Stuart Forrest

Think I'm going to retire from Twitter today. It's important to know when one has peaked.

@lilyraynyc @5le See also the "experts" who pop up at glitzy AEO software launches saying "I feel sorry for anyone still in SEO" before trotting out their GEO tactics which sound suspiciously like SEO tactics, 2007 edition...

“There are C-suite executives joining podcasts and webinars sharing their expert AEO strategies while their SEO team members who have been analyzing organic traffic for years just cringe.” Especially when the things they share are literally the things their SEO teams have been doing for years 😂

AEO expertise is apparently something you can develop over a weekend. At least that's what LinkedIn would have you believe. AEO as a serious topic has existed for maybe 18 months. The underlying data is thin and the LLMs optimized for are still changing their behavior every few weeks. There are C-suite executives joining podcasts and webinars sharing their expert AEO strategies while their SEO team members who have been analyzing organic traffic for years just cringe. Nobody, including the people who work at the LLMs, can tell you with confidence what a repeatable, scalable AEO strategy looks like for an unknown brand in a competitive category. The honest answer to most AEO questions right now is not "it depends" as it is with SEO, it is "we don't know". That hasn't slowed anyone down. What makes AEO particularly easy to fake is that the feedback loops are slow and the causation is murky. If someone sells you a bad paid media strategy, you'll know in 30 days when the CAC numbers come in. When someone sells you a bad AEO strategy or a six-figure per year tool, you can run it for six months, see nothing move, and never be entirely sure whether the strategy failed or whether your brand just wasn't well-known enough for it to work yet. That ambiguity is a perfect cover for people who are figuring it out at the same time you are, except charging you for the privilege. The question worth asking any AEO tool or agency right now is simple: show me a brand I've never heard of that you helped get cited consistently in AI answers, and walk me through exactly what you did and how you measured it. If the answer involves a recognizable brand, a correlation study, or a lot of confident language about things that can't actually be measured yet, you have your answer. Real knowledge in a channel this new is rare, take everything with a grain of salt.

In case you were wondering exactly why Trump chose this week to start a war with Iran.

@carlhendy Hard agree. The snake oil salesmen are having a moment.

I’ve never seen so much money being pumped into SEO and search platforms where the output is, at best, flaky and barely actionable or, at worst, likely to get your website hit by anti-spam policies.

@pedrodias Near perfect form factor and design. I remember being so, so excited to unbox mine.

It’s awaken! Almost 20 years later

@lilyraynyc "Free Snake Oil! Come and try our Snake Oil!"

Wait until they learn how it works

@lilyraynyc There was a brilliant podcast early on in AI by @benedictevans asserting that as humans our apex predator skill is pattern detection. It's why we survived in the jungle, and it's why we can detect "off" content created by AI. I think of that often, and increasingly so.

Am I the only one who almost always ignores the AI-generated infographics in articles? I can’t trust images where the words are often spelled incorrectly, and the information is clearly not designed intentionally by a human author/designer.

@lilyraynyc Remember when we were all chuckling about it recommending glue on our pizza? I miss those days. Now we're straight to "AIO overview could actually shorten the lives of cancer patients" But yeah, YMYL.

Still on vacation, but gee, who could have seen this one coming?

@lilyraynyc I’m at a conference tomorrow and asked it for record shopping ideas nearby. Genuinely brilliant response; good recommendations , loads of context. Staggering

Just asked Gemini 3 about some things for kids to do in NYC and it quickly plotted all the answers onto an interactive Google Maps interface. Instant connection to Google Maps = huge advantage, in my opinion

@RupertLowe10 Would be good to have the proof that you actually have donated, because I am suspicious that you might "forget" to do it after this has blown over.

Good news. False alarm! The unknown vessel was charity rowers, thank goodness. As a well done to the crew, I'll donate £1,000 to their charity - raising money for MND. Keep going, and watch out for any real illegal migrants! We received a huge number of urgent complaints from constituents - I make no apologies over being vigilant for my constituents. It is a national crisis. No mass deportations for the charity rowers, but we definitely need it for the illegal migrants!

@ViperChill Would like to see the evidence for TBLA's assertion here. That doesn't feel logical to me.

Here's a full overview of what public companies are currently saying about AI & SEO. If I could sum up the hours of transcripts I've listened to and read over the past few weeks, it would be this. "Search traffic is down. We see opportunities in getting traffic from AI-answer platforms and we're preparing for that. Traffic from those sources is small but converting better. Where we can, we're making deals with the platforms to enhance our visibility and that of our customers (where relevant). We want to reduce our reliance on search by creating better relationships with our audience, growing on social media and utilising email and events, but we're by no means giving up on it. We've had traffic challenges in the past and this is no different. We also see AI as an opportunity to improve our processes and operations." I've admittedly simplified some of the points, but there's no denying the comments overall swing towards the negative. This is a tough topic to comment on because on one hand I feel ready and excited for the marketing challenge going forward, and all the opportunities there will be for those that are being proactive. On the other hand, there are obviously lots of businesses which have been severely impacted over the last few years. Not every brand can just suddenly switch to other sources of traffic and still generate close to the same amount of revenue. That's all I'll say on this for now, as it's something I could (and probably will) write many thousands of words on. I just like keeping track of what those companies that generally dominate search results say about it, and hope you found it interesting too. 🤝

@lilyraynyc I wonder how much of this is them actively intervening in response to the public discourse vs simply letting the CRO experiments play out. Could it be that we're just finding equilibrium based on actual user interactions with AI features in the SERP?

Any news like this is good news

@lilyraynyc He missed out SOS - Snake Oil Sales

Wait but why are there 5 of them.

@_KarenHao @NewsHour Fascinating to listen to your interview on Media Confidential Podcast this morning. I was interested in your statement about error rate on ChatGPT rising, not falling and would be interested in reading more, if you have a source?

A dream come true to talk about my book Empire of AI on @NewsHour. I discuss OpenAI, Sam Altman, and why we do not have to accept the extraordinary harms of the current trajectory of AI development. Thank you to Ali Rogan for having me! Order my book: empireofai.com.

@sniffpetrol "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that it's going to have a VR6 and a nose a bit like a Scirocco"

Just chanced upon this period VW press shot. PR boss: You get those photos of the new Vento VR6? Photographer: Sure did boss, real fuckin' badly lit, just like you asked. PR boss: What?

@Tankslider I've got two lying bastards. Watch it, he'll work out how to move the photo across next.

...Brian is a lying bastard

Brian says he's not had his dinner tonight Poor boy. Except, dear reader:

Sub-editing is a dying art

I’ve always loathed anything to do with Eurovision. It’s just shite TV. Wife and kids away tonight, so I’m watching Casino with an excellent Rioja and I couldn’t be happier.

@sniffpetrol No, but I have seen plenty around. I was puzzled by why they'd printed out some Google Maps to go on the rear bumper. Still am.

SPRINGWATCH: Now under 10 grand for a pre-reg or £111 a month on a lease. That's for the smaller battery, lower powered one. Has anyone bought one of these?

Tried to get tickets for Lorde for my daughter. Was reminded of how utterly broken ticketing is as an industry, and what piratical bastards Ticketmaster are.

@mikefutia @FlorianKluge @lilyraynyc With all that "helpful, reliable, first person content" Reddit certainly deserve that 2nd place position in search rather than a publisher. Yup.

@FlorianKluge @lilyraynyc Here’s mobile.

Who could have seen this coming? 🤔