Game plan for making sure your brand wins visibility across AI and agent search

Summary

Podcast Summary: Voices of Search

Episode: Game plan for making sure your brand wins visibility across AI and agent search
Date: November 8, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Killian Dunn (Telepathic)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Tyson Stockton speaks with Killian Dunn about strategic approaches brands can take to ensure they remain visible in an evolving search landscape—specifically as AI and agent-led search gain prominence. The conversation centers on practical frameworks, adapting to rapid changes in search, and broadening your SEO strategy beyond just your website.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SEO Hierarchy of Needs

• Framework: Killian compares building an SEO strategy to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—start with the fundamentals and climb up.

  • Audit Your Level: Assess where your organization is on the SEO pyramid before moving forward.
    • “First, we need air and food before we can think about personal fulfillment… First step will be to audit what layer you're at.” — Killian Dunn [00:59]
  • Tailored Content: Produce content and apply strategies suitable for your stage (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
    • “If you’re not getting indexed… don’t worry about any sort of having your content in a Q and A format. That's secondary.” — Killian Dunn [01:10]

• Best Practices:

  • Develop guides and playbooks for each stage of SEO maturity.
  • “We try and tailor it to those who are different needs. So guides based on those who are beginners versus intermediate versus really sophisticated SEO teams.” — Killian Dunn [01:54]

2. Don’t Skip the Fundamentals

• Sequential Progression: Emphasize mastering foundational tasks before chasing advanced tactics.
  • “Don’t go to level three before you’ve completed level one.” — Killian Dunn [02:28]

3. Expand Your SEO Strategy Beyond Your Own Website

• New SEO Landscape: Visibility isn’t limited to your domain; now, it’s also about broader web presence due to AI and agent-led search.
  • “My strategy within search is beyond the four walls of my own domain… you need to be thinking about all the other placements online.” — Killian Dunn [02:51]
  • “More so than in the past, a successful SEO strategy has to look beyond just your domain and into other placements online as well.” — Killian Dunn [03:17]

4. Emerging Importance of Social & Community Platforms

• Reddit as a Search Destination:
  • Visibility Fluctuations: Recent discussions on changes to Reddit’s ranking and its impact on search visibility, sparked by reported drops after Google’s algorithm updates.
    • “Reddish is now suddenly not ranked at all due to Google’s… change… most of the research has come from a single study that seems a little bit questionable… It's caused a huge backlash and a huge stock drop in Reddit…” — Killian Dunn [03:43]
  • Skepticism Over Panic: Be cautious about overreacting to single data points; thorough analysis is crucial.
    • “Everything's moving so quickly that a single… publication might swing huge markets.” — Killian Dunn [04:32]
• Platform Evaluation:
  • Brands should assess every channel’s value relative to their business.
    • “It’s more important than ever to assess each channel one by one, see which is valuable for your own use case…” — Killian Dunn [04:41]

5. Follow the Money & Structural Advantages

• Reddit’s Unique Value:
  • As a structured, data-rich community with intrinsic ranking signals (votes, comments), Reddit is a “perfect training ground” for AI and search engines.
    • “Knowing the size, partnerships, knowing just kind of how perfect of a training ground Reddit is with like the built-in voting, ranking element of it. That's certainly not something that I would be sleeping on or ignoring as well.” — Tyson Stockton [04:50]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On SEO Strategy:
  “The way to think about it is through an SEO or organic search hierarchy of needs… The first step will be to audit what layer you're at. And then the plan comes from how to move to a higher layer.”
  — Killian Dunn [00:59]

• On Expanding Beyond Your Site:
  “A successful SEO strategy has to look beyond just your domain and into other placements online as well.”
  — Killian Dunn [03:17]

• On Reacting to Algorithm Changes:
  “Everything’s moving so quickly that a single… study, a single publication might swing huge, huge kind of markets.”
  — Killian Dunn [04:32]

• On Reddit’s Strategic Importance:
  “Knowing just kind of how perfect of a training ground Reddit is with like the built-in voting, ranking element of it. That's certainly not something that I would be… ignoring as well.”
  — Tyson Stockton [04:50]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• SEO Hierarchy of Needs Framework — [00:49–02:28]
• Don’t Skip SEO Fundamentals — [02:28–02:41]
• Thinking Beyond Your Website (AI-Agent Search Visibility) — [02:41–03:29]
• Reddit’s Ranking & Value in Search — [03:29–04:50]
• Final Thoughts on Structured Community Platforms — [04:50–05:13]

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Takeaways

• Audit your SEO maturity and build upward—don’t skip foundational work.
• AI-era SEO requires diversified visibility: think beyond your website to channels and platforms where your audience (and search engines) are present.
• Be wary of industry panic based on limited data; validate major changes before making strategy shifts.
• Platforms like Reddit offer unique value for both visibility and AI training due to their structure and user engagement mechanisms.

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For more insights or to connect with Killian Dunn, check the episode’s show notes for links.

Transcript

[Tyson Stockton]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Tyson Stockton.

[Killian Dunn]

Final question is going to be a game plan. So hypothetical here you're the SEO director.

At a SaaS brand. What's your game plan to make sure that your brand wins visibility across AI and agent led search?

I think the way to think about it is through an SEO or organic search hierarchy of needs. Different companies will be at different levels on that graph. We think about Maslow's hierarchy first. We need air and food before we can think about personal fulfillment and so on. And so I think the first step will be to audit what layer you're at. And then the plan comes from how to move to a higher layer. So like if you're not getting, let's say you don't have any content at all or you're not even getting indexed and so on like that, then don't worry about any sort of having your content in a Q and A format. That's a secondary thing to just having something at the door. But similarly, even for really sophisticated brands like okay, hey, let's say you've narrowed down your page load speed to a really short time and you've optimized these pages well, then you figure out okay, hey, well what are the pages that have the highest leverage or where are the most most influential gaps? So I think the frameworks to think about where are you in that pyramid in that hierarchy and what's the steps required to go to the next level? But we're creating a lot of content in terms of best practices and so on. We try and tailor it to those who are different needs. So guides based on those who are beginners versus intermediate versus really sophisticated SEO teams. And so I think different approaches are needed for each. But. But we can share playbooks and guides and so on to help with that. Absolutely.

I mean to your point earlier, it's like don't go to level three before you've completed level one.

And so it's like you still have to follow that fundamental principles. Building upon it I think like the.

Additional piece that maybe I would throw into that, which just for myself, like.

My perspective has like broadened through some.

Of these changes, is to be thinking.

More about like my strategy within search is beyond the four walls of my own domain. And I think we're seeing more and more the need where it's not enough to have a perfectly optimized website, but you need to be thinking about like all the other placements online that you can also be present to have better momentum in some of these more AI led experiences. And I think more so than in the past, a successful SEO strategy has to look beyond just your domain and into other placements online as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Lots of different social channels and so on. One area in particular that we help with is like visibility in Reddish, which is of course an interesting area. I think there's been a lot of talk of that of late about, oh, hey, reddish is now suddenly not ranked at all due to Google's that kind of like n equals 10 change versus n equals 100. That's a very interesting area as well. What we found incidentally is that relative visibility is still actually strong. I think most of the research has come from a single study that seems a little bit questionable in terms of the results, but it's caused a huge backlash and a huge stock drop in Reddit and so on. And from a lot of research it seems like that's relatively unsubstantiated. And so it's really kind of interesting to see that people are kind of like actually hopping on the bandwagon, but like scrambling based on minimal information. And so previously, let's say with Google and so on, there'd be so many studies done and so much thorough research, but everything's moving so quickly that a single kind of like unit of information or a single study, a single publication might swing huge, huge kind of markets. And so, yeah, it's more important than ever to assess each channel one by one, see which is valuable for your own use case and try and learn from best practices. But also understand your own use case. Results may vary.

And I'm right there with you, like on the Reddit piece, like a lot of times in this I'm like, follow the money. And it's like knowing the size, partnerships, knowing just kind of how perfect of a training ground Reddit is with like the built in voting, ranking element of it. That's certainly not something that I would be kind of sleeping on or ignoring as well.

It's so structured.

Yeah, yeah, well, with that, that's going to wrap up this episode of the Voice of Search podcast. Thanks again to Killian Dunn from Telepathic for joining us. If you'd like to contact Killian, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in the show notes or go on over and check out his company's [e-mail] if you haven't subscribed yet and want a daily stream of SEO content marketing knowledge in your podcast, hit the subscribe button on your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed soon. So with that, that's all for today. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see.

You in the next episode.