How to measure visibility, create original content and choose the right hosting, according to Anil
Your organic traffic is dropping even though you haven’t changed anything. It happens to a lot of people, and it’s no coincidence: more and more people ask ChatGPT, Claude or Google (with its AI Overviews) and stop at the answer, without clicking on any website.
So, if your business lives online, what really matters now?
How do you know if your brand is still visible?
And how do you get cited by AI, instead of being ignored?
In the new episode of SEO Confidential, we asked Anil Agarwal, who has been working in SEO for over 18 years. He founded BloggersPassion in 2010, has helped more than 15,000 people with SEO and affiliate marketing, and has seen Google’s biggest changes (updates included!) up close.
But above all, his own sites have lost traffic too, so he speaks from direct experience.
In the interview, you’ll find out which metrics to look at beyond clicks, what kind of content AI can’t replicate, why Reddit and communities matter more than you think, and how to choose hosting that can handle traffic spikes.
Read on and take notes: these are ideas you can put into practice starting tomorrow.
The communities that matter to you? The ones where your audience is!
With the rise of zero-click searches and AI-generated answers, organic traffic is becoming a less and less sufficient indicator. What new metrics should we use to understand whether a brand is truly gaining visibility in Search?
Yes, with the arrival of AI Overviews for most queries, most sites are losing a lot of traffic (including ours).
I think we need to look beyond search traffic and rankings. Right now, we’re tracking essential metrics like brand mentions, AI citations, and visibility in AI search results, to get a better idea of how we’re doing in search.
If a user sees a brand’s name cited by ChatGPT or Google but doesn’t visit its website, how can we measure the value of that visibility and show that SEO work is still producing results?
Almost everyone now uses AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude more than Google to get information. That’s why most sites are losing search traffic.
That’s EXACTLY why we need to track specific things like brand mentions and AI citations, to better understand the ROI of SEO, instead of only looking at who visits our site.
The use of AI to produce content at scale is leading Google to increasingly filter what it considers “commodity content.” What characteristics must content have today to show original value that AI alone can’t easily replicate?
Whatever your niche, offer something 10 times more useful to your audience. Your content should do THREE things:
- Help your target customer solve a real problem;
- Offer 10 times more value than the competition;
- Build trust.
Yes, AI can create a 2,000-word article in 2 minutes, but it’s mostly generic and adds no value. That’s why we need to focus more on first-hand experience, with REAL examples.
How important has the authority earned on Google become for a brand’s visibility in AI search engines too? Can a loss of visibility in traditional Search also affect the ability to be cited by ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity?
This point is really very important. Because most AI platforms today, when deciding what to mention for a given query or topic, take a brand’s overall authority into account.
So yes, losing visibility on Google ALSO affects mentions on platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.
If your site loses rankings and backlinks (that is, links from other sites to yours), this will definitely impact your visibility in AI search engines. So keep earning backlinks naturally, by creating outstanding content and useful products, and by solving REAL problems in your niche.
If AI engines also evaluate a brand through what is said about it on Reddit, LinkedIn, forums, review sites and media, how should an SEO strategy change today to build authority outside your own website?
The days when SEO was just about optimizing your own site and building backlinks are over.
Now we also need to focus on earning mentions on Reddit, review sites, forums, LinkedIn, etc. Not only do they help build trust, they can also increase your online visibility.
The key is to join relevant communities, answer helpful questions, and earn mentions naturally. You need to be consistent with your off-page activities and spend more time promoting your brand.
Can a mention in a small, highly relevant community be worth more to AI than a large amount of generic visibility? How can brands identify the communities and external sources that really matter for their visibility in AI Search?
Absolutely. Quality > Quantity.
Brands should focus on the communities where their target audience is active. For example, we mainly focus on platforms like Reddit, because people actively discuss SEO and the latest digital marketing tools there, which helps us build more relevant brand visibility.
In your tests, WordPress.com seems to handle traffic spikes better than WP Engine. How much weight should a hosting provider’s ability to automatically adapt to sudden traffic increases carry today when choosing a platform?
I’d say it should carry a lot of weight, especially for sites that can suddenly get huge amounts of traffic.
In the past we had bad experiences with a couple of web hosts (HostGator) when traffic spiked, so we know how important reliable hosting is when your site gets a sudden surge of visits.
Make sure you read real customer reviews before choosing a web host, and pay MORE attention to how it performs during traffic spikes.
What should a business consider before choosing between a simpler, automated hosting platform like WordPress.com and a solution geared more toward developers and advanced users like WP Engine?
It depends on your site’s needs. Want something simple? Try platforms like WordPress.com. But if you need MORE control, advanced features, and better customer support, web hosts like WP Engine or Kinsta make more sense.
Again, it depends entirely on your budget and your site’s needs.
In your article “WordPress.com vs Kinsta Compared: Which Hosting Makes Sense in 2026,” you describe WordPress.com as a platform focused mainly on simplicity and automated management, while Kinsta offers more control, developer tools, and performance-oriented infrastructure. Which of the two approaches do you think will become more important in the coming years?
Most website owners DO NOT want to deal with the technical side, so I think automated, easy-to-use hosting platforms will become even more important in the future.
Also, most entrepreneurs prefer to spend most of their time growing their business rather than dealing with technical matters. So simplicity and automation will matter A LOT in the coming years.
Kinsta offers performance and advanced tools, but at a much higher price. In which situations, in your opinion, should a business be willing to pay more for its hosting infrastructure?
I only consider three things: site speed, security, and support. If a web host ticks all the boxes, I’m more than willing to pay extra.
I think that, for ANY business website, reliable and powerful hosting is NOT an expense, but an investment.
Kinsta has built its offering mainly around performance, Google Cloud infrastructure, and advanced developer tools. How strong is this differentiation still in 2026, and what should Kinsta focus on to maintain a competitive advantage in the coming years?
I think Kinsta should keep focusing on offering faster support to its customers.
In my opinion, site speed and performance matter a lot, but having a faster customer support system is just as important.
Fewer clicks, more visibility: here’s how your brand can bounce back
So, what are we taking home from this chat with Anil?
First thing: traffic alone is no longer enough to tell you how you’re doing.
Brand mentions and AI citations are signals worth starting to watch, but don’t throw away what you already measure. Traffic, conversions and sales still tell you whether your business is really working. Google has changed, and I strongly doubt it will ever go back. So put the new metrics alongside the old ones, without replacing them.
Second thing: Anil insists on first-hand experience and real examples, and he’s right.
If anyone could write one of your articles in two minutes with a prompt, you have no advantage. Tell people what you tried, what worked and what went wrong (and what you did to fix the problems!).
AI can’t make that up.
Third thing: hosting.
If you want peace of mind and to focus on your business, WordPress.com is a sensible choice.
If instead your site is growing and you need more control, take a look at Kinsta. It costs more, but it only makes sense to pay for it if you actually use what it offers. And keep one thing in mind: when something breaks at the worst possible moment, fast support is worth its weight in gold.
Thanks for making it this far! See you next week with a new episode of SEO Confidential: we’ll be interviewing another international expert, and I promise you, it’ll be a good one.
Mark your calendar, and see you soon!
