Don’t stop at yellow lights

I was on a dog walk the other day, and a mom with her two young kids was coming toward me. They were stopping and starting a lot, and I heard the mom say: “red light … green light.” Then she tossed out “yellow light,” and one of the kids decided that was the same as red and brought his three-wheeler to a halt. It was nice to hear a classic kid game being played that requires no batteries or Wi-Fi.

This walk came just after my Sunday morning perusal of national media. That day’s Wall Street Journal editorial on “America’s Low-Hire, Low-Fire Labor Market” was still on my mind, noting July job losses, downward adjustments in estimated gains over the past three months, and inflation stuck in the +3% range. They called it a “blah labor market.”  This isn’t new news – it is a continuation of a trend.

It’s a yellow light.

We look at a yellow traffic light and inherently know red comes next. That may have been why the boy on the trike hit the brakes. That’s probably why caution tape is yellow. It tells us to not move forward and cross a line.

While major economic indicators are serving as caution tape for many organizations that are hesitant to make investments or take on risk right now, there is a very bright green light out there. There is also a fast-moving vehicle on the road: AI, and the frenetic adoption pace at which people now use it to find essential information. Organizations need to adapt to be seen and referenced by these tools.

Our basic requests for information such as “find Italian restaurants near me” have turned into multi-faceted, detailed questions that might drill down to finding that restaurant with an award-winning tiramisu that takes reservations, has no dress code, is open for lunch on Mondays and has on-site parking. The result – that singular question became a prompt with six embedded questions.

This is a rapidly occurring behavioral shift – probably one of the fastest ever. Love it or hate it, it is a new reality. We are asking much more complex questions and getting more specific answers through AI – without ever visiting a website.

I own and operate a marketing and communications agency and our work spans across design, messaging and websites. From an organizational standpoint, this shift in how we get information is massive. To be seen and found in an environment where AI tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) craft responses to our more complex requests will require proactive changes to technology platforms and a fresh look at your web content and communications strategies.

Already pummeled with so many marketing options, organizations are starting to see web traffic losses and wondering how they stay relevant and found in a digital world. With so many options, many also see a yellow light because they lack clarity on how to move forward and want to maybe wait out the red-light/green-light cycle until more consistency comes to the marketplace.

Waiting behind that yellow caution tape could be detrimental. Broadly speaking, there are three distinct areas that work together and warrant consideration:

• Do an answer engine optimization (AEO) and search engine optimization (SEO) website review and refresh that makes technical changes to the site so AI tools, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google’s AI Overviews, can find your owned content (website copy, blogs, etc) and ensure that the content is built to be read, trusted and quoted by a machine. This builds the technical foundation needed for visibility.
• Review your owned content. One thing that has not changed in marketing and communications is quality, consistent, home-grown content. In fact, it is even more relevant! These are your stories, your blogs, online reviews, FAQs and accomplishments (awards, new product and service announcements, partnerships, etc.). This organic content is highly attractive to AI search and essential for visibility and reputation management. It sends signals that your organization is relevant and trusted. Does this content accurately and consistently tell your story and answer the questions that your prospective customers might be asking about you? Update and expand your content to tell the full story, so AI can relay your story positively and accurately.
• Continue to produce new, relevant content and look for earned media placements. Consider trade press, awards, backlinks and media placements — the third-party earned authority AI models weight the highest. Content is still king and this is a great way to invest time and energy. Muck Rack, a media tracking platform, noted in a May 2026 study that 99% of links cited by AI are coming from non-paid sources, with journalism alone accounting for 27% of all links cited.

Combine these three practices, with SEO and AEO as the supporting infrastructure to earned media, and you’ll be much better positioned to stay relevant and in front of your customers no matter where they’re looking.

In a yellow-light economy, gaining clarity on how best to move forward is essential. If you are looking at a yellow light and pausing with your marketing efforts because the next step forward is not clear, consider the potential impact of not taking action. Despite this dramatic behavioral change, your website is still your storefront, and your content and messaging still define who you are. Being found matters and the rules of the road have changed.

Matt Cookson is the president and CEO of Cookson, a Manchester-based agency focused on integrated services that span public relations and strategic communications, brand strategy, growth marketing, creative and web design.