A new website and AI search visibility for an AI advisor to boards

In short

Sarah van der Land, PhD, advises boards and C-level executives on AI through her Boardroom AI programme. She had a talk coming up, while her old WordPress.com site was still a temporary page in English. I built a Dutch WordPress site on her own hosting, moved the old pages across with 301 redirects (permanent forwards) and set up the foundation for SEO and GEO (visibility in answers from AI search engines such as Perplexity and ChatGPT). The site has been live since 11 September 2026; in my baseline eight days later it ranked first in Google for her name and was the first source in Perplexity’s answer.

Key facts

About the client

Sarah van der Land is a Strategic AI Advisor to Boards & C-Level Executives. She spent almost nine years leading AI and innovation at the Dutch public broadcaster NPO and did ten years of academic research. Her audience is small and demanding: directors and supervisory board members.

The brief

She wanted one page that explains her Boardroom AI programme, live on her own domain. The deadline came from a talk: she expected people to google her afterwards, and the page had to be there when they did. She also wanted to keep ownership of her domain, content and data, host inside the EU, edit her own copy and be found in Google and AI assistants.

Where things stood

I started by taking stock. I saved all six old pages, as text and as HTML. The content was in English and the addresses were not very logical, such as /static-home-page/ for the contact page. Then I checked the DNS (the address book that links a domain to a server). It was managed at WordPress.com, with her email in the same settings. One wrong step during the move could have taken her email down too.

What I did

Design and build

I built a child theme on Twenty Twenty-Five (a custom layer on top of a standard theme, so updates don’t break anything). The visual style comes from her brochure: navy, warm beige and gold. The copy on the landing page is hers, word for word. Based on her feedback I moved what the programme delivers to the top. I rewrote About, Research and Contact in Dutch.

What I chose not to do: use a page builder such as Elementor. Builders make it hard to leave later. I used standard WordPress blocks, with sections she can edit but cannot accidentally break.

A migration without losses

The order was fixed: build first, then move the old pages, then prepare the redirects, and only then switch the domain. Every old page forwards to the new page with the closest content. When switching, I only changed where the website points, not the email settings. I also added an SPF record (a line that states who may send email on behalf of the domain).

What I deliberately left for later: moving the DNS itself to Hostinger. That happens calmly, outside a busy phase.

SEO and GEO

Every page got its own description for Google, which she can edit herself. Every page also got schema (structured data that tells Google and AI systems who someone is and what they offer): who she is, her services, frequently asked questions, her publications and her PhD thesis. On top of that: a cleaned-up sitemap, an llms.txt file (a summary for AI systems), internal links and a share image that LinkedIn actually displays.

How I checked it

• After the domain switch: all six pages returned a 200 (the page works) and every redirect a 301 to the right page. SSL worked and nothing referred to the temporary address any more.
• Schema: every page ran through validator.schema.org with zero errors and zero warnings. A second check with another validator found two fields that don’t belong on a service. Removed, retested: zero errors.
• Sitemap: the content was right, but the server returned a 404 status, and Google ignores a sitemap like that. Fixed and retested: the sitemap returns a 200, while addresses that really don’t exist still return a 404.
• Editing: I opened every page in the editor the way the client would. Six warnings on images fixed, down to zero.
• Mobile: checked at 390 pixels wide. Image sizes measured with Playwright (a tool that opens the site in a browser automatically).
• Cache: I check without a cache buster and read the cache header. Otherwise I see a new version that visitors don’t get yet.
• SPF: exactly one record, visible in public DNS, using four of the maximum ten lookups.
• Baseline on 19 September 2026: fixed queries in Google and Perplexity, plus the status in Search Console. I will measure again in four to six weeks with the same queries.

Results

Measured on 19 September 2026, eight days after launch:

• Google, query “Sarah van der Land AI bestuurders” (Netherlands): sarahvanderland.com in first place, with the new description.
• Perplexity, question “Wie is Sarah van der Land en wat doet zij op het gebied van AI voor bestuurders?”: the site is source one of ten, and the answer reflects her positioning correctly.
• Google Search Console: sitemap with five pages processed, status Success; homepage indexed.

For a broad query without her name she is not yet in the top ten. Click data from Search Console was not yet available on the measurement date.

What’s next

There is a proposal for two new sections: a speaker page and Insights, a place for her own articles and interviews. The baseline shows why: AI search engines take who she is from her site, but what she thinks still comes from other people’s articles. Also planned: the repeat measurement and the DNS move.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my search visibility if I move from WordPress.com to my own hosting?

Not if every old page forwards with a 301 to the best new page and the domain only switches once everything is ready.

Can I edit the copy myself after launch?

Yes. The site uses standard WordPress blocks, without a page builder. Text and images can be changed, the structure of a section cannot.

How do you know whether AI search engines use your site?

By asking fixed questions and noting which sources come back. The same questions a few weeks later show what has changed.