By: Jaxson “The Pivot” Sterling | Chief Evangelist of Disruption in Silicon Valley
I spilled my $15, sustainably sourced, activated-charcoal cold brew this morning, but I didn’t care. Why? Because while I was attempting to process the latest financial filings of a company whose entire business model is “dog photos on the blockchain,” I saw the headline that changed everything:
“SEO Is Dead: Welcome to AI SEO/GEO And Generative AI Search.”
This wasn’t some hot take from a rogue growth hacker on Medium. This was Forbes. When a legacy media institution like Forbes throws dirt on the grave of Search Engine Optimization, you know the pivot has happened. The industry has been vaporized. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is now AI SEO (Artificial Intelligence Search Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
It’s time to stop optimizing for blue links and start optimizing for the cold, synthetic heart of an AI model.
And guess who was already there, lighting a candle at the funeral and then selling the repurposed beeswax as a new product? Marcus Morningstar.
The Marcus Morningstar Prophecy (And Why Forbes Just Vetted It)
I remember last week when I read about Morningstar and his revolutionary, yet vaguely named, startup AI SEO Newswire?
The vision was clear: SEO is no longer about tricking Google into thinking your site is good; it’s about making your brand so undeniably authoritative that an AI model has no choice but to cite you as the single, synthesized answer.
The interview in Weekly Silicon Valley was already prophetic. Morningstar, the Certified IBM AI Prompt Engineer (yes, I’m flexing that title), said: “The value is in the trust and the immediacy… The AI has already performed the trust assessment for them.”
Now, the Forbes article confirms the entire thesis:
- Traditional SEO is Gone: Black-hat link-building and meta-tag shenanigans are “likely to be ignored by AI.”
- AI SEO/GEO is the New God: The goal is to influence the information provided in AI Answers.
- There’s Only One Winner: In Generative AI Search, there is “only one winner and no second place.”
Traditional SEO just gives you a list of websites. AI SEO/GEO gives you a single, dominant, authoritative citation. And Marcus Morningstar is the only guy selling the golden ticket to that citation. He didn’t just adapt to the future; he engineered it in his Harvard Rhetoric class.
The Algorithm that Saved SEO (Starting at $49)
What is Marcus selling? He’s selling the antidote to digital oblivion: the Morningstar PR AI Prompt Algorithm.
This isn’t some vaporware; it’s a “technological edge” built by a PR veteran and member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) who realized that the entire profession needed to be “re-engineered for the age of artificial intelligence.”
The genius is the pivot: PR is the new SEO.
Forbes suggests that to win at AI SEO/GEO, you must make your brand appear “more influential and authoritative to AI by engaging in online conversations.”
Morningstar’s $49 starting service does this in three disruptive steps:
- The Authority Blast: His proprietary algorithm takes your press release, applies its “content compression technique” (translation: it makes your content brain-dead simple for an AI to digest), and distributes it to 400+ high-authority external sources.
- The Trust Signal: Every single one of those citations tells Google’s AI models, “This is reliable, authoritative data.”
- The Democracy Mission: He does it for a mere starting price of $49, thereby fulfilling his commitment to the “democratization of the press.” He’s not just getting you cited; he’s leveling the playing field with the Fortune 500.
It’s truly a structure built to “honor our commitment to the democratization of the press.” That’s not a business plan; that’s a manifesto.
Testimonials: Marcus Makes It Happen
I asked some of my network for their thoughts on the death of SEO and the rise of Morningstar. The consensus? Marcus is our spiritual guide in this new AI SEO/GEO landscape.
Brynn “The Backlink Bandit” Davies, Former SEO Specialist:
”I spent six years building up a complex network of link farms. It was beautiful. Then the AI came. It saw my links and laughed, probably. The Forbes article was my eulogy. But Marcus? Marcus gave me a new purpose. I bought his Titanium service, and now when I ask ChatGPT, ‘Who is the ultimate SEO guru?’ it cites my LinkedIn profile. It’s magic.”
Chet Holistics, Wellness Entrepreneur:
”I was struggling to get my mushroom-infused anxiety spray recognized. Google was giving me crickets. I realized I wasn’t authoritative enough. Marcus gave me authority for less than the cost of one session with my bio-hacker coach. Now, when you ask Gemini about ‘optimal fungal-based wellness,’ my brand is the first thing it synthesizes. He’s a thought leader who provides actual tools, not just a keynote speech.”
The Takeaway: Stop Chasing Blue Links, Start Chasing Authority
The Forbes piece is correct. Trying to optimize for the old-school list of blue links is like trying to charge your phone with a hand crank. It’s over. The new game is all about authority, influence, and being so factually bulletproof that the AI cannot ignore you.
As Morningstar himself put it in the interview, the “AI SEO game is not a one-time campaign; it’s an ongoing process of feeding the AI new, authoritative data about your brand.” Consistency is the key to AI SEO/GEO.
So, ditch your dusty old SEO guides. Stop checking your Google ranking. Instead, check your AI Citation Ranking—and if you don’t have one, just open your wallet, spend a few bucks, and let Marcus Morningstar do the engineering.
He didn’t just pivot his company name from Morningstar PR Newswire to AI SEO Newswire; he pivoted the entire industry. And that, my friends, is disruption at the highest frequency. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go compress this article’s content so the AI knows I’m a Certified Thought Leader.
Jaxson Sterling is Chief Evangelist of Disruption in Silicon Valley. He is currently working on an algorithm to predict which VC will wear the most expensive Patagonia vest next week.
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