SEO Best Practices for Marketers

My client showed up on Google’s AI Overview last week. Sounds great, right? Another win to post about. Another proof of strategy working. But here’s what most people miss: Showing up there isn’t luck. It’s not some overnight SEO hack. It’s not because we “sprinkled keywords like confetti.” It’s the byproduct of consistent, strategic work. Work rooted in understanding how search is evolving. Not just what Google wants. But what their buyers want. Here’s what the latest data actually reveals: → People Also Ask Shows up in 99.55% of AI Overview SERPs. If your content isn’t answering real buyer questions clearly and comprehensively? Good luck getting cited. → Related Searches Present on 99.04% of results. If your content doesn’t address connected queries with semantic depth? You’re missing half the game. → Organic Video On 89.85% of SERPs. Video isn’t just a nice brand add-on anymore. It’s prime SERP real estate. → Organic Site Links 67.10% inclusion. If your site structure and internal linking are a mess? You’re making it hard for Google to trust you. → Images and Carousels Appear in 33-40% of results. Original visuals and frameworks are winning attention. But here’s the real question: How did my client actually get there? Because it wasn’t by chance. It wasn’t by chasing AI trends. Here’s what we did instead: We mapped their ICP’s buying journey. We answered every core and adjacent question directly. We used structured data and intent matching to build clarity. We created walkthroughs, demos, and use-case explainers. Embedded them into their highest-value pages. We designed frameworks, process graphics, and original visuals. Not for decoration. For comprehension. We cleaned up their site architecture. Strengthened internal links. Ensured navigation felt effortless - for both search engines and humans. We prioritised recency and authority. Updated regularly. Backed every insight with expert quotes and customer stories. And we didn’t do it for AI. ✨ We did it for humans ✨ Because showing up in AI Overviews isn’t about chasing AI. It’s about being the best answer. The most trusted resource. The most human solution in an increasingly automated world. Solve real problems. Answer real questions. Create real value. Do that consistently - and AI will find you. Swipe to see the strategic framework we put into place with insights from Semrush. Need help? Drop me or Navneet Jha a message 👋 #contentmarketing #b2bsaas #aiseo #semrushambassador #seostrategy

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

Stop ignoring what the SERPs are trying to tell you. The SERPs are your greatest teacher in SEO, but most people don't understand how to learn from them. Here's what I mean: When you're trying to rank for any query, the SERPs provide all the answers you need. They're literally showing you everything, but you need to know what to look for. Think about it. Every query, every audience, and every industry can be VERY different from the next one. The SERPs reflect these differences perfectly. But what should you be looking for in the SERPs? Instead of LOOKING, I would reframe it as the QUESTIONS you should ask yourself about the SERPs. Here is a list in no particular order. - What kind of pages are ranking (and those that aren't) - What is the user intent being served - How are they handling titles and descriptions - Has Google modified the tiles and descriptions - What's the DA/PA (or DR/UR) of these pages - How is the link profile (both internal and external) - How is the anchor text distribution  - How have they organised these pages on the website - How many keywords are these pages ranking for - How deep is the content - What angle have they chosen for the content - What angles are they missing - What is common and unique in their approaches - What subtopics are covered and not covered - What missing perspectives can be your opportunity - What standout element makes a page successful - How long has the page been ranking for By asking these seemingly simple questions, you’ll get everything you need for your SEO campaign. But here's the thing: Most SEOs don’t do it. Instead, they take a one-size-fits-all approach. They create supply without studying what Google and users are demanding. And then they wonder why their pages don't rank. It's simple logic. If users are looking for the best possible solution to their problem (demand), but you're providing something entirely different (wrong supply), how can you expect users to like what you have created? And if users don’t like it, how will Google like and rank it?  The beauty of SERPs is their honesty. They show exactly what works for each query. What does this mean for you? If you want to rank, you HAVE to understand what Google considers relevant, valuable and credible for each specific query. The SERPs are transparent, objective, and brutally honest about what works. But the question is, are you taking the time to study them properly? Or are you still creating content based on assumptions? The answers are right there in the SERPs. You just need to start looking.

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗨𝗽 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗘𝗢 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 Building backlinks is crucial for SEO, but it should be done authentically. Here are 10 ethical techniques to try: 1. Find unlinked mentions of your brand & request backlinks. 2. Analyze competitor backlinks to uncover new opportunities. 3. Claim & optimize your business listings (Google My Business etc.). 4. Write genuine testimonials & get backlinks in return. 5. Share your expertise with guest blogging on relevant sites. 6. Create valuable, shareable blog content that attracts links naturally. 7. Use infographics & videos to get noticed and linked to. 8. Respond to journalist queries on HARO (Help a Reporter Out) for media links. 9. Conduct original research & share data to earn high-quality backlinks. 10. Find broken links & suggest your content as a valuable replacement. Boost your website's authority and reach with these ethical link building strategies! #SEO #WhiteHatSEO #LinkBuilding

SEO isn’t going anywhere. But AI is changing how we do SEO. If we, as marketers, feel the pressure to keep up with AI, imagine how overwhelming it must be for our clients or bosses. Some are rushing to jump on the AI hype train without getting the basics right first. Don’t be that person. Lead with fundamentals. Lead with clarity. Here’s the reality: AI models pull from the web. If your site isn’t structured well and optimised you won’t get picked up by AI systems. Why traditional SEO matters before you dive into AI SEO: ☑ Technical foundations first: If Google can’t crawl your site, AI won’t either. ☑ Backlinks still work: Pages that rank well on Google are more likely to be cited by AI. ☑ Content depth counts: Well-structured, in-depth content wins both SEO and AI visibility. Normalise the process Use this framework: “We’re focusing on optimising the core first. Here’s what we’ll do to improve technical health and rankings. Then, we’ll build on that for AI visibility.” Then take action. Track progress. Report back with clear results. Adapt the plan based on data. If you’re selling SEO, sell clarity and strategy. If you’re buying SEO, ask for a roadmap you can explain in simple terms to your team. What’s your strategy to keep SEO clear and actionable for clients or your team?

🚀 You’ve invested in great content. You’ve targeted the right keywords. But if your site is technically flawed, your rankings — and user experience — will suffer. We’ve just published a comprehensive guide that dives deep into one of the most overlooked (yet essential) areas of digital marketing: Technical On-Page SEO. In this in-depth article, we explore: 🔹 How to optimise Core Web Vitals for speed, responsiveness, and stability 🔹 Why schema markup is your secret weapon for rich results and better visibility 🔹 The internal linking strategy that boosts topical authority and discoverability 🔹 How accessibility isn’t just ethical - it’s great for SEO too 🔹 The maintenance routines that keep your site in peak technical health This is more than a checklist - it’s a technical SEO blueprint for anyone serious about organic growth. Whether you’re in-house, agency-side, or running your own site, this guide will help you: ✅ Improve rankings ✅ Reduce bounce rates ✅ Enhance user experience ✅ Future-proof your site against algorithm changes If you want your content to truly shine, it’s time to get your technical foundations right. Let’s raise the bar for what good SEO looks like. #SEO #DigitalMarketing #TechnicalSEO #CoreWebVitals #SearchEngineOptimisation #StructuredData #WebAccessibility #InternalLinking #WebsitePerformance #OrganicGrowth #MarketingStrategy #ContentMarketing

Stop sending endless SEO audits. They're not being read. Businesses don't care about lengthy, 30-page technical reports. ↳ They care about rankings ↳ They care about traffic ↳ They care about revenue ↳ They care about leads And what ends up happening? A massive document filled with jargon is just gathering dust. Instead, focus on the real issues. ✔️ Identify what's critical ✔️ Highlight what can wait ✔️ Suggest quick wins Turn your analysis into actionable steps. Make clarity your goal, not complexity. Show your clients you are not merely auditing their site, you're proactively solving their problems. Remember this: Don't go overboard fixing everything for free. There is a fine line between being helpful and overextending yourself. I once took a 50-page SEO audit and condensed it into a single page of clear, actionable insights. The outcome? The client actually took action. They started implementing the changes right away. Now, they send me ongoing SEO campaigns because they see my commitment to impact over busy work. In SEO, delivering real value always triumphs over delivering fluff. Are you making the same mistake in your audits?

I spoke with a D2C brand that had skyrocketed its organic traffic yet their daily orders were still flat. They came to me expecting a quick SEO fix. But as I dug deeper, I realized what they needed was a strategic framework —an integrated set of choices that would drive not just visitors, but profitable orders. Initial Situation: ➜ 10x increase in daily clicks (from almost nothing to 2,000/day) ➜ Average Order Value (AOV) surprisingly low ➜ Order volume: virtually unchanged despite the traffic surge Problem Identification: Why wasn’t all that new traffic turning into sales? The brand had invested in SEO, yes—but without aligning content strategy with top-selling SKUs, profit margins, demographics, and their unique value proposition. ❌ They chased visibility, not viability. Process (Our Discovery Call): I asked questions like: ➜ Top-selling SKUs? ➜ High-margin categories? ➜ Core audience and demographics? ➜ Product Differentiators vs. competition? ➜ Customer repeat purchase cycles? By understanding these, I identified where intent-rich opportunities matched their strongest business levers. What We Did Next (The Proposal): I presented a tailored SEO program that went beyond “just more traffic.” It focused on: a) Where we choose to play: Pinpointing search opportunities that have a short time to value of results. b) How we choose to win: Mapping keywords to product categories with favourable Search Volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), and Average Order Value. I presented them a scatter chart of commercial-intent keywords plotted by: ➜ Search Volume ➜ Keyword Difficulty ➜ Potential AOV Impact This instantly clarified the path forward. Instead of random traffic, we were going after the right traffic. The prospect’s reaction? He said no previous proposal had offered this level of strategic clarity. It’s easy to chase vanity metrics (traffic, rankings, clicks), but without aligning your SEO strategy to business goals, you’ll never see the revenue catch up. Stop treating SEO as a game of traffic. ➡️ Treat it as a strategic tool that positions you in front of high-intent audiences. ➡️ It’s not about playing everywhere—it’s about winning in the right places. If you’re looking to make strategic choices—on Google, Bing, or next-gen platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude —and you want to translate visibility into growth, let’s talk. I’d be excited to help you map your SEO opportunities to real business outcomes.

Your in-house SEO team is NOT the problem Your strategy is. A company recently approached me with this: "Our in-house SEO team isn't delivering results. We might let them go." I asked for their SEO roadmap. What did I see? A disaster. ❌ No clear content hierarchy. ❌ No demand-driven keyword research. ❌ No internal linking strategy to consolidate authority. They didn’t have an SEO problem. They had a strategy problem. So instead of firing the team, we did this: ✅ Built a revenue-first SEO strategy  Focusing on conversion-led content + search intent, not just rankings.   ✅ Identified quick-win content gaps Leveraging under-optimized pages for results within a week. ✅ Implemented authority stacking Strengthening brand visibility across search ecosystems. This resulted in: -  3X traffic in just 4 months. -  40% lower customer acquisition costs. -  A thriving in-house SEO team (that was never the problem to begin with). So, here’s the hack: Don’t blame the execution if the strategy is broken. Fix the foundation, and your team will thrive. Do you have a team problem or a strategy one? Let’s flip the narrative. Before you fire your SEO team, audit your strategy. If you’re unsure where the real bottleneck lies, Drop a “Strategy” in the comments or DM me. Let’s turn your team into your growth engine. #SEOstrategy #InHouseMarketing #ContentMarketing

A wellness founder from a newly launched DTC brand (funded, team of 8, no in-house content lead) booked a strategy call with me. Before we even talked about deliverables, she asked: “If we started tomorrow, what would you change in my content strategy?” I gave her 3 simple changes: no fluff, no 50-page proposal. 6 weeks later: ✅ 2x increase in organic website traffic ✅ 30+ new email subscribers from blog CTAs ✅ 3 inbound sales inquiries from readers who found her brand through blog posts No paid ads. No agency retainer. No new hires. Just an intentional strategy that turned her blog from “nice to have” → growth channel. Here’s what we fixed 👇 ➤ 1. Stop chasing traffic. Start capturing intent. Before: She was blogging about trending wellness topics with no SEO strategy. After: We built a content funnel: → 80% evergreen, 20% seasonal blogs → Each post aligned with a buyer's pain point → Every blog ended with 1 clear CTA (newsletter, product, quiz) Result: Her post on "gut health rituals" ranked in 3 weeks and brought in leads organically. ➤ 2. Treat your blog like a product, not a diary. Before: Each post sounded different: some educational, others personal rants. No format. No direction. After: We used my 5-part high-converting blog framework: → Hook → Problem → Solution → Social proof → CTA Now? Every post feels like her brand, builds trust, and guides the reader somewhere. Result: 45% boost in average time on page + blog conversions tripled. ➤ 3. Repurpose like it’s your job. Before: She was writing 1 post a week, then moving on to the next. After: We guided her social media team to turn each blog into: → 1 Instagram carousel → 1 email newsletter → 1 LinkedIn post → 1 Pinterest graphic Result: Her January blog drove the social media content calendar for the whole month, across 4 platforms. Wellness founders often believe blogs are slow or outdated. But when done right, they: ✅ Build long-term traffic ✅ Create trust on autopilot ✅ Drive leads without ad spend You don’t need 20 blogs a month. You need the right 4. If this is exactly what you're trying to do with your blog, I'm just a DM away!