815 | What AI Search Actually Cares About (GEO & AI SEO 2026) | Chris Long

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🎯 AI search isn’t broken. It just doesn’t work the way most people think it does. 🎯

In this episode, we sit down with Chris Long — AI search researcher, co-founder of Nectiv, and one of the leading analysts studying how LLMs actually read, search, and cite the web — to unpack why traditional SEO playbooks are quietly failing in the age of AI.

This isn’t about better keywords. It’s not about ranking higher. And it’s definitely not about writing longer content.

If your team is:

• Ranking well in Google but not getting mentioned by AI

• Watching traffic decline while visibility feels unpredictable

• Confused by contradictory SEO advice around AI search

• Still treating AI like “Google with a chatbot interface”

This conversation will finally make AI search make sense.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why AI engines don’t read pages top-to-bottom like Google

• How AI uses context windows and “chunking” to extract answers

• Why most of your web page may be invisible to AI

• How one search can fan out into dozens of unseen queries

• Why keyword lists collapse in AI-driven search

• What AI engines actually look for when choosing sources

• Why tables, bullets, and structure outperform “great writing”

• How citations influence ChatGPT and AI Overviews

• Why traffic is becoming a vanity metric in a zero-click world

• What KPIs actually matter as we move toward 2026

• How to rethink SEO strategy for a world where AI is the reader

Key concepts in this episode:

AI search Behavior

Context windows and content chunking

Fan-out queries and query expansion

AI vs Google search mechanics

Zero-click search and declining CTR

Brand mentions vs traffic

AI citations and third-party influence

Content structure for LLMs

Search visibility in 2026

The future of SEO and GEO

CONNECT WITH CHRIS LONG

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-long-marketing/

🌐 https://nectivdigital.com/

CONNECT WITH VENDASTA:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendasta/

X: https://x.com/vendasta

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vendasta/

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