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Eric opens with Eli Schwartz’s viral take that the AEO panic is the best thing to happen to SEO budgets in years, and he and Neil unpack why every CMO is suddenly fighting over who owns answer engine optimization. They dig into why brands keep asking to just buy a tool like Profound, why publishing AI listicles is the new keyword stuffing, and how ChatGPT actually only crawls your own site a fraction of the time. Neil shares real agency data on the gap between SEO and GEO budgets that surprises even Eric, then they test which agencies the LLMs actually cite, from Seer and Wil Reynolds to iPullRank. They land on why brand, an omni-channel presence, and a human in the loop still decide who wins. The panic is real, but the money is not moving where you think.

Key takeaways
◾AEO and SEO are far more tightly linked than the panic suggests
◾LLMs weigh what the whole web says about you, not just your own site
◾Buying a tracking tool is not a strategy when everyone can buy it too

Chapters
00:00 The AEO panic explained
01:04 When SEO lived inside product
01:55 Why SEO budgets aren’t shifting yet
02:50 What the panic really is
03:37 Losing pitches without technical SEO
04:15 “Can’t we just buy a tool?”
04:49 Why publishing listicles fails
06:26 Software and services converge
07:22 Query fanouts and getting cited everywhere
09:22 SEO vs GEO budgets: 11x apart
11:12 Testing the agency queries
12:42 Profound pivots to done-for-you
13:44 Is the data really cleaner?

𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟
Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer.

🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts
Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial
Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

📩 Free Resources
Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/
Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/

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