SEARCH • AI • DISCOVERY
How Businesses Get Found, Recommended & Chosen in the AI Era
I’m Rich Sanger, a search strategist and researcher studying how Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and emerging AI systems understand, evaluate, cite, and recommend businesses and brands.
I translate that research into practical strategy for marketers, business leaders, and organizations navigating the changing world of search and AI-driven discovery.
Search Engine Land contributor • AI & Search researcher • Founder of Streetlight Local
How Search and Discovery Are Changing
SEARCH • AI • DISCOVERY
Search is no longer limited to ranking web pages. Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems increasingly interpret intent, synthesize information, compare alternatives, and recommend businesses directly.
That changes the question from simply “How do we rank?” to “How do these systems understand us, decide whether to trust us, and determine when to recommend us?” My research focuses on that transition and what it means for businesses navigating an increasingly AI-mediated discovery environment.
What I Study
My work focuses on the systems, signals, and behaviors that shape how businesses and brands are discovered, understood, trusted, and recommended across search and AI-driven environments.
AI Discovery & Recommendation
How generative AI systems interpret prompts, select sources, evaluate brands, and construct recommendations across different user needs and contexts.
Search Systems & Entities
How search engines and AI systems understand entities, relationships, authority, retrieval, citations, and the signals that shape digital visibility.
Local & Multi-Location Discovery
How businesses establish visibility across Google Search, Maps, AI assistants, reviews, websites, and third-party sources in increasingly fragmented discovery environments.
Reputation, Trust & Choice
How reviews, authority, consistency, reputation, and information environments influence both machine-generated recommendations and human decisions.
Featured Research
Selected research and analysis on AI search, ranking systems, entity understanding, local discovery, and the changing ways businesses get found and recommended.
Search Is Becoming a Recommendation System
Search is no longer only about where a webpage ranks. Increasingly, Google and AI systems interpret intent, synthesize information, compare alternatives, and recommend businesses directly.
That changes the question from “How do we rank?” to “How does a system understand our business, decide whether to trust us, and determine when to recommend us?”
My work focuses on understanding that transition and what it means for businesses navigating an increasingly AI-mediated discovery environment.
Published in Search Engine Land
My research and analysis have appeared in Search Engine Land, where I write about emerging search technologies, AI, local search, ranking systems, and the changing mechanics of digital discovery.
I focus on translating complex technical subjects, including patents, retrieval systems, entity relationships, and AI behavior, into practical implications for marketers and businesses.
Work With Me
I work selectively with businesses, marketing teams, agencies, and organizations that need help understanding how search and AI-driven discovery are changing.
AI Discovery & Visibility Strategy
Assess how your company appears across AI search environments, where competitors are being surfaced instead, and where opportunities exist to strengthen visibility and recommendation potential.
Search & Discovery Research
Custom research into competitive visibility, entity signals, AI citations, local discovery, search behavior, and emerging search systems.
Strategic Advisory
Executive-level guidance for organizations navigating changes in organic search, AI-generated answers, recommendation systems, and customer discovery.
Speaking & Education
Presentations, webinars, executive briefings, and workshops covering AI search, modern SEO, local discovery, reputation, and the future of how businesses get found and chosen.
I’m a search strategist, researcher, writer, and entrepreneur focused on how technology influences business discovery.
My background spans SEO, local search, AI search, digital marketing, business strategy, and psychology. I hold graduate degrees in both psychology and business, and previously served as Head of SEO Operations before founding Streetlight Local.
That combination shapes how I approach search. I’m interested not only in how algorithms retrieve and rank information, but in how those systems influence what people believe, whom they trust, and which businesses they choose.
Much of my work now focuses on the intersection of search systems, artificial intelligence, entities, reputation, and human decision-making.
Get New Research
Receive occasional research and analysis on AI search, ranking systems, entities, local discovery, reputation, and the changing ways businesses get found and recommended.
No daily marketing emails. Just new research and ideas when I have something worth sharing.