SMB SEO in the GEO Era
episode
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
33 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit IHear Everything.com. Welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts? Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Tyson Stockton.
We're all facing rapid changing landscapes in online discoverability.
What challenges do SMBs face in the new AI‑powered search landscape?
Small and mid-sized businesses face the same challenges of showing up in AI overviews, AI mode, and ChatGPT, and so on. So here's the challenge. SMBs often don't have the deep tech stacks, large budgets, or teams that enterprise brands do. Yet the expectation to win in this new era of AI-powered search is the same. This is the Voice of Search Podcasts, and joining me today is Helen Pollett, Director of SEO at iStock. Helen brings a deep expertise in organic search strategy and AI-driven content. Today she's going to be unpacking how SMBs can thrive in the new era of search. With that, welcome to the podcast, Helen.
Hello. Glad to be here.
Great to have you. I mean, I'm interested in the conversation too, because I think personally I tend to skew and maybe it's just past experience towards like the enterprise side. And, you know, it's its own beast and you have politics, but then you do have advantages that sometimes come with that too, whether it's resources, access to technology. And so I think like the game is obviously a little bit shifted, but yet, you know, small businesses are still having to keep up in the same pace. So maybe like before we dive too much into like the SMBs, like how are you viewing the landscape shifts? Like how is Surge kind of evolving in your perspective?
I'm So excited. I'm so excited. We I've been in SEO for nine billion years and for the least the last eight billion of those, not much really has changed that dramatically. But I feel like we're on the cusp of something quite significant. And if you have been uh in SEO or around digital marketing for that length of time, it starts to feel a little bit rote if we're not careful. Um so it's exciting to have this big shake up um that Two years ago no one really cared that much about LLMs and Chat GPT and what is a perplexity AI.
How is visual content becoming a competitive advantage for smaller brands?
But now it's all we seem to be talking about. And I'm excited because I think it's going to be the great leveler for us. We've seen through the evolution of Google and the other traditional search engines that there have been brands that have done really well in those kind of environments and um bar disastrous algorithm update, they continue to do very well in those environments. But what we're seeing in the LLMs is actually that those same brands aren't necessarily performing as well in these other platforms. So it gives the chance to those smaller brands to actually start to get a bit more traction, a bit more visibility. So I personally am quite excited uh to see what the future holds, as long as my brands is one of the ones that's doing well, of course.
Naturally, naturally. I mean, one with that too. It's like I love hearing the optimism from it because it's like too many times you hear like the same narrative of a SEO's dying and whatever the industry's moving on. It's like you kind of hear that same narrative every so often. People complain about like changes to traffic, whatever else. But I feel like that's also the exciting part is that there is something new, there's some change. a new problem to solve. And to your point too, it's like we've seen over the last, I don't know, ten to five, ten years or so, like this like growing trend of more and more traffic going to like the larger brands. And so I also do see this as like an opportunity for companies that maybe can move quicker and commobilize faster in this new direction.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:47
2
What challenges do SMBs face in the new AI‑powered search landscape?
0:47–2:40
3
How is visual content becoming a competitive advantage for smaller brands?
2:40–5:15
4
What audience‑intent matching framework helps choose the right content format?
5:15–10:05
5
Why is a technical SEO audit the first step for an SMB’s 30‑day action plan?
10:05–12:38
6
How should SMBs evaluate and refresh existing written and visual content?
12:38–18:02
7
What role does consistency across listings, signage and LLMs play in brand trust?
18:02–22:57
8
How can SEO teams become a strategic hub across PR, UX, product and CRO?
22:57–32:58