Searchlight is Aztek's marketing news roundup that brings together the week’s most relevant developments in marketing, search, AI, and digital strategy, all in one place. We update this article throughout the week with news we think is worth your time, along with context to help you understand what changed, why it matters, and what it could mean for your business.
This week's topics:
08/18: AI Search Goes Mainstream
AI search is no longer something marketers can write off as an interesting experiment. ChatGPT Search, Google’s AI-powered search experiences, and other conversational tools are giving people new ways to research questions, compare options, and discover businesses.
That doesn’t mean Google is disappearing, and it also doesn’t mean businesses need to abandon their SEO strategy in favor of optimizing entirely for AI. What it does mean, though, is the way people find and evaluate information online is becoming more varied, and businesses need to ensure their digital presence can keep up.
AI Search Changes How People Find Answers
Traditional search typically gives someone a list of results and leaves them to decide which links are worth exploring. AI search can now do that work for them, pulling information together into a conversational response and allowing the user to ask increasingly specific follow-up questions.
The path from a question to a business is becoming less predictable now that someone researching a product or service can learn about a company before ever visiting its website. AI search is still much smaller than traditional search, so this isn’t the moment to redirect an entire marketing strategy toward it, but it is another discovery channel worth understanding.
Good SEO Still Matters in AI Search
For all the talk about optimizing for AI, many of the fundamentals look familiar. OpenAI has documented technical requirements businesses should consider if they want their content to be eligible for inclusion in ChatGPT Search, including allowing its search crawler to access their websites. Technical accessibility, however, is only part of the picture.
Businesses still need websites that clearly explain who they are, what they offer, and why someone should trust them. Useful content that answers real customer questions still matters, and so does crawlability, clear site structure, and accurate information. In other words, AI search creates some new considerations, but it doesn’t make good SEO obsolete.
Your Website Still Has a Job to Do
There’s another important distinction between being discovered and winning business. An AI tool might introduce someone to your company, but a potential customer may still visit your website to validate that recommendation. They might look for service details, examples of your work, pricing information, reviews, or basic evidence that your business is credible. If that experience is confusing or unconvincing, appearing in an AI answer won’t solve the problem.
That’s why businesses shouldn’t respond to AI search by chasing shortcuts. Start with the foundation: a technically sound website, clear positioning, useful content, and real evidence of expertise. Then make sure AI search tools can access and understand that information.
Pay Attention Without Chasing the Hype
AI search is worth watching because customer behavior is changing, not because traditional search suddenly stopped working. Businesses should begin monitoring AI referral traffic where possible, review how their brands appear in conversational searches, and pay closer attention to the questions customers actually ask. At the same time, they should keep investing in traditional SEO and the website experience that ultimately turns visibility into action.
Email Deliverability: Why It’s More Important Than Ever
Email marketing has never been the flashiest channel in the room, but it keeps earning its spot in the budget because it works. Industry research continues to show strong returns from email, with many companies reporting anywhere from $10 to more than $50 back for every dollar spent.
None of that matters, though, if your emails never reach the inbox. Email deliverability is what determines whether your carefully planned campaign actually reaches subscribers or gets bounced, filtered into spam, or blocked entirely. You can spend hours improving subject lines and polishing creative, but deliverability problems can quickly undermine all of it.
Five Email Deliverability Fundamentals
1. Keep Your Email List Healthy
A bigger list isn’t automatically a better list. Old addresses, hard bounces, and subscribers who haven’t engaged in months can hurt your sender reputation over time. Regularly clean your list and remove addresses that consistently bounce. Avoid purchased lists altogether. Most importantly, make sure people actually asked to hear from you. Permission is still one of the strongest foundations for good email performance.
2. Get Email Authentication Right
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren’t exactly exciting marketing topics, but they’re increasingly difficult to ignore. These authentication standards help email providers verify that your messages really came from your organization. Without them, your emails are more likely to look suspicious, and your domain is more vulnerable to spoofing.
If your team hasn’t reviewed its authentication setup recently, this is a good place to start before experimenting with more advanced deliverability tactics.
3. Pay Attention to Engagement
Email providers notice how recipients interact with your messages. Consistently sending to people who never open or click can eventually send the wrong signals about the quality of your email program.
Segmenting audiences by recent activity can help. You may also want to establish a sunset policy that suppresses subscribers after an extended period of inactivity rather than continuing to email them indefinitely.
4. Don’t Ignore the Email Itself
Technical setup is important, but content still plays a role. Image-heavy designs, oversized files, or overly aggressive sales language can cause problems. Poorly built emails can also create a frustrating experience even when they successfully reach the inbox.
Keep layouts readable, optimize images, and test messages across common email clients before sending. Small details like useful preheader text and descriptive alt text can improve the experience without overcomplicating production.
5. Build a Consistent Sending Rhythm
Going silent for weeks and suddenly sending a huge campaign can look unusual to mailbox providers. A more predictable cadence helps establish normal sending behavior.
Testing should be part of that rhythm too. Watch bounce rates, spam complaints, and inbox placement so you can catch changes before they become larger problems.
Connect Deliverability to Email Performance
Deliverability metrics shouldn’t live in a separate technical report nobody looks at. Compare inbox placement and bounce rates with revenue per send, conversions, or whatever business outcome your email program is supposed to produce.
If campaign performance suddenly drops, don’t immediately assume the copy or offer is the problem. Check whether fewer emails are reaching people in the first place. A quarterly list cleanup and authentication review can prevent a lot of headaches. It’s also worth revisiting your deliverability setup whenever you change email platforms, domains, or sending infrastructure.
