Automation, AI, and SEO: WP Agency’s keys to growth

The WP Agency Forum featured presentations from experts on how agencies can be recognized and SEO strategies adapted to artificial intelligence.

The digital ecosystem is advancing rapidly due to the rise of new technologies and the emergence of artificial intelligence. This situation is leading to new debates in the sector: Will ChatGPT make companies redundant? Will SEO disappear?

With digitalization, agencies that work with WordPress are looking for new ways to grow without losing their communication strategies or efficiency. Thus, the WP Agency Forum was born, a meeting held in Madrid on October 15th at the Talent Garden offices.

It is a space where professionals, entrepreneurs, and development teams shared the strategies and experiences that are transforming the sector. During the day, attendees learned how to apply automation tools, artificial intelligence, and no-code methodologies to optimize processes and offer more value to their clients.

The event, organized by SiteGround and Modular DS, was held with the aim of inspiring agencies, fostering learning among professionals, and strengthening the ecosystem that drives web development and digital services. It also has Weglot and Patchstack as sponsors.

How can agencies grow sustainably?

The first presentation of the WP Agency Forum kicked off with «Why relying solely on referrals keeps you from sleeping peacefully,» led by Javi Consuegra, CEO of Sales Hackers and a specialist in B2B sales in the Spanish-speaking world. In this space, he invited attendees to reflect on the true meaning of growth. With this question, Consuegra explained the challenges agencies face when seeking to expand and position themselves, drawing on his own experience as a founder.

Consuegra acknowledged that «referrals are a valuable source of clients, but they can’t be the sole pillar of sales.» From there, he shared his experience with Sales Hackers, a company he founded in 2020 with the goal of helping other companies design efficient sales systems. It had a promising start, coinciding with the pandemic: «Suddenly, everyone needed to sell online and connect with customers from home,» he recalled.

During his speech, the executive emphasized that many companies fail because they don’t understand the true concept of growth. «Sometimes we confuse growth with hiring more people or increasing revenue. But growth is also about finding balance and doing it at our own pace,» he emphasized.

The Importance of Selling Methodically, Not Just by Intuition

In the presentation, Consuegra presented his vision of systematic growth, which consists of three very important phases for attracting new clients:

*Document all processes.

*Use technology.

*Clearly define who the ideal client is.

He emphasized the importance of having a predictable sales system that doesn’t depend solely on the founder or the «star salesperson.» He also advised focusing on profiles with a strong attitude, adaptability, and a desire to grow, to avoid the typical salesperson who performs well at first but loses motivation over time.

He also encouraged attendees to combine different sales strategies (such as content, email, or events) and find the method they feel comfortable with rather than being fake. «There’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Anything can work if it’s adapted to your type of business,» he noted. To close, he returned to the initial question of his presentation: What does growth mean? and he concluded that «growth is not just about selling more, but doing so with meaning and structure.»

SEO Reinvents Itself in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Next, Carmen Boronat, CEO of Cloud District, and Raquel Lorenzo, Growth Lead at the same company, spoke on the topic «SEO in the Age of LLMs.» In Lorenzo’s words: «SEO isn’t dead; it’s still very much alive. We just need to understand where and how to find that new visibility.»

The specialist explained that language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, are changing the way people access information. Users no longer type single words into search engines, but instead ask complete questions and expect precise, personalized answers.

This change has led to a drop in traditional organic traffic, between 20% and 40% in many sectors, while AI-powered tools are increasingly gaining prominence. «Users no longer search, they ask. And that completely changes the rules of the game,» Raquel noted.

Six steps to gain visibility in the new digital era

Faced with this challenging landscape, the professional emphasizes that companies’ goal is to be mentioned or recommended by AI models. The key is to adapt the strategy so that intelligent systems recognize, understand, and evaluate a brand’s content. «When someone asks what the best CRM is or where to have dinner tonight, we want the answer to be our company or our business,» she noted.

To adapt to this new scenario, Raquel shared six essential steps that companies can take now:

1: Enable AI crawling by creating an llms.txt file to help models access the content.

2: Create more direct and structured content, focused on answering specific questions instead of long texts.

3: Optimize structured data so bots can quickly understand key information.

4: Conduct benchmarking, analyzing why other companies are recommended and improving your own content accordingly.

5: Strengthen link building by publishing on sources that LLMs use to learn.

6: Continuously measure and adjust, observing whether changes lead to improved visibility within these platforms.

Thus, there is a clear conclusion: artificial intelligence is not going to end SEO, but rather redefine and strengthen it. «We are facing a huge change, but also an opportunity. The important thing is to understand how to adapt and not be left behind,» emphasized Raquel Lorenzo.

Source: www.marketingdirecto.com