INBOX INSIGHTS, March 26, 2025: Change Management in AI and SEO, Content Translation - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

INBOX INSIGHTS: Change Management in AI and SEO, Content Translation (2025-03-26) :: View in browser

Pre-order our new course, Generative AI Use Cases for Marketers!

Change Management: Navigating SEO for AI

I’ve been thinking a lot about the shift happening in SEO lately. We’re no longer just optimizing for Google’s algorithms and human readers – we’re now optimizing for AI systems too. This is creating some fascinating change management challenges for marketing teams everywhere.

The Change Management Reality of AI SEO

Change management is always tough. But it is especially challenging when the change involves something as technical as optimizing content for AI systems. I experienced this firsthand recently when trying to adapt AI-optimized content strategies to our team.

When I was first introduced to AI-optimized content, my first thought was, “Why does this look so different from what we’ve been doing?” And, “How am I going to communicate this difference?”

These simple questions highlighted the core change management challenge: helping smart, capable professionals understand a fundamental shift in how we approach content creation without drowning them in technical jargon.

The Two-Audience Reality

The core of this change is that our content now needs to serve two distinct audiences:

Humans who want clear, engaging, and helpful information
AI systems that need structured, comprehensive data that they can parse

This isn’t just a technical SEO adjustment. It’s a fundamental shift in how we create, structure, and distribute content. And like any significant change, managing it effectively requires more than just explaining the technical details.

Change Management Is Human Management

What I’ve learned through this process is that change management isn’t really about managing change – it’s about managing how humans respond to change. Understanding the technical aspects of AI optimization is actually the easy part. The hard part is helping people adapt their thinking, processes, and expectations.

When Chris jumped straight into explanations about semantic entity relationships and natural language processing signals, he was addressing the wrong problem. The real challenge wasn’t a knowledge gap; it was helping team members (me) connect this new approach to what they already understood about effective content.

Using the 5P Framework for AI SEO Change

I’ve found the 5P framework incredibly helpful for managing this transition:

Purpose: Clearly articulate why the change is necessary (ensuring content remains discoverable as search evolves)
People: Identify who will be impacted and how (content teams, SEO specialists, clients)
Process: Define the new workflows and approaches (content creation, optimization, measurement)
Platform: Determine what tools and technologies are needed (schema markup tools, AI content analyzers)
Performance: Establish how success will be measured (visibility in both traditional and AI-generated search)

This framework provides structure, but I’ve discovered it’s most effective when combined with genuine human connection and small, practical examples.

The Human Side of Technical Change

What I’ve come to appreciate most about managing this transition is that the human elements far outweigh the technical ones. Yes, understanding AI optimization techniques matters. But understanding how people process and adapt to change matters more.

When I focus on helping clients see how this evolution connects to their strategy, I try to focus on real examples of where they have previous navigated change successfully. They need to see themselves in each situation so they can relate to it. It isn’t about dumbing things down – it is about providing context that makes the unfamiliar feel manageable.

Your AI SEO Change Management Checklist

If you’re navigating this shift in your organization, here are some practical steps:

Start with a small, measurable test case rather than a complete content overhaul
Document baseline metrics before making any changes
Create plain-language explanations of AI optimization techniques (avoid jargon!)
Find champions at different levels within your organization
Anticipate questions and prepare concrete examples that address them
Celebrate and communicate early wins widely

Remember that resistance usually isn’t about the technology – it’s about the uncertainty that comes with change. The more you can make this feel like evolution rather than revolution, the less resistance you’ll face.

Change management for AI SEO isn’t really about AI or SEO at all. It’s about people. Focus on the human side of the equation, and the technical side will follow.

Quick plug—if you want help with this change management, give me a shout!

Has your team started optimizing content for AI systems? I’d love to hear about your experiences, especially the human side of managing this change.

Reply to this email to tell me, or come join the conversation in our free Slack Group, Analytics for Marketers.

– Katie Robbert, CEO

Do you have a colleague or friend who needs this newsletter? Send them this link to help them get their own copy:

https://www.trustinsights.ai/newsletter

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss offsite optimization for generative AI. You’ll learn how to rethink your offsite SEO strategy to effectively engage with AI models. Discover how to identify the crucial data sources that AI uses to inform its knowledge. You will understand why traditional SEO metrics are becoming less relevant in the age of AI and what truly matters for offsite success. Prepare to revolutionize your PR approach and ensure your brand is recognized by the AI systems shaping the future. Watch now to gain the offsite AI optimization advantage.

Watch/listen to this episode of In-Ear Insights here »

Last time on So What? The Marketing Analytics and Insights Livestream, we looked at content optimization for generative AI. Catch the episode replay here!

This week on So What? we’ll dig into part 3 of our SEO for AI series. Are you following our YouTube channel? If not, click/tap here to follow us!

Here’s some of our content from recent days that you might have missed. If you read something and enjoy it, please share it with a friend or colleague!

Take your skills to the next level with our premium courses.

Get skilled up with an assortment of our free, on-demand classes.

You could be reaching 32k+ marketers, analysts, data scientists, and executives directly with your ad. Want to learn more? Reach out and contact us.

In this week’s Data Diaries, let’s talk about language and translation. Last week on the livestream, we shared the idea of doing translation, converting your content into other languages. But translation takes time, especially if it’s content where misinterpretation could have serious consequences.

How do you know where to focus your time and effort on translating the most valuable content?

This is where traditional web analytics comes in handy. In Google Analytics 4, create a new Explore report that looks like this:

Let’s break down what we have.

Landing page – this dimension tells us the page the visitor landed on
Session primary channel group – this is the grouping of channels. We need this because organic search is a big bucket
Language code – these are 2-4 letter codes for languages, like en-us. This is helpful for filtering or filtering out language families. This is based on the browser settings of the visitor.
Sessions – this is our key metric. We choose sessions any time we want to know what happened during a visit.
Put the dimensions in this order for rows: language code, then landing page + query string. We want to see language first, then content
Set our value as sessions.
In filters, set Session primary channel grouping to Organic Search.
For me, I set language code does not begin with en to exclude all English language variants since our content is in English.
For our blog, which is what I’m curious about here, I set the landing page filter to require starting with /blog.
Set the date range to the last year.

There are a couple other settings that are specific to Trust Insights, so you’ll want to make adjustments as appropriate to your analytics setup.

What do we see? We see the pages on our blog that receive search traffic where the user’s native browser setting language is something other than English. That means they’re visiting us from search, presumably in English, but their primary language prefrence is something else.

From this, we now know what content to consider translating (if it makes sense to do so) and in what language.

Give this a try for yourself!

Here’s a roundup of who’s hiring, based on positions shared in the Analytics for Marketers Slack group and other communities.

Are you a member of our free Slack group, Analytics for Marketers? Join 3000+ like-minded marketers who care about data and measuring their success. Membership is free – join today. Members also receive sneak peeks of upcoming data, credible third-party studies we find and like, and much more. Join today!

Imagine a world where your marketing strategies are supercharged by the most cutting-edge technology available – Generative AI. Generative AI has the potential to save you incredible amounts of time and money, and you have the opportunity to be at the forefront. Get up to speed on using generative AI in your business in a thoughtful way with our workshop offering, Generative AI for Marketers.

Workshops: Offer the Generative AI for Marketers half and full day workshops at your company. These hands-on sessions are packed with exercises, resources and practical tips that you can implement immediately.

Click/tap here to book a workshop

Where can you find Trust Insights face-to-face?

Social Media Marketing World, San Diego, March 2025
TraceOne, Miami, April 2025
Content Jam, Chicago, April 2025
SMPS, Washington DC, May 2025
SMPS, Toronto, Ontario, May 2025
Marketing Analytics Summit, Phoenix, June 2025
SMPS, West Coast, Fall 2025

Going to a conference we should know about? Reach out!

Want some private training at your company? Ask us!

First and most obvious – if you want to talk to us about something specific, especially something we can help with, hit up our contact form.

Where do you spend your time online? Chances are, we’re there too, and would enjoy sharing with you. Here’s where we are – see you there?

Read our disclosures statement for more details, but we’re also compensated by our partners if you buy something through us.

Your ad for your product or service could have been here. It could have reached over 30,000 analytically-minded marketers and business professionals.

Well, there’s always next week’s issue. Want to be in it? Contact us for INBOX INSIGHTS sponsorship options.

Some events and partners have purchased sponsorships in this newsletter and as a result, Trust Insights receives financial compensation for promoting them. Read our full disclosures statement on our website .

Thanks for subscribing and supporting us. Let us know if you want to see something different or have any feedback for us!

Need help with your marketing AI and analytics?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter

Pin It on Pinterest