Your SEO Isn’t Dead, It Just Learned To Talk – with Chris Donnely | S6 E03

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Recommendation-driven search is here, and it’s changing who gets discovered. We sit down with Chris Donnelly—serial entrepreneur and founder of Searchable—to unpack how large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity are becoming the first stop for product advice and purchase decisions. When a single prompt returns five personalized options, the brands that earn those spots win the moment of truth. The question is: how do you become one of them?

We walk through the practical playbook for showing up in conversational search. Chris explains why the shift isn’t the death of SEO but a re-centering on structure, context, and freshness. From llm.txt to robust product and article schema, from mapping micro-intents to deploying query fan-outs, you’ll learn how to make your site legible to AI crawlers and present across the exact scenarios customers ask about. We also explore how social signals—especially from LinkedIn and Reddit—now inform LLM answers, and why a thoughtful personal brand can supercharge testing, feedback, and distribution.

Chris shares the rapid build story behind Searchable, including community-led iteration and a data engine that aggregates thousands of annotated site changes to prioritize the actions most likely to boost visibility, clicks, and revenue. We cover platform nuances without getting lost in complexity, highlighting a time-efficient strategy that reaches the majority of demand while adapting to new features like ChatGPT’s shopping research. The takeaway is clear: AI won’t replace great marketers; it amplifies those who use it to research faster, write smarter, and ship with purpose.

Ready to earn a place in the answers that matter? Follow the show, share this with a teammate who needs a strategy refresh, and leave a quick review to help others find it. Your next customer might be one prompt away.

This episode was recorded through a Descript call on December 11, 2025. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/ai-search-is-reshaping-brand-discovery/

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