Demystifying SEO and Online Presence for SMB Owners - Part 4

This is the last of 4 articles on this topic. The previous 3 articles can be found on our blog at https://www.doggonegoodtech.com/blog

After exploring (1) An Overview of SEO, (2) The Changing Market Dynamics for SEO, and (3) Dealing with Artificial Intelligence, we return to SEO expert, Neil Patel, for (4) A Concise Plan of Action.

Here’s his summary of both the reasoning behind and the specific actions to take to optimize your SEO and Online Presence:

Why SEO Is Bigger Than Google

• To achieve dominance in search results across all platforms where customers are searching, a five-step SEO strategy can be employed, which helps clients rank number one on various platforms, including Google, YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, LinkedIn, and AI tools like Chat, GPT, and Perplexity.
• The strategy is necessary because customers are no longer limited to searching on Google, but are instead conducting billions of searches daily on multiple platforms, marketplaces, and AI engines, such as YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, and LinkedIn.
• Businesses that fail to establish a presence on these platforms risk being invisible and missing out on buying decisions, but by following the five-step SEO strategy, they can gain a competitive edge that can be leveraged for years to come.
• The five-step SEO strategy is designed to help businesses rank number one not just on Google, but also on other platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, and LinkedIn, providing a comprehensive approach to search engine optimization.
• By implementing this strategy, businesses can increase their visibility and reach a wider audience, ultimately driving more sales and revenue, as the current landscape presents a wide-open playing field for businesses to establish themselves and gain a long-term advantage.

Why Search Has Changed Forever

• The adoption curve of new technologies has significantly collapsed from decades to months, with examples such as TikTok reaching 100 million users in just 9 months and ChatGPT achieving the same in 2 months, illustrating the rapid pace of technological advancement.
• This rapid pace has permanently changed how people search, discover, and make decisions, making search no longer limited to just Google, but now everywhere, including TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, and even AI tools.
• Most businesses are still using outdated strategies, while customers have become more advanced in their search capabilities thanks to AI and social platforms, allowing everyday users to become "power searchers" who can do in minutes what used to take professionals hours or days.
• The expectations of people have changed across every generation, with users now wanting more than just answers, but also proof, such as products in action, side-by-side comparisons, and real-life experiences from trusted sources.
• People's search behaviors have become more multifaceted, with examples such as looking up a restaurant involving checking reviews on TikTok, Instagram, and Yelp, as well as asking for recommendations on Facebook groups, before finally using Google Maps for directions.
• The traditional "Google Only Playbook" is no longer effective, as search has changed forever, and businesses need to adapt to this new reality to remain visible and relevant.

The New Customer Journey

• The customer journey has changed significantly over the years, evolving from a simple process of searching Google, clicking on a site, and making a decision, to a more complex journey that involves various platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Amazon, with AI playing a key role in tying everything together.
• TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Amazon each serve a distinct purpose in the customer journey, including sparking curiosity, building understanding, adding raw opinions, and sealing purchases, respectively, and what took Google 10 years to achieve, TikTok did in four years, and ChatGPT did in two years.
• Nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a click, as people are getting their answers directly from AI overviews, feature snippets, and knowledge panels, and billions of other searches never touch Google at all, because context changes behavior.
• The way people behave on different platforms varies greatly, with each platform putting the brain in a different state, such as discovery, learning, trust, or decision, and people behave differently on TikTok than on Amazon, or on YouTube than on Reddit.
• Focusing solely on Google means missing out on over 70% of the people who search today, and while most businesses know they need to adapt to this new customer journey, very few have a system in place to do so, which is why a five-step strategy framework has been developed to help clients show up everywhere their customers are searching.

The 5-Step SEO Strategy

• The reality is that customers are present on various platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Amazon, regardless of whether a business is B2B or B2C, and understanding the state of mind of customers on these platforms is crucial.
• The first step of the new SEO strategy is to find customers by mapping audience and platform intent, as customers do not search in the same way on different platforms, such as TikTok and Amazon, and treating them the same can lead to losing them.
• Mapping intent involves figuring out where the audience actually searches, what conversations are being had, and what kind of intent drives those searches, as each platform has its own intent, such as TikTok being entertainment-led discovery, YouTube being long-form deep research, Amazon being decision mode, and Reddit being raw opinions.
• To start mapping intent, businesses should ask where their audience goes when they need answers, check their competitors and where they are strongest, study what kind of content works in those spaces, and then choose their top three or four platforms to master before expanding.
• A study showed that AI tools consistently pull answers from Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube across all major platforms, indicating that these are the platforms where businesses need to build their presence if they want to show up in AI responses.

Get Your Business Information Consistent

• To establish trust with both people and AI, it is essential to have consistent business information across all platforms, as inconsistent information can lead to a lack of trust and visibility.
• AI thinks in entities, context, and relationships, rather than keywords, and an entity is something that can be clearly defined, such as a company, CEO, product, or service, which AI uses to build a map of entities.
• Having a consistent brand identity, including business name, description, and core identity, is crucial and should be identical across every platform, including Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Amazon.
• Crafting a clear message and positioning is vital, and this includes understanding who the business serves, the problem it solves, and what sets it apart, which should be reflected in every profile, bio, and piece of content created.
• Defining content pillars, which involves selecting three or four themes that the brand wants to own in people's minds, such as problems solved, trends shaping the space, or personal takes, can help establish a consistent presence.
• Connecting entities, such as building profiles for the company, team members, products, and services, and linking them together, is necessary to form a consistent presence and establish trust with both people and AI.
• Online consistency and clarity are essential for building trust with both people and AI, and having a consistent business card for the internet, with the same information and branding, is crucial for establishing credibility.

Create Content That Fits Each Platform

• To create effective content in a zero-click world, it is essential to produce content that fits each platform, rather than creating one piece of content and blasting it everywhere, which is a mistake most businesses make.
• Building a content ecosystem is a smarter play, starting with a big pillar, such as a long-form YouTube video, podcast, or in-depth blog, which becomes the anchor, and then slicing and adapting it to native versions across platforms.
• Videos should be the center of the strategy, as AI tools are citing them more and more in responses, with a steady growth from 7% to over 12% in just 6 quarters, making it crucial to create video content to avoid missing out on AI visibility.
• A long-form YouTube video can be turned into several vertical shorts, a podcast clip can become a swipeable LinkedIn carousel, and a blog can become text-based posts and FAQs that AI can cite directly, creating an interconnected system where all pieces reinforce each other.
• Each platform has its own rules, such as YouTube needing strong titles, thumbnails, and pacing, TikTok thriving on quick hooks and vertical formatting, and blogs needing structure, headings, and citations, so it is essential to tailor content to each platform.
• By tailoring content to each platform, businesses can show up natively where their audience spends time, building a unified body of work that compounds over time, and signaling topical authority to both humans and AI.
• For businesses that do not have the time or team to implement this strategy, NP Digital can help, having built strategies for big brands and assisting businesses in getting featured in AI search results and building omnipresence across platforms.

Build the Technical Layer That Powers It

• Building the technical layer is crucial to powering the content, as it encompasses the systems underneath that enable tracking, signals, and trust factors, which are essential for both users and algorithms, and this layer is often overlooked because it seems like the boring part, but it is what makes the exciting content work.
• The technical layer starts with foundational systems, including a site that loads quickly, especially on mobile devices, as every second of delay can result in lost sales, and Amazon's product pages are a prime example of how stripping down content can make pages load faster.
• Implementing structured data, such as schema and entity markup, is vital, as it enables AI and search engines to understand the content, and Nerd Wallet is a perfect example of how using schema and entity markup can lead to inclusion in AI-generated results, such as those from ChatGPT.
• Adding advanced optimization techniques, including FAQ schema and conversational content, can improve the site's visibility in AI-generated results, not just in Google, but also in tools like Perplexity and CHIGBT, and this is particularly important for voice search and AI overviews.
• Engagement signals, such as reviews, comments, and shares, are essential, as they are used by platforms to decide what content gets seen, and Google Maps, Yelp, TikTok, and Instagram all reward businesses and content creators that engage with their audience and encourage feedback and interaction.
• The technical layer is not about being a coder, but rather about building systems that make content easy to find, easy to trust, and impossible to ignore, and this can be achieved by focusing on the key elements, including foundational systems, structured data, advanced optimization, and engagement signals.

Measure, Test, and Optimize

• To succeed in the new search landscape, businesses must adapt quickly and test everything, including headlines, thumbnails, and CTAs, to refine their strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
• Utilizing feedback loops and applying remarketing and reminder strategies can help businesses learn what's working and stay top of mind, which is why tracking what's working and improving is a crucial step.
• Starting simple by using free insights from most platforms can help businesses identify which posts get the most engagement, which platforms send the most qualified customers, and where their brand is showing up in Google search answers and social feeds.
• Tools like Uber Suggest AI visibility report can provide valuable information on how a business is showing up in ChatGPT compared to its competition, including sentiment analysis and benchmarking, to help refine its strategy.
• Refining a business's strategy involves shifting focus to platforms that are delivering, doubling down on topics that are exploding, and setting aside time each month to review, adjust, and improve.
• The cycle of testing and adapting compounds over time, allowing businesses that constantly test and adapt to pull ahead of the competition, as every improvement stacks on the last.
• The key to winning in the new search landscape is not about chasing Google rankings, but about showing up everywhere customers look, building omnipresence, and becoming the obvious choice.