Skeleton from Sancto AVD. The full version drops with our internal SEO toolkit benchmarks.

What LLM search broke

  • "How to" content traffic — collapsed 40–70% on most B2B SaaS sites
  • Mediocre comparison content — Google now answers in the SERP, never visits your page
  • Programmatic SEO at scale — Google demoted the obvious templates

What still works (and works harder)

  1. First-party data content. Original benchmarks, prices, survey data — LLMs cite this because they can't fabricate it. Highest leverage in 2026.
  2. Genuine comparison reviews. "X vs Y" content with actual screenshots, hands-on testing, and a recommendation. LLMs love opinionated reviews — but only with proof.
  3. Templates, calculators, free tools. Static utility pages that earn backlinks naturally. Boring, durable.
  4. Long-tail commercial intent. "Hire X for Y in Z" pages — too narrow for LLMs to summarize, still drive demos.

The new channel: AI citations

Getting cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini is the new top of funnel. How:

  • Be the source LLMs trust. Original research, named author, recent date, schema markup with Author + DatePublished.
  • Write for an LLM reader. Lead paragraph = TL;DR. Definitional first sentence. Schema.org structured data ubiquitous.
  • Get cited by Wikipedia / Stack Overflow / Reddit. These are still LLMs' most-trusted sources. A single Reddit thread can drive citations for months.

The stack we use internally

  • Ahrefs for keyword + backlink research (still essential)
  • Profound or SE Ranking AI Tracker for measuring AI citations
  • Surfer / NeuronWriter for on-page (declining utility, still useful for v1)
  • Hand-written content for the top 10 pages. AI-edited for the rest. Pure AI for none — it's recognizable.

30-60-90 plan for a new B2B SaaS

  1. Days 0–30: Pick 10 pillar topics (commercial-intent). Publish 2–3 with real data. Set up schema. Get into Reddit + Stack Overflow where relevant.
  2. Days 31–60: Ship the remaining pillars. Build 3 free tools. Outreach for 5 backlinks/month.
  3. Days 61–90: Measure: traffic, AI citation count (Profound), demo requests. Double down on what works.
Old SEO took 12 months to show ROI. New SEO + AI citations can move in 8–12 weeks if you have actual original content. The bar is higher, the payoff comes faster.