Stop Optimizing Keywords for ChatGPT (with Shane Tepper)

Send us Fan Mail📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter.Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribeMost brands trying to figure out their AI search visibility start with the same move: take their existing keyword list and ask which ones to "optimize for AI" too. Shane Tepper, co-founder of Resonate Labs, thinks that's backwards — and after this conversation, I do too.This episode is part interview, part real-time reaction to a stretch of AI search news that hit fast and didn't slow down.In this episode:Why starting a GEO strategy with keyword data instead of buyer language queries gets the entire approach backwards — and what query generation looks like when you build it around personas, buying stages, pain points, and features insteadGoogle's recently released GEO guidelines, where the framing is defensive rather than informative, and what's missing from "good SEO practices apply to GEO" as a complete strategyWhy optimizing for AI search isn't one strategy — it's a stack, because each model (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot) weighs credibility, authority, and source preference differentlyThe agentic browsing audit quietly released through Chrome Canary's Lighthouse tool, what it actually checks for (WebMCP protocol, llms.txt), and why Google is sending mixed signals about whether these even matter for search visibilityWhat a 150-query audit actually looks like in practice — and how response data turns into a content strategy, a CMS-routed publishing pipeline, and briefs for earning third-party citationsWhy third-party sources often shape AI answers without ever being cited — and what that means for brands measuring their own visibilityIf you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do.I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at [email protected]. Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/Let’s connect:LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility ConsultantWebsite → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com