Session #14 - AEO Is a Technical Problem Before It’s a Content Problem

Nate and Kevin haven’t been in the studio in a while, so this episode is a practical catch-up on AEO. After a year of testing on their own site and across client work, they think the technical side matters more than the content side for brands that already have a presence. They walk through what you can fix before the year ends, how they approach prompt tracking now, and why Google Search Console has gotten harder to trust. What they cover: Why AEO is a technical problem first, and how it overlaps with technical SEO Indexation, crawlability, and why one clear answer per topic matters Quick wins to ship over the holidays: real author bios, consistent messaging and schema, internal links, redirect chains, clean sitemaps, orphan pages, and page speed Which prompts are worth tracking (high-intent, non-brand) and which ones skew your visibility numbers Why AI referral traffic undercounts, and how to read organic, direct, and LLM referral together Open-field “How did you hear about us?” attribution Bot traffic and clicks in Search Console, plus Bing Webmaster Tools as another data source Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction: Revisiting AEO Practically(00:01:26) - AEO as a Technical Problem vs Content Problem(00:02:47) - Technical AEO Debt: Crawlability, Indexation, and Structure(00:08:45) - One Answer Per Topic: Content Consolidation for AEO(00:10:48) - Low Hanging Fruit: Author Pages and E-E-A-T Signals(00:15:11) - Messaging and Positioning Consistency(00:17:59) - Internal Linking and Redirect Chain Maintenance(00:21:03) - Indexation, Sitemaps, and Schema Checks(00:23:54) - Speed and Competitive Monitoring(00:24:43) - Prompt Tracking: Focusing on High-Intent Non-Brand Prompts(00:29:20) - Brand vs Non-Brand Visibility Examples(00:32:12) - AI Referral Traffic and Attribution Challenges(00:38:31) - Measuring Impact: Organic, Direct, and LLM Referral Combined(00:41:08) - Search Console Anomalies and Bot Traffic Issues(00:45:16) - Interpreting Messy GSC Query Data and AI Discovery Layer(00:48:19) - Closing Thoughts and Future Data Reports

Nate and Kevin dig into Ten Speed's latest research report on LLM visibility, breaking down over 7,000 citations across 220 evaluation-stage prompts to see what AI models actually cite when B2B buyers are deep in the consideration phase. The results challenge the popular narrative around Reddit and third-party content: brand-controlled content (product pages, articles, homepage) dominates citations, making up 88% of what gets cited at this stage. From there, the conversation shifts to the practical side of LLM visibility: how to build a consistent prompt-tracking framework, why 40 to 50 prompts is the right number for most B2B brands, how to actually write prompts that reflect real buyer language instead of generic keyword-style queries, and why sentiment — not just visibility — is the metric that tells you whether your brand is being represented fairly. Chapters 0:00 – Introduction 1:01 – The Evaluation-Stage Study: Scope and Methodology 1:58 – Why Focus on the Evaluation Stage 5:15 – Study Results: Brand-Controlled Content Dominates 5:45 – The Product Page Opportunity 6:38 – Debunking the Reddit and Third-Party Content Myth 15:44 – Comparison Content Punches Above Its Weight 18:01 – The Homepage's Renewed Importance 19:32 – Building a Framework for AI Visibility Tracking 23:22 – The 40-to-50 Prompt Rule and Funnel Weighting 27:40 – How to Actually Write Good Prompts 34:41 – Brand Sentiment: When Mentions Aren't Favorable 36:04 – Taking Ownership: Reviews and Business Fundamentals 40:31 – Beyond Visibility: Connecting to Business KPIs 42:03 – Closing and Outro Study: https://www.tenspeed.io/blog/what-ai-cites-b2b-evaluation-stage Visit newsletter.tenspeed.io for the monthly newsletter and early access to new episodes, or tenspeed.io to get in touch. Chapters (00:00:01) - AI Site Visibility and Prompt Tracking(00:01:01) - The Need to Track Suences at the Evaluation Stage(00:03:52) - B2B Brand Awareness(00:05:13) - The Type of Content Being Cited Most(00:13:07) - Citation Is Bigger Than Reddit: Tech News, Business(00:16:00) - Did Comparison Prompts Punch Above Their Weight?(00:18:20) - Page 1, The Internet of Things(00:19:54) - How to Track Visibility in Your Business(00:21:23) - Reasons Why Prompts Matter(00:23:09) - How to Define a Company's ICP(00:26:41) - How We're Building a Brand: The Waiting(00:27:58) - How to Build a Good LLM Prompt(00:32:21) - CRM: What Prompts to Track?(00:35:01) - How to Gain Exposure in the LLM(00:40:39) - Lead-to-Traffic: Prompt Tracking and the LM(00:42:40) - Responsive to Prompt Tracking

In this episode, Nate and Kevin sit down with Ten Speed's Manager of Organic Growth Strategy, Erika Braeger, to walk through how to approach site migrations and domain consolidations without tanking your organic performance. They cover the full lifecycle from setting clear business goals and crawling staging environments before launch, to preserving E-E-A-T signals, fixing redirect chains, and auditing legacy site architecture. Erika also shares the most common mistakes she sees along the way, including skipping content freezes, neglecting page speed, and missing authorship signals, and explains why each one matters more now that LLM visibility is part of the picture. Chapters (00:00:00) - Site Migrations(00:01:56) - Copyright, Authorship and Trust(00:03:58) - External Links on the Web(00:04:43) - Migration 101: Merging Websites(00:07:23) - Top-of-(00:08:34) - Crawl Budget and Site Structure in Website Migration(00:12:21) - Crawl Depth and Internal Linking(00:15:04) - Merging Multiple Sites: How To Plan For Internal Redirects(00:18:04) - Migration to Webflow: Crawl Depth Limit and More(00:21:04) - What are some, I guess the things that you think are critical(00:22:52) - Migration 1.8(00:25:09) - What Should You Plan For the Site Migration?(00:26:52) - Migration to a New CMS: The Need for Staging(00:29:25) - What type of expectations need to be set for a site migration?(00:30:36) - Migration and Branding: The Tradeoffs(00:33:40) - Top 10 SEO Mistakes(00:36:18) - Common CMS MISTAKES(00:40:59) - LLM Performance Benchmarks(00:42:18) - Common Phobias(00:42:34) - 3 Common MISTAKES Websites Make During Migration(00:46:29) - Top 10 Migrations Mistakes(00:48:06) - Content Freeze Ahead of a Migrations(00:50:49) - PODCAST: How to Write a Scripting Application in IE

Ryan Sargent joins Nate Turner and Kevin King to discuss how B2B marketers can stand out now that AI has made content volume a non-factor. The conversation focuses on how better inputs, including proprietary data and first-party insights, are what separate strong AI-assisted content from generic output. Despite predictions that websites will become obsolete, the hosts argue that they matter more than ever, and that they need to work harder to convert visitors and surface the right information for LLMs. Other topics include hyper-specific case studies, unique audience experiences like awards and intimate events, and robust product documentation. The episode wraps with the idea that good judgment, knowing which stories to tell and where to focus effort, is the most important skill marketers can develop right now. Chapters (00:00:00) - Chatting With 10 Speed(00:00:17) - How to Differentiate with AI in B2B Marketing(00:05:35) - The Website's Role in B2B Marketing(00:10:13) - How To Get Your Website In the List(00:12:57) - Case Studies: The Key to Killer Content(00:14:41) - How to Use First-Party Data in Your Content(00:17:23) - First-Party Data and the Content(00:21:54) - Unique Experience & Digital Learning(00:27:12) - B2B Conference and Dinner: Authentic Experience(00:31:05) - Storytellers: How to Tell a Good Story(00:35:25) - 10 Speed IO

In Session 10, Nate Turner, Kevin King, and Ryan Sargent unpack why "ICP-aligned content" has become a buzzword that few marketers can actually define or execute on. They argue that most ICP research falls short by focusing on demographics and firmographics rather than the "jobs to be done" framework, and recommend listening to sales calls and talking to existing customers as more practical starting points. The conversation also explores what "aligned" really means in practice — from speaking the right vocabulary to meeting audiences where they are in their journey. Ryan and the team close with actionable advice on diagnosing market maturity and building content that speaks directly to an ICP, rather than simply about one.

In the final episode of 2025, Nate Turner and Kevin King were joined by Ryan Sargent of Ten Speed.  Content strategy is changing quickly as AI tools reshape how teams plan and produce work. This episode looks at what 2026 will bring for content leaders who are adapting to new levels of bandwidth, velocity, and expectations. We talk about how platforms like AirOps and specialized LLMs influence content velocity and raise the pace for companies of all sizes. We also dig into how AI search rewards freshness even more than traditional search and what that means for planning, publishing, and keeping content relevant. The conversation explores whether teams will try to separate content created for LLMs from content created for humans and why that separation may be harder to maintain than it sounds. We also examine how AI automation interacts with human bandwidth and how teams decide the best way to divide work across writers, editors, strategists, agencies, and freelancers. We close with a look at the content formats and approaches that actually drive conversions in a world where discoverability and performance both matter. This episode gives content leaders a grounded view of how to evolve their strategy for the year ahead. For more, visit www.tenspeed.io. Chapters (00:00:00) - B2B Content Strategy: 2026(00:01:20) - AI and Quality in the Market(00:03:55) - Is It Time to Double Down on Quality?(00:06:06) - V velocity and quality at Tech companies(00:10:20) - How To Automate Content Decay & Refresh(00:12:20) - Reasons for Frequent Content refreshes(00:14:33) - Content Strategy: Freshness and Consolidation(00:17:44) - Content for Humans and Robots(00:23:41) - How to Get Your Content to Sell(00:24:43) - Outourcing Content: The Right Stuff to Do(00:29:14) - How to Write Clear, Informational Content With AI(00:32:52) - ChatGPT and the Future of Algo Updates(00:34:22) - How to allocate bandwidth in the CMO(00:36:13) - Ways of driving conversion in the future(00:37:24) - What Ultimately Will Drive Conversions in 2026?(00:45:06) - How to Build a Content Marketing Success Story(00:48:03) - How to Build a Content Strategy?(00:52:47) - 10 Speed Sessions(00:53:47) - Democracy on TV

In this Ten Speed Session, we dig into the biggest question facing B2B marketing leaders as they plan for 2026: If you could give one piece of advice to B2B marketing leaders heading into 2026, what would it be? We pulled together perspectives from some of the smartest operators in the industry, and a few themes surfaced again and again. Speed beats perfection. Brand measurement needs to grow up. Automation should clear the way for bold creative ideas. The modern buyer expects more than recycled tactics. Generalists are becoming the new in-house power players. And above all: stop waiting for certainty. In this conversation, Nate Turner and Kevin King synthesize guidance from leaders across Sprout Social, Ten Speed, Clearscope, 42 Agency, MKT1, and Growth Unhinged to build a clear picture of what actually matters going into 2026. Whether you're navigating declining SEO traffic, figuring out how to stay visible in AI search, or trying to get your team to move faster, this episode will help you focus on what counts and ignore what doesn’t. We cover: Why speed, agility, and imperfect execution will outperform polished plans The shift from vanity “brand = direct traffic” to real brand measurement Automation vs. alchemy: what to automate, what to pour creative energy into How the modern B2B buyer is changing and what that means for your playbooks Why generalists are becoming the in-house future (and how to hire around it) The importance of committing, executing, and avoiding analysis paralysis The GTM channels poised for real growth in 2026, including AI search If you’re leading a marketing team, planning your 2026 strategy, or just trying to cut through the noise, this episode gives you the clarity and momentum heading into the new year. Contributors: Marino Fresch - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinofresch/Kamil Rextin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamilrextin/Ryan Sargent - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-sargent-5a455511a/Bernard Huang - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardjhuang/Kevin King - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-king-marketer/Emily Kramer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer/Nate Turner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateturner1/Kyle Poyar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Growth Unhinged 2025 State of B2B GTM Report:https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/2025-state-of-b2b-gtm-report

Nate Turner and Kevin King break down what is working now in organic growth: fresh ICP-focused TOFU, AIO structuring that earns AI answers, and product content that solves real problems. They share proof from several of their clients to show how refreshes and data-backed assets drive LLM citations, brand demand, and qualified clicks. Plus, why core pages and tight technical SEO turn that visibility into pipeline. Chapters (00:00:00) - Why LLMs Work for B2B(00:00:34) - Top SEO Voices: What's Working, What's Not(00:01:43) - Top of Funnel Content(00:06:55) - "Driving Brand Visibility" in Search(00:08:51) - Have We Needed To Update Our Content?(00:09:53) - Top-of-Kinnel SEO Content(00:12:22) - On AI Overviews and Optimizing for(00:20:25) - Optimizing for LLMs: B2B Marketer Interview(00:21:55) - Top 10 Product Content Categories(00:24:32) - Project Management Content: The Future of AI(00:31:13) - AIOs: The role of content in business optimization(00:32:51) - Is Data-based Content Necessary for Authority Building?(00:35:44) - Citations and LLMs: The Key to Building Authority(00:39:27) - Core Pages and the future of them(00:45:12) - How to Win with Search Engine Optimization(00:45:56) - Core Pages(00:47:23) - How to Get Your Website Ranked by Google(00:50:32) - Top of Funnel and technical SEO(00:55:49) - Planning for the Future With Tenspeed IO

In this episode, Nate Turner and Kevin King discuss Hubspot's new "Loop Marketing" concept that was unveiled at INBOUND 2025. They also dig into a study from Amsive on whether or not LLM traffic converts better than organic search traffic and went through ten of the most interesting findings in the recent SEJ State of SEO 2026 Report.  Resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv-lPAukoMI https://www.amsive.com/insights/seo/does-llm-traffic-convert-better-than-organic-a-new-data-backed-study/ https://www.searchenginejournal.com/state-of-seo/ 

In this episode, Nate Turner & Kevin King dig into five key areas of content marketing that often sit outside of the SEO/GEO conversation but are increasingly critical as B2B teams plan for 2026. From organic social and webinars to podcasts, data reports, and newsletters, these channels offer unique opportunities to drive efficiency and build authenticity in an AI-saturated landscape. They share insights on the level of effort, ease of testing, and practical advice for each, plus where they overlap and how they can be repurposed into a broader distribution-first strategy. The goal isn’t to chase every shiny object, but to understand which channels align with your ICP, budget, and bandwidth—and to execute them well enough to actually move the needle.Links:Chicago marketing happy hour (9/18) - https://lu.ma/vvk26oxl Denver marketing happy hour (10/8) - https://lu.ma/60mu0hyehttps://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/marketing-prioritizationhttps://www.demandsage.com/b2b-marketing-statistics/ https://www.getcontrast.io/learn/webinar-statistics https://www.tenspeed.io/blog/why-research-reports-matter-in-content-strategyhttps://www.hanoverresearch.com/insights-blog/corporate/what-is-market-research/ https://www.ft.com/content/19304919-9128-4c27-b5c3-4f668dd045dfhttps://www.cloudpresent.co/blog/7-b2b-webinar-best-practices-that-actually-drive-pipeline-growth-in-2025 https://www.fame.so/post/measuring-b2b-podcast-roi-and-pipeline https://www.tenspeed.io/ https://newsletter.tenspeed.io/