Surviving the surfaceless web

The web’s central assumption has broken. Users no longer cross a visible threshold into websites; machines decide, summarise, and answer upstream. As pages, funnels, and CRO lose relevance, influence shifts to reputation, context, and what models believe. We need to reframe SEO and marketing for a zero-click, AI-mediated world, and learn how to move upstream and shape interpretation before a visit ever happens.

Transcript

1. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Surviving the Surfaceless Web
2. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER ONE The threshold
3. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Shouting at strangers
4. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Crossing the threshold
5. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Digital didn’t change much
6. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Control lives inside the threshold
7. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Marketing’s job: get them in
8. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK CRO lives after that moment
9. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Everything assumed the threshold
10. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The leverage point
11. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Everything you know starts here
12. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER TWO The gatekeeper
13. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The first disruption
14. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Machines chose the audience
15. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK A new gate
16. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Threshold access became conditional
17. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK CRO didn’t move upstream
18. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The gatekeeper became the channel
19. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Being seen became the bottleneck
20. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK We lost control, quietly
21. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER THREE The disappearance
22. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The threshold vanishes
23. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Problems get solved upstream
24. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Zero-click becomes normal
25. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Synthetic answers, not webpages
26. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You lose your visibility too
27. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The website isn’t the interface
28. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Users don’t arrive empty-headed
29. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You don’t own the journey
30. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK A discipline without its foundation
31. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER FOUR The machine immune system
32. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Something else stepped in
33. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The immune system protects
34. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It detects manipulation
35. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It cross-checks everything
36. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It strips away the theatre
37. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It normalises the noise
38. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It keeps the user safe
39. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Surface-level tricks don’t survive
40. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your website is just one input
41. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your tactics are now allergens
42. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK This is why the threshold died
43. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Nothing familiar works here
44. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER FIVE The surface doesn’t survive
45. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Machines don’t experience your pages
46. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Design doesn’t make it through
47. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Copywriting gets sanitised
48. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Funnels & heuristics mean nothing
49. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your best experiments are invisible
50. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your worst experiments are harmful
51. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Machines only keep the substance
52. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK CRO optimises the discard pile
53. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The problem isn’t your execution
54. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The surface is dead
55. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER SIX The corpus
56. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Decisions happen elsewhere
57. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your page is just one data point
58. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The model builds consensus
59. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Every surface feeds the model
60. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Context outweighs content
61. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Reputation becomes structure
62. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Memory matters
63. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Patterns replace pages
64. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The corpus decides what you are
65. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Influence is now distributed
66. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The real battle is upstream
67. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You must shape the model
68. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER SEVEN Move upstream
69. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The old job is gone
70. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Influence starts before arrival
71. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Shape the priors, not the page
72. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test what the model learns
73. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test for coherence
74. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test for completeness
75. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test for model behaviour
76. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test your entity, not your UI
77. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test the business, not the buttons
78. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test Your Footprint Everywhere
79. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test contributions, not campaigns
80. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test for inclusion
81. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Test for trust
82. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK This is still experimentation
83. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You influence the model
84. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER EIGHT Your website
85. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your site still matters
86. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your only controlled environment
87. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You’re publishing for the model
88. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your site trains the system
89. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Precision beats performance
90. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Stable claims create gravity
91. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You must publish the boring stuff
92. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Interpretation is the metric
93. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your site anchors everything else
94. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your site shapes your synthetic self
95. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant CHAPTER NINE The new mandate
96. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The old model is gone
97. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The model is the new market
98. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK understanding is the new conversion
99. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Trust becomes structural
100. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Truth becomes strategy
101. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Contribution beats manipulation
102. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your job is to train the system
103. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK You are now upstream engineers
104. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Influence the interpretation layer
105. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Optimise the corpus, not the Pagep
106. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your website anchors your reality
107. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK This is still experimentation
108. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK The real funnel starts before the visit
109. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Your next experiment isn’t on your site
110. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK Shape what the machine believes
111. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK This is the new mandate
112. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant Image source: LINK It starts today
113. Jono Alderson Independent technical SEO consultant fin