For me, algorithms are a habit.
Since 1999, I have heard five times that SEO is dead. Each time, it only changed shape. The current turn, AI, is the most dramatic yet, but it still begins and ends with the same question. How does an engine decide what to show.
I am Gilad. In the Israeli SEO community, most people know me by the alias algoholic. It stuck to me in 1999, when I started reverse-engineering small search engines and ranking sites on AltaVista, HotBot, Excite, and Yahoo. I watched Google grow from a small startup into the infrastructure of the internet. I watched it work through Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, BERT, and MUM. And now I am watching search itself change shape, from ranking to retrieval, and from retrieval to generation.
At Nekuda Digital, which I founded in 1999, I lead AI consulting for businesses, GEO services, and classical SEO work. At algoholic.com, my personal lab, I publish research, professional frameworks, and tools designed to make sense of the new turn.
The businesses I work with today all ask the same question: how do we not get left behind. My answer starts from the fact that I have already lived through this question twice before. Once around 2004, when Google was displacing everything else. Once in 2015, when Mobile-First rewrote the rules. This is the third turn, and history helps you see what is actually happening, what will pass, and what will remain.
Highlights from 1999 to now. The full and always-current version is at algoholic.com.
Major refresh of the Hebrew and English sites, with GEO and AI visibility services on a published price ladder.
Personal research platform on Generative Retrieval. Four-stage framework, taxonomy of citation behavior, and the LLM Visibility Audit tool.
Barry Schwartz vlog #67. Interview on Cannabis SEO and the future of search.
Keynote on YMYL and search marketing in restricted industries. Sponsored by Outbrain, Tel Aviv.
TNW Amsterdam 2012, Web Summit Dublin 2014, TNW Europe Westerunie 2015. A period when the Israeli ecosystem showed up abroad.
Moderated the first Hebrew-language SEO panel at SMX, Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem.
Led marketing at an international iGaming firm through the transition from the manual-link era to quality-based algorithmic ranking.
Among the first in Israel to be certified. The certification has stayed current continuously since.
Led search at the Israeli Yellow Pages. Built the search strategy through the first decade of Google in Hebrew.
Founded as nekuda Web Solutions in Tel Aviv. Started working on search engines before Google was dominant.
Four parallel practices that feed each other. Consulting sharpens research, research fuels talks, talks generate consulting inquiries.
CEO and founder, personally active on every AI consulting and GEO engagement. Not a detached senior consultant. In every meeting, writing the documents, reviewing the outputs.
Two essays a week on Generative Retrieval. Development of the LLM Visibility Audit and GEO Scorer tools. Sustained cadence of interviews and writing.
Keynote talks, in-house workshops, and strategy days for companies in Israel and abroad.
Frequent LinkedIn posts, a bi-weekly newsletter at nekuda.co.il, and general activity across networks the way you would since the earliest days of the web.
A partial list of professional media.
If your question is not here, write to me. I reply within 24 hours.
Yes. Even in 2026, SEO still produces 40 to 70 percent of the traffic for most of our clients. It is not dead. It is just no longer alone. GEO and AI Visibility sit alongside it, not in place of it.
Sometimes you should. For pure technical implementation, like deploying an OpenAI-based customer support agent, the newer shops do excellent work at lower cost. But when the work touches marketing, search, or brand positioning in AI, 27 years of accumulated algorithm-reading changes the equation.
Nekuda Digital is the business side. Algoholic is the lab. On Algoholic I publish deep research, professional frameworks, and open-source tools I build. On Nekuda Digital I present services, clients, and how we work.
Yes. The bulk of my work is in Israel, but I have clients in the UK, the Netherlands, and the US. I work in Hebrew and English at mother-tongue level. Sometimes it is actually easier to work with international clients because the scale of those markets generates data faster.
Three ways. A 30-minute free intro call via the Contact page. Direct email to [email protected]. Or WhatsApp at +972-52-854-4415. I reply within 24 business hours.
Primary focus: finance, digital health, eCommerce, and B2B SaaS. Less active in real estate, physical retail, and automotive. I also work with nonprofits and academia when the professional value is mutual.
If you want to go deeper, algoholic.com is the research side of my practice. That is where I publish essays on Generative Retrieval, professional frameworks, and open-source tools I build and release. Three recent pieces:
An intro call to map out what AI can do for you this year, what GEO can move, and where the biggest opportunity is. If it fits, we continue. If it does not, you walk away with at least two practical ideas for next week.
Gilad Sasson, algoholic
27 years reading search algorithms, since 1999. Founder and CEO of Nekuda Digital.
LinkedIn, algoholic.com, [email protected]
