What A Reddit AMA Did For Graphite's CEO: SEO And AI Visibility, 9 Months Later

Nine months after Ethan Smith, CEO of the growth agency Graphite, ran an AMA in my subreddit r/AISEOforBeginners, the thread ranks in Google's top 3 for "graphite seo" and is the source ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Grok all quote when someone asks what he said on Reddit. It reached 16,000 views and 116 comments. More than rankings, it helped shape Ethan's brand history online: a public record in his own words that AI models now pick up and repeat when people ask about him. That is also the theme of his latest talk, "The 5% Of AEO & SEO", at Ahrefs Evolve in San Diego on 12 October 2026, where he covered how models surface information and why few brands capture meaningful AEO visibility.

What Was The AMA, And How Did It Come About?

It started badly for Ethan. On 21 October 2025 someone posted "Is Ethan Smith another hyped AI SEO influencer or am I missing something?" in r/AISEOforBeginners. The post called his content fluff, said he had no case studies, and asked whether he was just good at personal branding. It collected 13 upvotes and 26 comments.

Most founders ignore a thread like that, or have someone reply with a polite line from the marketing team. Ethan did neither. The next day he came into the comments himself and answered every argument in turn, including the ones he agreed with. He wrote that he had only one real case study, with Webflow, and linked the webinar where he walks through it.

I moderate r/AISEOforBeginners. I had been skeptical of the AI SEO hype myself, and my first comment in that thread agreed that he was riding a trending topic, like many SEOs. His reply changed the conversation. A detailed, calm answer to a hostile post is exactly the kind of content Reddit rewards, so I welcomed him to the sub, messaged him, and suggested he show his expertise properly with an AMA.

He posted it on 9 January 2026 and answered questions live on 15 January. The questions covered AEO versus SEO, how to track AI answers, whether Reddit helps AEO, how Webflow mines Reddit for questions, ROI, domain authority and tools. He wrote 45 replies, some of them several hundred words long. I asked two of the questions myself, about AI position trackers and link building for AI search.

Reddit's Post Insights, which I can see as a moderator, show the reach.

Source: Reddit Post Insights for the AMA, read 23 October 2026

16,000 views is small next to a celebrity AMA in r/IAmA. It is large for a niche community, and every one of those readers was there because they care about AI search, which is Graphite's whole market.

Where Does It Rank On Google And In AI Answers?

I checked US Google results through DataForSEO on 22 and 23 October 2026, for brand searches and for the topics Ethan answered.

Source: DataForSEO live Google SERP and Labs ranked keywords, United States, desktop, 22 and 23 October 2026. Volumes from DataForSEO; ranges show the two sources it reports.

Positions moved between the two days, which is normal for Reddit URLs: Google often swaps a thread between the organic list and the Discussions and forums box. The pattern held both days. On searches for Graphite and for Ethan by name, Reddit has a seat on page one, and the AMA is one of the threads in it.

My takeFor a brand, "graphite seo" is the search that matters. That is a buyer checking out the agency. Having the founder's own 45-answer thread in the top 3 for it is worth more than a lot of category rankings.

On the AI side, here is how often each engine linked the threads across the 16 questions I asked about Ethan, Graphite and AEO, plus Google's AI Overviews on the 15 searches above. The next section breaks it down by question.

Source: byOG checks via the OpenAI, xAI and OpenRouter APIs (one run per question) and DataForSEO live SERP for AI Overviews, 22 and 23 October 2026. Google showed an AI Overview on 11 of the 15 searches.

Every one of those AMA citations came from a question about Ethan himself: what he thinks, what he said on Reddit, whether he is legit. None came from a general AEO question.

Do ChatGPT, Perplexity And Grok Cite It?

I asked 16 questions about Ethan, Graphite and AEO, each once, to ChatGPT search (forced to search the web), Perplexity Sonar and Grok with web search. That is 48 answers. I counted an answer when it linked either thread.

Source: byOG checks via OpenAI, xAI and OpenRouter APIs, 22 and 23 October 2026

Source: byOG checks via the OpenAI, xAI and OpenRouter APIs, one run per question, 22 and 23 October 2026. Six more questions (what Graphite is, his tracking advice, his small business advice, AEO ROI, whether Reddit is good for AEO, and whether he is just good at personal branding) cited neither thread on any engine.

When the engines did use the AMA, they used it as Ethan's voice. ChatGPT described it as a long Q&A in which he argued that AEO and SEO are largely similar, which is what he wrote in his first answer. Grok dated it correctly, announced on 9 January and held on 15 January 2026 in r/AISEOforBeginners, and linked the thread as its first source. For the question about Reddit and AEO, Perplexity and Grok cited the AMA next to his Lenny's Podcast appearance and Graphite's own articles.

One run per question is a snapshot. AI answers change from run to run, so read the pattern, not the exact counts.

How Did It Shape What Searchers See About Ethan?

This is where the two threads meet. A critical thread about a founder does not go away. It ranks for his name (#3 for "ethan smith seo") and AI engines find it when someone asks if he is legit.

What changes is what sits next to it. Asked "What do people on Reddit say about Ethan Smith from Graphite?", all three engines cited both threads together. ChatGPT's answer described a mixed reception: some users skeptical, and Ethan "knowledgeable and willing to explain his views in detail", citing the AMA. Perplexity said he "presents himself as transparent about limitations", a line that comes straight from his reply in the critical thread.

So the criticism became part of a longer story in which he shows up, answers, and then runs a 116-comment AMA. A buyer who reads either thread sees a founder who engages. That is a better result than a deleted post or a PR statement, because neither of those would rank or be quoted.

The critical thread also gathered support for him. A commenter who introduced himself as Bernard from Clearscope called Ethan "a tried and true OG veteran of SEO", and u/maltelandwehr answered the title question with a flat "No." It also still holds a hostile comment from March 2026 that I cannot verify. An AMA does not erase that. It only makes sure it is not the only thing a searcher reads.

What Did The AMA Not Do?

• It did not win category searches. On Google it did not reach the top 20 for "aeo vs seo", "best aeo tools", "is reddit good for aeo" or "how to measure aeo roi", even though Ethan answered all of those in the thread.
• It did not put Graphite into "best AEO agencies" answers through Reddit. No engine cited either thread there. ChatGPT named Graphite in that answer, but from other sources.
• Google AI Overviews did not cite it. 11 of the 15 searches I checked showed an AI Overview, and none linked the thread.
• It did not answer "who is Ethan Smith". For identity questions the engines went to his own site, Graphite's pages and podcasts.

Ethan said this himself in the AMA, answering whether Reddit is the best place to improve AEO: "Yes, but it's hard. There are typically many many Reddit threads that get pulled into the prompts you want to target. So, you have to target a large number of threads." One thread wins questions about you. Category questions need many threads, in many communities, over time.

Why Does An AMA Work For Brand And AEO?

Three things made this one stick.

1. It is long, specific and first-person. 45 answers with numbers, tools and examples, from the person himself. When an engine needs to say what Ethan thinks, this is the most direct source on the open web.
2. It lives on a domain Google and AI engines already trust. Reddit is among the most-cited domains in AI answers. In my own citation study, 21.3% of neutral answers and 70.7% of "what do people say" answers cited Reddit. A founder's own blog post does not get that by default.
3. It sits in a relevant niche. r/AISEOforBeginners is about exactly what Graphite sells. The comments came from SEOs and marketers, the people who hire agencies like his, and the thread's words match the searches they run.

There is also a timing effect. A thread keeps working long after the live hour is over. The questions stay answered, the URL keeps its ranking, and every new AI model that searches the web finds it again.

How Should A Brand Run An AMA That Keeps Working?

From hosting this one and moderating communities daily, here is what I would tell a founder.

1. Pick the community your buyers read, not the biggest one. A focused subreddit with a moderator who will promote the AMA beats a crowded general one where the thread sinks in an hour.
2. Announce it a week ahead. Ethan posted on 9 January for a 15 January session. Early questions arrived before he went live, which gave the thread comments and ranking signals from day one.
3. Answer everything, including the hostile questions. His reply to "does this bring any value to humanity?" did more for him than a softball answer would have.
4. Write answers as if they will be quoted. Because they will be. Put the claim in the first sentence, then the number or example.
5. Use your real name and title in the post. The title "I'm Ethan Smith, Graphite's CEO" is why the thread matches searches for his name and his company.
6. Treat the AMA as one thread, not a strategy. It owns your name. To show up for category questions you need a steady presence across many threads, which is the slow part.

If you want to see how a niche AMA would land for your brand, start with my guide on how to run a Reddit AMA as a brand, or ask for the free audit and I will tell you which communities your buyers actually use.

What Does A Reddit AMA Do For Your Brand Today?

Put simply, a good AMA writes the first chapter of your brand's history on the one website that Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Grok all read. It answers, in your own words, the questions people will later ask about you.

Here is what that looks like in practice, from Ethan's thread and the six other AMAs below:

• It wins your name fast. Craig Newmark's AMA was #3 on Google for "craig newmark take9" two days after it went up. Nick Walton's was #3 for "nick walton ai dungeon" nine days in.
• AI engines quote it when people ask about you. Asked what tips Scott Keyes of Going has shared on Reddit, all three engines cited his AMA. Perplexity and Grok cited Andy Marsh's when asked what Plug Power's CEO told shareholders.
• It puts your answer next to the criticism. Ethan's case shows that a hostile thread does not vanish, but an AMA makes sure it is not the only story.
• It compounds when you repeat it. Scott Keyes says he has hosted AMAs for 11 years running. Each one adds to an archive of answers in his voice.
• It does not win your category on its own. None of these AMAs showed up for the broader searches I tried, such as "going cheap flights" or "soapbox soap reviews". That still takes many threads, over months.

The same pattern held almost everywhere: an AMA is the strongest single thing you can post on Reddit about yourself, and a weak way to reach people who have not heard of you yet. Plan it as the anchor of your Reddit presence, not the whole of it.

Which Current AMAs Show It Working?

These are real founder and brand AMAs from 2025 and 2026. I checked each thread's numbers on 23 October 2026, then looked for it on US Google and in ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Grok, with two or three questions about each brand.

Source: the Reddit threads, read 23 October 2026; DataForSEO live Google SERP, US desktop; ChatGPT search, Perplexity Sonar and Grok, one run per question, 23 October 2026. Upvotes on very new posts can be hidden.

A few things stand out.

Going is the model for repeat AMAs. Scott Keyes opens by saying he has hosted one every year for 11 years, and this one drew 681 comments. When an engine is asked what he has said about finding cheap flights, the AMA is the source.

Plug Power shows a different use: a listed company talking to its own shareholders in the stock's subreddit before a special meeting. It worked well enough that the next CEO, Jose Luis Crespo, ran his own AMA there in April 2026.

Craig Newmark and Nick Walton show how fast a strong AMA claims a name search. Both reached Google's top 3 for the founder plus the product within two weeks.

Soapbox is a consumer brand doing it well: a founder story, a clear mission, and a thread that now ranks for his name and gets cited when someone asks what Reddit thinks of the soap.

Jotform is the honest counterpoint. A popular AMA in a general community can do well on the day and then fade from search. A niche community where your buyers keep coming back, or a yearly habit like Going's, keeps the thread working.

Not every founder AMA lands. I also found three founder AMAs posted or crossposted to r/IAmA in 2026 that drew fewer than 10 comments there. In each, the title was about the company's story rather than something readers already wanted to ask, and no community was waiting for it.

If you are thinking about an AMA for your brand, the hard part is the community, not the hour of answers. That is what I help with. Start with my guide on running a Reddit AMA as a brand, or ask for the free audit and I will tell you where your buyers already ask questions.

Questions About Reddit AMAs

Does a Reddit AMA help SEO?

It can help brand searches. Ethan Smith's January 2026 AMA in r/AISEOforBeginners ranked in Google's top 3 for "graphite seo" and in the Discussions and forums box for "ethan smith graphite" nine months later. It did not rank for broad category questions like "aeo vs seo" or "best aeo tools".

Do ChatGPT and Perplexity cite Reddit AMAs?

Yes, for questions about the person. In checks on 22 and 23 October 2026, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Grok all cited the AMA when asked whether Ethan Smith had done a Reddit AMA and what he said. None cited it for category questions such as the best AEO agencies.

Can an AMA offset a negative Reddit thread?

It cannot remove one, but it can sit beside it. When AI engines were asked what Reddit says about Ethan Smith, all three cited the critical thread and the AMA together, and described him as someone who answers criticism in detail.

How many views does a niche subreddit AMA get?

Ethan Smith's AMA in r/AISEOforBeginners reached 16,000 views, 64 upvotes at a 95.7% upvote ratio and 116 comments, according to Reddit's Post Insights. 54.2% of views came from the United States.

Where should a brand host a Reddit AMA?

In a community where the people you want to reach already ask questions about your topic, with a moderator who will promote and pin it. A niche subreddit gives fewer views than r/IAmA but a more relevant audience and a thread that keeps ranking for your name.

Sources

• The AMA: "Hey Reddit! I'm Ethan Smith, Graphite's CEO...", r/AISEOforBeginners, posted 9 January 2026
• The critical thread: "Is Ethan Smith another hyped AI SEO influencer or am I missing something?", r/AISEOforBeginners, posted 21 October 2025
• Reddit Post Insights for the AMA (moderator view), read 23 October 2026
• Ahrefs Evolve San Diego 2026 agenda: "The 5% Of AEO & SEO: Research Backed High Impact Strategies", Ethan Smith
• DataForSEO live Google SERP, Labs ranked keywords and Google Ads search volume, United States, 22 and 23 October 2026
• AI answers: OpenAI Responses API (gpt-5.4-mini, web search forced), xAI API (grok-4 with web and X search), Perplexity Sonar via OpenRouter, one run per question, 22 and 23 October 2026