Very few are building structured authority across the ecosystem.

Brian Willie

12h • General discussion

Hi,

Over the last year, Mike and I have had the same conversation with multiple agency owners.

They’ll say something like:

“Our rankings are stable… but traffic is down.”

“We’re still top 3 in Maps… but calls feel lighter.”

“We didn’t get hit by an update… but something feels off.”

And they’re right.

Something is off.

But it’s not what most people think.

You’re not competing for clicks anymore.

You’re competing for citations and recommendations.

There was a time when owning the blue link meant dominance.

There was a time when being #1 in Maps meant your client’s phone rang.

If you owned the organic result…

If you held a green pin in the 3-pack…

You owned the lead.

Now?

Google answers the question before the click ever happens.

AI summaries recommend a “trusted source.”

Local Service Ads push organic and Maps further down.

Users compare across AI, Reddit, reviews, and brand mentions before they ever tap “Call.”

You can rank #1.

You can be top 3 in Maps.

And still be invisible.

Because visibility is no longer about position.

It’s about authority signals.

The algorithm isn’t just asking:

“Who ranks?”

It’s asking:

“Who is the safest, clearest, most structured entity to recommend?”

Most agencies are still optimizing pages.

Most are still trying to “win the map grid.”

The Most Important Part?

Very few are building structured authority across the ecosystem.

That’s the gap.

And it creates a strange psychological effect.

You’re technically “doing fine.”

You can still show rankings.

You can still show a Maps screenshot. But something feels less stable.

You hesitate a little more on sales calls. You over-explain your reports.

You feel the need to justify why “#1” still matters.

That feeling isn’t random.

You are having anxiety over competence and rightfully so.

You built expertise in a ranking economy.

We’re now in a recommendation economy.

The good news?

This shift doesn’t reward hacks.

It rewards structure.

When your brand becomes machine-readable…

When your entity signals align across organic, Maps, directories, and AI…

When your authority graph is clear…

You stop fighting for position.

You become the obvious choice.

That’s a different game entirely.

And most agencies haven’t adjusted yet.

Which means this is either the moment you slowly blend into the background…

Or the moment you build something harder to ignore.