Archive - Growth Memo

How consumers navigate high-stakes purchases in AI Mode

A new user behavior study showing how AI Mode users accept shortlists built by the LLM, while classic Google search users build them themselves.

28 mins ago • Kevin Indig

March 2026

Growth Intelligence Brief #16

Welcome to another Growth Intelligence Brief, where organic growth leaders discover what matters - getting insights into the bigger picture and guidance…

Mar 31 • Kevin Indig

The science of what AI actually rewards

Most AI SEO writing advice doesn’t hold at scale. This memo breaks down what AI actually rewards inside the content it reads and across verticals.

Mar 30 • Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson

The science of how AI picks its sources

I analyzed over 21K citations to understand the impact of content length, depth and focus.

Mar 23 • Kevin Indig

The brand tax: How Google profits from demand you already own

Most brands' highest-ROAS campaigns are capturing demand that already exists. Contentsquare's 99B-session benchmark shows the math is getting worse.

Mar 16 • Kevin Indig

Growth Intelligence Brief #15

GPTBot hit a zero-authority site 470x harder than Googlebot. New data shows that doesn't translate to citations. This week: the 2 filters that actually…

Mar 11 • Kevin Indig

Organic rankings vs. product grids: The new e-commerce divide

I analyzed 4K+ keywords and 40K product grids: The gap between classic SEO winners and product grid winners is enormous.

Mar 9 • Kevin Indig

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

February 2026

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

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