Mark Williams-Cook

I'm putting the finishing touches to one of the most detailed GEO vs SEO studies EVER. Firstly, I'm blown away by what I've learned. Secondly...ignore almost anyone saying GEO is just SEO. Not even close. As the current data stands right now, there is less than 20% cross over in the all important buyer intent search. Ranking is nearly irrelevant. Yes, you read this correctly, SEO is virtually irrelevant. Why? 4 factors. 1. LLMs are using such a wide variety of search queries, often long tail, that no site could be optimised for them. 2. LLMs are filtering sites out. Yes, even if by some chance you do rank, there is huge chance you'll be filtered out due to NOT displaying the required on-page information. 3. Lack of supportive evidence. Great, you made it to the end game...nah. Unless external evidence exists to support your positioning, you'll not be recommended. 4. Recommendations based on probability to solve the users problems not preferential treatment based on rankings. The last is big. And there's so much more going on. Now for the good news. There are countless real world tactics that can be applied to increase the likelihood you'll be recommended by AI. But... You are not going to find this easy. This requires higher level thinking. I still have some more data to collect before we can release the findings. However I'm super excited for the future of search. And I'm going to double down on the fact that AI kills SEO. You won't be SEOs You'll need to be organic search strategists. Our jobs are about to become more strategic. Our jobs are about to become more important. Our jobs are about to become more difficult. Bring it on.

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Fab to join the State of Play panel last night on the future of SEO Worried about how AI might affect SEO? Key things we're thinking about right now at eight&four: 1) AI hasn't and will not 'kill' Google The actual big story going on in Search isn't LLM stealing market share, it's expansion & fragmentation of search surfaces... Datos’ Q2 report showed YouTube has tripled YoY, Pinterest search doubled, Reddit search +30%. Meanwhile, LLM prompt growth is modest (and early evidence seems to indicate the more people use the LLM's, the MORE they then use Google...!) So - don't get too focused on AI panic, instead stand back and think about how to build distributed influence across as many search surfaces as possible.. this means SEO teams need to be partnering with social teams, PR teams, paid teams - breaking down these baked in digital siloes internally (it's why we integrated a PR & comms agency into eight&four this year - to drive that integrated thinking for our clients) 2) If an agency is trying to panic you, walk away ESPECIALLY if they're trying to sell you a "GEO Ranking dashboard" 🙄. As always with any AI hype, step back, think critically, trust your professional judgement. Replace GEO theatre with clear roadmaps to assist with LLM inclusion, adapt owned content entities to support answer generation (in LLM's, or new AI features being implemented in Google - AI mode, Overview etc.). And yes, take those traditional SEO techniques (technical, schema, IA) into Reddit, YouTube, TikTok! 3) This is a huge opportunity for "SEO" Any hype cycle brings one clear benefit to marketeers - ATTENTION. Use this window of attention SEO is currently getting to make powerful changes to the way your organisation values and prioritises world class content strategy. Reclaim that consultancy seat. Authoritatively push for more effective content investment. 2026? Let's break down silo'ed digital channels, and work effectively together to drive DISCOVERABILITY for our brands. One integrated team, different specialists, working together to show up for our customers, with the right information, in the right places. Fortune favours the brave - go get it!! 🔥🔥🔥 Big thanks to Jessica R. for the invite, and fellow panellists Andrew Fox Helen Pollitt Jessica Atkinson João Filipe Pereira Mark Evans for a great chat 🙏

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If your search provider doesn’t have access to your Google Search Console…what exactly are they optimizing? Too many consultants completely ignore technical SEO, and it’s one of the biggest reasons your site isn’t showing up in search results. They’ll talk about keywords, metadata, and blog content like it’s still 2018, meanwhile: - Key URLs are tagged “noindex” - Google is reporting “Discovered - not indexed” pages - Orphaned pages aren’t getting crawled - Sitemaps are missing or have errors Let me be clear: - If your pages can’t be crawled, they can’t be indexed. If they can’t be indexed, they don’t exist and can’t be seen by shoppers. Here’s a simple way to vet whether your SEO partner is actually doing the job: - Ask them: “How are you checking technical SEO issues if you don’t even have access to our Google Search Console?” They’re not looking at what Google sees if they're not inside GSC. And if they’re not looking at what Google sees, they’re just guessing. Good SEO is more than content; it’s accessibility, crawlability, and strategy. And that's more important now as AI Overviews become more of the SERP centerpiece. Foundations before fluff. Sean Stapleton Anissa Collins Gordon Jamie Stockman Peter Boesen Jr Guy Super Adam Bucci

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5 PPC Data Mistakes to Avoid (And yeah… #5 kind of changed everything for us) Let’s be honest... most PPC accounts don’t fail because of bad strategy. They fail because we’re making decisions off bad or delayed data. Here are 5 mistakes we’ve either made ourselves or cleaned up in client accounts: 👇 ❌ 1. Assuming ad data is real-time Spoiler: it’s not. Sales data can lag 12–48 hours, which means that “bad” ACoS you saw this morning? It might look a whole lot better by tomorrow. Be careful what you react to. ❌ 2. Using the same look-back window for every product If you’re selling high-ticket items or products with low conversion volume, a 7-day window is useless. You’ll get massive swings that don’t reflect true performance. We go 30-day rolling for stability. ❌ 3. Skipping short windows when speed matters Some brands spend fast. If you’re pushing hard on keywords or testing big budget shifts, you can’t wait 14–30 days. We check 2–3 day windows on high-velocity accounts to catch issues early. ❌ 4. Only looking at rolling windows and ignoring daily numbers Yes, rolling windows are great for trends — but if you’re not watching daily sales + ad spend, you’re missing real-time performance cues. Those two metrics tend to update faster than everything else. ❌ 5. Not using Amazon Marketing Stream This one changed the game for us. Marketing Stream gives you hourly data — so you can actually see what’s happening today, not two days from now. Clicks, conversions, impressions — all in near real-time. If you're not using it yet, you're leaving insight (and probably budget) on the table. If your PPC data loop is broken, your optimizations are basically guesswork. Fix the data. The rest gets easier. #AmazonAds #PPCStrategy #AdOptimization #EcommerceMarketing #MarketingStream #ElizabethGreeneStyle #MarketingTips

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SEO isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about sequencing. You can build 100 links, publish 50 blogs, or optimise every title tag… But if the fundamentals aren’t in place, growth will stall. SEO has never been one-size-fits-all. One single tactic alone doesn't maximise visibility. It's all about a compounding strategy, layers working together in the right order. Yes, there are common priorities across industries… but there’s no magic lever you pull once and watch rankings explode. Even the most experienced SEOs don't always get it right the first time, because it’s a process of testing, refining, and compounding. So if your marketing feels busy but not effective, the issue probably isn’t a lack of effort; it’s sequencing. The best agencies don’t just do more, they do what matters most, in the right order. That’s the difference between a trickle of progress and consistent growth.

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SEO works when you stop overcomplicating it. Here’s what drives results: ✅ A site that loads fast and works smoothly on any device ✅ Content that answers buyer questions better than anyone else ✅ Keywords tied to intent, not vanity phrases ✅ Consistently publishing and optimising every week That’s literally it. The problem is most companies treat SEO as a side project.  They put out short blogs, chase irrelevant keywords and expect overnight results.  Then they call SEO “dead.” It’s not dead. It’s just being done wrong. SEO doesn’t replace ads. Ads create demand today. But SEO makes sure you’re visible when buyers search tomorrow. If you ignore it, you’re invisible when it matters most. if you do it right, SEO becomes the channel that compounds for years.

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Signals, Tracking and Attribution... what’s the difference? 🤔 In B2B marketing, these three concepts are often used interchangeably. But they’re not the same, and understanding the difference is quite important. 👉 Signals: the raw interactions Signals are the traces buyers leave behind. A website visit, a webinar sign-up, a LinkedIn ad click, or an email open, all of these are signals. They show intent, interest, or activity. But on their own, they don’t tell anything besides something has happened. 👉 Tracking: how we pick up on those traces Tracking is how we capture and organize those signals. With the right setup (whether in HubSpot, Dreamdata, or another stack) we can tie signals to a person, an account, or an activity. Good tracking ensures we don’t just see isolated actions but a more connected journey. This is also when signals become much more interesting and why an increasingly amount of companies are investing in tech that can help sales & marketing pick up relevant signals from ICP fit prospects to hit more great timings and close more deals. 👉 Attribution: making sense of impact (and likely the most misunderstood and complex of the three) Attribution is about assigning credit to the right channels and activities. Did the webinar influence the deal? Was it the LinkedIn ad? Or the sales call? Attribution models help you answer these questions and decide where to invest more resources. Multi-touch attribution is one of the more popular ones and can allow you to attribute more accurately across many different sources, people and activities, and over a longer period of time. So, the next time this is a topic of discussion, make sure to divide the three as they are different from one another. Happy data hunting peeps 🤺 #CertifiedMarketingExpert #b2b #b2bmarketing #b2bsales #data

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