AI citation dominance will be the new SEO leaderboard by 2026?

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: Voices of Search

Episode: AI Citation Dominance Will Be the New SEO Leaderboard by 2026?

Date: January 6, 2026
Host: Jordan Cooney
Guest: Josh Bliskel (Profound)

---

Episode Overview

In this concise but impactful episode, host Jordan Cooney welcomes Josh Bliskel from Profound to discuss the rapidly evolving future of SEO, specifically the rise of AI-driven citations and their potential to replace traditional click-based metrics. The conversation explores how search marketing will shift as bots—not humans—become the primary consumers and distributors of content, fundamentally redefining how brands measure influence and visibility.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Lightning Round: The Death of the Blue Links

• Jordan Cooney kicks off a rapid-fire Q&A about emerging AI search trends and asks Josh for his perspective on major upcoming shifts.
  • [00:43]

2. AI Citation Dominance: Buy or Sell?

• Jordan Cooney: “Are you buying or selling that AI citation dominance will be the new form or leaderboard in 2026?”
  • [01:00]
• Josh Bliskel:
  • “I buy it. Citations are the new clicks. Citations are clicks, but from bots basically.”
    • [01:10]

3. Explaining the Value of Citations vs Clicks

• Jordan asks Josh to clarify the difference between citations and traditional clicks, and why this paradigm shift matters.
  • [01:17]
• Josh Bliskel:
  • “Human referrals are changing, right? Like the zero click experience we know is already going to be happening. But I think the important part is realizing that you are getting clicks from somebody. It's just who is that person. And that person has kind of shifted from being a pathing, information seeking, sentient human into someone who is basically given a mandate to answer questions instead of.”
    • [01:32]
  • AI models are answering user questions directly, reducing visible human referral traffic but not actual content engagement.

4. Citations as a “Golden Metric”

• Josh Bliskel:
  • “I am going to get clicks on Profound's website from bots who are seeking to answer people's questions… we can understand a citation basically as a stand in for a user… That to me, you know, citations are this, they're a golden metric because they don't depend on referral traffic, they don't depend on clicks. I think clicks are very fraught.”
    • [03:24]
  • Citations from AI (e.g., from ChatGPT’s user agent) represent moments when a brand answered a query, even if a human didn’t generate a visible click.

5. Future of Goals & SEO Metrics

• Josh challenges the utility of human referral-based KPIs, noting that as AI tools take over more search experiences, teams should prioritize being cited as authoritative sources by these AI systems rather than focusing on traditional click metrics.
• Quote:
  • “What we can do is we can make you more influential in the questions that people are already answering or asking.”
    • [03:24]

---

Notable Quotes

• Josh Bliskel ([01:10]):
  • “I buy it. Citations are the new clicks. Citations are clicks, but from bots basically.”
• Josh Bliskel ([01:32]):
  • “It's just who is that person. And that person has kind of shifted from being a pathing, information seeking, sentient human into someone who is basically given a mandate to answer questions instead of.”
• Josh Bliskel ([03:24]):
  • “You would have gotten a click though. That’s a moment where your brand provided an answer. You were valuable there. You were important on the web... Citations are this, they're a golden metric because they don't depend on referral traffic, they don't depend on clicks.”
• Josh Bliskel ([03:24]):
  • “What we can do is we can make you more influential in the questions that people are already answering or asking.”

---

Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• 00:43: Start of the AI-focused lightning round.
• 01:10: Josh asserts that citations will replace clicks.
• 03:24: Clear, practical explanation of why AI-induced citations become the new gold standard metric.
• 04:28: Episode wrap-up and guest contact details.

---

Key Takeaways

• AI citations are poised to overtake clicks as a primary SEO metric by 2026.
• Citations act as evidence your brand influenced an answer, even when no human click occurs.
• SEO teams should focus on being influential and cited within AI-generated answers, not just on generating human traffic.
• Success in SEO will increasingly depend on being recognized by AI systems as authoritative sources.

---

For further exploration, connect with Josh Bliskel via LinkedIn or visit tryprofound.com.

---

Transcript

[Jordan Cooney]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search podcast, Jordan Cooney.

Okay, Josh, let's now move over to our lightning round. I'm going to ask you some AI search related questions from this week's topics and we're going to dive into how this is kind of the death of the blue lynx.

[Sponsor Voice / Pre Visible Representative]

Okay.

[Jordan Cooney]

So first one, buy or sell? Are you buying or selling that AI? Citation dominance will be the new form or leaderboard in 2026.

[Josh Bliskel]

I buy it. Citations are the new clicks. Citations are as like, citations are clicks, but from bots basically.

[Jordan Cooney]

All right, and for our listeners, let's talk a little bit about citations and what makes their valuable. Why is it so different from a click and how is the click versus citation going to become this kind of new paradigm?

[Josh Bliskel]

Well, I mean, human referrals are changing, right? Like the zero click experience we know is already going to be happening. But I think the important part is realizing that you are getting clicks from somebody. It's just who is that person. And that person has kind of shifted from being a pathing, information seeking, sentient human into someone who is basically given a mandate to answer questions instead of.

[Sponsor Voice / Pre Visible Representative]

You know, time for a one minute break to hear from our sponsor, Pre Visible. So you're looking for SEO help and you got a couple of options. You could start replying to spam from agencies that claim they can get you to rank number one on Google. You can pay an hourly rate for a consultant who will inevitably nickel and dime you with hourly charges. Or you can work with a cookie cutter agency to quickly launch a strategy less project with low success rate. None of those sound very good now do they? Well, that's where Pre Visible's integrated consulting model comes in. Pre Visible draws From a collective 40 years of SEO and digital marketing experience to unlock your organic growth opportunities. They build custom solutions that combine strategy, technical expertise, content and reporting to effectively operationalize SEO for your business. Pre Visible's four stage approach ensures that your SEO programs thrive by starting off with a strategy first approach. Then they support you in your efforts to create quality content, help you identify technical issues. And most importantly, they'll work with your cross functional teams to integrate your SEO strategies to make sure that your SEO budget actually drives results, not just your agency's bottom line. So join brands like Yelp, eBay, Canva, Atlassian Square, all who rely on the SEO consultants at Pre Visible. For more information, go to Previsible IO that's Pre Visible. P R E V I S I B L E I O.

[Josh Bliskel]

I am going to get clicks on Profound's website from bots who are seeking to answer people's questions. I'm going to get interest in that way. And so we can understand a citation basically as a stand in for a user that's a real user who's basically seeking information where I provided context. And if you're looking at your network logs, ChatGPT user, that's the user agent that ChatGPT uses. When a real person's on that other side of that question somewhere in the world asking a question about you, you see that citation come through. That's a real moment that you basically, in my opinion, you can do some math. You can say, hey, I'm pretty conservative about this. I don't buy that. Fine, reduce it by half. You would have gotten a click though. That's a moment where your brand provided an answer. You were valuable there. You were important on the web. That to me, you know, citations are this, they're a golden metric because they don't depend on referral traffic, they don't depend on clicks. I think clicks are very fraught. I talk to teams all the time. They're like, we should goal ourselves based on human referral traffic. It's like, well, we're probably not heading in a direction where the UIS and the UX from these tools are going to drive towards that anyway. It's a really hard thing. But what we can do is we can make you more influential in the questions that people are already answering or asking.

[Jordan Cooney]

Yeah, I love it. Okay, that wraps up this episode of the Voice to Search podcast. A huge thank you to Josh Bliskel from Profound for joining us today. If you'd like to get in contact with Josh, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on the voicesofsearch.com. if you'd like to visit his company website, you can visit try profound. Com. If you haven't subscribed yet and would like a daily stream of SEO and content marketing knowledge in your podcast feed, please hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube, and we'll be back in your feed every week. That's all for today, but until next time, remember, the answers are always in the data.

[Josh Bliskel]

It.