Tips for Navigating SEO Changes

I consult businesses for $3K/hour on how to double or triple their organic traffic. Here’s 5 of my best, non-obvious advice for 2025: 1. Start optimising for AI chatbot visibility Over 71.5% of consumers now use LLMs for search to complement Google. • Structure content clearly. Use bullet points, concise intros, and proper H2s so AI can summarize your info easily. • Publish original stats, examples, and expert perspectives. AI prioritizes unique, first-hand insights. • Add schema markup. Use FAQ, How-To, and Product schema to boost AI readability. • Build domain authority with consistent mentions and authoritative backlinks. Chatbots prioritize trustworthy sources. • Monitor citations. Use tools like AlsoAsked, Bing Chat, or Perplexity to see where your brand shows up, and reverse-engineer what works. 2. Create topical clusters Google’s moving from keyword-based indexing to topic-based indexing. That means: • Build pillar pages and surround them with 10–20+ related articles. (depending on topic size) • Cover every question and angle around your niche. (Use ChatGPT or Ahrefs to come up with content ideas) • Link internally in a way that mimics expert knowledge architecture. • Update older pages with new stats, examples, and links to new content to keep your topical coverage fresh. 3. Focus on user-centric SEO Google prioritizes user experience signals now more than ever. • “Last-click satisfaction” tells Google your site ended the search. If users pogo-stick back to the SERP, your rankings are toast. • Format pages to be scannable and easy to read. Use short paragraphs, strong subheadings, and clean layouts that guide the reader's attention. • Prioritize user intent, not just search terms. Understand what the searcher really wants and deliver it fast. 4. Double down on video and visual content 60% of users say they prefer video over text when learning something online. Google knows it. And they’re adjusting the SERPs. To stay competitive: • Embed short-form videos that summarize your content to boost dwell time and increase value for skimmers. • Use VideoObject schema to help search engines index and feature your videos properly. • Add custom visuals, charts, or infographics. They make your content more engaging, reduce bounce, and boost backlinks. • Repurpose blog topics into YouTube videos targeting the same keywords. This doubles your chances of appearing in both search and AI-generated results. 5. Focus on bottom-of-funnel keywords and CRO Informational queries now trigger AIOs 59% of the time. To stay profitable: • Focus on commercial intent keywords like "[product] vs [product]" and "best [product] for [specific need]" (these trigger AIOs only 3-5% of the time) • Maximise revenue from your traffic by testing different headlines, CTAs, and page layouts to improve conversion rates. • Install heat map tools (like Hotjar/Mouseflow) to get invaluable data on user behavior and fix potential friction points.

Dear CEOs and Founders, Seeing Google Search Console impressions up but clicks down? It's a common SEO puzzle! This often means your content is visible, but not compelling enough to click, or Search Engine Results Page (SERP) changes are at play. Key Reasons for this trend: 1. SERP Feature Changes: Google frequently updates the SERP layout with features like video carousels, image packs, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and ads. These can push your organic listing down, reducing visibility and clicks. 2. Featured Snippets and AI Overviews: A featured snippet (position zero) or AI Overview can answer a user's query directly on the SERP, eliminating the need to click through to your site. This leads to higher impressions but fewer clicks. 3. Google Ads: More paid ads above organic results decrease visibility and lower your Click-Through Rate (CTR). 4. Irrelevant Keywords and Content Mismatch: Ranking for irrelevant keywords or having a search snippet that doesn't accurately reflect user intent can deter clicks. 5. Low Ranking Position: While impressions may increase from ranking for more keywords, appearing in lower positions (e.g., on the second page) significantly reduces clicks. 6. Unappealing Titles and Meta Descriptions: Poorly crafted or truncated titles and meta descriptions fail to attract users. 7. Competition: Stronger or more compelling search results from competitors can draw clicks away. 8. Structured Data Issues: Errors can remove rich snippets, reducing visual appeal and CTR. What you can do to improve clicks on your website? 1. Analyze your data: Use Google Search Console's Performance report to identify specific queries and pages with high impressions but low clicks. 2. Optimize titles and descriptions: Craft engaging, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions that accurately reflect your content and encourage clicks. Consider using numbers or emotional triggers. 3. Improve ranking position: Focus on SEO strategies to achieve higher rankings for relevant keywords, as higher positions generally yield higher CTRs. 4. Use schema markup: Implement schema markup to enable rich snippets, making your search results more visually appealing and informative. 5. Match search intent: Ensure your content aligns with the intent behind your target keywords. Provide comprehensive answers for informational queries or strong product pages for commercial ones. 6. Monitor and adapt: Continuously observe your CTR and other key metrics in Search Console. A/B test different titles, descriptions, and content formats to see what resonates best with your audience. By carefully analyzing your data and implementing strategic changes, you can improve your CTR and drive more qualified traffic to your website! Drop a comment below if you're doing something different to improve clicks on your website from search engines. Thank you!

How is your DMO preparing for Google's latest changes to the search experience? I'm compiling a running list of tips - please share yours below! Content Structure ✔ Front-load Useful Content: Place key takeaways or bullet-point summaries at the top of your content. This helps users quickly find valuable information and improves engagement. ✔ Break Down Long-Form Content: Divide longer articles into shorter pieces, each answering a specific question. Focus on addressing topics rather than just targeting keywords. ✔ Include Titles and Feature Images: Use compelling titles and high-quality feature images to capture clicks from AI Overview results. Content Quality ✔ Create Content That Answers Complex Questions: Develop in-depth content that addresses complex queries, providing information that may not be easily answered by generative AI. ✔ Write New Content on New Ideas: Produce original content about new ideas and comparisons, especially for mid-funnel queries that existing online content may not cover. ✔ Include Sources, Quotes, and Stats: Use authoritative sources, quotes, and statistics to enhance the credibility and visibility of your content in AI search. Unique and Personal Content ✔ Include Personal Stories: Share personal experiences and stories to add a human touch that AI cannot replicate. This helps build credibility and engagement. ✔ Showcase Credible Experience: Highlight firsthand experiences and expertise to establish authority and trust with your audience. Alternative Traffic Channels ✔ Build Audiences in Push Channels: Develop and grow audiences in channels where you can directly push content to them, creating anti-fragile traffic sources. This includes CRM but could also mean increasing paid search and social budgets. ✔ Focus on Search Optimizations for YouTube: Optimize content for YouTube and other secondary search channels to reach a broader audience. ✔ Lean into Reddit: Their deal with Google means Reddit is frequently cited as a source for AI Overviews or in standard search results; the opportunity is both in responding across Reddit subs and in creating one, i.e. /r/VisitingOregon (h/t Mika Lepisto). ✔ Invest in Generative AI Chatbots: Implement generative AI chatbots to share and distribute content to visitors. #destinationmarketing

Seeing impression drops in September? Read this before you panic. �� Google quietly disabled the “&num=100” parameter, the hack SEOs used to load 100 results on one page. That change rippled through rank trackers and Google Search Console. Translation: reporting shifted, not necessarily your demand. ⁉️ What this actually means • Rank trackers may look jumpy as they re-engineer how they collect data. Expect turbulence and shallower “depth” unless you pay for more crawl. • Many sites saw big impression drops and “average position” spikes around Sept 12–18. That’s a counting change, not an audience collapse. Annotate your reports. • The shift ties into Google’s ongoing SERP experience changes (pagination/scroll experiments), which keep altering how we measure visibility. 👍 How to read September like a pro - Prioritise clicks, sessions, and conversions over impressions. Impressions got noisy; revenue didn’t. - Compare year-over-year where possible, and draw a line on your graphs for Sept 12–18 to mark the methodology change. - Segment by landing page and non-brand vs brand. You’ll spot true demand shifts even when visibility metrics wobble. (This is where business impact lives.) - Ask your tools how they’re adapting. Some will limit results to top 10–20 by default; deeper tracking may cost more or run slower for a while. - Communicate early. Add a one-liner in your deck: “Sept data impacted by Google removing &num=100; expect lower impressions, different averages; no evidence of traffic loss.” 😥 Red flags that do warrant action • Clicks or organic sessions down without a matching paid/seasonality story. • Conversion rate drops from organic. • Key pages losing clicks and queries (check page-level GSC). If you see those, investigate content quality, SERP changes, and competitors, not just the dashboard. This is a reporting reset, not a crisis. Keep your team focused on the metrics that move the business, not the ones that moved the goalposts. 😊

We all start SEO with good intentions. But somewhere along the way, noise takes over. We chase shiny tools. We copy others’ strategies. We get caught in the trap of over-optimizing or worse, writing for the algorithm instead of the user. I’ve been there too. Until I stepped back and asked a hard question: Am I truly helping the person behind the search? Or am I just checking SEO boxes? That moment changed everything. I began focusing on what actually matters: ✔ Clear, user-first content ✔ Intent-focused optimization ✔ Internal linking that serves readers ✔ Titles and meta descriptions that drive real clicks ✔ Avoiding keyword stuffing at all costs ✔ Creating experiences, not just text ✔ Keeping content updated, relevant, and useful ✔ Cutting out jargon and focusing on solutions ✔ Writing for people, with SEO as the support, not the star When I shifted my mindset, the results followed. More clicks. More engagement. More rankings that actually stick. This post isn’t just another SEO tip thread. It’s a wake-up call for every digital creator who’s lost in the optimization maze. If your content isn’t performing, maybe it’s time to revisit the basics but do them better than everyone else. ✔ Save this post for when you need clarity. ✔ Share it with someone who’s overthinking SEO. ✔ Follow along — I share what actually works.

When I started in SEO, traffic was everything. Then, SEO changed. Google got scary good at predicting what content would satisfy a search. So I started optimizing for the searcher, not the search engine. Today, your customers are using different search engines for different types of searches. For informational searches: generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity deliver a better experience -- At best, these platforms feel like a natural language conversation with a knowledgeable friend or trusted expert. For transactional searches: traditional search engines like Google work better, helping you find product pages, local businesses, and specific websites. Today AI search platforms send less traffic, but still represent a huge opportunity to capture organic demand. It’s time to change our SEO and content strategies for gen AI search. Here are 5 changes I would make now: ❌ Stop ignoring zero-click searches because they don’t appear in analytics ✅ Embrace zero-click searches as opportunities to build brand awareness ❌ Stop worrying about rankings and traffic volume ✅ Get forensic about what converts traffic into customers — then  double-down on THAT ❌ Stop publishing tons of informational long-form blogs ✅ Use AI to create interactive content that helps guide customers to a purchase decision ❌ Stop overspending on performance marketing ✅ Overspend on audience research, community engagement and brand building ❌ Stop relying on keyword-research tools to create generic content ✅ Talk to your customers to better understand the questions they ask when making a purchase decision What do all these changes have in common? Focus MORE on customers and LESS on search engines. The key is to understand YOUR customers’ search behavior. Do your research: Start by asking your customers how they search for information about your products. Stop obsessing over traffic and start targeting the search intents that drive conversions. More information: Download our SEO for Revenue Guide (link in the comments).

I've had five conversations so far this month with organizations concerned about declining SEO rankings caused by AI search. That makes it a trending topic in my world! I'd already started doing research about what is and isn't working in real time, and when I contacted previous content strategy clients I discovered that the strategies I'd created for them are still working. Their rankings are holding steady. Have you noticed a drop in your search rankings? AI-driven search results—like generative answers and featured snippets—are becoming the norm and it’s changing how content gets displayed and found. If your content is guided by an SEO-driven content strategy, it's time to make some changes. Here’s how a well-rounded, audience-first content strategy can help you stay ahead: 1. Focus on Your Audience, Not Just SEO SEO still matters, but if you’re crafting content just to check off SEO boxes, you’re missing out. AI-powered search is prioritizing content that truly addresses what your audience is searching for. When you focus on delivering value and answering real questions, you naturally align with what search engines—and people—are looking for. 2. Go Deep with Content Pillars and Clusters To stand out in AI-driven search, depth and breadth are key. A content strategy built around pillars (your core topics) and clusters (supporting, related content) helps you cover topics thoroughly and become a trusted source of information. Not only will this boost your rankings, but it also keeps your audience engaged with valuable, interconnected content. 3. Build Authority with Valuable, Consistent Content AI search favors authoritative sources. That means it’s time to make your expertise known through consistent, high-quality content. For businesses, this establishes you as the go-to resource in your industry. For freelancers, helping clients build authority can make your services indispensable. 4. Optimize for AI Features AI results often pull from well-organized, structured content like FAQs and how-to guides. By incorporating these elements into your strategy, you increase the chances of your content being featured in AI search results, driving more visibility and traffic. The bottom line is if you’re a business trying to stay visible or a freelancer looking to offer a cutting-edge service, now’s the time to shift your focus from SEO-driven content to audience-focused strategy. SEO is still relevant, but focusing on the audience and optimizing for AI search (which is honestly just good content practices) are what will get you ahead of the curve. ********************************************************************** Want to learn more about content strategy? The next Mastering Content Strategy Bootcamp is November 4 - 8. I’ve updated the content to include more information about how you can use AI in the content strategy process. I’d love to have you join me! 

I'm advising clients to move on five technical changes now. Not next quarter. This week. Google's AI doesn't wait for your strategy meetings. Schema markup goes live first. Deploy JSON-LD for FAQ, HowTo, Article, and Product schemas. AI reads structured data before it reads your copy. If your value isn't machine-readable, it doesn't exist to Gemini. Content gets restructured for AI extraction. Summaries go at the top of every page. H2s become questions, not clever headlines. Replace paragraphs with bulleted lists. AI pulls answers from scannable content, not essay-style blocks. Topical clusters with internal linking replace keyword targeting. Build hub pages that connect related content. Link them explicitly so AI understands your topic authority. Google's context window sees your entire site structure now. Explicit context signals become mandatory. Add dates to all content. List author credentials at the top. Cite sources with links. Attribute data to original research or reports. AI needs proof, not claims. Technical audits run immediately. Check page speed, mobile-first design, HTTPS, and crawlability. AI won't extract from slow, broken, or inaccessible pages. Clean up technical debt or get buried. Most sites aren't ready for AI-first search. They're still optimized for human eyeballs and crawler bots. That gap costs traffic starting now. These five changes take days to implement. Waiting costs months of visibility. The companies moving this week will own December's AI results.

🔁 How Google’s Algorithm Updates Impact Your Rankings You’re ranking on page one. Traffic is flowing. Leads are coming in. Then suddenly… 💥 Your position drops. Traffic slows. You're no longer visible. No changes from your side but everything feels different. This is the quiet power of a Google algorithm update. Google makes thousands of small updates every year. But a few major ones , like Core Updates , can shift the search landscape overnight. And they don’t warn you. They don’t tell you what changed. They just roll it out… and wait. What Do These Updates Actually Target? 🔍 Thin, low-value content 📄 Duplicate or keyword-stuffed pages 📉 Slow-loading or poor mobile experiences ❌ Misleading titles and clickbait 🔗 Spammy backlinks or poor domain trust And sometimes, even great websites get hit. Because it’s not always about what’s broken — It’s about what Google now prioritizes more. What Should You Do When an Update Hits? 1️⃣ Don’t panic. Drops might be temporary. 2️⃣ Audit your content. Is it helpful? Accurate? Original? 3️⃣ Improve UX. Focus on mobile, speed, clarity. 4️⃣ Strengthen E-E-A-T. (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) 5️⃣ Stay consistent. Keep publishing value, not just keywords. SEO isn’t a one-time task. It’s a long-term relationship , with searchers and with Google. When the algorithm shifts, it’s not out to punish you. It’s trying to serve the user better. Your job is simple: Keep serving the user too.

SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” job. Algorithms change, competitors optimize, and content gets (easily) outdated. Without regular maintenance, even the best sites can slip in rankings. So, what's the solution to stay relevant? ↳ Consistent, strategic SEO maintenance. Here's what you can do to run yours: 📅 Daily (or, at least, regularly): 1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗘𝗢 Keep your business info up to date. How? Make sure your details across directories are correct and answer to customer reviews. Pro Tips: Automate reviews and business updates to save time. ↳ Use Semrush’s Listing Management tool to update your business information across lots of directories. ↳ Use Semrush’s Review Management tool to bring all your reviews into one place. 📅 Weekly: 2️⃣ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 Keep up with any changes in the SEO landscape to adapt your strategy and maintain your results. How? Follow industry blogs, news sites, and experts on social media. Pro Tip: Set Google Alerts to stay updated without too much effort. 📅 Biweekly: 3️⃣ 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 Performance metrics = how well your website is performing. This is key to spot potential problems before they impact your rankings. How? Use tools like Semrush and Google Analytics to check in every two weeks. Pro Tip: Set up automatic reports to make this part of your routine. ↳ For monitoring keyword rankings, use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool. ↳ For monitoring organic traffic, use Google Analytics. 📅 Monthly: 4️⃣ 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗘𝗢 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 Technical SEO issues can make it hard for search engines to find, store, or rank your website. That’s why it’s best to keep an eye on them regularly, at least once every month just to make sure everything’s running smoothly. How? Run a site audit by paying attention to page speed and crawlability. Pro Tips: ↳ GSC > Pages: Find what’s affecting your site’s visibility. ↳ Semrush’s Site Audit tool for a detailed analysis. 📅 Every Six Months: 5️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Keep your content fresh and relevant. How: Use GSC to find your top-performing pages + update them. Pro Tip: Double-check your content’s search intent—does it actually match what people are looking for? 🔎 Search “seo maintenance backlinko” for a full breakdown. If this helped, I’d love it if you shared it! 🙌