University of Richmond · School of Professional & Continuing Studies · AISEO.226
Building Brand Authority
in an AI-Driven Search World
A four-session, 16-hour course for professionals who want to become the brand AI answers name — taught on the University of Richmond campus.
Instructor
Will Melton
CEO of Xponent21 · Global AI SEO Expert · AI Keynote Speaker
Will has spent the last several years researching how AI-driven search systems decide which brands to recommend — work that underpins Xponent21's AI visibility practice and has been cited in keynotes, client engagements, and the CARL dataset. He teaches the same material he uses with boards and executive teams, adapted for professionals ready to build authority in public.
Session breakdown
What we'll cover.
The New Search Landscape
How ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Gemini change what 'being found' means — and why brand authority is now the central ranking signal.
E-E-A-T & Content Strategy
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust translated into a practical content model: what to publish, where, and how often so AI systems read you as credible.
Building Your Authority Engine
Turn speeches, case studies, bylines, and video into a system that feeds search indexes and AI training data — without becoming a full-time content operation.
Measuring & Scaling Authority
What to track when rankings are no longer the whole story: AI answer visibility, citation share, branded query lift, and the operational cadence that keeps it working.
Format
On campus, hands-on, and designed around a real work schedule.
- 4 morning sessions, 8:30am–12:30pm
- 16 total hours of instruction and workshop time
- Held on the University of Richmond campus
- Built for working professionals, not full-time students
How this course is different
Practical, peer-driven, and grounded in real AI-search data.
- Practical — every session is built around what you can publish, change, or measure next week.
- Research-backed — grounded in the CARL dataset and real AI-search behavior, not trends or speculation.
- Peer-driven — discussions, workshopping, and shared case work, not lecture-only delivery.
- Not theory, not pass/fail, and not one-size-fits-all — the course meets working professionals where they are.
Registration
Ready to enroll?
The official registration, payment, and session details are handled directly by the University of Richmond. Questions before you register? Email wmelton@xponent21.com.