What happens to SEO when people stop searching the way they used to?

In this episode with our host Dawood Bukhari, Benj Arriola, Sr. SEO Director at 85Sixty, shares what he’s seeing firsthand as AI Overviews, GEO, and AEO change how people discover and evaluate information online. He talks about how his SEO team once contributed 70% of the company’s revenue, the technical challenges of working with proprietary CMS platforms at enterprise scale, and why fan-out queries are changing the way SEOs think about keyword research.

Benj also breaks down what it means to optimize for AI platforms alongside traditional search engines — from making your site easier to crawl to creating the kinds of content AI systems are more likely to surface, such as original research and product comparisons. He shares a practical impact-vs.-effort framework for deciding which technical SEO issues are actually worth fixing.

The conversation also gets into one of the biggest challenges in the AI era: attribution. Benj explains why GA4’s AI Assistance channel still has limitations, what data you can actually trust, and which metrics are worth bringing to stakeholders.

If you work in enterprise SEO, manage an in-house team, or simply want to understand where search is heading, this episode offers a practical, behind-the-scenes look at navigating SEO, AEO, and GEO in a rapidly changing search landscape.

Get Your Exclusive AIO Growth Plan - We’ll kick off with a Live AIO Audit to see how shoppers find you, followed by Competitor Research to steal their spotlight: https://lunacal.ai/team/dws/dws-meetings

In this episode, we discuss:

00:00 - 00:22: Introducing Benj Arriola

00:22 - 02:39: SEO vs GEO vs AEO — What's Really Changed

02:39 - 08:08: Planning Technical Audits Across AI Platforms

08:08 - 12:02: Scaling an SEO Team to 70% of Revenue

12:02 - 15:43: Enterprise CMS Challenges in Technical SEO

15:43 - 19:36: Fan-Out Queries and Content Planning

19:36 - 22:11: Content Types That Win in AI Search

22:11 - 24:41: Why Original Research and Comparisons Convert

24:41 - 29:22: Reporting Metrics That Matter for AEO and GEO

29:22 - 31:11: What's Next for Benj Arriola

31:11 - 32:16: Closing Thoughts

 Connect with Benj Arriola

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjarriola/

 https://www.85sixty.com/

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