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Welcome to this week's issue of Unpacking Meaning. If you received this from a friend and enjoy it, ​subscribe here.

A client asked me a simple question before signing off on a new project:

It’s a common one—usually asked right after I walk clients through the research and messaging process. And while it sounds tactical, what they’re really asking is:

SEO isn’t what it used to be. And as of this week, that’s no longer a prediction—it’s reality.

With Google’s new AI Mode, search isn’t a public directory anymore. It’s a private assistant. One trained on every digital breadcrumb users leave across Google’s ecosystem—routines, inboxes, YouTube history, shopping habits, even calendars.

This means your messaging isn’t competing in a “top 10 results” world anymore.

It’s competing inside the user’s personal context—their intent, their emotions, their moment.

That changes everything.

And it also makes EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) more important than ever.

Because AI Mode doesn’t just show the “best content.”

It shows the most credible and relevant content for the individual.

If you’re not showing lived experience… If your brand isn’t seen as the trusted expert in the space… If you’re not addressing real problems with proof and precision...

You’ll be invisible.

Why our approach already solves for this

At Conversion Alchemy, we’ve always started with research. Not keywords—human behavior.

That means:

• Running deep Jobs-to-be-Done interviews to surface emotional buying triggers
• Mining shared media (Reddit, reviews, forums) to inject sticky, trust-building voice of customer
• Structuring messaging with clarity, specificity, and context—down to the moment a decision is made

And guess what?

When your copy reflects the real world…

When it educates with depth and empathy…

When it shows receipts, not just benefits...

You’re naturally hitting EEAT:

Experience — speaking to real moments customers are living
​Expertise — delivering practical insights grounded in user language
​Authority — supported by real quotes, third-party proof, and shared media
​Trust — built into the voice, structure, and UX of the copy

In short:

Great copy, rooted in real insight, satisfies Google’s expectations by default.

Here’s what that looks like in practice

❌ Generic copy:

Cool. So does everyone else.

✅ Moment-driven copy:

That’s not a persona. That’s Tuesday morning at 10:14am in a mid-sized SaaS company.

If your copy doesn’t speak at that level, Google’s AI won’t see you. And your customers never will either.

This is a new era of messaging—one where specificity, psychology, and timing aren’t nice-to-haves.

They’re your moat.

And no, this doesn’t replace your SEO expert

To be clear, I’m not saying conversion copywriters should take over SEO strategy.

SEO professionals play a critical role—especially in shaping site architecture, technical performance, and long-term content plays.

But what I am saying is:

When your messaging and copy are grounded in real research and strategy, your SEO expert’s job gets easier. They’re not stuck fixing gaps or stuffing keywords. They’re amplifying what already works.

I had a great chat recently with Sam Dunning, SEO consultant and host of Breaking B2B, and we agreed on this shift.

The pages that convert (and rank) are the same ones we already write:

• FAQs
• Use cases
• Comparison pages
• In-depth guides written around real-world emotional moments

Not because they’re “optimized.”

But because they’re useful. They help people make decisions.

That’s the real game—and AI Mode just raised the bar.

Want to see how your copy stacks up?

I built a free Message-Market Fit Scorecard that helps you assess whether your current copy is doing the heavy lifting—not just for conversions, but for today’s version of SEO.

🧠 It evaluates clarity, resonance, structure, and trust/authority signals—exactly the things Google’s new AI Overviews are now prioritizing.

👉 Take the scorecard now​

DISCOVERY

Learn about the new Google AI Mode

Here's a great writeup of the new update if you missed it.

Lessons Learned Generating 5,000 AI Personas

I've long been obsessed with synthetic research and creating AI personas to test messaging and write better, more empathetic copy (based on real research). In this article, fellow marketer and prompt engineer Mike Taylor goes into the nuances of building these "synthetic customers".

If you thought it's simply writing a mega prompt and telling ChatGPT to make up your ICP, this will make you change your mind (and see the potential).

P.S. Mike is coming on the podcast soon to share more juicy details.

🧠 New: The Clarity Sprint

Too often, B2B SaaS teams stall out trying to fix symptoms—copy that doesn’t convert, pages that don’t land—without getting clear on the root cause.

That’s why I built the Clarity Sprint:

A modular, fast-moving 1:1 process to help you untangle and sharpen the three layers that drive real results:

• Your positioning: What you do, how, and for who
• Your messaging strategy: How you say it and why it matters
• Your copy: The words that turn strategy into action

Use it to tackle one page, one offer, or one core message at a time—without committing to a full overhaul.

​→ Learn more about the Clarity Sprint​

RESONANCE

Dr. Shad Helmstetter, What to Say When You Talk to Your Self

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Silvestri Founder & conversion alchemist

🙌🏻 Let’s be friends (unless you’re a stalker)​

When you're ready, here's a few ways I can help

Not sure where to start? Take our free message-market fit scorecard.​