Jake Bentham named Rand Fishkin as his digital hero

Our Head of SEO, Jake Bentham, has been featured in New Digital Age’s My Digital Hero series, naming Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro, as the person he most admires in digital.

Jake credits Fishkin with helping make SEO more accessible through resources such as “Whiteboard Friday”, sharing knowledge openly at a time when much of the industry was still guarded about its expertise.

He also highlights Fishkin’s influential work on zero-click search and its growing relevance as AI Overviews and LLMs reshape how people discover information online.

For Jake, the biggest challenge facing search now is measurement. While brands can see themselves appearing in AI-generated results, there is still no reliable way to measure how often that visibility happens, what drives it, or the impact it has on business performance.

Looking ahead, Jake believes the next generation of search heroes will be those who can solve that challenge.

He also shares his own approach to GEO and AEO, arguing that AI search doesn’t necessarily require an entirely new discipline or strategy. The fundamentals remain the same: a technically sound website, clear architecture, useful content and sufficient authority to earn trust.

As Jake puts it: “The largest change is measurement, not strategy.”

It’s a perspective that reflects AgencyUK’s approach to search in an AI-first landscape, adapting to how search is evolving, without losing sight of the fundamentals that have always driven effective SEO.