The Search Signal

The Search Signal is a weekly podcast for marketing leaders navigating what's changing in search. Each week, Victorious founder and CEO Michael Transon takes one thing happening in search, breaks down what it means, and shares what leaders should do about it. Short, focused conversations for people making strategic decisions at the intersection of SEO and AI search. New episodes every Tuesday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

The Search Signal is a business podcast hosted by Victorious, with 10 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Victorious hosts The Search Signal, a business show with 10 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #9

  How To Future-Proof Your Search Strategy for AI Mode

  Aug 13, 202641 minS1

  Google is rebuilding search around AI Mode, and Michael Transon makes the case that it will become the default way people search. He walks through the evidence, from the rapid spread of AI Overviews to the rise of zero-click results, and explains why AI Mode's modest adoption numbers understate what's coming. Then he gets practical about preparing for it, laying out the four foundations that keep a brand visible on every Google surface and the specific numbers to track each month so you can watch the shift happen in your own data. CHAPTERS 0:32 Search news: Google tests a sign-in wall and new homepage AI buttons 2:43 Today's topic: Google's AI Mode and the future of search 4:52 AI Overviews: from 30% to nearly 50% of queries in a year 6:40 Zero-click searches reach almost 70% 8:45 AI Overviews move onto commercial keywords 10:08 The "perfect click": AI-referred traffic converts at 3x 10:39 What AI Overviews do to a #1 ranking 12:07 What AI Mode is and how it differs from AI Overviews 14:29 Every AI Overview is now a doorway into AI Mode 16:11 Adoption numbers, and what they can't tell you 18:57 Michael's prediction for where Google is headed 20:55 The four foundations that carry across every search surface 28:30 How AI Mode behaves differently, and what it means for your content 33:20 Measuring AI Mode: visibility and traffic are separate systems 35:12 The four numbers to record every month 39:56 The one thing to take away from this episode RESOURCES Find links to everything on the episode page: https://victorious.com/podcast/ai-mode/ Google tests forcing sign-in for more search results (Search Engine Land): https://searchengineland.com/google-search-testing-forcing-searchers-to-sign-in-to-get-more-search-results-484223 New AI buttons on Google's homepage (Search Engine Roundtable): https://www.seroundtable.com/google-home-page-ai-features-41842.html AI Overviews at the one-year mark (BrightEdge): https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/ai-overviews-one-year-presence-size-citing Less than one-third of Google searches still send a click (SparkToro): https://sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-less-than-one-third-of-google-searches-still-send-a-click/ AI Overviews are expanding across commercial search (Semrush): https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-overviews-commercial-search-study/ AI traffic converts at 3x the rate of other channels (Microsoft Clarity): https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/ai-traffic-converts-at-3x-the-rate-of-other-channels-study/ Click loss when an AI Overview appears (Ahrefs): https://ahrefs.com/blog/?p=195053 How AI Mode is changing the way people search (Google): https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-mode-us-insights/ The 2026 Generative AI Landscape Report (Similarweb): https://www.similarweb.com/corp/reports/2026-generative-ai-landscape/ Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings, including AI Mode's 1B+ monthly users: https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q2-2026/ Google.com is now AI Mode's #2 cited domain (Profound): https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/google-com-is-now-ai-mode-s-2-cited-domain Google's AI features documentation for site owners: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features The Search Signal is hosted by Michael Transon, founder and CEO of Victorious, and brings marketers research-backed guidance on what's happening in search. New episodes weekly. If this one helped, leave a review and hit follow so the next episode finds you.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #8

  Which AI Search Platform Should I Prioritize?

  Aug 4, 202638 minS1

  ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI surfaces all launched around the same time, so most marketers built one AI search strategy to cover them all. This week, Michael argues these platforms have grown too different for one playbook and explains how to pick which ones deserve their own strategy. In this episode: What every AI platform rewards: pages AI crawlers can read and third-party mentions of your brand Gemini's most-cited sources overlap more with ChatGPT's than with Google's own AI Mode or AI Overviews Why visibility tools and surveys can't tell you which platforms your buyers use, and three ways to resource AI search Why Google surfaces come first: AI Overviews appear in over 40% of searches, AI Mode passed a billion monthly users, and nearly six in 10 consumers double-check AI answers on Google How to pick your second platform: corporate spend data points B2B brands to Claude, while Pew keeps ChatGPT the B2C front-runner Key sources are below. Find the complete list of links on the episode page: https://victorious.com/podcast/which-ai-platform-to-optimize/ Chapter Headings [00:01:11] This week in search: Search Console platform properties roll out worldwide [00:03:52] Why a whole category of AI search got treated as one channel [00:06:06] AI is not a monolith [00:09:22] What every AI platform has in common: page rendering and third-party mentions [00:11:52] Where the platforms diverge: training data, live search, and citation overlap [00:13:36] Claude's brand-owned citations and Perplexity's moving target [00:15:37] Why the same platform won't answer the same way twice [00:17:07] Why your visibility tools can't tell you where your buyers are [00:18:36] Three credible surveys, three different numbers [00:19:58] Three ways to resource an AI search strategy [00:23:34] Why Google surfaces come first, and the case for AI Mode [00:28:08] Picking a second platform: B2B, B2C, and citation pools [00:34:28] Four takeaways Sources Google Search Central Blog, "Platform properties roll out globally," July 29, 2026, https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/07/platform-properties-social-video-guide Victorious, "Quarterly Search Report," 2026, https://victorious.com/quarterly-search-report/ Ramp, "AI Index," June 26, 2026, https://ramp.com/data/ai-index-june-2026 Pew Research Center, "How Americans' Opinions and Use of AI Differ by Age," June 17, 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/how-opinions-and-use-of-ai-differ-by-age/ Google, "Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Remarks from Our CEO," July 22, 2026, https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q2-2026/ Related Episodes AI Search Right Now https://victorious.com/podcast/ai-search-right-now/ How Do AI Platforms Affect Your Brand Reputation? https://victorious.com/podcast/brand-reputation/ The Q2 2026 Quarterly Search Report https://victorious.com/podcast/q2-2026-quarterly-search-report/

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #7

  Does AI Change How Much You Should Spend on SEO?

  Jul 28, 202645 minS1

  Every competitor can buy the same AI tools you can, at the same price, this afternoon. That makes AI table stakes, which means the thing actually worth funding is the judgment directing it. In this episode of The Search Signal, Michael Transon puts a number on that: about 1 percent of revenue, or $800 a month at $1 million in revenue and $80,000 at $100 million, plus the four arguments to make when your CFO asks why AI can't just do all of this now. What you'll hear in this episode: Marketing budgets have fallen to 7.8 percent of company revenue from 9.5 percent four years ago, while the AI share of those shrinking budgets climbed past 15 percent The production layer AI genuinely handles well: data pulls, first drafts, keyword research, and reporting, the work a junior analyst or a freelancer used to do Why clearing the baseline earns you nothing, using last quarter's research: AI described 96 percent of brands accurately and nine out of 10 still never got mentioned in a buyer answer Two cost assumptions that don't hold up: a Harvard Business Review field study that spent eight months inside a 200-person tech company and found AI intensified work instead of reducing it, and the fact that AI is only this cheap because providers are absorbing billions in losses to build adoption What each tier funds: $800 to $1,000 a month at $1 million in revenue, $8,000 at $10 million, $15,000 to $17,000 at $20 million, and $80,000 at $100 million and up The four arguments for a CFO, including organic search as a compounding asset rather than a cost, and why ground competitors are abandoning is the cheapest ground you'll ever take Find all sources referenced in this episode here: http://victorious.com/podcast/marketing-budget/ Chapter Headings [00:01:12] This week in search: Alphabet's earnings put Cloud ahead of search [00:03:27] Google's information agents push answers before you search [00:04:31] AI Mode connects to Instacart, Canva, and YouTube Music [00:06:02] Top Stories moves inside AI Overviews [00:07:40] A judge throws out Google's copyright case against SerpApi [00:08:52] The question: should you run search in-house with AI? [00:10:31] Budgets are down, the AI line item is up [00:13:19] Why search should keep its funding [00:15:35] What AI genuinely does well [00:17:06] Everyone buys the same tools, so no tool is the advantage [00:20:11] Spreadsheets, Google Analytics, and the chisel [00:23:20] Assumption one: AI lets you do the same work with fewer people [00:25:35] Assumption two: AI stays this cheap [00:27:55] AI isn't a fourth option, it's a layer underneath [00:29:49] The rule of thumb: 1 percent of revenue [00:31:07] At $1 million in revenue [00:32:24] At $10 million in revenue [00:33:39] At $20 million in revenue [00:36:43] At $100 million and up, run both [00:38:26] The case to make to your CFO [00:42:36] Three takeaways

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #6

  Why Does AI Mention Some Brands and Not Others? Our Q2 Search Report

  Jul 21, 202638 minS1

  This week we discuss Victorious' new quarterly search report and unpack some of the findings. Learn what separates the handful of companies AI names from everyone else it merely recognizes, and why closing that gap happens on the parts of the web you don’t own. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why AI recognizing your brand and AI naming your brand are two different things: 96% of brands were described accurately, but 89% don't show up in category answers The signals that do predict a mention: referring domains and third-party web mentions led, while SEMrush Authority Score, Knowledge Graph presence, and organic rankings barely moved the number The third-party mention threshold: brands with fewer than 2,000 pages mentioning them got named about 3% of the time, and brands above 30,000 got named 64% of the time Why AI almost never cites your own website, and why your site still matters anyway How a buyer’s question changes everything: early “do I need this” questions and late “what’s the best option” questions pull completely different sources, and brands get named more than 12 times as often in comparison answers Sources from this episode linked below: https://victorious.com/podcast/q2-2026-quarterly-search-report/ Chapter Headings [00:01:04] Google becomes AI Mode's No. 2 cited domain [00:02:03] Merchant Center's new AI performance insights [00:03:03] Ask YouTube opens to US desktop [00:04:18] The report: AI knows you, but 89% never get named [00:09:22] What predicts a mention: referring domains, third-party mentions, and co-occurrence [00:14:14] Why AI's citation sources differ by industry [00:15:21] The third-party mention threshold [00:16:41] Beyond the report: PR coverage, follow links, and anchor text [00:24:05] Does AI ever cite your own website? [00:26:52] How the buyer's question changes the answer [00:30:43] What to do about it, and where to start this week Sources Profound, “Google is AI Mode’s No. 2 Most-Cited Domain: Report,” July 15, 2026, https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/google-com-is-now-ai-mode-s-2-cited-domain Google Merchant Center, “AI Performance Insights for AI Mode and AI Overviews,” July 14, 2026, https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/17200695 YouTube, “Ask YouTube AI Search Experience Expands to US Desktop Users,” July 9, 2026, https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/448540943/try-a-new-conversational-search-experience-with-ask-youtube Victorious, “Q2 2026 Quarterly Search Report,” 2026, https://victorious.com/quarterly-search-report/ Related Episodes Episode 3: How To Tell If AI Search Is Working, https://victorious.com/podcast/how-to-tell-if-ai-search-is-working/ Episode 5: How Do AI Platforms Affect Your Brand Reputation?, https://victorious.com/podcast/brand-reputation/

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #5

  AI Brand Reputation: Where It Comes From & How To Fix It

  Jul 14, 202635 minS1

  Most marketers focus on two AI search numbers: mentions and citations. Neither one tells you if a platform describes your brand in a way that introduces reputational risk. What you’ll hear in this episode: The commercial cost when AI gets your brand wrong. Two kinds of AI memory and how to address reputation issues accordingly. Why ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews can describe brands differently, with more consistency among some industries than others. How to diagnose where a bad answer comes from and what to do about it. Chapters [00:00:48] Google's new Search Console Platform Properties report [00:02:00] SEMrush: how B2B buyers rely on AI to pick vendors [00:03:59] SEMrush: AI Overviews move into commercial searches [00:05:48] Mentions and citations vs. brand reputation [00:09:03] Why AI misrepresentation is a commercial risk [00:14:37] The two kinds of AI memory: corpus and retrieval [00:17:22] Why your reputation changes depending on the platform [00:18:44] Where AI actually learns about your brand [00:21:34] How to monitor your AI reputation [00:23:54] Diagnosing the source: citation or corpus [00:27:37] Seeding, co-occurrence, and third-party content [00:31:48] The one takeaway and where to start this week Sources AirOps, “2026 State of AI Search,” December 2, 2025, https://www.airops.com/report/the-2026-state-of-ai-search Fractl, “AI Search Consumer Trust Study: Brand Visibility Strategies for 2026,” June 25, 2026, https://www.frac.tl/ai-statistics/ Profound, “The AI Mention Effect,” July 1, 2026, https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/the-ai-mention-effect Idea Grove, “Only 2% of Consumers Buy From an AI-Recommended Brand Without Checking It First,” April 15, 2026, https://www.ideagrove.com/blog/ai-recommendations-survey Lewis et al. (NeurIPS), “Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks,” 2020, https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401 BrightEdge, “BrightEdge Data Reveals New AI Brand Risk for CMOs,” March 5, 2026, https://www.brightedge.com/news/press-releases/brightedge-data-google-ai-overviews-more-likely-to-criticize-brands-than-chatgpt Peec AI, “Top Domains Cited by AI Search,” March 31, 2026, https://peec.ai/blog/top-domains-cited-by-ai-search-analysis-based-on-30m-sources BrightEdge, “Why AI Engines Cite Different Sources but Recommend the Same Brands,” April 24, 2026, https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/ai-search-same-brands-different-sources More resources: https://victorious.com/podcast/brand-reputation/

  ListenShow Notes

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.