Business Class Lounge by SearchPilot, hosted by Will Critchlow

Britney Muller is the founder and AI Consultant at Orange Labs. She has gone deep into understanding AI since the earliest days of the recent explosion in capabilities. As a result, she has a unique and detailed perspective on how things actually work and helped me dispel some myths and misconceptions including some in my own understanding. Her strongest argument is that to treat LLMs like search engines is to fundamentally misunderstand how they work. Ranking factors are the wrong mental model. Her ability to speak clearly while building on deep technical accuracy is unsurpassed and she also has some WILD anecdotes from her career in AI. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick Hathaway is the founder and CEO of Sitebulb. He and his team have built a beloved and powerful tool packed full of insights, and they've done it in quite a different way to SearchPilot. We thought that others might be interested to hear us discussing the differences and similarities in our philosophies and approaches. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Norman Nielsen has deep experience across travel, retail, and marketplace sites, and strong opinions about how organic discovery should work. In this episode Will and Norman reminisce about the growth of the web, and the changes to how consumers discover products and services. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Soulo has an irreverent approach to marketing, and strong opinions about how to approach GEO, grounded in deep experience of the SEO tools market. Join the conversation Will had with Tim about what works in 2026. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Will was joined by Abby Gleason , Senior Product Manager for SEO at Upwork. Abby has a rare blend of experience: she came up through agency SEO, moved into product at Scribd, and now runs SEO in a true product operating model at Upwork, with an engineering team, a roadmap, and a steady drumbeat of experiments. This session was about the system. How Abby picks what matters, writes it up so teams can ship, runs tests that stand up to scrutiny, and keeps growth moving even as the SERPs shift underneath us. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Probably the most common question we hear from SearchPilot customers is "how should we pick which tests to run?". In this episode, Will Critchlow asks Rodney Pérez how they do it at Wayfair. Rodney shares the frameworks and thought processes that underpin a large, competitive, and successful SEO organization. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow and Wil Reynolds cover some interesting and different topics in this episode of The Business Class Lounge. This candid conversation covers what Wil is seeing across hundreds of clients, how he is using AI day-to-day and what it takes to keep a 200+ person agency moving while the ground keeps shifting. Listen up for hard truths from Wil about how staying employable means treating AI learning like a second job, being honest about uncertainty, and building a culture of momentum and accountability. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow catches up with Mike King , founder and CEO at iPullRank to talk about GEO, fanout queries, agents, and what the cutting edge feels like at a top agency. Mike and Will go way back, so this episode covers a lot of ground, from SEO to Mike's view on the place of AI in the production of art. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Matthew Morrissey , Organic Search Director EU at adidas to talk about life at the cutting edge of enterprise SEO at a major global brand. Learn about the power of hunting insights, and insight rate over wins and testing cadence, team alignment, and where great ideas come from. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Brodie Clark , independent SEO consultant and ecommerce expert to talk about all the ways that the search result pages are changing, new display features and ranking algorithms, and all the ways these things affect ecommerce businesses in particular when it comes to SEO. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Ryan Lucht , Senior Technical Advocate at Datadog which he joined as part of the Eppo acquisition earlier this year. Ryan has deep experience and expertise in CRO experimentation, and has great insights to share from that world to help SEO experimentation catch up with CRO in testing maturity. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Aleyda Solis , founder & international SEO consultant at Orainti. Aleyda is the brains behind the leading SEOFOMO SEO newsletter and is the perfect expert to walk us through the changes she is seeing in search results. Some resources we mention in the conversation: SEO vs GEO Checklist Key traditional vs AI search differences The AI search content optimization checklist This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Ross Hudgens , founder and CEO at Siege Media. Ross brings a complementary skillset and background to Will's, with a deep focus on content and PR, and together they lay out a blueprint for the future of e-commerce SEO. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the audio of a live recording. You can watch the video here . In this episode, Will chats to Rand Fishkin . Will and Rand are old friends going back to their times running Distilled and Moz (actually, SEOmoz!) respectively. They got together to record in person when they were in NYC for SEO Week, and covered a wide range of topics including the perennial question: IS SEO DEAD? This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow is joined by Kevin Gibbons , founder of ecommerce specialist agency Re:signal. Their wide-ranging conversation reveals key insights into ecommerce SEO, aligning paid and organic search efforts, and why specialisation matters more now than ever. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow chats with his brother! Tom Critchlow is now the EVP Audience Growth at Raptive, but before that was an independent consultant, a Googler, and (going way back) a colleague at Distilled. Working in the same industry as family leads to various chats that roam across a wide range of topics, but for this conversation, we decided to record a discussion about the future of Google - a topic we have both been thinking about a lot. We cover Google's AI Mode and the curious ways that early versions missed the mark, the future of search queries, and paid search, as well as tactics and business plans for the future of AI powered search. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow interviews Eli Schwartz - ex-Survey Monkey and author of the book Product-Led SEO. Eli and I met during his Survey Monkey days, when he was developing the ideas that he would go on to publish in his book Product-Led SEO . We talk about how to survive the shift to an AI world with product-led thinking. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow interviews Abishek Rajendra - VP Organic Growth at Course Hero. I'm joined today by Abishek Rajendra who came to SEO from an engineering background, and so brings a rare perspective not only on the technical aspects of SEO itself, but also on the mindset of engineers, and the work that we are often asking them to do. He has deep experience with SEO testing, as well as with the more leadership-oriented elements of integrating effective organic growth into your digital marketing plan. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Critchlow interviews Todd "Oilman" Friesen - ex-Salesforce and Vimeo SEO expert. I’m joined today by Todd Friesen who OG SEOs will know as Oilman. He was already a huge name in the nascent industry when I got started “some time ago” and we first met at an SMX West conference in 2006 or 2007. The reason I’m particularly excited to talk to Todd is because he’s the best example I know of someone who started his career in the churn and burn world of darker-hat SEO, and then made a journey via agency life and director-level in-house roles to one of those relatively-rare VP of SEO positions. This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow . The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot . SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate. If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them. You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can we guess? Does it matter? The more Google relies on machine learning and user signals to make searchers happy, the less explainable the results are, and the harder they have to guess. Does that matter, and what should we do about it? Join Will as he meanders through these implications in this episode. Take the quiz here to test your SEO skills: https://searchpilot.scoreapp.com/ Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn , Twitter , or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.