The Founder's Guide to Modern SEO & AI Visibility

Search has changed more in the last 15 months than in my previous 15+ years in the industry.
We have entered “The Great Decoupling,” where users are migrating from traditional clicks to AI-driven answers.

For founders, the old checklists no longer apply. You need a new playbook to de-risk your marketing investment and secure your brand’s future.

This guide will help you:

• Modernize Your Strategy: Distinguish between busy work and high-leverage SEO activities
• Hire the Right Help: Navigate the process of hiring an SEO consultant who drives revenue, not just traffic.
• Execute a 90-Day Roadmap: A prioritized sequence of technical fixes, AI visibility, and brand authority.

Explore the articles below to learn how to transform your website into a durable business asset that delivers measurable results and prepares your brand for the future of AI.

Stop chasing algorithms and start building leverage.

Hiring for SEO feels risky because the wrong choice costs you 6-12 months of lost momentum. Most businesses struggle not because they didn’t hire help, but because they hired a “traffic broker” for a problem that now requires an “authority architect”. This guide helps you determine if you need a consultant, an agency, or an in-house hire based on your stage of growth.

• Key Insight: Why working with low-cost, legacy providers makes businesses 3x more likely to see negative ROI in year one.
• Best For: Founders deciding between an agency, a consultant, or a full-time hire.

Most interviews fail because the questions are too shallow. If you only ask about keyword rankings, you will get 2018 answers. This article provides a Systems Thinking rubric to evaluate a candidate’s logic. It equips you with the specific questions to separate “factory” agencies from strategic partners who understand Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

Why does one proposal quote $1,500/month and another $12,000? In 2026, pricing has shifted from volume of work to level of complexity. This guide breaks down the three tiers of SEO investment and explains the hidden costs of cheap SEO, specifically the “Recovery Tax” of fixing bad work, which often costs 3x the original fee.

• Financial Benchmark: Understanding the Value & Risk Framework to budget for outcomes, not just hours.
• Founder Reality Check: Why any quote below $1,000/month for a national brand is likely a liability.

If you’re still measuring SEO success by traffic volume alone, you’re missing half of the picture. With nearly 60% of searches now resulting in zero clicks, your brand’s influence is often invisible to traditional analytics. This article introduces the KPI Ladder, moving you from vanity metrics to “Share of Model” (SoM), how often AI systems recommend your brand even when a user doesn’t click.

When you receive a 50-page audit full of errors, reaction is often analysis paralysis. You can’t fix everything at once. This article introduces the Hierarchy of Search Needs, helping you triage tasks based on leverage. Learn when to prioritize Technical Accessibility (The Floor), Content Architecture (The Engine), or AI Visibility (The Alpha).

This is the manifesto for the “Great Decoupling” of search. Traditional SEOs were traffic brokers; modern consultants are Authority Architects. This piece defines the shift from blue links to brand citations and explains how to optimize for the AI agents that now act as gatekeepers to your customers.

The first three months of an SEO engagement should not be a black box. This article pulls back the curtain on a high-velocity 90-day sprint. It outlines exactly how we move from Diagnostic Triage (Month 1) to Entity Definition (Month 2) and finally to Velocity & Citation Building (Month 3).

Hey, I’m Tarun.

With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing strategy, I help founders and marketing leaders navigate the transition from traditional SEO to AI-driven visibility. My approach is built on a simple premise: Revenue over rankings. Results over reports.

I don’t sell hype. I provide decision-making frameworks that de-risk your marketing capital and build durable assets.

Ready for Sustainable Growth from Your SEO Investment?

You don’t need another checklist. You need a roadmap.

Let’s establish your baseline and build a path to better results online.