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Should you skip SEO and go straight to AI search? In 2026, the short answer is no—and the longer answer reveals why SEO is actually doing more work than ever, just quietly underneath every AI-generated answer.

In this UPDATE to one of Found in AI's most downloaded episodes, Cassie revisits the SEO, AEO, and GEO conversation she had with Ioana Wilkinson back in August—and unpacks what's changed in the eight months since. From Bing's new AI Performance dashboard to Yahoo Scout's quiet launch on Bing's grounding API, the AI search ecosystem now runs on infrastructure that rewards SEO fundamentals more than ever.

The episode walks through the FSA Framework—Freshness, Structure, and Authority—as a practical system for showing up in AI-generated answers, and closes the loop on a real-world experiment updating a HubSpot bio to shift how LLMs describe a brand.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why SEO is the foundation every AI engine retrieves from
• Which AI answer engines actually run on Bing's index (it's more than you think)
• What Yahoo Scout is and why marketers should pay attention
• How AEO and GEO fit together as layers on top of SEO
• The FSA Framework: Freshness, Structure, and Authority explained
• Results from a real experiment using off-site authority signals to change how LLMs describe a brand
• What to fix first when AI engines describe your brand wrong (hint: it's almost never your website)

If you've been wondering whether SEO still matters in an AI-first world, or where to start with AI search optimization, this episode connects the dots and gives you a clear next step.

Resources:

Should You Skip SEO and Go Straight to AEO for AI Search (OG)

What's the Difference Between SEO, AEO, and GEO in AI Search? (OG)

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Fractional Content Strategist
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

Download Freshness, Structure, Authority: The Framework for AI Search Visibility:

Amazon

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening a limited number of specialized audit slots to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Send us Fan Mail

📬 Love the podcast? You’ll love the newsletter.
Get the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: Subscribe

Google released Gemma 4 this week, and while the tech press is treating it as a developer story, Cassie argues it's actually one of the most important content strategy stories of the year. Open-weight models mean companies can download a frozen snapshot of Google's AI and deploy it into internal chatbots, customer support tools, and vertical search products that run for years — each one carrying a frozen version of how the model understood your brand on training day.

Cassie also unpacks a double whammy hitting Google Search Console right now: a long-running impression-logging bug dating back to May 2025 that's finally being corrected, and the March 2026 core update, which completed its 12-day rollout the morning of this recording. Together, those two events — plus the recent spam update — are about to make your data look weird for reasons that have nothing to do with your content strategy. The episode wraps with quick hits on Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview and Project Glasswing, plus Microsoft's viral Copilot Terms of Service moment.

In This Episode:

• Why Gemma 4 is a content strategy story, not a developer story, and what "open-weight" actually means for how AI tools get built on top of Google's models
• How every open-weight model release creates a frozen snapshot of the internet that gets deployed into internal chatbots and enterprise tools for years after training ends
• Why enterprise software upgrade cycles mean a Gemma-powered chatbot built next month could still be shaping buyer perception of your brand in 2028
• Why Google Search Console has been over-reporting impression counts since May 2025, and what to do when your numbers drop over the next few weeks
• How to interpret Search Console data when three Google updates — the spam update, the March 2026 core update, and the impression bug fix — all hit in the same window
• Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview and Project Glasswing: a quick look at the model Anthropic decided not to release
• Microsoft's "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only" ToS moment and what it says about building long-term strategy around any single engine

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Fractional Content Strategist
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

Download Freshness, Structure, Authority: The Framework for AI Search Visibility:

Amazon

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening a limited number of specialized audit slots to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Send us Fan Mail

📬 Love the podcast? You’ll love the newsletter.
Get the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: Subscribe

If you've been wondering how to actually get AI engines to start citing your brand, this episode is for you.

Cassie sits down with Paul Rowe, founder and Chief Generative Engine Officer at NeuralabX, who has been heads-down researching generative engine optimization since the Princeton GEO study was published in June 2024. Paul brings a rare combination of original research, live citation testing, and a refreshingly clear point of view on what's actually working inside ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode right now.

Spoiler: the brands getting cited aren't winning because they nailed traditional SEO. They're winning because they understand something most marketers haven't caught onto yet.

In this episode, Cassie and Paul cover:

• What knowledge graph enrichment actually means in a GEO context (and how it's different from the SEO definition you already know)
• How Paul is running live screen-recorded citation tests across four AI engines—and why that kind of original content is catnip for AI engines
• The AI citation benchmark study Paul is running on his top competitors, and what the data is showing
• Why service-based businesses have a built-in GEO advantage through case studies
• The recency stat from Profound that should change how you think about content updates (spoiler: 56% of citations come from sources updated within the last month)
• What "updating a post" actually means, and why changing the date doesn't count
• Why the "SEO is GEO" narrative Google keeps pushing is only about half true

Resources:

Princeton's GEO study

What is the FSA Framework?

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Fractional Content Strategist
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

Download Freshness, Structure, Authority: The Framework for AI Search Visibility:

Amazon

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening a limited number of specialized audit slots to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/