🎙️ Unscripted SEO Podcast
Brandon Leibowitz on Schema, AI Overviews, and Playing the Long Game in SEO
18 years of SEO experience distilled: why schema markup is the highest-leverage tactic for AI visibility, and why the fundamentals still win.
In a recent episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, I sat down with Brandon Leibowitz — founder of SEO Optimizers and an 18-year veteran of the industry. Brandon has a refreshing, grounded perspective on the AI search landscape: the fundamentals still win. Here’s what stood out from our conversation.
“Hot, Warm, Cold” — Greg Merrilees on the intent framework that turns website visitors into actual leads, and why pretty websites are costing businesses conversions.
— Greg Merrilees, Studio1 Design | Listen: Hot, Warm, Cold — Greg Merrilees →
Key Takeaways
- Schema markup is the highest-leverage technical tactic for AI visibility. It’s the clearest signal you can send to both Google and LLMs about what a page is, who it’s from, and what it answers.
- AI overviews are just featured snippets rebranded. The underlying optimization strategy hasn’t fundamentally changed — clear, direct answers to specific questions, marked up properly, still win.
- The more touchpoints you have, the more likely a prospect is to buy. SEO, social, email, podcast, video — each channel reinforces the others. Visibility compounds.
- Content + backlinks + technical SEO must all work together. Optimizing one in isolation gives diminishing returns. The sites that win long-term are the ones doing all three consistently.
Schema as the AI Visibility Accelerator
Brandon’s most emphatic point: schema markup is underused and overperforming. Most sites have basic schema — organization, local business, maybe some articles. Few have a comprehensive, page-by-page schema architecture that tells Google and LLMs exactly what each page is about, who the author is, what questions it answers, and how it relates to the rest of the site.
His recommended approach: audit competitors’ schema using view-source or a schema validator, identify the gaps, and systematically add schema types that match your content and business model.
Why AI Overviews Aren’t as New as They Seem
Brandon’s framing: “The AI overview is just a featured snippet — just a new way to rebrand it for Google. The old tactics, the old strategies already worked.” The core optimization hasn’t changed — write clear, direct answers to specific questions, structure them with proper heading hierarchy, mark them up with relevant schema, and earn links from authoritative sources.
The Long Game Advantage
What 18 years teaches you: the tactics that work short-term and the tactics that work long-term are different. Brandon’s practice has shifted almost entirely toward the long-game plays — content that compounds, links from sources that maintain authority, schema that survives algorithm updates.
Connect with Brandon Leibowitz
- Website: seooptimizers.com
- Free Gift: seooptimizers.com/gift
The Unscripted SEO Podcast features candid, unscripted conversations with SEOs and digital marketers. Hosted by Jeremy Rivera.
