AI Search Optimization: How Much Has The SEO Job Changed?

About This Episode

AI search optimization is not SEO with a new label. One guest tracks keywords for Google and queries for LLMs, and treats them as separate practices entirely.

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with David Reske (Nowspeed) and Lizzie Lewington (Amstrad Digital) to discuss how much of the SEO job actually changed once LLMs entered the picture.

The panel explores a split worth arguing about. David treats GEO and SEO as separate practices, tracking keywords on one side and buyer questions on the other, with link building and entity authority pulling in different directions. Lizzie notes the industry is genuinely divided, with some calling them distinct disciplines and others calling them the same thing with tweaks, and says either way the reporting layer is what matters most.

They also discuss why keyword packages stopped working as retainers, why cookie cutter strategy is the clearest red flag, why SEO traffic is labor rather than free, David’s champagne taste on a beer budget problem, why stopping organic work hands ground to competitors, SEO as brand building rather than project work, and how a client can tell whether an agency is actually delivering value.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why GEO and SEO may be two different practices

– Why keyword packages stopped working as retainers

– Why strategy is the part AI cannot automate away

– Why SEO traffic is labor, not free

– Why cookie cutter strategy is the clearest red flag

– Why an SEO project is never one and done

– Why stopping organic work hands ground to competitors

– Why reporting is the layer that matters most

– The questions to ask before hiring an SEO agency

– When project work still makes sense over a retainer

Whether you’re an agency owner, SEO professional, marketer, or paying a retainer you are not sure about, this episode provides actionable insights into separating strategy from fulfillment, structuring the work, and judging whether your provider earns the fee.

Because the agency worth the retainer won’t be the one sending the tidiest report.

It will be the one that can tell you what it is trying to win.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & Meet the Guests

11:00 Which Industries AI Overviews Hit Hardest

12:48 Why Cookie Cutter Strategy Is the Biggest Red Flag

15:08 Why an SEO Project Is Never One and Done

19:56 Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget

20:12 Why SEO Traffic Is Not Free, It Is Labor

22:43 SEO as Brand Building, Not Project Work

27:55 Why GEO and SEO Are Different Practices

30:06 Why Reporting Is the Layer That Matters Most

32:28 Why Stopping Organic Work Hands Ground to Competitors

39:50 Why Fulfillment Got Easy and Strategy Got Valuable

Two agency leaders on what you are actually paying for.