https://page2pod.com - How do brands improve AI visibility when the data behind search is getting harder to trust? Marcus Tober, SVP of Enterprise Solutions at Semrush and founder of Searchmetrics, joins Jon Clark and Joe DeVita to unpack what's breaking in search measurement and what still works.

Marcus's short answer on AI visibility: describe your business clearly and neutrally on your own site, using well-structured headlines and paragraphs that AI can lift as passages. He shares how a ~30-year category leader with top SEO visibility lagged in AI search until it added plain homepage copy about what it does. Its visibility jumped almost immediately. He also explains why he believes Google's num=100 removal and go-to redirects are really about AI agents. He estimates their request volume at 1,000x+ what SEO scrapers ever sent.

For Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) practitioners, the conversation also covers log files as a leading indicator for dark AI traffic, the impression inflation hitting Search Console, ChatGPT referral traffic doubling for many brands from August into October, and the first AI spam policy from Anthropic.

📡 In This Episode

• Why rank tracking got harder after num=100 and go-to redirects
• Are AI agents inflating Search Console impressions?
• Mirroring logged-out ChatGPT results, and why prompts aren't keywords
• Measuring AI search ROI as ChatGPT becomes a destination
• Log file analysis for AI user bots and dark traffic
• How should brands structure content for AI citations?
• Neutral language vs. superlatives as an AI trust signal

A rare inside look at search data from someone who has spent two decades collecting it.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the practitioners shaping SEO, AEO, and GEO → https://www.youtube.com/@thepage2podcast922?sub_confirmation=1
💬 Have you checked your log files for AI user bots yet? Tell us what you found in the comments.

Connect with Marcus Tober

✅ Marcus Tober on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcustober

✅ Marcus Tober on X → https://x.com/marcustober

✅ Marcus Tober's Personal Website → https://marcustober.com

Sponsored by Moving Traffic Media, a Full-Service AEO Agency → https://www.movingtrafficmedia.com

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Follow Jon Clark✅ Jon Clark on Twitter → https://x.com/jonlclark

✅ Jon Clark on Linkedin → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlclark

🛠️ Tools & Resources Mentioned

• Semrush (Core + Enterprise, AI Toolkit) → https://www.semrush.com
• Semrush Enterprise Query fan-out analysis → https://www.semrush.com/news/442193-query-fan-out-analysis-comes-to-semrush-enterprise-ai-optimization-revealing-the-search-signals-behind-ai-responses/
• Semrush Enterprise Log File Analysis → https://www.semrush.com/news/445236-semrush-enterprise-adds-log-file-analysis-to-site-intelligence-and-ai-optimization/
• Semrush Spotlight → https://lnkd.in/p/gUaAkXMq
• Nozzle's Poised SERP Report → https://nozzle.io/research/poisoned-google-serps/

https://page2pod.com - Affiliate marketing is turning into an AI visibility channel, and Adam Riemer argues most brands are paying the wrong partners for it.Adam Riemer, founder and CEO of Adam Riemer Marketing and a Search Engine Journal "Ask an SEO" columnist, has spent more than 20 years working where affiliate marketing and SEO overlap. His argument: AI answers are increasingly personalized to the individual user, so the source that shapes a recommendation is the author, creator, or community your specific buyer already trusts, not simply the biggest publication. Two people with the same age, income, and magazine subscriptions can still follow completely different writers.So how should brands pay for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) visibility through partners? Adam's short answer: if a partner reaches your audience and can drive revenue, pay a flat media fee plus commission, and never purge a dormant affiliate that AI assistants keep surfacing. Jon Clark and Joe DeVita also get into affiliate tracking without cookies, valuing YouTube versus TikTok creators, and where SEO and affiliate teams clash.🍷 In This Episode - Why audience-matched authors may matter more than big publications in personalized AI answers - How should you pay affiliates who influence AI answers but never send a click? - Server-side tracking, app conversions, and click-free podcast attribution - YouTube vs. TikTok creators: long-term content investment vs. short-term sales burst - Re-engaging dormant affiliates that LLMs keep citing - Affiliate subnetworks, brand-term bidding, and the program governance most brands skip - Do affiliate links count as backlinks?A practical look at where affiliate marketing, SEO, and AI search collide, from someone who works hands-on in all three.

💬 Has an affiliate or niche creator ever shown up for your brand in ChatGPT or AI Overviews? How did you find out? Tell us in the comments.

🔗 Adam Riemer on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-riemer-9623732/🔗 Adam Riemer Marketing → https://adamriemer.me🔗 Adam's "Ask an SEO" column on Search Engine Journal → https://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/adam-riemer/

####Sponsored by Moving Traffic Media, a full-service AEO agency → https://www.movingtrafficmedia.comFollow the Page 2 Podcast✅ Page 2 Podcast on Youtube → https://www.youtube.com/@thepage2podcast922✅ Page 2 Podcast on Linkedin → https://www.linkedin.com/company/page2podcast✅ Page 2 Podcast on Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/ThePage2Podcast/✅ Page 2 Podcast on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/page2pod✅ Page 2 Podcast on Tiktok → https://www.tiktok.com/@jonleeclark

✅ Page 2 Podcast on Reddit → https://www.reddit.com/r/page2podcast/Follow Jon Clark✅ Jon Clark on Twitter → https://x.com/jonlclark✅ Jon Clark on Linkedin → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlclark

🛠️ Tools & Resources Mentioned

- How Can Affiliate Managers And SEOs Stay Relevant In The AI Era? → https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ask-an-seo-3-actionable-ways-affiliate-managers-seos-can-keep-relevant/573607/

- Affiliate Links are Backlinks for SEO, But Bad Ones → https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-riemer-9623732_affiliatemarketing-seo-marketing-share-7132742387948228609-PQ1q/

- A 6-Step, Money-Making, AI Content Strategy for Affiliates → https://www.adamriemer.me/affiliate-marketing/a-6-step-money-making-ai-content-strategy-for-affiliates/

- Affiliate Marketing Has Evolved from Pay on Performance → https://www.adamriemer.me/affiliate-marketing/affiliate-marketing-evolved-pay-on-performance/

- Your Best Selling Product is Not Based on the Number of Sales → https://www.adamriemer.me/other/your-best-selling-product-is-not-based-on-the-number-of-sales/

https://page2pod.com - Agentic readiness starts with a business decision, not a code change: what should AI agents be able to access and do on your site?

Tory Gray, CEO of The Gray Dot Company, joins Jon Clark and Joe DeVita to explain why the technical side of agent readiness is the easy part. The standards exist; the hard part is imagining how people will actually use agents and choosing which actions to enable (purchasing, API workflows, account tasks) and which to block. She also warns against treating JavaScript as a wall: most AI bots don't render, but agents can render when a user pays for it, or simply take a screenshot.

Tory brings a product manager's lens to technical SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). She breaks down why pagination and infinite scroll still go wrong, the two-tier test for programmatic SEO, and how to build user-generated content systems so your site becomes the Reddit of your niche instead of just posting on it.

⚙️ In This Episode

- What should AI agents be allowed to do on your website?

- Can JavaScript keep AI crawlers out, and should you rely on it?

- Pagination and infinite scroll: engagement KPIs vs. conversion KPIs

- The two-tier programmatic SEO test: real user demand, then a moat

- Building UGC systems with automated indexing rules and human review

- Google's agentic guidance: accessibility tree, layout shift, and screenshots

- Title, canonical, and meta robots tags that move out of the head after rendering

A practical look at how websites are changing as agents become a third audience alongside people and search engines.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the practitioners shaping SEO, AEO, and GEO → https://www.youtube.com/@thepage2podcast922?sub_confirmation=1

💬 Has your team decided what AI agents should be allowed to do on your site, or is it still undecided? Tell us in the comments.

Connect with Tory Gray

✅ The Gray Dot Company → https://thegray.company

✅ Tory Gray on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/torygray/

####

Sponsored by Moving Traffic Media, a Full-Service → https://www.movingtrafficmedia.com

Follow the Page 2 Podcast

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Follow Jon Clark

✅ Jon Clark on Twitter → https://x.com/jonlclark

✅ Jon Clark on Linkedin → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlclark

🛠️ Tools & Resources Mentioned

- AI Difference Engine (Chrome extension) → https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/eabfgiogeabkaekjkeocambpbgnjmfkk

- Rendering Difference Engine (Chrome extension) → https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/rendering-difference-engi/dhcimplbimmmpjpiolnmdjdchnknmend

- The Gray Dot Company's user-generated content guide → https://thegray.company/blog/user-generated-content-seo

- Sitebulb Webinar: How to Build an AI Skill for Your SEO Workflow → https://sitebulb.com/resources/guides/webinar-how-to-build-an-ai-skill-for-your-seo-workflow/

- Pagination SEO Best Practices → https://thegray.company/blog/pagination-seo-guide