What's Next? The New SEO Playbook by Jes Scholz

Jes Scholz is a technical SEO strategist and growth leader who rose to Group CMO at Ringier AG (a Swiss media group with nearly $1B in annual revenue), working across 100+ brands. She’s also an SEOktoberfest World Champion, a published contributor to Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal, and a judge for search awards across the US, UK, EU, and APAC.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why “SEO is dead” is the wrong question (and what’s actually changing)Keywords vs entities: how Google’s Knowledge Graph understands brandsHow to check if your brand exists as an entity (and what Google knows about you)The step-by-step process to build brand salience through corroborationWhy Domain Authority is a vanity metric (and what to measure instead)How Share of Search connects to market share (and why execs care)How to use schema to connect your brand across the webQuick wins you can validate in weeks (Discover, partnerships, distribution)How AI assistants are reshaping discovery and repeat purchasesIn this episode, we cover:Chapter 1: Is SEO Dead? What’s Changing in Search0:00 SEO is transforming (not dying)3:05 Why organic traffic is declining3:50 AI as the new top-of-funnel discovery layer4:23 Why brand salience matters in AI resultsChapter 2: Entities, Knowledge Graph & Brand Salience4:43 Keywords vs entities (how Google “thinks”)5:52 How to check your Knowledge Graph entity6:44 What Google associates with a brand entity9:19 Where to start (homepage + About clarity)10:18 Corroboration: getting others to confirm your narrativeChapter 3: Small Business & SaaS Playbooks11:18 Local SEO as the fastest trust signal (Maps)12:53 SaaS without an office: directories + community mentions13:48 Why mentions matter (not just “follow” links)Chapter 4: Schema, and Multi-Surface Visibility14:31 Using schema to “draw the lines” for Google15:57 Why schema helps beyond Google (across indexes)17:16 Measuring brand presence in ChatGPT (what’s possible today)18:55 LLM visibility tools: how to use them without false certaintyChapter 5: Metrics That Matter (And What to Stop Doing)21:25 Why Domain Authority doesn’t matter23:06 Share of Search explained (market-aware measurement)25:17 Short-term wins vs long-term SEO reality26:01 Discover: how to test fast via partners41:04 Stop selling “X links per month” (outputs vs outcomes)Chapter 6: Content, AI, and the Future of Discovery + Purchase29:26 Writers: POV, expertise, and digital footprint32:00 Content enrichment for deeper, more contextual queries49:25 Transactional vs informational content in an API/MCP world52:56 Where discovery and purchasing is heading57:24 Books + closing adviceAbout the Host:Paul Jebasingh Emmanuel is the Founder and CEO of GoX.ai and Two Minute Reports. Two Minute Reports helps agencies and marketers automate reporting workflows across 30+ platforms.Listen to Paul’s Agency Podcast:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gox-aiSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5cyb0NKCaEq0V1x1vNtqj9?si=119f46b74f184143Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pauls-agency-podcast/id1877052450