SEO KPIs That Matter in the Age of AI Overviews

About This Episode

Is SEO traffic declining because SEO is dying or because AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and LLM-powered search are changing the rules?

Host Koa sits down with Carl Holden (Zealous Marketing), Jesse McFarland (Spear Point Marketing), and Edmond Shala (Tactical SEO) to break down how AI search, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and LLMs are reshaping SEO strategy, digital marketing KPIs, and brand authority.

If you’re an SEO professional, agency owner, digital marketer, or founder trying to understand how to measure SEO performance in 2026 and beyond, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

– Why total organic traffic is no longer the main SEO KPI
– The difference between informational vs transactional search intent
– How AI Overviews impact website clicks and conversions
– Why brand authority and trust signals matter more than ever
– The role of backlinks, mentions, and community engagement (including Reddit)
– AI-generated content vs human-led SEO strategy
– How LLMs choose which brands to cite
– Whether AI tools are replacing SEO teams (or not)

The panel also dives into real-world experiments with AI-generated websites, local SEO dominance, and how agencies are adapting workflows to align with AI-driven search engines.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction to the podcast

01:14 – Introduction to guests and the future of SEO

02:43 – Is SEO dying or evolving?

04:15 – Informational vs transactional search intent

07:10 – Educating clients when traffic drops

12:05 – Changing search behavior: Google vs ChatGPT

14:27 – Brand authority, backlinks & trust signals

17:02 – Is SEO “the dirty job” of marketing?

20:14 – Reddit, community signals & AI citations

23:50 – Why SEOs must deeply understand AI

30:07 – Can 95% AI-generated content rank?

33:12 – From 90% AI content to 50/50 human + AI

35:30 – Building AI-generated local websites

37:17 – Anchoring clients with brand authority

40:32 – Reverse-engineering what Google doesn’t rank

42:04 – Serving two customers: Google and the user

43:25 – Final Thoughts and Conclusion : Brand trust as the long-term SEO moat