Ross Hudgens sits down with Tom Critchlow, founder of AI Search Leaders (the evolution of his SEO MBA community), for a candid conversation about what GEO actually is in 2026 and why nobody has fully cracked it yet.
Tom makes the case that AI search measurement looks far more like brand measurement than classic SEO: less about prompt monitoring and keyword ranking, more about share of model, awareness, and how LLMs describe you (not just whether they cite you).
Along the way they dig into the "yes" stance SEOs need to take with executives, why brand, PR, and product teams, not SEO teams, tend to own the outcomes that move GEO, the real career risk facing SEOs, technical SEO in the age of model distillation, NavBoost and clicks as a trust signal, and the personalized, push-not-pull future of search.
Show Notes
0:00 – Why SEOs can't afford to be defensive
2:35 – How do you measure GEO?
6:24 – Measuring GEO like a brand
15:04 – Who really owns GEO?
23:26 – Technical SEO in the AI age
30:36 – Stop chasing tactics
37:09 – Selling GEO amid uncertainty
41:21 – NavBoost, clicks as trust
51:39 – Personalization, privacy and the future of search
Show Links
AI Search Leaders: https://www.searchleaders.ai/
Your Inbox Might be the Next AI Search Signal: https://ipullrank.com/google-personal-intelligence-experiment
Why Every AI Search Platform Is Now Agentic and What That Means for Your Content: https://ipullrank.com/agentic-rag
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