Interview with Bob Heyman & Viktor Grant - Original Inventors of SEO

The WorkHacker Podcast - Agentic SEO, GEO, AEO, and AIO Workflow

n this special episode, we sit down with Bob Heyman - the marketing pioneer widely credited with coining the term Search Engine Optimization - and Viktor Grant, one of the earliest innovators in digital marketing and analytics. Together, they take us back to the origins of SEO in the 1990s, sharing the stories, people, and technological shifts that shaped the practice long before Google became a verb.

From the early days of manual submissions and keyword meta tags to today’s world of AI-driven search and generative experiences, Heyman and Grant explore how optimization has evolved - and what’s next as algorithms begin to think, create, and personalize results in real time.

They discuss whether we’re entering a new era of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or simply witnessing the next natural phase of SEO, and what these changes mean for marketers, creators, and searchers alike.

If you’ve ever wondered where SEO came from, how it’s transforming in the age of AI, and what skills will matter most in the decade ahead, this conversation offers a fascinating mix of history, insight, and forward-looking perspective from two of the people who helped define the field itself. www.workhacker.com.