Field Notes

Over-the-shoulder view of Martin Gram writing a field note on his laptop in Da Nang

The First LLM Audit Broke My SEO Brain

Location: Da Nang, Vietnam — late evening Context: First LLM visibility audit (Creatine category) Status: Observational I expected it to behave like SEO. Keyword mapping. Intent clustering. Ranking logic. Instead, the model ignored most of that. It wasn’t looking for optimized pages. It was validating who deserved to be referenced. That was the first shift. […]

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AI Images, “Imperfect” Photos, and Why Experience Is Quietly Winning (2026)

Location: Da Nang, Vietnam — desk, late eveningContext: Reviewing January 2026 search behavior shifts (GEO, experience signals)Status: Observational Short version:AI images are not banned.Google is not “penalizing” sites for using them.But perfect images are increasingly a liability for experience-led brands. With the latest Google Authenticity core update, the bias has shifted—from polish to presence. 1.

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On Why “Good Products” Don’t Get Recommended by AI

Location: Da Nang, Vietnam — desk, late eveningContext: First LLM audit (creatine category)Status: Observational I went into the weekend assuming that if a product worked, AI systems would eventually recommend it. That assumption didn’t survive first contact. What I noticed instead was that efficacy barely entered the conversation. Creatine is one of the most researched

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