By skyforbes 
Keywords aren’t cutting it anymore. Startups need a new model.
I’ve got some hard news for startups and small businesses trying to stand out in the age of ChatGPT.
If your company brand isn’t an established name in your industry, customers are no longer going to trip over your company’s better offering on their way to your bigger and more established competitors and incumbents.
Yup. The dinosaurs won this round. But the evolution isn’t over just yet.
See, the rise of AI search has eviscerated the SEO-driven marketing prospects for startups and small businesses in a way that can no longer be denied. The dramatic traffic drops in October 2024 and May 2025 made it clear that AI search was going to render SEO all but useless.
But now that the kicking and screaming is over, and we can all see the error of letting Google dictate our fortunes, it’s time to have a serious discussion about what works in a post-SEO world.
The Early Data On AI Search Is Clear — and Scary
I’m not a marketer. But I’ve spent my career building cool technology — mostly for startups — and packaging that technology in a way that makes…