"Traffic is a vanity metric. Rankings are too. The only SEO metric that matters is how well it drives qualified leads and revenue."
When building an SEO strategy, I start with a thorough audit of the website's current state, focusing on what they are ranking for, traffic trends, impressions, CTR, conversions, and conversion rates. I then evaluate technical SEO, on-page elements, and off-page signals to identify strengths and weaknesses before building from there. After the audit, I move into the strategies below for a successful SEO campaign. Planning & Keyword Research: When doing keyword research, it's important to understand what the site offers and where it offers it. If the website is a local service-based business, what areas do they serve, and do they provide all services in each location? From there, create a seed list. Ask yourself, "If I were looking for the services this business provides, how would I search for them?" For local businesses, it's critical to leverage geo-modified phrases (keywords that include location). For a plumber in Los Angeles, examples for the seed list would be "plumbers in Los Angeles," "Los Angeles plumbers," and "emergency plumber Los Angeles." Repeat this exercise for all the services they provide, using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush. Review the suggestions these tools provide, then cluster phrases to the best-fit pages. Content Creation & Optimization: Once keyword research is complete and you know which phrases to target on which pages, content planning and optimization begin. I focus on the website's current content first. Do they have all services, categories, or products displayed on the site? If so, I expand that content, ensuring it answers questions potential users may be asking. From there, I create new pages where needed and build a content schedule to support the core offerings. Off-Page SEO: I leverage local signals for local businesses, contribute to guest posts, use press releases (increasingly important for GEO), focus on editorial opportunities, and create unique, data-backed content that people naturally want to link to. GEO & AI Search: I focus on clear, concise content that fully covers a topic, avoiding fluff and summarizing complex ideas. I implement structured data (specifically JSON-LD, since it's easier for AI-driven bots to crawl, and cheaper), and use elements like tables of contents to improve scannability. Additionally, I leverage user-generated content (e.g., Reddit, Quora) and off-site signals from above to continue building authority.
Here are some bullet-point 'quotes' (or just general tips, really) regarding our SEO strategy: - It's okay to use plugins! We use a huge number of SEO oriented plugins on Wordpress sites to aid us with tedious, manual amends to text, imagery, and identifying problems. We would never allow a plugin to completely rule our plans, but if we recognise that, for example, there are a ton of meta titles missing from a site, a simple plugin can rectify all of these in a snip of the time that it would take us. - GEO is growing, but it's simply impossible at this stage to balance all of the spinning Search Engine plates. SEO will still remain a priority, and provide our clients with more relevant, intentful engagement for the foreseeable future. - Don't leave AI to write all of your blogs/news/publications, as you'll end up using the same copy as everyone else. No keyword benefits, no SEO benefits, and most of the time due to how it's written, no actual reading benefits. - We amend the keyword target lists for our clients roughly twice a year. There's no need to re-assess every month when you're handling a corpus of 30+ keywords, as these just won't show different engagement/results within that timeframe. - There is not necessarily a concrete, consistent pipeline to generating on-site backlinks. Try new software and strategies regularly and see which is most suited to your business, as otherwise you'll potentially find yourself wasting time on processes which are, frankly, irrelevant.
At Ditto Digital, what we're seeing in 2025 is a growing divide in what marketers prioritise depending on how seriously they take long-term SEO. Some still chase 'tick-box' SEO, 'easy wins' through niche edits or paid guest posts, but that's becoming a dead end, not an easy win at all. Many agencies still publish 4 articles per month by rote, without using tools like alsoasked.com to properly research users intent. The content receives no traffic, it holds the site back. Here att Ditto Digital, we've shifted focus toward authority-building methods that can't be faked. One of the most effective strategies has been digging into client-owned data to create stories journalists actually want to write. That might mean analysing internal usage stats, surveying customers, or producing industry snapshots that are newsworthy in their own right. These kinds of assets naturally attract high-quality backlinks because they offer original value, something newsworthy to hang a story on. Tools like OnePitch help us match the right content to the right journalist. We also put a strong emphasis on brand mentions (many SEOs still undervalue these), and on structured data. With GEO reshaping how content is discovered, having well-marked up FAQs, articles, and schema-enhanced pages is increasingly powerful. One underused tactic we recommend is asking ChatGPT what real users are asking about your brand or niche, then publishing content that directly answers those questions and pain points. It's a quick way to align with current search interest, and to respond to bottom of funnel 'closing the deal' questions, increasing revenue. My final word would be that in 2025, SEO as an industry needs a shake up, it needs to move away from overly obsessing on metrics like rankings and visits. SEO is business, and the metric that matters is demonstrable, organically created profit.
Stakeholders need to step up because it takes including their expertise to excel at branding and visibility today. For too long, businesses have relied on SEOs and writers with no direct access to the company's specialized knowledge. We need details, examples, quotes, and ideally case studies and statistics that only the business has. Look at your competitors. Which stand out and why? Most likely, they spend more on ads or PR or thought leadership. Pivoting your content strategy to cover both what is required for search engines to rank it and also why AIs may feature it is critical. When stakeholders contribute throughout the content creation process, outstanding content emerges. The goal is content that exhibits real expertise - not generic information. For example, Mandeep Singh, CEO and co-founder of VIA INDIGOS participates in the detailed content creation process I shared in a LinkedIn Newsletter titled "Why Stakeholder Input is Crucial in Content Creation". And that type of content earns mentions, backlinks, rankings, and all of that together makes it more likely your brand will be chosen as an authoritative answer by AI solutions. Stakeholders need to realize their content can be the competitive advantage they need to take more market share.
I have a fairly effective SEO strategy that has helped my blogs get cited in AI overviews. You have to spy on which of your competitors' blogs are getting cited on AI overviews, and what paragraph or what interesting and informative sentences are getting cited by AI. Then, you will go to Google Search Console and export the list of keywords for which your blogs are ranking. Next, Google search one keyword at a time and note the results showing in the SERPs. In my case, our competitors' blogs were being cited in AI overviews, while our blogs were not. So, we decided to conduct a test. We picked out one blog and took the paragraph from that blog that was being cited in AI overviews. Then, we updated our blog and mirrored, not entirely, the paragraph for which our competitor was cited in AI overviews, and subsequently submitted a request for reindexing the blog on Google Search Console. In about a week, our blog was being cited in AI overviews, and our competitor was down on the SERPs. The test was successful, and we then applied this strategy to most of our blogs, with similarly positive results. This is a pretty effective SEO strategy in the new realm of AI dominance.
SEO strategy isn't just a checklist—it's a sequence. We start with technical SEO to ensure speed and structure, then move into on-page SEO from the bottom of the funnel up: service pages first, then case studies, then blogs. With AI and generative search changing how people find answers, a lot of top-of-funnel content won't get clicks anymore. But I still see value in blogging—not for traffic, but to support and strengthen MOFU and BOFU pages through internal linking and topical authority. Once the foundation is in place, that's when we focus on off-page SEO to earn backlinks where it matters.
My SEO efforts primarily focus on content creation and structuring the content to perform well with generative search. Over the past year, I've been intentional about making it easier for search engines to quickly identify and get a real good understanding of what my blog posts are about and the questions they directly answer, which has significantly boosted click-through rate and organic traffic. If I were to point to one strategy change that has had the most positive impact, it's including schema.org structured data, particularly JSON dataset markup for tables in informational blog content. The structured and machine-readable nature of JSON works well with generative engines. It's like spoonfeeding data to LLM. These posts with dataset schema markup present on them have performed much better year over year. Example page: https://expresslegalfunding.com/best-legal-funding-companies/ Semrush Data Showing Increase of page: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EkGxlHfWkByB0Vw9anevjEM9IT3ZrNrG/view?usp=sharing
As the founder of a growth marketing agency, I personally have always seen SEO as an execution issue rather than a skill issue. For me, SEO is all about delivering what your audience is looking for by matching different resources (blogs, service pages, guides, etc.) with the queries they search for. It's mainly about understanding your ideal customer including who they are, what problems they're trying to solve, and what language they use to find solutions. When it comes to effective SEO strategy, many marketers get caught up in chasing algorithm updates or the latest buzzword. However, what I've consistently found impactful is a deep focus on user intent. For instance, if someone is searching for 'best project management software,' they're likely in the comparison phase of their buying journey. A successful SEO strategy here wouldn't just be a product page, but a comprehensive comparison guide that objectively outlines pros, cons, and specific use cases for various tools. This type of content builds trust and authority, which are far more sustainable SEO wins than simply stuffing keywords.
After running SEO campaigns for 90+ B2B clients since 2014, I've finded that LinkedIn prospecting data reveals your highest-converting SEO keywords. When we add 400+ emails monthly through LinkedIn outreach, we track which job titles and pain points generate the most responses—then optimize content around those exact search terms. One manufacturing client saw 278% revenue growth when we mapped their sales call data to keyword strategy. Instead of targeting broad terms like "industrial equipment," we focused on hyper-specific queries their prospects actually used during sales calls: "conveyor belt maintenance schedule template" and "OSHA compliance checklist manufacturing." These long-tail terms had zero competition but massive conversion rates. For link building, I leverage our clients' existing sales relationships. That manufacturing client had customers who ran industry blogs and trade publications. We created genuinely useful resources—like equipment ROI calculators—that their customers wanted to share with their own audiences. This approach generated 15 high-authority backlinks in 30 days without any cold outreach. The biggest shift I'm seeing is that Google increasingly rewards websites that demonstrate real business authority through customer reviews and local signals. We now optimize every client's Google Business Profile as aggressively as their website, which boosted one client from 12 to 170 five-star reviews in two weeks and dramatically improved their organic rankings.
After growing Security Camera King to $20M+ annually and helping hundreds of local businesses dominate Google's first page, I've learned that the biggest SEO wins come from reverse-engineering competitor gaps rather than following standard keyword tools. For local businesses, I've finded that hyper-local content clusters crush broad keyword targeting every time. When I helped a South Florida HVAC company create neighborhood-specific service pages for each zip code they served, their qualified leads increased 300% within 90 days. Most businesses make the mistake of creating one generic service page when they should be building 10-20 location-specific ones. The game-changer for my clients has been leveraging Google Business Profile posts as content testing grounds before investing in full website pages. I test messaging, offers, and keywords through GBP posts first, then scale the winners into comprehensive landing pages. This approach reduced our content creation costs by 40% while doubling conversion rates. What's revolutionizing SEO right now is treating your website like an e-commerce platform regardless of your business type. I structure every client's site with product-style pages for services, customer reviews prominently displayed, and clear conversion paths. This e-commerce mindset helped my clients average 300%+ ROI because search engines reward sites that convert visitors into customers.
After building 500+ websites and managing SEO for diverse small businesses, I've finded that most agencies get keyword research backwards. Instead of starting with high-volume terms, I begin with "completion intent" phrases—searches that include words like "near me," "today," or "now." These convert 4x better because users are past the research phase. My most successful strategy involves what I call "competitor gap mining." I analyze the top 3 competitors' content gaps using their own customer questions. One client saw 300% traffic increase when we created content around questions their competitors ignored, like "why won't my WordPress site load after update" instead of generic "WordPress troubleshooting." For off-page SEO, I focus on "authority borrowing" rather than traditional link building. We create genuinely useful resources like free website audits, then pitch them to industry newsletters and communities where our ideal clients already gather. This earned our agency mentions in 12 major marketing newsletters last year, driving more qualified leads than any paid campaign. The biggest shift I'm seeing is searchers wanting immediate, specific solutions rather than educational content. Queries like "fix broken WordPress plugin conflict" are replacing "WordPress plugin troubleshooting guide." I'm restructuring all client content to lead with the exact fix in the first paragraph, then provide context below.
After 20+ years building websites and developing SEO software with utility patents, I've learned that most businesses completely misunderstand keyword research timing. They research keywords once during site launch, then never revisit them. We audit client keyword performance quarterly because search intent shifts faster than most realize. One Michigan manufacturing client was targeting "industrial equipment" for years with mediocre results. When we dug into their Google Analytics data, we finded their actual converting traffic came from hyper-specific terms like "pneumatic conveyor belt repair parts." Switching focus to these long-tail converting keywords increased their qualified leads by 340%. The game-changer is what I call "conversion keyword archaeology" - analyzing which search terms actually generated sales, not just traffic. We built custom software to track this because Google Analytics often misses the connection. Most agencies optimize for vanity metrics like rankings and traffic, but I've seen clients rank #1 for terms that never converted a single customer. For content optimization, I learned through patent development that Google's crawlers now evaluate content depth differently than five years ago. Instead of keyword stuffing, we create content clusters where each page answers one specific user question completely, then links to related questions. This mirrors how people actually search - they start broad, then drill down into specifics.
Owner at Epidemic Marketing
Answered 9 months ago
After 20 years in SEO, I've learned that most businesses completely misunderstand keyword intent matching. While everyone obsesses over search volume, I focus on what I call "commercial temperature" - the readiness to buy embedded in search phrases. For our personal injury law clients, "car accident lawyer" gets massive searches but terrible conversions. "How much compensation for rear-end collision" has 1/10th the volume but converts at 400% higher rates because it reveals someone already committed to legal action. We built entire content strategies around these high-temperature, low-volume phrases and consistently outperform competitors chasing vanity metrics. The shift to Generative Engine Optimization is forcing a complete rethink of content depth. Google's AI now pulls answers from multiple sources to create comprehensive responses, so thin content gets buried. I'm seeing clients who previously ranked well with 800-word articles now needing 2,500+ words covering every angle of a topic to maintain visibility. One ecommerce client saw rankings drop 60% after ChatGPT integration until we restructured their product pages to include comparison charts, user scenarios, and troubleshooting sections. Their "best hiking boots" page went from basic specs to covering terrain types, weather conditions, and foot problems - now it ranks #2 and feeds directly into AI search results.
After managing SEO for regulated industries like mortgage and finance for nearly a decade, I've finded that keyword research requires a completely different approach when compliance is involved. Most SEO experts focus on high-volume keywords, but in regulated industries, you need to prioritize "compliance-safe" long-tail keywords that won't trigger regulatory scrutiny while still driving qualified traffic. My biggest breakthrough came when I started treating blog-to-video content repurposing as a systematic SEO multiplier rather than just content recycling. We take our top-performing mortgage blog posts and create YouTube videos with keyword-rich titles, then embed those videos back into the original blogs. This single strategy has boosted our clients' organic traffic by 40% because we're essentially creating three SEO opportunities from one piece of content: the original blog ranks, the YouTube video ranks separately, and the improved blog with embedded video gets additional ranking power. For off-page SEO in financial services, I've found that creating comprehensive influencer roundup posts featuring industry experts generates backlinks without the typical outreach headaches. When we feature mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and financial advisors in detailed articles showcasing their expertise, they naturally share and link back to the content. One roundup post we created for a client generated 15 high-quality backlinks within 30 days because each featured expert promoted it to their network. The compliance angle completely changes how you approach local SEO optimization too. While most businesses can be aggressive with location-based keywords, mortgage professionals need to be extremely careful about state licensing restrictions. I focus on creating location-specific content that educates rather than solicits, which keeps clients compliant while still capturing local search traffic.
After scaling multiple businesses from $1M to $200M+, I've learned that most SEO strategies fail because they're not aligned with actual business goals. The biggest game-changer is what I call "revenue-intent keyword mapping"—instead of just targeting high-volume keywords, we identify which search terms correlate with customers who actually convert and spend money. For planning and keyword research, I focus on long-tail keywords that reveal buying intent rather than information-seeking behavior. One Brisbane client saw 340% ROI improvement when we shifted from targeting "digital marketing" to hyper-specific terms like "Brisbane Google Ads management for law firms." The search volume was lower, but every click was worth 10x more. The content optimization approach that consistently works is creating what I call "decision-stage content"—pieces that help prospects choose between solutions rather than just educate them about problems. When we restructured one client's blog to answer "how to choose between X vs Y" questions, their organic leads doubled within four months because the content matched where people actually were in their buying journey. For backlinks, I've found that data-driven industry reports generate more quality links than any other content type. We created a local business digital marketing benchmark report that earned 60+ backlinks from Brisbane business publications and chambers of commerce because it contained original research that journalists and industry sites genuinely needed to reference.
Chief Marketing Officer / Marketing Consultant at maksymzakharko.com
Answered 9 months ago
Absolutely. One SEO strategy that's worked extremely well for me—especially with local businesses—is local programmatic SEO. Instead of manually building dozens or hundreds of individual landing pages for each location or service variation, I've used automation and structured templates to scale local pages efficiently. For example, with a client in the home services niche, we created location-specific landing pages like /hvac-repair-warsaw, /hvac-repair-krakow, and so on. Each page pulled unique local data: service availability, location-based testimonials, Google Maps embeds, even neighborhood-specific FAQs. The key was combining keyword research with dynamic content blocks. We used tools like Ahrefs to identify long-tail, location-based queries (e.g., "emergency furnace repair in Gdansk") and then matched those terms with automated page templates that used real service data. The result? Organic traffic grew by 180% in 6 months, and these pages started outranking national competitors in local packs and organic search for long-tail terms. The biggest insight? Google still rewards relevance at scale—as long as you're not duplicating content. With local programmatic SEO, you can give users exactly what they're searching for, faster than building each page manually.
Working with NFL and later running digital advertising for Clearwater Marine Aquarium taught me that seasonal keyword strategy completely changes the game. Most businesses optimize for year-round terms, but we finded that timing keyword pushes around predictable events drives exponential results. At ROI Amplified, we implemented what I call "algorithm change buffering" after watching Google make 500+ algorithm updates yearly crush our clients' rankings. Instead of chasing every update, we build content depth across keyword synonyms and related phrases - when one variation drops, others maintain visibility. One Tampa client maintained page 1 rankings through three major algorithm shifts using this approach. The biggest revelation came from our HubSpot automation work: search behavior data shows people research differently than they convert. We track the full customer journey from initial search to final purchase, then reverse-engineer content for each stage. A downtown Orlando client saw 180% more qualified leads when we separated awareness-stage content from decision-stage optimization. Google's AI now prioritizes what I call "answer completeness" over traditional keyword density. We're restructuring client content to answer the follow-up questions users don't even ask yet. When someone searches "Tampa web design," our content immediately addresses pricing, timeline, and portfolio examples because that's the natural conversation flow.
After working with 50+ active lifestyle brands, I've finded that seasonal keyword clustering drives massive traffic spikes that most agencies miss. Instead of targeting individual keywords, we map entire keyword families around seasonal activities—grouping "winter hiking gear," "cold weather trail running," and "snow camping essentials" into comprehensive content hubs that capture search traffic across multiple related queries. My most effective content strategy focuses on creating "experience-driven content" rather than product-focused pieces. For one outdoor gear client, we shifted from writing about "best hiking boots" to "how to choose boots for Colorado's 14ers in winter conditions." This approach increased organic traffic by 180% in six months because it matched exactly how outdoor enthusiasts actually search when planning trips. For backlink acquisition, I leverage what I call "trip networking"—connecting with outdoor influencers, trail guides, and trip photographers who naturally want to share valuable resources with their communities. One camping gear brand gained 40+ high-quality backlinks simply by creating a comprehensive "Leave No Trace" guide that outdoor educators genuinely wanted to reference and share. The biggest shift I'm seeing with AI search is that brands need to optimize for conversational, problem-solving queries rather than traditional keyword phrases. Users now ask "what gear do I need for a three-day backpacking trip in Yellowstone in October" instead of searching "backpacking gear list." We're restructuring all client content to answer these specific, contextual questions directly.
1 - You want to prioritize content that is going turn into leads and sales. So, you need to figure out your target audience (gender, age, income, location, etc) and then research the keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for that is turning into leads and sales. 2 - Make a list of these keywords, questions, and phrases using SEMRush (or similar tool). Look to see what kind of content is ranking in Google AI overviews and at the top of Google's search results for the most searched keywords. Do not copy, but use the top ranking pages as a guide and create content that fits your company and improves what is already ranking at the top. Reference how your company can help (branding is extremely important especially for AI) and include FAQs, YouTube videos, images, and charts (if applicable) all optimized using SCHEMA. 3 - Once you have some good optimized content more than likely it won't do much without some quality backlinks. The best way is to become an expert in your niche. Optimize your LinkedIn and other profiles with your knowledge and expertise, show any previous quotes and mentions. Reach out to news and authority sites that are looking for an expert in your area to answer questions and in return will link back to your site. You can also look on forums in your related niche and help people with a link back in your bio (don't spam). There are "pay to play" options, but it's always better to get links that point directly to your site naturally. You can always add more authority to those quality links by pointing guest post and other links to them.