Mike Hess, BIT Founder & Executive Director
August 28, 2026
The Big Takeaway: Marketers investing in digital accessibility have a huge head start with AI
Recently, I attended Digital Summit Minneapolis to introduce BIT’s Salesforce engineering and digital accessibility expertise to marketers across Minnesota. It’s exciting to meet with so many marketers at the top of their game. I get animated by people dedicated to their craft. It’s why I started BIT.
GEO & The Zero Click Economy
In a surprise to no one, AI was top-of-mind for everyone at the conference.
The marketers at DS Minneapolis know better than most: website traffic is down across the board. AI changed the way users interact with content online. Seemingly overnight, no one clicks on search engine listings. People use AI to do their research. It’s called the “zero click economy” and as of today 68% of internet searches end without the user clicking through to a website.
Digital marketers who have spent careers fine-tuning their website Search Engine Optimization (SEO), are now laser-focused on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
At an AI roundtable, BIT met with Minnesota-based marketers from multiple industries. All seemed to have the same question, “How do I get my brand mentioned inside of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini?”
The Website is Dead! Long Live the Website!
Many speakers had great AI insights to share. One insight really resonated with me: Your website isn’t dead — it has a new job. This is a good thing. Hear me out.
All too often, SEO was about designing websites and content to get noticed by Google’s ranking algorithm. AI has put an end to that. It presents an entirely different way of browsing the internet. GEO requires meaningful content, webpages that provide useful context, and all of it presented in a structured, machine-readable format, so your content can be displayed in context by the AI to the end-user.
What’s Great for GEO? Accessibility.
Technically speaking, great GEO starts with structured schema, organized headings, and semantic landmarks. If you’re already familiar with this technical jargon, you may be a GEO-focused growth marketer — or a screen reader user, like me.
Accessibility is a smart investment, and not just for compliance reasons. Just like curb cuts and closed captions, accessibility makes websites more usable for everyone. For years, we’ve known that web pages following accessible design principles convert better. Now with GEO, marketers paying attention to true usability have a huge head start in the zero-click economy.
Great Conversations
At DS Minneapolis, I met with people who work with tech platforms, associations, and nonprofits, including Automattic for Agencies, MnSearch, and other b2b service providers with clients and members that need usable, WCAG-compliant websites and effective Salesforce orgs.
Golden Hoodie Sighting at the Bluehost Booth
My highlight of the conference was when one of the event sponsors at the Bluehost booth recognized the Salesforce Golden Hoodie, “I know that jacket! It’s hard to get one!”
Turns out, they were at the Dreamforce keynote when I received the Golden Hoodie. It’s fantastic meeting people who shared that incredible moment with me, and it’s even better when they nerd out on the duds. Love it!
Best Swag: The Agency at MSP
My hat goes off to the folks at The Agency at MSP for bringing the best conference swag. My colleague, Joe Crespo, has not removed his “str@tegist” cap since Minneapolis.
Thank you, Minnesota!
Thank you to Brie, and everyone who worked the registration table at DS Minneapolis. I could not have felt more welcome! I go to a lot of conferences, and the DS team puts on an amazing event.
And finally, a huge thank you to the people in the Great State of Minnesota for investing in professionals with disabilities. Your grant dollars gave us this seat at the table. We’re excited to show Minnesota what we can do!
Are You Ready for the Zero Click Economy?
If you’re not sure whether your site is WCAG-compliant or GEO-ready, BIT offers a free accessibility review without obligation. Let’s talk about accessibility and GEO.