Ross joins Will Critchlow of SearchPilot for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolving landscape of e-commerce SEO and content strategy in the AI era.They cover how e-commerce brands are adapting content for multimodal search, why digital PR is surging, what still works in a zero-click world, and how Siege’s homepage study reveals surprising traffic shifts from AI engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews.Ross also shares lessons from working with Instacart, thoughts on EEAT, brand building in 2025, and how SEOs can think more like product teams to win long-term. Plus: goal-setting, basketball, and how to build your perfect calendar.Show Notes0:08 – Introductions1:00 – Ross on what e-commerce clients are asking for in 20252:12 – High-fidelity content and why it still drives SEO value3:24 – The digital PR spike—and why it might not be right for every brand4:17 – Rethinking link building: content that earns links without outreach5:11 – The shift from link bait to real brand-building campaigns6:34 – Why measuring content value is still messy7:28 – Investing in analytics and attribution models that actually work8:52 – Instacart case study: how it’s still winning in 20259:59 – Calculators as a defensible content type against AI overviews11:15 – Homepage traffic is up 10%—what Siege’s study found12:56 – Differences in B2B vs B2C AI traffic attribution14:15 – How AI referrals may go dark: no referrer, just branded visits15:40 – SearchPilot’s view: aggregating dark and disaggregated traffic sources17:20 – How LM-driven browsing creates long tail referral lift18:57 – AI is doing the searching: optimizing for “robot” queries21:00 – Why retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) matters for e-commerce22:44 – Digital PR’s role in influencing AI citation engines23:51 – Siege’s brand mention study: impressions up, but who’s watching?25:20 – Review volume = the next big SEO edge in e-commerce26:04 – Instacart’s product reviews may be helping SEO more than you think27:15 – Human authorship: should you expose expert bylines?28:52 – Where author signals matter most30:04 – Real-world reviews are the new long tail content strategy31:09 – Who’s doing it well? 32:14 – Brand authority, SEO signals, and Siege’s convo with Dr. Pete33:48 – Building a brand health dashboard (and what to track in 2025)36:18 – Who owns content? SEO increasingly embedded in product teams37:40 – Product SEO as a mindset, not just a technical checklist39:24 – Optimizer mentality, health goals, and personal systems40:11 – Ross’s “perfect calendar” and how it supports business goals42:06 – Will on process goals vs outcome goals in business and life43:44 – Can you be too optimized? Balancing mental health and iteration45:07 – Long-term vision in a 3-week world46:00 – Where to find Ross online and what Siege is working on nextShow Links‬Will Critchlow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willcritchlowHomepage Study:‬‭ https://www.siegemedia.com/strategy/ai-homepage-traffic-increaseSearchPilot:‬‭ https://www.searchpilot.com/ Subscribe today for weekly tips: https://bit.ly/3dBM61f Listen oniTunes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/content-and-conversation-seo-tips-from-siege-media/id1289467174Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kiaFGXO5UcT2qXVRuXjsMListen on Google:https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9jT3NjUkdLeAFollow Siege on Twitter: http://twitter.com/siegemedia Follow Ross onTwitter: http://twitter.com/rosshudgens Directed by Cara Brown:https://twitter.com/cararbrown Email Ross: ross@siegemedia.com #seo |#contentmarketing