Forget GEO Hype, Mark Williams-Cook Says Do This Instead

Welcome to Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi!
Your go-to podcast for transforming your business into an unforgettable brand where branding meets SEO and link-building. I’m Chris Panteli, Co-Founder and CEO of Linkifi, and I’m joined by my co-host and Co-Founder, Nick Biggs.

In this episode we welcome Mark Williams-Cook. Director at Candour. Founder of AlsoAsked. Veteran SEO of 20 years who ships products, runs e-commerce brands, and speaks plainly about where search is actually heading.

 

Key Talking Points

✅ SEO is not dead. AI search often equals “three web searches in a trench coat.” Retrieval still relies on real indexes, ranking, and links
✅ Why the browser wins. Agentic tasks need a real browser that executes JS, passes “are you human” checks, and respects privacy. Expect lightweight on-device models
✅ Google’s advantage. Massive index, cash flow, control of distribution. Others burn cash while renting Google or Chromium, which tilts the field
✅ Freshness bias and listicles. LLM surfaces are easy to game with recency and “best X” lists. Short-term only. It will not last
✅ Brand as the durable signal. Your brand footprint inside models and across trusted sources will outlive tactic chasing
✅ Digital PR for AI era. Mentions on authoritative sites shape both link graphs and in-model weightings
✅ LLM-aware research. Generate persona prompts to reveal the web searches LLMs trigger. Then build pages that answer intent clearly
✅ Measure what matters. Prompt tracking dashboards are a comfort blanket. Focus on in-model understanding and real outcomes
✅ Community as a moat. Smaller brands should seed real communities where customers advocate on platforms like Reddit

 

Quotes from Mark Williams-Cook

📢 “AI search is still built on information retrieval. It is not magic. It needs an index.”
📢 “The browser will be the agent. That is where execution, privacy, and verification actually work.”
📢 “Short-term tricks like fresh listicles will get patched. Invest in signals that survive updates.”
📢 “Ask a model to act like your persona, then watch which web searches it fires. That is your content map.”
📢 “If your marketing activity has no value without search, it probably has no long-term value.”

 

Actionable Insights

🧭 Design for Agentic Workflows

• Make key flows executable in a real browser. Clean HTML. predictable selectors. minimal anti-bot friction on basic info pages
  
  
• Publish concise “do this task” guides that an agent can summarize and follow
  
  

🔎 LLM-Ready Content Research

• Use personas to generate conversational prompts, then inspect which queries LLMs trigger
  
  
• Prioritize pages that map to those triggered queries. Structure with clear headings, FAQs, and explicit constraints
  
  

📰 Digital PR That Moves Models

• Target high-trust publications and expert communities. Mentions plus links shape both rankings and in-model priors
  
  
• Ship evidence assets. data cuts, original research, tool outputs. that media can cite
  
  

🧠 In-Model Understanding

• Audit “what AI knows about you” style outputs to see how models describe your brand
  
  
• Reinforce missing truths across your site, docs, bios, schema, and PR
  
  

📏 Rethink Measurement

• Treat prompt tracking as directional at best. Anchor your plan to leads, assisted revenue, branded search lift, and referral quality
  
  
• Report share of voice only with clear caveats. focus updates on shipped assets and earned authority
  
  

👥 Build Community First

• Invest where your buyers gather. Run useful AMAs, teardown threads, and office hours
  
  
• Let real customers seed Reddit and forums. authenticity scales better than aged accounts
  
  

 

About Mark Williams-Cook

Mark Williams-Cook is Digital Marketing Director at Candour, founder of AlsoAsked, and host of Search with Candour. He blends technical rigor with brand-first strategy. He speaks frequently on the future of search, agentic browsing, and why digital PR matters more in an LLM world.
 

📬 Connect: LinkedIn: Mark Williams-Cook · CoreUpdates.com newsletter

 

🚀 Build Your Brand with Real Links

At Linkifi, we help ambitious brands scale organic visibility through digital PR, brand storytelling, and SEO strategy. Book your FREE strategy session today:
🔗 https://calendly.com/linkifi/pr

 

👋 Connect with your hosts:
👉 Chris Panteli on LinkedIn
👉 Nick Biggs on LinkedIn

 

🎧 Listen to more Market Movers episodes:
🌍 https://marketmoverspod.com