Growth Memo | Kevin Indig | Substack

How to build an AI SEO strategy that outlasts tactics

A tactic list isn't a strategy. Here's the difference and how to fix it.

Mar 2 • Amanda Johnson and Kevin Indig

AI-SEO is a change management problem

The AI SEO transformation requires a decades-old proven playbook: Organizational change management.

Feb 23 • Amanda Johnson and Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief #14

Breaking down the infrastructure of the Agentic Web: Cloudflare's "Markdown for Agents," WebMCP, the fallout from Google's Gemini 3 update, and what new…

Feb 19 • Kevin Indig

The science of how AI pays attention

I analyzed 1.2 million search results to find out exactly how AI reads. The verdict? It’s a busy editor, not a patient student.

Feb 16 • Kevin Indig

Synthetic Personas for better prompt tracking

Synthetic personas solve the cold-start problem with 85% accuracy by simulating search behavior across user segments.

Feb 9 • Kevin Indig

Most Popular

2024 predictions

Jan 3, 2024 • Kevin Indig

The first-ever UX Study of Google’s AI Overviews: The Data We've All Been Waiting For

May 12, 2025 • Kevin Indig

What content works well in LLMs?

Mar 17, 2025 • Kevin Indig

State of AI Search Optimization 2026

Jan 5 • Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief

Growth Intelligence Brief #14

Breaking down the infrastructure of the Agentic Web: Cloudflare's "Markdown for Agents," WebMCP, the fallout from Google's Gemini 3 update, and what new…

Feb 19 • Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief #13

Google makes AI changes to the SERPs, Chrome and shopping at rapid pace. We're getting more telemetry but still miss key numbers (AIOs, *cough…

Feb 4 • Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief #12

Explaining the AI hype and how it carries over to SEO,

Jan 15 • Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief #11

ChatGPT reduces Amazon's visibility before BFCM | high value prompts on ChatGPT | the consultant vs. commodity economy | Gemini 3

Dec 5, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Research

The science of how AI pays attention

I analyzed 1.2 million search results to find out exactly how AI reads. The verdict? It’s a busy editor, not a patient student.

Feb 16 • Kevin Indig

GSC data is 75% incomplete

My analysis of 450M impressions shows Google filters 3/4 of your data. Here is how to measure the gap.

Feb 2 • Kevin Indig

The Alpha is not LLM monitoring

Exclusive data about the AI Search funding landscape reveals the true upside of the market - and potential down rounds

Nov 26, 2025 • Kevin Indig

LLM traffic is shrinking

LLMs are a visibility surface. Not traffic you can bank on.

Nov 3, 2025 • Kevin Indig

AI

Chat GPT Search

A warm welcome to 131 new Growth Memo readers who joined us last week!

Nov 4, 2024 • Kevin Indig

AI on Innovation - part 2

More insights from +546k AI Overviews

Sep 24, 2024 • Kevin Indig

AI on Innovation

Analysis of +546,000 AIO overviews

Sep 16, 2024 • Kevin Indig

🤔Can Search GPT disrupt Google Search?

Jul 29, 2024 • Kevin Indig

General SEO Frameworks

Keywords are dead. But the Keyword Universe Isn’t.

A better alternative to keyword research (including tool)

Jun 30, 2025 • Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson

This Memo was sent out to 20,079 subscribers.

Jun 24, 2025 • Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson

How to measure topical authority [in 2025]

Topical Authority is still a mystical concept, partly because we don't have a good way to measure it. In this post, I want to offer a method to quantify…

May 20, 2025 • Kevin Indig

How I edit AI content

A workflow for the new age of content creation

Apr 14, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Takes

2025 Reflection

My thoughts on the industry | where Growth Memo is at and where it's going | Personal reflection

Dec 15, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Scoring my 2025 predictions

This Memo was sent to 23,134 subscribers.

Dec 9, 2025 • Kevin Indig

10 SEO, marketing, and tech predictions for 2026

2026 marks the beginning of the “Agentic Era,” where AI stops just consuming the web and starts writing to it.

Dec 2, 2025 • Kevin Indig

AI Halftime Report H1 2025

Exclusive interview about the publisher lawsuit, exclusive data on the confidence of AI trackers, AI Overviews, AI Mode and how to upskill

Jul 28, 2025 • Kevin Indig

E-commerce

E-commerce Deep Dive, Q2 2025 (case study: Stitch Fix)

The era of volatility, tariff response, organic visibility goes from big to small sites

Apr 11, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Transformation complete

Google's new AI shopping experience verticalizes Search

Oct 28, 2024 • Kevin Indig

#240 Google's new shopping experience resurrects an old concept

Feb 12, 2024 • Kevin Indig

E-commerce shifts

#233 Merchants face a rapidly changing e-commerce environment

Dec 27, 2023 • Kevin Indig

SaaS

SaaS Deep Dive - Q1 2025 (case study: Zapier)

Is SaaS held up by AI? Why are Buffer and Rippling winning? How to waste millions with botched site migrations.

Mar 12, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Beating incumbents at content in competitive spaces

Edd Wilson asks: How do you plan content investment for new companies/brands in competitive spaces?

Aug 21, 2023 • Kevin Indig

Microsites were originally invented for short-lived campaigns.

Jul 17, 2023 • Kevin Indig

Long sales cycles, the #1 enemy of SEO attribution

Attribution models are the most common way to quantify the returns on marketing investments, but not every company can use them successfully.

Apr 11, 2023 • Kevin Indig

Marketplaces

Effective Marketplace SEO is more like Product Growth

There are two types of SEO: product-led and marketing-led.

Jun 3, 2025 • Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson

Marketplace Deep Dive - Q2

How Chegg fights AI disruption, Eventbrite gains +34% SEO traffic, Homes.com invests $1 billion in brand

May 8, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Can Network Effects replace Performance Marketing?

Airbnb crushed the third quarter of 2022.

Nov 21, 2022 • Kevin Indig

Online platforms progressively blend paid with organic results

Organic and paid results on Google, Bing, Amazon, Facebook, and Co are blending more into each other. In this post, you learn what to do about it.

Oct 5, 2020 • Kevin Indig

Deep Dives

E-commerce Deep Dive, Q2 2025 (case study: Stitch Fix)

The era of volatility, tariff response, organic visibility goes from big to small sites

Apr 11, 2025 • Kevin Indig

Marketplace Deep Dive - Q1 (Case Study: Zillow)

Exclusive insights into Zillow's SEO strategy + large analysis of marketplace data

Feb 14, 2025 • Kevin Indig

39:36

E-commerce Deep Dive, Q1 2025

Live Session recap: video recording, slides and show notes.

Jan 20, 2025

1:52:51

Annual Showdown 2024

Video recording, slides and show notes

Dec 17, 2024 • Kevin Indig

Recent posts

Growth Intelligence Brief #13

Google makes AI changes to the SERPs, Chrome and shopping at rapid pace. We're getting more telemetry but still miss key numbers (AIOs, *cough…

Feb 4 • Kevin Indig

GSC data is 75% incomplete

My analysis of 450M impressions shows Google filters 3/4 of your data. Here is how to measure the gap.

Feb 2 • Kevin Indig

How do you compete in Agentic Commerce?

The last decade rewarded marketing arbitrage. Agentic commerce rewards product truth.

Jan 26 • Kevin Indig

The Great Decoupling

Traffic and pipeline no longer move together. I’ll show you how to deal with it.

Jan 19 • Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson

Growth Intelligence Brief #12

Explaining the AI hype and how it carries over to SEO,

Jan 15 • Kevin Indig

How much can we influence AI responses?

New research shows we can influence LLM outputs far more than expected - and that’s the real risk.

Jan 12 • Kevin Indig

State of AI Search Optimization 2026

Search is shifting from ranked lists to definitive answers. This guide breaks down the retrieval, citation, and trust factors that determine LLM…

Jan 5 • Kevin Indig

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