Lily Ray Launches Algorythmic, a Solo SEO and AI Search Consultancy

Lily Ray, named the #1 most influential SEO expert in 2022 by USA Today, launched Algorythmic, a solo consultancy specializing in SEO, AI search optimization, E-E-A-T strategy, and algorithm recovery. The launch arrives as Google AI Overviews now appear in 25.11% of searches and organic click-through rates have dropped 61% for queries where those overviews are present.

Ray brings 16 years of agency and in-house experience to the venture, including her current role as VP of SEO & AI Search at Amsive, the NYC-born digital marketing agency formerly known as Path Interactive, where she oversees a team of more than 35 SEO specialists. Through Algorythmic, she will selectively take on 1:1 client projects alongside hourly consulting, training, workshops, speaking engagements, technical audits, and specialized Google Discover audits. For clients where Amsive's team is a stronger fit, she will route them accordingly, while continuing to oversee all SEO and AEO projects at the agency day-to-day.

The consultancy's name carries an origin story rooted in SEO industry humor. "I first heard the play on words combining 'algorithm' and 'rhythm' back in 2019, when my SEO teammates Paul Van Hevel and Joe Woll created a comical, made-up deli called 'The Sub-Domain,'" Ray explained in her launch announcement. The fictional deli's house band was called The Algo-Rhythms. Ray, who was born into a family of software engineers, web developers, and technical writers and studied at New York University, saw the name as a perfect match for her two long-standing passions: search algorithms and music.

The market context behind the launch is striking. AI referral traffic surged 527% year-over-year between January and May 2025, with ChatGPT alone accounting for 87.4% of all AI referral traffic across industries. By 2026, nearly 31.3% of the US population is forecast to use generative AI search, according to EMARKETER. The broader market for what Ray prefers to call AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, was valued at approximately $848 million in 2025 and is projected to reach $33.7 billion by 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 50.5%.

Ray has been among the most visible voices arguing that this transformation does not render traditional SEO obsolete. Presenting at MozCon for a fifth consecutive year in 2025, she maintained that quality, clarity, and credibility remain the foundation of success regardless of which AI acronym dominates the conversation. Her focus areas at Algorythmic reflect that philosophy: E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), content quality, algorithm update recovery, technical SEO, and strategic AI search optimization across platforms including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.

The competitive landscape has grown increasingly crowded. Semrush, Ahrefs, Conductor, and Similarweb have all launched AI search visibility products, and 2025 saw significant venture capital flow into the space. On her Substack, Ray noted that too many AI search tools are now circulating with too few paying users to sustain them all, a dynamic that positions a trusted senior independent consultant more favorably than another software subscription in an already saturated market.

Ray began her SEO career in 2010 in a startup environment before moving to the agency world, where she helped build an award-winning SEO department serving Fortune 500 clients. Algorythmic represents the next stage of that trajectory: narrower in scope, deeper in specialization, and timed to one of the most consequential inflection points the search industry has faced.