Shalin Siriwardhana

Search, growth, and digital strategy notes.

Personal notes on SEO, AI search, content strategy, and durable organic growth.

Notes / SEO / Aug 8, 2026

AI Search Only Feels New If Your SEO Was Shallow

Everything Google has been suggesting, subtly and less subtly, for more than a decade is the training, and it comes down to. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

Gen Z Now Treats Claude and OpenAI Like Consumer Brands, but Trust Is Still an Issue

That's the finding at the center of " Brands Rising Among Gen Z in the U.S. in 2026," a new analysis YouGov shared with me this. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

What Six Perspectives Reveal About Demand Generation in AI Search

According to an ancient Indian parable, a group of blind men who had never encountered an elephant decided to learn what it was. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

How Business Context Changes AI Recommendations

The assignment was straightforward. A company had invested in SEO for years, and its website was well established. Leadership. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

How Cats.txt Showed LLMs.txt Evidence Is GEO Astrology

It began, as these things tend to, with irritation. For months I had been watching perfectly sensible people point at four. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

Google’s Ex AI Chief Jeff Dean Explains How to Improve Context Engineering

Many people worry about which AI model they use and experience the anxiety of running out of tokens. Jeff Dean's answers suggest. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

The AEO Playbook: How to Get Cited & Stay Visible

Why is organic traffic falling while impressions climb? Because the physics of the web changed. In the old model, Google crawled. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 7, 2026

I Helped Scale Google Ads to Billions, Here’s How I’d Build an AI Search Strategy Today

Three lessons from that era carried over intact. Platforms reward the signals they can measure, not the effort you put in. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 6, 2026

The Real Reason Part of Your AI Authority Takes Years, Not Campaigns & Why It Comes from Other People

There is a long habit in this industry of taking something nobody controls and giving it shorthand that sounds controllable. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

7 min read

Notes / SEO / Aug 6, 2026

A Practical Way to Spot an Emerging Category in Search Data

Earlier this year, I did some market research for a prospective client, a small consultancy that helps business leaders with AI. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read