Strategy for managing stakeholders with the shifts in the search industry

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
Episode: Strategy for Managing Stakeholders with the Shifts in the Search Industry
Date: October 18, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest(s): AJ Girgic (Bodify), Sam

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Main Theme & Episode Purpose

This episode dives into strategic approaches for managing internal stakeholders as the search industry rapidly changes, especially with the rise of AI and large language models (LLMs). The conversation offers actionable advice for SEO leaders working in large organizations, focusing on how to position SEO and content teams as proactive, adaptive, and indispensable amid technological disruption.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Navigating Technological Shifts: The Role of "Grounding" in SEO

• AJ Girgic explains the concept of "grounding" with LLMs:
  • LLMs are effective only when provided with proper context, or "grounding."
  • Many e-commerce and traditional search queries require grounding to accurately serve user intent.
• Strategic Implication for Retail Brands:
  • Estimate what percentage of your queries need grounding (most will).
  • Focus on ensuring your content is the context LLMs use—i.e., prioritize indexing and ranking in traditional search, as this data powers AI-driven results.

"There's a concept with LLMs called grounding, and if you're not familiar with it, it's fancy way of saying that LLMs kind of suck if they don't have a lot of context and they need grounding or context to make good decisions." – AJ Girgic, (01:01)

2. The Changing Nature of Search: AI as the "Customer"

• Next Generation of Search:
  • AI/agents act on behalf of users, performing "query fan out" (anticipating and searching multiple intent-based queries).
  • The critical moment becomes when the agent retrieves information—brands need to be indexed and ranked to be seen.
• Practical SEO Focus:
  • Don't get distracted chasing rankings for their own sake; instead, optimize for crawlability, rendering, and indexing—these remain foundational, even as user interfaces change.

"AI is your customer. AI is going to do the querying for her. AI is going to pull the Google result. AI is going to do the summarization and then pass back to her recommendations. So you win or lose at that moment of was I visible? Was I indexed? Did I rank?" – AJ Girgic, (02:47)

3. Managing Stakeholder Expectations Amid Change

• Be Proactive and Transparent:
  • Educate internal stakeholders about the nature of these shifts and the team's approach.
  • Reassure leadership that the fundamentals remain unchanged, despite new technologies and buzzwords.
  • Emphasize "the game's still the same" to build confidence and avoid a panic mindset.

"There’s an awareness and an understanding. You have elements of education, you have elements of also just establishing that reassurance that, one, you and your team's ahead of this, and two, the game's still the same... it's not a sense of, hey, let's panic." – Sam, (04:16)

4. Recommendations for SEO Leaders

• Focus on queries that require grounding/context—these are likely the most valuable and susceptible to AI-driven changes.
• Ensure technical SEO basics remain robust (crawling, rendering, indexing).
• Align SEO strategy with evolving search paradigms but stay rooted in repeatable fundamentals for consistent performance.
• Foster open communication and education with internal stakeholders to maintain trust during periods of change.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On LLMs and context:
  "LLMs kind of suck if they don't have a lot of context and they need grounding or context to make good decisions." – AJ Girgic, (01:04)
• On AI search dynamics:
  "The critical moment becomes when the agent retrieves information—brands need to be indexed and ranked to be seen." – AJ Girgic, (02:47)
• On leadership and expectation-setting:
  "You have elements of education, you have elements of also just establishing that reassurance that...the game's still the same." – Sam, (04:16)

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:43 | Introduction to scenario: managing stakeholders as SEO Director | | 01:01 | AJ explains "grounding" in LLMs and its SEO implications | | 02:47 | How AI/agents alter search, and why indexing still matters | | 04:16 | Discussion on proactive stakeholder management and communication |

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Conclusion

This episode underscores the critical need for SEO leaders to double down on foundational practices (crawling, indexing, ranking), especially as AI-driven search becomes more prevalent. By understanding where context is essential, focusing on being visible to both search engines and AI agents, and maintaining open, confidence-building communication with stakeholders, organizations can weather ongoing industry disruption without losing their competitive edge.

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.

[Sam]

Now, final question is going to be game plan. So for this one, scenario based you're the SEO Director at a major retail brand. What's your strategy for managing stakeholders within the organization to combat the shifts in the search industry?

[AJ Girgic Bodify]

So I'll go a little more like technical on this answer just to give you our tactical on this answer, since I've given you several macro answers. There's a concept with LLMs called grounding, and if you're not familiar with it, it's fancy way of saying that LLMs kind of suck if they don't have a lot of context and they need grounding or context to make good decisions. So typically when I'm talking with a brand, I might say something like as a first pass, let's see how much of your traditional traffic would require grounding. Or the LLM could just answer, so like when was George Washington? What's George Washington's birthday? Like that doesn't need grounding and like it knows the answer, right? Two plus two usually knows the answer. So how many peas and pineapples? It tends to mess that up. But in general it's what requires grounding and what what doesn't. Usually what we find is about 90% or more of an E commerce retailer. You know, insert here the traditional searches and the conversational searches require grounding and so they need additional context. That context comes through. Wait for it. Traditional search. So the agent, the fancy agent, what does it do? The agent does a query fan out. Query fan out is just it guessing the next 20 questions you might have and googling them or binging them. Right? And so what's interesting about this from a strategy standpoint is until there, you know, obviously are probably orders of magnitude leaps ahead. Even if, let's say, even if ChatGPT makes its own index and they don't even it's still an index, it's still crawl, render index, right? Then rank and convert. And like SEOs, we get way caught up on the right side of that graph. And we're like, where are my rankings? How do they convert? Back in the day, you're thinking about crawl, render, index so that you can rank. And that's where I would be focusing. And again, I like the win wins because that gives me a win for the traditional and I can hold onto my traditional traffic. Why? Because I'm focusing on things that help me get indexed and rank well, that's the same thing again. AI is your customer. AI is going to do the querying for her. AI is going to pull the Google result. AI is going to do the summarization and then pass back to her recommendations. So you win or lose at that moment of was I visible? Was I indexed? Did I rank?

[Sam]

And.

[AJ Girgic Bodify]

And so if you focus on some of those traditional things right now, you'll win in both areas. So grounded search and understanding, what of my queries, what of my intents require grounding? You'll probably find it's a lot of them. And then as soon as you know that, you know that your entire game is won or lost at live retrieval when that agent or tool calls a search query. So the whole game is winning or winning or lost at live retrieval.

[Sam]

And such good advice. And I think, dude, you could probably take multiple points in this conversation and use that for how should I be managing these expectations? And I think one of the things that we hit on earlier too is be early, be vocal. There's an awareness and an understanding. You have elements of education, you have elements of also just establishing that reassurance that, one, you and your team's ahead of this, and two, the game's still the same. Like we've said, we're throwing different labels on, we're prioritizing differently, but it's not a sense of, hey, let's panic. Yep, it's a state of change, but it's something that we've become accustomed to at this point.

[AJ Girgic Bodify]

Totally agree.

[Sam]

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