Is Google losing the AI search war - or winning it? Eli Schwartz, bestselling author of Product-Led SEO joins Russ Macumber to unpack why Google's distribution edge (Android, Chrome, YouTube, Gmail) still beats anything ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can offer - and why AEO is really just SEO wearing a new hat.

They cover how Reddit's data feed may shape what LLMs trust, why chasing individual AI platforms is a losing strategy, and whether AI is coming for marketers' jobs (mostly just the boring parts). Plus: real takeaways from Google I/O, an early look at AI-powered Gmail search, why prompt-tracking tools mislead brands, and the fast-approaching world of hyper-personalized search.

Is most of what you know about SEO experiments actually wrong? Host Russ Macumber sits down with Sara Taher, founder of the SEO Riddler newsletter and community, to challenge some deeply held assumptions in the SEO world — including a Google patent that may signal social engineering against sites with spammy backlinks.

Sara shares her honest take on schema markup, her accidental start in SEO via a failed Y Combinator-backed startup, and why she built one of the industry's most active SEO communities. Then the conversation turns to AI: Sara's hard rule is don't generate AI output unless you already know what 80% of the correct answer should look like — backed by real stories from Amazon's AI outage to Starbucks walking back over-automation.

In this episode: broken SEO experiments, the truth about schema, lessons from a failed startup, building community in a cliquey industry, and the AI literacy rule every SEO needs.

Nik Vujic, founder of Get Stuff Digital, returns to the show for a deep dive into where AI search is heading in 2026. Nik explains why he repositioned his agency around "organic growth" instead of SEO, breaks down the AI-powered agentic system his team has spent seven months building in-house, and shares a surprisingly effective playbook for managing brand reputation on Reddit. Russ and Nik also debate how the AI tool landscape will consolidate, the difference between black-hat shortcuts and sustainable AI search visibility, and why - at the end of the day - good marketing is good GEO.

Fery Kaszoni is back. The Search Intelligence founder unpacks how AI search is changing the game (and why it's making organic SEO more important, not less), shares the honest truth about measuring ROI in AI search, and reveals what's actually moving the needle in digital PR campaigns today.

Is GEO or AEO really changing the game - or is it just SEO with a new coat of paint? Russ is joined by Search Theory co-founders David Vernon and Sara Kavanagh for an honest conversation about the state of search in 2026. They make the case that SEO fundamentals still rule, dig into why AI-generated content keeps failing, and explain what digital PR actually means in an LLM-driven world. Tired of the hype? This one's for you.

Google has become the world's largest publisher — and for brands that relied on organic search, that's a crisis. In this episode, Russ sits down with Chad White, Head of Research at Zeta Global, to map out what comes next. Chad shares his five-part framework for staying visible beyond Google, makes the case for email as a genuine search platform, and explains why Google's Personal Intelligence initiative — connecting Gemini to Gmail — could be the most powerful AI personalization signal hiding in plain sight. They also get into multi-channel strategy, machine-to-machine commerce, and why empathy is the most underrated marketing tactic of 2026.

Is GEO or AEO really changing the game - or is it just SEO with a new coat of paint? Russ is joined by Search Theory co-founders David Vernon and Sara Kavanagh for an honest conversation about the state of search in 2026. They make the case that SEO fundamentals still rule, dig into why AI-generated content keeps failing, and explain what digital PR actually means in an LLM-driven world. Tired of the hype? This one's for you.

Fery Kaszoni is back. The Search Intelligence founder unpacks how AI search is changing the game (and why it's making organic SEO more important, not less), shares the honest truth about measuring ROI in AI search, and reveals what's actually moving the needle in digital PR campaigns today.

Something's changed. If you've been listening to SEO Success Stories, you've probably already felt it in the conversations - guests drifting away from pure Google rankings and into bigger questions about multi-platform search, organic visibility, LLM discovery, and AI-influenced buying behavior.

So we made it official. The show is now Beyond the Search Bar.

Listen as Impressive’s Russ Macumber talks with David Vernon about Is SEO dead?