Voices of Search Podcast: "Blue Links Are Dead…Now What?"

Date: January 5, 2026
Host: Jordan Cooney
Guest: Josh Bliskell, Head of AI Strategy and Research at Profound

Episode Overview

This episode explores the seismic shift in search and discovery brought about by AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT. With traditional SEO—focused on blue links and Google SERPs—rapidly losing ground, enterprises and marketers must now embrace GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Host Jordan Cooney and guest Josh Bliskell unpack the frameworks, data, and tactical shifts needed to thrive as AI-driven interfaces dominate user journeys.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. AI Search & the End of Blue Links (00:43–02:21)

• AI Discovery Surge: ChatGPT visits nearly doubled to six billion year-over-year, signaling a fundamental change in the way users search.
  • “Your SEO strategies…are becoming less valuable while daily users never click through to your site.” – Jordan (00:43)
• Introduction to GEO: The transition from traditional SEO to GEO—where brands optimize for AI response visibility, not just ranking on Google—is no longer optional.

2. Context Over Content: A New SEO Mantra (02:59–05:27)

• From ‘Content is King’ to ‘Context is King’: AI answer engines require digestible, highly relevant, and timely context, not just static content.
  • “The content that wins is not necessarily the same content that traditionally ranks in SEO.” – Josh (02:59)
• Freshness Matters: AI engines heavily weight the most recent and factually updated information. Some product segments require monthly or even more frequent content updates.
• Volume and Competition: The more content in a sector, the more fiercely answer engines seek freshness and authority.

3. Sources That Shape AI Answers (06:39–09:06)

• Classes of Information: Wikipedia, Reddit, etc. are “classes” rather than favored domains; Wikipedia (peer-reviewed, factual), Reddit (UGC, opinions), etc., all supply different types of context.
  • “When ChatGPT increases Wikipedia citations, it’s not because they have some secret love affair with Wikipedia…they’re trying to index more heavily on peer-reviewed encyclopedic knowledge.” – Josh (07:24)
• Citation Trends: Wikipedia sits at around 7% of ChatGPT citations; Reddit at about 2-3% and declining.

4. Utility and the Changing Nature of Search (09:23–12:46)

• Generative Use Cases Dominate: Nearly half of AI prompt threads culminate in unprompted product recommendations.
  • “47% of these conversations actually feature unprompted product recommendations.” – Josh (11:47)
• Search as the Destination: Search interfaces (especially conversational AI) are not just a passage to information but the “room” where users engage, decide, and sometimes transact.
  • “Search was the hallway…It has moved from being this hallway where you pass through it to get to these rooms to being the room itself. Search is where things happen.” – Josh (10:26)

5. Fan Out Query: The Backbone of Modern Content Planning (12:46–19:12)

• What Is Fan Out Query? ChatGPT distills complex prompts into short, actionable search queries (“fan outs”) behind the scenes, indicating the real “search intent” and how content is selected for answers.
  • “You will put a 10 paragraph question into ChatGPT and ChatGPT is going to write three to five-word statements…That’s where we need to intersect our content.” – Josh (13:40)
• Personas and Content Simplification: LLMs may simplify or ignore extensive personalization—often yielding similar fan outs regardless of user details.
• How to Access Fan Out Data:
  • Directly view network logs in browser tools when using ChatGPT, or use platforms (like Profound) to aggregate and structure this data.
  • “It’s in the network logs…You can literally see the fan outs there.” – Josh (17:34)

6. Prompt Volume vs. Search Volume in the AI Era (23:56–27:15)

• Prompt Volume Is the New Keyword Volume: But less transparent and more fragmented across AI platforms.
  • “There’s a multi billion dollar startup sitting out there just to solve this attribution problem…” – Josh (23:10)
• Challenges: No Google AdWords-style data sharing; need to triangulate with third-party panels and extensive user opt-ins.
• Regional and Multilingual Complexities: LLMs might translate queries before processing and may cite English-language sources for non-English prompts.

7. Personalization & The Limits of AI Contextualization (31:39–35:46)

• Prompt Modifiers and Nonlinear Journeys: User choices and preferences (e.g., “I don't want New Balance shoes”) can shift the narrative, but fan out often shows where the conversation actually goes.
  • “Wouldn't you want to know if people say ‘I have an iPhone 16 and want to switch’—what gets cited?” – Josh (33:03)

8. Breaking Down Marketing Silos for AI Visibility (35:46–40:18)

• AI makes every digital touchpoint visible: PR, social, community, affiliate, and paid all influence how brands are cited in answer engines.
  • “Every surface that your brand inhabits now online now trickles down to the end goal of visibility whether or not you want it to.” – Josh (36:35)
• Consensus Building Across Teams: Horizontal, cross-functional collaboration is now vital.
• Listicles & Fresh Context Win: Especially for instant answers; fresh press and product releases help AI “do the analysis” it needs to cite your brand.

9. Practical Advice for Marketers & Brands (40:30–43:38)

• Experiment Relentlessly: Test how AI engines access your site, update content formats, and measure changes in citations and response inclusion.
  • “It’s got to be content, content, content initially…start doing content experiments, start looking at your network logs…” – Josh (41:09)
• Legacy SEO Practices Evolve: Schema and structured data still matter, but must be adapted for answer engine optimization (AEO), not just Google.

10. Profound’s Role in the AI Discovery Stack (43:38–49:26)

• Dual Platform Approach: C-Suite gets simple, high-level insights; “nerd view” offers granular fan out, prompt, and citation data.
• Tactical Orchestration: Custom workflows, action plans, and content briefs based on real fan out and prompt data.
  • “The only outcome right now is whether or not the bot clicks are being driven directly to you.” – Josh (45:15)
• Early Mover Advantage: Strategies aren’t yet saturated; what works now (e.g., listicles) won’t work forever.

11. Personal Journey: Josh’s Path to AI Search (49:26–54:30)

• Unexpected Evolution: Started in advertising, transitioned to SEO and data analytics at HubSpot, then plunged into AI search as ChatGPT upended the field.
  • “The most fun thing you can do in your life is make discoveries, in my opinion. I dislike helping enable other people’s frameworks. I really, I go towards the question marks.” – Josh (50:20)

12. Agentic Commerce: The Future of Shopping (54:33–60:20)

• Move from Scraping to Integration: Scraping e-com pages will give way to direct API feed connections between brands and AI engines. Inventory, pricing, and descriptions will be delivered programmatically.
  • “In the future, ChatGPT is going to go...it’s going to hit Macy’s back end...This is the future of commerce. It is going to be database driven, it’s going to be feed driven...” – Josh (55:59)
• Implications for Small Business: Even a 3-person plumbing business can think in product ‘feed’ terms, prepping to have their services represented as structured data.
• Technical vs. Non-Technical Transactions: Users may adopt agentic shopping for low-stakes, routine purchases faster than for high-ticket, technical items.

13. Winning Seasonal and Event-Driven Commerce (59:34–62:05)

• Data and Feeds Dominate: But creativity and distinct positioning (especially for events like Black Friday or Valentine’s Day) will help brands stand out in LLM-powered recommendations.
• FAQ Content is Clutch: AI answer engines overwhelmingly prefer product pages with robust FAQs (top performers 8x more likely to have FAQs).
  • “FAQ content was 848% more prevalent in our top performing set.” – Josh (60:20)
• Align with AI’s Needs: Marketers must think about how to make their content helpful for OpenAI and similar models—anticipate what the model wants to deliver best answers, not just rank on Google.
  • “If I’m OpenAI, do I look at that piece of content and say, oh my goodness, I wish everyone created pieces of content like this?” – Josh (61:00)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “We’ve gone from ‘content is king’ to ‘context is king.’ Right? And somewhere in there is probably the intent…behind what the user’s looking for.” – Jordan (03:48)
• “Search is where things happen. Search is the party. I don’t need to go find the party. I’m in the party. I’m on chatgpt.com.” – Josh (10:26)
• “The fan outs are the core. Everything else exists in service of the fan out.” – Josh (27:15)
• “Every surface that your brand inhabits now online now trickles down to the end goal of visibility whether or not you want it to.” – Josh (36:35)
• “You want to be in lockstep with OpenAI…That’s the mandate. How can we align ourselves?” – Josh (61:00)

Suggested Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro & Current State of AI Search: 00:43 – 02:21
• From Content to Context: 02:59 – 05:27
• Source Diversity & AI Citation Patterns: 06:39 – 09:06
• Changing Search Utility & Unprompted Recommendations: 09:23 – 12:46
• Fan Out Query Explainer & Tactics: 12:46 – 19:12
• Prompt Volume, Attribution, and Data Fragmentation: 23:56 – 27:15
• Personalization Challenges in AI Search: 31:39 – 35:46
• Collaborative Marketing & AI: 35:46 – 40:18
• Practical Marketer Advice: 40:30 – 43:38
• Profound’s Tool Suite & Approach: 43:38 – 49:26
• Josh’s Personal Story: 49:26 – 54:30
• Agentic Commerce & Future of Shopping: 54:33 – 60:20
• Winning with Data, Feeds, and Creative Context: 59:34 – 62:05

Tone and Takeaways

Conversational, energizing, and data-rich, this episode guides SEO professionals and digital marketers through the urgent transition from blue-link thinking to GEO and answer engine optimization. The path ahead demands not only technical adaptation, but a wholesale reimagining of content, context, and cross-team collaboration.

If you haven’t listened, this summary gives you a complete, actionable roadmap for modern AI search—the tools you’ll need, the strategies that win, and the mindset shifts required to stay visible as blue links fade into history.