Search with Candour

John Morabito is the founder of Winston Digital Marketing and SVP of Search Innovation at Stellar Rising.Expect to learn how to automate SEO work using AI, including Claude skills, connectors, and multi-agent workflows. John shares experiments where agents create and publish content from call transcripts and other inputs, driving major traffic growth and increased leads, while stressing the need for human oversight throughout.00:00 Can AI run an SEO agency?01:27 Introduction03:38 Welcome, John Morabito04:43 Claude Skills Origins06:55 The Winston testing lab08:49 Agentic blog post creation11:02 How traffic leads to results15:05 From content to revenue18:02 Keeping humans at the centre18:40 Agency automation ideas23:09 How to align deliverables27:16 Maintaining guardrails for AI31:45 Local search reality check33:47 Use regulations when building AI skills35:15 Why agencies still matter38:10 Inside the content pipeline41:06 Interview your clients to get expertise43:59 Skills vs workflows46:22 Recommendation: Actionable tip48:22 Recommendation: SEO tool50:58 Recommendation: Something fun53:35 Where to follow John54:32 Episode wrap-upFollow John:Website: https://www.winstondigitalmarketing.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-morabito-29459655/The new rules of search: https://www.winstondigitalmarketing.com/whitepapers/the-new-rules-of-search/

Nathan Gotch joins Search with Candour to discuss the state of AI search in 2026.Topics include:how the demand for GEO and AI search optimisation has grown recentlyhow much traditional SEO rankings and AI search citations crossoverthe fragmentation of search across different AI search enginesFollow Nathan:Get Nathan’s book ‘AI SEO for dummies’: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AI-SEO-Dummies-Nathan-Gotch/dp/1394418981The Rankability study: https://www.rankability.com/blog/ai-search-statistics/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathangotchChapters00:00 The state of AI search01:48 Introduction03:34 Welcome, Nathan Gotch05:55 Study methodology07:57 ChatGPT citations don’t match the SERPs12:03 one category marketing playbook15:17 UGC and agent-led outreach19:48 The demand shift24:13 How to sell AI SEO to clients28:11 Is SEO still SEO?28:46 Do backlinks still matter?30:00 Why AI needs more than traditional search32:17 Authority and inventory gaps37:18 AI vs Google quality filters39:23 Taking the kitchen sink approach41:59 Do title tags still matter?46:21 Reviews as a top priority49:08 Recommendations53:18 Wrap up

This live podcast event brings together The SEO Mindset and Search with Candour podcasts at Komedia in Brighton.The trio of hosts explore mixed feelings about hustle culture, its long-term harm, burnout and disconnection and redefining success beyond productivity.They also share practical steps for career longevity: intentional planning, setting boundaries, routines, self-reflection, and listening to your body to know when hard work is worth it and when to rest.Sponsored by SISTRIX: https://www.sistrix.com/Sponsored by Majestic: https://majestic.com/Follow The SEO Mindset podcast: https://theseomindset.co.uk/Chapters00:00 Live show kickoff00:34 Meet the hosts04:08 Sponsored by SISTRIX and Majestic10:29 What is hustle culture?16:28 Pressure and burnout23:59 Redefining success27:49 Career longevity goals32:10 Intentional career choices34:13 Burnout to better fit38:21 Freelance flexibility tradeoffs40:40 Routines and boundaries47:10 Journaling and self-insight48:34 Finding your ikigai50:17 Enjoy your hobbies without pressure53:39 Start small and learn55:27 Key takeaways wrap up59:48 Where to find us

Welcome to season 5 of Search with Candour!Jack sits down with SEO veteran Charlie Whitworth to discuss whether SEO and “GEO” are essentially the same and which traditional SEO strategies still work for AI search.Follow CharlieWhitworth SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/HIVE MCR: https://hive-mcr.co.uk/AIR SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/air-seo-ai-ready-seo-campaigns/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-authentic-seo/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whitworthseo.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/hivemcr/Chapters00:00 Highlight01:36 Introduction04:27 Meet Charlie Whitworth05:33 Why this matters now10:43 Good SEO = Good GEO14:05 GEO bro debate15:56 Data and measurement21:46 KPIs that still matter25:12 Technical SEO still wins27:28 Content structure for LLMs35:46 Pruning and cannibalisation38:40 Content pruning done right41:06 Brand mentions vs backlinks44:34 Good products beat spam47:07 Old tactics you need to stop49:03 Testing and reprioritising51:03 No silver bullets for GEO56:39 Ignore the noise58:11 Cloudflare bot settings01:01:18 Recommendations: Log file analysis01:05:03 Recommendation tool: WAIKAY01:07:22 Fun recommendation: The Streets01:08:40 Wrap up

Recorded the day after the first SearchNorwichXL, this episode recaps the last four weeks of SEO news from the Core Updates newsletter:Google rolling out google.com/goto pass-through URLs to deter scraping amid the SERP API lawsuit (with rank-tracking tools finding workarounds); Google Search Console’s generative AI performance reporting rolling out globally, showing impressions for AI Overviews/AI Mode, alongside a toggle to opt sites out of generative AI features without affecting organic rankings; data suggesting nearly all People Also Ask results are AI-generated; and a Google AI Contribution pilot in Search Console that tests paying publishers when their content significantly contributes to AI-generated responses in Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.News storieshttps://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-goto-tracking-41957.htmlhttps://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-ai-performance-reports-and-search-generative-ai-control-rolling-out-globally-486269https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7503164423075725313/https://9to5google.com/2026/09/17/google-ai-contribution-pilot-tests-paying-websites-when-theyre-used-in-ai-results/Chapters00:00 Welcome and recap01:11 SearchNorwichXL highlights02:15 September 2026 news02:40 Google’s new goto redirect URLs05:26 GSC AI reports rollout08:42 AI Overviews takeover People Also Ask11:15 Google pilots new publisher payment program15:44 Season five teaser17:21 Wrap up