How I Think About SEO: A Personal Journey Through LinkedIn Collaborative Articles
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
Excerpts written throughout 2023
How does Ethan Lazuk think about SEO?
It’s an odd question, especially since I am he (as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together).
Okay, that last part was from I am the Walrus, but the first part is one of those philosophical questions that came to me in the shower. (TMI?)
The logic behind the question wasn’t to know what I personally think, but rather how the world may think I think …
Does that make sense?
As a practical example, I asked some LLMs the question: “How does Ethan Lazuk think about SEO?”
Spoiler alert: They didn’t really know! At least, early on. 😉
What LLMs thought I knew about SEO
Here are the results when I first asked the question to various LLMs on 10/27/23.
Bing chat first said I worked at Spinutech. I don’t. That was an old job of mine. It also referenced a couple of articles and Twitter, but not the recent sources I’d prefer, like my own website.
I’ve been contributing to this passion-project website (ethanlazuk.com) quite a bit lately, partly as a way to experiment with different things (like seeing how my blog articles may appear on Search or rank for different queries), but also to share some of my thoughts on SEO, i.e., how I think about it.
Not out of vanity lol, but because knowledge sharing is my favorite part about SEO.
I’ve been involved in SEO since 2015, initially writing content for websites, then SEO strategy became my core focus professionally from 2019 onward, including now as a consultant.
I recently outlined my philosophy in relation to SEO consulting, but I also want to share information in a broader sense.
Most of my SEO experience is in the context of working at digital agencies and learning and exploring on my own projects.
I like to share what I know about SEO on my website, on social media, and in other places. This is partly to help out those newer to SEO, so they can get as excited about it as I am, and partly to invite feedback that I can use to further grow my skills and knowledge as a search marketer.
In my view, the SEO learning journey never stops.
Suffice to say, I’ve put my thoughts out there quite a bit in the last six months or so.
So, maybe I’ll have more luck asking the question of how I think about SEO to other LLMs …
Google SGE didn’t trigger a response. Instead, Google Search showed my website’s about page and SEO articles category page.
Okay, that’s actually more helpful than Bing chat earlier, because those pages actually lead to my website.
It’d be nice if SGE showed an answer automatically, but maybe I’m not there yet in building up my online corpus as an SEO professional lol.
Bard didn’t know I existed, calling me “that person,” which somehow feels insulting lol. But that’s not that unusual. At the time I wasn’t in Google’s knowledge graph — I recently learned my entity ID is /g/11fyz0c8bm — but I’ve noticed others, even with knowledge panels, have struggled to get identified by Bard.
ChatGPT with Web Browsing (Browse with Bing) actually did a fairly good job. It pulled from my LinkedIn profile summary, so not as good as my website, but then suggested, since it didn’t know much … to ask me directly or explore my professional contributions.
Well, you’re in luck! Because that’s the purpose of this article you’re reading now — I’ll use my professional contributions on LinkedIn to explain more about how I think about SEO.
Hopefully, the LLMs take note.
Have things improved as a result of this test? (Updated on 11/26/23 and again on 12/21/23)
It’s been just about two months since I first published this article. Let’s see what, if any, impact it’s had.
Google SGE still doesn’t trigger automatically, but instead, the search results show this article (instead of my about page). Below that is usually my blog or homepage. In the sense of traditional SEO results, that was what we intended, so that’s a win of sorts.
But how about the LLMS?
I’ve learned to refer to Bing Chat, which is actually now called Copilot, and other generative AI that incorporates LLMs with web results as RAG (retrieval augmented generation). (I hope to add the term RAG, and several others, to my SEO glossary soon.)
When I first checked in late November, the in-SERP chat experience on Bing, which is the same as the Copilot answer, didn’t know the exact answer to how I thought about SEO, but it did reference my website now instead of other sources, so that’s also progress.
Then when I checked back in late December, we actually got an answer!
The desktop default Bing search experience had a lot of great results in the normal search results, including this article, a relevant section of my biography, my blog, and a video. But the Copilot chat answer also mentioned that I’m an advocate for “people-first content”:
It referenced my homepage as the source of that, but from my homepage, I also link to a guide on people-first SEO as well as on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. Meanwhile, for other insights about my SEO philosophy, Bing mentioned keyword research, content strategy, and technical website audits pulled from my SEO consulting services page. All in all, that’s progress!
Bard still called me “that person,” so no progress there.
Even when I tried the version with Gemini Pro and mentioned my entity ID, the answer was the same.
ChatGPT now has browse with Bing (its web browsing functionality) and other features, like advanced data analysis, wrapped up into its default GPT-4 interface.
By far, ChatGPT’s answer to how I think about SEO was the most robust, way more so than last time.
And guess what? ChatGPT also found and used this article as a reference!
If the goal of creating this article was to inform LLMs what I think about SEO, this test so far is a success based on that ChatGPT answer.
I’ll continue monitoring for results, as well as updating this article with additional LinkedIn contributions, which you can find down below, after the next section.
My history with LinkedIn collaborative articles
Beyond writing for my own website, I’ve contributed to a lot of collaborative articles on LinkedIn.
As far as I can tell, I was a pretty early contributor to this form of content.
It’s since caught on, and pretty much everyone who contributes now has a gold “Top Voices” badge for something.
I actually lost my badges:
I talked about the reason why on my about page, but essentially, the whole collaborative articles thing became a craze, especially the SEO topics.
I’m not one for fads, so I kind of bailed.
Also, I’m having more fun creating content for this website and getting my SEO consulting business going! 🙂
But when I started writing for those articles, I don’t think the top voices badges were even a thing, and TBH it was treated by many as a bit of a joke.
Around the time of the August 2023 core update and September 2023 helpful content update on Google Search, LinkedIn collaborative articles saw a surge in visibility:
After the September HCU (which I covered in my 11x content article as well as my SERP volatility article), that visibility may be simmering a bit. Credit to Glenn Gabe for pointing this out. I couldn’t find his original post, but here’s another one:
But it got me thinking, if LinkedIn can create articles with AI and then have real contributors add context to the sections (bribing them with badges), and then get organic traffic from that, what would happen if I took all of my responses from those articles and put them in a collection on my website?
Could this maybe help solve the problem of LLMs not knowing what I think about SEO, by creating a page that explains exactly that?
As we’ve seen above, this approach is slowly working!
Although the content is technically duplicate, the page is an original piece of content piece because it’s a collection of insights that can’t be found elsewhere.
For now, I won’t reword any of the collaborative article responses. I’ll post them exactly as they appear in the LinkedIn articles.
How does Ethan Lazuk think about SEO?
Let’s find out!
My LinkedIn collaborative article contributions
Actually, before I start sharing my contributions, let me give a little context on why I add to the particular collaborative articles that I do.
I don’t seek out these articles. They appear in my LinkedIn notifications, like this:
The article topics are suggested by LinkedIn. I usually scroll through them and contribute to ones where I feel I can add some value. (Normally, I do this after hours while walking in the park near my apartment, and always on my phone.)
I believe you can pick and choose articles to contribute to, and also play with your profile skills to encourage certain badges and things. Have fun …
Not really into that, myself. 😉
For me, a top voices badge from LinkedIn was never the goal.
If I find an interesting collaborative article question, I want to give an interesting answer and sometimes challenge my own assumptions by researching a seemingly basic SEO topic to see if what I had planned to write was accurate. It’s a great way to maintain strong fundamentals.
When I’m uncertain about parts of an answer, I do a little legwork to look up a source and usually link to it. (Yes, collaborative article links are followed. And yes, people put their own websites in them to build backlinks under the guise of being helpful. Spammers gonna spam haha. However, it’s naked anchor text at least.)
If you’re curious if these articles are indexed (or at least crawled), many are in fact.
Here’s a site search for collaborative LinkedIn articles that included my name:
Based on this method (from a few months ago), I counted 39 collaborative articles that appeared on Google Search related to my name. Upon auditing my LinkedIn “comments,” I’ve so far contributed to 52 collaborative articles.
Do the articles rank for anything? I have seem them appear for searches of a topic plus the author’s name, for example, a query like [seo audit findings ethan lazuk].
Maybe investigating the article’s keyword rankings and historical traffic will be my next article. 😉
Now with that context, let’s find out …
How I think about SEO, based on my LinkedIn collaborative article contributions
Here’s a list of the articles I’ve contributed to in a (relatively) chronological order.
Click any of them below to jump to that section, under which I’ll include my contributions.
- How do you align meta tags with your content strategy and voice search goals?
- How do you highlight the most important SEO audit findings?
- How can you optimize your content for high-intent keywords?
- How can you use crawling data to improve your website?
- How do you use analytics to target your audience’s needs?
- How can you write authoritative SEO copy for E-A-T and YMYL topics?
- How do you ensure a high-quality SEO audit without sacrificing scope?
- How do you work with your SEM team and stakeholders?
- How do you write meta descriptions that engage?
- How do you stay current with search engine trends?
- How can search engine trends help you find new content opportunities?
- How do you use multimedia to improve your search engine results?
- How can you effectively use TikTok analytics to grow your brand?
- How can you enhance social media copywriting with symbols?
- How can you ensure the security and reliability of sources found through search engines?
- How do you explain your search engine choices to clients?
- What are the best SEO and web content proofreading tips?
- How do you leverage search engine quality to stand out?
- How can you quickly narrow down search results?
- How can search engine trends improve your user experience?
- How do you generate headlines using keyword research?
- How do you audit your website’s technical SEO?
- How do you control and improve your website’s crawlability?
- How do you handle plagiarism in SEO copywriting?
- What are the best practices for prioritizing web pages with a crawl budget?
- How do you manage complex search engine projects?
- How can you optimize your SEO strategy for social media, video, image, and news?
- How do you handle the cognitive and emotional demands of search engine evaluation?
- How do you manage negative feedback on social media?
- What are the most effective ways to identify and target profitable keywords for your business?
- What are the best practices for tailoring web copy to specific target audiences?
- How can you effectively communicate and collaborate with search engine marketing professionals?
- How can you use media analysis to optimize your SEO strategy?
- What are the most effective ways to identify seasonal keywords?
- How can you use user-generated content to improve your writing engagement?
- What tools and techniques can you use to audit search engine quality?
- How can you use search engine trends to anticipate your competitors’ actions?
- How do you fill gaps in content using a strategy framework?
- How can you segment and analyze traffic sources using search engine analytics?
- How can you effectively write meta descriptions in your portfolio?
- How can you conduct effective cross-engine comparisons?
- How can you identify gaps and opportunities in your content performance?
- How can you effectively rank high-quality content with crawling algorithms?
- How can you optimize SEO for new platforms and technologies?
- How do you optimize your content and website for keywords?
- What is keyword intent and how can you use it to create targeted content?
- What are the most effective sources and methods for discovering long-tail keywords for SEO?
- How can you avoid misinterpreting SEO data for user behavior?
- What are the best ways to stay current with SEO?
- How can Search Engine Optimization professionals network effectively?
- How can you best visualize keyword rankings for SEO reports?
- How can you identify and eliminate irrelevant SEO data?
Phew! That’s a lot of headlines.
Funny enough, they’re categorized by the type of skill or badge you’d get as well, and so many of them were random topics, or just the term “Search Engines.”
Anyway, I only respond to SEO-related questions or frame the answer in an SEO context. Perhaps soon, I’ll reorganize these by topic.
I think eventually I’ll repurpose a lot of this content as well, because it’s preeeeettty long and wordy in this context.
So based on that, let’s get into how Ethan Lazuk thinks about SEO!
1. How do you align meta tags with your content strategy and voice search goals?
“Certain meta tags can influence your SEO more than others. Title tags (<title> elements) are a confirmed, albeit tiny, ranking factor. Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor. However, both of these can influence CTR when shown as title links or snippets. Meta robots tags can impact indexing as well as whether links are followed. Meta viewport tags are important for mobile friendliness (but many CMSs set this automatically). Meta charset tags can prevent character formatting issues. Meta keywords haven’t been used by Google since 2009, and Bing may even see them as a spam signal. Authorship can be indicated with on-page content or structured data. While meta language tags are typically used for international websites.”
2. How do you highlight the most important SEO audit findings?
“As an agency-side SEO, I find the best way to prioritize audit findings, whether from tools, Google Search Console, or manual review, is to focus on the business impact. Which technical fixes or content optimizations will further the goals of the business fastest? For example, missing meta descriptions will get flagged by tools, but aren’t necessarily a big priority, unless maybe they’re on key e-commerce category pages that don’t have much text for snippet summaries. Broken links across hundreds of pages can be a large task to fix, but you can start with pages that create topic clusters that include the website’s main pages for conversions. So to prioritize, think about the impact for UX and organic search rankings, but also the business.”
“I’ve found for the audit findings themselves, it’s often helpful to create a spreadsheet with tabs of categorized notes and accompanying screenshots for easy reference. That information can then get prioritized into a word document or slide show. When presenting, I like to include a SMART goal outlining current metrics and expected results from remediations, an overview with categories of findings, then sections or slides for each category (like technical, content, etc.) with descriptions of issues, solutions, and priority levels, along with choice screenshots or data graphs to help visualize it all. Showing examples of competitors’ sites or data can also help visualize intended solutions. Lastly, I like to show a timeline of the SEO work.”
“In addition to categorizing audit findings, I like to reference the page types the findings apply to. Technical issues may be site-wide or specific to certain page templates. Content updates may apply to certain types of pages, or pages within a certain topic cluster. This can help the site owner understand which areas of the site need attention, as well as serve as a reference for the SEO, writer, or developer later when doing the work. Also, referencing how one category may overlap with another helps illustrate how SEO audit items are often interconnected as part of a broader strategy to improve overall site quality and organic search performance, rather than simply a checklist of individual fixes.”
“If the audit work will be handled by a team, it can also be helpful to identify which team member’s department is responsible for each item, or if multiple departments will be responsible, note the order they’ll address a task. This can help with estimating and later balancing workloads and schedules, as well as creating an accurate timeline. When assigning work, it can also be helpful to take steps to streamline team members’ involvement. For example, the SEO who did the audit can export data from Screaming Frog, format it, and pass that along to a writer or developer for next steps and implementation.”
“When it comes to audits, I’ve found it’s helpful to take the “kitchen sink” approach referenced by SEOs like Glenn Gabe. Time allowing, take note of any and all issues you find while auditing the site, whether they be speed or UX issues, historical traffic or rankings declines, content quality issues, or otherwise. Also, gather ample data and screenshots or competitor references along the way. In the end, it’s more efficient to start with a large list of audit findings and edit that down based on budget, timeframe, and expected performance or business impact, saving any leftover lower-priority items for later, than it is to partially audit a site only to have to re-evaluate it later. ;)”
3. How can you optimize your content for high-intent keywords?
“It’s helpful when doing keyword research to keep in mind that you’re not necessarily looking for exact words to include on a page (although that’s often part of on-page optimization), but also trying to understand how your audience is describing their aspirations—the words they’re using. Often this’ll give you clues about what keywords to include in content—helping users recognize they’re in the right place—but it may also give insights into how users describe a product or service in different ways, or even what pain points they’re looking to solve. These details can help make a page more helpful and relevant, and set your content apart in the eyes of users and search engines from others trying to rank for the same competitive queries.”
“When creating content for high-intent queries (or organic search users in general), it’s helpful to remember the goal is to satisfy the intent of the user, and the search engine is merely how that user will find that content. In other words, don’t write marketing fluff or add information just for the sake of including keywords or hitting word counts. 😉 Get to the heart of the matter quickly, and be as comprehensive, authoritative, and transparent as possible. When formatting content, consider how easy the key information is to find across device types, or how easy it is to take a desired action. Logical page structures and clear details help users achieve their goals, and search engines like them too for comprehending a page’s purpose.”
“High-intent, or lower-funnel, keywords can be competitive to rank for in organic search results because the user is often ready to convert. Aside from the merits of the brand, product, or service itself, presenting your content in the most helpful way (often providing an experience others can’t match, whether through unique insights from experts or users’ firsthand accounts or the presentation of the content itself) can help set your page apart from the competition. Likewise, consider the full user journey for content creation, having not just helpful content at the point of a conversion but also before that point, when users are in the decision and awareness stages, with comparisons, guides, etc. And don’t be afraid to try new formats. ;)”
4. How can you use crawling data to improve your website?
“It’s helpful to get familiar with Google Search Console’s Pages and Crawl stats reports. The Pages report reveals how many pages are indexed or not, and why. Maybe a page was given a noindex or purposefully removed/404’d, but you may also find unknown issues with canonicalization, page quality, or other errors. Meanwhile, Crawl stats can be helpful for spotting anomalies in crawler behavior or findings. Then Screaming Frog adds a layer of depth to site crawls, revealing data for pages search engines may not be aware of. The licensed version gives you the ability to call GSC data via API, or you can use ChatGPT Code Interpreter to merge data exports. Lastly, a site audit tool like Semrush or Ahrefs helps create a more complete picture still.”
“Running regular site crawls is a good habit to develop for website health and maintenance. Keeping an eye out for a spike in 404 pages, for example, can clue you in to site updates that you may have been unaware of, such as changes to URL structures or the removal of pages. This can happen when multiple people work on a website who are not all necessarily focused on SEO. Many audit tools provide a website health score. While this is helpful for spotting trends as work is done, what matters is how the technical remediations improve the website for users or organic search rankings. Not all issues are a priority that way. Another benefit of regular site checks is that anomalies in crawl data could also signal security issues, such as a hack.”
“While URL structures should be logical for the user — and consistent subfolders can make segmenting data in tools like Google Search Console easier — ultimately site architecture benefits from quality internal linking between pages. The main pages should be the easiest to reach, including from popular pages like the homepage or site navigation. Meanwhile, pages of similar topics should be clustered together so users and search engines can easily find the connections. Priority fixes for site architecture are issues that contradict these priorities, like orphan pages that have value but aren’t reachable via links, broken links that break the organization of the site architecture, or key pages buried several clicks deep from other main pages.”
“I often like to optimize a site’s existing content first to ensure it’s as helpful and high-quality as possible before turning to new content. Data can inform these decisions. A high bounce rate could indicate users aren’t finding what they want, maybe due to a cumbersome page structure that buries key information or a heading or title link that doesn’t promise what the content delivers, or maybe users are finding the right information but aren’t being led to related content on the site or a conversion. High impressions but low CTR could signal a title link in need of updating. While a page ranking in striking distance of top positions for its main query(ies) could indicate a need for more depth or original information to be more helpful.”
“Data from different crawling tools can be cumbersome to synthesize and draw holistic insights from manually; that’s where I’ve discovered the value of ChatGPT Code Interpreter. Using this AI tool can allow you to merge and consolidate exports from different sources of SEO data, like performance or crawl reports from Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs or Semrush, and then extract the insights needed to draw larger conclusions and track trends over time. It can also be useful for visualizing data or extracting key takeaways when reporting to stakeholders. It’s also helpful to keep a timeline of major changes, whether updates to the website or search engine ranking systems, to help correlate changes in data with their causes.”
“Technical SEO is a specialization all its own. When confronting a perplexing issue in crawl data, don’t be afraid to reach out to a specialist for help. This can save time but also prevent costly mistakes. Even a question posted on an SEO forum or on LinkedIn or Twitter may elicit helpful responses from the SEO community. That said, there are many helpful resources for diagnosing site issues, many created by tool providers, experienced SEOs, or even Google. Learning the basics of how to interpret a crawl report from Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or another site audit tool can help you prioritize areas of focus and then delve deeper into analysis or researching solutions, even if the answer isn’t always evident right away. :)”
5. How do you use analytics to target your audience’s needs?
“It’s helpful to verify your Google Search Console account at the domain level so you can view data for all possible website versions and subdomains. It’s not uncommon to discover an http or non-canonical http://www./non-www. version of the domain driving organic clicks from certain assets or outdated/incorrect Google Business Profile website links, for example. (Even unknown or hacked subdomains can be found this way.) Failing to identify and account for this traffic can leave you with an incomplete picture and miss out on plans to consolidate. On the flip side, verifying certain URL-prefix properties based on key areas of the website can help you home in on how certain types of content perform, such as service or product pages or blog articles.”
“Aside from audience segmentation in GA4, I also like to plan out how to segment audiences in Google Search Console. This can be done at a country or device level using default filters, but I also like to identify which topic clusters go with which audiences. The same applies for search intent and buyer’s journeys levels, as well. Certain types of audiences may be limited to particular topics, while others may be eligible for informational or consideration-stage content across many topics. Some websites also cater to audiences with completely different goals, in which case segmenting content performance based on the pages/queries relevant to those respective audiences can add nuance to conclusions drawn from organic search data.”
“Two words: Microsoft Clarity. For a free tool, Clarity can provide valuable insights into how users engage with your site. I particularly find value in session recordings, seeing actual user journeys across different pages and device types, indicating which content or links provide value. Real feedback from users is also invaluable. If a formal user study isn’t an option, even asking someone unfamiliar with the website for their first impressions of content or feedback on completing an action can illuminate pros and cons that an SEO or someone else close to the site may overlook out of sheer familiarity.”
“In addition to these great tips for on-page optimization, structured data, and other tactics geared toward SEO, learning about what Google considers Helpful Content can also help you create pages designed for people first that also perform well in organic search results because they truly satisfy the target user’s intent. Increasingly, Helpful Content can mean covering a topic in-depth but also writing with brevity and succinctness when the occasion calls for it, making the core information of the page easy to locate, and incorporating information backed by demonstrable expertise or experience that’s not found elsewhere on the web (information gain). “SEO content” that merely paraphrases other top-ranking results isn’t what users want. ;)”
“I find it helpful to keep a record of when website optimizations get made (or when a page first gets crawled by the search engine after updates) to reference later when analyzing trends in traffic, keyword rankings, conversions, or other SEO KPIs. Often optimizations are planned in a document first, so this can be as simple as adding a column or note for the implementation date. Or if optimizations are done on the website directly, recording notes, taking before and after screenshots, or gathering other references can help shed light on results as well. These details can also add richness to SEO reporting, going beyond citing numbers and showing charts to also educating stakeholders on the context behind the results.”
“Patience and persistence are virtues. Taking time after making optimizations to accumulate enough data to draw informed conclusions can help you lean in on what’s working and pivot from what isn’t. Content shouldn’t be refreshed just for the sake of it, but often it can take several page iterations to truly deliver the most helpful experience. Also, staying informed of trends, whether in user behavior or search results, can help you proactively update content to continuously deliver on a promise of quality while preventing competitors from filling in any overlooked gaps. Ultimately, great content is determined by the experiences of its audience, and meeting their expectations can require a learning journey and a willingness to adapt.”
“When interpreting trends in performance data from SEO efforts, I find it helpful to take a beat to humanize the context and remember the numbers are largely a reflection of the experience being delivered to users. Putting yourself in their shoes and imagining trying to achieve their goals can help contextualize why trends may be happening in light of how the website experience was changed through optimization efforts. If content was created, was it truly helpful content designed to serve users’ needs? If a layout was changed, does the new design contribute to a better UX or help build users’ trust in the quality of the brand? Visualizing the people behind the data can often help paint a more holistic picture when analyzing results.”
6. How can you write authoritative SEO copy for E-A-T and YMYL topics?
“Remember E-A-T is now E-E-A-T, and the new E stands for Experience. Some topics require expertise, like which type of medicine should you take? For that, you’d want to hear the opinion of a medical expert. But what about if you want to know how it feels to take a medicine? A medical expert may not know, but the experience of others who’ve taken the medicine could be informative. Also, transparency matters. If someone has expertise or experience on a topic, explaining why that is the case is important for justifying the value of what they’re saying. And while E-E-A-T isn’t a ranking system, it does represent how Google would like its algorithms to perform, especially for YMYL topics. Learn about it and the Quality Rater Guidelines as well.”
“Topic and audience research are important for creating quality content, especially for YMYL topics that can influence people’s consequential decisions. But information gain matters as well. Merely paraphrasing information from other sources found on the web doesn’t necessarily add value for a user, which is what Google wants to reward. This is where having real experts or people with experience author or contribute to content makes a difference. Someone who isn’t an expert or has no experience in a YMYL topic will not be able to deliver the same value or earn the audience’s trust like someone truly learned in the topic. This is the type of helpful content Google is prioritizing more, especially when it satisfies deliberate search intent.”
“Displaying credentials or testimonials on your own website are helpful signs of expertise and experience for users. But to build a reputation as an authority, it helps to contribute widely on your topic, and this can include publishing information on other websites. If the facts on your author bio page are supported by other online profiles (and why not link to them as well!), that’s supporting evidence. If the topics written about on your website reflect the same topics where you’ve shown expertise consistently in other places on the web, that’s a sign of an authoritative voice. Also, solidifying those credentials with structured data on your website helps connect the dots of your expertise in Google’s knowledge graph.”
“The point about grammar is an important one. All the expertise in the world may not help you build trust with an audience if the content has careless errors of style, spelling, or grammar. (If you can’t take the time to edit copy – especially in a world of AI tools 😉 – how can we trust the proper time was spent on the information itself?) On the flip side, while content should be readable, it should also convey evidence of an expert’s voice. An expert may naturally add more related entities and keywords in their content because of their breadth of understanding of the subject. These entities and terms can increase the relevance and comprehensiveness of content, making it more helpful for users and valuable in the eyes of search engines.”
“Trust is based on a user’s experience. Deceptive tactics used for the sake of improving search rankings or convincing users to take an action can permanently erode trust. Transparency and honesty are key. If your website sells products, for example, but doesn’t clearly display pricing, shipping, return, or customer service details, that can reduce trust. The same goes for security during the checkout process. Or if you say an expert wrote content, but they didn’t, that’s deceptive. Same for reviews. If a person didn’t use a product or service, claiming they did isn’t helpful. Fake E-E-A-T signals, so to speak, put trust at risk. Investing in having real experts write or review content or showing proof reviewers used a product builds trust.”
“Content about YMYL topics should be timely and refreshed when new information comes to light. Giving financial advice, for example, but using outdated information could put users at risk. Proactively updating content based on the latest information also hedges against losing ground in search results to competitors who create fresher content on the same topic. Listening to feedback or looking for friction points in the user’s journey and addressing these through content or UX updates can also build trust with your audience. Pages getting clicks for irrelevant queries in Google Search Console, drop-off areas in Google Analytics behavior flows, or confusing areas seen in Microsoft Clarity recordings can all be starting places to investigate.”
“As takeaways, I’d say: 1. get familiar with Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines and what they have to say about E-E-A-T and YMYL, 2. follow SEOs who share insights on these topics regularly, like Dr. Marie Haynes and Lily Ray, and 3. rather than trying to take shortcuts to build E-E-A-T, like fake blog authorship, for example, invest in the contributions of experts or showing the experience of others as well as building the E-E-A-T of the brand and people associated with your website.”
7. How do you ensure a high-quality SEO audit without sacrificing scope?
“Aside from allotted time or budget, it can be tricky to prioritize SEO audit goals or scope upfront, because while some issues may be known, audits often find issues you weren’t expecting. Thus, I like to do a holistic first pass, where I create a spreadsheet or word doc to list out every issue I see with example screenshots or supporting details. These generally come from a manual review of the website using SEO browser extensions, crawls from one or more audit tools, and a check of Google Search Console pages and performance reports. Once I’ve established a list of issues, I prioritize them for further investigation based on impact or business case. This way I end with both detailed action items for key issues plus future opportunities.”
“In my opinion, the best SEO audit tools start with the free ones, including the SEO’s own eyes when looking through a website. To this, it’s helpful to mix in browser extensions or developer tools to check for on-page issues, like with title tags, canonical or noindex settings, schema, redirects, alt text, etc. Google Search Console, also free, can then provide insight into technical issues, such as indexation and page experience, as well as report more accurately than 3rd party tools on keyword rankings and page traffic, not to mention backlink data. Bing Webmaster Tools similarly offers a wealth of audit insights. That all said, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Semrush, or other audit tools can back up issues the naked eye finds plus add more.”
“The format of audit findings can be tailored to the end user. If the SEO who did the audit will be doing the remediations, a more visual report may be needed to get stakeholders’ buy in, such as a slide show outlining each issue, the solve, and the expected result, all prioritized by business impact. If others will be doing the work, a spreadsheet may be best, such as one listing each issue with detailed next steps, perhaps grouped by who’ll be responsible, like a developer or content professional, and prioritized by impact and the logical order for completing everything. Also, the more buy-in is needed, the more the expected results or business case can be emphasized, often with supporting data and in terms stakeholders will understand.”
“Designating SEO KPIs or goals before doing an audit can help you later frame your findings in the context of their expected results or business case. For example, if getting more relevant upper-funnel traffic on the buyer’s journey is a goal, this may result from auditing, pruning, or updating blog articles. If better CTR for product pages is a goal, this could relate to optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, or schema to improve SERP appearances. If better user engagement is a goal, this could relate to Core Web Vitals, content relevance, quality, and structure, or internal linking between related pages. Tying audit items to KPIs and then recording the dates when remediations go live can help you track the results of your audit work.”
“Often SEO audits will be holistic and cover the fundamentals, thus providing a nearly complete and nearly timeless list of what work needs to be done. (There are exceptions.) But as remediations are made and changes happen to a website, this can sometimes result in new issues. This can be true in cases where multiple people are working on a website but not all of them have SEO top of mind. For that and other reasons, it’s a good practice to do regular website maintenance. This can include scheduled crawls from one or more audit tools, as well as manual reviews of the website. Although many items will be resolved from the initial audit work, maintenance helps ensure new issues are attended to and prevent duplication of efforts. :)”
8. How do you work with your SEM team and stakeholders?
“SEM may mean just paid search marketing or both paid search and SEO (organic search). When creating an SEM goal for both paid and organic search channels (SMART goals are an excellent way to articulate this), remember to account for the dynamics between the channels and how they may vary depending on factors like the industry and audiences involved. Some ecommerce audiences, for example, may be prone to click on paid ads, while some YMYL audiences may trust organic results more. There may also be a halo effect, where paid visibility leads to organic traffic, or organic visibility builds trust for paid ads. An SEM goal should account for these dynamics to help attribute the nuances of each channel’s contributions to traffic and conversions.”
“This is complete advice. 🙂 I’d only add suggestions on how to accomplish teams efficiently working together: 1. A unified strategy created by strategists of different disciplines helps ensure efforts are unified and mutually beneficial; 2. A timeline of the strategy before the work begins helps keep everyone aligned on expectations for deliverables; 3. Having strategists outline the steps for the deliverables creates the framework for tactics; 4. Having a project manager assign and oversee the tactics in a project management system keeps work on track; 5. A quality assurance process to review deliverables helps ensure consistency; 6. While a regular performance review schedule and team meetings help keep reporting and results on track.”
“When an SEM campaign includes both paid search and organic search, learnings from one channel can help craft the strategy of the other channel. For example, if a website has historically not done paid search, but it’s either focused on SEO before or has historical organic search data, the keyword insights from Google Search Console can help guide paid search marketers on which terms are most relevant for the target audience. Alternatively, if a website is relatively new and doesn’t have much visibility in organic search yet, keyword insights from paid search campaigns can help guide the SEO strategy on what content to create or how best to optimize existing webpages to be more relevant, helpful, and satisfactory for the audience’s goals.”
“The dynamics between paid search and organic search when it comes to conversions (and KPIs in general) is an important topic for teams to share insights around and discuss as strategies evolve. Having both paid and organic search visibility for certain queries, for example, can improve conversions overall as the two channels reinforce awareness of and trust in the brand. That said, if the visibility of either channel is relatively new, it can change historical trends for the other channel’s KPIs. New success for one channel could look like failure for another when each is viewed in isolation, so it’s important to combine insights, report holistically, and determine whether the new trend is better for overall KPIs than the previous trend.”
“As SEOs or paid search marketers specifically, it’s beneficial to the overall marketing goals of a website to share insights, understand what the other is doing (at least at a high level), and work collaboratively. As a dedicated SEO myself, I know it can be tempting to focus on channel-specific KPIs, yet for an SEM campaign to reach its full potential, individual channel goals may have to play second fiddle to the collective music that paid and organic search results make. This can be a granular process, looking at results for certain pages or queries, or a broader one, where each channel works to fill in the gaps of the other, combine forces, or even let one take the lead, all to achieve the holistic SEM goals for the website.”
9. How do you write meta descriptions that engage?
“A 2020 Ahrefs study found Google used its snippets, instead of meta descriptions, nearly two-thirds of the time. In the majority of instances, Google finds its snippets, whether they’re pulled from a single text excerpt or different page elements, are more helpful than the provided meta descriptions. With this in mind, the first step to writing a meta description, for me, is determining if it’s necessary based on what’s already shown in the snippet for key queries. If I think I can create a more helpful meta description, I analyze what Google is showing and account for those details, starting with key pages, like the homepage, sitelink pages, or low-text but high-traffic pages (that have less content for Google to pull snippets from).”
“Knowing Google creates its own snippets nearly two-thirds of the time (based on a 2020 Ahrefs study), and that keywords in meta descriptions aren’t a ranking factor (unlike with title tags), I personally focus less on trying to insert keywords (which could make the meta description less helpful and less likely to be shown) and more on including relevant terms or entities that help users quickly identify whether the page will contain the information they want. A few considerations I have are: 1. Making the meta description helpful above all; 2. Including words that Google may bold in the snippet because they match or are related to the user’s query; and 3. Elaborating on (instead of repeating) the details in the title tag for added context.”
“I like to use a snippet preview tool when writing meta descriptions. (There are many free ones available; I tend to use Portent’s.) Beyond character counts, seeing the words in the context of a search result helps to visualize their readability. For example, a sentence-form meta description may read nicely on its own, but as part of a full search result, it may not convey the key details as evidently as short phrases or even a different word order might. Or when pages are commonly shown as sitelinks for navigational queries, only a single line snippet may be shown, so brevity matters even more. As guidelines for meta description formats, conciseness, readability, flexibility, helpfulness, and brand voice are all important considerations.”
“Google will often tailor a snippet to the query, so the first thing I’d check is what the search appearance is like for the main queries of a page — is the meta description being shown or not? If it is shown, it’s probably a good match for the user’s intent. If it’s not shown, Google likely finds the meta description less helpful than what it’s showing instead, in which case the question becomes would rewriting the meta description, based on learnings from Google’s own snippet, get it to show and improve CTR. I also tend to focus on the meta descriptions for pages that need the most help from them, like a homepage (where brand voice is important) or category pages, where there may be less content for Google to pull a helpful snippet from.”
10. How do you stay current with search engine trends?
“Another helpful resource for understanding the types of results search engines want to show, and aligning your website and content with those expectations, is Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Available online as a PDF, this document teaches Google’s quality raters how to evaluate search results. While quality raters don’t impact rankings directly, their input helps the search engine determine whether to make changes to its rankings systems. The QRG document elaborates on key concepts, like E-E-A-T, Your Money Your Life (YMYL), Needs Met, and Page Quality. In addition, documentation about the Helpful Content System, Reviews System, and other Google ranking systems can provide up-to-date context on how to think about content and SEO.”
“I’d you’re reading this, you’re likely on LinkedIn. 😉 Following SEO professionals on this platform, and taking note of the content they share or engage with, can be a great way to get introduced to topics and tactics or stay updated on trends. For me personally, though, it was SEO Twitter where I first became acquainted with many folks in the SEO community. (In fact, I began creating weekly recaps of SEO tweets on my personal website — which I call the X Files — to keep a record of all the great information shared.) Like any industry, SEO has prominent voices, lesser known yet equally helpful voices, and of course it’s share of misinformation. To get started, find a few reputable SEO voices, see who they follow, and build from there. :)”
11. How can search engine trends help you find new content opportunities?
“I would typically suggest using search trends as a ”secondary” means of choosing content topics. Trends can be short lived, whereas most valuable content for SEO is evergreen, meaning it stays useful over time, maybe requiring periodic refreshes. SEO content should be helpful and “people-first,” with topics based on an audience’s goals, either revealed by keyword research or audience insights, like personas, sales data, or customer feedback, mapped to relevant queries. That said, trending searches, like emerging topics on Google Trends, can reveal content topics that will have staying power but likely aren’t reflected in historical 3rd-party keyword data yet, giving you a leg up on ranking for the topic. A good example is a topic like AI.”
“Query reports in Google Search Console are a good place to watch for keyword trends based on an audience’s emerging interests or needs. This is even truer for sites with holistic content covering topic clusters in depth. Holistic content can rank for a wider universe of queries, so if a relevant search trend develops, either new queries or rising popularity for current ones, existing content may get more impressions for those queries, especially if there is an overall gap in relevant and helpful content for the topic. (Updates to search engine ranking systems can also cause pages to become relevant for new queries.) Monitor GSC for new queries getting impressions where updates or new content may be needed to satisfy the audience’s intent.”
12. How do you use multimedia to improve your search engine results?
“The first question I ask before adding multimedia is whether the images, video, or other assets will make the content more helpful for a user. If images add context to a page’s content, such as by illustrating the themes discussed, a user may find that valuable. If a video summarizes the main themes of the page, allowing an alternative and quick means to grasp the core content, demonstrates how to do something, or shares different experiences or viewpoints, a user may find that helpful. Stock imagery or sales videos, in contrast, may not contribute much. Next, once helpful multimedia is chosen for a page, the next step is to use file compression, lazy loading, or other ways to ensure it doesn’t reduce page speed or the user experience.”
13. How can you effectively use TikTok analytics to grow your brand?
“TikTok analytics can have value for growing a brand’s presence in other digital marketing channels as well, such as organic search. One of the ways I use this data for SEO is new content ideas. Trending TikTok videos and hashtags, for example, can offer insights into new topics that audiences may want to learn about in blog content, but that SEO keyword research tools may not have identified yet in historical search data. Ideally, SEO content should be evergreen, so it’s better to cover topics audiences will find relevant and helpful long term, as opposed to brief trends. That said, sometimes trending hashtags can reveal new topics that will stay relevant but currently have content gaps, allowing you to be among the first to cover them.”
14. How can you enhance social media copywriting with symbols?
“The value that emojis have for social media content can apply in other digital marketing channels as well, like SEO. Specifically in local SEO, emojis in Google Business Profile posts can make the posts more eye catching and lead to better engagement. Of course, emojis should be used only to make posts better for users (either easier or more fun to read) and fit the brand voice of the publisher. Website content can also benefit from emojis in certain contexts, where a cleverly placed emoji conveying an emotion or representing a theme can make the content more engaging and even more helpful for users. That said, it’s important to maintain an authentic brand voice and build trust with users. If emojis can help with that, consider using them.”
15. How can you ensure the security and reliability of sources found through search engines?
“As an SEO, I find the advice in this article just as relevant to site owners as searchers. In SEO, there are concepts from Google to help site owners learn how to successfully achieve visibility in organic search results. Many of those principles are outlined in the advice of this article. For example, Google wants websites to have E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—especially for content that can impact health, wellness, or financial security, called Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) topics. Google also cares about Page Experience, including security and usability. Just as you should look for trust signals when searching, so too should you look to demonstrate them with your own website.”
16. How do you explain your search engine choices to clients?
“Google Search will often be the main focus for SEO simply because it has the largest market share, with around 90% according to many sources. That said, SEO isn’t about chasing ranking signal updates or gaming search engine results, but rather creating a great user experience that maximizes its organic visibility based on high quality, helpful, and relevant content for intended audiences. The foundational principles of great content for Google Search will likely also satisfy other search engines’ ranking systems. That said, audience demographics can make other search engine results more relevant for SEO campaigns, which could impact the degree to which they are monitored, such as for competitive insights or gaps for specific queries.”
“Generative AI in search results makes it even more important for brands to monitor how they’re represented in different search engines and even AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, or Claude. Google still dominates in market share (aside from cases where it’s less available) and the advent of the New Bing (with AI chat) hasn’t yet seemed to change that balance of power. That said, whereas before brands had to monitor web results, now they have to pay attention to what generative AI answers say about them. Though fewer people may use certain search engines, having unfavorable results appear for branded searches in them could be detrimental. Above all, brands should pay attention to the whole online ecosystem that transcends across search engines.”
“The Yandex search engine ranking factor leak was an exciting event for many SEOs because it was an opportunity to look under the hood. But it didn’t change much for many SEOs. Why? Because the goal of SEO is creating a great experience for users, with helpful and relevant content. If you’re creating websites for users, not search engines, the search engine you’re targeting should matter less. That said, Google dominates for a reason, and not all search engines operate the same. But many use machine learning, making it unlikely you’ll game the system anyway. 😉 Monitoring results across search engines can be helpful, though. If you lose traffic on just one, maybe it’s rankings related. Lose traffic on multiple? Maybe it’s a technical issue.”
17. What are the best SEO and web content proofreading tips?
“AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude 2, or even some website plugins can also proofread content. Googlers like John Mueller have said before that a few typos won’t hold back a page’s rankings, but rather it’s about the overall quality of the site’s content. That said, credibility, clarity, and building audience trust are important tenets of good SEO content, and typos or other errors can be counterproductive. Besides human review of the AI proofread content for accuracy, it’s important to make sure the unique voice and perspective of the author or brand are not lost. Fixing typos or improving readability is one thing, but overly editing content to the point it sounds generic can be a risk. To mitigate that, I like to use a minimal prompt to start.”
“In today’s SEO era, it’s helpful to know basic differences between lexical search and semantic search. Whereas lexical search was based on keywords in text, semantic search is more about the meanings behind words. This means it’s less important for SEO today to insert keywords and more important to create helpful and detailed content that satisfies the search intent of the users searching those keywords. Maybe that means using keywords verbatim on the page, but not always. 😉 As far as keyword stuffing, if you’re creating helpful content for users and writing from a place of real experience or expertise, you’ll naturally incorporate related terms and entities that make your content relevant, without needing to worry about keyword counts.”
18. How do you leverage search engine quality to stand out?
“If your audience is general, other websites will likely be using similar tools as you to gather data (such as keyword research) for their SEO strategies. Unless you’re targeting a niche or newish topic based on unique insights, this means you’ll likely have to compete to earn visibility for your audience’s popular queries. Analyzing top results can help reveal a query’s dominant search intent(s) and ideas for content to satisfy it. Yet, given the sophistication of modern search engine ranking systems, simply emulating other content is usually not enough. Instead, consider how to offer more helpful information than what’s available. This often requires originality, real experience or expertise, and a strategy that puts users’ needs first.”
“This is great advice. I find it helpful to focus on creating the most comprehensive, trustworthy, yet easily digestible content to satisfy an audience’s search intent first, but also consider how search engines may understand its layout and topical relevance. Make sure the content is crawlable and indexable first by checking how the page renders, like in Google Search Console. (If content isn’t indexed, it can’t be ranked. Remember also that comments or supplementary content can count towards the page’s overall evaluation.) Use logical headings, sentence structures, and HTML, unambiguous language, and related entities. You can also ask readers or AI (like Bard, Claude, or ChatGPT) to evaluate the content for these factors as a second eye.”
19. How can you quickly narrow down search results?
“In addition to the above, two extra points I’d add are 1) to not be afraid to get detailed with your search query and 2) also to think about incorporating your search intent explicitly in your search. Something like 15% of search queries are never seen before, and with generative AI advancements like the New Bing or Google SGE on the horizon, searchers may be able to write lengthier, more specific, and more natural-sounding searches (what we SEOs call long-tail queries) to find results. Additionally, Google tends to return results that match the intent of a query versus just the words themselves. If your goal is to shop or find a local venue, use explicit terms like “buy” or “near me” to help give clues as to what you’re trying to achieve.”
20. How can search engine trends improve your user experience?
“Google and other search engines also provide query refinement opportunities to narrow down or explore what you’re looking for — and by extension help marketers get an expansive picture of a topic. With autocomplete, for example, Google will suggest how to finish a query based on popular or trending searches. This is meant to find what you’re already looking for faster, but can present new ideas as well. Google can also show related searches below results or topic refinement bubbles above them. Some commercial queries may return filters to modify search criteria, while People Also Ask shows related questions for many queries that can open new avenues of exploration. These are just a few of the many SERP refinement options you may encounter.”
“One way to find new content is with Google Discover. Rather than show results that are relevant to a query you search, Discover content suggestions are personalized to you. For website owners and content creators, Discover can be another way beyond Google Search to get organic traffic. But since Discover results are personalized versus shown based on rankings, getting visibility can be different than SEO for Google Search. That said, there are SEOs who specialize in Discover. Similar to on Google Search, to qualify for Discover, content should be high quality and helpful. Additionally, generative AI search snapshots, like in Google SGE, can let you explore topics conversationally, with summaries of content and links to visit the sources.”
21. How do you generate headlines using keyword research?
“Headline often refers to text in an H1 tag, which tends to be the principle heading on a page. Heading tags are used by search engines like Google to understand the structure and meaning of a page’s content, as well as to evaluate that content’s relevance when ranking it for a query. Additionally, title tags, which are the headlines of a sort that show as title links for pages in search results, also occasionally get replaced by Google using text in H1 tags. So even before users get to a page, the H1, or headline, plays several potential roles in that page’s visibility in and traffic from organic search results. Then once users are on the page, the headline reinforces to them that the content they expected to find will in fact be there.”
“Since pages tend to rank for a variety of relevant queries — your Google Search Console query reports can show this for individual URLs — it’s helpful to look beyond targeting single keywords. Niche content may rank for a group of topically similar keywords, while broader content may be relevant for several keyword topics or even search intents. For example, a comparison article may also be relevant for users wanting information about just one of the topics. Google can use passage indexing to determine the relevance of individual content sections for a query, versus the whole page. When writing headlines, think about the theme of the article, but then treat your subheadings (H2s, H3s, etc.) as mini-headlines for each individual section.”
“When using tools to preview or generate headline text, consider all of the possible applications for the text beyond just on-page content, such as in mobile or desktop search results. Several page elements can qualify for proper headline writing treatment. The title tag is what may be shown in search results as a page’s title link, the headline used to encourage users to click through to the page. Title tag text can also be considered by Google for ranking a page’s relevance to a query (so don’t be afraid to go over that 60 character recommendation, for example). H1 tags (or main page headings) can also be shown as title links in SERPs. While subheadings (H2-H5+) may be shown in snippets as site links or as featured snippet text for a page.”
“Optimizing headlines for SEO often means testing. If a headline is used as a page’s title tag, it may require several versions after you see how it appears in search results. Google may show a title tag verbatim as a title link, use sections of it, modify it, or choose other text entirely. You’ll also want to monitor CTR and check how your result stands out from others in the SERPs you’re monitoring. Also, title links can vary based on factors like the query or device (mobile title links can be over 65 characters, for example), while keywords in title links, even included at the beginning, can get removed in the actual results shown. The best advice is to be unique but write what’s best for users, then monitor results and adjust as needed.”
22. How do you audit your website’s technical SEO?
“When analyzing your website’s speed metrics, it’s helpful to note whether the source is field data or lab data. Field data is based on actual users. This is what you may find in Google Search Console for your site’s Core Web Vitals and is what Google uses for search. Lab data is a simulation, but it can be helpful to measure the impact of optimizations. While Core Web Vitals is a ranking factor, broadly part of Google’s Page Experience signals, it is a light one, purportedly used to break ties between similar results. The score in PageSpeed Insights, meanwhile, isn’t used for that purpose. For site speed goals, passing Core Web Vitals is helpful, but achieving the best user experience and engagement is ultimately what you’re looking for.”
“HTTPS has been a lightweight ranking factor on Google for nearly a decade, but it’s gotten even lighter over time as nearly all of the web has adopted it. Google Chrome, for example, recently announced an intention to serve HTTPS by default, and explicitly ask users to verify they wish to visit a non-secure site via HTTPS-First Mode. There are low-cost (or even free) solutions for SSL certificates, eliminating objections to having one. More broadly, serving pages in a secure fashion is included in Google’s Page Experience guidelines. The HTTPS report in Google Search Console is one way to verify a site is secure. Security can also apply to securing your ecommerce checkouts, eliminating external redirect vulnerabilities, and other measures.”
“With mobile-first indexing, Google primarily crawls the mobile version of a website’s content (via the Googlebot Smartphone crawler) for indexing and ranking. Some marketers and site owners get in the habit of focusing on desktop versions of websites because those are what they most commonly work on, but it’s important to remember to prioritize mobile experiences, even if a site gets high desktop traffic, like some B2B sites. Ensure mobile content is easily viewable for users and search engines and the experience is equally as good as on desktop. Fix mobile-friendliness errors and ensure all resources load. I also like to separate mobile from desktop performance metrics to look for different trends in user behavior or even rankings or CTR.”
“Combining Semrush or Ahrefs site audits with Screaming Frog can create a solid, cross-checked list of issues to prioritize (or not). I like to start with a list of issues prioritized by what may have the biggest impact on UX or rankings. (For example, broken links or incorrect canonical tags would go ahead of missing meta descriptions.) Next, I investigate if the issue affects key pages. Broken links across 100+ pages can be further prioritized by which ones point to high-converting pages or involve main topic clusters. Sometimes temporary solutions can work as well, like redirecting a broken link’s destination until the link can be replaced. Also, the health score in the audit tool isn’t a KPI, so focus on what helps your users and goals.”
“Screaming Frog is another tool that has some great visualizations for site structure, including a 3D model. Data from Screaming Frog, like the links report, can also be imported into ChatGPT Advanced Data Analytics (formerly Code Interpreter) or fed into ChatGPT diagram plugins in other ways to create visualizations. Most SEOs and content specialists are familiar with the idea of topic clusters, where related topics interlink to guide users along their buyer’s journey and help search engines understand the connections. Hierarchical URL structures can be helpful to users and make site map visualizations more effective, but it’s ultimately the robust yet strategically organized interlinking of content that builds a quality site structure.”
23. How do you control and improve your website’s crawlability?
“It’s helpful to remember robots.txt is used for controlling crawling of pages but not noindexing them. It happens sometimes that pages blocked by robots.txt are linked to by another page, crawled by a search engine, and indexed. In such cases (listed in Google Search Console as “indexed though blocked by robots.txt”), a page may show in SERPs with information missing, like from the title link or snippet, because the content wasn’t crawled. Also, if a page has a noindex, it must be crawlable (not blocked in robots.txt) for the tag to be read. For complex robots.txt set ups, especially with multiple rules for crawlers, a tester helps verify pages are blocked or allowed as intended. As mentioned, beware blocking resources that can break UX.”
“One issue I always check for in site crawls (like an Ahrefs or Semrush site audit), are unlinked pages — known as “orphan pages,” but personally I’m trying to say unlinked. 😉 These pages exist on the website but aren’t reachable via internal links. Unlinked pages can still be indexed for search if they’re discoverable in other ways, like in an XML sitemap or from an external backlink. But such unlinked pages hurt site structure by interrupting the flow of PageRank between related pages and stranding users without a way to navigate to them from other content. I’ve seen cases where pages were unlinked intentionally trying to prevent discoverability by users, but if that’s the goal, the page should also have a noindex tag or be unpublished.”
“Broken links are often one of the first items I encounter in the crawl of an older site that hasn’t had much SEO maintenance, but they can also happen in the course of everyday changes to a site, like if a page URL is updated without a redirect. Once I have a list of broken links, I prioritize addressing them based on the importance of the pages involved, either to improve the UX of key pages or correct opportunities to point contextual links to them. In many cases, broken link destinations can be redirected as well to a suitable alternative page, which can improve the UX of pages with broken links until you can replace them. I often find the practice of fixing broken links on older pages is also a chance to make other on-page improvements.”
“I generally believe the most helpful content for the needs of the audience, particularly on their buyer’s journey, should be the focus, whether it’s new or existing. Content shouldn’t necessarily be updated just for the sake of it, but if a page can be made more helpful with fresher or more in-depth information or a changed layout informed by new user feedback, those are solid reasons for refreshing. Say your existing content already covers the most helpful topics, but there’s room for improvement, concentrating on updates makes sense. But if there are gaps in helpful topics, new content may a priority, keeping in mind to prune as needed for overall site quality. Content strategy may be 50-50 of new vs. updates, but it depends on the goal.”
24. How do you handle plagiarism in SEO copywriting?
“Ideally content should be written or reviewed by a subject matter expert — that guidance about expert review was a recent addition in September 2023 to Google’s Helpful Content documentation, for example. If content is created with expert oversight, that should apply not only to the words on the page, but also the sources behind them. An expert should be able to verify whether sources are credible or not. These credible sources can then be linked contextually and/or listed below the content, depending on what makes sense for users. Linking out to relevant and authoritative sources isn’t about rankings, but rather establishing trust with and building quality content for your audience. And like content, sometimes sources need refreshing too.”
“Additionally, self-plagiarism can also be an issue. I’ve seen plagiarism tools also serve the purpose of finding duplicate content on a website, whether boilerplate copy sections or fully duplicated pages. If duplicated copy makes up a large part of the main content of the pages — as opposed to a mission statement or CTA replicated across the bottom of otherwise distinct pages — that could result in issues with visibility in search, such as through canonicalization. I’ve also seen duplicate copy issues happen with, for example, low-effort service location pages. If altering words with the same basic meaning is the only means of differentiation, that’s unlikely to create the level of quality content a user (or Google) would be wanting.”
“When quoting content from a source, particularly longer passages, I like to use the <blockquote> HTML element. This is intended to denote that text is a quote. Text in a <blockquote> element will also typically be indented and styled differently from normal paragraph text, further helping the reader identify it’s from another source. The source usually then gets referenced beneath the quote. While paraphrasing can be useful in certain cases, such as to conserve space or improve readability, like simplifying technical jargon for more general readers, some readers may appreciate seeing the original quote provided with analysis around it, which also helps reduce the risk of misrepresentation.”
“Well said! Competitive research is often a useful part of content creation. Yet while top ranking search results for a query can shed light on the types of information users are looking for to satisfy their search intent, simply mimicking or paraphrasing those sources to create your own content won’t provide the level of information gain or value-add that sets your page apart, whether in the eyes of search engines or, most importantly, the people you’re ultimately creating it for. By understanding your users’ search intent, however straightforward or multifaceted, and then using your expertise or experience in the topic to spot gaps and opportunities for improvement, you can create unique, people-first content that can do well in search.”
25. What are the best practices for prioritizing web pages with a crawl budget?
“Don’t forget about quality in relation to site architecture and content. For Google’s crawling, quality matters, URL patterns related to quality matter, so does change frequency, among other factors. Consider these excerpts from Ep. 64 of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast from Sept. 19th, 2023: John Mueller: “what is Google trying to predict when it comes to… in the crawl scheduler?” A little later … Gary Illyes: “the quality, that’s the biggest player in the group. And then there’s also change frequency.” Later, Gary again: “Eventually, we might learn that URLs under that pattern hold content that people will never actually search for, so why would we index it?” The reverse also can be true for desirable, quality content.”
“For this topic, study Google’s helpful content system and guidance. From Google’s documentation: “The helpful content system aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience … Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search …. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.“ The classifier is site-wide, but also keep nuances in mind, like that older content doesn’t necessarily mean less helpful, just as fresher or longer doesn’t always mean more helpful, while the desirability of a site (like if it’s linked to often) matters, among many factors.”
“The Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console is an easy place to view the crawling history of your site, as well as look for reported issues or anomalies. I remember once a client’s traffic from Google Search went to zero for a few days before the winter holiday. When we checked the Crawl Stats report, we saw activity had subsided in near parallel with traffic. Turned out, the website’s IT team had mistakenly blocked Googlebot’s IP address! Fortunately, we identified the issue and reversed the block quickly, but that goes to show how knowing where to look can help with diagnosing certain technical issues or mishaps.”
26. How do you manage complex search engine projects?
“One thought or example that comes to mind is the value of incorporating SEO considerations as early as possible in a website project, as well as having a unified resource to track what different departments work on, so specialists can advise one another to create the most efficient processes and keep SEO KPIs and other goals top of mind while preventing counterproductive decisions. For example, decisions made regarding JavaScript, site architecture, or page content and design could have either positive or negative implications for a website’s future organic search performance and SEO strategies. Introducing SEO considerations early and throughout a website project, however, can help set up the project for near- and longer-term success.”
“Keyword research can help identify topical clusters to organize a website, such as the direction of core pages, related subpages, and even specific content sections, as well as the larger site architecture, such as URL structures/patterns, internal linking, and other navigation elements like menus or breadcrumbs. However, your audience should be the ultimate determinant. Prioritize insights gleaned directly from your users and their historical website data, like Google Search Console query reports, if available. Using keyword research tools alone may bias you toward choosing keywords based on metrics like estimated volume or difficulty, whereas your audience’s preferred language or unique pain points may not always be reflected in there.”
27. How can you optimize your SEO strategy for social media, video, image, and news?
“Images matter in many ways. An ecommerce website using product schema, for example, can get annotated images in Google Images, indicating products are for sale. This can be a valuable traffic source, especially from visual shoppers, who may not know the name of a product but recognize it by sight. Images are also crucial to Google Discover. Generative AI snapshots in search (like Google SGE) can also show thumbnail images alongside sources, which can entice clicks or at a minimum show a website in a positive visual light. Generally, stock photos are fine for webpages, but optimized original images, aside from being more interesting, are more likely to show for relevant queries in image search and earn incremental traffic or links if shared.”
“Knowing the search intent of a query can help indicate if video is a relevant content type to satisfy users’ needs. Videos can often be supplemental content on webpages, but some SERPs include video results prominently in top positions, like as a featured video or in a horizontal or vertical video carousel, indicating that’s a desirable medium for the topic. Keep in mind, Google announced in April 2023 that a video must be the main content on a page to appear as a video thumbnail in Google Search. But aside from the main search results, video content can also get featured in Google’s Perspectives filter for mobile search results. To that end, YouTube Shorts can be a particularly interesting format to explore for visibility in Perspectives.”
“In December 2022, Google added “experience” to its E-A-T acronym (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness), creating E-E-A-T (pronounce it however you’d like, lol). In September 2023, back-to-back updates to Google’s ranking systems (first a September 2023 Core Update and then a Helpful Content System update, the latter of which is still ongoing at the time of this writing), seemed to increase the visibility of forum websites like Quora and Reddit. This is seemingly coming at the expense of sites that didn’t demonstrate genuine E-E-A-T, especially in terms of experience. As SEOs consider future content types, video, social media, and UGC may grow in importance, especially when used to demonstrate experience where users desire it.”
28. How do you handle the cognitive and emotional demands of search engine evaluation?
“I’m not a search engine evaluator, but I am a search engine optimization (SEO) practitioner, so while I can’t speak directly to what the evaluator’s job is like, I am familiar with and appreciative of the purpose of that work. Like evaluators, SEOs can also benefit from being familiar with search engine guidelines, such as Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines or Search Central documentation, as well as industry trends. In fact, much of this article’s content is relevant to SEO work in my opinion, including the benefits of self care, like exercise and meditation, which apply to my personal after-work routine. I think SEOs and search engine evaluators have a lot in common, and hopefully share a goal of making search results the best they can be.”
29. How do you manage negative feedback on social media?
“This advice about how to handle negative feedback also applies to reviews, such as on websites or Google Business Profiles. For many reasons, including the possibility of fake or AI-generated reviews, some customers will go straight to reading the negative ones. It can be natural to take a negative review personally and wish to respond in kind, especially if a complaint is off base or malicious, however, acknowledging the reviewer’s sentiment and giving an empathetic response is more likely to turn a bad review around, either inspiring the reviewer to edit the original feedback or write a positive follow up. And if not, customers will still see the business responded in good faith; the same value applies to engaging with positive reviews.”
30. What are the most effective ways to identify and target profitable keywords for your business?
“Use keywords for content direction, but not as the exact roadmap. Oftentimes, your goal isn’t finding keywords to include in content; it’s finding keywords to *satisfy* with content. The difference is that a keyword represents how your audience might frame a goal, which doesn’t always need to be answered verbatim. Someone searching “what is (medical condition)” may be less interested in a definition than causes, symptoms, or treatments. Also, chances are your competitors are looking at similar keyword research, so rather than creating content to target a “high volume” keyword verbatim, leverage audience insights and your expertise or experience to create uniquely relevant content that users will find helpful and search engines will reward.”
“It’s fairly straightforward to plug a competitor’s site into an SEO tool, see their top pages by estimated traffic, then look at individual keywords for those pages. The issue with this approach is it’s reactive rather than proactive. There may be essential topics that you need to fill the gap in with, but rather than trying to emulate another site’s popular content, think about the value those topics have to the audience and try to imagine original ways to satisfy the same search intent or even uncover new pain points or questions. You’ll likely have different areas of expertise from your competitors, however niche they may be. Lean into that to create unique and compelling content that your audience will love and competition won’t match.”
31. What are the best practices for tailoring web copy to specific target audiences?
“Speaking to your particular audience can lead to better engagement from qualified traffic. A query may have a general search intent (or even several), yet within that could be nuances for what your audience needs. Some readers want minimal copy or high-level takeaways; others want rich detail. I recently analyzed a SERP for cooking tips, for example, a general topic. Top ranking articles all covered the same topic, with listicles. However, the degree of difficulty of the tips, and the level of detail about them, varied based on whether the audience were novices or experienced cooks, also whether the goal was delicious, healthy, or convenient eats. Try to tailor content not just to a relevant topic, but also specific goals of your audience.”
32. How can you effectively communicate and collaborate with search engine marketing professionals?
“Consistent knowledge sharing, whether through formal presentations or casual Slack conversations, helps the whole team maintain a general understanding of each other’s goals. Then, with that shared knowledge, teams can more easily collaborate on specific websites or projects. SEO and PPC can work together for more SERP coverage, sharing of keyword research, or building brand awareness or credibility via one channel to spur engagement with the other. SEOs can advise on how to maximize website development choices or content for organic search visibility, while developers and content specialists can then tailor the experience to best satisfy the audience. Teams who share knowledge will also be efficient by avoiding working at cross purposes.”
“Like shared terminology, there’s value in a shared goal or set of objectives or KPIs across different specialists. Given how a typical user journey can involve multiple touch points across different channels, such as what Think with Google’s research has called the “messy middle,” having shared objectives makes it easier to report on progress as a whole rather than focusing on attribution at a channel level. For example, informational content may lead to brand awareness or credibility with users early on that supports conversions far downstream. That said, channel-level attribution and KPIs help different team members measure the performance of initiatives within their control, make adjustments, or share unique insights of collective value.”
33. How can you use media analysis to optimize your SEO strategy?
“Increasingly, SEO content is based less on evaluating search results for a keyword and more on considering the needs of the audience behind the keyword. Media analysis, particularly understanding the types of media your target audience consumes, can lend insights for how to create for them. This includes not only identifying relevant topics, but also how to frame content about those topics to better suit your particular audience. Everything from lifestyle interests to reading comprehension levels can be configured into content creation to make your content more relevant, both topically and stylistically. Enriching content with some of your audiences’ preferred media sources, be they video, audio, or otherwise, that’s likely even better.”
34. What are the most effective ways to identify seasonal keywords?
“Your own Google Search Console data can provide a wealth of insight beyond competitive research. The granularity of the query data (granted it’s time constrained by default) can help you spot seasonal patterns in how impressions fluctuate for topics throughout the year, or even variations of topics. For example, if you cater to a sport, you may see differences in modifiers around age, gender, or location depending on different seasons of play. Or if you sell food, you may notice preferences for different items depending on the season or around holidays. Gaps aside, information from your customer base will be more applicable than general insights from spying on competitors; it will also enable you to formulate more original content ideas.”
“Geographic variation is an important consideration in most cases of keyword research, but especially seasonal keywords. Search volumes for items by timeframe may fluctuate depending on the context of where people search from. If you’re a retailer who sells coats, for example, the nuances of how long the cold season lasts in different markets could impact how relevant your product is at a given time. Regional and demographic differences in how products or services are described can also come into play, such as a “beanie” vs. a “knit winter hat.” For all of these reasons, it’s important not only to optimize website content based on general metrics like keyword volume or difficulty, but also what’s most relevant to your particular audience.”
“There’s a balance between creating seasonally relevant and evergreen content. Freshness matters. In updated documentation on search engine-first content (a no-no) related to the September 2023 helpful content update, Google specifically referenced changing dates to make content seem fresher than it is. Therefore, if you have seasonally relevant content, like an article recommending products, ensure it’s substantially updated for relevance to the new season. This is likely more efficient than creating new content on a same topic yearly. That said, seasonal updates can be simply adjusting pages slightly to suit new micro-audiences that change during the year. Content on new seasonal trends can also have value; the question is for how long?”
35. How can you use user-generated content to improve your writing engagement?
“Page comments, like on a blog post, are one of my favorite types of UGC for SEO because the context they add on a topic can make a page more relevant for certain queries and audiences. However, the reverse also can be true: low quality or irrelevant, and especially spammy, comments can drag down a page’s quality. This is why comment moderation is so important. Not all site owners are aware comments can impact rankings. Google reps have spoken on this topic before: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-on-the-seo-value-of-user-comments-on-websites/438870/. But regardless of the type of UGC — comments, reviews, etc. — consider how it adds to (or detracts from) the overall quality and relevance of a page’s content for your users.”
“This is a good lesson learned from local SEO and responding to reviews on Google Business Profiles. These responses not only show a business is active and engaged, they can also impact future impressions of the business, inspire repeat customers, or even turn a negative review into a positive one. Similar benefits can be said for responding to website comments or user questions, which shows engagement from the business for all to see and gives more context to page content, increasing its relevance for related queries or audiences. Take responses to UGC just as seriously as any other website or marketing content; that means being helpful and authoritative in a consistent brand voice that feels relatable, familiar, and genuine.”
“Insights from UGC performance in one digital marketing channel can also have direct or indirect value for crafting strategies in other channels. Specifically, I’m thinking about using insights from social media to inform SEO content strategies. While social posts may be viral or fleeting, the data they provide on audience behaviors and preferences can be translated into more evergreen content for SEO. With such data, content for search can still be based on keyword research and search intent, yet also enriched by unique audience insights, such as preferences for language or topics, that help make the content more “people-first” and thus valuable for search because it addresses not only the user’s core need (intent) but also their culture.”
“Because of its personal and informal nature, UGC (and data surrounding it) can reveal deeper insights about audience behavior, language, culture, and other preferences that can add context for SEO content creation beyond just keyword research. Given the emphasis on helpful, “people-first content” with demonstrable expertise or experience, content intended for search needs to go beyond just an implied search intent of a query or SERP (and especially beyond metrics like monthly search volume or keyword difficulty) to account for truer motivations and expectations a person has while searching a query. UGC can reveal cultural preferences or practical needs that can inform content to be more helpful and hyper-relevant, and thus better for SEO.”
“The many examples of Google Search elevating the visibility (rankings) of web content that shows real experience during the August 2023 core update and September 2023 helpful content update (and maybe even the ongoing October 2023 core update … we’ll see lol) shows that the E for experience in Google’s E-E-A-T is important to take seriously. But beyond traditional results, we also saw Google introduce a mobile Perspectives filter that highlights more social and visual opinion content. All that implies UGC has a growing role in the SEO universe, whether it’s using social media to get more visibility in organic search, incorporating UGC into web pages for added relevance, or gleaning insights from UGC performance data to inform other content.”
36. What tools and techniques can you use to audit search engine quality?
“More web content overall means more discernment needed by Google for what’s worth indexing. Google has long said you shouldn’t need to manually submit pages for indexing, otherwise there’s likely a quality issue. Recently, John Mueller also said even high-quality pages may not get indexed. (https://www.seroundtable.com/google-high-quality-pages-can-not-indexed-36135.html) I’ll often request a crawl in GSC for a new or updated page on my personal site anyway. With this, my pages tend to be indexed and shown in search within a day. Without it, it can take several days or longer. Is that a big deal? For me, no lol, but for, say, a business, the extra days could make a small difference. But still, focus on earning indexing, not forcing it. :)”
37. How can you use search engine trends to anticipate your competitors’ actions?
“Ultimately, the goal isn’t always more traffic, but more relevant traffic. Sometimes, that means worrying less about your competitors and more about what’s best for your particular audience. Content velocity is about determining how often a competitor publishes content. It can help you gauge their level of resources and make a case for yours. Gaps and other data from competitive analysis can also be insightful for planning, and building topical authority, like with a hub and spoke model, will require multiple assets. But, in the end, consider how valuable each content piece is for the buyer’s journey of your audience, and why you’re equipped to create the best rendition of the topic. Quality over quantity isn’t a cliche; it’s fundamental.”
38. How do you fill gaps in content using a strategy framework?
“Google Search Console is often the first place I look for content gaps. Assuming the website has at least a few clusters of topically related content, I like to analyze the query data for typically lower impression terms ranking in higher positions. On occasion, it makes sense to optimize the current page ranking for the query. But the query may signify a topic that is relevant to your audience but requires a new dedicated content piece. One reason I like GSC query data versus a competitor gap analysis is it’s based on your site’s content, so there’s more opportunity to draw unique insights that are especially relevant to your particular users. Couple that query data with personas and other audience data, and you can paint quite a picture.”
“If your site has lots of older content created primarily for SEO purposes, the gap you might be facing isn’t necessarily topical but rather in that yawning chasm of quality between search engine-first and people-first content. Based on Google’s helpful content system documentation and especially the aftermath of the third HCU in September 2023, it’s clearer the priority for creating sustainable content for search is to model it on what satisfies your users, not what’s expected to rank. The answer may not be creating more content, but rather to cut out the less relevant or lower quality content intended primarily for rankings, and instead reevaluate how to fill in the gaps for making your existing content prioritize the user above all.”
39. How can you segment and analyze traffic sources using search engine analytics?
“Presumably most organic traffic comes from Google Search, especially in certain countries, but you may be surprised at just how much traffic comes from other search engines, or how valuable and qualified it can be. The first step I take is to look at the source/medium level, like in GA4, where the medium is organic and the source is the search engine. Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yahoo, and Ecosia are just some of the search engines you may see for organic traffic. Also helpful is checking other analytics. If your site is on Shopify, the sales from marketing report can show how revenue compares across search engines. I did a small case study of this on my personal website and found that at a sales per session level Bing was higher than Google.”
“Because the purchase journey of a user can be far from linear and include a “messy middle” with many touch points, it can be helpful to consider different attribution models for calculating revenue. Many touch points in organic search, for example, can reinforce a purchase decision later on. If a user in the awareness stage reads an informational article on your website’s blog, that may introduce trust in your brand that pays off with a conversion later on through another channel. If a People Also Ask answer reinforces the value of your product, that can do the same. Meanwhile, brand awareness driven through social or PPC can result in navigational organic traffic. This is the value of teams working, analyzing data, and reporting together.”
“There can be many nuanced differences between mobile and desktop organic traffic, so it’s helpful to segment them when checking not just traffic/clicks but also the position or CTR of queries and conversions. The type of user likely to visit your site from a desktop or mobile device can vary, the layout of the SERP they’re on can most certainly vary, as can the relative position (and more broadly the visibility) of the page, including the title link, thumbnail image, snippet, etc. This can all translate to different conversion rates for mobile or desktop traffic, and that’s all before considering the website UX itself. It’s easy to default to using a desktop when checking SERPs, but remember to inspect mobile SERPs and break out that data.”
40. How can you effectively write meta descriptions in your portfolio?
“You’ll often see guidelines for how long meta descriptions should be, but Google has no such limitations. Meta descriptions can be as long as you’d like, just bear in mind they’ll be truncated after a certain length in search results, if they show at all. Keep in mind that Google more often than not will use on-page content to generate a snippet. To get a meta description to appear, it has to be a better description of the page than what Google’s systems think they can pull. This doesn’t mean full sentences. It also doesn’t mean text only, as emojis can be included. But it does mean an accurate description. Meta descriptions aren’t a ranking factor, but they can showcase key terms, such as bold text, influencing CTR. Be unique. Be succinct.”
41. How can you conduct effective cross-engine comparisons?
“In general, following the guidelines of Google will benefit you in other major search engines. Even if there are variations, the percentage of traffic from Google, in most cases, means it makes the most sense to concentrate on performing well in those results. That said, other search engines will contribute traffic to your site, so it doesn’t hurt to adjust for your visibility on them, such as by tweaking a title tag so it stands out from competitors on Google and Bing. Other search engines’ tools can also benefit your SEO work. Bing Webmaster Tools has many features Google Search Console does not. Furthermore, checking for traffic drops across search engines following a ranking systems update on one can help you isolate if it was a cause.”
42. How can you identify gaps and opportunities in your content performance?
“If content is meant to get organic traffic, the first goal is making sure it’s indexed — which is less of a given these days. Otherwise, the page won’t appear in search results. Ensure the page is in the XML sitemap, well linked to from other relevant pages, and maybe even submitted manually for indexing, but also check back later on its indexing status using the URL inspection tool in GSC. I’ve seen many cases where content is published but then sits at crawled or discovered and not indexed, and the site owner is unaware. Once indexed, check the GSC query report to ensure the keywords match the page’s topic and search intent. Then confirm if their average position is low enough to yield clicks. Short of all this, revisions may be needed.”
43. How can you effectively rank high-quality content with crawling algorithms?
“If your intention is to have your “high-quality content” be relevant for users on a search engine like Google, a good starting point is to learn about entities and semantic search. Here’s a good article on the topic: https://searchengineland.com/semantic-search-entity-based-search-388221 Having “relevant” content is less about picking the right keywords for your page than making sure your page satisfies the search intent and broader meaning of the keyword for the user. For example, a page can rank well in organic search results for a query without that keyword being explicitly mentioned in the content. Quality is also a relative concept, so consider what Google’s documentation means by “helpful content” or aligning with “E-E-A-T.””
44. How can you optimize SEO for new platforms and technologies?
“I’d say AMP is largely on its way out — I personally removed it from my site — but optimizing a site’s mobile experience has very much been in for a long time. I think it’s easy for people who use their laptops or desktops all day — marketers and site owners alike — to gain an unconscious bias for desktop experiences and SERPs, but remember that not only does Google use mobile-first indexing, most people use mobile devices to browse the web. Desktop and mobile SERPs can vary quite a bit, both in layout as well as the average positions where results rank. Whether you use a mobile device yourself or inspect pages or SERPs and use the mobile preview on your computer, make sure to prioritize that experience and its specific performance data.”
45. How do you optimize your content and website for keywords?
“The keywords you eventually select will have search intent behind them. Maybe a keyword signals the user wants to buy a product, learn something, or find a local service. When planning a website, think about the types of content you’ll need to satisfy your customers throughout the buying journey. Maybe you’ll need service or product pages, buying guides, or informational articles. Planning your site content will give you direction for keyword research.”
“When choosing topics, make sure your brand has the expertise to speak to them. It’s important to stay in your lane to build the credibility and audience trust needed to become an authority. Also, cluster topics together based on main topics and subtopics. This will help you keep your site’s content organized and ensure you cover each topic in depth.”
“While LSI keywords are considered an SEO myth (source: https://www.seobythesea.com/2021/12/what-are-lsi-keywords/), adding related phrases about a topic can help indicate what that page is about.”
“While keyword metrics are helpful, don’t let them discourage you from opportunities that make sense for your business goals. For example, many so-called “0 volume keywords” may be relevant to your audience and can result in pages that drive traffic from a variety of keywords or highly qualified leads. (The search term’s volume may simply not have registered in SEO tools yet.) Also, if your website already has authority, it’s possible you can target higher competition keywords.”
“To confirm the intent of a keyword, search it yourself on the search engine you’re targeting and analyze which types of results appear. If you see blog articles or guides, it’s likely an informational intent keyword. If you see product pages (and product ads), it’s likely a transactional intent keyword.”
“Taking note of which keywords are clustered under the same topic can help you cover your priority topics in-depth, identify any gaps, and also add internal links between these pages when they’re created.”
46. What is keyword intent and how can you use it to create targeted content?
“The four “main” search intents are helpful, like for filtering keyword research, for example. But that’s only where it starts. When analyzing search results, you can easily encounter product listings (transactional) alongside guides (informational), which in theory represent opposite ends of the funnel. This is because one keyword can have overlapping or mixed intents. You can also find websites ranking multiple pages for one query by providing content for different intents. This is why keyword cannibalization is a nuanced idea. Also, due to NLP advancements (like BERT), Google is better at understanding meanings, like nuances of “and” vs. “or.” Some queries even have underlying or hidden intents. So always think as a user: what’s the goal?”
“I’d be careful about being too formulaic when considering how to match a keyword’s intent with a content type. It’s easy to think, “This is a long-tail query, let’s make a blog post.” But ask yourself, is that ultimately the right format to satisfy the user’s need? Do you even need a dedicated piece of content for the keyword, or could it be an FAQ or section added to a current guide or even a product or service page? Beyond content formats, the structure of a page also matters for satisfying search intent. Maybe the user wants to quickly find 1-2 sentences of information at the top of the page. Maybe they’re looking to be entertained by an introduction. Maybe your audience is both, and you need a dual-solution. Focus on the goal(s) itself.”
“The first place to start, in my opinion, is the average position of the page for the queries themselves in search, or at least the level of visibility your content gets in those SERPs, like if it’s a product listing, video, social post, etc. Chances are if your page is highly visible for the query, you’re meeting the search intent of at least some users. That said, it’s not a given or one-to-one. Especially in a mixed-intent SERP, not all users are going to find your result valuable. It’s also possible your page could be topically relevant, yet not great at meeting the needs of users. This is particularly true for less-competitive keywords. In that case, measuring on-page engagement may be even more important to assess “qualified” clicks.”
“Honestly, finding content gaps or improving the readability score of your content doesn’t necessarily translate to improving it based on keyword intent. Improving your content for keyword intent means, in my estimation at least, taking a page that’s already relevant for a query but not as helpful for meeting users’ needs as it could be, and then making that content more satisfying for their goals. For example, I recently had a case study on my site where I talked about “not” including a particular type of SERP feature, yet the page was ranking for queries from people who likely wanted to know about that feature. My page didn’t satisfy that intent. So, I added a section explaining the feature, to help meet the needs of that audience as well.”
“I’d say these are mistakes made with content topics being outside of the buyer’s journey, or that don’t support qualified traffic and conversions. To me, that’s slightly different that avoiding mistakes with keyword intent. In my mind, a mistake with intent is writing content that doesn’t satisfy the search intent of the keywords it targets. In such cases, not only might that page drive irrelevant traffic ranking for unintended keywords, it likely may not drive much organic traffic at all. Of course, the paradigm is changing a bit thanks to Google SGE, where having a corpus of content may result in visibility, even if you’re not ranking in top results. That said, I’d try to match the content type with the query’s intent and buyer’s journey.”
47. What are the most effective sources and methods for discovering long-tail keywords for SEO?
“I wouldn’t let metrics like keyword difficulty or low volume discourage you from creating content targeting the search intents most relevant to your audience’s buyer’s journey. Google announced on 11/15/2023 the full rollout of an update to its core ranking system to surface more content that could be considered “hidden gems” based on qualities like that it includes helpful personal experience (source: https://searchengineland.com/google-search-ranking-improvement-aims-to-surface-hidden-gems-434623). That helps level the playing field for less competitive sites. Also, SGE and LLMs answer many general questions, but can also cite more niche sources, so those low or even 0 volume queries could inspire valuable content for qualified clicks.”
48. How can you avoid misinterpreting SEO data for user behavior?
“This isn’t user behavior related, but one misunderstood metric I’d like to mention is average position in Google Search Console. It’s provided at the top of the performance report, and sometimes people infer that if the total average position changed, that indicates a trend for overall rankings. That number is an aggregate, so it’s not useful for drawing such conclusions. Instead, look at average position for individual queries (or maybe topical clusters), ideally at a page (URL) level, for a comparative timeframe, and draw conclusions at that level. I’d also use filters for country and device and check SERPs. More on topic: bounce rate means different things in GA4 vs. Universal Analytics. I’d personally look at engagement rate more. :)”
“Mobile versus desktop data segmentation is my favorite example to draw. I usually reference it in terms of Google Search Console performance report metrics, namely noting how different SERPs can influence metrics like average position or click through rates for queries, but it’s also helpful to note variances for user behavior metrics. Discrepancies in that data could have many causes, like audience differences between desktop and mobile users or the design and usability of your site across devices. I often feel mobile site experiences are downplayed more than they should be, considering we’re in a mobile-first indexing world. Besides testing myself, I also like using Microsoft Clarity to draw insights from user recordings across devices.”
49. What are the best ways to stay current with SEO?
“I’ve stayed current largely by following people on social. I didn’t start from a list, though, but instead found people who shared stuff that interested me and, as I developed my own philosophy, aligned with my values. There are hundreds of folks to follow. Barry Schwartz writes for Search Engine Roundtable, which is the go-to source for Search news. Aleyda Solis shares great tactical insights and has a corpus of resources for learning SEO that is immensely helpful. Marie Haynes, Glenn Gabe, Lily Ray, Mike King, and Areej AbuAli and the Women in Tech SEO community deserve mention, also search advocates John Mueller, Danny Sullivan, Fabrice Canel, and on. I also compile weekly recaps of SEO posts shared by many great folks called Hamsterdam.”
50. How can Search Engine Optimization professionals network effectively?
“Throughout the years, X (Twitter) has remained my go-to for SEO information. When you have several knowledgeable people liking, sharing, and interacting with content on the platform, it gets reinforced and amplified in a way I’ve never experienced elsewhere. I’m a heads-down learner who likes to read and then do, but not everyone is that way. You may want a community. But if you like self-study, I recommend X (Twitter). Of course, there’s a LOT that goes along with that you need to be cautious of. I create weekly recaps of SEO news called Hamsterdam. The people referenced in those are great voices to follow. LinkedIn has solid content as well, but I’ve tried switching to other platforms, yet I still scroll and learn the most on X every day.”
51. How can you best visualize keyword rankings for SEO reports?
“In addition to metrics, I’d check the SERPs and screenshot them. Differences across devices (mobile vs. desktop) or even from one day to the next in how a result appears or other SERP features around it can all influence CTR beyond just the ranking position itself. Especially in an era of SGE but also given features like knowledge panels or things to know, shopping results driven by Merchant Center, not to mention paid results, I think of organic keyword performance less in terms of “average position” and more in terms of cumulative brand visibility. It’s certainly harder to measure, but it more effectively can explain ranking or traffic trends and the bigger picture, as well as contextualize conversions, which are typically the main goal.”
52. How can you identify and eliminate irrelevant SEO data?
“Conversions and revenue are the end goals, but I’m an advocate for reporting on Search visibility and user journeys more than keyword rankings to explain how SEO contributes to those goals. Two ways to help isolate those variables from SEO work are to use advanced filters in Google Search Console and to monitor search results manually. Start by applying GSC filters like country, URL, device type, queries, and timeframes relevant to your audience. Consider external influences as well, whether SERP volatility, seasonality, etc. When you have a sense of rankings, use different user profiles, devices, and methods of accessing Search to look at relevant queries and see how GSC data translates to visibility and possible user journey touch points.”
So, how do I think about SEO?
Really?!
The end. 😉
Thanks for reading!
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