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The Holy Canon of Search Optimization (SEO)

The Holy Canon of Search Optimization (SEO)

by | Jan 14, 2025 | Knowledge Den

Behold! These are the SEO tactics that have achieved the long-coveted sainthood. The high priests of the super-secret society convene every fiscal year (Gregorian calendar, naturally…) to decide which chapters of SEO stay, are added, or are removed from the Canon of search scripture. (BELL RINGS) As we bow our heads in reverence, we open our hearts, our ears, and our hands to the good news of the high and almighty one.

Alas! The horrors of those with dry bones and evil doers may rest in the SEO Cemetery. For they belong there. Yet our arms remain open to all, even to those who dare return from the hellish depths of the damned.

Blessed be the tactics that are ethical and all-good, lest one curses the name of the people. WE CAST THEM OUT! To HADES, the evil-doers go! The path of the righteous is narrow, while the path of darkness is quick and manipulative. Beware the tempting corpses of undead tactics, they may briefly satisfy your cravings, but they will leave you wanting and empty.

Hear these words! The long game is tried and true. Awareness of the changes is good and Holy. The path of response and adaptation is the will of the high one. Amen.

Table of Contents

  1. Prerequisite: Content Strategy and High-Quality Content
  2. On-Page/Your Website
  3. Tech/Your Website
  4. Off-Page

Digital marketing is evolving rapidly with the introduction of AI tools and features. Where and how people search online depends on the tools available to them, and businesses rely on certain predictable behaviors. Think about how you open up your phone, tablet or laptop. How do you and others search, shop, learn, and connect? In the early days of the internet, search engines like AltaVista, Ask Jeeves (my ’90s favorite), and Yahoo helped people navigate the web. Then Google emerged in the 2000s, quickly dominating and defining the search market while others like Yahoo and Bing adapted as well.

As search engines became the go-to tools for navigating the web, social media entered the scene and introduced new layers to the digital reality. People began using these platforms in specific and predictable ways, and before long, these spaces became marketplaces for selling visible real estate to businesses (hello, ads). This shift defined how people spent their time online as they worked, shopped, connected, learned, and entertained themselves. It also established the standard for how companies marketed to consumers. 

For years, this has been the status quo. Until now.

I am fascinated by change. As a naturally curious person, I find myself drawn to how people react to and resist change. I notice the fear of change and the projections of what we think it will bring, especially when we fear it. Today, we stand at the edge of major transformations. New tools and platforms are emerging, and existing juggernauts like Google are evolving in unprecedented ways. These shifts are disrupting long-held marketing tactics, especially those tied to high-level, simple informational content. People are adapting. Their search behaviors are changing. Where they go and how they use digital tools is evolving right now.

AI and large language models are reshaping how people interact with information. These technologies dynamically generate generalized content, offering direct answers and summaries without the need to visit a traditional website. Informational content, once the backbone of search strategy and rankings, is now being upended. This is causing a decrease in organic traffic across industries and sparking widespread concern. Despite this, I believe certain SEO strategies remain effective. Websites still hold value because people continue to search across AI platforms, search engines, social media, and their own communities and forums.

I pay close attention to where we are in real time. What has changed? What no longer works? What still holds its ground? All of this depends on industry, service, product, offering, movement, and audience. People in one category may search differently than others.

SEO, or as I prefer to call it, Search Optimization, is about showing up in the places people naturally go to search. The tactics I outline here remain relevant because they are rooted in creating value, serving real needs, and adapting to the tools people choose to use. These strategies are impactful today and positioned to evolve with the changing digital landscape. Some may eventually fall away, while others will continue to thrive. New approaches may emerge, and even those buried in the SEO Cemetery might rise again. GASP!

I like observing these changes as they happen and helping people navigate this moment with a clear understanding of how it impacts human behavior and the way we search.

Now, before diving into the tactics of Search Optimization, let’s focus on what makes them effective. A strong and high-quality content strategy. 

Prerequisite: Content Strategy and High-Quality Content

Before we dive into optimization tactics, it is essential to start with a solid foundation. A content strategy that aligns with your goals and high-quality content that delivers for-reals value is the key to success. High-quality content is not just about writing; it is about solving problems, answering the questions AI tools don’t handle well, and connecting with your audience on a human level.

Without this groundwork, even the best marketing tactics fall flat. Think of it as building a house. Without a strong foundation, everything else crumbles. Great content gives you something to optimize, link to, and rank with. More importantly, it provides something real and unique, an antidote to the cookie-cutter, AI-generated fluff that dominates so many spaces today.

Rank Beast’s Approach to Content Strategy

I begin by understanding who you are speaking to, what they care about, and how they search. This is the blueprint for creating content that is not just optimized, but impactful and built to last. It’s about going beyond answering “what” and tapping into the “why” and “how” that truly resonate with your audience.

The Role of Content Marketing in SEO

It’s important to recognize that SEO and content marketing work hand-in-hand together. High-quality, audience-focused content drives long-term results by meeting people’s expectations when they search and giving them exactly what they need in a way that feels real and relevant.

The role of content is shifting. AI can churn out generalized answers, but people still crave depth, connection, and expertise. Strategies like creating evergreen content, refreshing older resources, and adapting content for different platforms amplify your digital marketing efforts. By focusing on these areas, you stand out in a sea of sameness and build trust with your audience.

By combining great content with relevant Search Optimization tactics, you create a powerful strategy that connects with your audience, adapts to changing technology, and ensures your digital presence is future-proof.

Now, let’s dive into the practical side of Search Optimization. Below are the tactics I still believe in, SEO strategies that have proven their worth and continue to adapt as the digital landscape shifts. These are the approaches I use to ensure you aren’t just keeping up with change but staying ahead of it. They focus on creating meaningful connections, showing up where it matters most, and standing out in an increasingly automated low-quality world.

On-Page/Your Website

A website is still where people go (at least for now) to decide if they trust you and take action. It helps people find you while giving technologies the clarity they need to position you on their platforms. The following elements might seem overly technical, but they are essential for making your content clear, easy to navigate, and accessible to both people and the tools they rely on.

Meta-Data Optimization

Meta-Data is what people see on search results pages, AI-driven search, and social media previews. Meta-data refers to two key tags in the HTML header called page-titles and meta-descriptions. A page-title is often the first thing a searcher sees when looking something up. The description text is displayed below the title and offers a quick summary of what the page is about.

  • Why it’s relevant: Meta-data helps people and technologies like AI tools understand what a page is about at the most basic level. This foundational clarity ensures your content is discoverable and accurately represented, even as search behavior and tools continue to evolve.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: Meta-data is more than just keywords and summaries. It is about crafting concise and meaningful descriptions that represent exactly what the page is about. My focus is on ensuring accuracy and clarity.
  • Value: Well-crafted meta-data allows technologies to understand your content quickly and efficiently without processing the full page. This ensures your content is properly represented across platforms like AI-driven search summaries and social media previews, improving its visibility and maintaining its integrity.

Keyword/Search Term/Topical Research

Researching topics and terms that people search for to align your content with the language your audience uses.

  • Why it’s relevant: Search engines and technologies now understand meaning beyond exact words. Research ensures your content reflects the language people naturally use while addressing specific needs AI-generated answers may overlook. This alignment helps your content stand out and meet expectations in a world shaped by evolving search tools.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I focus on uncovering the intent behind searches and aligning content with what matters most to people. It is not just about finding keywords but creating content that resonates and remains semantically clear.
  • Value: Thorough research ensures your content is authentic and trustworthy, standing out even as AI tools generate more generalized content. By reflecting shared language and real-world relevance, your content connects with people and maintains visibility without over-reliance on outdated keyword strategies.

Headers are the titles, headings, and subheadings that structure your visible content into clear, digestible sections. Each header serves as a description of what’s below it, acting as a roadmap for people and the technologies that help them discover content.

  • Why it’s relevant: Clear headers make it easier for people to scan your content and understand its flow, while signaling structure and meaning to technologies, including search engines, AI tools, and other platforms. Structured headers are essential for helping these technologies quickly interpret and represent your content accurately, keeping it accessible and useful in an evolving digital landscape.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I see headers as more than just markers. They are compact summaries that reflect what is coming next while aligning naturally with the language people use. My focus is on creating headers that improve clarity, reinforce your content’s purpose, and ensure it is easy for both people and technologies across platforms to follow and understand.
  • Value: Thoughtfully crafted headers improve the experience for people by keeping them engaged and guiding them through your content. They also help technologies, from search engines to AI-driven tools, understand your content’s purpose and context, ensuring it is properly represented wherever it is discovered. By prioritizing people in your content structure, you build stronger visibility and engagement across the digital ecosystem.

Image Alt Text

Alt text is the written description you assign to images, giving context for accessibility tools and technologies that process visual content.

  • Why it’s relevant: Alt text makes your content more accessible for people using screen readers and helps technologies interpret images more efficiently. While tools are improving their ability to “see” images, providing accurate alt text ensures technologies require fewer resources to understand what your visuals represent. This added clarity supports better content discovery across platforms, from AI-driven tools to social media and beyond.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I write alt text that is practical and clear, focusing on descriptions that help people first while improving accessibility. My approach ensures that alt text provides meaningful context for technologies without adding unnecessary complexity or stuffing keywords. It is about connecting visuals with purpose, making your content more inclusive and functional.
  • Value: Thoughtfully crafted alt text bridges the gap between visual content and the technologies that interpret it. This enhances accessibility for people and ensures your visuals are properly understood in platforms beyond search engines, including AI tools and social media. 

Internal Linking

Internal linking refers to links on one page of your site that connect to other pages on the same site, typically as linked text in paragraph copy. These links help people and technologies navigate your content and explore related information seamlessly.

  • Why it’s relevant: Internal links improve navigation for people, creating a smoother and more intuitive experience. They also help technologies like AI tools and search engines understand how your pages relate to each other.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I use internal links to guide people naturally through your content, adding them only where they provide meaningful context or lead to the next step. My focus is on making these links purposeful and seamless, avoiding overuse.
  • Value: Thoughtful internal linking keeps people engaged by providing clear pathways to explore your site, making it easier for them to find what they need. This approach ensures your content remains easy to navigate.

Technical/Your Website

This section highlights the technical elements that make your website functional, accessible, and discoverable. These tactics are designed to ensure your site delivers a seamless experience for people while staying visible to technologies that shape how content is found.

As search behaviors evolve, the role of websites may shift. If people rely less on traditional websites, these strategies might diminish in importance. However, for industries and audiences where websites remain a key touchpoint, these technical optimizations are vital.

No Broken Links

Broken links are links on your site that lead to error pages or non-existent content. They stop people in their tracks, disrupting their experience and making your site feel outdated or unreliable.

  • Why it’s relevant: Broken links frustrate people, leading to a poor browsing experience. They also harm crawl efficiency for search engines, AI-driven tools, and other technologies that process your site. A poorly maintained site can impact visibility and trustworthiness. Properly fixing these links with 301 redirects or updating them to point to active pages ensures your site remains functional and trustworthy.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I regularly audit for broken links, focusing on redirect hygiene. This includes setting up only the redirects you need, updating outdated links, and avoiding chains or loops that slow navigation. My goal is to create a seamless experience for people while ensuring search engines and other technologies can navigate your site effectively.
  • Value: A site free of broken links builds trust by offering a smooth browsing experience and a sense of reliability. It ensures search engines and technologies can efficiently crawl your site, keeping your content discoverable and accessible while supporting long-term visibility.

XML Sitemap Hygiene

An XML sitemap is a file on your site that lists all the pages you want people and technologies to find. It helps guide search engines and other tools to the content you want people to discover.

  • Why it’s relevant: A sitemap tells search engines and technologies which pages on your site you want them to access and present to people. It also provides context to your site’s structure. 
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I address common sitemap issues by removing errors, redirects, and non-indexable pages from the file. I ensure the sitemap is clean and follows best practices so search engines and other technologies can efficiently crawl and process your site.
  • Value: A well-maintained sitemap ensures your most important content is easy to find and access. This supports visibility on search engines, helps technologies navigate your site, and makes it simpler for people to locate the information they’re searching for.

Site architecture refers to the navigation menus at the top of your website, internal links (discussed earlier) within page content, and organized logical categories that guide people to content in different places throughout your website. For example, grouping useful tools like calculators, downloadable templates, or educational guides under a “Resources” section helps visitors find specific information or solutions quickly. A well-structured site feels intuitive and keeps people moving naturally through your pages.

  • Why it’s relevant: When your site is well-organized, people can quickly find what they need without frustration. A clear hierarchy, starting with high-level pages that lead to more specific content, helps people understand and navigate your site with ease. For search engines and other technologies, this structure highlights how pages are connected.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I design site structures that feel effortless. This means grouping content logically, creating simple and clear navigation menus, and using internal links to guide people naturally to related information. My goal is to create a site that is intuitive for people and easily understood by search engines and other technologies.
  • Value: A well-structured site provides a seamless experience, helping people find what they need quickly and efficiently. This also ensures technologies can process and prioritize your content effectively, maintaining your visibility across platforms.

Schema Markup

Schema markup is code added to your website that helps search engines and technologies better understand your content. It identifies specific details, such as FAQs, reviews, or organization information, without requiring these tools to analyze the entire page.

  • Why it’s relevant: Schema helps search engines and AI-powered tools process your content quickly and accurately, providing structured data that can be used in a variety of ways. While search engines often display enhanced features like star ratings or event details in results, schema also supports other technologies by offering clear and organized information. This makes your content easier to integrate and utilize across platforms as technology evolves.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I prioritize schema markup because it helps technologies process your content without needing to analyze entire pages. Structured data is a powerful asset that cuts to the chase, enabling search engines and AI tools to quickly and accurately understand what your content is about. By implementing a clear and efficient schema, I ensure the most important details of your site are highlighted, increasing the chances of your content being presented to people across platforms.
  • Value: Schema markup ensures your content is properly represented and engaging, whether it’s on search engines or AI-powered platforms. This tactic keeps your site relevant, discoverable, and competitive as search behavior and technologies evolve.

Image Compression

Image compression reduces the file size of images on your site without losing noticeable quality. Smaller image files load faster, helping your site remain quick and visually appealing across all devices.

  • Why it’s relevant: Faster-loading pages improve the experience for people, especially on mobile devices where slower connections can lead to frustration. Search engines also consider page speed an important factor for rankings, meaning compressed images help your site perform better by reducing load times while maintaining high visual quality.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I focus on optimizing images for speed without sacrificing quality. This includes using advanced compression tools or manually resizing files when necessary to achieve the best results. My approach balances maintaining high visual standards with ensuring fast load times across devices.
  • Value: Compressed images improve page speed, creating a smoother experience for people and supporting visibility on search engines. This ensures your site is efficient, user-friendly, and capable of meeting modern digital expectations.

Mobile-First

Mobile-first design means your website is built and optimized for mobile devices first (smartphones), then adapted for larger screens like desktops and tablets. This approach ensures your site works well on the devices most people use to browse online.

  • Why it’s relevant: Mobile browsing dominates, but not all audiences rely on mobile equally. Some, like older demographics or professionals at work, may use desktops more. Analytics and data determine how much focus your audience places on desktop or tablet browsing. Search engines prioritize mobile usability with mobile-first indexing, so mobile design is essential, but the overall design should match how your audience interacts with your site.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I prioritize mobile-first design to ensure your site works seamlessly on smaller screens, but I also consider your audience’s specific browsing habits. If your data shows that desktops or tablets are more commonly used, I adapt the design to prioritize those devices while maintaining mobile usability. My focus is on creating a site that delivers an exceptional experience across all devices, tailored to the behavior of your audience.
  • Value: Mobile-first design improves usability, aligns with search engine priorities, and creates a seamless experience that matches how your audience browses online.

Page Speed Optimization

Page speed optimization focuses on making your website load faster by improving how quickly content appears on your site. This includes optimizing images, streamlining code, and enhancing server performance to create a fast and responsive experience.

  • Why it’s relevant: A fast-loading site is a good experience for people. Long load times frustrate visitors and often cause them to leave before they even see your content. While search engines use page speed as a ranking signal, the real priority is ensuring your site feels seamless and effortless to use.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I focus on practical changes that improve speed and usability. This includes running manual checks, compressing images, reducing unnecessary code, configuring speed plug-ins, and optimizing server response times. I also rely on dedicated WordPress hosting instead of shared hosting to provide consistent, fast performance. By using high-quality server configurations, I ensure every WordPress site I manage delivers the speed your audience expects.
  • Value: Faster page speeds improve usability, keep people engaged, and enhance your site’s overall performance. A fast-loading site not only ranks better in search results but also leaves a lasting positive impression on your audience.

HTTPS for Real Security

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) encrypts the connection between your website and its visitors, providing a secure browsing experience. While it’s essential for sites handling sensitive data, like passwords or payment information, it’s also critical for building trust and meeting modern browser and search engine expectations.

  • Why it’s relevant: Even if your site doesn’t handle sensitive data, HTTPS is still important. Visitors expect the padlock icon, and modern browsers warn people when a site isn’t secure. Search engines also consider HTTPS a ranking signal, meaning not having it can harm your visibility and credibility. Improper HTTPS setups can lead to search engines clustering your site with problematic pages, making it harder to fix and reindex later.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I go beyond just enabling HTTPS and displaying the padlock icon. My process includes checking for expired certificates, mixed content errors, and vulnerabilities that could impact your site’s security or credibility. I focus on delivering true protection for your site, ensuring it is trusted by both people and search engines alike.
  • Value: A properly implemented HTTPS setup builds trust, protects your site’s credibility, and enhances visibility. Addressing vulnerabilities proactively ensures your site offers a secure and reliable experience, keeping visitors confident and engaged.

Off-Page

While your website serves as the foundation of your online presence, the digital world extends far beyond it. Off-page strategies shape how people discover and engage with your brand across search results, platforms, and communities. These efforts not only build trust and boost visibility but also create meaningful connections with your audience where they already are.

Treating the Branded SERP as a Homepage

The branded SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is what people see when they search for your business or brand name. It’s often the first thing potential customers interact with, making it a critical part of your online presence.

  • Why it’s relevant: When people search for your brand, they’re looking for confirmation of credibility and quick access to information about you. If your branded SERP is unorganized, filled with irrelevant results, or overshadowed by competitors or unrelated brands, it can confuse visitors and erode trust. A polished branded SERP builds confidence and helps people find what they need easily.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I help you take ownership of your branded SERP by optimizing your website, claiming profiles, and ensuring consistent information across platforms. My focus is on presenting your brand as professional, trustworthy, and easy to engage with, no matter where people find you.
  • Value: A well-managed branded SERP gives people confidence in your business, strengthens trust, and ensures they can easily access accurate and engaging information about your brand.

*Reputation Management

Reputation management is about understanding and addressing how people judge your online brand. This involves evaluating and managing reviews, mentions, and other factors that shape trust and credibility.

  • Why it’s relevant: People trust what others say about your brand, through word-of-mouth and online reviews. Positive feedback and mentions help build trust, while negative or unmanaged feedback without thoughtful responses can push people away. A strong online reputation sends a clear signal of trust and makes it easier for people to choose your business over competitors.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: While I don’t offer reputation management services, it’s for maintaining trust and credibility online. I focus on optimizing branded search results and foundational elements that support your broader reputation efforts.
  • Value: Actively managing your reputation enhances trust, strengthens your brand’s visibility, and makes a strong impression on anyone researching your business. 

Online Listings/Business Profiles

Online listings and business profiles, like Google My Business, display key information about your business, such as your name, address, phone number (NAP), hours, and reviews. They make it easy for people to find you and learn what they need at a glance.

  • Why it’s relevant: Accurate and consistent business profiles make it easy for people to find, connect with, and learn more about your business. For local searches, people really on consistent NAP information across platforms so that they see valid information in commonly searched areas of the web. This improves your visibility in local searches and ensures your business is easy to find.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I prioritize accuracy and consistency across all platforms where your business appears. By aligning your NAP details and maintaining complete, up-to-date profiles, I help establish trust with both people and search engines. My goal is to ensure your business is professional, easy to find, and optimized to stand out in local searches.
  • Value: Accurate, well-maintained listings build credibility across the web, making it easy for people to find up-to-date information about your business, from directions and hours to reviews.

Social Profile Optimization

Social profile optimization involves configuring your brand’s profiles across social media platforms. This includes consistent branding, accurate information, and clear descriptions that reflect your business.

  • Why it’s relevant: Social media profiles often appear in search results and serve as key touchpoints for people discovering your business. They are more than just a place for information. They provide an opportunity for people to engage with your content and connect with your active social strategies. Optimized profiles ensure your brand is consistent and recognizable across platforms, enhancing visibility and guiding people to important destinations like your website.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: I focus on creating brand cohesion across all social profiles by aligning logos, descriptions, contact details, and links. By maintaining consistency, I ensure your profiles reflect a professional and trustworthy presence that supports your overall branding efforts.
  • Value: Optimized social profiles build trust and make it easy for people to engage with your content. They also support your broader strategies, like brand visibility, contributing to a cohesive online presence that enhances your marketing efforts.

*PR and Backlinking

PR-driven backlinking earns links from high-quality, relevant websites through valuable content and strong relationships. These links often come from media coverage like news articles or blog features, which help build your backlink profile, a collection of links pointing to your site that search engines use to rank your content. While traditional PR focuses on media placements and brand awareness, backlinks are ideally a natural result of these efforts.

  • Why it’s relevant: Media placements in reputable sources often include backlinks that signal trust and authority to search engines. These links improve your visibility and strengthen your online presence. High-quality backlinks from trusted sources drive sustainable growth, but many still rely on low-quality practices like buying links or sending excessive outreach to irrelevant websites. While these tactics might promise short-term gains, they often lead to penalties, damage your reputation, and undermine long-term SEO efforts. I see this approach as unethical and a waste of time. Aligning PR with backlinking ensures you avoid these risks while maximizing both branding and SEO benefits.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: While I don’t offer PR or backlinking services, they are vital to SEO. I recommend working with professionals who prioritize authentic relationships and meaningful placements over quick, low-quality tactics.
  • Value: High-quality PR and backlinking enhance trust, strengthen your site’s authority, and improve search engine rankings. They also create lasting benefits by building a credible online presence that engages your audience and avoids the pitfalls of low-quality techniques.

Building and Supporting Online Communities

Leveraging communities means participating in online platforms like Reddit, Quora, and niche forums to build visibility and engagement. It’s about joining conversations and contributing value by answering questions, sharing insights, or discussing relevant topics. Like… Actual value. Authentic, human-to-human interactions.

  • Why it’s relevant: These platforms are where people go to ask questions, seek advice, and explore topics they care about. Engaging authentically positions you or your brand as a trusted resource, while overly self-promotional tactics can harm credibility, alienate people, and even violate platform rules. Genuine, value-driven participation fosters trust, builds relationships, and increases visibility over time.
  • Rank Beast’s approach: Success in online communities comes from a human-centered approach. It’s about understanding the culture of each platform, respecting its guidelines, and contributing in ways that are genuinely helpful. I recommend focusing on answering questions, sharing knowledge, and offering real value to discussions while avoiding promotional tactics that can backfire.
  • Value: Thoughtful participation in communities strengthens your reputation, expands your reach, and builds meaningful connections with your audience. This is not about quick wins but about creating a foundation of trust and visibility that supports long-term growth.
The ROI of SEO: Why Startups Should Invest in Organic Search

The ROI of SEO: Why Startups Should Invest in Organic Search

by | Dec 20, 2024 | SEO

Every dollar matters for startups navigating tight budgets and fierce competition. Scalable growth strategies like Search Optimization (SEO) build lasting value, ensuring your startup thrives not just today, but over the years to come. For startups ready to invest in long-term growth, SEO offers a sustainable path to compounding results that strengthen your competitive edge.

What is SEO, and Why Does it Matter for Startups

At its core, SEO ensures your brand and website are visible, credible, and easy to find where your audiences naturally go, (still) on search engines and beyond. It starts with a strong content strategy, then optimizes that content so it resonates with your audience and scales your online presence. It needs expertise to know which informational content to leave alone and let AI provide, and which topics to write about that provide valuable insight.

This involves improving website structure, technical performance, and content quality to show up where it matters. It also means understanding where your audience spends time online, building your brand’s reputation across those channels, and showing up as a trusted solution whenever they search. SEO is a long-term strategy that earns trust, builds authority, and keeps your brand top-of-mind, wherever your customers are.

Importantly, search optimization isn’t a quick, one-time win. It’s a strategic asset that requires consistent effort, budget, trust, adaptability, and expertise. Although the initial results take time, the payoff compounds. When executed well, SEO helps you produce valuable content, increase site authority, and gain rankings that continue working for you. Sticking with it through early “incubation” periods, when ROI might not be obvious, is often the hardest but most crucial step.

Rankings: How high your site appears in search results for relevant terms.

Authority: Your site’s reputation for trustworthiness and relevance, built through quality content and credible links.

What is the ROI Timeline for SEO with Little to No Online Presence?

Answer: Typically 1 – 2 years for compounding returns and reduced acquisition costs.

SEO vs. SEM ROI comparison graph
SEO vs. SEM ROI: This 3-year comparison sample shows how SEO delivers compounding returns over time, surpassing SEM by Month 8 and continuing to scale significantly.

No sugar coating here: SEO takes time, effort, and budget. It’s a long-term investment that needs trust, expertise, and patience. Early on, it can feel difficult to invest for months without seeing returns. Low-expertise efforts lead to frustration, but with a strategic plan, realistic expectations, and the right guidance, you’ll see growth, like planting a tree. With careful nurturing, trust, and persistence, the returns begin to compound.

The potential payoff is substantial. Even as AI transforms the search landscape, long-term SEO efforts remain effective in generating compounding returns. If your team lacks capacity, consider hiring dedicated experts or partnering with specialists like Rank Beast so you can focus on growing your business while they develop your SEO foundations.

By investing in content strategy and consistent optimization, you’re building valuable long-term assets: authoritative content, a solid online reputation, and stable rankings. These assets keep delivering results well after the initial work is done.

Actual ROI will vary, but let’s consider some potential timelines and outcomes next.

How Long Does SEO Take to Deliver Results for Startups?

For instance, let’s assume we’re engaging a new Rank Beast website package that includes WordPress hosting, foundational SEO, ongoing support, and consistent content creation. Here’s how the timeline might unfold:

  • Months 1 – 3: Heavy foundational work (site setup, technical optimizations, initial content). Traffic and leads remain low or nonexistent, yielding negative ROI, but laying essential groundwork.
  • Months 4 – 6: Early rankings appear, more content is created + indexed, and initial leads begin trickling in. You may still hover around break-even or slightly negative ROI, but you’ll see promising trends and improvements.
  • Months 7 – 12: Organic traffic grows more noticeably. Leads and conversions increase as visibility strengthens. Monthly revenue from organic sources often begins to surpass costs, shifting ROI into positive territory.
  • Months 12+ Onward: With consistent effort, you’ve built a strong content library, stable rankings, and a predictable pipeline of leads. This is when the compounding ROI can become significant, scaling well beyond the initial outlay.

After a year of diligent work, you may scale back certain budget areas as your established rankings deliver steady returns. Unlike paid ads, which stop the moment you stop paying, your SEO-driven content and reputation continue to yield results month after month. Think of it as planting an orchard: once established, it produces fruit year after year with routine T.L.C.

What Startups Need to Know About SEO to Succeed

Investing in ads is like renting a house, stop paying, and you have nothing left. SEO is like building a home. It demands upfront effort and patience, but ultimately, you own an asset that appreciates over time.

SEO and ads work together. Ads can provide quick wins, while SEO builds lasting foundations. At Rank Beast, we focus on SEO to develop assets that strengthen and complement your paid strategies. As AI changes how and where people search, proven SEO tactics still help you remain visible, trustworthy, and adaptable.

If your startup meets a genuine need, and you’re in a field where audiences actively search for solutions, proper SEO positioning ensures they find you. In competitive spaces, consider targeting less-saturated niches or producing truly standout content. By doing so, you meet your audience where they are and earn their trust with valuable information.

Without a clear value proposition, even the best SEO strategy will struggle. Take time to define what makes your startup unique and why customers should choose you, it’s the foundation of all your marketing efforts.

SEO captures existing demand. It doesn’t create it. To understand where people search, try SparkToro to see where your audience spends time. If Google returns as a high usage percentage, building SEO foundations is smart. If AI-driven tools gain traction, proactively align your content for those channels too.

At Rank Beast, we emphasize ethical, sustainable practices that build credibility and long-term growth. No shortcuts or gimmicks, just well-earned results.

Key Benefits of SEO for Startup Growth

  • Compounding Growth: Organic traffic grows cumulatively, with each new piece of content enhancing overall results.
  • Strategic Investment: Invest in content, optimization, and expertise to build lasting assets.
  • Scalable Growth: As content and authority build, growth accelerates.
  • Scalable Returns: Over time, returns outpace initial costs, increasing ROI.
  • Adaptable and Future-Proof: Solid SEO foundations help you adapt to evolving search engines, AI tools, and platforms.
  • Evolving Search Trends: By meeting user intent on Google or emerging AI platforms, you remain resilient and agile as search habits change.

When is SEO the Right Choice for Startups?

  • When there’s an unmet informational or navigational need your content can address.
  • When competitors have weaker SEO, allowing you to gain ground.
  • When your audience researches online before converting, making visibility crucial.
  • When you can invest consistently over 6–12 months, then scale back to maintenance as your ROI grows. All while still creating, updating, repurposing, and sharing content.

How AI is Shaping the Future of SEO

AI can streamline aspects of SEO and influence how search results are displayed. It encourages users to find answers faster, often reducing the need to visit multiple sites. This especially affects informational queries (how-tos, guides, tutorials), meaning your content must be even more valuable and easy to surface.

While AI reshapes how people search, understanding your audience and delivering real value remain core to successful SEO. By staying flexible and proactive, you’ll adapt as trends evolve.

AI alone can’t deliver the human insight needed for truly compelling content. Combine AI’s efficiency with human creativity, strategy, and empathy to create content that resonates. Experienced professionals ensure that as tools and algorithms shift, your approach remains ethical, future-proof, and focused on building a strong reputation.

Ultimately, with a solid SEO foundation, your startup remains visible and resilient, no matter how the search landscape changes. Emerging AI tools may rewrite some rules, but the core principles of trust, credibility, and relevance still guide success.

Your strategy should structure content so that new platforms can understand and elevate it. This positioning prepares you for ongoing evolution in search and user behavior.

Building a Long-Term Search Optimization Strategy for Startup Success

Investing in Search Optimization is about playing the long game. Every dollar counts, so why invest time and trust in a strategy that takes months to show results? Because that investment builds enduring value:

1. Search Optimization is a Long-Term Asset, Not a Short-Term Gamble
Unlike paid ads that vanish when budgets end, SEO creates a sustainable foundation. Like an orchard, early investment eventually yields ongoing returns.

2. Search Optimization Evolves, but Its Core Value Remains
AI is changing how people search, but relevance, trustworthiness, and quality still matter most. A strong SEO foundation ensures your startup can adapt without losing visibility.

3. Search Optimization Captures Existing Demand
Search Optimization works best when people are already searching for what you offer. It ensures your startup appears at the right moment, complementing other strategies that create demand.

4. Compounding ROI Outweighs Initial Costs
Over time, your content library grows, rankings improve, and organic traffic steadily increases. The effort you invest today keeps delivering returns tomorrow, making SEO cost-effective and self-sustaining.

5. SEO Builds Credibility in Crowded Markets
By targeting opportunities, creating high-quality content, and optimizing for user intent, you earn trust from search engines and audiences. Trust is priceless in competitive environments.

Making the Commitment with Trust
At Rank Beast, we focus on ethical, results-driven practices designed for long-term growth. By blending human creativity and strategic insight with AI-driven efficiencies, we help your business thrive in a changing digital world.

If your startup is ready to build a digital presence that endures, now is the time to start. While SEO takes patience, the resilience, visibility, and sustainable growth it delivers make it a wise long-term investment.

Let Rank Beast help you craft a strategy that positions your startup for lasting success.

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How to Verify Google Search Console for Squarespace Sites in Under 1 Minute 

How to Verify Google Search Console for Squarespace Sites in Under 1 Minute 

by | Dec 9, 2024 | Analytics, SEO

The way people search online is changing, which means you are at a disadvantage if you are not keeping an eye on important data sources. One of the easiest things you can do is ensure you have access to and are actively using Google Search Console. I’ve recently started working with a few clients who run their websites on Squarespace. One of the first things I do when working with someone is set them up with tools that are simple to use and incredibly helpful for managing their SEO.

Today, I’ll walk you through how to quickly verify Google Search Console (GSC) for Squarespace websites. Just to show you that it’s fast, like under a minute fast. This process is quick and works for most site platforms, not just Squarespace. Adding your website to GSC takes little time at all, but the benefits are huge.  

Why You Need a Google Search Console Account

I briefly touched on using Google Search Console in my recent article about SEO’s low-hanging fruit. Think of GSC as your backstage pass to understanding how your website performs on Google. It’s free, and it offers tools to help you see how people find your site and identify any issues. 

Here’s why GSC is worth your time:

  • Get Free Insights: Unlike many SEO tools, GSC doesn’t cost a dime
  • See How People Find You: Discover the words and phrases people search for before landing on your site
  • Catch Issues: GSC helps you spot broken links, pages that don’t show up in search results, or parts of your site that aren’t mobile-friendly
  • Validate Fixes: Confirm that any problems you’ve resolved, like indexing errors, are fixed
  • Spot Low-Performing Content: Identify pages that could use optimization to attract more attention
  • Improve Page Speed: Use Core Web Vitals data to see how to make your site faster and improve user experience.

Getting started with GSC might seem like a small step, but it’s one of the most impactful ways to set your site up for SEO success. To get started, you’ll first need to verify your site ownership in Google Search Console. Here’s how to do it step by step.

Step 1: Verifying Google Search Console

Follow these steps to verify your Squarespace website in Google Search Console:

In Google Search Console

  1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in
  2. Click the property selector in the top-left corner of the page (under the logo)
  3. Click on “Add Property.”
  4. Enter your website in the URL Prefix area
  5. Locate the HTML tag section and copy the provided tag.

In Squarespace

  1. Log in to Squarespace
  2. Navigate to your site’s settings and search for “Code Injector.”
  3. Paste the HTML tag into the Header section
  4. Click Save.

Google Search Console

  1. Return to Google Search Console and click “VERIFY” under the HTML tag section.

Tip: If it doesn’t verify right away, give it a moment and try again. To double-check, open your website, view the source code, and search for the tag. (If you’re on a Mac, use Command + Opt + U to view the source code.)

Step 2: Adding Your Sitemap to GSC

Once your site is verified, you might as well add your sitemap too. This quick step helps Google understand your website better:

  1. Check if your sitemap is live by visiting your website URL followed by /sitemap.xml
  2. In Google Search Console, go to Indexing > Sitemaps
  3. Paste your sitemap link (like sitemap.xml) into the field
  4. Click Submit.

Now That You’re Verified, Let’s Keep Growing Your Search Strategy

Setting up Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap isn’t rocket science, but it’s a smart move that’ll pay off down the line when you need answers. These tools help you keep tabs on how your site is performing, fix what’s needs attention, and make sure you’re heading in the right direction.

Take a few minutes today to knock it out. you’ll thank yourself later. 

How This Fits Into Your SEO Strategy

C: Create & Refresh Quality Content
O: Optimize Your Site (On-Page, UX, Technical, Local) ← YOU’RE HERE
A: Acquire Authority & Off-Page Presence
L: Learn from Data (Track, Stay Consistent & Adapt to Trends)

Verifying Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap might seem like small steps, but they are a big part of getting your site crawlable, indexed, and set up for success. These foundational tasks make everything else, like creating awesome content, building authority, and learning from your performance, work better.

You’ve completed a solid first step, so you are already ahead of the game. Keep going, refine what works, and stay on top of your progress. SEO takes time, but every move you make builds a stronger foundation for long-term success.

Stand Out in Search Results with Schema Markup

Stand Out in Search Results with Schema Markup

by | Nov 27, 2024 | SEO

When you’re on Google, have you noticed how some websites have extra details, like FAQs, star ratings, or recipe times in search results? That’s not random, it’s the result of schema markup, also known as structured data, added to website content. 

In an AI-developing world, structured data ensures your content is machine-readable, making it more likely to surface in tools like virtual assistants or AI-generated responses. By making your content easy to understand for emerging technologies, you increase the chances they showcase your offers, products, services, or other valuable information to people using tools like ChatGPT. Structured data helps these tools interpret your content correctly, making it easier for them to provide accurate answers in voice searches, featured snippets, or personalized recommendations.

Jump ahead to see how to add schema to your site.

Here’s what we’re covering in today’s article:

  1. What’s schema markup
  2. Common schema types
  3. How to generate schema markup with ChatGPT
  4. Validate Schema Markup with Rich Results Test
  5. Adding Schema Markup to your content.

Worried this sounds too technical or time-consuming? Most schema markup is surprisingly quick to generate and easy to implement. Even if you’re adding it directly into your content’s HTML, the process is simpler than you might think.

Now, let’s start by breaking down what schema markup is and why it matters.

What’s Schema Markup

Schema markup, also called structured data, labels your content so search engines and emerging technologies quickly recognize its purpose. This helps technologies quickly understand and showcase your content. Here’s Google’s documentation about how it works.

Schema markup powers the eye-catching details you see in search engine results. These include FAQs, recipe cards, or review stars. For example, a recipe with a star rating and cooking time draws attention, while a plain link is easy to overlook. People are more likely to click content that stands out visually and provides useful information right away.

Here’s another example, if you have an FAQ section, schema markup tells search engines it’s a list of questions and answers, making it eligible to show up as an FAQ snippet in search results. These enhancements give your content more visibility and engagement potential.

Adding schema markup to your website is done with JSON code. If “JSON” sounds intimidating, and your thought is “Oh, hell no”. Don’t worry, it’s simpler than you think. Later in this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to create and add it to your site without needing to be a coding expert.

What makes your content stand out as a featured result in Search Engines or AI searches? It starts with the basics: authority and quality. When your content outshines the competition, schema markup can give it the visibility it deserves.

How Schema Markup Gives Your Content an Edge in Search:

  • Makes it easier for search engines to understand your content
  • Unlocks rich snippets that help your content stand out visually
  • Gives you an advantage over competitors who don’t use schema.

Where Structured Data is Used Outside of Search

Structured data goes beyond search engines. It’s versatile, organizing and displaying content precisely across various platforms. In an era of emerging technologies, its applications are continually expanding. Here are some common examples:

  • Voice Assistants: Platforms like Alexa and Google Assistant use it to deliver quick answers, like recipes, calendar updates, or FAQs
  • E-commerce Platforms: Ensures product details like price, availability, and categories are consistent across platforms like Amazon and Shopify
  • Social Media Platforms: Used to create rich link previews with the correct image, title, and description on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn
  • Healthcare: Organizes doctor profiles, health records, and treatment details for better accuracy and accessibility
  • Education: Lists courses, credentials, and events, helping students find relevant programs quickly
  • Media and Entertainment: Helps platforms like Netflix or Spotify recommend and categorize shows, movies, or music
  • Smart Devices and Accessibility: Enables smart tools to interpret and present information, like schedules for smart thermostats or navigation for accessibility tools.

Structured data’s versatility makes it essential for ensuring your content is understood and displayed effectively across a variety of platforms, far beyond traditional search engines.

Common Schema Types You Can Use

Schema markup comes in many shapes and sizes, tailored to fit different types of content. Knowing which type to use for your site can make a huge difference in how your pages appear in search results. Below are some of the most commonly used schema types. I’ve included examples and screenshots of the final result on Google to help you understand how each one works and why it matters.

Article Schema

If you’re running a blog or publishing news content, the Article schema is essential.

Article schema markup helps Google recognize key details like the headline, author, and publication date. This schema can make your article eligible for features like Top Stories or improved mobile visibility.

FAQ Pages & Q&A Schema Markup

Have a section of frequently asked questions or Q&A content? The FAQPage and QAPage schema types let search engines format your questions and answers directly in search results.

These schema types makes your page stand out with collapsible FAQs or Q&A formats, helping people find quick answers.

Local Business & Organization Schema

If you manage a brick-and-mortar business or an organization with a physical location, LocalBusiness or Organization schema highlights critical details.

LocalBusiness schema features your address, phone number, and hours of operation directly in search results, improving your visibility when people search near your physical location.

Recipe Schema Markup

Recipe websites benefit from Recipe schema.

Recipe markup highlights ingredients, cooking time, images, and even user ratings right in search results, making your recipes more engaging and clickable. Tools like Anylist also rely on Recipe schema to import recipes into their app directly from a recipe webpage.

Product Schema

If you sell products online, Product schema makes sure people see important details like price, availability, and reviews directly in search results.

This helps your individual products stand out.

Review Schema

Have reviews or testimonials? The Review schema highlights star ratings and feedback in search results.

Featuring review content not only builds trust but also encourages more people to click through to your website.

Video Schema

For video content, the VideoObject schema can make your videos stand out with thumbnails, descriptions, durations, and even key moments in search results.

VideoObject increases the likelihood of people clicking on your videos, especially when it’s eye-catching.

These are just a few of the most common types of schema markup. There are many others you can explore to match your specific content needs. Visit schema.org for a complete list, or check out Google’s supported schema types here

Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Schema Markup to your Content

If you prefer a hands-on approach or need more control, this guide is for you. I’ll walk you through how to manually add JSON code to your WordPress site, including placing it directly in the <body> element of your HTML. That said, the website platform you use may already have built-in schema capabilities to simplify the process. Here’s what popular platforms offer:

  • WordPress: Yoast SEO’s plugin automatically adds schema markup for posts, pages, articles, FAQs, and more. However, it has limited customization. For example, WooCommerce integrates schema for products
  • Squarespace: Includes built-in schema for articles, products, events, and profiles. For additional customization, you can use code blocks or inject schema into the header
  • Shopify: Many themes include schema capabilities for products, offers, and reviews. For more customization, you’ll need knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Shopify’s Liquid templating language
  • Drupal: Offers modules that allow you to add custom schema markup. It’s highly customizable, but you’ll need some of the technical know-how required.

While these built-in tools are convenient, there are times when manually creating and adding schema markup is the better option:

  1. For multiple schema types on a single page: For example, combining FAQ, How-To, and Product schema on one page
  2. To optimize speed: Manual schema doesn’t add unnecessary load time, which is ideal for high-traffic sites if you’re keeping them lean and fast
  3. To ensure compliance and reduce errors: Dynamically created schema might miss required fields or produce incomplete markup
  4. For products with unique features: If you need to include custom attributes or options not covered by default schema tools.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of schema markup and the tools available, let’s dive into a practical example. I’ll show you how to create and configure FAQ schema and add it directly to your WordPress setup. This step-by-step guide will make the process clear and easy, even if you’ve never worked with JSON before.

How to Add Schema Markup for FAQ Content

This works great for blog articles or pages with detailed FAQ sections that answer common questions.

I recently published an article about common-low hanging fruit in SEO and added an FAQ section based on the content. Now, I want to include FAQ schema markup so search engines recognize this section and display it as a rich snippet. To do this, I’ll use ChatGPT to generate the JSON code and manually add it to the <body> element of my WordPress page, right where the FAQ content lives.

Here’s the step-by-step process and video walkthrough on how to create and implement FAQ schema markup in WordPress:

  1. Create the Schema Markup Code: I opened ChatGPT and used the following prompt to generate the JSON code:

I have a blog that includes an FAQ section based on the content below. Please generate JSON schema markup for the FAQ section that I can add to the body HTML of my page: [paste your FAQ content]

This prompt works well, but feel free to phrase it your own way. ChatGPT will still produce accurate schema markup.

  1. Review and Validate the Code: After ChatGPT provides the JSON, I review it to ensure everything aligns with the FAQ content. Then, I test the code using Google’s Rich Results Test to confirm it works properly.
  2. Add the Code to My Page: Once validated, I copy the schema code and paste it into the <body> section of my HTML, placing it near the FAQ content on the page.
  3. Update and Publish: I save the changes and update my page, ensuring the schema markup is now live.
  4. Test the Live Page: Finally, I test the published page again using the same Rich Results Test to make sure the schema is working as expected.

By following these steps, your FAQ content will be eligible to appear as rich snippets in search results, helping your page stand out and providing valuable information to people at a glance.

How to Add Local Business & Organization Structured Data Markup

Let’s walk through an example of how to create LocalBusiness schema for a venue in my neighborhood, the Bluebird Theatre. Their site currently doesn’t include any schema markup, not even event schema for their shows. For simplicity, let’s focus on adding LocalBusiness schema to their “Venue Info” page. This same process applies if you’re adding schema to a home page, contact page, or location-specific page.

  1. Gather and Collect Information

You’ll want to grab the following details:
*indicates required

  • *Business name
  • *Address
  • *Phone number
  • *Website URL
  • Opening hours
  • Images
  • Geo-coordinates (latitude and longitude)
  • Social profile URLs (sameAs)
  • Email address.
  1. Create LocalBusiness Schema JSON Code: Using ChatGPT (such as our Rank Beast Optimization Pro GPT), you can generate LocalBusiness schema markup quickly. Here’s an example prompt:

GPT Prompt: “Please create LocalBusiness schema markup in JSON for the following business information: [paste your content].”

After reviewing and validating it, the schema includes all key details:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "MusicVenue",
  "name": "Bluebird Theater",
  "image": "https://aegwebprod.blob.core.windows.net/content/logo_images/449/fji9bjVdDbNdSua425mDzWAoM3e0vAVRp1hqtGDQ.png",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "3317 East Colfax Avenue",
    "addressLocality": "Denver",
    "addressRegion": "CO",
    "postalCode": "80206",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 39.7405,
    "longitude": -104.9498
  },
  "url": "https://www.bluebirdtheater.net/",
  "telephone": "+1-303-377-1666",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/bluebirdtheater",
    "https://www.instagram.com/bluebirdtheater",
    "https://x.com/bluebirddenver"
  ]
}
  1. Test the Schema Markup: Use Google’s Rich Results Test to confirm the schema is valid and complete. This ensures the markup meets structured data guidelines.
  1. Publish the Schema: Add the validated JSON code to the correct page on the business’s website. This could be the home page, contact page, or a specific page like “Venue Info.”
  1. Test the Live Page: After publishing, test the live page using the Rich Results Test again to confirm everything is working as expected.

By taking these steps, you’ll ensure your LocalBusiness schema highlights important details about the business, making it easier for people to engage with you with attention-grabbing information in search results.

How to Add Product Schema

When it comes to product schema, I recommend leveraging tools that dynamically create it for you. This approach saves time and ensures your schema is consistently accurate across all product pages. Especially when you make changes to existing products. For example, WooCommerce paired with WordPress offers built-in schema markup for products right out of the box. I have this exact setup for selling my coffee on this site. It’s a great solution for e-commerce sites with a lot of products.

Manually updating product schema for every item in your catalog just isn’t practical. That’s why using plugins or platforms with built-in schema functionality is so important. These tools handle the heavy lifting and automatically generate schema for products, offers, and reviews.

  • WooCommerce: Includes default product schema, making it easy to manage without extra coding
  • Yoast WooCommerce SEO Add-On: Offers more advanced schema features, like structured data for offers, variations, and reviews.

Here’s schema validation for my coffee product managed with WooCommerce in my wordpress setup:

Using these schema-ready tools ensures your markup stays up-to-date. If configured well, your products will display rich details in search results, such as price, availability, and customer ratings.

(You’ll notice it’s missing recommended but not required fields. I need reviews!)

These features not only make your listings stand out but also help people make informed decisions faster.

Pro Tip: Regularly spot check product pages and test them with Rich Results Testing to ensure schema is configured properly, especially when adding new products or features.

How to Create Article Schema

Article schema helps search engines understand the structure of your long-form content, including details like the headline, author, publication date, and it’s featured image. These may show up as enhanced titles or placements in the “Top Stories” carousel of search results.

For WordPress, tools like Yoast SEO automatically generate article schema for your posts and pages. This means you don’t need to write JSON code manually unless you want additional customization. The same recommendation as products applies here. Use tools that create schema markup dynamically. If not, create schema with ChatGPT and manually add JSON code to the article’s html.

Adding article schema improves how your content appears in search results by:

  • Highlighting key information like the article headline, publication date, and author
  • Making your content eligible for rich features like “Top Stories” or Google News results
  • Enhancing visibility, especially on mobile search, where rich results stand out more prominently.

How to Ensure Article Schema is Configured Properly

  1. Use a Schema-Friendly SEO Plugin: If you’re on WordPress, plugins like Yoast SEO automatically include article schema when you create a blog post or page. Configure accordingly
  2. Double-Check the Metadata: Ensure details like the headline, publication date, and author are correctly filled out in your content editor. This information feeds directly into the schema
  3. Test the Schema Markup: After publishing your article, use Google’s Rich Results Test to verify that the schema markup is valid and complete.

Pro Tip: If your content covers time-sensitive topics, like news or events, ensure the publication date is accurate. Freshness often plays a role in whether your article appears in features like “Top Stories.”

With article schema in place, combined with authority and rcommonelevance, your content is set to stand out in search results through rich snippets or placements in Google News.

Tips to Avoid Schema Errors and Misuses

One of the biggest problems with schema markup is misusing it. I’ve seen this firsthand while working in the agency world. We were collaborating with an SEO contractor who added review schema to a product page that had no reviews, just to trigger the review star feature in search results. It slipped past the client, the team, and even the initial checks. While it might have worked temporarily, it was a clear violation of guidelines and could have resulted in penalties. The key lesson from that experience was:

If you’re misleading people, you’re already off-track.

To help you avoid common mistakes and stay within guidelines, here are some practical tips:

  1. Always validate your schema: Use trusted tools like Google’s Rich Results Test or Schema.org Validator. These tools catch errors before they cause issues and ensure your schema meets guidelines
  2. Stick to schema types that match your content: Use schema markup that accurately represents the content on your page. For example, don’t add FAQ schema to a page without questions and answers, or review schema to a product with no reviews. Taking shortcuts could harm your site’s reputation in the long run
  3. Double-check dynamically generated schema: If you’re using plugins or automated tools, review the schema they generate to ensure it’s accurate. Default settings can sometimes miss important details, so always double-check.

Search Optimization Tip: Keep your optimizations true to the actual content on your pages. When you’re working on titles, descriptions, headings, or even social posts, make sure they reflect what’s really there. Don’t force keywords that don’t fit or use tactics to grab attention that mislead people. Consistency builds trust, and trust drives results.

Common Errors to Watch For

  • Missing required fields: Each schema type has specific fields that are mandatory. Leaving these out can cause errors or prevent search engines from recognizing the schema
  • Incorrect field formatting: Ensure fields like dates, URLs, and structured data types are formatted correctly according to schema guidelines. Formatting mistakes are a common cause of validation errors
  • Outdated or mismatched schema: If your page content changes, update the schema to reflect these updates. Mismatched schema and content confuse search engines and could hurt your rankings
  • Overusing schema: Adding too many schema types to a single page can dilute its focus. Use only the schema types that are relevant to the content on the page
  • Using the wrong schema type: Be precise when selecting a schema type. For example, don’t use “LocalBusiness” schema for an online-only business with no physical location
  • Duplicate or conflicting schema: Ensure your schema doesn’t overlap or conflict. Using multiple plugins or custom scripts to generate schema can create redundancies or errors
  • Schema on non-indexable pages: Avoid adding schema to pages with “noindex” tags or low-priority pages like admin or thank-you pages. Focus your efforts on high-value, indexable content
  • Ignoring Search Console warnings: Regularly review Google Search Console reports for schema-related warnings or errors. Fixing these issues promptly helps maintain your schema’s effectiveness and ensures compliance with guidelines.

Staying consistent and accurate with your schema ensures it benefits your site without causing unintended problems. When in doubt, test and validate at every step. Schema markup is a powerful tool, but only when used responsibly and ethically.

Why Schema Markup Matters for Your Content’s Future

Schema markup is a tool to amplify visibility and relevance in a world increasingly driven by AI and emerging technologies. Implementing structured data makes it easier for search engines and advanced tools to interpret and showcase your products, insights, or services.

Embracing new technologies gives you a competitive edge. Schema markup is not just about staying current, it’s about staying ahead.

Getting started doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Focus on a single schema type that aligns with your goals, like FAQ or Product schema. Test its impact on one page and iterate from there. For those looking to take things further, dive into more complex types like How-To schema or Event schema to expand your reach.

Remember: The real goal isn’t just to optimize for algorithms. It’s to create something valuable for people and make it easy for them to find you.

Adapting SEO for a Changing Web: Human-Centric Tactics Amid AI Evolution

Adapting SEO for a Changing Web: Human-Centric Tactics Amid AI Evolution

by | Nov 17, 2024 | AI, SEO

I’ve observed a decline in organic search over the past decade. Search engines, notably Google, have introduced features like People Also Ask, lists, paragraphs, and video snippets that push naturally ranking website listing further down the page. Search engine optimization professionals (SEOs) coined the term “Zero-Click Searches” to describe how users get what they need without visiting the websites businesses have worked hard to create and maintain. In response, SEOs adapted by optimizing content to feature in these coveted spots, aligning with Google’s ideal ranking signals.

However, Google has made numerous updates, including many core algorithm adjustments in recent years, another core algorithm update rolled out this month (November 2024). This volatility raises questions about whether search engines are providing the best results for people and if the generated traffic maintains the high quality we once expected. For instance, a customer’s concept of brand authority may differ from Google’s understanding, especially regarding smaller, niche websites. This creates a discrepancy in what’s actually available to people when we’re over-reliant on search engines.

Now, we’re living in an AI revolution that’s fundamentally changing how people and businesses interact with digital technologies. In mid-May 2024, Google introduced AI Overviews (AIO), which occupy the very top of search results, the most valuable real estate on results pages. Even pushing ads further down. Utilizing their AI model, Gemini, AI Overviews provides generative responses on the fly, offering high-level information taken from various sources, including your websites. If AI cites a website, people often need to click on a sources link within the generated response, making search generated traffic to your site less likely.

Now, Google has integrated advertising into AI Overviews as well. These ads appear underneath AI Overviews as typical shopping ads in the generative result with a “Sponsored” label, pushing other search features and organic results further down the page to places where people don’t go as often.

Most people don’t scroll past a certain point if they do scroll at all. Another general rule is:

If an action needs more input from a person, the less likely they’ll interact with it or see it.

People want things fast, immediately, without having to do much more than they already did to get to where they are.

The Recent Declines of Organic Traffic

I’ve seen the impact in real-time with clients and through conversations with other marketing professionals, especially SEOs. Dramatic decreases in organic search traffic, like 50% decreases year over year, are not uncommon. This trend suggests that relying soley on traditional SEO tactics is no longer sufficient.

In response, major trends are emerging:

  • Learning and implementing different measurement metrics
  • Earning the trust of real people
  • Connecting by actually knowing and meeting customer/community needs and wants

Unfortunately, there’s growing concern that Google is clamping down on the concept of the open web. With zero-click searches and even removing complete websites from their search pages, they’re affecting the livelihoods of content creators and businesses. The ethical implications are concerning at best.

How should we respond to this? What’s the approach if these are indeed possible realities of the technological giants?

For starters, I’m seeing talk around building brand awareness and trust rather than working to rank content around related topics and themes. 

I see potential positive impact from creating your own ecosystem of community. It’s still about quality over quantity, even though we’re seeing and experiencing more and more quantity over quality. It doesn’t mean it’s the most effective approach.

We could adapt by focusing on building direct relationships with our audience, diversifying our digital presence, and emphasizing authentic engagement over reliance on traditional SEO tactics alone. Exploring alternative platforms and creating unique, high-quality content can help mitigate the impact of changes imposed by major tech companies.

For me, it’s still about responding with an approach by humans and for humans.

Are people visiting websites less?

It’s a valid concern. With the rise of social media networks and community platforms like Discord, Reddit, and Substack, there’s a noticeable shift in where people seek information and engage with content. While managing an inbound marketing website has been the norm, considered The Foundation of your online presence, this standard is evolving.

Websites still allow people to dive deeper into your offerings, take action, and interact with you. They’re also where other platforms direct interested users. However, recognizing that search engines are not the only places people go is crucial. Adapting involves embracing other platforms where your audience spends time and ensuring you’re present and active there.

We’re going to cover some long-held best practices that will have you covered, no matter what, and ensure you’re set up well for the evolving shifts within the search industry.

What’s Still Important on Websites?

Even if people are beginning to explore external areas for your content and community, websites remain a crucial element of your online presence. At least for today.

I’ve intentionally left out some of the tried and true SEO techniques for the different technical and content aspects of optimizing for search engines (i.e., Technical and On-Page SEO). My philosophy is to create for people first, and then search engines and crawlers ideally would follow suit. And, that may not be the case. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. 

What matters more than how I optimize page titles for SEO? Ensuring the content is already high-quality, informative, helps, and serves its purpose well. I need to make sure that my content is easy to understand and well laid out on the places where I manage digital content. I also want to make it easier for various technologies to semantically understand content without having to read through it all. 

Allowing or Disallowing AI Bots

Now, if you do not want AI bots to crawl and scrape your content and websites, I recommend that you block them in your robots.txt file for site-wide directives and use meta-robots tags for individual pages or sections that you want to block from crawling and scraping technologies. For instance, The New York Times updated their robots.txt file to block most AI bots, citing concerns over content usage without proper compensation.

There are implications for allowing and disallowing bots and crawlers. I see it in two ways:

  1. Protecting Your Content: Allowing search engines and AI technologies might lead to them potentially stealing your content.
  2. Limiting Visibility: Blocking bots might limit your potential to show up for your customers. I believe it’s important to ensure you allow the scraping of your sites, at least for products and services. The same goes if you have one or more locations

Here’s an example of a robots.txt file that blocks some bots and not others:

# Block OpenAI's GPTBot
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

# Block OpenAI's User Bot used by plugins
User-agent: GPTBot-User
Disallow: /

# Block Google’s Generative AI bots
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

# Block Perplexity AI's Crawler on a section and allow on another
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /directory-1/
Disallow: /directory-2/

# Allow all other bots full access
User-agent: *
Disallow:

Manage your crawler directives based on your own discretion. Let’s talk about what else you can do to make sure you’re focusing on impactful digital marketing efforts.

Creating High-Quality Tailored Content

High-quality content remains the cornerstone of engaging your audience. In this section, we’ll discuss what constitutes exceptional content and how tailoring it to specific platforms can enhance engagement and reach.

Well-written, high-quality content is key. But, what exactly does that entail? It requires:

  • Originality
  • Genuine value for your audience
  • Sufficient depth and substance
  • Prioritizing quality over quantity
  • Being informed and honest

Understanding when to offer high-level, easy-to-understand pieces versus deeper, more advanced content is crucial. Tailoring your content to each platform enhances engagement. For instance:

  • Provide long-form written content to your literary audiences on platforms like Substack.
  • Offer quick tips and insights on visual platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

By meeting your audience where they are and delivering content in the format they prefer, you increase the likelihood of meaningful engagement.

Standing Out in the Age of AI

AI technologies have made accessing general information easier than ever, often directly within search results or through chatbots. This shift means that to capture your audience’s attention, you must hone in on the specific problems your customers face and address them uniquely. It’s more important than ever to differentiate your content. Here, we’ll explore strategies to highlight your unique value proposition and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Ask yourself:

  • Why would someone choose you over another?
  • What’s your unique perspective and experience?
  • How do you stand out and why?

By focusing on your unique experiences and the real pain points of your audience, you provide value that generic AI-generated content cannot. An essential touch for resonating with those who need what you offer.

What unique experiences and trends can you point out that truly resonate with your audience? Think about their real challenges. Addressing these pain points helps you tailor your offerings to meet their needs effectively.

Sharing relatable stories or examples that show how your expertise solves these issues builds trust. It demonstrates you understand their struggles on a deeper level, something generic AI-generated content often misses.

We need content that doesn’t just inform but truly engages. Provide value by tackling problems AI can’t solve (yet) or delivering insights with the nuance only a human can offer. This approach keeps your audience interested and sets you apart.

We also want to ask, What do people value? I follow the Marketing Accountability Council (MAC) and Jay Mendel, the founder posted a recently mentioned an article that I thought was very insightful into a more human approach to marketing. The BBC put together research around understanding their audiences values. They identified 14 core values that are underpinned by psychological needs based around developing human values tools that have a human focus.  These include how people value achieving goals, belonging to a group, expression, having autonomy, receiving recognition, and others. I encourage you to review it. The concept here is not to take advantage or tool. But to understand. To listen. To connect.

Enhancing User Experience to Engage Audiences

User experience (UX) plays a pivotal role in retaining and engaging your audience. This section delves into key aspects of UX design that make your content more accessible and enjoyable across different platforms. Good design involves:

  • Formatting and spacing your content
  • Ensuring no obstacles or unwanted distractions
  • Adapting to the media’s formatting, length, and appropriate depth

Ease of use extends to how your content appears on other platforms. Similarly, Structured Data Markup (covered below) plays a vital role in how technologies understand your content. By categorizing your content effectively, you make it easier for search engines and AI technologies to grasp what you’re offering, giving you an edge over others.

My philosophy is to make it easy and effortless for people to consume our creations. People are best served when we provide straightforward ways to interact with our digital stuff. If you need people to pay you to access it, give them a sample and then provide easy and effortless ways to pay for it. It’s empathy in design that doesn’t ignore or neglect the places that people go often.

UX is also the concept behind how some websites place “Sign Up” front and center and keep “Login” hidden away within some navigational element. The sign-up is a bright color button, and the login link is a non-assuming text link that’s harder to locate.

This tells me that these businesses are:

  • Sales/exponential growth focused
  • Not paying customer focused

I see you, and I wish you’d just make your login links easier to get to, and with a secondary color that’s not as bright. A contrasting color with your website theme works great. But please, at least make it a button.

Improving user experience is just one side of the coin. Ensuring that search engines and AI can effectively interpret your content is equally important. This is where structured data markup comes into play.

Leveraging Structured Data Markup for Better Visibility

To improve how search engines and AI understand your content, implementing structured data markup is essential. We’ll explain what schema markup is and how it can boost your content’s visibility in search results.

Structured data markup (or Schema markup) is a universally agreed-upon set of simple code that comes in a variety of types. Put simply, schema markup is extra code that easily categorizes the type of content on any given page. 

The most commonly used markup types include:

  • Local Business
  • Articles
  • FAQs
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Calendar events

Schema markup exists so that advanced crawling technologies quickly understand what your content is at a high level without needing to analyze the content itself. It gives your content a leg up, making it easier for technologies like Google and other emerging crawlers to quickly grasp what your stuff is about.

So, if you have an FAQ section or blogs with mini FAQ sections, you can collaborate with ChatGPT on this one:

  1. Throw that information into ChatGPT.
  2. Let it know what schema type it is.
  3. Have it output JSON code that you’ll put within the body HTML of any given page.

You can even paste in the copy text and have it evaluate which types it can provide. Just double-check everything any AI tool outputs. As we all know, it’s prone to make errors. As well as hallucinate. Or create time-traveling bot assassins.

Creating schema JSON code with GPT is actually really straightforward once you get the gist of it, and it’s good practice to make sure to update this code as your content changes. You don’t want it to mismatch. If you have an automated tool that does this automatically, great. If not, keep your eye on any updates that you need to make to the JSON code too when you update any page with schema markup already on it.

At this point, it’s clear that while general content may hold less importance on websites, the real focus should be on the value you provide. Communicating the value through your services, products, or expertise. What truly matters is how you stand out in your field and communicate your unique perspective.

You’ll still need to establish authority and credibility. Evidence of your expertise, like testimonials, case studies, or a strong reputation, remains essential. At the same time, ensuring technologies like AI and search engines understand what you offer is equally important.

Schema markup plays a key role here. By categorizing your content effectively, it allows these technologies to interpret your offerings more quickly and accurately—giving you a clear advantage over competitors who neglect it.

What About the Other Places People Are Going To?

As I mentioned before, we may be living in a real-time shift, observing changes in where people go to find things, learn things, buy things, see things… you get the idea. There’s a real possibility that this will impact your inbound marketing website. People may visit your website less overtime and begin to go to other sites instead to engage with you, like social media networks, community platforms (like Discord, Reddit, or Substack).

So, what are areas of focus to ensure you’re engaging with people where they are when it’s not on your website? Focus on platforms where your audience spends time, such as social media networks, podcasts, or community forums. Tailor your content to suit each platform’s format and audience preferences, and engage actively by responding to comments, participating in discussions, and providing valuable insights.

Create Multimedia Content & Distribution Across Different Platforms

Producing high-quality content is essential, but just as important is ensuring it provides genuine value and connects with your audience. A smart approach to content marketing involves repurposing your ideas into different formats and distributing them across platforms where you audience spends time.

Diversifying content types not only broadens your reach but also engages people in ways they prefer to consume information. Here are some strategies for tailoring multimedia content to different audiences and platforms:

  • Creating a video for your blog article: When repurposing a blog post into a YouTube video, outline the main points as a script, add visual elements, and include captions for accessibility.
  • Having a podcast interview about one of your main areas of expertise: When participating in a podcast interview, prepare key talking points and real-life examples that highlight your expertise. Engage in a conversational tone to make the discussion lively and relatable. After the episode airs, share it on your platforms and encourage your audience to listen and share their thoughts.
  • Writing a blog about the visualization you created: If you’ve developed a unique data visualization, write a blog post explaining the insights it reveals, the tools you used, and the process behind creating it. Include screenshots or interactive elements so readers can engage directly with the visualization. This not only showcases your expertise but also provides valuable learning for your audience.
  • Creating short snippets of quick takeaways for Instagram and TikTok: Transform key points from your content into engaging short videos for Instagram Reels or TikTok. Use eye-catching visuals and concise messaging to capture attention within the first few seconds. Incorporate trending music or sounds to increase visibility, and add captions or text overlays to make your content accessible to all viewers.

Catered to each. Designed for the format that engages best with each platform.

Your people are in some, not all, and they probably behave a little differently on places like Instagram compared to Reddit. As you can imagine, this can look quite daunting for content creators or even business owners like me.

I recommend taking it one step at a time and starting somewhere. Do not think you can do it all or should do it all. There are specific areas where you will shine and others where the audience just won’t respond well. This is part of the dance.

It’s important to track your engagement metrics to ensure you’re putting your time investments where it’s at least building the engagement and visibility that you need. Ideally, you have tracking into revenue metrics that are tested and free of bugs or errors. 

I also recommend not doing what everyone else is doing. Especially when we’re talking about engagement and visitor metrics. The ultimate goal here is to engage and connect with your customers. So, this is part of doing the things that work best for you that work best with your audiences. Not to do everything everywhere all-the-time.

You don’t need super short content or super long content. The metrics and people will tell you that you need to have more and more. It’s the way of technology. It’s never full. Always hungry.

So, create what works for you and then diversify the content types. Explore. Hell, have fun with it. Whatever that means for you.

Community Engagement

Building and participating in online communities fosters trust and establishes you as an authority in your field. We’ll explore effective ways to engage with communities authentically and build lasting relationships. Your presence in these spaces must provide genuine value, establishing yourself as trusted and helpful. Here’s the hard thing for businesses to understand:

Communities do not want promotional content. They’re tired of it.

They value genuine interaction over visibility, and building trust requires a long-term commitment.

Focus on contributing meaningful insights and engaging in conversations that matter to the community. Answer questions, share your expertise, and be there to help without the expectation of receiving anything in return. Participating in the community is about building relationships, not pushing products or services. While many still attempt these tactics, people have become wary of them. Such approaches are often off-putting and can even repel potential clients. Let your audience speak well of you.

Authenticity goes a long way, and people can absolutely tell when you’re genuinely interested versus just looking to make a sale.

You might consider creating your own community spaces by:

  • Starting a discussion group
  • Hosting webinars
  • Launching a newsletter
  • Creating a Discord server

In essence, these provide a platform for others to share and engage to build and connect with community. It takes time, patience, and a willingness to embrace the process with imperfections and all.

Here are examples of community platforms and what engagement or management can look like for each. I want to re-emphasize that offering legitimate value and engaging with people is the goal. Not to overtly sell your stuff. There’s implications for each if you do. Likely, banning and losing trust of your customers and audiences:

  • Substack – Create a newsletter where subscribers can comment on your posts and engage in discussions. Engage with readers by replying to comments, asking for feedback, and hosting subscriber-only Q&A sessions.
  • Discord – Build a Discord server dedicated to your niche where members can chat in real-time. Moderate channels, organize events like live discussions or AMAs (Ask Me Anything), and foster a welcoming environment.
  • Subreddit – Participate in or create a subreddit focused on your industry where people share content, ask questions, and discuss relevant topics. Contribute to threads by answering questions, posting informative content, and upholding community guidelines.
  • Community Features on a Website – Implement forums or comment sections on your website where visitors can start discussions and interact with each other. Initiate topics, respond to posts, moderate comments to maintain respectful dialogue, and provide helpful resources.

Optimizing for AI Search and Overviews: Strategies to Increase Your Content’s Reach

It’s important to optimize your content for people, and also consider how AI configures information. No matter if it’s on your website, social media, community forums, or content-sharing sites. AI-powered search tools like Google’s AI Overviews (AIO), ChatGPT Search, and other large language models pull information from across the internet to answer people’s questions. They crawl blogs, social media posts, forums, and other online content to find the best answers.

Imagine you’re a fitness coach. By structuring your workout tips in clear headings and bullet points, AI tools can easily extract and present your content to users asking for fitness advice.

In this strategy, we want to increase the likelihood that AI systems will feature your content when people seek information related to your expertise. Keep in mind the need for differentiation and building trust/authority. Also, that high-level information that AI provides is best left to them.

So, how do you optimize for AI search?

The shift to people turning to AI-driven search engines means your content needs to be structured in a way that AI systems can easily process, understand, and deliver to people. But with all things SEO… don’t force it. It’ll be too obvious.

Here are some tried and true techniques:

  1. Clearly Written Content: Write in straightforward language. Incorporate concise and informative paragraphs that directly answer specific questions. On the other hand, In-depth, accurate information increases the authoritative signals that people and technology value.
  2. Answer Questions: Address specific questions and weave them naturally into your content. Think about what your audience is asking and provide clear answers. AI bots often pull information from these sources to respond to people’s queries.
  3. Format Content: Use clear headings, subheadings, bullet points, and lists to organize your content. Break up the text so it’s visually appealing and doesn’t all run together. Incorporate transcripts for videos. Add alt-text to images. This makes it easier for AI models to understand, increasing the likelihood that your content will appear in AI Overviews (AIO).
  4. Naturally Incorporate Relevant Phrases: Aka, keyword research. Check to see what people are actually searching for by using tools like Google Search Console, analyzing Google’s own results, seeing how others are targeting these phrases, and utilizing SEO tools. Then, naturally incorporate these phrases into your content. It doesn’t have to be an exact match. Remember, your creations are for people. We work to match around what they’re actually searching for rather than what we think they’re searching for.
  5. Do Not Keyword Stuff: For the love of God, please resist the urge to overload your content with keywords. Overusing keywords is lazy, and it’s really off-putting. Focus on writing naturally and ensure targeted keywords serve the content and the reader.

You’re not only optimizing for AI search and established search engines but enhancing the overall quality and accessibility of your content. The goal is to make your content valuable for people. AI and search engines are said to be designed to recognize and promote content that best serves people’s needs. And they sometimes don’t. So, priority is people. 

Embracing the Evolution of SEO and Digital Marketing

The landscape of digital marketing is shifting beneath our feet. While traditional SEO tactics are evolving, the core principle remains: connecting and building relationships with your customers. Your website is still a crucial hub, but it’s essential to meet your audience where they are. Even if it’s on social media, community platforms, or AI-driven tools.

Focus on:

  • Offering genuine value without constant selling
  • Building trust over time
  • Leveraging platforms that align with your strengths

As technology advances, the fundamental need for authentic connection and valuable information stays the same. Embrace change with curiosity and flexibility, and continue creating content that resonates and fosters community.