Get Involved:
DMLA’S SEO & AI Search Working Group
Supporting discoverability, attribution, and authenticity in an AI-driven search ecosystem
As search and discovery evolve through generative AI, multimodal systems, and new ranking models, licensed visual media faces new challenges and opportunities. The SEO & AI Search Working Group brings together industry practitioners to help ensure human-created, licensed content remains visible, trusted, and valued.
About the Working Group
DMLA brings together organizations across the visual media ecosystem to protect creators’ rights, support responsible licensing, and help the industry adapt as technology changes.
The SEO & AI Search Working Group provides a dedicated forum to address how search engines, AI systems, and emerging discovery models impact licensed visual media—often before a user ever reaches a website.
Why SEO & AI Search
Search is no longer just “SEO.”
Today’s discovery landscape includes generative AI search, AI-assisted answers, multimodal indexing, and new optimization frameworks that influence how content is surfaced, interpreted, and reused. These systems increasingly shape value, attribution, and trust at the point of discovery.
This Working Group exists to bring clarity, shared understanding, and practical insight to these changes—grounded in real-world experience from across the licensed media ecosystem.
What We’re Focused On
How search and AI systems access, interpret, and rank licensed visual media
How metadata standards (including IPTC) can better communicate ownership, rights, and permitted use
How provenance frameworks such as C2PA and content credentials can provide visible, trusted signals of authenticity
Shared challenges around discovery, attribution, transparency, and long-term value in AI-driven search environments
Who Should Participate
This Working Group is open to professionals from DMLA member companies across roles and disciplines, including:
SEO and search strategy leaders
Digital, growth, and content marketing professionals
Product, data, and technical architecture teams
Metadata, content operations, and licensing specialists
Executive leadership shaping commercial and technology strategy
If your work touches search, discovery, AI systems, or the future value of licensed visual media, this group is designed for you.
Members:
Chair: Roxana Stingu, Alamy
Leslie Hughes, iSPY Visuals/DMLA
Mike Krau, Shutterstock
Mark Milstein, Microstock Solutions
Joe Naylor, ImageRights Int’l
Helen Parker, Getty Images
Mark Pollard, Stocksy
Kayleigh Rees, Stocksy
Tom Smith, Gado Images
Calum Tye, Alamy
Ian Young, Alamy
Resources
Nano Banana
Breakdown of how Nano Banana responds to different prompt types; showcases strengths and emerging patterns: https://minimaxir.com/2025/11/nano-banana-prompts/
Side-by-side comparison with OpenAI’s image model, useful to see where each excels (realism, consistency, composition): https://latenitesoft.com/blog/evaluating-frontier-ai-image-generation-models/
Adobe is Acquiring Semrush - unifying content creation + content performance
How to Get Involved
Participation is open to representatives of DMLA member organizations.
To express interest in joining the SEO & AI Search Working Group or to learn more about upcoming discussions, please contact: admin@dmla.org
Engagement with Search & AI Organizations
Search and AI engine organizations are invited to engage with the Working Group where responsible use, authenticity, provenance, and licensed, human-created visual media are shared priorities. Practitioner-led dialogue helps surface real-world considerations that can inform better systems and outcomes.
Recommended Reading
- Google Discover and Fake AI Images — Yet another reason for Google to want images marked as authentic
https://searchengineland.com/google-discover-fixing-fake-ai-spam-problem-464584
Explains Google’s latest struggle with AI-generated image spam in Discover and reinforces why Google is pushing for stronger authenticity signals.
- Google, Microsoft & Perplexity on the “GEO Rush”
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-microsoft-perplexity-geo-rush-40457.html
Business Insider interviews SEOs and platform reps about the rapid rise of GEO services and how major players view the shift toward AI-optimised search.
- Lily Ray at MozCon 2025 — GEO, AEO, LLMO: Separating Fact from Fiction & How to Win in AI Search
A clear, narrative look at how AI Search has evolved and what GEO/AEO/LLMO really mean for the future of search visibility.