Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Keywords still matter. The single rankings and sessions scoreboard does not. Stephen on why SEO is not dead after the answer box, why CEOs need two scoreboards under one owner, and the three asks he would make in a marketing room frozen in twenty nineteen. Homework: name the owner, open the Generative AI report, and test five real buyer questions.
In this episode, Stephen Forte covers:
- The PDF is winning. The customer already left. Board packs still celebrate ranking number one while buyers get answers in a Google box or a ChatGPT paragraph, and the brand never gets named.
- Google did not invent a new web. AI Overviews still run on the same Search ranking systems. Keywords stay the spine. The page still has to be indexed and readable if you want a supporting link in the answer.
- Widen the scoreboard. Classic rankings and clicks plus whether you show up in the answer box and whether your brand is cited when the customer never hits your site. Not a zero sum game.
- Three asks in a frozen twenty nineteen room. A live priority keyword list mapped to what buyers actually see. Money pages that open with clear facts a model can quote. Stop celebrating wallpaper rankings with no revenue story.
- One owner. Two scoreboards. Usually the chief marketing officer or a growth lead. Search side and answer side, including Generative AI impressions in Google Search Console. One method for getting found and cited, not two organic retainers.
- Moving target, not panic. Generative AI reporting and the include or exclude control only rolled worldwide at the end of August. Name an owner, review monthly, audit quarterly. The habit is the product.
- Homework before Thursday. Name the owner. Open the Generative AI report. Ask five real buyer questions where buyers ask. Write down who gets named.
Sources:
- Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI features: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
- Google Search Central blog, Generative AI performance reports (Jun 3, 2026; worldwide Aug 31, 2026): https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports
- Search Console help, Generative AI performance report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139
- Search Console help, Search generative AI control: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16908024
- Pew Research Center, Jul 22, 2025: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
The AI Brief from the YPO Technology Network is a daily executive briefing on the AI developments that matter to business leaders. Hosted by Stephen Forte.
