Is your top-of-funnel SEO strategy ready for the AI era? In this Whiteboard Friday, we dive into how AI search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini are fundamentally changing the traditional SEO playbook. Data shows that 85% (or more) of AI citations come from third-party sites rather than a brand's own website. Not to mention, AI traffic is currently peaking at less than 2% for most sites, meaning SEOs need to shift their focus from driving traffic to capturing impressions and brand mentions through "grounded prompts." In this video, we’ll cover: 00:41 – Why First-Party Citations and AI Traffic are Declining 02:43 – The Importance of Grounded Prompts and Third-Party Media 04:35 – Strategy 1: Digital PR (Citation Building over Link Building) 06:23 – Strategy 2: Barnacle SEO for Branded and Soft-Branded Queries 08:14 – Strategy 3: User-Generated Content (UGC) and Community Platforms 08:49 – Strategy 4: Information Consistency and Filling Data Gaps 09:45 – Bonus: How to Measure Success