Paddy Moogan

Link building doesn’t work anymore! That’s what I see so many "SEO's" say... "Can you believe your agency buys links" "How to know if your agency is buying links" "Can you still believe SEO's still pay for links" Half of these people, haven't ranked anything... Just saying. Most have corporate SEO roles with massive brands that carry a ton of authority already. But for the average business, acquiring link DOES still work. Better than ever. This page was stuck. Buried. We built one high-quality, relevant niche edit at the end of May. 📈 It jumped to Page 2. One link. Not 100. Not some fancy AI hack. Just relevance, quality, and strategy. 🚫 Don’t waste money on poor links. 💡 Use that cash to barter for real links in your space. The ones that make Google pay attention. Links still work. If your page isn’t moving, maybe you don’t have a content problem. Maybe you just have a no-authority problem.

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Here's why businesses are failing to get more visibility in Google AI Mode and other AI search systems ... They're creating generic content that can easily be answered via AI - so no-one needs to go to their websites. I was doing the same until October 2024. Everyone needs to be creating content that's a good match for what real buyers are searching for. Find out more about this on my page https://lnkd.in/eKN29Kef

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SHOULD YOU DISAVOW LINKS? In short - NO YOU SHOULD NOT unless you explicitly KNOW what you are doing / or have received a manual action for spam. Disavowing links takes away link equity (even if the links are rubbish) Link weight is algorithmic - so even CRAPPY links pass weight - when they have an impact is: 1. You get short term "inflationary benefits" until > Spam update devalues the links and you lose the equity > You get a manual action / search console notification 2. The benefit is short-lived (ranking gains followed by losses) > You can get days, weeks, months of ranking benefit > Losses can be either at a manual review or algorithmic A lot of people filed disavows because: 1. They got INFLUENCED by tools promoting "spam/toxic links" 2. SEOs who were less experienced thought it would be a good thing to do The reality is: 1. ALL link equity is link equity good or bad 2. You will expect to naturally accrue rubbish links that you haven't orchestrated - many of you likely saw floods of links with anchor texts including TELEGRAM SEO / TELEGRAM @SEO_LINKK / SEO BLACKHAT LINKS etc. 3. Google is SIGNIFICANTLY better at filtering out spam + scale and faster - whilst spam still gets through, Google is much better at catching it and discrediting the domain at source 4. Manual actions are SIGNIFICANTLY less common now - primarily because blackhat spam attacks facilitated millions of manual actions in the past - Google's approach to dealing with spam has changed so that negative links aren't penal - BUT, if you have CLEAR link abuse that looks orchestrated it CAN still raise a manual action IF YOU HAVE A DISAVOW FILED AND HAVE NO HISTORIC MANUAL ACTION! You can consider doing a STAGED removal. Download your DISAVOW Break it into smaller DISAVOW files and re-submit with a reduction each time over 4-6 weeks and repeat. I've done this for lots of clients and in many cases it proved to be BENEFICIAL! You can of course leave ABSOLUTE spam (domains) in a disavow. #seo #seotips

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🚀 Want to Boost Your SME's Online Presence? 🚀 Are you tired of feeling like your small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) is getting lost in the digital noise? 🤔 Do you struggle to maintain a consistent online presence and engage with your target audience? 📊 Our latest guide reveals the secret to overcoming these challenges: SEO & Marketing Automation 💻✨. By combining these two powerful strategies, SMEs can: ✨ Simplify processes with minimal investment ✨ Enhance customer engagement with personalised experiences ✨ Drive eCommerce growth and boost conversion rates ✨ Make data-driven decisions to refine SEO strategies Imagine having more time to focus on high-level strategy, while automation handles research, scheduling, and tracking 📈. Our infographic provides a comprehensive guide to getting started, including: ✅ Recommended tools and platforms (HubSpot, Marketo, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and more) ✅ Implementation strategies for maximum ROI ✅ Real-world success stories from businesses just like yours Want to learn more? Visit our website to get in touch and start transforming your SME's online presence today! 📚👉  #SMEMarketing #MarketingAutomation #SEOStrategy

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I just cut an interview with Joshua Squires of Amsive and will be happy to edit and cut this interview into handy bits to keep. We talk all about the move of SEO from something done with an "SEO tool" to a diverse, multi-facet disipline that involves communicating to c-suite, needs to developers, and peer marketing teams to execute and implement. It's time "strategic SEO thinkers" to shine! (Look for the episode soon!)

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SEO. GEO. AEO. LMAO. Following a recent discussion on GEO with our head of digital strategy, Andy McLoughlin, and then immediately receiving a spam contact form about AEO (the same thing might I add), it got me a ponderin'. The digital world’s obsession with acronym rebrands continues, and it's cringing me out. Ever being labelled 'an SEO' like some sort of basement dweller never feels nice. While the internet scrambles to slap a new label on SEO every five minutes, before declaring it dead to antagonise the same community over and over, here’s a wild thought: maybe, just maybe… the fundamental approach to success in search is not actually new. Sure, AI’s changed the playing field. Zero-click visibility is a bigger deal now. Google finally has a legitimate competitor. And yes, we are thinking primarily in keyword groups and semantics rather than chasing the vanity of a single #1 ranking. But guess what? We’ve always done this. We’ve always looked at the bigger picture. We’ve always grouped keywords by theme, intent, and value. We’ve always focused on what’s actually useful, not just what’s shiny. What has changed (and i'm here for it): - Content audits are now less about what ranks, and more about whether something genuinely answers the question to boost the brand. - “What is the likely search query, or AI prompt, that this content best answers?” - Ranking alone doesn’t cut it. We want content that sticks. Meanwhile, everyone’s still chasing rankings while Johnny Client just wants conversions. Especially in B2B, where we're dancing around the user at the consideration stage, let’s not forget what actually moves the needle. And let’s be honest… experimenting with AI is way more exciting when it’s about working smarter: - Better processes - Stronger collaboration - Real business value  … not just slapping “AI agency” on a deck for a bit of LinkedIn clout. So yeah. Keep your acronyms. Don't ruddy want 'em. And while you're messing about, we’ll keep doing what works. Thanks 😊 #SEO #AEO #GEO #DigitalMarketing #AI #ContentStrategy #ZeroClickSearch #EfficiencyOverEgo

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Most agency founders don’t fail because their service sucks… They fail because they don’t know how to run a business 🫠 I’ve seen insanely talented people burn out or shut down, not because they weren’t good at what they did, but because they didn’t have the systems or structure to sustain it. It’s rough out there, and I get it, we’ve been close more times than I care to admit. But, here’s what I wish I’d known before starting mine, and what might help if you’re confident in your craft but can’t seem to hit that home run. When we started INOV8 Studios we were just two guys with cameras trying to make a living doing what we loved. No business plan. No systems. No idea what “cash flow” even meant. Eight years later, we’ve grown into a full-stack performance marketing team working with global brands and scaling SMEs into leaders. But man, we learned a lot the hard way. Here are 3 lessons that would’ve saved us years of stress and wasted energy. 👇 1. “Good work” isn’t enough. You need systems. We used to think quality alone would build a business. Turns out 90% of clients love speed & consistency more than brilliance. Processes, feedback loops, and deadlines are what actually make a creative agency scalable, not just talent. 2. Don’t chase every project. Build an offer. For the first few years, we said yes to everything: weddings, events, corporate promos, you name it. The second we built Your Content Partner, a simple monthly retainer with a clear deliverable, everything changed. Predictable revenue. Happier clients. A real business. 3. You can’t do it all yourself. Hire before you’re ready. We waited way too long to hire. By the time we did, we were working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week. The fear of “what if we can’t afford it” nearly broke us, but that first hire was the catalyst for everything that came next. You guys have the luxury of on tap talent, that can be contract hired, take advantage of the skill in the market. Bonus tip: 🥸 Audit your business every six months. Step back and look at it objectively, not emotionally. Find the holes. Challenge what’s working and what isn’t. Do it with a mentor, a business friend, or someone who’ll be honest with you. The most dangerous place to grow from is comfort. Running an agency isn’t just about creating great work, it’s about building a machine that can keep doing it over and over again without burning everyone out. If you’re early in the game. Build structure sooner, say no more often, and don’t wait to get help. You’ll thank yourself later.

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Is paying a 0% commission rate to publishers really a thing now?!?! Hearing this more often recently and shocked people expect free marketing from affiliates. What is the point of this strategy? Having a 0% commission rate set will still show the publisher how much revenue they drove and then they will be able to figure out how much in commissions they are losing. Publishers will then end up demoting you on their site and likely not want to work with you. 0% commission is not a strategy and it's very insulting to publishers who were willing to put in the hard work on a performance basis.

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“Isn’t this AI SEO thing just overcomplicating things? Don’t you just need to create valuable content?” This came up in the Q&A of a webinar I ran with Spotler UK this week — their highest-attended webinar ever with 400+ attendees. This tells me two things: 1️⃣ A lot of marketers are paying attention to AI search 2️⃣ And many are hoping the answer is “just keep doing what we’re doing” Here’s my hot take: Creating valuable content is essential. It’s critical. But creating it without a strategy is pointless. Valuable content that never gets seen is wasted. Valuable content that isn’t relevant to your proposition dilutes your message (and confuses AI). Valuable content that AI can’t understand or cite won’t influence demand for your product/service. Right now I see brands doing this: “We’ll just publish good content and hope the AI picks it up.” That’s not a strategy, that’s optimism. LLMs don’t discover content the way humans do. They identify patterns, entities, topics and trusted citation sources across the web. That’s why my deck doesn’t just talk about content creation. It shows a workflow for building citation authority: how your brand becomes something AI systems repeatedly see, understand, trusts and cites. Great content + no distribution + no relevance + no citation signals = marketing that feels productive but achieves nothing. Strategy doesn’t overcomplicate content. It makes it work harder for your business. Hit me with your thoughts, LinkedIn.

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Do you have a quiz or lead capture form on your website? Here’s how to double your conversions with one simple tweak 👇 Most businesses ask for name + email at the very start. Big mistake. That’s the exact point where people bounce. Instead, save those fields for the end of the quiz. By then, people have already invested time answering questions. So giving their email to see results feels natural, not pushy. If you were taking a quiz, when would you be happy to hand over your email?

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What is the one piece of advice I'd give to job board owners looking to boost their SEO? Fix your technical SEO issues. I often hear that technical SEO is not necessary and that content quality matters more. Sure, if you are running a blog with 1000 articles, content quality is a driving force. However, blogs don’t face the same challenges as job boards, such as duplicate content, soft 404s, job lifecycle, and indexing API setup. Hence, job boards are way more impacted by technical SEO issues. My experience confirms this every time – when we fix technical SEO issues, given all other site features are constant, organic traffic goes up. The number of jobs eligible for Google Jobs goes up.                                                                             Yes, this is a real screenshot from the search console of a job aggregator.

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SEO is not like stacking shelves... (Not that there’s anything wrong with stacking shelves, I’m over 6ft tall and was actually very good at it.) Occasionally, I get asked: "How many hours does your team spend on SEO each month, and can you show examples of where that time has been spent?" I have absolutely no issue with this kind of question. After all, any client has the right to understand how their investment is being used. Where it becomes more difficult is when the next request is something like: "Now show us exactly what you did, and how you did it and why you did it." Am I now expected to hand over all the intellectual property, strategic thinking, and technical expertise that my team and I have developed over many years in the industry? Do I spend countless hours explaining SEO architecture is measured using weighted composite indices derived from Trust Flow/ Citation Flow (Majestic), Domain Entropy Scores (Ahrefs), and NLP-derived Topic Entity Strength (SurferSEO, Clearscope), often cross-correlated with impression/click deltas from Google Search Console to confirm Search Result Positioning (SRP) fluctuation post-indexation lag? Would customers even understand the above? Put another way, just a few well-placed outside changes can massively influence a website's position on Google. How long did the changes physically take to do? Let's go with 30 minutes. How long did the changes take to discover? This may have taken 3 to 4 hours of heavy, intellectual research. Search Engine Optimisation is not just about blogs on a website, it's about incredibly complicated outside influences that we can direct to the domain name and internal pages of a website, that allows Google to place more authority to your website, and in turn, increase your rank position. SEO is not like stacking shelves...and if it was, you would not need me or my team. Cheers - Darren Earney "Getting Found On Google Is Much Harder Than Just a Few Blogs"

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Tons of gold nuggets in the newly released "State of SEO in 2025" Probably no person on earth has a better grasp of the SEO Industry than Glen Allsopp - and he brings the receipts to prove it • Only 18% of 490 “Digital Goliath” sites (Hearst, Vox, etc.) grew search traffic year-over-year • Yet, 55 % of 670 startups tracked by Gaps saw organic gains Tons more insights on SEO tools, conferences, jobs, salaries, trends, ranking factors, core updates, link building, penalties, case studies and more. Report: https://lnkd.in/gRurvtpK

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