Ranking Locally: Your Guide to GMB & SEO (Unknown Secrets Revealed!) Ep. 580
Are you struggling to rank for local search terms? Have you ever wondered if creating separate local landing pages for various locations could be the…
AI Search
Why Old SEO Metrics Fail And What To Track Instead With Corey Morris
Old SEO metrics like keyword rankings no longer capture true marketing value; agencies should anchor KPIs to revenue, leads, and customer lifetime value, then work backwards to connect search activity to business outcomes.
Key takeaways
- Anchor reporting to revenue or profit first, then work backwards to connect search activity to those numbers.
- Modern SEO strategy, not 2020-era tactics, still influences LLM visibility, so updating existing content and practices matters.
- GA4 requires custom configuration to track LLM-driven traffic; it does not do this accurately out of the box.
- Brand differentiation and clear entity definition are now table stakes for both search engines and AI systems.
- Clients care about forward-looking indicators and projections, not historical dashboards they never open.
About this episode
We unpack how search is changing as LLMs reshape discovery and why revenue, not rankings, should anchor your strategy. Corey Morris joins Matt to map a practical path: entity clarity, brand differentiation, GA4 fixes, and forward-looking KPIs that speak C-suite. • shifting from keyword rankings to revenue KPIs • LLM visibility layered on modern SEO foundations • entity clarity, consistent data, and brand trust •…
Questions this episode answers
What KPIs should SEO agencies use instead of keyword rankings?
Corey Morris recommends starting with revenue or profitability as the anchor metric, then connecting backwards through leads, lead quality, and customer lifetime value. For B2B clients, validating clean CRM data tied to search-driven leads is the priority over traditional rank-tracking metrics.
Does traditional SEO still work for LLM visibility in 2026?
According to Corey Morris, modern up-to-date SEO still influences LLMs. He estimates about 80 percent of a current SEO strategy applies to LLM visibility, but SEO practices from 2022 or earlier do not carry over the same way to AI search systems.
How should agencies track traffic coming from AI tools like ChatGPT or Grok?
Voltage built custom configurations inside GA4 and Looker dashboards to categorize and attribute LLM-sourced traffic. Corey notes GA4 does not track this out of the box, and his team published a step-by-step article with 15 screenshots covering the setup process.
What is the biggest mistake brands make with digital marketing budgets?
Corey Morris says brands often spend heavily on paid search or SEO before fixing foundational gaps in messaging, product development, or attribution. One prospect his team audited thought they were 20 percent profitable on paid leads but were actually 20 percent negative due to attribution problems.
Terms defined in this episode
- LLM visibility
- The degree to which a brand or piece of content is surfaced or referenced by large language model systems such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, distinct from traditional search engine rankings.
- AI influence without attribution
- When an AI system applies a brand's framework or ideas in its responses without citing or crediting the original source, making that contribution invisible to standard analytics.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
- A term used in the industry to describe optimization strategies aimed specifically at large language models and generative AI search, debated as distinct from or overlapping with traditional SEO.
- START planning process
- Corey Morris's five-step digital marketing planning acronym covered in his book The Digital Marketing Success Plan, used as a six-week to two-month foundational strategy process before execution begins.
Full transcript is being added.
This episode answers
Matthew Bertram
AI keynote speaker · Owner & CEO, EWR Digital · President, ModalPoint
Matthew Bertram is an AI keynote speaker, creator of DIG™ (Digital Information Governance), and owner and CEO of EWR Digital. He helps energy and industrial leaders win visibility in AI search (GEO and AEO), is President of ModalPoint and CMO of the Oil & Gas Global Network, hosts The Best SEO Podcast, and has authored eight books including LLM Visibility. More about Matthew Bertram.
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