AI SEO Crash Course: Search Is Going to Answer Engines, You Need a Plan

Listen to this episode from In the Pit with Cody Schneider | Marketing | Growth | Startups on Spotify. In this episode, I chat with James Cadwallader, co-founder of Profound, about the rise of AI search engines and their impact on traditional search methods. We discuss how tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are changing user behavior and referral traffic patterns. James shares insights on which companies benefit most from this trend and offers strategies for enhancing brand visibility in AI search results. We explore the importance of tracking bot traffic, creating targeted content, and optimizing metadata to align with AI models' preferences, highlighting the need for brands to adapt to this new digital landscape.🎧 What You’ll LearnAI Answer Engine DynamicsDistinction between AI chat (LLM-only) and AI answer engines (LLM + web retrieval)Key inflection points like ChatGPT’s web-search launch (Oct 2024)Who Benefits MostIndustries with long research cycles (auto, healthcare, consumer electronics)Tech-savvy early adopters and B2B SaaS customers seeing 3–4× month-over-month growthMeasuring AI ImpactTracking bot-to-human conversions via crawler logs + GA4 or AmplitudeUnderstanding AI referrals as a first touch in your marketing funnelTactical SEO LeversComparative “X vs. Y” articles with optimized metadataCategory-specific source mining (Wikipedia, Reddit, publications)Creating simple, highly structured (markdown-style) content for fast crawler reasoningEmerging Best PracticesImplementing llms.txt and bot-first content feedsBuilding a dedicated AI visibility team—your next marketing department⏱️ Timestamps00:00 – Intro: The AI search revolution01:00 – AI chat vs. AI answer engines explained03:00 – Case study: ChatGPT mobile growth spike05:00 – Which verticals see the biggest AI referral lift07:00 – Bot crawling: measuring crawler visits + human actions10:15 – How Profound uses synthetic data to map AI sourcing14:30 – Tactical content strategies: from comparative posts to digital PR18:45 – The future of AI SEO: protocols, agents, and team structures22:10 – Action steps: What founders & marketers must do now🎙️ Guest ProfileJames Cadwallader Co-founder of Profound, the “Ahrefs/SEMrush for AI answer engine visibility.” James leads R&D on mapping how LLMs retrieve and cite web content, helping enterprise brands optimize for this rapidly growing channel.🔗 Resources & LinksProfound (AI Answer Engine Visibility Platform) https://www.tryprofound.com/James Cadwallader on X https://x.com/thejamescad/Sponsor: Talent Fiber Hire offshore engineering talent at one-third the cost of U.S. equivalents: https://talentfiber.com