessment looks entirely different, and the distinction matters more than most CMOs realise.

5 min16 January 2026

SEO Strategy

The Compounding Effect: Why Organic Growth Beats Paid at Scale

Paid acquisition delivers linear returns. Organic growth compounds. Over a three-year horizon, the mathematical case for organic investment is overwhelming, and most CFOs have never seen the numbers.

5 min13 January 2026

SEO Strategy

DNA-Level SEO: How to Weave Organic Visibility Into Business Operations

Organic visibility should operate at three levels: strategic (board KPIs, revenue attribution), operational (content workflows, dev sprints), and tactical (audits, optimisation, monitoring). Here is the framework.

5 min10 January 2026

SEO Strategy

Why Organic Will Be the Last Channel Standing After Cookies Die

The post-cookie digital landscape is not a minor inconvenience for paid media. It is a structural shift that makes organic the most reliable and scalable growth channel available.

6 min7 January 2026

Growth Leadership

When to Hire a Fractional CMO (And When Not To)

The fractional CMO model is powerful in the right context, but it is not universally appropriate. Knowing when it fits and when it does not is a strategic decision that most CEOs get wrong.

7 min4 January 2026