🐹 Hamsterdam Part 75: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (11/10 to 11/16, 2024)
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
A weekly look-back at SEO & AI news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.
Opening notes, thoughts, and musings:
- Welcome to another new week of Hamsterdam! 🐹
- I appreciate you being here, and look forward to sharing the week’s news! 🙌
- I took a hiatus from posting these for health reasons, but decided to revive the series.
- I’ll likely revive the newsletter, as well … down the line. 😅
If you’re in a rush, hop down to the news portion. 📰
Or continue reading for two vocabulary lessons, this month in SEO history, plus an introduction.
And we’re off …
✏️ Marketing word of the week: “Keyword”
A keyword is a term or phrase that people use when searching for information online, like when using a search engine like Google, an AI answer engine like Perplexity, or an AI chatbot like ChatGPT. A keyword is also known by SEOs as a “query.”
Keyword research is a cornerstone of traditional SEO, but it only goes so far. More than targeting keywords, SEOs should use them to understand the underlying search intent, or what the person wants to achieve by searching the keyword.
The best keywords have a business case because they fall on the buyer’s journey, or the journey users take from an awareness of their problem to deciding on a solution.
To that end, keywords can fall into different categories based on their search intent, including informational, transactional, or navigational. It’s important to create content for the user’s intent more than targeting the keyword itself simply for ranking purposes.
🚨 ⬇️ 👈 Click here to read about how to know which keywords to target (if you want 😎).
You can use a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to do keyword research. These tools will contain metrics like estimated search volume or difficulty for ranking.
However, when choosing keywords to target, the most important factor is your audience and their pain points.
Map out your user’s journey, as we discussed in Hamsterdam Part 67, to understand the types of questions users may have along their way.
You can also look to alternative sources of content topics, such as related questions on Perplexity or even Google Learn About.
🏘️ AI word of the week: “k-means”
K-means is a popular clustering algorithm that groups examples in unsupervised learning. It iteratively determines the best k center points (centroids) then assigns each example to its closest centroid, where examples close to the same centroid belong to the same group.
Here’s an example:
The “K” stands for the number of distinct groupings or centroids. So the above example with have k=3.
The centroid is typically not an example in the cluster, but rather identifies the mean of the data.
An example of when the k-means algorithm could be used in marketing is to group similar audience types together for advertising purposes.
This month in SEO history: Veronica search engine (1992)
The Veronica search engine was developed by Steven Foster and Fred Barrie at the University of Nevada.
It was used to browse and index information in the school’s menu items (Gopherspace). Since the mascot was a Gopher, Veronica is an acronym that stood for “Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computer Archives.”
Here’s a YouTube video from 1996 showing the Veronica search engine in action:
🏃➡️ Introduction to week 75: The return of Hamsterdam
Just a quick introduction this week, with a personal update.
A few years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Part of what comes with that are manic episodes. In my case, these are rare but debilitating, usually knocking me out of the SEO game for several months.
I’m in the process of recuperating from my last episode a few months ago, working part-time on client work but still keeping my blog alive.
I went through a brief phase where I was off of social media, so I changed the format of Hamsterdam for about two months.
However, I finally feel ready to get back on the saddle and continue writing Hamsterdam recaps the way I enjoy most. 🏇
All I can say is to take care of your mental health, folks. It’s important. 🤗
Thank you for supporting Hamsterdam and the cause of SEO & AI learning. 🙏
Enjoy the vibes:
Missed last week? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part Seven to catch up.
🌟 Other great sources of weekly SEO news:
- The SEO Weekly – Garret Sussman, iPullRank
- SEOFOMO – Aleyda Solis
- Weekly Video Recaps – Barry Schwartz, SER
- Weekly SEO News YouTube channel – Olga Zarr, Seosly
- Niche Surfer – Yoyao Hsueh
Time for our weekly review of SEO social posts, articles, & more …
⏩ Jump to a section:
- News, Google updates, & SERP tests
- SEO tips & tidbits
- Fundamentals & resources
- Articles, videos & case studies
- Local SEO
- Technical SEO
- Content marketing
- Local SEO
- Data analysis & reporting
- AI, LLMS, & machine learning
- Miscellaneous & general posts
- Older stuff that’s good!
Or keep scrolling to see it all. ⏬
Now, let’s step inside the white flags of Hamsterdam …
📰 SEO news, Google updates, SERP tests & notable posts
Notable updates or news related to Google Search or related SEO topics.
🍟 SEO tips & tidbits
Actionable tips, cool tidbits, and other snackable findings and observations that can be teaching moments.
Essential information, concepts, or resources to learn about SEO or AI.
Longer-form content pieces shared on social, in newsletters, and elsewhere.
LLMO: 10 Ways to Work Your Brand Into AI Answers
Microsoft’s AI SEO Tips: New Guidance For AI Search Optimization
🧑💻 Technical SEO
Everything from basics to advanced moves (and also tools).
✍️ Content marketing
From what is helpful content to user journeys and beyond.
📍 Local SEO
From Google Business Profiles or reviews and more!
📊 Data analysis & reporting
Showing that what you’re doing is helping.
🤖 AI, machine learning, & LLMs
News related to models, papers, and companies.
🤔 General marketing & miscellaneous
This is for great content that isn’t necessarily SEO or marketing-specific. PPC, PR, dev, design, and social friends, check it out!
11 Website Layout Examples for Every Type of Page
💎 Older stuff that’s good!
Not everything I find worth sharing is new as of this week, so these are gems I came across published in the past.
Social Media Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide
Great job making it to the end. You rock! 🪨
🤝 Want help with your SEO strategy?
I’m an independent SEO consultant focusing on custom audits and holistic strategies for brands. Don’t hesitate to reach out, or visit my about page for more information.
Let’s connect!
Hit me up anytime via text or call at 813-557-9745 or on social or email:
Cheers! ✌️
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