In this episode of Chat With Sean, I’m joined by international SEO consultant Natalia Witczyk, who recently spent time working directly inside China’s digital ecosystem. Natalia shares what it’s really like to live in a world where super-apps replace websites, payments are entirely mobile, and AI is built directly into devices rather than bolted on as an add-on. Her on-the-ground perspective reveals a technology landscape that has evolved differently and in many ways faster than anything we experience in the West.

We explore how China skipped the PC era, why WeChat functions like a national operating system, how search behaviour differs on Baidu, and why DeepSeek has become the AI model of choice for hundreds of millions of users. Natalia also breaks down the cultural, structural and economic factors that shape discovery, user expectations, content formats and marketing strategy — and what China’s trajectory signals about the future of search, AI and platform fragmentation globally.

We cover:

- How mobile-first culture transformed daily life, payments and commerce

- The role of WeChat as a super-app powering messaging, search, payments and mini-programs

- Why user journeys in China are far more fragmented than in the West- Key differences between Baidu and Google — and what SEO looks like in China

- How DeepSeek powers AI features across multiple platforms

- The limits of Western platforms (Google, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Wikipedia) inside China

- How offline and online blend through QR-driven discovery and attribution

- Why cognitive overload shapes Chinese consumer behaviour

- China’s social platform landscape: TikTok/Douyin and rural-first apps

- AI at device level: AI-native smartphones, interfaces and embedded features

- Robotics adoption and how ageing demographics accelerate automation

- Why Western brands often fail when entering China — and how to localise effectively

- What China teaches us about the future of search, content and platform ecosystems

-The rising cost of paid search and the need for hyper-precise targeting

In this episode of Chat With Sean, I’m joined by Rand Fishkin - Co-founder & CEO of SparkToro and AlertMouse, two tools transforming how marketers understand audience behaviour, attention and brand visibility.

Rand breaks down how user journeys became “pinball machines,” why attribution models mislead entire organisations, and what teams must rethink as AI tools rise but still represent only a tiny fraction of actual search activity. We dig into how Google and Facebook over-claim credit, why traditional funnels no longer map to real behaviour, and how brands can build visibility across the fragmented discovery ecosystem.

We also explore AI tool usage trends, the truth behind ChatGPT vs Google volumes, why Gemini is catching up, how companies should approach LLM visibility, and the growing importance of PR, reputation, and native content distribution. Rand shares predictions on where search, social and AI are heading — and what marketers must prioritise to stay relevant.

We cover:

- Modern user journeys and how discovery happens across multiple platforms

- How major platforms measure and attribute conversions

- The scale of AI search compared to traditional search engines

- AI optimisation practices and their overlap with SEO

- How LLMs identify, reference and select brands

- Current usage trends across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and DeepSeek

- Changes in social platform referral traffic and content distribution models

- The evolving role of websites in marketing and conversion

- Growth and relevance of community platforms like Reddit and Threads

- The role of niche forums, private groups and smaller communities

- Key marketing priorities, including audience research and zero-click strategy

- The emerging impact of “AI mode” within search environments

- The importance of PR, brand entities and reputation signals in digital visibility

Connect With Rand - https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/https://sparktoro.com/https://alertmouse.com/

In this episode of Chat With Sean, I’m joined by Patrick Hathaway, Co-founder & CEO of Sitebulb, one of the industry’s most respected website auditing tools.

Patrick explains the origin story of Sitebulb, why technical fundamentals matter more than ever, what SEOs keep getting wrong about JavaScript rendering, and how brands should think about LLM visibility without abandoning SEO basics. We also dig into crawl budget, large-scale audits, developer communication, and what’s coming next for Sitebulb’s roadmap.

We cover:

- Why JavaScript SEO is still the industry’s biggest skills gap

- How AI crawlers and search agents change technical priorities

- Why technical foundations matter more than chasing LLM acronyms

- How to think about crawl budget, templates & large-site audits

- The real challenges SEOs face when trying to get dev teams to implement work

- How Sitebulb is evolving with AI-powered insights and “Lost & Found” reporting

- What SEOs must communicate differently to actually get things shipped