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Search as a Channel

Search as a Channel

By: MarketerFirst LLC
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Explores how discoverability powers modern marketing from SEO and paid media to social discovery and product growth.

© 2026 Search as a Channel
Episodes
  • Content Formats That Win LLM Citations
    Mar 2 2026

    The search funnel isn't just shrinking. It's collapsing into a single conversation. A buyer asks an AI to compare options, surface deal breakers, and reduce risk and the model returns an answer that cites a handful of sources and moves on. Your brand is either in that answer, or it's invisible.

    In this episode, we break down the three highest leverage content formats that consistently earn AI citations in competitive categories right now: date stamped comparison pages that signal recency, deal breaker sections engineered for fast retrieval, and footer and AI info page patterns that function as a brand knowledge packet.

    You'll learn why comparison pages are now part of your sales motion (not just SEO), how to write deal breaker content in the crisp, quotable style that models actually cite, and why your website footer, long treated as dead space, has become a front line brand representation surface.

    If you're a CMO, agency owner, or content strategist trying to get ahead of the shift to AI driven search, this episode is your starting point.

    Key takeaway: In 2026, format is strategy. The brands that win won't just rank. They'll be the sources AI trusts enough to quote.

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    19 mins
  • Authority Lives on LinkedIn
    Feb 28 2026

    LinkedIn just became one of the most important search channels in B2B marketing. Most teams are still using it like it's 2019.

    While traditional SEO gets squeezed by AI Overviews and zero-click searches, LinkedIn has quietly turned into a dual-threat asset, dominating Google SERPs for high-intent B2B terms and becoming one of the most-cited sources by LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Citations of LinkedIn content by AI systems are up over 400%. Its domain now appears in nearly 1 in 5 top-10 Google results for B2B queries. And in June 2025, the platform's algorithm shifted from recency to relevance meaning well-optimized content can keep surfacing for months after it's published.

    In this episode, we break down what's actually driving LinkedIn's rise as a search and AI discovery channel, and what B2B marketers need to do differently because of it.

    We cover why LinkedIn Pulse articles have become a primary source for LLM citations, how paid amplification on LinkedIn triggers organic relevance signals that extend content life well beyond the campaign, and why the platform is effectively acting as a parasite SEO powerhouse for brands that can't rank on their own domain. We also get into the nuance, including why some LinkedIn content is seeing significant drops in direct traffic even as AI visibility climbs.

    In an AI-first world, LinkedIn isn't just a social channel. It's where authority gets built and where AI goes looking for answers.


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    18 mins
  • Stop Treating YouTube Like Social
    Feb 28 2026

    While everyone's debating what AI is doing to Google, a different search engine is quietly becoming one of the most valuable organic channels in digital marketing.

    YouTube processes over 3.5 billion searches every day. It's deeply integrated into Google's ecosystem. Its videos are 200 times more likely to surface in AI-driven search results than other video formats. And most agencies are still treating it like a social platform.

    In this episode, we make the case for YouTube Search as a strategic growth engine and break down exactly how agencies should be deploying it for clients right now.

    We cover why YouTube's algorithm has shifted away from keyword density toward behavioral signals like retention rate and intent matching, how the "pre-qualification effect" makes video search traffic convert differently than traffic from any other channel, and why a single well-optimized video can keep generating leads for years. We also get into the tactical side — spoken keyword optimization, using Shorts to capture top-of-funnel micro-intent, and how to structure topic clusters that the algorithm actually rewards.

    In a zero-click world where traditional organic visibility is getting harder to defend, YouTube Search is one of the few channels where the arbitrage opportunity is still wide open.

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    19 mins
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