When To Create Localized Folders And Pages For SEO via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Manuel, who asks:

“Is it feasible to implement topic cluster/pillar pages locally? Like create business licenses related to each page of the US by dividing them by state > type of license > related documents. Can I create topic cluster/pillar pages right when starting a website (just a few months old)?”

Great questions, Manuel! I’m going to answer the second question first.

Can You Create Topic Pillar Pages For A New Website?

The age of your website does not matter in how you structure the content and folders. That can be done when rebuilding a domain that is 10 years old or starting a new URL.

You should always structure your website so that it helps the end user understand the site’s hierarchy and also shows the resources available within the section.

This, in turn, tends to make it easier for search engine spiders to crawl and understand your pages, too.

Pro-tip: Make sure to include the structure in navigational elements, breadcrumbs, internal links, sitemaps, etc., for the search engines.

Can You Implement Pillar Pages Locally?

Now to the first question. As a heads up, I give a direct answer at the bottom of this post, but I felt it was important to share the reasoning why I would take the approach I do before I answer it.

Your niche with business licenses will have a different need than others, even if they are similar.

If the user experience requires individual pages, then yes, create individual pages.

This applies to many industries, especially ones with regional regulations like real estate professionals, brick-and-mortar stores, etc.

When making this decision with clients, our rule of thumb is if the person needs to be present at the location or the local regulations change between areas, then local pages are needed.

There is a justifiable reason to build unique copy for each. And more importantly, the copy is unique because the services and requirements change.

If it is the same regulations in every area, we do a larger page for the customer acquisition phrases and sometimes build location pages solely to help end users find the local address more easily.

This is because each individual location would have the exact same service or product information. The individual locations we build are meant for map results, and customers just looking for the address. The service is the same, no matter what.

Differences in the copy can include rules and regulations, restrictions that change by city, county, state, or when the user experience would lead a consumer to the wrong solution.

If this matches your situation (and business licenses do), then yes, create a unique resources page. I’ll stick with business licenses because that is what you asked about.

Creating Local Business Licenses

Business licenses have different requirements and needs by state. And sometimes, the state may not require a business license for certain types of businesses, but the city the business is located in does require a license.

That alone is enough reason to create the hierarchy you have above.

People looking for state resources will need to know if it is required in their state, and you can make a mention to check the local city or county requirements and have a list of them (which are also internal links).

Now you’ve given a great experience to the end user, answered a follow-up question while providing a fact they didn’t know, and you’ve given the person a further resource. This is a good example of adding in E-E-A-T.

Just ensure you’re updating these pages regularly for accuracy, and you may want to include an “updated on” date at the top.

If it were me writing these, I’d include some templated items for standardization on the pages like:

• The unique $ the business has to pay.
• Which business types need a license, and which don’t.
• Unique requirements like how you do not have to file annual reports in Ohio, but you do in other states.
• Which city nearby may be better for some types of businesses with a reason or two why, or if this city/county/state is the best for specific types of businesses and why.

By doing this, you can help people who need a license for multiple locations, are scaling from out-of-state or country, will need a foreign qualification (this has nothing to do with being based overseas), and who may be franchising.

It makes the experience better so they can line up what is needed and make a decision about where to open their business.

Maybe a county over is better than the one they were thinking, and it only adds an extra 15 minutes to their drive. The benefit outweighs the negative.

Here’s another example using a hotel chain.

Each property has different features, prices, extra fees (taxes, tourism, parking), addresses, managers, etc. This is enough difference by city, within the same city, or state to justify a unique page.

You don’t want a potential guest to have to guess which location is the one they’re staying at, especially after a long day of travel.

You also don’t want them to assume all locations have free parking or are subject to tourism taxes and resort fees. Have a catch-all page for the hotels in the city, and individual location pages with the same images from the distribution sites.

This way, you can get people looking for a hotel in the city and show your locations while helping guests find their hotel more quickly.

In Summary

Your question about business licenses having a need for a unique folder and locality site structure is a good one.

Yes, I would do this because each state and region has requirements that change. There is enough of a difference to need a unique page experience.

If this were something like finding a registered agent, I would not do unique pages as a service, because there isn’t enough difference.

But having lists of recommended registered agent providers is enough, and that would justify the state and city or county-based structure.

Thank you for the question, and I hope this answer helps.

More resources:  

Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

Supercharge Your Shopify Site: A Guide To Boosting Speed And Performance via @sejournal, @tonynwright

This week’s Ask An SEO Question comes from Momna in Dallas, who asks:

“How can we improve page speed and page experience for the Shopify store? Shopify won’t allow us to make changes in the code. How can we then stay upfront after Google page experience update?”

When running a successful Shopify site, speed is a critical factor that can significantly impact user experience, search engine rankings, and conversions.

You can optimize your site for blazing-fast load times and an enhanced customer journey with actionable strategies and practical tips.

Choose The Perfect Theme For Speed

Selecting a fast and reliable theme is the foundation of a high-performing Shopify site.

Choosing a lightweight, well-coded theme from the Shopify Theme Store is essential.

Avoid themes with excessive features or complex functionalities that can slow down your site. Prioritize simplicity and clean code to ensure optimal speed and performance.

The Power Of Image Optimization

Images play a significant role in attracting and engaging visitors, but they can also be a major factor in slowing down your site.

Optimize your product images without compromising quality.

Utilize image compression tools like TinyPNG or Shopify apps like Crush.pics to reduce file sizes while maintaining visual appeal.

You can drastically improve your site’s load times by compressing and adequately formatting your images.

Streamline Apps For Speed

Apps can enhance the functionality of your Shopify site, but it’s crucial to be mindful of their impact on speed.

It is best practice to keep the number of installed apps to a minimum.

Each app adds extra code and can slow down your site. Regularly review your app list and remove any unused or redundant apps.

Additionally, optimize your chosen apps for performance by contacting their developers for guidance.

Unlock The Potential Of Caching

Caching is a powerful technique that can significantly boost your site’s speed.

It’s important to enable caching in your Shopify settings.

By caching your content, you can store it temporarily and serve it to visitors more efficiently, reducing server load and improving load times.

Consider implementing a content delivery network (CDN) to cache and deliver your content from servers closer to your visitors, further enhancing site performance.

Optimize JavaScript And CSS

JavaScript and CSS files can contribute to slower load times if not optimized properly.

You can increase your site speed by minifying these files by removing unnecessary code, whitespace, and comments.

Minification reduces file sizes, enabling faster delivery to your visitors’ browsers.

By optimizing your JavaScript and CSS, you can streamline the rendering process and improve overall site speed.

Reduce Redirects For A Seamless Experience

Excessive redirects can hinder your site’s speed and frustrate users.

Minimizing the number of redirects by updating your links and fixing broken ones is advisable.

Reducing unnecessary redirects improves load times and enhances the overall user experience, making navigation smoother and more efficient.

Prioritize Above-The-Fold Content

First impressions matter, especially when it comes to site speed.

It is essential to prioritize above-the-fold content, which is the visible area of a webpage without scrolling.

By loading critical content, such as product images and descriptions, above the fold, you ensure that visitors see the most critical elements first while the rest of the page loads.

This technique enhances perceived speed and keeps visitors engaged.

Implement Lazy Loading For Media

Media elements such as images and videos can significantly impact load times, especially on pages with abundant visual content.

I suggest implementing lazy loading, a technique that defers the loading of non-visible media until users scroll to them.

By applying lazy loading, you reduce the initial load time of your pages, enabling faster rendering and a smoother user experience.

Conclusion

It is possible to increase the speed of a Shopify site, even if you can’t touch the code.

The bottom line is to keep your Shopify site nimble and clean.

Of course, if you can’t get the Shopify site’s speed up to your standard, you can always create a WordPress front-end and use Shopify for the ecommerce portions of your site.

But that’s probably another column.

More resources: 

Featured Image: sdecoret/Shutterstock

What Factors Contribute To High On-Page SEO Scores (But Low Domain Authority)? via @sejournal, @tonynwright

Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Sommer, who asks:

What might be factors contributing to high on-page SEO scores but low domain authority?

Today, we will dive into a topic that many website owners find puzzling: the relationship between on-page SEO scores and domain authority.

As you know, on-page SEO is about enhancing individual web pages with the aim of achieving higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attracting an increased flow of relevant traffic.

On the other hand, domain authority is a term commonly used to measure a site’s overall authority based on its backlinks.

What Is Domain Authority?

Domain authority should only be used when referring to Moz’s tools.

What I refer to as link authority measures a website’s overall trustworthiness and authority in the eyes of search engines based on various factors such as the quality and quantity of inbound links, website age, and online presence.

Several tools besides Moz – including Ahrefs, Majestic, Semrush, and others – can help measure your link authority.

High On-Page SEO Score With Low Link Authority

What happens when a website has a high on-page SEO score but a low link authority?

If a website is new, it may take time to build link authority, which can hinder its overall score.

Likewise, if a website has limited backlinks or poor-quality backlinks, it can struggle to achieve a high link authority score, even if its on-page SEO is strong.

Those in niche industries can struggle to create link authority without a consistent link-building strategy.

Some industries have fewer websites and less competition, making achieving a high on-page SEO score easier.

However, this may not necessarily translate to a high link authority score.

With fewer websites in a particular niche, there may be fewer opportunities for backlinks, which can hinder the website’s link authority.

Content Strategy And Link Authority

Furthermore, a website’s content strategy is critical in building link authority.

A comprehensive content strategy that includes regular blog posts, long-form content, and other valuable resources can help build authority and attract inbound links.

A website with limited content may struggle to build link authority, even if its on-page SEO is strong.

Social Media And Link Authority

Social media can also contribute to a website’s link authority.

A strong social media presence can increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the website, and earn backlinks from other websites.

Conversely, if a website has little-to-no social media presence, it can be challenging to build link authority.

The Bottom Line

So, what’s the bottom line?

While on-page SEO and link authority are closely related, they are different.

A website can have a high on-page SEO score but a low link authority due to several factors, such as limited backlinks, poor-quality backlinks, being in a niche industry, limited content, and a lack of social media presence.

To achieve high on-page SEO and link authority, a website needs a comprehensive SEO strategy that includes both on-page and off-page optimization and a strong content strategy and social media presence.

By focusing on these factors, website owners can improve their online presence and search engine rankings.

More resources:

Featured Image: StunningArt/Shutterstock

Do Categories & Structure Matter More For SEO Than Just Content? via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Julie, who asks:

“For the content clusters, is it helpful to have them grouped under a topic URL? For example, if you are talking about resources for caregivers, do you have mainURL.xxx/blog post name or mainURL.xxx/caregiver-resources/blog title? Does that impact SEO?”

That is an amazing question, and the answer is a big yes.

The folder structure of your website is important for SEO – but not just for content and content silos.

Your folder structure can help determine why a specific product isn’t moving off the shelf, when the code on a section of your website has changed, if a marketing channel outside of SEO has been impacted, and even used to support other teams within your business.

Before I jump into that, let’s go through your question first.

You can rank content without a folder structure being in the canonicalized (official) versions of the page.

It works for both blogs and ecommerce sites, but if you branch your content or products into new niches, you could cause confusion for search engines about what the new main topic or theme of your website is. That is where schema, text, internal linking structures, etc., all come in.

When a search engine cannot easily identify the topic and theme, and someone else makes it simple to understand, the other person’s site will likely have priority over yours in the search results.

It can be argued in many ways that this is right or wrong, so I’ll leave that based on what I have seen work and give some more definite answers.

The Benefits Of A Folder Structure For SEO

Content And User Experience Benefits

The first benefit of a folder structure for SEO is having niche categories that complement the main theme of your company or blog. Categories, by nature, are a collection of resources (posts or product collections) and are a helpful experience for someone searching a non-specific phrase.

If the searcher is looking for information on blue widgets, but doesn’t specify if they are looking for the best ones, how to pick the right one, the sizes available, or ways to use them, no individual posts on their own make sense for a search engine to show.

A category page makes sense as a search result because it is a topically relevant result with multiple ways to answer the person’s query. And categories can have relevant titles, H1 tags, featured images, schema, and hero content about the sub-topic.

If you don’t have a folder structure in place, you limit your site’s ability to access this traffic.

Yes, an all-inclusive and detailed guide can feature it, but a category makes it more absorbable with less digging on a page.

And by having blog posts based on this optimized category, you help the search engines determine that the post is part of the topic and sub-topic of the category.

It also allows you to clearly separate and define each topic your website covers. So yes, I do believe this should help you.

Pro-tip: Having these folders lets you implement breadcrumbs for site structure and the user experience.

Analytics And Business Operations Benefits

Next is an analytics and business operations benefit. If you have a category structure in place, you can see when traffic dies to a category or specific page.

For SEO purposes, you can visit that category and see if it is offline, got the wrong meta robots deployed, or needs the content to be updated.  But more importantly, the entire company can detect issues and resolve them. This applies to logistics, sales, finance, IT, and operations.

If sales dried up for a specific product or product category, having a category-based site structure lets you determine the issue in minutes.

Go into analytics and do a comparison between when the sales dropped and the matching period before.

Sort the traffic numbers (not SEO, all traffic) by category with the time period comparison. This shows which pages lost traffic in a specific category or the site overall.

Then we can take it a step further and find the issue within minutes vs. days by adding referring channels. This lets you instantly see:

• If social media ads stopped or PPC lost efficiency.
• Maybe the pages are now 404’d, and it went undetected. You can add in a page title in some instances, and it’ll show “page not found” or whatever your 404 title is (I’ve used this numerous times in the past).
• Internal links could have been changed, and the traffic that found the product through blog posts and navigation is no longer pointing there. This is more common with URL migrations and structure changes, as internal links get overlooked, and 3XX redirects don’t get updated or get removed.
• SEO traffic could have dropped because a meta robots was updated to noindex. Or your entire category got replaced with a competitor.
• Google may have stopped crawling because robots.txt now has the category blocked, and it no longer seems important, so competitors have taken your place. (This is an extreme and unlikely situation, just giving an example.)

Having a category folder structure in place allows you to see if it is a category that tanked, determine which channels are lower, and troubleshoot the cause.

The category folder structure isn’t only important for SEO; it is important for company revenue and recovery.

Try Implementing A Folder Structure On Your Website

There are many reasons why you’d want to have a folder structure on your website, so if you are building new or doing a recovery project, I recommend always going for it if the risk of losing current efforts is minimal.

If your site is already established and you risk losing traffic, stick with no folder structure until you have a reason to change.

If you feel like it is the right thing to do but are nervous, try a test.

Take a cluster of topically relevant content pages that belong in a specific folder and move them first. If none of them is vital SEO traffic-wise (they don’t have any or have minimal), you’ll be able to see if the folder structure has an impact.

Pro-tip: Make sure to set your redirects and modify the canonical links, sitemap, etc., before launching.

Ask for the category to be indexed via the different search engine webmaster tools, and let it sit for a month or two.

If you get a gain or maintain, decide based on your comfort level.

It’s a less risky option than flipping the entire site at once.

Great question, and thank you for asking it. I hope this answer helps.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Ilin Sergey/Shutterstock

Google E-E-A-T: Should We Search For Other Articles With High Backlink Profiles? via @sejournal, @tonynwright

Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Fadi, who asks:

When Google says human first, does that mean we should search for other articles with high backlink profiles rather than keyword research when trying to find a topic to discuss?

Google has told us we must provide content that exudes experience, expertise, authority, and trust – commonly referred to as E-E-A-T – if we want to rank well.

But how do you know if your content has E-E-A-T?

How do you even know what to write about?

Let’s dive in and answer these questions.

What Is E-E-A-T?

So, let’s talk about E-E-A-T – how can we make our content exude experience, expertise, authority, and trust?

These are the four things Google cares about regarding the content on your page and how it affects rankings.

Google wants to ensure that the sites it shows in its search results are legit and trustworthy.

So, it looks at things like the experience of the content creators.

Do they have a background in the field they’re writing about? Have they worked in the industry? This stuff matters to Google.

Google cares about expertise. It wants to see the people behind a site know their stuff. It wants to see evidence that the content is accurate and reliable.

Expertise can be anything from formal education to real-world experience.

Authority is a big deal for Google. It wants to see that a site is respected and trusted by others in the industry.

We can demonstrate authority through awards, citations, or positive reviews from other experts.

Finally, trust is a huge factor for Google.

Google wants to be sure that the information it is showing its users is legit and not shady. It looks at the transparency of the content, how accurate it is, and whether the site has a good reputation for being honest.

All this stuff might sound common sense, but Google takes it seriously. It has a whole set of guidelines for its raters to follow.

So if you’re trying to rank your site, check out these guidelines and make sure your site meets the E-E-A-T criteria.

Are Backlinks A Good Way To Measure A Site’s E-E-A-T?

SEO pros traditionally view links as an essential metric for determining a site’s relevance and rank-worthiness.

However, relying solely on backlinks to measure a site’s E-E-A-T is not necessarily a viable strategy.

It is crucial to understand that not all backlinks are created equal, and some can even be detrimental to a site’s ranking if they come from low-quality sources.

Search engines like Google have evolved to focus more on the quality and relevance of a website’s content and reputation than the number of backlinks it has.

A site that ranks well because of high-quality content and a positive reputation is more likely to provide value to its users than one that relies solely on backlinks.

Overemphasizing backlinks can lead to unethical practices such as link farming and purchasing backlinks. These practices can result in search engines penalizing a site, causing it to lose its ranking and reputation.

So when Google says “human first,” it doesn’t mean looking for the site with the most backlinks.

Read the latest Google Quality Raters Guide and understand what Google is looking for in your site’s content.

Look at the content on the sites that are ranking and ensure your content is clearer and exudes E-E-A-T better than your keyword competitors.

In Conclusion

In summary, while backlinks remain essential to SEO, they should not be the sole metric for determining a site’s experience, expertise, and trustworthiness.

Instead, SEO pros should focus on building a solid brand reputation through high-quality content and ethical marketing practices.

By prioritizing these factors, businesses can achieve sustained success and build a loyal user base that trusts and values their offerings.

More resources:

Featured Image: Sarawut Aiemsinsuk/Shutterstock

How Do You Clean Up Content Without Effecting Rankings? via @sejournal, @tonynwright

Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Neethu, who asks:

My website is almost 20 years old. There are lots of content. Many of them are not performing well. How do you effectively clean up those content without effecting rankings?

Contrary to what some SEO pros tell you, more content is not always better.

Deciding what content to keep, which content to modify, and which content to throw away is an important consideration, as content is the backbone of any website and is essential for driving traffic, engagement, and conversions.

However, not all content is created equal, and outdated, irrelevant, or underperforming content can hinder a website’s success.

Run A Content Audit

To effectively clean up your website’s content, the first step is to conduct a content audit.

This involves analyzing your site’s content and assessing its performance, relevance, and quality.

You can use various metrics such as traffic, bounce rate, and engagement to identify which pages are performing well and which ones are not.

Once you have identified the pages that are not performing well, it’s important to prioritize them based on their importance to your website.

Pages that are not driving traffic or conversions may need to be prioritized over pages that are not performing well but are still important for your site’s overall goals.

Distinguish Evergreen Vs. Time-Sensitive Content

Additionally, it’s important to consider whether a page is evergreen or time-sensitive.

You can update or repurpose evergreen content over time, while you may need to remove time-sensitive content.

After prioritizing your content, you can decide what action to take with each page.

For pages that are still relevant but not performing well, you may be able to update them with fresh information to improve their performance.

For pages that are outdated or no longer relevant, it may be best to remove them altogether.

When removing content, implement 301 redirects to relevant pages to ensure that any backlinks pointing to the old page are not lost.

Monitor Your Stuff

It’s important to monitor your search engine rankings after cleaning up your content to ensure your changes do not negatively impact your SEO.

But don’t just look at rankings.

Content optimization projects can affect traffic, conversions, navigation, and other items that impact your overall search engine optimization efforts.

Watch Google Analytics closely. If there are traffic declines, you may need to re-evaluate a few changes.

It’s important not to have a knee-jerk reaction, however.

Before you throw out your optimization efforts, be sure that the changes you made are actually what is causing a drop – and make sure those changes are stable within the search engines index.

Remember that it may take some time for your rankings to stabilize after a content cleanup, so it’s important to be patient and monitor your website’s performance over time.

To further optimize your content cleanup, consider using Google Search Console to identify pages with high impressions but low click-through rates.

These pages may benefit from content updates or optimization to improve their performance.

Additionally, consolidating pages that cover similar topics into one comprehensive page can improve user experience and help avoid keyword cannibalization.

In Summary

Cleaning up your website’s content is crucial for maintaining a high-quality site.

By conducting a content audit, prioritizing your content, and deciding whether to keep, update, or remove the content, you can effectively clean up your site without negatively impacting your rankings.

Remember to monitor your rankings and be patient as your site adjust.

More Resources: 

Featured Image: Song_about_summer/Shutterstock

Will AI Kill SEO? We Asked ChatGPT via @sejournal, @RyanJones

It happens every couple of years.

First, it was Jason Calacanis and Mahalo, then the early social platforms.

We saw it again with voice search and smart assistants. For a minute, it was TikTok’s turn. Then the metaverse jumped the line.

Now, it’s ChatGPT and AI.

I’m talking, of course, about “SEO killers.”

Every now and then, a new technology comes along, and three things inevitably happen:

• Thousands of SEO professionals publish posts and case studies declaring themselves experts in the new thing.
• Every publication dusts off its “SEO is dead” article, changes the date, and does a find and replace for the new technology.
• SEO continues to be stronger than ever.

Rinse, repeat.

It would seem that search has more lives than a cartoon cat, but the simple truth is: Search is immortal.

How we search, what devices we use, and whether the answer is a link to a website will forever be up for debate.

But as long as users have tasks to complete, they’ll turn somewhere for help, and digital marketers will influence the process.

Will AI Replace Search?

There’s a ton of hype right now about AI replacing both search engines and search professionals – I don’t see that happening. I view ChatGPT as just another tool.

Much like a knife: You can butter bread or cut yourself. It’s all in how you use it.

Will AI replace search engines? Let’s ask it ourselves!

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

That’s a pretty good answer.

Many SEO professionals (including me) have been saying for years that the days of tricking the algorithm are long gone.

SEO has been slowly morphing into digital marketing for a long time now. It’s no longer possible to do SEO without considering user intent, personas, use cases, competitive research, market conditions, etc.

Ok, but won’t AI just do that for us? Is AI going to take my job? Here’s a crazy idea: Let’s ask ChatGPT!

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

AI Isn’t Going To Take Your Job. But An SEO Who Knows How To Use AI To Be More Efficient Just Might

Why? Let’s dive in.

I still see a lot of SEO pros writing articles that ask AI to do things it’s simply incapable of – and this comes from a basic understanding of how large language models actually work.

AI tools, like ChatGPT, aren’t pulling any information from a database of facts. They don’t have an index or a knowledge graph.

They don’t “store” information the way a search engine does. They’re simply predicting what words or sentences will come next based on the material they’ve been trained on. They don’t store this training material, though.

They’re using word vectors to determine what words are most likely to come next. That’s why they can be so good and also hallucinate.

AI can’t crawl the internet. It has no knowledge of current events and can’t cite sources because it doesn’t know or retain that information. Sure, you can ask it to cite sources, but it’s really just making stuff up.

For really popular topics that were discussed a lot, it can get pretty close – because the probabilities of those words coming next are really high – but the more specific you get, the more it will hallucinate.

Given the extreme amount of time and resources it takes to train the model, it will be a long time before AI can answer any queries about current events.

But What About Bing, You.com, And Google’s Upcoming Bard? They Can Do All Of This, Can’t They?

Yes and no. They can cite sources, but that’s based on how they’re implementing it. To vastly oversimplify, Bing isn’t asking for a pure chatbot.

Bing is searching for your query/keyword. It’s then feeding in all the webpages that it would normally return for that search and asking the AI to summarize those webpages.

You and I can’t do that on the public-facing AI tools without hitting token limits, but search engines can!

Ok, Surely This Will Kill SEO. AI Will Just Answer Every Question, Right?

I disagree.

All the way back in 2009 (when we were listening to the Black Eyed Peas on our iPhone 3Gs and updating our MySpace top 8 on Windows Vista), a search engine once called Live was being renamed to Bing.

Why? Because Bing is a verb. This prompted Bill Gates to declare, “The future of search is verbs.”

I love to share this quote with clients every chance I get because that future is now.

Gates wasn’t talking about people typing action words into search engines. He meant that people are trying to “do” something, and the job of search is to help facilitate that.

People often forget that search is a form of pull marketing, where users tell us what they want – not push marketing like a billboard or a TV ad.

As digital marketers, our job is simple: Give users what they want.

This is where the confusion comes in, though.

For many queries that have simple answers, a link to a website with a popup cookie policy, notification alert, newsletter sign-up popup, and ads were never what the user wanted.

It’s just the best thing we had back then. Search engines never set out with the end goal of providing links to websites. They set out to answer questions and help users accomplish tasks.

Even from the earliest days, Google talked about how its goal was to be the Star Trek computer; it just didn’t have the technology to do it then. Now, it does.

For many of these queries, like [how old is Taylor Swift?] or [how many megabytes in a gigabyte?], websites will lose traffic – but it’s traffic they were probably never entitled to.

Who owns that answer anyway? These are questions with simple answers. The user’s task is simply to get a number. They don’t want a website.

Smart SEO pros will focus on the type of queries where a user wants to do something – like buy Taylor Swift tickets, get reviews of her album or concerts, chat with other Swifties, etc. That’s where AI won’t be able to kill SEO or search.

What ChatGPT Can Do Vs. What It Can’t

ChatGPT can accomplish a lot of things.

It’s good at showing me how to write an Excel formula or MySQL query, but it will never teach me MySQL, sell me a course, or let me talk with other developers about database theory.

Those are things a search engine can help me do.

ChatGPT can also help answer many “common knowledge” questions, as long as the topic isn’t contested and is old and popular enough to have shown up in the training data.

Even then, it’s still not 100% accurate – as we’ve seen in countless memes and with one famous bank being called out for its AI-written article not knowing how to calculate interest properly.

AI might list the most talked about bars in NYC, but it can’t recommend the best place to get an Old Fashioned like a human can.

Honestly, all SEO pros talking about using AI to create content are starting to bore me. Answering questions is neat, but where ChatGPT really excels is in text manipulation.

At my agency, we’re already using ChatGPT’s API as an SEO tool to help create content briefs, categorize and cluster keywords, write complicated regular expressions for redirects, and even generate XML or JSON-LD code based on given inputs.

These rely on tons of inputs from various sources and require lots of manual reviews.

We’re not using it to create content, though. We’re using it to summarize and examine other pieces of content and then use those to glean insights. It’s less of an SEO replacement and more of a time saver.

SEO Is Here To Stay

What if your business is built around displaying facts you don’t really “own”? If so, you should probably be worried – not just about AI.

Boilerplate copy tasks may be handled by AI. Recent tests I’ve done on personal sites have shown some success here.

But AI will never be capable of coming up with insights or creating new ideas, staying on top of the latest trends, or providing the experience, expertise, authority, or trust that a real author can.

Remember: It’s not thinking, citing, or even pulling data from a database. It’s just looking at the next-word probabilities.

Unlike thousands of SEO pros who recently updated their Twitter bios, I may not be an expert on AI, but I have a computer science degree. I also know what it takes to understand user needs.

So far, no data shows people would prefer auto-generated, re-worded content over unique curated content written by a real human being.

People want fresh ideas and insights that only people can provide. (If we add an I to E-E-A-T, where should it go?)

If your business or content delivers value through insights, curation, current trends, recommendations, solving problems, or performing an action, then SEO and search engines aren’t going anywhere.

They may change shape from time to time, but that just means job security for me – and I’m good with that.

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Featured Image: Elnur/Shutterstock

Should You Focus On Zero Search Volume Keywords? via @sejournal, @rollerblader

In this Ask an SEO, Mouna asks:

“Should we use a keyword even when we don’t have volume or keyword difficulty data ? Sometimes there are no info on [tool name redacted] concerning some keywords?”

Great question, Mouna!

And the answer is yes, you should focus on zero search volume keywords when it makes sense for your company.

Here are four examples to make the business case if you’re being asked, “Why would we focus on questions that nobody is searching for?”

1. You build a site structure.
2. Customers could be asking, and this provides a solution to both them and future customers.
3. It is cheaper to remarket to someone than to pay for all acquisition touchpoints.
4. The question may not have search volume, but responses show up for the main phrase which has substantial search volume.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these examples.

1. You’re Building A Site Structure

On ecommerce sites, and sites built for branding, the amount of core website pages and content is normally limited.

By having these topics that are relevant to what your company or organization does, you can use zero search volume keywords and entities to create topically relevant content.

This content helps search engines and potential customers learn what you do, and which pages provide those solutions.

As you mention or demonstrate a product or service, you can source the conversion page with an internal link. This is a natural way to build a site structure for SEO and help the website visitor at the same time.

And if the page gets backlinks from quality sources, it could boost your other pages for a larger SEO boost.

Pro Tip: Just because a tool shows there is zero search volume, it does not mean there are zero people searching.

If you build a quality experience, you could become the website that gets cited as journalists and bloggers are looking for resources.

2. Because Customers Are Asking

An SEO tool does not know what your customers are asking. They can only come up with variations of questions and make assumptions about how many people are actively searching.

Talk to your customer support team and get the database of live chat questions.

If your customers are actively asking these questions, and the question or phrase is showing up in the SEO tools, it means there is in fact a search volume – and it is likely a high-intent one, too.

A high-intent keyword with 100 monthly searches could drive more revenue than a low-intent phrase with 10,000, as the person is further along in the sales funnel and looking to convert.

Pro Tip: Because you know the person is looking for a specific answer, and your customer support team has shown what answers the question and converts the customer, you have a data-based advantage compared to someone taking a shot in the dark and going with online research.

One option is to create a dedicated blog post for the topic.

If there is a how-to part, try adding a video demonstration and go for the YouTube and Google Video results.

And if it is something people are asking that is directly related to the use of a product or service, consider adding it to the text on your product or service page, as it may lead to a higher conversion rate. This could also be a good addition to an FAQ.

By answering these questions for people who are considering shopping with you or using your services, you can let them know they’re in the right place.

This reduces customer support’s workload because they’re not answering the same thing multiple times, and gives the social media and PPC teams a new asset to land people.

3. Remarketing Is Cheaper Than Acquisition

If you can bring the person in through SEO, you can tag them with remarketing pixels.

Instead of bidding on the big keywords where you need a massive budget, you can tag the person higher up in the sales funnel and bring them back for pennies on the dollar.

The added benefit here is that you gave them a solution in the content without a hard sales pitch. If you did a good job, you gain their trust.

Now, as your remarketing ads show to them, you have already built credibility and trust and can keep them coming back to more relevant posts or direct conversions.

But this all depends on the topic and where the person is in your sales funnel.

4. Your Content Can Show Up For Bigger Phrases

Even if the long-tail phrase or question has no search volume, type the shorter volume phrase into a search engine in incognito mode.  You may find the question actually does appear in the following and you can take the traffic from:

• People Also Ask.
• Related searches.
• Videos.
• Knowledge panels.
• Other.

If the titles of these, or the responses, are the same as your topic, you could replace them by creating a more relevant and better user experience.  Even though your phrase has zero search volume, it still shows up for a phrase with 20,000 monthly searches.  It’s a trick we use with some of our clients who have newer sites and aren’t ready for link building.

Look at what is missing, but needed, to provide a solution for the topic, and create it.  If the current top sites have a great answer, but the answer is buried under fluff, create content that gives the answer first and then provides more solutions.

Pro Tip: I do this on YouTube sometimes. I look for the videos showing up in the top results for the big phrases and then look to see what plays after each.

From there I study why these videos are recommended, what they’re missing, and what the other videos have in common with them.

Then, I create a better video and try to get the viewer without going for the main phrase.

In Conclusion

Yes, zero search volume keywords are worth going after, but only if they’re relevant to your business.

They can increase conversions for people in your funnel, be used by multiple channels, and bring in traffic the SEO tools don’t account for.

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Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

How Do You Suggest A Business Invest In Paid Instead Of SEO? via @sejournal, @tonynwright

Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Dean, who asks:

SEO is the buzz but many businesses don’t understand the turnaround to ROI.

We support paid media as a faster-acting strategy. With that in mind, how do you suggest a business invest in paid instead of SEO?

SEO and PPC and very rarely mutually exclusive.

In fact, study after study has shown that when used in conjunction with each other, organic and paid search produce better results than either channel alone.

Obviously, this statistic varies widely based on each company’s vertical, bidding strategies, and objectives.

There is no “typical” when it comes to search performance.

But there are best practices.

And for many years now, the best practice has been to run organic and paid search campaigns simultaneously.

Search is not a “zero-sum game.”

SEO And PPC Need To Talk To Each Other

Most issues that arise when PPC and SEO campaigns are run simultaneously can be avoided by simply opening lines of communication between SEO and PPC teams.

If you are a company with different agencies running your paid and organic programs, you’d best ensure those agencies can get along.

If one or both of the agencies you are using have an overlap in services with the other, expect some bluster and “marking of territory.”

Businesses can avoid this by setting clear boundaries for each agency and sticking to them.

This means that neither agency should see the other as a threat.

You want these groups working together, not against one another. The worst thing you can do is pit them against each other.

This goes for in-house teams as well.

If your PPC and SEO folks don’t sit down and talk regularly, you are most likely missing opportunities.

What About Cannibalization?

Cannibalization occurs when your PPC and SEO campaigns are bringing in the same visitors.

Obviously, you don’t want to pay for a visitor when that visitor will come to the site through organic search for “free.”

Cannibalization is real.

But it doesn’t waste as much money as most people think – and it’s frequently avoidable if the SEO and PPC teams are in communication.

The worst offending keywords for cannibalization are typically branded keywords.

In most cases, your visitors will find your site when searching for your brand, and you won’t have to pay to get them there.

But branded paid search converts better than anything else.

PPC practitioners know this.

Branded terms make PPC campaigns look good.

I highly encourage everyone to look at the data for your PPC program with branded terms and without.

There is a solid case for having branded terms in paid search. Paid search allows you to control the message in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Bidding on a branded term to offer a special or highlight a unique selling proposition can significantly increase return on investment (ROI).

But there are cases where bidding on your name doesn’t bring in additional traffic and simply costs you money in cannibalized clicks.

The point is: You have to do your analysis with the whole picture in mind.

In Conclusion

Your organic and paid search campaigns affect your click-through rate in the SERPs.

Your paid and organic search people need to talk to each other and be willing to test things to see what actually works for your company.

It’s definitely not a great idea to just cut your SEO for PPC or vice-versa.

Both SEO and PPC have their place.

Frequently that place is running together.

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Featured Images: Sammby/Shutterstock