Senior Living SEO Expert Paula French Takes on the AI Traffic Plateau at SMASH 2026
September 17th, 2026 by
Search Influence is a digital marketing agency specializing in AI and organic search engine optimization (SEO), digital advertising, and analytics for higher education, hospitality, and healthcare, including senior living.
Paula French, Director of Sales and Marketing at Search Influence, will present Your AI Traffic Will Plateau. Then What? at the Senior Care Marketing & Sales Summit (SMASH) 2026 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 9 to 9:45 a.m. in Marquis 5. The session sits in the Digital Data and Marketing track at SMASH 2026, held Oct. 5-7 at the JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Las Vegas.
Why Early AI Traffic Was Never Going to Hold
The first wave of AI search was generous to communities that already had a solid digital footprint. AI systems reached for the sources they could recognize, and established players got picked. That was a starting condition, not a strategy.
As those systems settle into stable patterns pulled from websites, listings, and directories, the easy growth stops. If your community’s signals stayed the same while everyone else’s improved, your referral line flattens, and your analytics will show it several months after the shift actually happened.
What You Will Take Away From the Session
Paula’s session is built around three things senior living marketers can act on:
- Watch the right numbers. How to monitor your AI referral traffic and track your AI visibility, so you know when growth is slowing and how well you are showing up.
- Shape the signals. How to shape the signals across your website, listings, directories, and media footprint so AI recommends your communities to the right audience.
- Say it the same way everywhere. How to describe your offerings consistently across every channel so AI gets your community right.
That third point tends to be the one teams underestimate. When your website, your Google Business Profile, a referral directory, and a regional roundup each describe your care levels a little differently, AI systems reconcile the difference for you, and not always in your favor.
About Senior Living SEO Expert Paula French
Senior living SEO expert Paula French leads sales and marketing at Search Influence. She has presented at UPCEA and the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education on how organizations adapt when search behavior changes, and her work connects AI SEO, organic search, and healthcare marketing to the way families actually research care.
See the Session at SMASH 2026
Attending SMASH 2026? Add Your AI Traffic Will Plateau. Then What? to your Tuesday morning. Learn more about SMASH here.
Not attending, but want to know where your community stands in AI search? Contact Search Influence.