Dennis Lazard, Founder of ESA Digital, joins E-Coffee with Experts to unpack how search is changing as brands compete for visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Dennis traces his path from building an early AI project for Google Ads to growing an agency that works with funded and established SaaS, AI apps, and technology brands.
He shares what he learned from starting ESA Digital during the UK lockdown, winning its first client, and building the agency largely through referrals. The conversation then moves into international SEO, including multi-language testing, AI-assisted content, human rewriting, and the difference between traffic and revenue across markets.
Dennis also explains how he thinks LLMs evaluate brands: topical authority, answers to the questions people ask, brand authority, mentions, and citations. He discusses why classic SEO metrics do not yet translate neatly to LLM visibility, why reliable query-volume and click-through-rate benchmarks are still missing, and how agencies may evolve toward AI-native service-as-software platforms.
Takeaways:
- Dennis started working in digital marketing in 2010 and built an early AI-for-Google-Ads project.
- ESA Digital focuses on funded and established SaaS, AI apps, and technology brands.
- Dennis says founders need to understand the customer-acquisition stage before investing in SEO.
- His agency prioritizes keyword clusters by expected revenue and required effort.
- International SEO testing included roughly fifteen languages and repeated human rewriting.
- Dennis describes topical authority as one of the first requirements for LLM visibility.
- Brand mentions and brand authority can shape which companies LLMs consider.
- He says the industry still lacks reliable LLM traffic and CTR benchmarks.
- Referrals remain ESA Digital’s main source of new business.
- Dennis sees service-as-software as a possible next step for agencies and clients.