The Future is Now: How to Win at SEO and GEO with Brooke Henderson

In this episode Chris and Anne speak with Brooke Henderson, VP, US Strategic Partnerships at Yext to get an inside look at how conversational search is shifting how multifamily marketers should approach their online presence. 

Brooke takes us through the current search landscape and how multifamily marketers can update their SEO strategy to account for conversational search - the new trend that is being heavily driven by AI search engines.  Listeners will walk away with an understanding of how search is changing and how the basics of SEO + incorporating new tactics will keep you inline with prospect expectations.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And now a message from our sponsor Flamingo. Every multifamily marketer wants to know what the next big thing will be. At the apartment department, we think that resident retention is the next big thing, which is why we're excited to have Flamingo as our podcast sponsor. Flamingo, founded by Jude Chai, is an all-in-one resident retention platform used by some of the top performing communities in the country. And here's a fun little secret. If you see a community with 300 plus online reviews and 65% plus retention, there's a good chance they're using Flamingo. From automated renewal management and resident events to amenity bookings and even an AI concierge, Flamingo brings everything together in one sleek app that residents actually use. Learn more at getflamingo.com. Hi everyone and welcome to the apartment department. I'm Ann Baum, and with me as always is my co-host Chris Johnson. And today, well, we always have special guests, but today we have a really, really special guest, and that is Brooke Henderson. She is the VP of U.S. Strategic Partnerships at YEXT. And if anyone was at AIME this year, then you might have seen her on stage with Reach discussing Geo and the future of AI Search. So today we're excited because Brooke is really going to talk to us about how search is changing and how marketers can really adapt to that shift, both today and also in the future. So we're going to talk a lot about how Google and AI Search are really favoring conversational uh search, conversational experiences, um, as well as just generally user-generated content and just showing an experience as opposed to giving back just kind of static results. So we can't wait to dive more into that. But first, Brooke, tell us a little bit about YXT. Um, I'm familiar with YXT from way back in the day, like 15 years ago, when uh I worked at an agency that was managing local listings. And that's how I really know you guys. But I know that over the years you've really evolved to be just a really strategic player from um, you know, a marketing standpoint. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about YXT.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Yeah, lots and lots of thank you for having me, by the way. Thank you. This is fun. I've I love this community. I love the the multifamily marketers just because they come up with some great ideas, great content, and just just a joy to be around. So thanks for having me today. So YXT, yeah, most people do know us for you know listings. And you know, it was back in 2008 when the iPhone launched, believe it or not, where YXT was actually created really as a result of that app revolution. Um, at that moment in time, um, marketers were faced with where in the, how in the world do I get all of my uh business information and content on all of these apps? Like, where do where do I go? Where do I choose? What do I do? And thus came yes that really helped to solve that problem by helping, you know, businesses and marketers really control what people knew about them on all of these different platforms. Um, and you fast forward to where we are today, I think we're faced with the same exact problem. And it's so funny that you know, what we were going through, you know, over two decades ago, we're in the same boat because of this new revolution of platforms where it's all driven um by AI. And so, as over the years, as at YXT has evolved, we've had to evolve with that. We've had to stay with it and really understand, you know, where was it going? And I would say when you think about YX today, you want to think of a brand visibility platform. Um, it's not just one thing, it's a culmination of many things. And where, you know, you we really see ourselves um helping brands and small businesses of all different verticals and industries is helping them to understand how am I performing? Where am I not performing, and how am I competing against you know those that are in that same area? And then what do I do once I understand that? Once I understand the gaps and what actions can I take. And so that's how YX has evolved is not just listings, but really understanding at the highest level of uh search, you know, and visibility. And then what do you do once you understand, once you understand those gaps? Um, and then you can execute on those.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Okay. Yeah, that sounds very much like the evolution of multifamily marketing where um, you know, as we've gotten more data, we've really been able to hone in specifically in our on our properties and understand, you know, what are our competitors doing and and how do we put together a marketing mix? So I I think that that makes sense. You you made me think too, not related, but um, I was thinking about do you remember the local search ecosystem graph that used to come out every yes, and you would literally like add like 500 different sources on it, and you would like follow the different lines to like see like oh like doing what and how would the the indirect information getting to all the other places?

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Oh my gosh, yes, we do remember.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

It still we would wait on a yearly basis for that thing to come out, and by the way, it still exists. Um, but I digress. So, I mean, tell us, you know, like I said, we saw you at AIME, tell us a little bit about what is going on right now from kind of a search standpoint, uh, just you know, with AI coming on board and just there are so many changes.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah, I mean, where where to start? I mean, I guess you want to start with the renter's journey, right? Like they're not just going to Google anymore. And, you know, this is, you know, globally, we obviously see that as well, but applied to multifamily, there's so many options now for um a renter to explore and search and discover what it is that they're looking for. Um, and we saw this shift change around November of 2022 when everyone remembers. I think I I I certainly don't forget when like Chat GPT came onto the, you know, onto the landscape and it was like, oh my gosh, I've been using it ever since. And wow, has it evolved? I mean, chat GPT 5, have you guys been using that? Like it, it's freaking amazing. Like, and that was, believe it or not, that was what two years ago, a little over two years ago. I think I read a statistic that said recently, and and I'll try to find it for for later, but that from November 2022 to where we are today, 365 billion annual searches are happening on Chat GPT, and it took Google 11 years to get there in a short period of time. So that just represents the paradigm of and of the the shifting paradigm where we all have a lot more choices for you know our search and our discovery. And I think, you know, now marketers are faced with, what the hell do I do? Right? How do how do I know? Especially with AI being somewhat of a black box, because one, there's no playbook, right? There's no AI playbook, there's no platform that you can go and log into, like a Google Business Profile platform, right? Um, where you can actually, you know, say, okay, this is my business, and there's no ad platform yet. Like there's nothing that we can actually um tangibly see. So it's kind of a a big black box that we're all trying to figure out and kind of understand how to play with it and perform on it.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, we're all secretly trying to train the algorithm. Like on we're like, did you know that this property in this neighborhood is the best place to live?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Training that's like and that's like going back to when you were like stuffing your keywords behind a web page and they were like invisible, you know? And you know, it's like the same thing. But I think this brings up a good point because people are using both and SEO slash GEO are so important just to any search in any industry, especially ours. What is the take so far on what this what we need to do to rank in both? Because I think Google is still relevant as if you listen if you're a listener of this pod. I don't think Google's dying and does. Google search, that is. Um, although I do use chat for a lot of things as well. I've been using it since day one as well. Um, and it's a good program. So my question, Brooke, is do we have any do you have any data or any statistics or just the feeling of how do you do both?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Really, really great question. And actually, what we have been doing at YXT with our scout report is really uncovering the gaps both on the AI search side, but also on the traditional search side. Look, I'm not saying that you know Google's not important. It is critical to every multifamily marble, right? Uh, every multifamily marketer is it's still critical. There's still conversions happen happening on it. While we've seen a drop in traffic, something that we've seen from our own studies uh of our own customers is that while that traffic is dropped, the conversions are still there, which means that they're still going to Google to transact. Obviously, watch out when you can transact on the others, right? Like when you can transact on, and we're starting to see, you know, lights of that, you know, little beginnings of that with Chat GBT working on um ways that you can shop inside of you know their platform and perplexity's already done it with like Shopify and you know some of these others. So they're they're going to get there, but it it's you know, it's not gonna happen overnight or immediately. So you still need to um obviously do the same things that you've been doing from a traditional perspective. But you know, you and I were talking about this before the podcast, like even the recent Google update, like it, it really unearthed and shook some rankings, right? Like things started to happen. I I think I read in one article in Search Engine Journal, like it heated the community with the the ruffling of feathers when it came to those rankings. But I think what you need to think about is like Google's also in this game, right? They've got Gemini. Um, and it's a conversation now. We're all talking with our voices, we're all asking questions, we're not keywording it anymore, right? That's the old ways of things. And I think that if you're going to want to be successful, both from a you know, an AI search perspective as well as, you know, from Google's perspective, is preparing your content and using user, user-centric, user-generated content, not just your keyword strategies. You're not, you're not, it's not for the algorithm, it's for conversation. Does that make sense? Like that that is where we're going. So you want to make sure that you're prioritizing that type of content. Uh, meaning taking your content from your reviews as an example. That what you can glean from reviews is what people really love about your property and what they really hate about it. That that's golden, right? It's how they actually transact with you. Why not use that when you know it hits a hot button? Right. And you want to do that with your landing pages. You want to mark up what you've seen in that user-generated content. Mark up your pages with schema and make sure that you're hitting those those hot buttons for for the consumers to do that. Um, and monitor performance closely using the Search Console, you know, um, making sure that you're focusing on shifts in traffic, rankings, user engagement. You want to keep your eyes open and appeal to that, anticipate the volatility. It's it's gonna happen. You know, we we know that these updates are going to happen and it's gonna shake things up, especially after an update has happened. So you want to continue to watch it week over week and then obviously evaluate competitor uh and industry trends. Um, some benefit from kind of seeing how they cut recover partially and you know how ranking is shifting and what what's happening there. And then stay in line with Google's guidance. I think it those are some of the things that you can do as you are strategizing for search both today and tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

So what I'm hearing is less about keywords, more about conversation. It's supposed to be more natural. So we we are gonna be focused less on these long tail keys or short tail keywords or keywords in general, but in really trying to use the content that we know of that is working and people are searching for that's already natural, which is 100% a really good way of thinking about it, but also I think a different way of thinking about it. Or it it it sounds like common sense, but I don't know if we I don't think I've given it thought like that before that you have this content and you can use it on your pages, not as like, oh, here's this great five-star review, but actually aggregate what their the reviews are saying and then put that content somewhere for it to be found.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Absolutely. And you think about the way that these platforms are built, there's that memory that they have about you as a user. Think about personalized ranking. I think I talked about this even um at the AIM conference specifically. Is if you are a music enthusiast and you're looking for an apartment in Nashville, I think even, I think it was Melissa, she even said that they started building intent pages that were specific culturally to those types of those types of audiences. And it started to work for them. Like, and that's the AI loves that, right? Especially as it memorizes and knows what it is that you like, then it's gonna start to recommend well, hey, you're looking for an apartment in Nashville, and there's some great content right here about music, and there's apartments right nearby. So that's what you want to start to think about, also is like as you're having this conversation, what is it that the AI can shines know about you based off of how you're engaging with it? Um, and how do you um leverage that? And and multifamily has such a great opportunity to expand on. I mean, think about it. You've got neighborhoods, you've got music, you've got art, you've got, I mean, uh things to do, amenities, dog parks, like there's so much that you can feed these engines that will immediately convert someone because they're it's their specific like.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

I think that's interesting. I think it's it's kind of like Chris was saying, like, it's a whole new thing to think about. Like, I know how I talk to Chat GPT, right? Like, it's a whole, I mean, like you said, it's a conversation, but it's I'm like, you know, I'll get frustrated. And so, like, I think what's hard is in the old days, or like whatever we had, we could look and see what keywords people were searching for. We could, you know, use keyword estimator tools and all the things, and like now to think about the actual conversations that people are having with AI, and then trying to capture all of that into content is just, I don't know. I'm I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around you know, all the conversations are gonna be so different. Uh, keywords seem simple now that now the keywords seem simple.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Keywords were never simple.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

I know. I was like, I don't know what that's I'm already getting tricked into thinking that like here's the thing, like you get comfortable, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:46

You get comfortable with the keywords, but I d I find it almost refreshing. Um, primarily, I I think you know, I put my consumer hat on all of the time. I am a mom of four. I I always use the example of find looking for a dentist. I have very specific needs for a dentist, and I think you got you guys probably do too. But if I have to find a new dentist, I did this a couple years ago. And this is funny because it was a couple years ago and I did this search and I found exactly what I wanted, which was I need a dentist in Hampstead that had that accepts Cigna and has appointments on Saturday. That was my search, right? When you apply that to multifamily, I was like, I would say find me a pet-friendly apartment with a pool uh near downtown for under$2,000. And what's really fascinating about that question is that every single property owner knows how to answer that question. They know how much their apartments are, they know that whether or not they're pet friendly, they know if they're downtown. It's like to me, it's like it's not rocket science, right? You have all of the information to answer that question. All you have to do is make sure that the AI engines have access to that to be able to answer that question.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

So can I ask a this is could probably kind of a uh a question we probably should have asked sooner, but aren't these AI engines still using the web? So Google or other what are they using to get their their facts? Because they don't have their own engine, right? So they're going they're going out somewhere to get it. Do we know exactly where they pulled this info?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

That is, I love that you asked that question. And and obviously, being us that we are, we wanted to understand that. And what we very quickly learned is that they're citing other other third party sources. Um, and they're citing sources such as Yelp as an example. They're citing uh Yellow Pages and Hours.com and Mint.com and all of they're citing all of these sources that are relevant to that searcher's query in that moment. Um, and that is why it's become so important to still have an accurate, consistent uh presence on all of these different platforms, all of these different publishers, um, while also making sure that that same consistent signal that you're sending to these publishers is the same signal that you have on your website and on the pages that you're building about your properties. If you do those things while also having a great um reputation strategy and a great social strategy, you should perform beautifully on these platforms.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah, because you mentioned schema before. And I mean, schema is basically how information is categorized categorized on the back end of your website so that search engines can quickly reference and read it and pull it out. And so that's fascinating because you know, it's like that's a very simple, basic like SEO strategy. And so to think about oh, continuing to use that so that information is indexable, maybe looking at schema again to see are there additional schema types that aren't usually used on property websites that now can be added on based on what you're saying, looking at kind of review, you know, what's being said in reviews and stuff like that, and then comparing that to what type of schema is available and and maybe pulling some of that onto the back end of your website. So, okay, we can do that. That's not calm, that's not complicated.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

It's so funny you the way that that resonated with you. I was talking to another property management software just a couple weeks ago, and they're they looked at each other and they're like, we need to make sure that our schema is updated on these websites. And I said, and you can create custom schema. Like if it if it does, if it's not a default template or a default field, you can create custom schema. It's the language that these engines prefer. And really, if you think about it, I mean 50% of traffic is coming from bots, from from AI bots, right? So you have to build this algorithmic trust now. Um, and the best way to do that is structuring data, structured data and making sure that those websites are up to date and marked up with schema.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

That's a good nice little tidbit that we got out in for our listeners. Something that they can take a step.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

You know, I'm to do from the episode, right, Corin?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Well, I'm the you know, crawl, walk, run person anyway when I'm rolling this stuff out. And when you're talking about SEO, it's a big I mean it's a big lift in our industry, and we need help. And just getting us to have the right conversations with our partners if we're using it or if we're doing it on our own to start these conversations and start somewhere, that's something that a lot of people can resonate with, just like Anne. I resonate on the content side and you talk. A little bit about it. What other content can we be putting out? I love video, that's been my pet project this year, and I actually have a video FAQ, which I've been trying to do for a year and a half and it's live. Um I wasn't really excited we were gonna talk about it. Really excited about it because it's on our website, but we're all we also put it on YouTube, and we chaptered it on YouTube and it's cut on our website. But what other content can we do? I know video is important, so maybe touch on video and then any other pieces of content that you think makes a difference or can move the needle, that's also fun for us to create.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I love this question. I mean, and I do agree. Video. I mean, the 18 to 34 demographic is on TikTok. Lives on TikTok is always on TikTok. I doom scroll at midnight when I can't sleep, right? I think. Do you do this, Ann? Do you doom scroll? You don't do scroll?

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Well, okay, I'm lying. I do. Okay, I'm lying. Not on like Instagram on or TikTok, but I have a LinkedIn, as we've spoken about, I have a LinkedIn problem. So I do Doom Scroll on LinkedIn, yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

We all do. Like for me, it's for me, it's Instagram. My husband is YouTube Shorts, my kids are TikTok. But you would be stupid not to do short form videos, right? Especially in your industry. There's so many things that are eye-catching and visually appealing that allow you to uh really put your best foot forward. It reminds me of that quote, that old-fashioned saying, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That's your first impression. You might as well use it, right? And I mean, those new renters, you know, they'll look and they'll stop and they'll watch it over and over again, or they'll share it, or they'll just scroll to the next. I mean, you wanna you wanna capture their attention, and that's the way that you're going to do it. So I would most definitely continue down your path the path of short form video. And remember, you know, like TikTok is a search engine. It's so funny. My my kids laugh at me when I say Google something, um, because that is such a term of I apparently I'm I will be crossing over to 50 this year. So obviously that age is you Google something, their age, which is you know, 18, 20, 24, is I'm going to search on TikTok. So that is that's the new the new form, the new video. Um, I think other things that can be done is voice search optimization. I think this is really, really going to continue to be important. Find apartments near me, queries on like Sierra and Alexa, uh Sierra, Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, those aren't going away. I mean, I use my um Siri every single day in my car by hitting that little button and I tell it what I want and when I want it. I think that's really important. And this is just making sure that you continue to manage the name, address, phone number, the business hours, like the basic things about the apartment so that when someone is hitting that button in the car, like I use I use Siri constantly, um, especially because I drive a lot, you know, from place to place and all of that. And I use that button in my car all the time. So, like for queries like find apartments near me or give me that phone number, or um, are they opened right now so I can go visit them? Those are things that are happening when one is driving, especially like think about all the laws about Bluetooth and you know, hands-free. Those are very tangible things that you also have to think about, right? As a marketer is making sure that you know you're available um in those moments. So we call that voice search optimization.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

You're I think I'll pick my question on that. Yeah, because we've been talking about voice for a long time. I mean, voice when Siri, Alexa, all these things came out. This is years ago. I mean, 10, 12, longer years ago. Has it changed or has the voice search gotten better or more people using it?

SPEAKER_02 27:01

You just have to think about the engines that are behind it, right? Like, for example, and where where are those searches leading to? So, if they're, for example, with Siri, if you are going somewhere or wanting to make a phone call, that information's coming from Apple Business, right? So that means that you need to make sure that your business information is managed on Apple Business. Alexa is a little bit more of a black box, also. Um, but I will say, like partners like us, we we submit data directly to Alexa, but also depending on the type of search that you do inside of Alexa, will depend on you know the data that they hit. Um, as an example, if you are looking for best apartments near me, it's likely Alexa is using Yelp data. If it is a direct branded question, it's likely they could be using, you know, data that we've submitted, you know, to Alexa, we being um yes. So it's all dependent on the search term itself, also. Not one search term is the same. When you go to Google and you say, I want the best restaurant, then it's going to be driven by the reviews, right? Google is understanding the intent that you have is that you want to go to the best. And the reason that those reviews exist and those review ratings exist is so that they can provide you with that that result. Um, it's not going to show anything below a three-star for that term best, um, unless that's the best star rating there is, which at some point, if you're in an area like that, maybe go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Well, Brooke, it's funny you say that. I just noticed that on Google. When you searched best something, it's now ranking it with with the little rating 4.5 and above. Yeah.

unknown 28:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

And then so that's kind of interesting. They are trying to make their results better. That's what Google has always tried to do. But I think the competition is picking up and they want they want to keep serving you the best info they can.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah, absolutely. And going on to a review strategy and going back to you know, the the conversational piece of it, using positive reviews and ad creative, why not? Right? If if what people are saying about you is what they're happy about, don't you think that new customers would benefit from that?

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Right. Instead of the like very what everyone's making fun of now, you know, like luxury apartments, well appointed, da-da-da. It's like, what does that mean? How about like our residents love that we have events every month? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Yeah, I was actually talking to another um well-known property management um software company, and they actually are starting to see using that generated content, that user-generated content in their social campaigns, they're getting better conversion rates. They're getting higher conversion rate, like 50 cent, 50% and above, which is like wow. And this is just some initial studies that they're finding, but there's there's proof in the pudding that it's not just one thing that you do, right? You have to do all of it if you want to be relevant. If you don't want to be relevant, then just do one one month and one the other month. But if you want to be relevant, I would absolutely suggest focusing on all of them and how they interconnect with one another. And I think the the interconnect is what's really, really important because we've discovered in our studies that when you do the schema, when you when you have very structured pages, you have very structured websites, when you are you have a great data presence, like on the listing side of the house, when you have a great review strategy and you have a great social strategy, these businesses are ranking on these AI search platforms. They're ranking better on traditional search, they're ranking uh well on Gemini. So it's not having just an impact on the future platforms, it's having an impact right now on the way things are today in traditional search.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

What about duplicate content? Is that okay? Or can you use the content in different spots? Not let's take away the word duplicate, but let's say you have great reviews and it's on there and you're trying to repurpose that review. Can you use it? Can the content be similar in all these platforms, or does it still have to be totally different content? Oh you know what I'm trying to say. I this isn't this isn't this isn't a game. This isn't a game. This is to help our listener kind of understand if you've created a content or you've created a video and you clip it up or you have this great review, can you use it in different spots? We for example, on social we highlight five-star reviews all the time. But if I start generating this content and figuring out how to get it on the web page as well, or other things like that, I it's not a gaming question. It's just do you still get pinged to have exact duplicate content out there or can you use it?

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Well, I don't think that you should ever do the same kind like the same content strategy on social as you would do on your web pages, right? You can use the same use user-generated content, but the the way in which you position it and the way in which you present it is obviously going to be different. So I think you use that user-generated content in the fashion that the platform that you're using. I don't think that made sense coming out.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

It makes sense. Don't do completely the same content, change it up, but you can use the same idea.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Yeah, exactly. But that makes it authentic, right? If they yeah, if they hear it on social and then they see it on your webpage and then they see it in the reviews, you're building trust with that human. Right? There's something to that. It's not that it's duplicated, it's more that you are saying the same thing. Customers are saying the same thing about what you just said on social and what they saw and experienced on the website. I don't think that that is the wrong way to leverage that user-generated content.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

I think what you said previously about interconnectivity really hit home for me as well, because I think this is not just a multifamily issue, but I think it's kind of more apparent in multifamily is the siloing of information, even though it is the same information on different channels. Um I was thinking about this today. I was looking at an ILS listing in the website and trying to compare the two, and there were differences because some feed was brought. I mean, I don't even know. But you know, now when we're talking about pulling information from so many different stories sources to create a property story and then take that story and use that content in different ways depending on, you know, the channel, uh, it's just making me think about how in some cases communication between marketing departments and site teams will have to become stronger, that there needs to be a central point of information where the story lives. And uh so and so it's making me think like, gosh, do marketing operations need to shift? You know, do how teams store information about individual properties and then push it out? Does does that need to change if you have a siloing problem? You might not, but like I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

We have that conversation all the time with our customers at YX, right? Like you start to now realize that the silos need to be broken. And there does need to be a source of truth, and identifying that sometimes that is the hardest problem is identifying the source of truth. Because to your point, Anne, marketers have their source of truth, which then feed out to other, you know, you've got your paid ads, you've got your paid social, then you have organic social, and then you have websites, and websites is getting their information from other things, and then who knows where ILS is getting information? Is it from the website? Is it from the CRM? Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 35:32

You know, we're back to our local search ecosystem, Brooke. Like there's literally just like all these platforms with these lines like connecting and yeah, tell me, but so you're finding that when you're talking to to other people that they're that they're saying the same thing, like and we're having more and more conversations about why it's important to have consistent structured data.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

And maybe it's not something that you attack as the you know, the first problem, because there are things that you can learn, you know, through marketing campaigns, what's important, feed it the basics, see how people respond and engage to it, what is missing, add that. Like it can be a nice cycle of feed it, see it, you know, learn from it, continue to build it and feed it as well. Um, I think that is, and and AI is gonna help us with that. There's so many tools, right? There's so many data analyzing tools. There's there, I'm really excited about what's next, right? Like, where where are we gonna get better? I mean, data is gonna have to be one of those things. Um, and AI is exactly a great application to be able to say, here's sulfur data now, let's organize it and and feed it to the world. I mean, I think that we're we're gonna really see some exciting things happen as a result. And I think that those silos will come, will, will dissipate as a result of that. But that's just one lowly person's opinion. But I'm sure if we have this conversation on data or go to the conferences about data, it's probably quite a frequent discussion.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah, no, I think that's fair. You've given me, you've given me hope. And you're right, I did not need to go to like the biggest, the biggest problem first, but it it just it made me think that for all of these things to to be consistent that there does the the source of truth maybe needs to be uh rethought of or or redefined or or more information included to tell this full story.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

This has been such a great conversation. I want to ask for those listening, how can they use Yuxt? What's the strategy? I know you partner with a bunch of people, you can share that if you'd like, you don't have to, but how do we get in touch with YXT for anybody listening that wants more information?

SPEAKER_02 37:54

I mean, um, the very best thing that we have just recently done is launched YX Scout. So if you go to YX.com forward slash scout, you can actually run your own report of your own property and see how it's performing on AI search, but it'll give you a full report, not just of how you're ranking on search, but how you're ranking on traditional search. And then it's going to show you how do you rank against your competitors. It's a really fun report. You can geek out on it, and you can also say, okay, I've got some work to do. But feel free, you know, to reach out to me. We have a ton of partners that take our tech and build it on top of their own. Because again, we're one of many things that a marketer needs to be doing. Um, but behenderson at yx.com, I'm happy to, you know, facilitate anyone's needs, but really play around with that report. Like it it gives you a full understanding of where you are, how are you performing, where are the gaps, who's doing better than you, and what do you need to improve? And how can you start to get better than them? It's very, very, very cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

I can't wait. I'm gonna go use it tomorrow. That's a Friday Classic.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Sounds like a folder. Share with me your report. I would love to see it.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Okay, Chris is gonna do scroll yxed backslash dot com slash scout.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

That's I that's amazing. When I'm up at 2 a.m. in the try to put Bradley back to bed, I'll be doom scrolling on yx. That's that's there.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

It is a ton of content. We created so many playbooks. There's so much content right now on our on our website just to educate. Um, we even just launched our YX research study where we have like billions of pieces of data that we're sharing with the SEO community. Uh, take a look at it. Um, we want the the community to to really understand, you know, what what is happening with this data and what can you do with the data and how can you parse it out and and really make um solid decisions with it.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

So Ann, are we gonna finish with our final question on if Google's dead and get the official answer from Brooke?

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Yes, I have a feeling that Brooke knows. All right, so this is the question that we ask all the people. Uh so I think that Google search will no longer exist within five years. Chris didn't think so, but now he's maybe feeling a little more like that might come at some point. But what do you think? Do you think you know that Chat GPT and other kind of conversational AI tools are are gonna take the place of Google search?

SPEAKER_02 40:40

You guys know how big Google is, right? You know how much information they have. You know that, yeah, exactly. I don't think that I mean they have the power, the data, the the know-how. I mean, Gemini is a great tool. Um, I don't have you guys used Gemini and you know, AI overviews. Google's not going away, but they certainly there's gonna be a lot more options um as as time progresses. Do I see that there is a shift in the lion share of searches? We shall see. But it's game of thrones, now it's game of search, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Like you know, I like that because uh that question is fun because every time we ask it, it makes us think a little like it makes me think a little bit differently about my opinion, you know. Like, so I appreciate I appreciate that question and I appreciate your um your insight on it. So we'll see. We'll check back in five years. We'll do that's what we should do, Chris. We'll have like a five-year reunion.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Obviously, we have the receipts. I'm back on Google, I'm not wavering anymore. I'm back. They're around forever.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

You're but Brooke got you back.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Um Yeah, I just love them. I still use Google. I the and the thing is like I still use Google. Chat, I use chat so much different than I use Google, and I use chat more like, hey, how do I go fix this toilet like with exact instructions where I don't have to watch a video brooke. I'm I guess I'm the old generation where I don't need a video, I can read the instructions and be fine. But or which car should I buy? You know, we bought a new car. Not but like when I'm searching a restaurant or I'm searching other, you know, what's a great contractor in my area, I'm still using Google and I'm trusting those reviews. So it just they have to adapt. I mean, all big companies will fail if they don't adapt. But I think you're right, Google's had too much info. And I think I think the AI engines use I think they use that info. So if it just goes away, where's it? It's gotta be housed somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

But the internet doesn't go away. Like Google's just a way to find information on the internet on the internet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

So what are you gonna go back to explore? Well, if I Microsoft, but I'm just saying Ash Jeeves.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

We're gonna go back to Ash Jeeves.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

But remember, Yahoo was like the thing, and now it's not. Now it is not. That's my that's my only the yellow pages were the thing, and that they didn't adapt. But they didn't adapt.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

I that's fair. Yahoo didn't adapt, they they got in their own way. I I would also say this: I mean, I agree with you, Chris. My um, I am on Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok. Like I've used all of the engines and I use them in many, many different ways. Like, for example, with Grok, when I want to like understand what's going on in the news, I mean, that's Twitter's or X's, not Twitter's X's like engine, their AI engine. It's actually quite fascinating. I but I I use them for different things. ChatGPT, I use every day with work, with life, with everything, right? But I still go to Amazon when I'm searching for something that I want to buy cheap, right? Or convenient, or for it to be at my doorstep tomorrow. And I still use Google. I I default to Google. It's a habit, right? I think we just have more options and and more ways of doing things and more ways of finding things. Because when I find something, it's interesting because today I was doing research on one of my partners and I was wanting to understand like all of their product releases. So I asked ChatGBT. And when I saw the sources that you were using, they were obviously using their website. And when I clicked on it, I saw the UTM code go across it. So that that partner knows that they got, you know, me as a visitor from ChatGPT. So, you know, there's and I use Google Chrome. So it's like I went and used Chrome for that. So it's again, it's all interconnected.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

I love it. Yes. Brooke, we can't thank you enough. Uh I know you're gonna have to come back one day because this is feel like we just scratched the surface. So um we appreciate you so much. Thank you, Brooke. Thank you to Carlos, our producer, thank you to Flamingo, our sponsor. And until next time, uh, this is the apartment department.