According to a report by Roger Montti for Search Engine Journal, titled “Head Of WordPress AI Team Explains SEO For AI Agents,” James LePage, co-lead of the WordPress AI Team and Director of Engineering for AI at Automattic, is urging publishers to rethink SEO through the lens of AI agents, rather than focusing solely on traditional search interfaces.
LePage, who also helped found the WordPress Core AI Team, explained that despite the surge of interest and investment in “AI optimization” (AIO) and “generative engine optimization” (GEO), AI agents fundamentally rely on the same web infrastructure as search engines. They discover information through existing search indexes, evaluate trust using authority signals, traverse the web via links, and interpret content much like classic crawlers do.
Montti reports that LePage views much of today’s AI-focused SEO as a repackaging of long-tail search optimization. Structured data, semantic density, and strong internal linking, longstanding SEO best practices, remain essential because AI agents need clear, accessible signals to synthesize information accurately.
LePage also emphasized that publishers should create intentional content designed for agent consumption. Rather than unstructured pages, content should be organized with clear hierarchies, semantic markup, and structured formats such as markdown. This allows agents to quickly identify what information is primary, what is supplementary, and how documents relate to one another.
In Montti’s coverage, LePage describes this shift as moving from a “pile of documents” toward a well-organized briefing, where summaries, rankings, and progressive detail help agents understand offerings efficiently. At the same time, LePage acknowledges that future agentic systems may eventually operate without traditional websites, consuming content independently of page-based presentation.
Looking ahead, LePage predicts a gradual progression toward more autonomous AI agents, capable of performing tasks, making decisions within defined boundaries, and even interacting with other agents. However, he stresses that humans will remain part of the loop by setting guidelines and evaluating outcomes.
Montti notes that LePage’s insights, shared in his article “Agents & The New Internet (3/5),” offer publishers a practical takeaway: prepare now by structuring content clearly, ensuring semantic clarity, and making it obvious what each piece of content is for. These steps, LePage suggests, are the foundation for visibility in an increasingly agent-driven web.