best-selling
Author of Explainable.
Search engines no longer point people to answers, they decide what the answer is.
I wrote the book on what to do about it.
Explainable
Why AI Recommends Some Brands & Ignores Others
Search engines used to behave like librarians. You asked a question, they handed you a list of books. Today, they behave more like advisors. They don’t point people to answers. They decide what the answer is.
If your brand isn’t part of that answer, you’re invisible, no matter how good your SEO is.
Explainable is a practical guide to two emerging disciplines that every marketer needs to understand: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). It covers how they work, how they fit alongside SEO, and what you can do about it starting this week.
#1 New Release in Online & Internet Searching on Amazon
#1 New Release in Search Engine Optimization on Amazon
#1 New Release in Web Marketing on Amazon
#1 New Release in E-Commerce on Amazon
#1 New Release in Web Marketing on Amazon
Top 10 Best Seller in SEO on Amazon
Top 10 Best Seller in Web Marketing on Amazon
Top 10 Best Seller in Online Internet Searching on Amazon
Why search shifted from navigation to judgment, and what that means for your content
How AI systems decide which brands to recommend and which to ignore
Why SEO, AEO, and GEO aren’t competing. They’re sequential.
A new content playbook built for how search works now
How to build the kind of authority and trust that AI systems recognize
A measurement framework for when rankings and clicks stop telling the full story
Real-world case studies across B2B, DTC, enterprise, and local businesses
The most common mistakes organizations make, and how to avoid them
What you’ll learn:
This book was written for everyday marketers who want clarity, confidence, and a practical path forward.
You don’t need to be an AI engineer. You don’t need to abandon SEO. You just need to understand the next layer of the stack.
What people are saying
This book is by far the best resource I've found on getting our brand to show up in AI and LLM results. AEO and GEO were such a mystery to me. As a life-long marketer, I honestly felt like I was at a point that I couldn't keep up with all of the new search optimization changes. What used to work doesn't anymore, and I have spent countless hours reading blogs, buying books, and researching how to get our brand to show up in AI overviews and results. I was at my wits end because everything I was reading was vague, with no clear actionable steps to take. It was frustrating to say the least. This book, however, is literally a game changer for how I approach content. The step-by-step guides, audits, examples, case studies, pitfalls, etc. have made something that I thought was impossible to understand completely understandable. The title is perfect. This book delivers on the promise of making your brand "Explainable" and getting your brand to show up in AI results. Thank you!!!!!!!
— ElizabethThis book is a timely and thought-provoking guide for anyone trying to understand how AI is reshaping brand visibility and business growth. In a world where algorithms increasingly influence buying decisions, this book feels essential. What makes this book stand out is its clarity. Complex concepts are explained in an accessible way, making it valuable for both technical and non-technical readers. A must-read for those who want to stay relevant in an algorithm-powered world.
— RachelIt's rare that a book gives me the feeling I've missed something obvious. This is one of those books. The clarity and experiential authority Mr. Smith brings to this challenging topic is a revelation. I've taught business courses, including marketing, in the university for years but this beats anything I've seen in textbooks five times as long. Smith calmly and convincingly explains why AI integration is creating a significant disconnect with time-honored practices of SEO, chasing clicks, and measuring outcomes by where you rank on the search results. Direct, practical advice that you can begin implementing right now, whether you are part of a marketing team in a major corporation, or just want understand how your business can be recommended in AI queries. Highly recommended to the B2B or B2C marketing professional, media producer, or student interested in getting ahead of the curve when it comes to winning AI-enabled search results.
— OgierABOUT
I’ve spent nearly 20 years in marketing, and for most of that time, the rules made sense. You built good content, you optimized for search, you watched the rankings climb. The system rewarded discipline, and the cause and effect was clear.
Then AI changed the game.
Over the past couple of years, I started noticing something that didn’t sit right. Brands I worked with were doing everything the playbook said, and AI assistants were still recommending their competitors instead. Not because those competitors were better. Because they were easier for the machines to understand.
That realization became the basis of my book, Explainable: Why AI Recommends Some Brands & Ignores Others. It’s a practical guide for marketers, business owners, and content teams who want to understand how AI-driven search actually works, and what to do about it.
WORK WITH ME
The ideas in Explainable didn’t come from theory, they came from doing the work, running audits, rewriting content, sitting in rooms where five people couldn’t agree on one sentence about what their company actually does, and then fixing it.
If you’re navigating this shift and want hands-on help, I’m available for consulting, speaking, and workshops.
Consulting
I work directly with marketing teams and leadership to diagnose where their brand stands in AI-driven search and build a practical plan to fix it.
This typically starts with the same audits outlined in the book: a GEO visibility check, a coherence audit across your channels, and a content assessment. From there, we build a 90-day plan tailored to your team, your category, and your resources.
This isn’t about buying tools or chasing trends; it’s about getting clear on who you are and making sure the machines know it too.
Speaking
I speak at conferences, corporate events, and industry gatherings on the topics covered in Explainable: how AI is reshaping brand discovery, why most organizations are approaching it wrong, and what the practical path forward looks like. My talks are built for marketers, not engineers. I use real examples, honest assessments, and zero jargon. Audiences leave with something they can act on Monday morning, not just something to think about.
Topics I speak on:
Why AI Recommends Some Brands and Ignores Others
The Death of "10 Blue Links" and What Replaces Them
SEO, AEO, and GEO: Why They’re Sequential, Not Competing
Measurement Without Rankings: How to Prove Marketing Works When Clicks Disappear
The Content Reckoning: Why Publishing More Is Making You Less Visible
Workshops & Seminars
For teams that want to go deeper, I run half-day and full-day workshops that walk your marketing, content, and leadership teams through the frameworks in Explainable, applied directly to your brand. We’ll run the audits together, identify the gaps, and build your action plan in the room. These sessions are especially valuable for organizations going through transitions, whether that’s post-acquisition integration, a rebrand, or a strategic pivot, where getting internal alignment is the hardest and most important part.