How to Reverse-Engineer AI Search: The GEO Playbook with a Former Microsoft Copilot Engineer | Alp Aysan

How to Reverse-Engineer AI Search: The GEO Playbook with a Former Microsoft Copilot Engineer | Alp Aysan

Traditional SEO is changing. In the AI-driven search era, users aren't just clicking links anymore—they're asking conversational engines for synthesized answers. If your brand isn’t showing up directly in LLM citations, your business is effectively invisible. Mehmet Alp Aysan has the playbook to reverse-engineer generative engine optimization (GEO) and win the future of digital discovery. ✅ Win AI visibility — try Semrush free for 14 days: https://semrush.sjv.io/QY0DvY [https://semrush.sjv.io/QY0DvY] In this episode, George Vlasyev sits down with Mehmet Alp Aysan, Co-Founder of Cognizo and former Search Reliability Engineer for Microsoft Copilot. Alp breaks down how to track your brand's presence across language models, why the probabilistic nature of LLMs is a massive opportunity for smaller specialists, and how to build a cohesive narrative that AI agents actually trust. Key Topics Covered: * Inside Microsoft Copilot: What working on tech giant infrastructure teaches you about the hidden, ever-changing business metrics driving AI search algorithms. * The Failure of Programmatic Spam: Why flooding your website with thousands of low-quality AI blogs is unsustainable and will ultimately get your brand penalized. * Demystifying LLM "Temperature": A simple, clear breakdown of the probabilistic math behind why AI models roll the dice to pick different words and links. * Scaling AI Visibility 30x: The step-by-step methodology behind how Opel successfully dominated niche topics day-over-day using highly authoritative, original content. * Marketing to Agents, Not Humans: Preparing for a zero-click world where conversational assistants make the ultimate buying decisions for consumers. * Results as a Service (RaaS): Why the entire digital ecosystem is shifting away from traditional SaaS apps and into automated outcome delivery. Connect with Mehmet Alp Aysan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alp-aysan/ [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehmet-alp-aysan/&authuser=1] Website: https://www.cognizo.ai/ [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.cognito.ai/&authuser=1] Subscribe to Substack: https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/ [https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/] The GEO Blueprint Podcast explores how brands can win visibility in the age of generative AI, LLM-powered search, and shifting digital ecosystems. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:10 - GEO vs SEO — what's the difference and where do they overlap? 02:51 - 5.5 years building AI search at Microsoft — what that taught him 05:51 - The biggest myths about AI visibility he keeps hearing on LinkedIn 07:03 - What is original content in the age of AI? 10:14 - Opel grew AI visibility 30x — here's exactly what they did 11:54 - How does Cognizo actually track AI visibility? 18:09 - The biggest opportunity in marketing most companies are completely missing 19:54 - Can a small company compete against HubSpot in AI search? 23:04 - How will AI fundamentally change marketing in the next 3 years? 26:53 - SaaS is becoming RaaS — results as a service 31:14 - Brand has zero AI visibility — what's the very first step? 32:49 - 73% of LinkedIn citations come from long-form articles — not posts 34:13 - Why narrative and community are the foundation of AI visibility 35:37 - What actually happens when you type a question into AI search? 37:57 - How do you deal with the probabilistic nature of AI when tracking visibility? 40:18 - AI intimacy and what it means for brand marketing 42:38 - What does AI search look like in 2 years? 43:53 - What does "building a narrative" actually mean in practice? 45:09 - First party vs third party — what's the right ratio? 47:08 - Which AI engine are you betting on in 2026? 48:48 - Will there be one AI winner or will it stay scattered? 54:46 - How do you use AI in your own work? 56:37 - What is the one thing AI cannot do for a marketing team? 58:32 - Is AI making us lazier? 1:00:37 - What is uniquely human that AI will never replicate? 1:01:11 - Outro #GEO #AISearch #SEO #GenerativeEngineOptimization #Cognizo #AIFirst #LLM #DigitalMarketing #B2BSaaS #ArtificialIntelligence #SearchMarketing #GEOBlueprint #Entrepreneurship

AI Search 101: How to Train LLMs to Recommend Your Business | Vadi Efe

Ranking #1 on Google used to be the ultimate SEO milestone. In the AI-driven search era, users aren't even visiting traditional websites anymore—they're asking Gemini and Claude for the answers. ✅ Win AI visibility — try Semrush free for 14 days: https://semrush.sjv.io/QY0DvYIn this episode, George Vlasyev sits down with Vadi Efe, Founder of Busylike, an AI-first marketing agency brand activation company helping brands create digital media strategies, content production, and campaign execution. Vadi breaks down how to run systematic prompt tracking across language models, why "utility marketing" is the future of monetization inside ChatGPT, and how smaller specialist brands can outcompete massive budgets by capturing targeted niches.Key Topics Covered:Reverse-Engineering LLM Rankings: How to programmatically track hundreds of user prompts across models to figure out exactly when and where your brand is cited.The Architecture of Model Memory: The operational roadmap to establishing your brand as a foundational authority so AI models intuitively recommend you across millions of independent user conversations.The Death of the Traditional Keyword: Why the shift from four-word queries to 23-word natural conversations requires hyper-specific, in-depth content layers to capture high-converting intent.Winning with Limited Budgets: How smaller specialists can exploit hidden gaps in authority ecosystems to dominate niches before multi-million dollar corporate ad spending takes over.The Reality of Generative Content: Why regurgitating standard information fails over the long term, and how to orchestrate AI tools using proprietary expert data to scale unique output safely.The Dawn of Utility Marketing: Why future ad placements inside conversational AI interfaces must deliver active, precise utility to the user to maintain system trust and drive high ROI.Dominating High-Authority Domains: Maximizing visibility on core LLM training vectors like Reddit and YouTube through genuine human-to-human interaction, transcription alignment, and video optimization.The Ultimate Human Edge: The distinct creative elements, emotional dynamics, and real-world experiences that software architectures will never genuinely replicate.---Connect with Vadi Efe:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadiefe/Website: https://www.busylike.com/Subscribe to Substack: https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/The GEO Blueprint Podcast explores how brands can win visibility in the age of generative AI, LLM-powered search, and shifting digital ecosystems.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:04 - What does Busylike do?02:06 - How AI visibility, media strategy and creative production are connected?04:16 - Are AI visibility tools reliable or Fugazi?06:25 - How GEO changes brand discovery vs traditional SEO and paid media?10:16 - How can brands use AI insights to improve messaging and positioning?12:03 - Your brand isn't mentioned in AI at all — what do you do?14:11 - Big brands vs small specialists — who wins in AI search?16:21 - Is AI-generated content a viable long-term strategy?19:10 - Model memory — how to build AI authority in your niche20:46 - Will ads inside AI conversations be sustainable?24:52 - Reddit as an AI visibility strategy26:41 - What can AI never replace in creative production?27:40 - YouTube content strategy for brands in the AI age31:14 - Built and sold two companies — biggest lessons from exits33:13 - How will AI change humanity?36:40 - How will AI change education for our children?39:10 - Replace yourself with AI before someone else does40:00 - Best advice for a founder building an AI company right now41:33 - Agents — use cases and how they change how businesses run43:04 - Will there be one AI winner or will it stay scattered?44:37 - Local language AI — the Turkish token problem47:41 - What's your LLM of choice?49:48 - Voice search and ubiquitous computing53:01 - Outro#GEO #AISearch #SEO

How to Rank #1 on AI Search Engines: The Future of SEO | Arjun Mahadevan

Ranking #1 on Google used to be the ultimate SEO milestone. In the AI-driven search era, users aren't even visiting traditional websites anymore—they're asking Gemini and Claude for the answers. If your brand isn’t showing up directly in LLM citations, your business is effectively invisible. Arjun Mahadevan has the playbook to reverse engineer AI search engine optimization and win the future of digital discovery. ✅ Win AI visibility — try Semrush free for 14 days: https://semrush.sjv.io/E0R5rQ In this episode, George Vlasyev sits down with Arjun Mahadevan, Founder & CEO of Doola, a platform helping global founders form US companies, handle taxes, and manage bookkeeping. Arjun breaks down how Doola became the #1 recommended LLC platform on Google Gemini, the mechanics of Claude’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), and why marketing leaders need to prepare for a world where their primary customers are AI agents, not humans. * Reverse-Engineering LLM Rankings: How to track AI search citations across models to figure out exactly what content (Reddit, blogs, YouTube) is driving AI recommendations. * The Massive AI Attribution Disconnect: Why traditional tracking fails to capture the 25%+ of users who discover brands via LLMs before navigating via a direct, branded search. * Dominating a Hyper-Specific Niche: Why building a structural moat in a specialized category like "LLC for non-US residents" outperforms chasing broad, commoditized keywords. * The Model Context Protocol (MCP) Revolution: How universal plug-ins are turning websites from onboarding funnels into pure social proof surfaces as transactions move directly inside chat interfaces. * The Rise of Agentic Commerce: Preparing your business operations for a future where autonomously prompting AI agents buy software and execute business services instead of human users. * The "Google Maps" Cognitive Effect: The alarming research showing how outsourcing critical thinking to automated platforms shrinks human brain activity. * The "Write-Your-Take-First" Protocol: A tactical framework of writing down your thesis before prompting an AI to prevent models from simply mirroring back predictable pattern guesses. * Steven Bartlett’s Creative Moat: Why creative writing and swimming against the lazy AI tide will become the ultimate differentiator for future business leaders. * Earning the Right to Play: Overcoming the "dull, dreary grind" of early-stage operations and using strategic hiring to transition your daily work from a chore into a game. * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahadevanarjun/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahadevanarjun/] * Website: https://www.doola.com/ [https://www.doola.com/] Subscribe to Substack: https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/ [https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/] The Geo Blueprint Podcast explores how brands can win visibility in the age of generative AI, LLM-powered search, and shifting digital ecosystems. 00:00 - Intro 01:03 - Who is Arjun and how did he get his first customer via Twitter DM? 03:16 - Doola was #1 on Gemini this morning — how do you reverse engineer that? 07:48 - Why LLC for non-US residents instead of the broader LLC market? 09:41 - Should my friend from Netherlands even get a US LLC? 12:16 - Doola's MCP with Claude — where is the internet heading? 16:26 - Will your future customer be a human or an AI agent? 20:24 - What will be uniquely valuable about humans in the AI age? 24:18 - Be the one who replaces yourself with AI 26:11 - Write your take before you prompt 27:00 - Steven Bartlett on why creative writing becomes more important 29:40 - What should every new founder know before the fun parts? 32:25 - When work feels like play, you win 33:52 - Outro #GEO #AISearch #SEO #GenerativeEngineOptimization #Doola #ClaudeMCP #LLM #DigitalMarketing #B2BSaaS #ArtificialIntelligence #SearchMarketing #GEOBlueprint #Entrepreneurship

The Truth About AI Search: Ranking #1 on Google Means Nothing If You're Not Everywhere | Michael King

Ranking #1 on Google used to be the ultimate SEO milestone. In the AI-driven search era, it’s just table stakes. If your brand isn’t visible across the entire web ecosystem—from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Reddit and YouTube—you’re effectively invisible. Michael King has the playbook to fix it.✅ Win AI visibility — try Semrush free for 14 days: https://semrush.sjv.io/E0RBPeIn this episode, George Vlasyev sits down with Michael King, Founder & CEO of iPullRank and leading expert on technical SEO and Relevance Engineering. As one of the sharpest technical minds in search, Mike breaks down the breakdown of traditional rankings, the reality of Google's "AI Mode," and why winning generative visibility requires a radical shift toward an omni-media footprint.Key Topics Covered:The ranking-citation gap: Why top-ranking Google pages are missing from AI search summaries and why the traditional search playbook is failing.Retrieval vs. Ranking: How AI engines evaluate content through factual density and information extraction over classic domain authority.The Omni-Media framework: Why your brand must live on Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, and third-party review surfaces to survive the "click collapse."Decoding "AI Mode": Inside the mechanics of modern generative information retrieval and how it manipulates content on the other side.The Google API leaks reality check: Why public search guidance often conflicts with internal engineering documentation and what it reveals about algorithm signals.The Query Fan-Out method: How to uncover exactly how Google interprets entire topic clusters using advanced reasoning extraction tools.Entity-First strategy: Shifting your focus from rigid keyword optimization to structured entity relationships that AI datasets can cleanly crawl.Structuring for extraction: Why structured atomic content blocks and clean formatting beat long-form prose when AI models retrieve answers.The fallacy of "just create great content": Why surface-level writing fails the AI validation layer and what you should actually publish.Relevance Engineering:Transforming traditional SEO into an AI-driven discipline that focuses on contextual validation across the wider web.---Connect with Michael King:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkingphilly/Website: https://ipullrank.com/Subscribe to Substack: https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/The Geo Blueprint Podcast explores how brands can win visibility in the age of generative AI, LLM-powered search, and shifting digital ecosystems.---Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:48 - Is AI search fundamentally different from SEO?02:42 - Social consensus — why your message needs to be everywhere06:25 - Does a traditional SEO team even exist in 5 years?11:09 - Relevance engineering — not SEO. What does that mean?16:14 - Original content in AI search — the shoes cut in half18:19 - What will be the content moat? There won't be one.26:19 - What is chunking and why does it matter?28:50 - Page speed is an eligibility gate, not a ranking factor30:29 - AI is making us stupider — the research behind it32:57 - CMO advice — traffic is collapsing, here's what to do34:12 - Does Google rank still correlate with AI citations?35:40 - AI visibility tools — accuracy vs precision40:41 - The marketing engineer — what is this new role?41:48 - Vibe coding — he no longer writes code42:47 - Will there be one AI winner?46:53 - Black hat in AI search — there are no guidelines48:08 - Will creative writing come back in the AI age?52:16 - What's coming in the next 12 months?55:21 - AI, propaganda and the filter bubble56:30 - AI and education — the future of personalized learning58:42 - Outro#GEO #AISearch #SEO #GenerativeEngineOptimization #iPullRank #ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing #B2BSaaS #ArtificialIntelligence #SearchMarketing #GEOBlueprint

The Truth About AI Search: 58% Less Clicks But More Conversions? | Patrick Stox

AI search sends less traffic than traditional search, but the traffic it sends is highly qualified. Patrick Stox has the data to prove it.✅ Win AI visibility — try Semrush free for 14 days: https://semrush.sjv.io/xJro6kIn this episode, George Vlasyev sits down with Patrick Stox, Product Developer and Technical SEO Expert at Ahrefs, an industry-leading SEO platform that recently studied 75,000 brands to understand what drives visibility in ChatGPT. Patrick is one of the clearest and most grounded voices in the space on what actually works in the AI-driven search age, how to navigate the "click collapse," and what is quietly changing for brands that haven’t made the shift yet.Key Topics Covered:* The reality of the click collapse: Why AI search traffic is plummeting by over 50% but sending more qualified conversions * The freshness vs. relevance debate: Why pages with zero Google traffic are being cited thousands of times by AI * The breakdown of Google's "Web Guide": What it is, why it beats standard AI modes, and how it handles clickable links * Why attribution is "messy and difficult" right now — and the manual workarounds brands are using to track LLM impact * Personalization and memory: Why two people typing the exact same prompt will get 100% different results * The truth about AI agents in commerce: Will consumers actually trust AI assistants with their credit cards? * How Google is fighting back: The hiring of anti-scraping engineers and the blocking of traditional SEO rank tracking tools * Walled gardens and paywalls: Why established publishers are shifting toward data licensing and subscription models * Information Gain Framework: Why your content needs a mix of AI efficiency and unique human insights to be valued * How Ahrefs built 100 free AI writing tools to drive 20 million visits per month as a massive lead-gen funnel * The 30-minute CMO audit: Why marketing leaders need to "take a breath" amidst the AI bubble and focus on long-term strategy * Why SEO is transforming into GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and why brand reputation and product quality matter more than ever Connect with Patrick Stox:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstoxWebsite: https://ahrefs.comSubscribe to Substack: https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/ [https://georgevlasyev.substack.com/]The Geo Blueprint Podcast explores how brands can win visibility in the age of generative AI, LLM-powered search, and shifting digital ecosystems.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro00:56 - Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands — what actually drives AI visibility?02:53 - Click collapse — traffic plummeting but conversions aren't03:56 - Attribution in AI search — how do brands track the invisible?06:23 - Agents for commerce — are we actually ready?08:43 - What is the most important AI search metric right now?11:46 - What does the future of the web look like?12:34 - Web Guide vs AI Mode — which will win?15:15 - Google is blocking SEO tools past position 30 — here's why16:57 - Should publishers go behind paywalls to protect from AI crawlers?19:22 - Junior SEO jobs — should you change careers?20:39 - Is it SEO or GEO — and why does that distinction matter?24:11 - What is uniquely human in the age of AI?31:52 - Ahrefs built 100 free AI tools — 20 million visits per month32:54 - What jobs are actually safe from AI?36:45 - CMO advice for the next 6-12 months39:50 - Vibe coding — hundreds of apps built43:44 - AI generic content vs original — what should you actually publish?46:26 - Are we in an AI bubble?50:46 - Outro#GEO #AISearch #AEO #SEO #ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing #B2BSaaS #ArtificialIntelligence #SearchMarketing #GEOBlueprint #Ahrefs