Why You Shouldn't Over-Focus on Citations: Tom Capper, Senior Search Scientist at Moz

Most marketing leaders are still focusing on the same strategy: rank in the top 10, drive clicks, and convert traffic. But there's a problem with this: traffic isn't showing up the same way anymore.

In this episode of Get Discovered, host Joe Walsh sits down with Tom Capper, Senior Search Scientist at Moz, to dig into what the data actually shows about the AI discovery shift.

What you'll learn in this episode:

- Why SEO has always been a brand channel, but why this matters more now

- Why digital PR has become one of the highest-leverage moves you can make for AI search visibility

- How to think about citations (hint: they shouldn't be a core KPI)

- What original research gives you that no other content strategy can

- Tom's thoughts on Google vs. OpenAI

Monday Morning Action: start your first in-house study. Pull 30 days of data, use AI for analysis, find a compelling research question, and build your study from there. Share your findings at prerender.io/podcast.

Episode resources:

- "How Will OpenAI Compete?" by Benedict Evans: https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2026/2/19/how-will-openai-compete-nkg2x

- Find Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thcapper/

- Moz Top 10 Newsletter: https://moz.com/moztop10

- Moz blog: https://moz.com/blog

About the show: Get Discovered is a podcast from Prerender.io where AI and online discoverability collide. Season 2 focuses on how AI is changing where discovery happens, what actually gets surfaced, and why so many teams are realizing they don't have the visibility or control they thought they did.

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