This week’s #SEOForLunch sponsors are AirOps and Jolly Search.
Years ago, while leading SEO at a large traditional marketing company, I unexpectedly won an internal award called “The Challenger Award.”
I was probably two cocktails deep at the company party, mostly looking for an excuse to go home, when I heard my name called.
The award recognized people who challenged the status quo, pushed others to do better, advocated for their team, and raised expectations.
At the time, I didn’t think much of the label. Today, I think it’s one of the most important roles in marketing.
Checkbox SEO is dead, and that includes simply doing the work sitting directly in front of you.
The biggest opportunities now require someone to advocate, influence priorities, support implementation, QA the work, and prove the impact.
That’s the Challenger.
Thank you to AirOps for sponsoring this week’s #SEOForLunch
Free AirOps Webinar!
You already know AI search changed the buying process for good. What hasn’t caught up is measurement, and that gap makes waiting feel like the responsible move.
It’s the riskier one.
AirOps and Bain & Company see the same tension across the marketing orgs they work with: brands know AI search matters, but imperfect attribution makes it hard to invest with confidence.
Join Matt Hammel, COO of AirOps, and Zak Prauer, Expert Partner, Marketing at Bain & Company, for a live conversation on why AI search investment shouldn’t wait for perfect measurement.
What you’ll learn:
Why every major marketing channel became important before the industry could measure it well, and why AI search is following the same path
Why AI search shifted from a performance channel to a brand channel, and why “cited” matters less than “recommended”
How to avoid underinvesting in what you can’t fully trace
How to move forward now while still demanding better evidence of what drives incremental growth
Who should attend: CMOs, VPs of marketing, and heads of growth or demand gen building the case for AI search investment without waiting for measurement that may never fully arrive.
Wednesday, October 15
3pm ET / 12pm PT
Meet the Challenger
The Challenger asks the uncomfortable questions.
Why isn’t this prioritized? Who actually owns implementation? What would have to be true for engineering to prioritize it? Why are we launching this redesign without solving XYZ? Why are we spending $500K on paid acquisition while ignoring an organic opportunity worth $2M? You get it…
But this is the important part: the Challenger doesn’t just complain.
They bring evidence. They quantify the opportunity. They understand competing priorities. They build allies. They offer solutions. They help with implementation, QA the work, and measure the result.
Their job isn’t to win arguments or become the loudest SEO in the room.
Their job is to make organic growth difficult to ignore.
Your job extends beyond your area of control
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: modern SEO extends far beyond what you directly control.
Organic visibility now touches product, engineering, PR, brand, content, UX, and leadership. You cannot hide behind, “I made my recommendations. What happens next isn’t my responsibility.”
That’s bullshit. It always has been, but it’s especially true now.
You may not control engineering priorities, PR campaigns, product decisions, CMS limitations, or budget. But you should absolutely influence them. That’s also why I’ve argued that it’s time to invite SEO to the adults table.
That means advocating for the work, explaining trade-offs, translating SEO/AI into business impact, and establishing expectations before decisions are made.
And when something finally gets implemented, you don’t disappear. You support it, QA it, and help make sure what you fought for actually works and delivers value.
Challenging doesn’t mean being an asshole
A Challenger will create some friction. That’s part of the role.
But asking hard questions doesn’t mean being an asshole.
You still have to listen, understand competing priorities, and recognize that SEO is only one input into how a company operates. Sometimes engineering should prioritize something else. Sometimes brand wins. Sometimes UX wins. Sometimes the SEO opportunity simply isn’t worth the resources. Cough, cough... Core Web Vitals.
That’s why I’ve said before that compromise is a lost SEO skillset.
The Challenger’s job is to make sure everyone understands the trade-off.
If we choose X, here’s what we’re giving up.
That’s far more valuable than demanding SEO always win. We’re not arguing with feelings. We’re having productive, difficult conversations based on data, opportunity, and business impact.
The Challenger owns the outcome, not the recommendation
The real difference is ownership.
A recommendation is easy to hand off. The Challenger stays attached to the initiative and makes sure the work is actually seen through and creates value.
That matters because influence compounds.
If the last thing you fought for drove meaningful results, the next difficult conversation gets easier. People remember that your push wasn’t about winning an SEO argument. It was about creating business impact.
That’s how SEO earns influence.
The result? More trust, more resources, and ultimately bigger visibility across both search and answer engines.
Checkbox SEOs complete tasks. Challengers create outcomes. Pick your lane.
~Nick
Thank you to Jolly for sponsoring this week’s #SEOForLunch
ChatGPT Stopped Citing Reddit.
It Didn’t Stop Reading It.
Brought to you by Jolly Search, the team that runs Reddit
and AI visibility for brands full-time.
In mid-August, Reddit’s share of ChatGPT citations fell from 3.8% to 0.5% almost overnight. Plenty of people called Reddit dead for AI search. The data says otherwise:
Still reading: Reddit stayed roughly 25% of the pages ChatGPT consulted, even after the citation cliff.
Google didn’t blink: Reddit’s share of AI Overview citations barely moved (2.4% to 2.1%).
Still working: one Reddit thread took a London family law firm from absent to named in Google’s AI Overview in three weeks.
Issue #91 of the Jolly newsletter breaks down what actually changed (ChatGPT’s site: searches jumped 46x) and why Reddit alone won’t get you there anymore.