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Internet Marketing Blog Posts by Will Scott 
Will Scott has been working online since 1994. From a time when most people hadn't even heard of the internet, Will was putting it to work for business. As a former Vice-President of Local Matters a decade ago Will Scott was at the forefront of Online Directories. From Directories to Small Businesses to White Label services for Directories, Will has been getting top of page rankings for clients since the turn of the century. Search Influence, Will Scott's current initiative is a scalable production house for Search Engine Optimization, Local SEO and Social Media for small and midsize businesses. Whether direct or through their white-label partners, Search Influence compete successfully and profitably online. Nothing gives Scott more joy than watching his team members grow into top-notch online marketers.
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AI SEO Tracking Tools 2026: Comparative Analysis of Over 15 Platforms
Co-Author: Collin Guedon This post was updated by Will Scott & Collin Guedon on 3/17/2026 to reflect current best practices. It was originally published on 8/20/2025. Key Insights: AI search adoption is surging: With AI search nearing 1 billion users and tools like ChatGPT becoming mainstream, tracking brand visibility in …
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Inside Bing’s New AI Performance Report: What 20,000 Copilot Citations Taught Us
Bing launched an AI Performance report inside Webmaster Tools earlier this month. We pulled our data the same day. 91 days of Copilot citation data. 19,717 total citations across 86 pages. One page accounting for 69% of all of them. We’ve been tracking AI search visibility for clients using Scrunch …
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Your AI Traffic Has Plateaued. Now What?
Key Insights The AI traffic plateau is real and expected. The experimental growth phase is over; we’ve entered an optimization and efficiency phase. AI-referred traffic is smaller but higher quality. Engagement time and intent consistently outperform traditional organic sessions. Visibility ≠ measurability. AI Overviews and AI Mode remain partial black …
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AI SEO for Higher Education: How to Get Your Institution Recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Search
Half of prospective students now use AI search tools weekly to research programs. If your institution isn’t showing up in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews, you’re invisible to half your audience. In 2026, success is measured by AI citations and brand mentions within generative summaries, not just clicks. …
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Ads Are Coming to ChatGPT. Here’s What It Means for Your Marketing Strategy.
Key Insights OpenAI will begin testing ads in ChatGPT for free and Go ($8/month) tier users in the U.S. — Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers won’t see ads Ads appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers, clearly labeled and separated from organic responses OpenAI states ads will not influence …
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AI Search Optimization for Graduate Education Marketing in 2026
What 2025 Research Tells Us About AI Visibility, Zero-Click Search, and Enrollment Strategy Executive Summary Here’s the reality: the way prospective graduate students find and evaluate programs has changed faster than most of us anticipated. Research from across 2025 — including original survey data from UPCEA and Search Influence (n=705) …
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UPCEA MEMS 2025 Recap: 11 Higher Ed Marketing Presentations That Show Where We’re Heading
This review was created with AI assistance and human guidance from Will Scott, AI SEO Expert and CEO of Search Influence. TL;DR: The UPCEA MEMS 2025 conference made one thing clear: AI isn’t coming to higher education marketing. It’s here. And institutions that aren’t actively optimizing for AI search, building …
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Celebrating Women in Leadership: Search Influence Earns 2025 CityBusiness Recognition
Search Influence is honored to be named an honoree in the 2025 New Orleans CityBusiness Empowering Women Awards. This recognition highlights companies across the region that are creating meaningful opportunities for women in business and leadership. Why This Award Matters Each year, CityBusiness recognizes 50 companies that demonstrate a real …
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Search Influence Earns Ninth Spot on the Inc. 5000 List in 2025
I’m proud to share that Search Influence has been named to the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. This marks our ninth appearance since first earning a place in 2011, a milestone that reflects the steady, sustained growth we’ve built over the years. Why This Recognition Matters …
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SEO Automation: How I Built an AI-Powered Question Discovery System with Make.com
I recently automated an SEO process that used to take our team hours of manual work. It now runs in 5 minutes. This isn’t about replacing experts. It’s about getting them out of spreadsheets so they can actually solve strategic problems and get creative with content. Here’s how I built …
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