BackTier - When SEO Traffic Drops 80%: How Agencies Are Rebuilding for the AI Discovery Era | Evgenii Tilipman & Jason Todd Wade

Guest: Evgenii TilipmanFounder, KHOD (formerly Tilipman Digital)Email: [email protected]: https://khod.ioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgeniitilipmanHost: Jason WadeFounder, BackTierWebsite: https://jasonwade.comCompany: https://backtier.comNinjaAI: https://ninjaai.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontwadeEpisode TitleWhen SEO Traffic Drops 80%: How Agencies Are Rebuilding for the AI Discovery Era | Evgenii Tilipman & Jason WadeEpisode DescriptionWhat happens when organic traffic disappears and nobody knows the new rules?In this episode, Evgenii Tilipman, founder of KHOD, joins Jason Wade to discuss the reality facing agencies in 2026. After seeing traffic declines across clients and watching traditional SEO become less predictable, Evgenii shares how his agency is repositioning around AI visibility, brand mentions, authority signals, and machine-mediated discovery.The conversation explores the collapse of old assumptions around SEO, the rise of AI-native marketing roles, AI-powered website development, Webflow versus vibe coding, and why many agencies are still solving yesterday's problems while AI systems increasingly determine what brands get seen, cited, and recommended.Jason and Evgenii discuss the shift from rankings to recommendations and what agencies must do to remain relevant as search evolves into AI-driven discovery.Topics CoveredThe decline of traditional SEO trafficAI Visibility vs search rankingsWhy agencies are repositioning around AIBrand mentions and authority signalsWebflow, Lovable, Cursor, and vibe codingAI-native marketing teamsThe future of agency servicesBuilding websites for AI discoveryGEO and AEO in practiceRecommendations versus rankingsAbout Evgenii TilipmanEvgenii Tilipman is the founder of KHOD, a strategy-led web design and development agency serving B2B technology, SaaS, AI, and startup companies. Based in Serbia and working globally, Evgenii specializes in helping growth-stage companies build scalable digital experiences. As search evolves and AI increasingly shapes online discovery, he is actively exploring how agencies can adapt to AI visibility, machine-mediated recommendations, and the next generation of digital marketing. About Jason WadeJason Wade is the founder of BackTier and creator of Entity Lock Protocol™ and the BackTier Visibility Path™. Through BackTier's AI Visibility Infrastructure, he helps organizations become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and emerging agentic platforms. His work focuses on the shift from traditional search visibility to AI-mediated selection, where machine understanding increasingly determines business discovery and recommendation.Key TakeawayThe future is not about being found.It's about being recommended.As AI systems increasingly act as intermediaries between businesses and buyers, visibility shifts from rankings and clicks to trust, authority, mentions, and machine understanding. Agencies that recognize this shift early will help define the next era of digital marketing. Learn MoreEvgenii Tilipmanhttps://[email protected] Wadehttps://jasonwade.comhttps://backtier.comhttps://ninjaai.com#AIVisibility #GEO #AEO #SEO #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalMarketing #Webflow #B2BMarketing #AgencyGrowth #KHOD #BackTier #JasonWade #EvgeniiTilipman