[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":20769},["ShallowReactive",2],{"header-articles":3,"blog-category-seo-posts":1470,"blog-category-seo-team":20277},[4,327,591,907,1148],{"id":5,"title":6,"author":7,"authors":8,"body":10,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":316,"description":317,"extension":318,"img":319,"imgAlt":6,"meta":320,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":323,"seo":324,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":325,"updated":7,"__hash__":326},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results.md","Why You Should Monitor Brand Mentions in AI Search Results",null,[9],"Kerry Guard",{"type":11,"value":12,"toc":290},"minimark",[13,17,20,23,28,31,34,42,45,68,72,80,88,91,95,98,102,105,110,118,124,128,131,156,160,174,178,181,185,188,192,195,199,202,213,217,220,224,227,231,234,238,244,247,250,254],[14,15,16],"p",{},"Right now, AI search engines are talking about your software company. Whether you track it or not, platforms like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews answer questions every single day about your product capabilities, pricing, and market reputation. B2B software buyers use these tools to build shortlists, compare technical features, and make buying decisions before ever clicking through to a vendor's website.",[14,18,19],{},"If you rely on old brand-monitoring tools, you are running blind. Traditional monitoring platforms track static web pages, social media tags, and news mentions. They cannot show you what a buyer sees inside a conversational AI search box.",[14,21,22],{},"Unlike traditional Google search, where a website's ranking and content stay relatively consistent from day to day, AI-generated responses are dynamic. They synthesize information on the fly from across the web. Without an active monitoring strategy, inaccurate product claims, outdated pricing, or heavy competitor recommendations can quietly slip into AI responses without your knowledge, pulling qualified leads out of your pipeline before you even know they exist.",[24,25,27],"h2",{"id":26},"the-dynamic-reality-of-ai-search-results","The Dynamic Reality of AI Search Results",[14,29,30],{},"To understand why monitoring AI brand mentions requires a new approach, consider how AI search engines differ from traditional search directories.",[14,32,33],{},"In a traditional search model, Google crawls a page, indexes the text, and displays a link. If your page ranks third for a keyword, it generally stays near that spot until an algorithm update or a content change occurs.",[14,35,36,37,41],{},"AI search engines work differently. When a prospective customer prompts an AI tool—asking, for example, ",[38,39,40],"em",{},"\"What are the best enterprise cloud security platforms for healthcare compliance?\"","—the underlying Large Language Model (LLM) retrieves information from dozens of real-time sources, synthesizes the facts, and writes a unique response.",[14,43,44],{},"Because these responses are generated in real time, the way an AI engine describes your brand can shift based on:",[46,47,48,56,62],"ul",{},[49,50,51,55],"li",{},[52,53,54],"strong",{},"New Web Scrapes:"," A fresh review, a Reddit discussion thread, or an updated competitor blog post can instantly alter how the AI summarizes your company.",[49,57,58,61],{},[52,59,60],{},"Prompt Variations:"," Slight changes in how a user words a query can lead the AI to pull from entirely different data sources.",[49,63,64,67],{},[52,65,66],{},"Model Updates:"," As platforms update their underlying LLMs, the sources they trust and cite shift continuously.",[24,69,71],{"id":70},"the-risks-of-unmonitored-ai-brand-mentions","The Risks of Unmonitored AI Brand Mentions",[14,73,74,79],{},[75,76],"img",{"alt":77,"src":78},"","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F378276c5-b933-4eed-8804-a96958aabcdf-why-you-should-monitor-image-1.webp","When you leave your AI presence to chance without monitoring what these engines say, you’re gambling with your brand equity, and small inaccuracies turn into major business risks.",[81,82,84,87],"h3",{"id":83},"_1-hallucinated-features-and-misattributed-limitations",[52,85,86],{},"1. Hallucina","ted Features and Misattributed Limitations",[14,89,90],{},"AI engines occasionally \"hallucinate\": presenting incorrect details with absolute authority. An AI search tool might state that your software lacks a key integration, charges hidden fees, or only supports small businesses when you actually target enterprise accounts. If a buyer reads that hallucinated summary, they may drop your company from their consideration set without ever contacting your sales team.",[81,92,94],{"id":93},"_2-competitor-hijacking","2. Competitor Hijacking",[14,96,97],{},"If your competitors actively optimize their web presence for generative search while your brand stays passive, AI engines will default to recommending your competitors. When buyers ask AI tools to compare your product against a competitor, an unmonitored response might highlight your rival's strengths while summarizing outdated or inaccurate criticisms of your platform.",[81,99,101],{"id":100},"_3-loss-of-narrative-control","3. Loss of Narrative Control",[14,103,104],{},"In B2B tech, your positioning is everything. If an AI search engine pulls its understanding of your brand from outdated PR releases, informal forum threads, or low-authority review sites, your core value proposition gets diluted. You lose control over how your product is framed during the buyer's research phase.",[14,106,107],{},[52,108,109],{},"Expert Insight from MKG Marketing:",[14,111,112,115,116],{},[38,113,114],{},"\"","Designers often say \"This website speaks more to LLMs than human beings.\" To that I say, \"Good. That's step one.\" Step one: be findable by answer engines. Humans will end up there after they search for the problem. Step two: optimize for the human experience once they arrive. Right now most teams are still trying to optimize for both at the same time, which means they optimize for neither.The order matters. Findable first. Usable second.",[38,117,114],{},[14,119,120,121,123],{},"— ",[52,122,9],{},", Founder & CEO at MKG Marketing",[24,125,127],{"id":126},"why-manual-spot-checks-arent-enough","Why Manual Spot-Checks Aren't Enough",[14,129,130],{},"Many marketing teams attempt to solve this problem by occasionally typing their company name into ChatGPT or Perplexity to see what comes up. While spot-checking is a natural first step, it fails as a long-term business strategy for three reasons:",[132,133,134,140,150],"ol",{},[49,135,136,139],{},[52,137,138],{},"Personalized and Location-Based Bias:"," AI search tools tailor responses based on user location, session history, and account settings. What you see on your desktop in an office is rarely identical to what a buyer sees in another region.",[49,141,142,145,146,149],{},[52,143,144],{},"Infinite Query Permutations:"," Buyers don't just type your brand name. They ask complex, long-tail questions like ",[38,147,148],{},"\"How long does it take to implement [Company Name] compared to [Competitor]?\""," Manual checks cannot cover the hundreds of ways prospects ask about your category.",[49,151,152,155],{},[52,153,154],{},"Lack of Historical Tracking:"," Spot-checks give you a single snapshot in time. They don't track trends, measure whether your citation share is growing, or alert you when an inaccurate claim enters the AI's data pool.",[24,157,159],{"id":158},"how-to-build-a-systematic-strategy-the-best-ways-to-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search","How to Build a Systematic Strategy: The Best Ways to Monitor Brand Mentions in AI Search",[14,161,162,165,166,169,170,173],{},[75,163],{"alt":77,"src":164},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4c47ce7e-784c-46ee-bd33-f4ff8fd72368-why-you-should-monitor-image-2.webp","Protecting your company’s digital footprint requires shifting from manual testing to a structured ",[52,167,168],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)"," framework. Establishing effective ",[52,171,172],{},"brand monitoring across ai search engines"," involves four operational steps:",[81,175,177],{"id":176},"step-1-identify-high-intent-buyer-prompts","Step 1: Identify High-Intent Buyer Prompts",[14,179,180],{},"Brainstorm the exact questions your ideal prospects ask during their evaluation phase. Move beyond simple brand searches to focus on category comparisons, feature queries, and implementation questions.",[81,182,184],{"id":183},"step-2-map-your-citation-share-across-key-ai-platforms","Step 2: Map Your \"Citation Share\" Across Key AI Platforms",[14,186,187],{},"Track how frequently AI tools cite your site compared to competitors across platforms like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Note which specific URLs the AI uses as references when it mentions your brand.",[81,189,191],{"id":190},"step-3-correct-the-source-data","Step 3: Correct the Source Data",[14,193,194],{},"When you identify inaccurate AI claims, trace where the model pulled the information. AI engines often pull from third-party review sites, developer documentation, or outdated press releases. Updating those primary sources corrects the data that the AI scrapes and cites.",[81,196,198],{"id":197},"step-4-measure-svo-metrics-alongside-traditional-seo","Step 4: Measure SVO Metrics Alongside Traditional SEO",[14,200,201],{},"Expand your reporting dashboard. Along with measuring traditional website traffic and organic keyword rankings, track your brand's citation growth, AI Overview inclusion rate, and direct-traffic conversions.",[14,203,204,205,212],{},"To see how modern search strategies connect directly to pipeline, explore our comprehensive",[206,207,211],"a",{"href":208,"rel":209},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization\u002F",[210],"nofollow"," Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) services",".",[24,214,216],{"id":215},"supporting-ai-visibility-with-paid-and-analytics-channels","Supporting AI Visibility with Paid and Analytics Channels",[14,218,219],{},"Brand monitoring in AI search provides the insights you need to protect your reputation, but driving consistent revenue requires integrating those insights across your entire marketing stack.",[81,221,223],{"id":222},"reinforcing-visibility-with-targeted-ads","Reinforcing Visibility with Targeted Ads",[14,225,226],{},"When you notice an AI search engine frequently recommending a competitor for a specific high-value query, you can immediately bridge the gap using targeted paid channels. Pairing your organic optimizations with focused digital advertising ensures your software maintains top-of-page visibility while you update and strengthen your organic source content.",[81,228,230],{"id":229},"measuring-real-world-lead-attribution","Measuring Real-World Lead Attribution",[14,232,233],{},"Because buyers often read an AI response and navigate directly to your site later, traditional click-tracking can misattribute those leads as \"Direct\" or \"Organic Brand\" search. Utilizing modern digital analytics allows you to cross-reference offline CRM data, self-reported attribution, and site activity to confirm how AI search visibility influences actual pipeline velocity.",[24,235,237],{"id":236},"summary-protecting-your-brands-digital-reputation","Summary: Protecting Your Brand's Digital Reputation",[14,239,240,243],{},[75,241],{"alt":77,"src":242},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fbfa7aa92-037c-4f2c-8afb-5045bf32ffbc-why-you-should-monitor-image-3.webp","Monitoring your brand in AI search results is no longer optional—it is a critical requirement to protect your reputation, maintain narrative control, and secure your lead pipeline. As conversational engines continue to replace traditional search lists, tech companies that passively ignore their AI mentions risk losing market share to competitors who actively manage their generative presence.",[14,245,246],{},"Establishing a reliable monitoring framework requires dedicated expertise, systematic tracking tools, and continuous iteration.",[14,248,249],{},"At MKG Marketing, we remove the complexity. We provide an experienced, senior-level team that builds and executes your search visibility strategy directly—with no junior handoffs or black-box reporting. We help B2B software and technology companies monitor their digital presence, correct inaccurate AI citations, and convert organic visibility into predictable revenue.",[81,251,253],{"id":252},"protect-and-scale-your-ai-search-visibility","Protect and Scale Your AI Search Visibility",[46,255,256,267,279],{},[49,257,258,261,262,266],{},[52,259,260],{},"Curious how search engines and AI models actually see your brand?"," Our senior-led team breaks down your real-time visibility across AI platforms—no black-box mysteries, just clear data.",[206,263,265],{"href":208,"rel":264},[210]," Explore our Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or book an initial search strategy review.",[49,268,269,272,273,278],{},[52,270,271],{},"Noticing a sudden shift in your traffic or search presence?"," We’re always down to talk strategy and help you make sense of the noise. ",[206,274,277],{"href":275,"rel":276},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fcontact\u002F",[210],"Contact the MKG Marketing team directly"," to schedule a consultation.",[49,280,281,284,285,212],{},[52,282,283],{},"Want to peek under the hood of machine learning?"," Dive into our guide:",[206,286,289],{"href":287,"rel":288},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote\u002F",[210]," AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors 2026: How Machines Decide Who to Quote",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":292},2,[293,294,301,302,308,312],{"id":26,"depth":291,"text":27},{"id":70,"depth":291,"text":71,"children":295},[296,299,300],{"id":83,"depth":297,"text":298},3,"1. Hallucinated Features and Misattributed Limitations",{"id":93,"depth":297,"text":94},{"id":100,"depth":297,"text":101},{"id":126,"depth":291,"text":127},{"id":158,"depth":291,"text":159,"children":303},[304,305,306,307],{"id":176,"depth":297,"text":177},{"id":183,"depth":297,"text":184},{"id":190,"depth":297,"text":191},{"id":197,"depth":297,"text":198},{"id":215,"depth":291,"text":216,"children":309},[310,311],{"id":222,"depth":297,"text":223},{"id":229,"depth":297,"text":230},{"id":236,"depth":291,"text":237,"children":313},[314],{"id":252,"depth":297,"text":253},"seo","2026-08-19T16:01:29.475Z","Why track what ChatGPT and Google say about you? Learn why monitoring brand mentions in AI search results is vital to protect your software company's leads.","md","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F3c12c34c-ad32-459d-b38c-32bc49abb722-why-you-should-monitor-hero-image.webp",{},7,true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results",{"title":6,"description":317},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results","5RVi7PlUuStBs0ZDnG7rVBbJjOT75Yiu-aBaCK1SW5o",{"id":328,"title":329,"author":7,"authors":330,"body":331,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":581,"description":582,"extension":318,"img":583,"imgAlt":584,"meta":585,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":587,"seo":588,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":589,"updated":7,"__hash__":590},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote.md","AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors 2026 - How Machines Decide Who to Quote",[9],{"type":11,"value":332,"toc":566},[333,336,339,342,346,353,379,386,389,393,396,399,410,414,417,420,440,444,447,450,454,461,464,468,471,475,478,482,487,492,497,501,504,509,512,517,520,525,529,532,535,539],[14,334,335],{},"In 2026, the old playbook for getting found online just doesn't hit the same. Modern B2B buyers aren't scrolling through pages of blue links anymore. Instead, they’re going straight to tools like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to compare software features, stack up vendors, and build their shortlists in seconds.",[14,337,338],{},"Here’s the thing: AI engines don’t read websites the way traditional search crawlers used to. Old-school crawlers were all about keyword density, backlink totals, and meta tags to index pages in a directory. But large language models (LLMs) and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems look at the bigger picture. They care about how your information is structured, verified, and contextualized.",[14,340,341],{},"If your tech brand isn't formatted for machine readability, your website essentially becomes invisible to the very engines your buyers rely on every single day.",[24,343,345],{"id":344},"how-ai-search-engines-select-sources-in-2026","How AI Search Engines Select Sources in 2026",[14,347,348,349,352],{},"To understand how your brand gets quoted or recommended by AI, it helps to look at what happens behind the scenes. When a user enters a complex prompt, such as ",[38,350,351],{},"\"What are the top enterprise cybersecurity platforms for multi-cloud compliance?\",","  an AI search engine processes the request through four specific steps:",[132,354,355,361,367,373],{},[49,356,357,360],{},[52,358,359],{},"Deconstructing the Prompt:"," The system breaks the question down to identify the core subject, key concepts, and what the user is actually trying to accomplish.",[49,362,363,366],{},[52,364,365],{},"Retrieving Relevant Data:"," Rather than pulling up a list of web addresses based on exact keywords, the engine searches its database for content that semantically matches those underlying concepts.",[49,368,369,372],{},[52,370,371],{},"Evaluating Content Structure and Source Authority:"," The system analyzes potential sources. It checks whether the text is clearly formatted, whether the facts match other reliable references, and whether the publishing site demonstrates real-world authority on the subject.",[49,374,375,378],{},[52,376,377],{},"Synthesizing the Answer and Linking Sources:"," The engine extracts direct passages from the top-rated sources, writes a unified response, and attaches clickable links so the user can verify where the information came from.",[24,380,382,385],{"id":381},"the-core-2026-ai-search-visibility-ranking-factors",[75,383],{"alt":77,"src":384},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fee360449-da4d-4dfe-a8b0-4ac440db5ad4-ai-visibility-1.png","The Core 2026 AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors",[14,387,388],{},"Based on industry observations and current AI search visibility benchmarks for 2026, AI search algorithms look at six critical factors when deciding which sources deserve a quote:",[81,390,392],{"id":391},"_1-information-gain-and-uniqueness","1. Information Gain and Uniqueness",[14,394,395],{},"AI engines exist to synthesize what's already out there. If your article just repeats the same generic overview that ten other websites published, an LLM has zero reason to cite your brand. Information Gain measures how much new, non-redundant value a page brings to the table.",[14,397,398],{},"To score high here, your content needs:",[46,400,401,404,407],{},[49,402,403],{},"Proprietary research, benchmark surveys, and original data.",[49,405,406],{},"Direct commentary from verified subject matter experts.",[49,408,409],{},"Real-world implementation metrics and detailed technical breakdowns.",[81,411,413],{"id":412},"_2-machine-readable-content-formatting-semantic-chunking","2. Machine-Readable Content Formatting (Semantic Chunking)",[14,415,416],{},"LLMs process web pages in \"chunks\" rather than reading articles sequentially from start to finish. If your key insights are buried inside massive walls of text with generic subheadings, the retrieval model is going to miss the context entirely.",[14,418,419],{},"Winning sites use explicit, machine-readable formatting:",[46,421,422,428,434],{},[49,423,424,427],{},[52,425,426],{},"Question-and-Answer Headers:"," Use direct H2 and H3 subheadings that mirror natural-language user queries.",[49,429,430,433],{},[52,431,432],{},"Bottom-Line-First Declarations:"," State the direct answer or main takeaway in the very first sentence beneath a heading before diving into the details.",[49,435,436,439],{},[52,437,438],{},"Clean Data Tables and Lists:"," Present technical comparisons, feature breakdowns, and numerical data using structured HTML tables and bulleted lists.",[81,441,443],{"id":442},"_3-entity-consistency-and-schema-markup","3. Entity Consistency and Schema Markup",[14,445,446],{},"AI search engines build vast knowledge graphs of \"entities\" (companies, products, executives, and concepts). For an engine to confidently recommend your SaaS platform, it has to verify that your brand is a recognized, trusted entity in your category.",[14,448,449],{},"Implementing detailed JSON-LD Schema markup, including Organization, SoftwareApplication, Article, and FAQPage schemas, gives search engines clear, explicit data about what you offer. When your on-page Schema matches external mentions across review platforms, news outlets, and industry databases, the LLM’s confidence score goes way up.",[81,451,453],{"id":452},"_4-technical-answer-density","4. Technical Answer Density",[14,455,456,457,460],{},"Answer density is all about the concentration of real, factual value relative to your total word count. Unedited AI fluff—filled with generic intros like ",[38,458,459],{},"\"In today's fast-paced digital world...\"","—completely dilutes your message.",[14,462,463],{},"In 2026, AI retrieval systems favor high-density content that delivers precise technical facts, clear definitions, and actionable steps without any extra noise.",[81,465,467],{"id":466},"_5-multi-source-digital-co-citations","5. Multi-Source Digital Co-Citations",[14,469,470],{},"An LLM rarely relies on a single web page to build an answer, it cross-references multiple sources to verify facts. If your platform is mentioned with positive sentiment across third-party review sites, developer forums, PR releases, and partner docs, generative engines see your site as an authoritative industry reference.",[81,472,474],{"id":473},"_6-demonstrable-e-e-a-t-signals","6. Demonstrable E-E-A-T Signals",[14,476,477],{},"Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are as foundational as ever. AI engines actively look for proof that a real human with hands-on experience created or reviewed the content. Explicit author bios linked to verified LinkedIn profiles, direct quotes from company leaders, and clear links to primary sources all reinforce your site's trust score.",[14,479,480],{},[52,481,109],{},[14,483,484],{},[38,485,486],{},"\"Understanding these technical AI ranking factors is essential for tech brands today. AI engines don't read content for entertainment—they crawl websites looking for structured facts they can instantly trust and quote. Structuring your site for machine readability isn't just an optimization tactic; it is the only way to protect your digital footprint and ensure your software stays on your buyers' shortlists as traditional search continues to evolve.\"",[14,488,120,489,491],{},[52,490,9],{},", Founder & CEO of MKG Marketing",[14,493,494],{},[75,495],{"alt":77,"src":496},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F76a1ca67-794d-4085-afd3-68d0afbbb963-ai-visibility-2.png",[24,498,500],{"id":499},"combining-technical-ai-formatting-with-a-full-funnel-growth-strategy","Combining Technical AI Formatting with a Full-Funnel Growth Strategy",[14,502,503],{},"Appearing in AI search answers is a critical first step, but visibility alone does not close enterprise software deals. To convert that visibility into actual sales pipeline, tech companies need to connect their organic search efforts with paid channels and accurate tracking.",[14,505,506],{},[52,507,508],{},"Combining Organic and Paid Reach",[14,510,511],{},"When an AI engine routinely quotes your brand as an industry authority, buyers build trust before they ever speak with your sales team. Companies can build on that momentum by pairing organic optimizations with targeted digital advertising. Running paid campaigns aimed at accounts searching for your software category ensures your brand stays visible in both sponsored ads and generated AI responses.",[14,513,514],{},[52,515,516],{},"Tracking Real-World Influence",[14,518,519],{},"Because AI Overviews often answer questions directly on the screen, traditional \"last-click\" measurement tools no longer tell the full story. Using modern digital analytics allows marketing teams to track direct site traffic, self-reported source data, and sales cycle speed. This gives leadership a clear view of how search visibility actually drives revenue.",[14,521,522],{},[75,523],{"alt":77,"src":524},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F221ea7d6-aa63-4d37-a9dd-78f35fdc9bf6-ai-visibility-3.png",[24,526,528],{"id":527},"future-proofing-your-brand-for-ai-search","Future-Proofing Your Brand for AI Search",[14,530,531],{},"Winning visibility in modern AI search comes down to three practical elements: clear site structure, verified real-world expertise, and a consistent presence across the web. As AI tools change how people research software, relying solely on old keyword-stuffing tactics will cause your brand to fall behind.",[14,533,534],{},"At MKG Marketing, we specialize in helping B2B software and cybersecurity organizations navigate these complex search shifts. Our flat, senior-led structure means you work directly with experienced digital strategists, never junior handoffs. We deploy our unified Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework to ensure your website is structured for machine readability, citable by leading AI tools, and built to drive qualified sales pipeline.",[81,536,538],{"id":537},"take-control-of-your-ai-search-visibility","Take Control of Your AI Search Visibility",[46,540,541,550,558],{},[49,542,543,544,549],{},"Ready to see how AI search engines view your website? Explore our",[206,545,548],{"href":546,"rel":547},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002F",[210]," Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or schedule an initial search strategy review with our senior team.",[49,551,552,553,557],{},"Have questions about your site's technical structure or recent traffic changes?",[206,554,556],{"href":275,"rel":555},[210]," Contact MKG Marketing directly"," to speak with a digital search expert.",[49,559,560,561,212],{},"Want to learn more about the shift from traditional SEO to answer engine optimization? Read our guide on",[206,562,565],{"href":563,"rel":564},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo\u002F",[210]," AI Search vs Traditional Search: Navigating the Shift to SVO",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":567},[568,569,577,578],{"id":344,"depth":291,"text":345},{"id":381,"depth":291,"text":385,"children":570},[571,572,573,574,575,576],{"id":391,"depth":297,"text":392},{"id":412,"depth":297,"text":413},{"id":442,"depth":297,"text":443},{"id":452,"depth":297,"text":453},{"id":466,"depth":297,"text":467},{"id":473,"depth":297,"text":474},{"id":499,"depth":291,"text":500},{"id":527,"depth":291,"text":528,"children":579},[580],{"id":537,"depth":297,"text":538},"2026-08-11T17:38:25.303Z","How do AI engines choose which websites to quote? Discover the core AI search ranking factors for 2026 and how to get your brand cited.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ff37f521d-b3f6-49bb-8b34-f6ddf2fa1770-mkg-blog-ai-search-visibility-ranking-factors.webp","AI Search Visibility Factors 2026",{},6,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote",{"title":329,"description":582},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote","uugtYiGYIyZuZEQYrtHFmRy06Rx8hcoFT6g3C0eLqW4",{"id":592,"title":593,"author":7,"authors":594,"body":595,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":898,"description":899,"extension":318,"img":900,"imgAlt":901,"meta":902,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":903,"seo":904,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":905,"updated":7,"__hash__":906},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo.md","AI Search vs Traditional Search - Navigating the Shift to Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)",[9],{"type":11,"value":596,"toc":878},[597,600,604,607,617,621,624,635,642,646,649,656,663,666,669,672,683,686,691,694,697,702,707,714,717,784,788,791,794,805,809,812,816,819,823,826,830,833,840,843,846,849,853],[14,598,599],{},"For nearly two decades, the digital playbook for B2B software and tech companies was tried and true: pick your keywords, optimize your site, build backlinks, and win the glory of a top ten spot on a page of blue links. Today… not so much. You might notice your organic website traffic dropping even though your keyword rankings haven't changed. The reason isn't that your competitors suddenly bought more backlinks—it is because the fundamental way people look for information has evolved. Users are moving away from traditional engines and turning to conversational models, leaving marketing leaders to navigate the massive operational shift between ai search vs traditional search engines. Fixing this isn't about buying more links; it’s about changing how your website presents information to be indexed by both humans and algorithms.",[24,601,603],{"id":602},"the-core-differences-ten-blue-links-vs-synthesized-answers","The Core Differences: Ten Blue Links vs. Synthesized Answers",[14,605,606],{},"To understand why traditional search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer enough on its own, we have to look at how user behavior and technology have diverged.",[14,608,609,610,613,614,212],{},"When analyzing ai-driven search engines vs traditional search engines differences, the distinction comes down to ",[38,611,612],{},"retrieval"," versus ",[38,615,616],{},"synthesis",[81,618,620],{"id":619},"traditional-search-the-index-and-click-engine","Traditional Search: The Index and Click Engine",[14,622,623],{},"Traditional search engines operate as massive directory indices. A user types a query like \"best enterprise CRM for SaaS,\" and the engine returns pages of indexed links ranked by relevance, domain authority, and technical optimization. The user must then:",[132,625,626,629,632],{},[49,627,628],{},"Click into three to five separate websites.",[49,630,631],{},"Read through intro fluff and sales copy.",[49,633,634],{},"Manually synthesize the data to make a decision.",[14,636,637,638,641],{},"This model relies on driving traffic ",[38,639,640],{},"to"," your website. Your site is the destination where the user finds the answer.",[81,643,645],{"id":644},"ai-search-the-direct-answer-engine","AI Search: The Direct Answer Engine",[14,647,648],{},"AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews bypass the directory model entirely. They do not just fetch links; they read, cross-reference, and summarize content from across the web into a single, cohesive answer right inside the search interface.",[14,650,651,652,655],{},"When comparing traditional vs ai search results rankings, the target moves from ranking #1 on a keyword list to becoming the primary ",[38,653,654],{},"cited source"," inside an LLM's generated summary. If an AI overview answers your prospect's question completely on the search page, they won't click through to your blog—even if you rank at the top of the organic list.",[24,657,659,662],{"id":658},"why-software-companies-are-losing-traffic-the-zero-click-reality",[75,660],{"alt":77,"src":661},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa22194a2-19e3-4d2b-a42e-4ad5c6d95b69-click.png","Why Software Companies Are Losing Traffic (The Zero-Click Reality)",[14,664,665],{},"This structural shift explains the mysterious drop in website sessions across B2B software and tech sectors. Buyers are getting their answers without ever visiting your domain.",[14,667,668],{},"When considering ai enterprise search vs traditional enterprise search, enterprise software buyers are no longer hunting through lengthy technical documentation manually. They are asking AI engines to summarize product capabilities, compare pricing structures, and aggregate user reviews into single tables.",[14,670,671],{},"If your marketing strategy relies exclusively on legacy SEO tactics, you face three major risks:",[46,673,674,677,680],{},[49,675,676],{},"Zero-Click Erosion: Higher-funnel informational traffic evaporates as AI Overviews satisfy search intent directly on the results page.",[49,678,679],{},"Loss of Brand Mindshare: If LLMs aren't trained on or citing your content, your product simply doesn't exist during the buyer's initial research phase.",[49,681,682],{},"Vanity Metric Misalignment: Your SEO agency may report stable keyword positions, but your inbound lead forms and phone calls tell a very different story.",[81,684,109],{"id":685},"expert-insight-from-mkg-marketing",[14,687,688,690],{},[38,689,114],{},"AI is making the decision on what it's going to show the user. The system decided your content was the most trustworthy, most citable answer to that exact question for that exact person. Writing something good and checking the ‘helpful content’ boxes doesn't get you there. Those are very different bars.",[14,692,693],{},"‘Helpful’ is table stakes. It's what gets you into the building, not into the room where the AI is assembling its answer.",[14,695,696],{},"What gets you cited is specificity: The right category. Website & Page Structure. Consistent messaging across your entire footprint. A point of view that the model can actually extract and reuse with confidence.",[14,698,699,700],{},"So when Google says ‘just be helpful,’ they're not wrong. They're just leaving out about 80% of what actually matters. And the companies that take that advice at face value are going to watch their visibility collapse while their content quality stays perfectly fine.",[38,701,114],{},[14,703,120,704,706],{},[52,705,9],{},", CEO & Founder of MKG Marketing",[24,708,710,713],{"id":709},"the-evolution-moving-from-seo-to-svo-aeo-and-geo",[75,711],{"alt":77,"src":712},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4dd65826-2a82-444b-9693-b6845e4438c0-meeting.png","The Evolution: Moving from SEO to SVO, AEO, and GEO",[14,715,716],{},"To stay visible and continue generating qualified pipeline, marketing executives must expand their organic framework beyond traditional boundaries. This requires a modern, multi-layered approach:",[718,719,720,736],"table",{},[721,722,723],"thead",{},[724,725,726,730,733],"tr",{},[727,728,729],"th",{},"Framework",[727,731,732],{},"Full Name",[727,734,735],{},"Primary Objective",[737,738,739,751,762,773],"tbody",{},[724,740,741,745,748],{},[742,743,744],"td",{},"SEO",[742,746,747],{},"Search Engine Optimization",[742,749,750],{},"Ranking pages on traditional search engine results pages (SERPs) for targeted keywords.",[724,752,753,756,759],{},[742,754,755],{},"AEO",[742,757,758],{},"Answer Engine Optimization",[742,760,761],{},"Structuring data so voice assistants and snippet engines can pull direct, succinct answers.",[724,763,764,767,770],{},[742,765,766],{},"GEO",[742,768,769],{},"Generative Engine Optimization",[742,771,772],{},"Formatting brand narrative, statistics, and domain expertise so LLMs ingest and cite your brand.",[724,774,775,778,781],{},[742,776,777],{},"SVO",[742,779,780],{},"Search Visibility Optimization",[742,782,783],{},"The Unified Strategy: Maximizing total brand presence across both traditional links and AI answer engines.",[81,785,787],{"id":786},"how-search-visibility-optimization-svo-solves-the-gap","How Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Solves the Gap",[14,789,790],{},"SVO doesn't discard traditional SEO; it unifies SEO, AEO, and GEO into a single operational framework.",[14,792,793],{},"Rather than chasing raw session counts, SVO focuses on Information Gain and Citations. To win citations in AI-generated answers, your web content must feature:",[132,795,796,799,802],{},[49,797,798],{},"Clear, Schema-Structured Data: Helping bots identify who you are, what your software does, and who you serve without guessing.",[49,800,801],{},"First-Party Expertise (E-E-A-T): Unique data points, proprietary benchmark reports, and expert commentary that LLMs cannot synthesize from generic web text.",[49,803,804],{},"Direct Answer Formatting: Clear, concise definitions at the top of technical pieces that allow answer engines to extract key takeaways cleanly.",[24,806,808],{"id":807},"practical-steps-to-adapt-your-search-strategy-today","Practical Steps to Adapt Your Search Strategy Today",[14,810,811],{},"Shifting your company's digital presence to capture both traditional and AI-driven search doesn't require scrapping your entire content library. It requires restructuring how your information is delivered.",[81,813,815],{"id":814},"_1-optimize-for-high-information-gain","1. Optimize for High Information Gain",[14,817,818],{},"Eliminate generic, top-of-funnel fluff articles that summarize widely available knowledge. AI engines already summarize that data effortlessly. Focus instead on deep, opinionated, original content: teardowns of real customer implementation challenges, original survey data, and niche technical workflows.",[81,820,822],{"id":821},"_2-standardize-entity-and-brand-citations","2. Standardize Entity and Brand Citations",[14,824,825],{},"Ensure your brand's core value proposition, product categories, and technical terminology are consistent across external review sites, Wikipedia entries, PR releases, and your own domain. LLMs establish trust by cross-referencing brand information across multiple authoritative sources.",[81,827,829],{"id":828},"_3-track-pipeline-impact-over-pure-clicks","3. Track Pipeline Impact over Pure Clicks",[14,831,832],{},"Recognize that a drop in informational blog clicks does not automatically mean a drop in revenue. If an AI search tool cites your software as the top recommendation for an enterprise query, the prospect may navigate directly to your pricing or contact page to initiate a call. Measure branded search volume, direct traffic, and pipeline velocity alongside traditional organic metrics.",[24,834,836,839],{"id":835},"summary-adapting-to-how-buyers-search-today",[75,837],{"alt":77,"src":838},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F1a47aa4c-b986-4fd6-b30d-5ff622a02239-brain.png","Summary: Adapting to How Buyers Search Today",[14,841,842],{},"The debate surrounding ai search vs traditional search engines isn't about choosing one platform over the other. Traditional search engines will continue to process billions of queries, but AI-driven answer engines are rapidly capturing high-intent B2B research behavior. If software and tech companies want to keep filling their sales pipelines with new customers, they must adapt to how people search today.",[14,844,845],{},"Succeeding in this new landscape requires a refined strategy, technical precision, and continuous testing across evolving engine algorithms.",[14,847,848],{},"At MKG Marketing, we eliminate the guesswork. We provide a senior-led team of digital experts who handle your search strategy and technical execution directly—with zero handoffs to junior staff. We help growing tech organizations build future-proof organic engines that drive clear visibility, authoritative citations, and real business revenue.",[81,850,852],{"id":851},"ready-to-modernize-your-search-strategy","Ready to Modernize Your Search Strategy?",[46,854,855,863,870],{},[49,856,857,858,862],{},"Organic search is constantly shifting. Let’s figure it out together. We help tech leaders cut through the noise and build search strategies that actually drive growth. Explore our ",[206,859,861],{"href":208,"rel":860},[210],"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or book your initial search strategy review.",[49,864,865,866,278],{},"Skip the generic SEO agency playbook. Our senior team works alongside you to build a tailored search strategy that gets your brand seen. Ready to fix traffic drops or scale what’s already working? ",[206,867,869],{"href":275,"rel":868},[210],"Contact MKG Marketing today",[49,871,872,873,212],{},"Ready to learn more about content quality in the age of artificial intelligence? We got you covered:",[206,874,877],{"href":875,"rel":876},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings\u002F",[210]," Is AI Content Bad for SEO? How to Scale Traffic Without Sacrificing Rankings",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":879},[880,884,887,890,895],{"id":602,"depth":291,"text":603,"children":881},[882,883],{"id":619,"depth":297,"text":620},{"id":644,"depth":297,"text":645},{"id":658,"depth":291,"text":662,"children":885},[886],{"id":685,"depth":297,"text":109},{"id":709,"depth":291,"text":713,"children":888},[889],{"id":786,"depth":297,"text":787},{"id":807,"depth":291,"text":808,"children":891},[892,893,894],{"id":814,"depth":297,"text":815},{"id":821,"depth":297,"text":822},{"id":828,"depth":297,"text":829},{"id":835,"depth":291,"text":839,"children":896},[897],{"id":851,"depth":297,"text":852},"2026-08-05T15:31:00.000Z","Traditional SEO is shifting. Learn how AI search engines are disrupting the ten blue links and how to win brand mentions in LLM responses.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ff8233c21-a553-4cdf-b08e-62ba6de46295-mkg-blog-ai-search-vs-traditional-search-hero-image.webp","Stop Chasing Clicks, Capture Direct-Answer AI",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo",{"title":593,"description":899},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo","V9JrsiIyJkiYENE0VMv29Din97ayk4JQ9vcwSe6Flz0",{"id":908,"title":909,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":910,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":1139,"description":1140,"extension":318,"img":1141,"imgAlt":1142,"meta":1143,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":1144,"seo":1145,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":1146,"updated":7,"__hash__":1147},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026.md","Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Monthly Overview - July 2026",{"type":11,"value":911,"toc":1131},[912,918,967,973,1009,1015,1050,1056,1083,1089,1092,1097,1100,1103,1123],[24,913,915],{"id":914},"executive-summary-the-tldr",[52,916,917],{},"Executive Summary (The TL;DR)",[46,919,920,932,943,955],{},[49,921,922,925,926,931],{},[52,923,924],{},"Google Refines Helpful Content Systems:"," The",[206,927,930],{"href":928,"rel":929},"https:\u002F\u002Fadelev8.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-july-2026-helpful-content-update",[210]," July 2026 Helpful Content Update"," shifts evaluation metrics from blunt site-wide penalties to granular, section-level filtering, strictly penalizing synthetic, low-effort material while rewarding verified practitioner expertise.",[49,933,934,937,938,212],{},[52,935,936],{},"AI Overviews Expansion:"," Google integrated live news carousels and direct image generation inside AI Overviews, which now feature in approximately",[206,939,942],{"href":940,"rel":941},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.artificialintelligence-news.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgoogle-ai-overviews-us-searches\u002F",[210]," 43% of US searches",[49,944,945,948,949,954],{},[52,946,947],{},"Search Console Controls Updates:"," Site owners can now explicitly manage and isolate content inclusion within AI Overviews and AI Mode via",[206,950,953],{"href":951,"rel":952},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.numinix.com\u002Fblog\u002Fjuly-2026-seo-algorithm-news-update\u002F",[210]," updated Search Console controls"," without sacrificing baseline organic rankings.",[49,956,957,960,961,966],{},[52,958,959],{},"AEO and Third Party Integration:"," ChatGPT’s integration of live third-party platform data (such as",[206,962,965],{"href":963,"rel":964},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-to-update-local-services-ads-policies-in-july-479653",[210]," Yelp reviews, ratings, and photos",") forces B2B and B2C brands to optimize their multi-platform digital footprints beyond owned properties.",[24,968,970],{"id":969},"algorithm-technical-seo-updates",[52,971,972],{},"Algorithm & Technical SEO Updates",[46,974,975,987,998],{},[49,976,977,980,981,986],{},[52,978,979],{},"The July 2026 Helpful Content Update:"," Google deployed a ",[206,982,985],{"href":983,"rel":984},"https:\u002F\u002Fseovendor.co\u002Fgoogle-algorithm-updates-july-2026\u002F",[210],"targeted update"," to its Helpful Content System, tightening synthetic content detection and increasing E-E-A-T weightings. Unlike previous iterations that carried a risk of broad site-wide demotions, this update introduces granular section-level assessments, permitting well-authored pages on otherwise mixed-quality domains to retain visibility.",[49,988,989,992,993,997],{},[52,990,991],{},"Global Spam Countermeasures:"," Running alongside minor core adjustments, ",[206,994,996],{"href":951,"rel":995},[210],"a global spam update"," rolled out to refine SpamBrain heuristics, targeting systemic manipulation patterns rather than isolated link-building tactics.",[49,999,1000,1003,1004,1008],{},[52,1001,1002],{},"Search Console Shifts:"," Platform-wide properties and explicit GEO isolation controls ",[206,1005,1007],{"href":951,"rel":1006},[210],"went live",", enabling technical leaders to partition content accessibility for generative experiences without damaging classic organic indexing.",[24,1010,1012],{"id":1011},"geoaeo-updates",[52,1013,1014],{},"GEO\u002FAEO Updates",[46,1016,1017,1027,1038],{},[49,1018,1019,1022,1023,1026],{},[52,1020,1021],{},"AI Overview Saturation & Features:"," Market intelligence indicates AI Overviews now appear in roughly",[206,1024,942],{"href":940,"rel":1025},[210],", fundamentally altering click-through dynamics. July updates added real-time news carousels and native AI-generated image creation directly into query responses, shifting user engagement loops.",[49,1028,1029,1032,1033,1037],{},[52,1030,1031],{},"Cross-Platform Citation Shifts:"," ChatGPT expanded its retrieval architecture by integrating live third-party review and vector data (including",[206,1034,1036],{"href":963,"rel":1035},[210]," Yelp reviews and ratings","), illustrating that LLM engines rely heavily on aggregated ecosystem trust signals rather than just corporate web properties.",[49,1039,1040,1043,1044,1049],{},[52,1041,1042],{},"The \"Ghost Citation\" Phenomenon:"," ",[206,1045,1048],{"href":1046,"rel":1047},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fai-halftime-report-h1-2026-483912",[210],"Emerging tracking data"," highlights that AI engines frequently synthesize information from third-party aggregators and forums, leaving primary creators uncredited unless structured entities are explicitly claimed and verified.",[24,1051,1053],{"id":1052},"strategic-implications-for-leaders",[52,1054,1055],{},"Strategic Implications for Leaders",[46,1057,1058,1064],{},[49,1059,1060,1063],{},[52,1061,1062],{},"What to ignore:"," Short-term ranking fluctuations and mass content deletions. High-volume, automated articles no longer hold value under current search filters, making rapid content generation counterproductive.",[49,1065,1066,1069],{},[52,1067,1068],{},"Where to pivot:",[46,1070,1071,1077],{},[49,1072,1073,1076],{},[52,1074,1075],{},"Clean up low-value content:"," Review site pages for thin or AI-generated text. Replace surface-level summaries with original research, customer case studies, and expert data that language models cannot replicate.",[49,1078,1079,1082],{},[52,1080,1081],{},"Standardize off-page brand data:"," Align Schema markup, corporate records, and third-party profiles across major directories and review platforms. Search engines and AI systems rely heavily on external sources to verify company authority.",[24,1084,1086],{"id":1085},"looking-ahead",[52,1087,1088],{},"Looking Ahead",[14,1090,1091],{},"Google historically issues a major core algorithm update in late Q3. Growth teams should focus on deepening coverage within core subject areas rather than publishing broadly across adjacent topics.",[24,1093,1095],{"id":1094},"search-visibility-optimization-svo",[52,1096,168],{},[14,1098,1099],{},"Maintaining search traffic now requires managing three distinct channels: standard web indexing, answer engine citations (AEO), and generative search layouts (GEO).",[14,1101,1102],{},"MKG assists growth-stage technology companies with:",[46,1104,1105,1111,1117],{},[49,1106,1107,1110],{},[52,1108,1109],{},"GEO and AEO Audits:"," Evaluating brand presence and citation rates across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.",[49,1112,1113,1116],{},[52,1114,1115],{},"Structured Data Infrastructure:"," Aligning Schema markup and technical index controls to safeguard search presence.",[49,1118,1119,1122],{},[52,1120,1121],{},"Pipeline Attribution Modeling:"," Measuring how generative search visibility impacts customer acquisition costs (CAC) and deal velocity.",[14,1124,1125,1126,1130],{},"To review your domain's generative search visibility, ",[206,1127,1129],{"href":275,"rel":1128},[210],"schedule a consultation"," with an MKG search specialist.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1132},[1133,1134,1135,1136,1137,1138],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972},{"id":1011,"depth":291,"text":1014},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055},{"id":1085,"depth":291,"text":1088},{"id":1094,"depth":291,"text":168},"2026-08-04T16:16:55.368Z","Stay updated on the July 2026 search landscape: Google’s granular Helpful Content Update, AI Overviews reaching 43% of US searches, new Search Console controls for AI Mode, and ChatGPT's integration of third-party platform data.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9bacf7c4-18eb-47f1-87fb-986cba555a73-Copy of 11766_(1920x1080) (7).png","close-up image of a blue pushpin marking a location on a detailed paper map",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026",{"title":909,"description":1140},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026","vjZWWe3kKlLwQrZGoaeSywpxYkFiYyKtWSho-GG-CHw",{"id":1149,"title":1150,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":1151,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":1461,"description":1462,"extension":318,"img":1463,"imgAlt":1464,"meta":1465,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":1466,"seo":1467,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":1468,"updated":7,"__hash__":1469},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings.md","Is AI Content Bad for SEO? How to Scale Traffic Without Sacrificing Rankings",{"type":11,"value":1152,"toc":1445},[1153,1160,1166,1169,1184,1187,1190,1204,1211,1214,1218,1221,1227,1238,1244,1247,1253,1264,1266,1271,1274,1277,1282,1287,1294,1301,1304,1310,1313,1319,1322,1333,1339,1342,1349,1358,1365,1372,1377,1380,1395,1401,1407,1410,1417,1421],[14,1154,1155,1156,1159],{},"Let’s answer the question on every marketing leader’s mind right away: ",[52,1157,1158],{},"No, AI content is not inherently bad for SEO."," Google does not automatically penalize text simply because an artificial intelligence model generated it. In fact, Google’s official Search guidelines state that the search engine ranks content based on its helpfulness, relevance, and quality—not on who (or what) typed the words.",[14,1161,1162,1163],{},"However, there is a massive caveat that every modern CMO and VP of Marketing must understand: ",[52,1164,1165],{},"publishing unedited, mass-produced AI text is a fast track to losing traffic.",[14,1167,1168],{},"While AI can drastically accelerate your research and drafting phases, relying on raw algorithm outputs to power your organic search strategy will inevitably hurt your brand. The internet is quickly becoming flooded with synthesized, low-effort fluff. Search engines are aggressively updating their algorithms to identify and down-rank generic copy that fails to bring new value to the web.",[14,1170,1171,1172,1175,1176,1179,1180,1183],{},"So, ",[52,1173,1174],{},"does AI-generated content impact SEO?"," Absolutely—for better or for worse depending entirely on ",[38,1177,1178],{},"how"," you use it. To navigate this new era of search, B2B software and tech companies must learn how to safely leverage AI as an efficiency tool while keeping senior human strategy in full control. ",[75,1181],{"alt":77,"src":1182},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fe5fe90d6-da9d-42d8-8ca3-5c601eb33fc8-ai-content-bad-for-seo-1.png","What Google Actually Cites About AI-Generated Content",[14,1185,1186],{},"A widespread myth floating around boardrooms is that Google possesses a universal \"AI detector\" that immediately penalizes any site using machine learning tools. This misconception has led to two extreme behaviors: organizations either banned AI entirely out of fear, or they went all-in, firing editorial teams and pumping out hundreds of unvetted AI articles a month.",[14,1188,1189],{},"Both approaches are flawed. Google’s position on AI content is clear and consistent:",[46,1191,1192,1198],{},[49,1193,1194,1197],{},[52,1195,1196],{},"Intent matters over medium:"," If you use automation, including generative AI, primarily to manipulate search rankings, it is considered a violation of Google's spam policies.",[49,1199,1200,1203],{},[52,1201,1202],{},"Quality is the ultimate benchmark:"," If your content offers original information, insightful analysis, and clear utility to the searcher, Google will reward it—regardless of whether AI helped draft the paragraphs.",[14,1205,1206,1207,1210],{},"This distinction rests on Google’s ",[52,1208,1209],{},"E-E-A-T framework",": Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.",[14,1212,1213],{},"Generative AI models are trained on existing web data; by design, they scrape, synthesize, and regurgitate information that has already been published. They cannot draw from personal background, run proprietary benchmark studies, or conduct interviews with industry veterans. Therefore, raw AI content inherently lacks the \"First-Hand Experience\" and deep \"Expertise\" required to satisfy modern search criteria.",[24,1215,1217],{"id":1216},"why-copy-pasting-ai-copy-destroys-your-organic-traffic","Why Copy-Pasting AI Copy Destroys Your Organic Traffic",[14,1219,1220],{},"If Google doesn't penalize AI text on principle, why are so many tech sites seeing their organic impressions plummet after launching automated content initiatives? The answer lies in the subtle traps of machine-generated prose.",[81,1222,1224],{"id":1223},"_1-the-information-gain-problem",[52,1225,1226],{},"1. The Information Gain Problem",[14,1228,1229,1230,1233,1234,1237],{},"Search engine algorithms are increasingly prioritizing ",[52,1231,1232],{},"Information Gain","—a metric that measures whether a piece of content adds ",[38,1235,1236],{},"new"," facts, perspectives, or data points to a topic compared to existing index results. When an AI tool drafts an article, it simply summarizes what the top ten results on Google are already saying. It offers zero information gain. If your page is merely an average of what is already online, Google has no incentive to rank you above established competitors.",[81,1239,1241],{"id":1240},"_2-hallucinations-and-brand-risk",[52,1242,1243],{},"2. Hallucinations and Brand Risk",[14,1245,1246],{},"Large Language Models (LLMs) are predictive engines, not factual databases. They routinely invent statistics, misquote technical documentation, and present incorrect product capabilities with total confidence. Publishing hallucinated facts erodes consumer trust and signals to search crawlers that your site lacks basic editorial integrity.",[81,1248,1250],{"id":1249},"_3-the-homogenization-of-brand-voice",[52,1251,1252],{},"3. The Homogenization of Brand Voice",[14,1254,1255,1256,1259,1260,1263],{},"B2B tech buyers are sophisticated. They can spot low-effort, synthetic writing instantly. Text bloated with hollow transitions (",[38,1257,1258],{},"\"In today's fast-paced digital landscape...\""," or ",[38,1261,1262],{},"\"It is crucial to leverage...\"",") signals to prospects that your company lacks real point-of-view authority. If your content sounds identical to every competitor using the same prompts, you lose your market positioning.",[24,1265,109],{"id":685},[14,1267,1268,1270],{},[38,1269,114],{},"The AI has no reason to pick yours over theirs. It's looking for something it can confidently reuse, and if your version doesn't add anything new, you're background noise.",[14,1272,1273],{},"So instead of writing more, I'm going page by page through what already exists and asking one question: does this page say something that no other page on the internet says?",[14,1275,1276],{},"Original data. A real client pattern you documented. A first-person account of what actually happened when you tried the thing everyone recommends. ",[14,1278,1279,1280],{},"That's what AI pulls in. The generic stuff is what AI already has forty versions of. It doesn't need yours.",[38,1281,114],{},[14,1283,120,1284,1286],{},[52,1285,9],{},", CEO of MKG Marketing",[24,1288,1290,1293],{"id":1289},"how-to-safely-use-ai-as-a-marketing-assistant-not-a-lead-strategist",[75,1291],{"alt":77,"src":1292},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc8d0926d-82b9-42f9-85f4-3c433da82d78-ai-content-bad-for-seo-2.png","How to Safely Use AI as a Marketing Assistant (Not a Lead Strategist)",[14,1295,1296,1297,1300],{},"To succeed in search today, modern tech companies don't need to abandon AI; they need to integrate it into a ",[52,1298,1299],{},"human-led editorial workflow",". AI should act as the junior analyst that handles heavy administrative lifting, while senior strategists serve as the editorial director.",[14,1302,1303],{},"Here is how high-growth organizations use AI tools safely without putting their search performance at risk:",[81,1305,1307],{"id":1306},"_1-accelerate-research-and-formatting",[52,1308,1309],{},"1. Accelerate Research and Formatting",[14,1311,1312],{},"Use AI to synthesize lengthy transcripts, cluster search intent, organize raw data, and draft initial structural outlines. Asking an AI tool to suggest five logical structural flows for a technical guide saves hours of brainstorming without diluting your editorial voice.",[81,1314,1316],{"id":1315},"_2-inject-proprietary-data-and-human-storytelling",[52,1317,1318],{},"2. Inject Proprietary Data and Human Storytelling",[14,1320,1321],{},"Once a rough outline or foundational draft exists, a subject matter expert (SME) must step in. Inject real-world elements that an algorithm can never produce:",[46,1323,1324,1327,1330],{},[49,1325,1326],{},"Customer case studies and real implementation metrics.",[49,1328,1329],{},"Direct quotes from internal product architects or sales engineers.",[49,1331,1332],{},"Unique takeaways or counter-intuitive opinions that challenge status-quo industry advice.",[81,1334,1336],{"id":1335},"_3-rigorous-fact-checking-and-editorial-oversight",[52,1337,1338],{},"3. Rigorous Fact-Checking and Editorial Oversight",[14,1340,1341],{},"Every claim, statistic, and technical instruction generated during the drafting phase must be verified by a human editor. Ensure the tone matches your brand guidelines and eliminate boilerplate AI phrasing.",[14,1343,1344,1345,1348],{},"Want to see how your current search strategy measures up against the latest engine updates? Explore our comprehensive",[206,1346,211],{"href":208,"rel":1347},[210]," or book an initial search strategy review with our senior team today.",[24,1350,1352,1355],{"id":1351},"beyond-traditional-seo-preparing-for-search-visibility-optimization-svo",[75,1353],{"alt":77,"src":1354},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F2cd275b2-b56c-4864-b728-e18e54f45370-ai-content-bad-for-seo-3.png",[52,1356,1357],{},"Beyond Traditional SEO: Preparing for Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)",[14,1359,1360,1361,1364],{},"The debate over whether AI-generated content ",[52,1362,1363],{},"is good for seo"," is part of a much larger shift in how users find information. Search is no longer confined to a list of ten blue links on a traditional search results page.",[14,1366,1367,1368,1371],{},"With the rapid adoption of AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, users are increasingly getting direct answers synthesized and generated right inside search interfaces. This shift means that optimizing purely for keyword clicks is no longer enough. You must optimize for ",[52,1369,1370],{},"total brand visibility"," across AI search models and traditional engines alike.",[14,1373,1374,1375,212],{},"This evolution is what we call ",[52,1376,168],{},[14,1378,1379],{},"To win in an SVO-driven ecosystem, your content must be authoritative enough that AI models choose to cite your brand as the primary source of truth. Generic, auto-generated articles will never be cited by AI search tools because those articles lack original authority. The only way to capture mindshare in both AI answers and traditional search lists is by publishing high-gain, expert-driven content that clearly demonstrates E-E-A-T.",[14,1381,1382,1383,1388,1389,1394],{},"If your organic reach is stalling due to changing algorithms, taking a holistic view of your digital presence is essential. Aligning your organic content strategy with high-intent paid acquisition via",[206,1384,1387],{"href":1385,"rel":1386},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fservices\u002Fdigital-advertising\u002F",[210]," Digital Advertising"," and measuring true user journeys through robust",[206,1390,1393],{"href":1391,"rel":1392},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fservices\u002Fanalytics\u002F",[210]," Digital Analytics"," ensures your marketing engine generates pipeline—not just empty clicks.",[24,1396,1398],{"id":1397},"summary-adapting-your-search-engine-strategy-for-long-term-growth",[52,1399,1400],{},"Summary: Adapting Your Search Engine Strategy for Long-Term Growth",[14,1402,1403,1404,1406],{},"To recap: ",[52,1405,1174],{}," Yes. If you treat AI as a magic shortcut to generate hundreds of unvetted blog posts, your search visibility will eventually collapse; quickly building a house out of AI sticks won’t protect you when the Big Bad Search Engine Wolf comes calling. But if you treat AI as an efficiency engine that supports a human-led, expert-driven content pipeline, you can scale output without sacrificing rankings.",[14,1408,1409],{},"As search engines adapt to the flood of synthetic content, companies must adapt how they communicate with their buyers. The brands that win over the next decade won't be those that avoid AI, nor will they be those that hand their entire marketing strategy over to algorithms. The winners will be the organizations that pair cutting-edge tools with an authentic, human-driven brand voice.",[14,1411,1412,1413,1416],{},"At ",[52,1414,1415],{},"MKG Marketing",", we don't pass your search strategy off to junior account managers or unmonitored software bots. We provide an experienced, senior-led team that handles both the high-level strategy and technical execution directly. We help B2B tech and software companies navigate complex search updates, build a sustainable organic pipeline, and maintain complete operational control over their brand narrative.",[24,1418,1420],{"id":1419},"ready-to-build-a-future-proof-search-strategy","Ready to Build a Future-Proof Search Strategy?",[46,1422,1423,1430,1437],{},[49,1424,1425,1426,212],{},"Learn how our senior-led team can audit and elevate your organic reach.",[206,1427,1429],{"href":208,"rel":1428},[210]," Explore our Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services & Strategy Reviews",[49,1431,1432,1433,278],{},"Have immediate questions about your traffic or upcoming search updates?",[206,1434,1436],{"href":275,"rel":1435},[210]," Contact the MKG Marketing Team directly",[49,1438,1439,1440,212],{},"Want to dive deeper into modern search trends? Read our latest guide:",[206,1441,1444],{"href":1442,"rel":1443},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002F",[210]," Beyond Last-Click: How to Measure Marketing Influence in an AI-First World",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1446},[1447,1452,1453,1458,1459,1460],{"id":1216,"depth":291,"text":1217,"children":1448},[1449,1450,1451],{"id":1223,"depth":297,"text":1226},{"id":1240,"depth":297,"text":1243},{"id":1249,"depth":297,"text":1252},{"id":685,"depth":291,"text":109},{"id":1289,"depth":291,"text":1293,"children":1454},[1455,1456,1457],{"id":1306,"depth":297,"text":1309},{"id":1315,"depth":297,"text":1318},{"id":1335,"depth":297,"text":1338},{"id":1351,"depth":291,"text":1357},{"id":1397,"depth":291,"text":1400},{"id":1419,"depth":291,"text":1420},"2026-07-31T16:42:23.391Z","Does AI-generated content impact SEO? Discover how to safely use AI tools to build traffic and why copy-pasting generic text will hurt your rankings.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa2137492-5860-4960-8c3b-cc662b7514b0-mkg-blog-is-ai-content-bad-for-seo.webp","Is AI Content Bad for SEO",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings",{"title":1150,"description":1462},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings","ysFwsXe-UHutD2vqfe9YpM1Dn_CZgi--Ors35vnm0Bc",[1471,1777,1952,2162,2321,2531,2807,3064,3302,3561,3783,4006,4213,4420,4786,4976,5177,5403,5665,5890,6106,6277,6540,6786,6973,7325,7776,8166,8506,8857,9213,9574,9916,10231,10481,10631,10778,10919,11063,11210,11353,11489,11639,11754,11841,12174,12377,12589,13021,13189,13948,14157,14249,14525,14876,15118,15309,15358,15492,15867,16040,16147,16236,16666,16873,16945,17149,17236,17535,17995,18203,18394,18585,18803,18914,19134,19577,20066,20127],{"id":5,"title":6,"author":7,"authors":1472,"body":1473,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":316,"description":317,"extension":318,"img":319,"imgAlt":6,"meta":1661,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":323,"seo":1662,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":325,"updated":7,"__hash__":326,"people":1663},[9],{"type":11,"value":1474,"toc":1639},[1475,1477,1479,1481,1483,1485,1487,1491,1493,1507,1509,1513,1517,1519,1521,1523,1525,1527,1531,1537,1541,1543,1545,1561,1563,1571,1573,1575,1577,1579,1581,1583,1585,1587,1592,1594,1596,1598,1600,1602,1604,1606,1610,1612,1614,1616],[14,1476,16],{},[14,1478,19],{},[14,1480,22],{},[24,1482,27],{"id":26},[14,1484,30],{},[14,1486,33],{},[14,1488,36,1489,41],{},[38,1490,40],{},[14,1492,44],{},[46,1494,1495,1499,1503],{},[49,1496,1497,55],{},[52,1498,54],{},[49,1500,1501,61],{},[52,1502,60],{},[49,1504,1505,67],{},[52,1506,66],{},[24,1508,71],{"id":70},[14,1510,1511,79],{},[75,1512],{"alt":77,"src":78},[81,1514,1515,87],{"id":83},[52,1516,86],{},[14,1518,90],{},[81,1520,94],{"id":93},[14,1522,97],{},[81,1524,101],{"id":100},[14,1526,104],{},[14,1528,1529],{},[52,1530,109],{},[14,1532,1533,115,1535],{},[38,1534,114],{},[38,1536,114],{},[14,1538,120,1539,123],{},[52,1540,9],{},[24,1542,127],{"id":126},[14,1544,130],{},[132,1546,1547,1551,1557],{},[49,1548,1549,139],{},[52,1550,138],{},[49,1552,1553,145,1555,149],{},[52,1554,144],{},[38,1556,148],{},[49,1558,1559,155],{},[52,1560,154],{},[24,1562,159],{"id":158},[14,1564,1565,165,1567,169,1569,173],{},[75,1566],{"alt":77,"src":164},[52,1568,168],{},[52,1570,172],{},[81,1572,177],{"id":176},[14,1574,180],{},[81,1576,184],{"id":183},[14,1578,187],{},[81,1580,191],{"id":190},[14,1582,194],{},[81,1584,198],{"id":197},[14,1586,201],{},[14,1588,204,1589,212],{},[206,1590,211],{"href":208,"rel":1591},[210],[24,1593,216],{"id":215},[14,1595,219],{},[81,1597,223],{"id":222},[14,1599,226],{},[81,1601,230],{"id":229},[14,1603,233],{},[24,1605,237],{"id":236},[14,1607,1608,243],{},[75,1609],{"alt":77,"src":242},[14,1611,246],{},[14,1613,249],{},[81,1615,253],{"id":252},[46,1617,1618,1625,1632],{},[49,1619,1620,261,1622,266],{},[52,1621,260],{},[206,1623,265],{"href":208,"rel":1624},[210],[49,1626,1627,272,1629,278],{},[52,1628,271],{},[206,1630,277],{"href":275,"rel":1631},[210],[49,1633,1634,284,1636,212],{},[52,1635,283],{},[206,1637,289],{"href":287,"rel":1638},[210],{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1640},[1641,1642,1647,1648,1654,1658],{"id":26,"depth":291,"text":27},{"id":70,"depth":291,"text":71,"children":1643},[1644,1645,1646],{"id":83,"depth":297,"text":298},{"id":93,"depth":297,"text":94},{"id":100,"depth":297,"text":101},{"id":126,"depth":291,"text":127},{"id":158,"depth":291,"text":159,"children":1649},[1650,1651,1652,1653],{"id":176,"depth":297,"text":177},{"id":183,"depth":297,"text":184},{"id":190,"depth":297,"text":191},{"id":197,"depth":297,"text":198},{"id":215,"depth":291,"text":216,"children":1655},[1656,1657],{"id":222,"depth":297,"text":223},{"id":229,"depth":297,"text":230},{"id":236,"depth":291,"text":237,"children":1659},[1660],{"id":252,"depth":297,"text":253},{},{"title":6,"description":317},[1664,1718],{"id":1665,"title":9,"body":1666,"date":7,"description":1701,"extension":318,"images":1702,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":1704,"linkedIn":1705,"meta":1706,"name":9,"navigation":322,"path":1708,"quote":1709,"quoteCite":1710,"ref":1711,"seo":1712,"sequence":1713,"stem":1714,"team":1715,"twitter":1705,"updated":7,"website":1716,"__hash__":1717},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fkerry-guard.md",{"type":11,"value":1667,"toc":1698},[1668,1673,1681,1689,1693],[14,1669,1672],{"className":1670},[1671],"text-lg","Kerry Guard (she\u002Fher) is a mom of twins - boy and a girl. She understands what work life balance really looks like and is on a mission to build a company that honors parents having a career and a life. She’s out to prove you really can have both with policies like ensuring 20 days of vacation each year, no client emails after 6PM or weekends, unlimited sick days, and everyday flexibility.",[14,1674,1675,1676,1680],{},"She also hosts our podcast, ",[206,1677,1679],{"href":1678},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002F","Back on T-R-A-C-K",", which brings eight digital marketing experts to your ears every quarter.",[14,1682,1683,1684,1688],{},"Kerry is responsible for HR. If you’d like to join MKG where people are first and your expertise matter, Kerry will be with you through the entire interview process ensuring each candidate meets the necessary requirements and gets a fair shot. Want to join MKG and Kerry’s mission of bringing People First to as many people as possible? Check out our ",[206,1685,1687],{"href":1686},"\u002Fabout\u002Fjobs\u002F","Jobs page"," and see if we have a position right for you!",[81,1690,1692],{"id":1691},"fun-facts","Fun facts",[46,1694,1695],{},[49,1696,1697],{},"Kerry now lives in Guernsey — a tiny nook in the world between England and France. Come visit for a spot of tea any time!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1699},[1700],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":1692},"Meet Kerry Guard, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. She currently fills the role of CEO of MKG as well as hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.",{"landscape":1703},"kerry-guard.webp","Founder & CEO","kerryguard",{"imageDescription":1707},"Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s Owner\u002FCEO, stands on a street in Guernsey with the Town Church behind her | MKG Marketing","\u002Fteam\u002Fkerry-guard","I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.","Brené Brown","kerry-guard",{"description":1701},1,"team\u002Fkerry-guard","Leadership","https:\u002F\u002Fkerryguard.com","YRwfwzeXtTw6ls2uWUIyTaK1IWSJr1nWG76vYHgqCgU",{"id":1719,"title":9,"body":1720,"date":7,"description":1767,"extension":318,"images":1768,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":1770,"linkedIn":1705,"meta":1771,"name":9,"navigation":322,"path":1772,"quote":1709,"quoteCite":1710,"ref":1711,"seo":1773,"sequence":1774,"stem":1775,"team":7,"twitter":1705,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":1776},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fkerry-guard.md",{"type":11,"value":1721,"toc":1764},[1722,1726,1749,1755,1758,1760],[14,1723,1725],{"className":1724},[1671],"\nKerry Guard (she\u002Fher) is the strategist founders call when they are tired of guessing. As the CEO of MKG Marketing, she doesn’t just run the agency; she steps into the trenches with clients as a Fractional Marketing Leader. She specializes in helping founders navigate the \"Growth Valley\"—building the systems, strategy, and teams required to scale from traction to expansion.",[14,1727,1728,1729,1732,1733,1736,1737,1740,1741,1744,1745,1748],{},"Her recent work focuses on bringing enterprise-level rigor to growing businesses. She serves as the strategic marketing engine for a diverse portfolio, including ",[52,1730,1731],{},"Rutkowski Law Firm",", ",[52,1734,1735],{},"Fulcrum Enterprise Group",", and ",[52,1738,1739],{},"Premier Office Movers",", where she aligns revenue goals with marketing execution. Whether she is translating complex tech into a go-to-market narrative for ",[52,1742,1743],{},"Avalanche Fusion",", or helping ",[52,1746,1747],{},"Extraordinary Advisors"," amplify their message, Kerry brings clarity and momentum to every leadership team she joins.",[14,1750,1751,1752,1754],{},"She is also the host of ",[206,1753,1679],{"href":1678},", where she interviews CMOs and Founders to uncover the human stories behind high-growth companies.",[14,1756,1757],{},"Kerry proves that high performance doesn't require burnout. As a mom of twins, she built MKG on a \"People First\" methodology—championing policies like 20 vacation days and zero after-hours emails—because she knows that rested, respected experts drive the best ROI.",[81,1759,1692],{"id":1691},[46,1761,1762],{},[49,1763,1697],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1765},[1766],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":1692},"Meet Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s CEO and Principal Strategist. She works directly with founders to build scalable marketing engines while hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.",{"landscape":1703},false,"Fractional Marketing 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Writing Content at Midnight (and How to Scale Past Yourself)",{"type":11,"value":2535,"toc":2791},[2536,2539,2542,2549,2552,2559,2564,2568,2571,2574,2577,2580,2600,2603,2607,2610,2617,2628,2633,2643,2646,2649,2652,2663,2666,2676,2679,2682,2685,2690,2694,2700,2711,2772,2775,2779,2782,2785,2788],[14,2537,2538],{},"You are sitting at your desk, and it is 12:42 AM. The rest of your house is completely dark. The only illumination comes from the harsh blue glow of your laptop screen, where a half-finished LinkedIn post and a messy content brief are staring back at you. Your eyes are bloodshot, your third cup of coffee from earlier today has long since turned into a hollow pit in your stomach, and you are trying to remember how you ended up here.",[14,2540,2541],{},"You are a Series B founder. You have raised millions of dollars. You have a product that customers love, an engineering team shipping code daily, and a board that expects you to double ARR over the next twelve months. Yet, instead of steering the ship, setting strategic partnerships, or closing enterprise deals, you are spending your midnights editing paragraphs, fixing broken formatting, and playing the role of a junior copywriter.",[14,2543,2544,2545,2548],{},"This is the reality of the ",[52,2546,2547],{},"founder bottleneck",", and it’s a desert where you cannot function.",[14,2550,2551],{},"Every single week, you are losing 15 to 20 hours to pure marketing chaos. You are acting as the human router between a disjointed network of freelancers: a writer who doesn’t understand your technical product, an SEO specialist who just dumps keyword spreadsheets into your inbox, and a graphic designer who takes four days to fix a font color. You are trapped in an exhausting cycle of constant review, micro-management, and point-solution firefighting, all to combat a terrifying trend: your organic traffic is dropping, and your pipeline is flattening out.",[14,2553,2554,2555,2558],{},"You didn't build a high-growth SaaS company to become a stressed-out project manager for outsourced contractors. It’s time to stop committing ",[52,2556,2557],{},"random acts of marketing (RAM)"," at midnight and build a growth engine that runs entirely without you.",[14,2560,2561],{},[75,2562],{"alt":77,"src":2563},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F45d6c10a-63c3-4a08-8b3d-bb83d71944c2-stop-writing-content-at-midnight-image-1.png",[24,2565,2567],{"id":2566},"the-chaos-trap-why-point-solutions-are-killing-your-growth","The Chaos Trap: Why Point-Solutions Are Killing Your Growth",[14,2569,2570],{},"When you first raised your Series B round, the mandate was simple: scale the pipeline. To achieve that, you likely followed the traditional digital marketing playbook. You hired a few niche freelancers, brought on a boutique agency for paid ads, and tasked yourself with overseeing the output.",[14,2572,2573],{},"It seemed efficient on paper. In practice, it created a highly fragmented system that demands your constant attention to survive. Niche agencies and freelancers operate in isolation; your SEO vendor doesn't talk to your content writer, and your content writer has no idea what your paid media team is testing.",[14,2575,2576],{},"Because there is no unified strategy or shared operational framework, the responsibility of connecting the dots falls entirely on your shoulders. You become the central node. Nothing moves unless you review it, approve it, or fix it.",[14,2578,2579],{},"This fragmentation results in three critical failure points for a Series B organization:",[46,2581,2582,2588,2594],{},[49,2583,2584,2587],{},[52,2585,2586],{},"The Velocity Crisis:"," Because you are managing independent contractors, a single piece of content takes three weeks to move from ideation to publication. By the time it goes live, the market window has shifted.",[49,2589,2590,2593],{},[52,2591,2592],{},"Vanity Metric Overload:"," Your point-solution vendors will always defend their specific silo. The SEO agency points to rising impressions, the copywriter points to word count, but neither can tell you how many qualified opportunities entered your CRM this month.",[49,2595,2596,2599],{},[52,2597,2598],{},"Strategic Disconnect:"," Freelancers write for search engine algorithms or generic audiences—they do not write for your buyers. Without deep product context, the content feels shallow, failing to capture the strategic narrative required to win enterprise deals.",[14,2601,2602],{},"This operational drag represents a massive hidden cost. When you spend 20 hours a week acting as a tactical traffic cop, you are not doing the high-leverage work that your board actually measured you on. You are sacrificing strategic growth to keep a broken execution model on life support.",[24,2604,2606],{"id":2605},"moving-beyond-chaos-to-a-systemized-pipeline","Moving Beyond Chaos to a Systemized Pipeline",[14,2608,2609],{},"To break free from this operational quicksand, your organization must transition away from disjointed point-solutions and embrace a unified framework. You do not need more freelancers to manage; you need an integrated execution model that converts your strategic vision into a pipeline without demanding your personal time.",[14,2611,2612,2613,2616],{},"This is where the shift to a ",[52,2614,2615],{},"systemized pipeline"," occurs. Instead of treating marketing as a series of isolated creative projects, it must be run as an integrated product engine.",[14,2618,2619,2620,2623,2624,2627],{},"A systemized growth engine relies on two foundational pillars: ",[52,2621,2622],{},"operational control"," and ",[52,2625,2626],{},"financial predictability",". When these two elements are integrated into your growth strategy, the need for midnight editing vanishes.",[14,2629,2630],{},[75,2631],{"alt":77,"src":2632},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F119a49bb-e39d-4d4f-a6d0-983ddb424358-stop-writing-content-at-midnight-image-2.png",[46,2634,2635],{},[49,2636,2637],{},[81,2638,2640],{"id":2639},"achieving-true-operational-control",[52,2641,2642],{},"Achieving True Operational Control",[14,2644,2645],{},"The primary reason founders get pulled into tactical execution is a lack of visibility. When marketing operates inside a black box of messy email threads, scattered Slack channels, and fragmented Google Docs, you naturally micro-manage because you cannot see what is happening until it is either late or broken.",[14,2647,2648],{},"True operational control means replacing communication chaos with absolute transparency. By consolidating all marketing execution into a single, centralized platform—such as fully optimized Asana sprint boards—you gain immediate clarity.",[14,2650,2651],{},"At any moment, you can look at a single dashboard and see exactly:",[46,2653,2654,2657,2660],{},[49,2655,2656],{},"What strategic initiatives are currently in production.",[49,2658,2659],{},"Who owns the next step of execution (design, copy, technical implementation).",[49,2661,2662],{},"The precise launch date for every campaign, asset, and distribution channel.",[14,2664,2665],{},"When production workflows are systematized, you no longer need to check in on people. You don't have to send \"Is this ready yet?\" Slack messages at 10:00 PM. The system provides the visibility, allowing you to step out of the project manager role and step back into the visionary role.",[46,2667,2668],{},[49,2669,2670],{},[81,2671,2673],{"id":2672},"eliminating-fees-with-transparent-published-pricing",[52,2674,2675],{},"Eliminating Fees With Transparent, Published Pricing",[14,2677,2678],{},"The second major friction point in scaling a marketing engine is financial unpredictability. Traditional agency models are intentionally opaque. They hide behind complex retainers, unpredictable hourly billing, and sudden scope-change fees that require constant negotiation.",[14,2680,2681],{},"Every time you want to pivot strategy, launch a new experiment, or spin up an extra campaign, you are forced to review a new statement of work (SOW) or argue over out-of-scope costs. This introduces massive procurement delays and wastes precious executive energy.",[14,2683,2684],{},"A modern growth engine eliminates this friction through fully transparent, published pricing models. When your execution partner operates on flat, predictable rates with clearly defined monthly deliverables, budgeting becomes simple. You know exactly what you are spending, precisely what you are getting, and you never have to waste time auditing a confusing invoice from an agency partner.",[14,2686,2687],{},[75,2688],{"alt":77,"src":2689},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4ecef925-47b0-4868-996d-e40f7f3d2f79-stop-writing-content-at-midnight-image-3.png",[24,2691,2693],{"id":2692},"the-execution-playbook-shifting-from-thinker-to-reviewer","The Execution Playbook: Shifting From Thinker to Reviewer",[14,2695,2696,2697,2699],{},"Building a self-running growth engine does not mean you abandon marketing entirely. Your strategic insights as a founder are incredibly valuable; you understand the market, the product, and the customer better than anyone else. The goal is to change ",[38,2698,1178],{}," your insights are extracted and executed.",[14,2701,2702,2703,2706,2707,2710],{},"You must transition from being the ",[52,2704,2705],{},"primary creator"," to the ",[52,2708,2709],{},"strategic reviewer",". Here is how an integrated execution model restructures your workflow to give you your time back:",[718,2712,2713,2726],{},[721,2714,2715],{},[724,2716,2717,2720,2723],{},[727,2718,2719],{},"Workflow Phase",[727,2721,2722],{},"The Legacy Way (Founder as Creator)",[727,2724,2725],{},"The Systemized Way (Founder as Reviewer)",[737,2727,2728,2739,2750,2761],{},[724,2729,2730,2733,2736],{},[742,2731,2732],{},"Ideation & Strategy",[742,2734,2735],{},"Founder spends hours researching keywords and drafting outlines from scratch.",[742,2737,2738],{},"Founder records a 10-minute Loom brief outlining core strategic concepts.",[724,2740,2741,2744,2747],{},[742,2742,2743],{},"Production & Layout",[742,2745,2746],{},"Founder routes drafts between isolated freelance writers and graphic designers.",[742,2748,2749],{},"Integrated partner handles research, writing, design, and technical setup natively.",[724,2751,2752,2755,2758],{},[742,2753,2754],{},"Quality Control",[742,2756,2757],{},"Founder spends midnights rewriting poor copy and fixing formatting errors.",[742,2759,2760],{},"Founder reviews a polished, near-final asset inside an Asana sprint board for approval.",[724,2762,2763,2766,2769],{},[742,2764,2765],{},"Analytics & Reporting",[742,2767,2768],{},"Founder logs into multiple dashboards trying to connect traffic to revenue.",[742,2770,2771],{},"Integrated partner delivers a single dashboard showing direct pipeline velocity impact.",[14,2773,2774],{},"By shifting your input to the very beginning of the loop (sharing your unique domain expertise) and the very end of the loop (final sign-off), you cut your time investment down from 20 hours a week to less than two. The entire middle phase, the heavy lifting of research, drafting, designing, and optimizing, is handled by an integrated execution system designed to scale.",[24,2776,2778],{"id":2777},"reclaiming-your-executive-leverage","Reclaiming Your Executive Leverage",[14,2780,2781],{},"Every hour you spend editing a blog post, tweaking a landing page headline, or tracking down an unresponsive freelancer is an hour stolen from the strategic growth of your company.",[14,2783,2784],{},"At the Series B stage, your board is not evaluating your performance based on how many articles you published or how many keyword metrics went up. They are looking at capital efficiency, scalable customer acquisition, and ARR growth.",[14,2786,2787],{},"When you break the founder bottleneck and replace random acts of marketing with a systematized pipeline, you aren't just cleaning up your marketing operations. You are reclaiming your executive leverage. You are giving yourself the operational freedom to focus on fundraising, culture, enterprise sales, and product innovation, the high-leverage work that actually moves the valuation needle.",[14,2789,2790],{},"Leave the midnight writing sessions behind. Build a systemized growth engine that operationalizes your marketing, gives you absolute visibility, and scales your pipeline predictably month after month.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":2792},[2793,2794,2795,2796],{"id":2566,"depth":291,"text":2567},{"id":2605,"depth":291,"text":2606},{"id":2692,"depth":291,"text":2693},{"id":2777,"depth":291,"text":2778},"2026-07-29T18:07:00.000Z","The Series B playbook for breaking the founder bottleneck, killing random acts of marketing, and scaling the pipeline.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4a418cd0-5b4d-4992-a4f9-5d05e6e77d40-mkg-blog-stop-writing-content-at-midnight.webp","Stop Writing content at midnight",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-writing-content-at-midnight-and-how-to-scale-past-yourself",{"title":2533,"description":2798},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-writing-content-at-midnight-and-how-to-scale-past-yourself","q8rSd-dxP2lQvim__EydH26_QqNh-FyUxBml5O9Xkz8",[],{"id":2808,"title":2809,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":2810,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":3054,"description":3055,"extension":318,"img":3056,"imgAlt":3057,"meta":3058,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":3059,"seo":3060,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3061,"updated":7,"__hash__":3062,"people":3063},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-last-click-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard.md","Beyond Last-Click - The Board-Ready SVO Dashboard",{"type":11,"value":2811,"toc":3041},[2812,2815,2818,2821,2824,2827,2831,2834,2838,2841,2844,2847,2852,2856,2866,2869,2930,2934,2941,2944,2948,2951,2958,2963,2967,2970,2980,2984,2987,2990,2994,2997,3002,3009,3023,3026,3031,3035,3038],[14,2813,2814],{},"Your board meeting is just two weeks away. The calendar invite is glaring back at you, and the agenda leaves no room to hide: defend your post-Series B marketing investment, prove incremental pipeline ROI over the next two quarters, and confirm that your current customer acquisition cost (CAC) trajectory is sustainable.",[14,2816,2817],{},"To get ready, you open your go-to web analytics platform. You expect to see the usual straight line between search rankings, site clicks, and inbound demo requests. Instead, you’re confronted with a disturbing trend.",[14,2819,2820],{},"Your top-of-funnel SEO platform insists you’re winning. Your priority keywords are ranking better than ever. Yet your site’s organic referral traffic is steadily declining week over week. Buyers are searching for the exact problems your SaaS product solves, but they’re getting complete, synthesized answers directly on the search results page. They scan AI-generated summaries, get what they need, and move on, without ever clicking a single link to your site.",[14,2822,2823],{},"You’re stuck in a measurement crisis. The attribution models digital marketers have depended on for more than twenty years, last-click tracking, multi-touch UTM parameters, and cookie-based sessions, are collapsing. When buyers research inside conversational interfaces, they eventually appear in your funnel as “Direct” traffic or self-reported “word of mouth,” often weeks after their true first touch.",[14,2825,2826],{},"Walk into the boardroom armed only with legacy traffic reports, trying to rationalize why stellar rankings coincide with shrinking website visits, and you’ll look like a marketer clinging to vanity metrics. To defend your budget and assert clear strategic authority, you need to adopt a modern measurement framework, one that captures how your brand builds influence without clicks and translates that influence into an airtight financial business case for your Chief Financial Officer (CFO).",[24,2828,2830],{"id":2829},"the-core-deficit-how-generative-engines-break-the-click-based-funnel","The Core Deficit: How Generative Engines Break the Click-Based Funnel",[14,2832,2833],{},"The structural breakdown in marketing measurement is a direct consequence of how search engines have redesigned their user experience. Large language models and AI search applications have introduced a friction-free research layer between your brand’s content and your prospects.",[24,2835,2837],{"id":2836},"the-interception-of-educational-search","The Interception of Educational Search",[14,2839,2840],{},"Under the legacy search model, informational queries served as highly profitable entry points for software platforms. When a buyer searched for a framework, such as \"how to design a B2B sales commission plan\" or \"enterprise API rate-limiting best practices,\" they were directed to an optimized blog post. That visit placed a tracking cookie, fired a retargeting pixel, and kicked off a measurable lead-nurturing journey.",[14,2842,2843],{},"Today, those same queries are resolved instantly within the search environment itself. The user’s intent is fully satisfied by an AI Overview, a Perplexity-style summary, or a ChatGPT conversation. Because they get the insight they need without ever reaching your site, this structural shift has created an Informational Query Collapse.",[14,2845,2846],{},"For modern marketers, the implication is clear: your top-of-funnel content is still training the models and powering the answers, but the traditional web-traffic feedback loop has been cut off.",[14,2848,2849],{},[75,2850],{"alt":77,"src":2851},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc20aa35e-dadf-47ca-8cbd-3742dfbfbc31-mkg-blog-beyond-last-click-image-1.png",[24,2853,2855],{"id":2854},"the-svo-attribution-matrix-shifting-metrics-from-clicks-to-models","The SVO Attribution Matrix: Shifting Metrics from Clicks to Models",[14,2857,2858,2859,2865],{},"To survive this transition, you must replace click-based attribution with a ",[206,2860,2863],{"href":2861,"rel":2862},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fresources\u002Fthe-ultimate-guide-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo\u002F",[210],[52,2864,168],{}," reporting framework. The board does not need to see how many people visited your resource page; they need to see if your brand is the definitive answer recommended by the systems your buyers use to make purchasing decisions.",[14,2867,2868],{},"This requires tracking a completely different set of metrics that measure your active digital footprint across the entire LLM ecosystem. Consider how your reporting must pivot to remain relevant:",[718,2870,2871,2884],{},[721,2872,2873],{},[724,2874,2875,2878,2881],{},[727,2876,2877],{},"Metric Category",[727,2879,2880],{},"Legacy Attribution Model",[727,2882,2883],{},"SVO Attribution Framework",[737,2885,2886,2897,2908,2919],{},[724,2887,2888,2891,2894],{},[742,2889,2890],{},"Primary Traffic KPI",[742,2892,2893],{},"Unique Sessions, Pageviews",[742,2895,2896],{},"Influence Without Clicks (Off-site impressions)",[724,2898,2899,2902,2905],{},[742,2900,2901],{},"Market Share Metric",[742,2903,2904],{},"Organic Keyword Share of Voice (SoV)",[742,2906,2907],{},"Share of Model (SOM) (Citation frequency)",[724,2909,2910,2913,2916],{},[742,2911,2912],{},"Attribution Vector",[742,2914,2915],{},"Last-Click UTM Parameters, First-Click Cookie",[742,2917,2918],{},"CRM-to-Model Pipeline Association",[724,2920,2921,2924,2927],{},[742,2922,2923],{},"Financial Validation",[742,2925,2926],{},"Cost Per Click (CPC), Cost Per Lead (CPL)",[742,2928,2929],{},"Pipeline Velocity, Accelerated Sales Cycles",[81,2931,2933],{"id":2932},"_1-quantifying-share-of-model-som","1. Quantifying Share of Model (SOM)",[14,2935,2936,2937,2940],{},"Just as you historically measured your share of voice on traditional search result pages, you must now measure your ",[52,2938,2939],{},"Share of Model (SOM)",". This KPI tracks how frequently your SaaS platform is cited as a recommended vendor or authoritative source across dominant large language models.",[14,2942,2943],{},"If a prospect asks an LLM to \"Compare the top three enterprise compliance platforms for Series B startups,\" your SOM metric tells you whether your brand was included in that generated recommendation, how prominently it was positioned, and what specific attributes were associated with your software.",[81,2945,2947],{"id":2946},"_2-measuring-influence-without-clicks","2. Measuring Influence Without Clicks",[14,2949,2950],{},"Because search experiences no longer require a click, your reach must be measured through off-site trust footprints. This involves tracking your brand's presence inside curated industry databases, open-source documentation, developer communities, and trusted third-party review platforms that generative models scrape to compile their summaries.",[14,2952,2953,2954,2957],{},"When your brand is consistently integrated into these reference networks, you exert massive ",[52,2955,2956],{},"Influence Without Clicks",". Your buyers absorb your brand authority during their initial AI research phase, bypassing your website entirely until they are ready to book a direct sales call.",[14,2959,2960],{},[75,2961],{"alt":77,"src":2962},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9329b26b-2033-4565-8e76-8bd7d88cddec-mkg-blog-beyond-last-click-image-2.png",[24,2964,2966],{"id":2965},"building-the-cfo-justification-package","Building the CFO-Justification Package",[14,2968,2969],{},"To defend your marketing budget, you must translate these modern off-site visibility metrics into a language your finance department respects. A CFO is inherently skeptical of abstract marketing concepts like \"brand awareness\" or \"algorithm influence.\" They want to see how these adjustments reduce customer acquisition costs and accelerate the movement of capital through the business.",[14,2971,2972,2973,2976,2977,212],{},"Your ",[52,2974,2975],{},"CFO Justification"," package must connect your SVO strategy directly to the core metric of enterprise growth: ",[52,2978,2979],{},"Pipeline Velocity",[81,2981,2983],{"id":2982},"step-1-mapping-the-offline-crm-signal-loop","Step 1: Mapping the Offline CRM Signal Loop",[14,2985,2986],{},"To prove that your off-site visibility is driving real pipeline, you must establish an automated data loop between your customer relationship management (CRM) system and your marketing data.",[14,2988,2989],{},"When a prospect books a demo and enters your pipeline, you can no longer rely on self-reported attribution forms or simple direct-traffic categorization. You must cross-reference their IP address, company domain, and early-stage engagement timeline with your off-site coverage. By demonstrating that accounts exposed to your high-ranking AI citations move through the funnel faster, you prove the direct pipeline impact of your off-site optimization efforts.",[81,2991,2993],{"id":2992},"step-2-calculating-pipeline-velocity-impact","Step 2: Calculating Pipeline Velocity Impact",[14,2995,2996],{},"Use the standard financial formula for revenue acceleration to show how your SVO efforts directly de-risk the sales cycle:",[14,2998,2999],{},[52,3000,3001],{},"Pipeline Velocity = (Qualified Opportunities × Average Deal Value × Win Rate) \u002F Sales Cycle Length",[14,3003,3004,3005,3008],{},"When you optimize your brand for LLM retrieval and citation, you are educating the buyer ",[38,3006,3007],{},"before"," they ever speak to an account executive. When a prospect enters your funnel after researching solutions through an AI engine, they are already deeply informed about your product’s capabilities and specific differentiators. This pre-educated state dramatically reduces internal sales friction, resulting in:",[46,3010,3011,3017],{},[49,3012,3013,3016],{},[52,3014,3015],{},"Shorter Sales Cycles:"," Buyers make decisions faster because they do not need to sit through basic introductory education.",[49,3018,3019,3022],{},[52,3020,3021],{},"Higher Win Rates:"," Your sales team is engaging with highly qualified prospects who already understand your platform's unique value proposition.",[14,3024,3025],{},"By presenting a clear, data-backed correlation between SVO visibility and a shorter sales cycle, you give your CFO an undeniable business case: your marketing spend is directly accelerating the velocity of capital through the company.",[14,3027,3028],{},[75,3029],{"alt":77,"src":3030},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F2689edb5-819c-489b-bca1-ea162addeb5a-mkg-blog-beyond-last-click-image-3.png",[24,3032,3034],{"id":3033},"summary","Summary",[14,3036,3037],{},"Defending your marketing strategy to a venture-backed board in 2026 requires an immediate departure from legacy, click-reliant reporting models. When search engines transition to closed-answer ecosystems, traditional web traffic metrics decline, while actual brand influence remains highly active. AI Overviews and zero-click search behaviors are systematically intercepting your buyers during the educational research phase, causing a dramatic drop in top-of-funnel website sessions.",[14,3039,3040],{},"To protect your budget and align your team with revenue growth, you must implement a robust Search Visibility Optimization dashboard built for executive scrutiny. This shift requires three core actions: measuring your Share of Model (SOM) to track your brand’s citation frequency across leading AI platforms, quantifying your Influence Without Clicks by auditing your off-site trust footprints, and building a CFO-ready justification package that ties SVO directly to pipeline velocity improvements and reduced sales cycle lengths. Stop defending empty traffic drops. Align your metrics with financial reality, demonstrate how off-site authority drives qualified buyer intent, and transform your marketing team into a highly accountable, capital-efficient pipeline engine.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3042},[3043,3044,3045,3049,3053],{"id":2829,"depth":291,"text":2830},{"id":2836,"depth":291,"text":2837},{"id":2854,"depth":291,"text":2855,"children":3046},[3047,3048],{"id":2932,"depth":297,"text":2933},{"id":2946,"depth":297,"text":2947},{"id":2965,"depth":291,"text":2966,"children":3050},[3051,3052],{"id":2982,"depth":297,"text":2983},{"id":2992,"depth":297,"text":2993},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-07-15T16:22:26.797Z","When search engines stop sending traffic, your pipeline reporting must evolve to measure true market influence.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F59ea0764-d440-4526-95b2-ebad4d4b1e78-mkg-blog-beyond-last-click-hero-image.webp","Beyond Last-Click ",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-last-click-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard",{"title":2809,"description":3055},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-last-click-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard","bGFaSPY1CZCMNuC5QvVCjJfg5WRIqlOd8pvEPUu-oxI",[],{"id":3065,"title":3066,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":3067,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":3291,"description":3292,"extension":318,"img":3293,"imgAlt":3294,"meta":3295,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":3297,"seo":3298,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3299,"updated":7,"__hash__":3300,"people":3301},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-june-2026.md","Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Monthly Overview - June 2026",{"type":11,"value":3068,"toc":3275},[3069,3071,3109,3111,3114,3117,3132,3136,3145,3149,3162,3166,3173,3181,3184,3188,3197,3206,3208,3212,3220,3224,3238,3242,3245,3248,3268],[24,3070,917],{"id":914},[46,3072,3073,3085,3097],{},[49,3074,3075,3078,3079,3084],{},[52,3076,3077],{},"Algorithmic Consolidation:"," Google executed its ",[206,3080,3083],{"href":3081,"rel":3082},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seopress.org\u002Fnewsroom\u002Fseo-news\u002Fjune-2026\u002F",[210],"June 2026 Spam Update"," immediately after the May 2026 Core Update concluded, heavily targeting automated search manipulation, back-button hijacking, and inauthentic brand mentions.",[49,3086,3087,3090,3091,3096],{},[52,3088,3089],{},"The 1-Billion-User Pivot:"," First-party data confirms Google’s conversational \"AI Mode\" has ",[206,3092,3095],{"href":3093,"rel":3094},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.google\u002Fproducts-and-platforms\u002Fproducts\u002Fsearch\u002Fai-mode-us-insights\u002F",[210],"surpassed 1 billion monthly active users",". User behavior here is strictly non-linear, creating a closed-loop ecosystem where traditional click-through rates (CTR) collapse.",[49,3098,3099,3102,3103,3108],{},[52,3100,3101],{},"Standardized AI Attribution:"," Google Analytics 4 introduced a native ",[206,3104,3107],{"href":3105,"rel":3106},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-analytics-adds-ai-assistant-as-default-channel-group\u002F574974\u002F",[210],"AI assistant channel group",", giving growth leaders measurable, unfragmented visibility into referral traffic generated by LLM engines.",[24,3110,972],{"id":969},[14,3112,3113],{},"June was defined by quick, back-to-back updates designed to clear low-quality clutter from search results and crack down on sites that use automated shortcuts to fake their authority.",[81,3115,3083],{"id":3116},"june-2026-spam-update",[14,3118,3119,3120,3125,3126,3131],{},"Google launched and completed its",[206,3121,3124],{"href":3122,"rel":3123},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-begins-rolling-out-the-june-2026-spam-update\u002F580424\u002F",[210]," June 2026 Spam Update"," between June 24 and June 26. Running for just over 48 hours, this global update leveraged the AI-driven SpamBrain system to suppress artificial citation footprints. According to early technical analyses, the ",[206,3127,3130],{"href":3128,"rel":3129},"https:\u002F\u002Fmomenticmarketing.com\u002Fgoogle-updates\u002Fjune-2026-spam-update",[210],"update"," focused heavily on correcting \"back-button hijacking\" and sites engineering inauthentic digital PR mentions to manipulate authority metrics.",[81,3133,3135],{"id":3134},"may-2026-core-update-conclusion","May 2026 Core Update Conclusion",[14,3137,3138,3139,3144],{},"This rapid spam crackdown followed the",[206,3140,3143],{"href":3141,"rel":3142},"https:\u002F\u002Fstatus.search.google.com\u002Fproducts\u002FrGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi\u002Fhistory?authuser=1",[210]," May 2026 Core Update",", which officially concluded its 12-day rollout on June 2. The consecutive sequence of these updates indicates Google is tightening its data-filtering thresholds. For Series A–C tech companies, this means programmatic or low-utility content footprints are facing accelerated volatility, directly impacting organic traffic stability and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).",[24,3146,3148],{"id":3147},"the-geoaeo-frontier","The GEO\u002FAEO Frontier",[14,3150,3151,2623,3156,3161],{},[206,3152,3155],{"href":3153,"rel":3154},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fgenerative-engine-optimization\u002F",[210],"Generative Experience Optimization (GEO)",[206,3157,3160],{"href":3158,"rel":3159},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fanswer-engine-optimization\u002F",[210],"Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)"," transitioned from theoretical concepts to practical marketing channels. New data on user behavior now confirms this shift.",[81,3163,3165],{"id":3164},"conversational-ai-scale-behavior","Conversational AI Scale & Behavior",[14,3167,3168,3172],{},[206,3169,3171],{"href":3093,"rel":3170},[210],"Data"," released around Google’s AI Mode highlights a massive shift in user behavior:",[46,3174,3175,3178],{},[49,3176,3177],{},"Queries in AI Mode average three times as long as traditional searches.",[49,3179,3180],{},"Decision-stage questions starting with \"which\" rose 40%, signaling that high-intent commercial evaluation is moving into conversational interfaces.",[14,3182,3183],{},"However, the impact on organic CTR is consequential. Session analyses show that in 88% of AI Mode tasks, users accept the model's shortlist as-is. More starkly, 74% select the top-ranked recommendation, and 64% click no links at all.",[81,3185,3187],{"id":3186},"citation-bias-and-platform-updates","Citation Bias and Platform Updates",[14,3189,3190,3191,3196],{},"A June data study published on ",[206,3192,3195],{"href":3193,"rel":3194},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-ai-overviews-cite-self-serving-listicles-recommend-competitors-480573",[210],"Search Engine Land"," revealed that while Google's AI Overviews heavily cite listicles and comparison matrices, the engine recommends a brand's direct competitors 69% of the time within those summaries. This highlights a structural bias toward third-party aggregators, earned media, and affiliate domains over a brand’s owned web assets.",[14,3198,3199,3200,3205],{},"Concurrently, alternative engines are upgrading their enterprise analytics. Perplexity rolled out its ",[206,3201,3204],{"href":3202,"rel":3203},"https:\u002F\u002Freleasebot.io\u002Fupdates\u002Fperplexity-ai",[210],"\"Deep Research in Computer\""," infrastructure alongside a new Computer Analytics API, enabling B2B enterprises to pull model query data directly into internal reporting stacks such as Snowflake or Hex.",[24,3207,1055],{"id":1052},[81,3209,3211],{"id":3210},"what-to-ignore","What to Ignore",[46,3213,3214],{},[49,3215,3216,3219],{},[52,3217,3218],{},"Unvalidated \"GEO Hacks\":"," Disregard trending guides advocating for hyper-fragmented content chunking or the forced deployment of llm.txt files to control crawlers. Google’s official generative search optimization documentation explicitly debunked these tactics as low-impact noise. The underlying models prioritize data completeness and human utility, not structural gimmicks.",[81,3221,3223],{"id":3222},"where-to-pivot","Where to Pivot",[46,3225,3226,3232],{},[49,3227,3228,3231],{},[52,3229,3230],{},"Audit Your Shared Real Estate:"," Given that AI Overviews favor competitors 69% of the time across aggregate listicles, marketing leaders must pivot budgets from solo blog production toward aggressive digital PR and dominance in affiliate marketplaces. If your brand is not among the top five in external industry roundups, LLMs will systematically omit you from decision-stage queries.",[49,3233,3234,3237],{},[52,3235,3236],{},"Configure Native AI Attribution:"," Audit your Google Analytics setup to leverage the new default AI assistant channel group. This ensures your marketing operations team can accurately segment and defend LLM-driven ROI to the board, turning historically \"dark\" referral traffic into clean data.",[24,3239,3241],{"id":3240},"optimize-for-the-future","Optimize for the Future",[14,3243,3244],{},"With more and more AI search sessions resulting in zero clicks, traditional SEO is no longer enough to protect your pipeline. To stay visible, you need a Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) strategy that ensures AI models index, cite, and recommend your brand.",[14,3246,3247],{},"MKG helps protect your revenue from sudden search engine changes in three practical ways:",[46,3249,3250,3256,3262],{},[49,3251,3252,3255],{},[52,3253,3254],{},"AI Search Audits:"," We find exactly where AI models are leaving your brand out of product recommendations and shortlists.",[49,3257,3258,3261],{},[52,3259,3260],{},"Technical Site Alignment:"," We update your backend code, so Google and AI engines understand and display your company's facts accurately.",[49,3263,3264,3267],{},[52,3265,3266],{},"Clear Traffic Tracking:"," We organize your analytics so you can actually see and measure the business value coming from AI search engines.",[14,3269,3270,3271,212],{},"To future-proof your digital acquisition engine and lower your CAC,",[206,3272,3274],{"href":275,"rel":3273},[210]," Book a Discovery Call with MKG today",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3276},[3277,3278,3282,3286,3290],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972,"children":3279},[3280,3281],{"id":3116,"depth":297,"text":3083},{"id":3134,"depth":297,"text":3135},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148,"children":3283},[3284,3285],{"id":3164,"depth":297,"text":3165},{"id":3186,"depth":297,"text":3187},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055,"children":3287},[3288,3289],{"id":3210,"depth":297,"text":3211},{"id":3222,"depth":297,"text":3223},{"id":3240,"depth":291,"text":3241},"2026-07-08T17:14:21.417Z","Stay updated on the June 2026 search landscape: Google’s Spam Update, AI Mode’s 1-billion-user shift, GA4 AI attribution, and the rise of zero-click journeys.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F0deef299-c7d8-4147-b9ee-16a1e12c7b61-mkg-blog-seo-industry-overview-june-2026.webp","AI search signals organized into revenue growth",{},4,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-june-2026",{"title":3066,"description":3292},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-june-2026","iJ3R9RUVv4IceVtg0h4t-Hbd5el3xW4EFwYktG-OtO8",[],{"id":3303,"title":3304,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":3305,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":3550,"description":3551,"extension":318,"img":3552,"imgAlt":3553,"meta":3554,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":3556,"seo":3557,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3558,"updated":7,"__hash__":3559,"people":3560},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-great-decoupling-why-saas-seo-is-changing-in-2026.md","The Great Decoupling - Why SaaS SEO Is Changing in 2026",{"type":11,"value":3306,"toc":3537},[3307,3310,3313,3316,3319,3322,3325,3329,3332,3336,3339,3342,3345,3349,3356,3359,3362,3367,3371,3379,3382,3443,3446,3449,3454,3458,3461,3464,3468,3478,3492,3495,3499,3502,3511,3514,3518,3521,3524,3529,3531,3534],[14,3308,3309],{},"Your organic ranking report lands in your inbox and, at first glance, everything looks like a win. Your core informational keywords occupy comfortable spots in the top three positions. Your top-of-funnel blog content is indexing exactly where you planned, and traditional position-tracking tools insist your organic visibility is fully optimized.",[14,3311,3312],{},"But when you open Google Analytics and examine actual website sessions, the graph tells a very different story.",[14,3314,3315],{},"Organic traffic to your highest-performing marketing assets hasn’t just softened, it has fallen off a cliff. Across your long-standing resource center and educational content hub, incoming visits are down anywhere from 34% to 80%. Lead forms are stagnant, qualified product sign-ups have evaporated, and you’re being held personally responsible for a catastrophic traffic drop that, according to conventional optimization metrics, shouldn’t be happening at all.",[14,3317,3318],{},"You’re following the standard playbook to the letter. You’re running comprehensive keyword research, targeting high-volume informational queries, optimizing header tags, and building authoritative backlinks. Yet even while you’re doing everything right, your post-funding SaaS growth engine is burning through capital while becoming effectively invisible to your market.",[14,3320,3321],{},"This is the lived reality of the structural crisis reshaping digital acquisition. The once-direct link between ranking at the top of the SERP and earning human clicks has been fundamentally severed. We’ve entered the era of the great decoupling, where traditional organic search success no longer guarantees actual user discovery.",[14,3323,3324],{},"If you continue to evaluate marketing performance through the volume-obsessed lens of the past, you’ll end up defending hollow metrics to an executive team that cares only about pipeline. To stop the bleed, you have to understand the specific engineering shifts within modern search networks that intercept your buyers long before they ever reach your domain.",[24,3326,3328],{"id":3327},"the-double-whammy-informational-query-collapse-and-zero-click-realities","The Double-Whammy: Informational Query Collapse and Zero-Click Realities",[14,3330,3331],{},"The reason your traffic is vanishing while your positions remain intact comes down to a permanent shift in search engine monetization and layout design. Search platforms have transformed from directory indexes that route traffic outward into closed ecosystems designed to answer questions natively.",[81,3333,3335],{"id":3334},"_1-ai-overviews-and-the-elimination-of-the-organic-click","1. AI Overviews and the Elimination of the Organic Click",[14,3337,3338],{},"The primary driver of this sudden drop in visibility is the rapid rollout of AI Overviews (AIO). In the past, when a B2B buyer needed an educational answer—whether they were comparing software compliance architectures or figuring out how to scale their data infrastructure—they would typically click through to a top-ranking SaaS blog post.",[14,3340,3341],{},"Now, Google intercepts that intent. Organic click-through rates fall sharply on queries where an AI Overview appears. A position-one result that once reliably attracted clicks now captures only a fraction of that traffic, because the generative answer box satisfies the user’s question directly on the results page.",[14,3343,3344],{},"This shift has sparked an unprecedented collapse in informational queries. Large language models are uniquely suited to ingest, synthesize, and surface educational information. If your marketing strategy is built on high-volume, top-of-funnel keywords, you are effectively competing with the search engine’s own interface. The engine extracts your insights, repackages them as a native text block, and leaves your website with little more than a fleeting impression.",[81,3346,3348],{"id":3347},"_2-the-rise-of-the-zero-click-search","2. The Rise of the Zero-Click Search",[14,3350,3351,3352,3355],{},"This monetization behavior has accelerated the prevalence of the ",[52,3353,3354],{},"Zero-Click Search",". Fresh market data show an undeniable trend: the vast majority of standard informational web searches now end without a single click to an external website. Buyers get their answer, end their browsing session, and move on.",[14,3357,3358],{},"Worse yet, the links embedded within generative summaries are largely ignored, with only a tiny fraction of users actually clicking through to the source materials. The old mechanics of content marketing, where you traded free information for web traffic, are obsolete.",[14,3360,3361],{},"When your metrics are tied to traffic volume, an automated summary that satisfies a user query can appear to be an operational failure on your internal dashboards. In reality, the audience is still looking for solutions, but they have migrated to a multi-platform environment that standard index-tracking software cannot track or quantify.",[14,3363,3364],{},[75,3365],{"alt":77,"src":3366},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F5f8436d1-dceb-4e2e-be9a-9a455121bf69-mkg-blog-the-great-decoupling-image-1.png",[24,3368,3370],{"id":3369},"the-fatal-flaw-optimizing-for-keyword-volume-vs-llm-retrieval","The Fatal Flaw: Optimizing for Keyword Volume vs. LLM Retrieval",[14,3372,3373,3374,3378],{},"If your content calendar is driven primarily by search volume metrics pulled from traditional ",[206,3375,744],{"href":3376,"rel":3377},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fsearch-engine-optimization\u002F",[210]," platforms, you are systematically producing assets that are invisible to modern buyers. Legacy tools calculate volume based on historical click patterns, completely missing the multi-platform journey your prospects take across ecosystems like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's native AI interfaces.",[14,3380,3381],{},"The framework for evaluating search success must shift from simple traffic accumulation to an active systemic model. Consider the structural difference between legacy keyword acquisition and an optimization framework designed for modern search behavior:",[718,3383,3384,3397],{},[721,3385,3386],{},[724,3387,3388,3391,3394],{},[727,3389,3390],{},"Performance Component",[727,3392,3393],{},"Legacy Keyword Volume Model",[727,3395,3396],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Framework",[737,3398,3399,3410,3421,3432],{},[724,3400,3401,3404,3407],{},[742,3402,3403],{},"Primary Metric",[742,3405,3406],{},"Organic Traffic, Pageviews, Keyword Rank",[742,3408,3409],{},"Citation Share, LLM Retrieval Frequency, Pipeline",[724,3411,3412,3415,3418],{},[742,3413,3414],{},"Content Focus",[742,3416,3417],{},"Broad Informational Text, High-Volume Blogs",[742,3419,3420],{},"Self-Contained Passages, Node-Based Architecture",[724,3422,3423,3426,3429],{},[742,3424,3425],{},"Target Infrastructure",[742,3427,3428],{},"Traditional Search Engine Indexes",[742,3430,3431],{},"Large Language Model Vector Databases",[724,3433,3434,3437,3440],{},[742,3435,3436],{},"Discovery Vector",[742,3438,3439],{},"Single-Engine Keyword Matches",[742,3441,3442],{},"Multi-Surface Brand Attribution (GEO, AEO)",[14,3444,3445],{},"When you orient your production toward high-volume informational keywords, you create fluff text that AI scrapers can easily summarize and discard. Large language models do not look for word count or keyword density; they look for explicit entities, clear relationship mappings, and structured data points that can be retrieved and packaged into an immediate user response.",[14,3447,3448],{},"To build an organic acquisition model that survives this transition, you must dismantle the division between traditional content creation, answer optimization, and technical data structure. Your content must be engineered to be retrieved as a direct citation by an answer engine, rather than just waiting for a human click that may never come.",[14,3450,3451],{},[75,3452],{"alt":77,"src":3453},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F82d9e480-5f8e-4102-8c62-784d55c5dcea-mkg-blog-the-great-decoupling-image-2.png",[24,3455,3457],{"id":3456},"systemic-accountability-the-svo-framework-for-modern-retrieval","Systemic Accountability: The SVO Framework for Modern Retrieval",[14,3459,3460],{},"Winning in modern search means going far beyond basic index optimization. You need to approach search visibility as a unified, end-to-end system explicitly designed for large-language-model retrieval. That requires restructuring your entire digital footprint so it can effectively feed into the vector databases that power generative search experiences.",[14,3462,3463],{},"Gaining reliable visibility in an AI-driven search ecosystem requires an immediate operational reset built on three core pillars.",[81,3465,3467],{"id":3466},"pillar-3-implementing-generative-engine-optimization-geo","Pillar 3: Implementing Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)",[14,3469,3470,3471,3477],{},"To ensure your brand is cited in generative answer boxes, your digital assets must be structured in line with the core tenets of ",[206,3472,3474],{"href":3153,"rel":3473},[210],[52,3475,3476],{},"Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)",". LLMs prioritize clear data nodes and explicit entity relationships over lengthy narratives.",[46,3479,3480,3486],{},[49,3481,3482,3485],{},[52,3483,3484],{},"Isolate Information into Extractable Passages:"," Content must be written in highly structured, self-contained blocks. Each section must provide an authoritative, direct answer in the first two sentences so an algorithm can lift the passage cleanly for a summary snippet.",[49,3487,3488,3491],{},[52,3489,3490],{},"Inject Specialized Terminology and Schema:"," Use technical, unambiguous industry terms and hard data points. Back this up with comprehensive schema markup—such as Product, Organization, and FAQPage code blocks—to give retrieval engines clean, machine-readable validation of your expertise.",[14,3493,3494],{},"By formatting content as a series of verified information nodes, you transition your assets from standard pages into high-priority sources that generative models actively select for their citations.",[81,3496,3498],{"id":3497},"pillar-4-capturing-multi-platform-answer-engine-optimization-aeo","Pillar 4: Capturing Multi-Platform Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)",[14,3500,3501],{},"Your buyers are no longer using a single search box to evaluate software vendors. Market data show that conversational tools are capturing a large share of research intent, with platforms experiencing clear adoption spikes among technical enterprise buyers.",[14,3503,3504,3505,3510],{},"You must expand your strategy into a comprehensive ",[206,3506,3508,1043],{"href":3158,"rel":3507},[210],[52,3509,3160],{},"model. This means building a digital footprint that extends beyond your domain. Generative engines do not evaluate your site in a vacuum; they cross-reference your claims against third-party data networks, developer forums, review ecosystems, and professional platforms.",[14,3512,3513],{},"Ensure your brand entity is explicitly mentioned, categorized, and reviewed across these peripheral environments. When an LLM executes a multi-source synthesis query to recommend a vendor, your presence across these verified external networks forces the engine to include your brand in the final response.",[81,3515,3517],{"id":3516},"pillar-5-transitioning-metrics-to-citation-share-and-real-time-tracking","Pillar 5: Transitioning Metrics to Citation Share and Real-Time Tracking",[14,3519,3520],{},"You must stop using organic traffic volume as the primary indicator of search health. Because zero-click behavior is rising, a drop in traffic does not automatically mean your brand has lost market influence. You need a reporting infrastructure that tracks your presence within the answers themselves.",[14,3522,3523],{},"Implement tracking mechanisms that measure your citation frequency, brand mention frequency, and overall share of voice inside AI Overviews and native conversational tools. Break down your referral sources by specific AI platforms to see which retrieval architectures are actively feeding your pipeline. When you align your internal tracking with actual citation delivery, you can easily separate platform-wide search changes from controllable marketing performance issues.",[14,3525,3526],{},[75,3527],{"alt":77,"src":3528},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F70c363a9-e782-49c5-a4c2-f67fcda73d8c-mkg-blog-the-great-decoupling-image-3.png",[24,3530,3034],{"id":3033},[14,3532,3533],{},"Winning in organic search now demands a decisive break from volume-obsessed content playbooks. When your rankings remain strong, but website sessions collapse, the real issue is a structural split between search engine optimization and how users actually click. Generative features like Google’s AI Overviews are soaking up high-volume informational queries, assembling answers directly on the results page, and creating a pervasive zero-click environment that starves legacy blog portfolios of traffic.",[14,3535,3536],{},"To future-proof your digital acquisition engine and safeguard post-funding growth, you need to evolve your content approach into an integrated search visibility framework. That shift hinges on three concrete moves: engineering content for Generative Engine Optimization with self-contained data nodes and clean schema markup; expanding into Answer Engine Optimization to build brand authority across third-party ecosystems; and upgrading your analytics to track citation share instead of vanity pageviews. Stop running an outdated playbook that leaves your SaaS platform invisible. Demand uncompromising clarity from your tracking models, optimize directly for algorithmic retrieval, and turn generative search into a reliable, compounding driver of pipeline.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3538},[3539,3543,3544,3549],{"id":3327,"depth":291,"text":3328,"children":3540},[3541,3542],{"id":3334,"depth":297,"text":3335},{"id":3347,"depth":297,"text":3348},{"id":3369,"depth":291,"text":3370},{"id":3456,"depth":291,"text":3457,"children":3545},[3546,3547,3548],{"id":3466,"depth":297,"text":3467},{"id":3497,"depth":297,"text":3498},{"id":3516,"depth":297,"text":3517},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-07-08T16:16:30.271Z","Legacy content strategies are triggering massive traffic drops as AI Overviews intercept informational search volume. ","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F91f5449b-4a04-436d-9866-d31810d27c34-mkg-blog-the-great-decoupling-hero-image.webp","web search",{},8,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-great-decoupling-why-saas-seo-is-changing-in-2026",{"title":3304,"description":3551},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-great-decoupling-why-saas-seo-is-changing-in-2026","fMp6DS12r3d_W-aD_SEQ2AVCD-CzxjI_kCWqh6XMnSY",[],{"id":3562,"title":3563,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":3564,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":3773,"description":3774,"extension":318,"img":3775,"imgAlt":3776,"meta":3777,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":3778,"seo":3779,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3780,"updated":7,"__hash__":3781,"people":3782},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility.md","Stop Chasing Citations - Why Native LLM Mentions Are the New Baseline for B2B Tech Visibility",{"type":11,"value":3565,"toc":3764},[3566,3569,3572,3575,3582,3587,3591,3594,3597,3606,3609,3613,3616,3619,3622,3629,3634,3638,3645,3653,3673,3679,3683,3686,3689,3692,3697,3701,3704,3712,3732,3735,3739,3742,3749,3752,3754,3757],[14,3567,3568],{},"You’re probably grinding through sixty-hour weeks, drained by the nonstop demands of today’s “answer economy.” Your calendar is a tangle of technical metadata reviews, schema rollouts, and aggressive backlink campaigns. Every working hour feels like a defensive scramble. You’re optimizing your digital presence for one narrow outcome: earning a tiny, hyperlinked citation at the bottom of a conversational engine’s response. That small, numbered source link has become the proxy for the value of your entire content program.",[14,3570,3571],{},"But when you zoom out from local SEO dashboards and examine your actual revenue pipeline, the picture is flat. New customer growth has slowed, and your sales team is flagging a serious lack of high-intent enterprise deals.",[14,3573,3574],{},"The real problem is unfolding where you can’t see it. While you double down on classic search tactics to secure a defensive citation, your top competitors are skipping the citation layer altogether. When an enterprise buyer asks a large language model which software vendor to choose, the platform doesn’t just point to a website. It writes your competitor’s brand directly into the core narrative. The model positions their product as the category standard, endorses their workflow approach, and quietly leaves your company off the short list.",[14,3576,3577,3578,3581],{},"So when your founder or board presses you for an explanation of shrinking organic inbound, your legacy web analytics stack can’t provide a solid, data-backed answer. If you keep defending marketing performance with session counts and traditional indexing metrics, you’ll stay trapped in a loop of overwork and declining impact. To navigate this shift, B2B tech leaders must stop chasing superficial citations and adopt an integrated strategy centered on ",[206,3579,168],{"href":208,"rel":3580},[210]," and persistent, native mentions of their corporate brand.",[14,3583,3584],{},[75,3585],{"alt":77,"src":3586},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc5f7302e-ce8a-4faf-b0ac-4815664ca413-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-1.png",[24,3588,3590],{"id":3589},"the-footnote-mirage-and-the-illusion-of-traffic","The Footnote Mirage and the Illusion of Traffic",[14,3592,3593],{},"The core error most modern B2B marketing teams make is treating conversational engine citations as equivalent to traditional search engine clicks. This structural misunderstanding creates a serious operational trap. Securing a citation link at the bottom of a summarized answer feels like a tactical win. It shows up in your reporting as a visible placement, reinforcing the belief that your digital presence is successfully intercepting contemporary buyer journeys.",[14,3595,3596],{},"In practice, behavioral data shows that these footnotes are effectively invisible to today’s economic buyer. Conversational models are designed to function as final-answer systems, not as link directories. When a buyer is presented with a clean, authoritative, side-by-side comparison of enterprise software options, their information needs are met inside that single interface. They are not clicking through dozens of citations to review original sources; they consume the narrative, trust the model’s primary recommendations, and move directly into procurement evaluation.",[14,3598,3599,3600,3605],{},"This exact shift is confirmed by macro performance data. Comprehensive user behavioral analysis published in ",[206,3601,3604],{"href":3602,"rel":3603},"https:\u002F\u002Fcompany.g2.com\u002Fnews\u002Fg2-research-the-answer-economy",[210],"G2’s 2026 Answer Economy Report"," reveals that 51% of business-to-business software buyers now completely bypass traditional search engine queries in favor of direct, conversational interfaces when building vendor lists.",[14,3607,3608],{},"If your primary growth strategy revolves around capturing the last remnants of click-through traffic from tiny citation footnotes, you’re competing over a rapidly shrinking share of the market. Winning a link is irrelevant if the model’s main narrative is telling buyers to choose your competitor’s product. Achieving real visibility means redirecting your efforts away from shallow indexing metrics and toward a deliberate practice of Mention Engineering.",[24,3610,3612],{"id":3611},"decoding-the-core-engine-parametric-memory-vs-indexing","Decoding the Core Engine: Parametric Memory vs. Indexing",[14,3614,3615],{},"To move beyond defensive, click-driven tactics, you first need to understand how a conversational engine actually forms a recommendation. Traditional search engines behave like directories: they crawl web content, map keywords, index your pages, and route users to your URLs. Conversational engines are fundamentally different. They don’t scour the open web in real time to surface a link for each basic query; instead, they rely on an internal network of weights, pathways, and associations—what we call Parametric Memory Seeding.",[14,3617,3618],{},"When a conversational engine answers a prompt, it taps into this pre-trained parametric structure to generate its response. If your product attributes, brand name, and real customer scenarios are not thoroughly encoded in those underlying weights, the model has no basis to naturally surface your brand story. It may occasionally surface your site as a transient citation via external search plugins, but it will not present your company as an inherent, trusted recommendation.",[14,3620,3621],{},"This underlying structure explains why traditional, stand-alone content production no longer drives meaningful pipeline results. Churning out keyword-loaded blog posts or purchasing low-quality backlinks does nothing to reshape a model’s internal parametric associations; these legacy tactics are effectively treated as background noise.",[14,3623,3624,3625,3628],{},"To fundamentally influence how an enterprise-scale model perceives your product, you need a unified architecture that simultaneously targets both its parametric memory and the live vector spaces underpinning the web’s primary data models. Making this transition means advancing beyond surface-level ",[206,3626,3476],{"href":3153,"rel":3627},[210]," and committing to deep, data-layer positioning.",[14,3630,3631],{},[75,3632],{"alt":77,"src":3633},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F6d0b1599-0f9a-4137-8b80-61959fb7a116-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-2.png",[24,3635,3637],{"id":3636},"the-svo-blueprint-engineering-native-mentions","The SVO Blueprint: Engineering Native Mentions",[14,3639,3640,3641,3644],{},"Moving your SaaS platform from a hidden footnote to a primary narrative recommendation requires a strict, engineering-led approach to information distribution. You must treat the web not as a collection of human-readable web pages, but as an expansive training database. Your goal is to maximize ",[52,3642,3643],{},"Entity Co-occurrence","—ensuring that whenever an engine processes data regarding your specific industry vertical, your brand name is consistently tied to the absolute highest-authority reference nodes in that space.",[14,3646,3647,3648,3652],{},"An effective, boardroom-ready ",[206,3649,3651],{"href":208,"rel":3650},[210],"SVO ","framework operates across three distinct data layers:",[46,3654,3655,3661,3667],{},[49,3656,3657,3660],{},[52,3658,3659],{},"Unstructured Community Mapping:"," The models place immense trust in unfiltered, peer-to-peer technical validation. Your engineering documentation, product use cases, and deployment workflows must be deeply embedded into high-authority developer networks, open-source code repositories, and ungated technical forums where models systematically gather real-world consensus.",[49,3662,3663,3666],{},[52,3664,3665],{},"Structured Data Layer Alignment:"," You must ensure that your company's core product attributes, security certifications, and pricing frameworks are formatted with absolute precision using clean, machine-readable schema structures across every public index. Any data fragmentation across external nodes lowers the model's confidence score, which can result in your brand being omitted from the final recommendation text.",[49,3668,3669,3672],{},[52,3670,3671],{},"Referential Authority Network Building:"," Instead of pursuing a massive volume of superficial links, you must focus entirely on securing deep, data-rich analysis from verified industry authorities, research institutions, and independent peer-review registries. When a model discovers your data hardcoded into these highly trusted nodes, it reinforces your position within its parametric memory.",[14,3674,3675,3676,3678],{},"By executing this unified architecture, you stop chasing random algorithm changes. You systematically train the models to recognize your platform as an unassailable industry standard, driving your ",[52,3677,2939],{}," metrics upward and securing your place in the native text.",[24,3680,3682],{"id":3681},"shifting-from-vanity-clicks-to-share-of-model-som","Shifting from Vanity Clicks to Share of Model (SOM)",[14,3684,3685],{},"The biggest barrier to true marketing transformation is an organizational addiction to vanity metrics. Many B2B teams are stuck reporting keyword rankings, impression counts, and total site sessions to leadership. These charts look strong in internal reviews, but they rarely map to real pipeline growth because they track behaviors that are quickly disappearing.",[14,3687,3688],{},"A modern, enterprise-grade dashboard must discard these legacy indicators and adopt Share of Model (SOM) as the core measure of brand visibility. SOM quantifies the exact percentage of instances in which your company is natively recommended as a top-tier vendor across a defined set of commercial-intent procurement prompts.",[14,3690,3691],{},"Presenting SOM to your executive team fundamentally reshapes the budget conversation. Instead of apologizing for declines in surface-level blog traffic, you can show hard, financially meaningful evidence that your brand’s embedded presence inside critical conversational models is growing. You demonstrate that while competitors pour money into capturing accidental, low-intent clicks, your strategy is methodically securing the primary recommendation engines where modern software purchasing decisions are actually made.",[14,3693,3694],{},[75,3695],{"alt":77,"src":3696},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa1c2b2c7-80fb-4fd6-9bfd-563ec134694d-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-3.png",[24,3698,3700],{"id":3699},"operationalizing-svo-inside-stretched-teams","Operationalizing SVO inside Stretched Teams",[14,3702,3703],{},"As a solo marketing leader or a highly compressed growth team, executing a complete optimization pivot can feel operationally overwhelming. You cannot afford to add complex, multi-layered workflows to an already overloaded schedule. The secret to scaling an effective SVO system is not increasing your total working hours; it is ruthlessly automating your data layer management and eliminating legacy content production lines.",[14,3705,3706,3707,3711],{},"Maintaining an unfragmented, board-ready ",[206,3708,3710],{"href":208,"rel":3709},[210],"SVO architecture"," requires establishing three non-negotiable operational habits:",[46,3713,3714,3720,3726],{},[49,3715,3716,3719],{},[52,3717,3718],{},"Automated SOM Monitoring:"," Establish a fixed weekly cadence with automated matrix scripts to audit your brand's placement across target industry prompts and document exactly where your competitors are winning native text placements.",[49,3721,3722,3725],{},[52,3723,3724],{},"Data Schema Governance:"," Run monthly synchronization checks across all public product indices, partner ecosystems, and review nodes to guarantee your technical data, compliance tiers, and feature sets remain perfectly uniform.",[49,3727,3728,3731],{},[52,3729,3730],{},"Community Syndication cadence:"," Convert your existing internal engineering documentation, product update logs, and customer support solutions into clean, open-source text files and distribute them systematically to high-authority developer reference nodes.",[14,3733,3734],{},"When these technical workflows are executed on an unfragmented, fixed schedule, you eliminate the need for surface-level, high-volume content campaigns. You transform your department from a creative production mill into a high-efficiency data operations team, building a permanent competitive moat around your pipeline.",[24,3736,3738],{"id":3737},"leading-the-svo-transformation","Leading the SVO Transformation",[14,3740,3741],{},"The ongoing transition from traditional search directories to synthesized conversational answers is a structural crisis for marketing departments that cling to obsolete multi-channel tracking manuals. However, for growth leaders who prioritize technical transparency, operational data discipline, and structural authority, it represents an unparalleled customer acquisition opportunity. It strips away the advantage from organizations that rely on content inflation and directly rewards companies that build clean, verifiable, and highly structured information networks.",[14,3743,3744,3745,3748],{},"We specialize in designing, engineering, and launching the advanced data layers and go-to-market dashboards that insulate technology brands from tracking gaps and traffic loss. By replacing fragmented, defensive ",[206,3746,744],{"href":3376,"rel":3747},[210]," habits with a unified, closed-loop visibility architecture, we ensure your organization’s true technical capabilities are clear, authoritative, and completely undeniable across the modern discovery landscape.",[14,3750,3751],{},"Do not spend another sixty-hour week chasing invisible footnotes that fail to drive pipeline results. Restructure your executive tracking tools, implement a rigorous Mention Engineering framework, and build an SVO engine that proves its undeniable revenue value on every single boardroom slide.",[24,3753,3034],{"id":3033},[14,3755,3756],{},"As B2B software buying shifts toward conversational interfaces, legacy click-centric search tactics are driving significant pipeline shortfalls. Marketing teams are pouring resources into backlink acquisition just to win marginal, rarely clicked citation footnotes at the bottom of AI-generated summaries. At the same time, those same engines explicitly name and recommend competitors in the core narrative itself.",[14,3758,3759,3760,3763],{},"To counter this, growth organizations must evolve from traditional SEO toward ",[206,3761,168],{"href":208,"rel":3762},[210]," and Mention Engineering. By influencing an engine’s Parametric Memory Seeding and maximizing Entity Co-occurrence across high-authority developer ecosystems, structured indices, and trusted review networks, companies can intentionally grow their Share of Model (SOM)—shifting their SaaS product from a forgotten footnote to a default enterprise recommendation.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3765},[3766,3767,3768,3769,3770,3771,3772],{"id":3589,"depth":291,"text":3590},{"id":3611,"depth":291,"text":3612},{"id":3636,"depth":291,"text":3637},{"id":3681,"depth":291,"text":3682},{"id":3699,"depth":291,"text":3700},{"id":3737,"depth":291,"text":3738},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-06-24T17:18:05.329Z","Working 60-hour weeks hunting backlinks for AI footnotes while your competitors steal the actual recommendations? Here is how to transition to Mention Engineering.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F08d5ecca-00a2-434f-beda-688e14f036a8-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-hero-image.webp","Stop Chasing Citations",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility",{"title":3563,"description":3774},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility","r6Y1yVG9xFbdUx3OzU4hJhpeGcjd1gxLXZaLAzV_5kg",[],{"id":3784,"title":3785,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":3786,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":3997,"description":3998,"extension":318,"img":3999,"imgAlt":777,"meta":4000,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":4001,"seo":4002,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4003,"updated":7,"__hash__":4004,"people":4005},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears.md","The Board-Ready SVO Dashboard - How to Report Pipeline When Traffic Disappears",{"type":11,"value":3787,"toc":3988},[3788,3791,3794,3797,3800,3806,3810,3813,3816,3819,3822,3826,3829,3836,3856,3859,3865,3869,3872,3883,3886,3889,3893,3896,3905,3908,3922,3925,3931,3935,3938,3941,3961,3964,3968,3971,3974,3983,3985],[14,3789,3790],{},"As the lone marketing leader in a growing organization, preparing monthly updates for executive leadership can quickly start to feel like a defensive drill. You open your standard analytics dashboard to build the performance report, and the headline charts look alarming. Total organic website sessions have declined sharply over the past two quarters. Click-through rates on your core keyword targets have stalled. To a CEO or board that’s used to gauging marketing health by steadily rising traffic graphs, this data signals an unmistakable operational breakdown. The immediate assumption is that your acquisition engine is stalling and your marketing budget is being squandered.",[14,3792,3793],{},"But when you move beyond surface-level web traffic and examine the actual sales pipeline in your CRM, a very different picture emerges. Sales-qualified opportunities are stable. The total value of your active pipeline is increasing, and customer acquisition timelines are actually accelerating. The core problem isn’t diminishing market demand or poor execution from your team. The real constraint is that your existing reporting models are completely blind to where high-intent pipeline is being created before prospects ever land on your website.",[14,3795,3796],{},"Traditional marketing dashboards are built on a simple, linear multi-channel attribution story: a prospect clicks an organic listing, browses your blog, and submits a form. Today, that critical mid-funnel research phase has shifted almost entirely into conversational search environments.",[14,3798,3799],{},"High-value enterprise buyers are now getting direct vendor comparisons, validating integration requirements, and checking compliance criteria long before they visit a URL or show up in your SEO tools. If you continue trying to justify marketing’s impact with legacy traffic volume, session length, and top-of-funnel MQL counts, you will keep appearing to lose momentum, even as your true revenue influence grows. To withstand serious boardroom scrutiny, you must let go of vanity traffic metrics and adopt an executive reporting framework built squarely around SVO ROI.",[14,3801,3802],{},[75,3803],{"alt":3804,"src":3805},"Pipeline report","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fb0f0d46f-904b-4a50-8853-f82738aeda04-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-1.png",[24,3807,3809],{"id":3808},"the-blind-spots-of-legacy-attribution","The Blind Spots of Legacy Attribution",[14,3811,3812],{},"To defend your marketing budget and protect your strategy from premature executive meddling, you first need to understand why legacy tracking tools fail to reflect the real high-value buyer journey. Traditional multi-channel attribution models are built on the idea that your corporate website is the primary hub for education and intent capture. As software purchasing moves away from simple click-through behavior, this assumption creates enormous data blind spots.",[14,3814,3815],{},"This measurement failure is at the heart of the Attribution 3.0 crisis. When an enterprise procurement leader turns to a conversational engine to compare your product’s deployment speed and API integrations with a competitor, the system pulls from thousands of distributed data sources to produce a single, authoritative recommendation. The buyer reads the synthesized insight, concludes that your brand is the best fit, and then goes straight to your site to book a demo.",[14,3817,3818],{},"By the time that lead appears in your CRM, legacy analytics tools label it as a direct visit or branded search. The pivotal mid-funnel research stage, the moment your technical optimization actually won the buyer’s attention, is completely invisible in your standard reporting.",[14,3820,3821],{},"If your executive updates continue to lean on top-of-funnel click volume, you are effectively punishing your marketing strategy for generating efficient, zero-click conversions. To reset this story in the boardroom, you must move beyond counting casual web sessions and start measuring Referential Authority. You need to demonstrate to leadership that marketing’s true value lies not in attracting passive visitors but in embedding your platform within the precise data ecosystems where buying decisions are made.",[24,3823,3825],{"id":3824},"building-the-board-ready-svo-metric-suite","Building the Board-Ready SVO Metric Suite",[14,3827,3828],{},"Replacing defensive, traffic-focused explanations with an objective growth framework requires a complete re-engineering of your executive dashboard. A board of directors does not care about individual keyword movements, impressions, or fluctuating organic search charts. They require clear, financial-grade evidence showing that your digital distribution strategy is systematically capturing market share and feeding the revenue engine.",[14,3830,3831,3832,3835],{},"As explicitly illustrated in your active pipeline analytics, looking at revenue value relative to acquisition cost completely re-frames the value of your marketing channels. A sophisticated, ",[52,3833,3834],{},"Board-Ready Metrics"," suite shifts the focus from traffic volumes to actual funnel efficiency by isolating three primary pillars:",[46,3837,3838,3844,3850],{},[49,3839,3840,3843],{},[52,3841,3842],{},"AI Share of Voice:"," This metric tracks your brand's presence across specific procurement prompts relative to your primary competitors. By systematically auditing target commercial queries across major language models, you calculate the exact percentage of time your platform is recommended as a preferred solution.",[49,3845,3846,3849],{},[52,3847,3848],{},"Verified Citation Frequencies:"," Instead of tracking superficial impressions, you document the exact number of times a conversational interface explicitly links to your domain or your authoritative third-party profiles to validate its recommendation. This provides absolute proof that your content infrastructure is acting as a trusted source of truth.",[49,3851,3852,3855],{},[52,3853,3854],{},"MQL to SQL Conversion Velocity:"," Rather than celebrating a high volume of cheap, top-of-funnel clicks, this metric shows that your conversational optimization is driving pre-educated buyers who convert at a significantly higher rate through the sales pipeline.",[14,3857,3858],{},"By centering your dashboard on these pillars, you completely change the dynamic of your executive conversations. You stop talking about the web traffic you lost and start showing the high-value pipeline share you actively control.",[14,3860,3861],{},[75,3862],{"alt":3863,"src":3864},"reports","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F96600b7e-0c88-4723-84a4-6302d54d9c81-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-2.png",[24,3866,3868],{"id":3867},"analyzing-the-high-yield-channel-mix","Analyzing the High-Yield Channel Mix",[14,3870,3871],{},"A close examination of your performance data makes one thing unmistakably clear: the real business value lies elsewhere than traditional metrics suggest. Organic search may still deliver impressive traffic volume, but once you map each channel against pipeline value and cost per sales-qualified lead (SQL), the underlying structure comes into focus.",[14,3873,3874,3875,3882],{},"Conventional ",[206,3876,3878],{"href":3376,"rel":3877},[210],[3879,3880,3881],"u",{},"organic SEO"," often appears efficient on a cost-per-lead basis, yet it typically produces an oversized pool of low-intent visitors that converts poorly into a true pipeline. In contrast, optimization designed for modern conversational interfaces generates a smaller, highly concentrated stream of pre-qualified buyer intent. Prospects arriving through these paths have already completed their comparison research before they ever encounter your forms.",[14,3884,3885],{},"This behavioral shift is visible in your performance models. A traditional search visitor typically requires extensive nurturing through long, resource-intensive content sequences, whereas an SVO-driven lead advances from MQL to confirmed SQL at a significantly higher rate. In many enterprise environments, this conversion velocity surpasses traditional organic search by double-digit margins.",[14,3887,3888],{},"When you share these metrics with the board, you can show that declining raw web traffic is actually a sign of optimization. You are intentionally filtering out low-value, non-converting visitors while increasing your share of high-intent, high-value buyers. This reframes a traffic drop from an apparent marketing failure into a deliberate, highly efficient pipeline strategy.",[24,3890,3892],{"id":3891},"aligning-the-funnel-for-maximum-capital-efficiency","Aligning the Funnel for Maximum Capital Efficiency",[14,3894,3895],{},"The ultimate business validation of a fully optimized reporting architecture is a dramatic increase in mid-funnel conversion velocity and overall capital efficiency. When your digital footprint is designed specifically to feed modern answer engines, you eliminate a massive amount of friction from the standard buyer journey.",[14,3897,3898,3899,3904],{},"As clearly demonstrated in recent performance datasets, including ",[206,3900,3902],{"href":3602,"rel":3901},[210],[3879,3903,3604],{},", 51% of B2B software buyers now actively bypass traditional search engine queries in favor of direct, conversational interfaces when evaluating options.",[14,3906,3907],{},"Consider the operational divergence between two distinct corporate marketing frameworks:",[46,3909,3910,3916],{},[49,3911,3912,3915],{},[52,3913,3914],{},"The Traffic-Dependent Funnel:"," An organization spends heavily to maintain high-volume web traffic, driving users to gated content hubs and complex multi-page blogs. As user behavior shifts toward conversational search, click volume plummets, stalling lead metrics and forcing the marketing team to continually request more ad budget to sustain the pipeline.",[49,3917,3918,3921],{},[52,3919,3920],{},"The Citation-Optimized Funnel:"," An organization focuses entirely on structuring its data for machine ingestion, deploying clean schema layers, ungated technical specifications, and consistent feature registries across the web. The brand is systematically surfaced at the top of every conversational procurement summary, routing highly educated, pre-validated buyers directly into the sales cycle.",[14,3923,3924],{},"This clear operational contrast explains why modern marketing maturity is no longer defined by how many visitors you drive to your website. It is defined by how effectively you position your company's core insights for synthesis by the platforms where your buyers already spend their time.",[14,3926,3927],{},[75,3928],{"alt":3929,"src":3930},"funnel","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa1923ed9-0c7c-4ff8-ac6e-03616b440fcd-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-3.png",[24,3932,3934],{"id":3933},"operationalizing-the-boardroom-presentation","Operationalizing the Boardroom Presentation",[14,3936,3937],{},"Transitioning to a highly structured pipeline framework requires a permanent shift in how your daily marketing operations are structured, tracked, and defended. As a solo marketing leader, you can no longer operate as a creative services hub; you must run your department like a data-driven financial operations center.",[14,3939,3940],{},"Defending your marketing strategy to the board requires anchoring your weekly execution around three concrete operational cadences:",[46,3942,3943,3949,3955],{},[49,3944,3945,3948],{},[52,3946,3947],{},"SVO ROI Alignment:"," Update your revenue dashboards to chart pipeline value directly against cost per SQL across all channels, ensuring high-yield conversational paths are clearly highlighted ahead of legacy traffic channels.",[49,3950,3951,3954],{},[52,3952,3953],{},"Data Layer Governance:"," Implement strict internal protocols to ensure that all public listings of your technical features, security standards, and integration protocols match perfectly across your website, product registries, and press releases.",[49,3956,3957,3960],{},[52,3958,3959],{},"Citation Node Auditing:"," Monitor how frequently major conversational platforms cite your domain or your independent user review profiles relative to your primary competitors in response to category-focused research prompts.",[14,3962,3963],{},"When these tracking metrics run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds a permanent competitive advantage. You stop chasing unpredictable web traffic algorithms and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs modern business decisions.",[24,3965,3967],{"id":3966},"proving-marketing-value-in-the-new-boardroom-reality","Proving Marketing Value in the New Boardroom Reality",[14,3969,3970],{},"A sudden drop in website sessions is only a true crisis for marketers who depend on vanity metrics, inflated content volume, and outdated multi-channel tracking models. For leaders who prioritize technical accuracy, operational rigor, and precise pipeline attribution, this shift in analytics is a powerful competitive advantage. It removes the edge from rivals who chase shallow web clicks and instead rewards organizations focused on delivering deep, verifiable revenue impact.",[14,3972,3973],{},"We design and build the advanced data layers and go-to-market reporting systems that shield growth-focused organizations from tracking blind spots and traffic volatility. By replacing fragmented, traffic-obsessed reports with a unified, boardroom-ready pipeline framework, we make your real marketing impact unmistakable, authoritative, and impossible for leadership to ignore.",[14,3975,3976,3977,3982],{},"Don’t let your organization’s true pipeline value be buried by an obsolete web analytics model. Examine your digital footprint, rebuild your executive dashboards, and implement an ",[206,3978,3980],{"href":208,"rel":3979},[210],[3879,3981,777],{}," reporting engine that wins the argument in every single boardroom presentation.",[24,3984,3034],{"id":3033},[14,3986,3987],{},"As traditional web tracking fails to reflect decentralized buyer research, solo marketing leaders are confronting a misleading reporting crisis: website sessions are declining, yet underlying sales pipeline performance remains strong. This disconnect exists because legacy attribution models cannot capture the critical middle-funnel validation that now occurs in modern conversational search environments. To preserve executive trust and safeguard growth budgets, organizations need a dashboard purpose-built for Attribution 3.0. By moving beyond raw traffic counts and focusing on financial-grade indicators such as AI Share of Voice, Verified Citation Frequency, and MQL-to-SQL Conversion Velocity, marketing leaders can definitively demonstrate SVO ROI and make a compelling case for clear market leadership.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3989},[3990,3991,3992,3993,3994,3995,3996],{"id":3808,"depth":291,"text":3809},{"id":3824,"depth":291,"text":3825},{"id":3867,"depth":291,"text":3868},{"id":3891,"depth":291,"text":3892},{"id":3933,"depth":291,"text":3934},{"id":3966,"depth":291,"text":3967},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-06-17T17:31:07.350Z","When top-of-funnel web traffic drops, legacy marketing reports make you look like you are failing. Here is how to present high-converting SVO pipeline data that wins over the board.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F18b8f0c2-c43f-4536-a5c7-ac65d154018a-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-hero-image.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears",{"title":3785,"description":3998},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears","iN2P6lmKW94amRdpZaZ86k3IEzNdvi8RYY0_Lx0gaG0",[],{"id":4007,"title":4008,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":4009,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":4203,"description":4204,"extension":318,"img":4205,"imgAlt":4206,"meta":4207,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":4208,"seo":4209,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4210,"updated":7,"__hash__":4211,"people":4212},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026.md","The Death of the Ten Blue Links - Why SVO is the Only Survival Strategy for 2026",{"type":11,"value":4010,"toc":4194},[4011,4014,4017,4024,4027,4032,4036,4039,4053,4056,4059,4063,4066,4069,4089,4092,4096,4100,4103,4106,4109,4112,4116,4119,4122,4136,4139,4144,4148,4151,4154,4173,4176,4180,4183,4186,4189,4191],[14,4012,4013],{},"You executed the playbook exactly as prescribed. You audited technical site infrastructure, identified high-intent target keywords, built comprehensive topic clusters, and maintained a consistent content production cadence. By conventional organic search indicators, your performance should be exemplary. Yet when you review your year-over-year traffic, unique visitors are down 40 percent. Your high-volume keywords still rank at the top of legacy search engines, but the actual pipeline has evaporated. To leadership, it appears to be a sudden breakdown in marketing execution—an internal failure where your strategies have simply stopped working.",[14,4015,4016],{},"The reality is far more structural and long-lasting. This is not a breakdown of tactics; it is the wholesale collapse of traditional search behavior. The era of the “ten blue links” has ended. For nearly thirty years, digital discovery was built on a straightforward exchange: a user entered a query, a search engine returned a list of destination websites, and the user clicked through to find answers. That journey has now been fully disrupted by conversational interfaces, multimodal engines, and automated answer summaries.",[14,4018,4019,4020,4023],{},"This shift is fundamentally altering the business-to-business procurement landscape. According to data from ",[206,4021,3604],{"href":3602,"rel":4022},[210],", 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. Buyers are completely bypassing the click-and-browse stage of research. Instead of scanning individual vendor blogs to compare capabilities, they issue a single prompt to a large language model (LLM) requesting a definitive recommendation based on explicit parameters such as compliance, integrations, and user sentiment.",[14,4025,4026],{},"When your ideal customer profile (ICP) conducts this kind of research, traditional organic rankings become less relevant. If your brand is not explicitly mentioned in the synthesized response, your company is effectively removed from the evaluation process. To navigate this shift, organizations must move beyond keyword search volume and adopt a deliberate Search Visibility Optimization (BVO \u002F SVO) framework. Survival in 2026 depends on evolving from conventional keyword tracking to actively managing your full brand presence across the entire conversational web.",[14,4028,4029],{},[75,4030],{"alt":77,"src":4031},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F90ef92e5-5d1d-4993-bf61-4daac6415448-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-image-1.png",[24,4033,4035],{"id":4034},"the-structural-reality-of-the-answer-economy","The Structural Reality of the Answer Economy",[14,4037,4038],{},"To build a marketing engine that actually performs in this environment, you must understand how modern discovery systems process information. Legacy search engines optimized for page authority, using backlinks and click signals to decide which URL to surface next. Modern conversational engines function as inference systems. They do not rank pages; they synthesize information from thousands of public and private sources to produce a single, comprehensive response.",[14,4040,4041,4042,2623,4047,4052],{},"This evolution forms the core of ",[206,4043,4045],{"href":3158,"rel":4044},[210],[52,4046,3160],{},[206,4048,4050],{"href":3153,"rel":4049},[210],[52,4051,3476],{},". These frameworks recognize that language models act as automated research assistants for B2B buyers. When an enterprise software buyer asks an engine to find a platform that complies with specific financial regulations and integrates seamlessly with their current software suite, the model scans its training data and real-time web crawlers to construct a customized comparison matrix.",[14,4054,4055],{},"If your corporate content exists only in unstructured formats, sits behind aggressive lead-generation gates, or is buried in vague, fluff-heavy marketing copy, conversational engines cannot reliably interpret your product features. Because these models are designed to minimize the risk of hallucinating information, they will skip over any brand whose product data is unclear, unverified, or internally inconsistent. Instead, they will fulfill the user’s request with competitors whose digital ecosystems are structured, transparent, and corroborated across independent platforms.",[14,4057,4058],{},"This creates a hidden crisis of competitive displacement. You can maintain perfect rankings on legacy search result pages, but if your brand is missing from the conversational shortlists where buyers actually make their decisions, your organic inbound pipeline will continue to erode. Visibility is no longer a traffic acquisition problem; it is a data-structuring and entity-indexing requirement.",[24,4060,4062],{"id":4061},"measuring-the-true-llm-footprint","Measuring the True LLM Footprint",[14,4064,4065],{},"Shifting your marketing organization away from legacy keyword volume demands a systematic, diagnostic approach to measurement. Continuing to evaluate visibility through search impressions or raw website clicks is an operational dead end. Instead, you need to audit your precise LLM Footprint to determine how conversational systems are interpreting and recommending your company.",[14,4067,4068],{},"A comprehensive brand footprint diagnostic focuses on three explicit phases:",[46,4070,4071,4077,4083],{},[49,4072,4073,4076],{},[52,4074,4075],{},"Procurement Prompt Baselining:"," Develop a highly standardized matrix of commercial intent prompts that match your ICP’s exact purchasing criteria. Run these prompts across every major model—including Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity—to document your brand's natural inclusion rate, tracking how often your company is named as a preferred solution compared to your direct competitors.",[49,4078,4079,4082],{},[52,4080,4081],{},"Citation Node Mapping:"," Analyze the specific external links, user review directories, and independent community spaces that conversational engines reference to validate their claims. Mapping these nodes reveals exactly where the models pull their authority data, allowing you to prioritize your brand distribution efforts.",[49,4084,4085,4088],{},[52,4086,4087],{},"Semantic Consensus Auditing:"," Inspect how cleanly and uniformly your core product capabilities, pricing architectures, and compliance certifications are stated across the web. Inconsistent naming conventions or outdated documentation undermine the model’s confidence, leading to your brand being omitted from synthesized comparison tables due to data uncertainty.",[14,4090,4091],{},"By executing this technical audit, you replace defensive marketing explanations with an objective, data-driven roadmap. You reveal the exact structural gaps that keep your brand hidden from automated evaluation systems, allowing you to build an intentional plan for reclamation.",[14,4093,4094],{},[75,4095],{"alt":77,"src":4031},[24,4097,4099],{"id":4098},"securing-dominance-via-citational-authority","Securing Dominance via Citational Authority",[14,4101,4102],{},"The most effective remedy for a deficit in conversational visibility is the deliberate, aggressive cultivation of Citational Authority. For a language model to confidently present your brand as a trusted option, it must detect a clear, consistent pattern of authoritative validation across multiple independent sources. The model does not rely on what you claim about yourself on your homepage; it relies on the broader consensus of the public web.",[14,4104,4105],{},"Building this authority demands unwavering commitment to a consistent content rhythm. This is not about churning out large volumes of generic, AI-generated blog posts to chase superficial keywords. It is about maintaining a highly disciplined, regular cadence of deep technical insights, validated customer case studies, and original subject matter expertise. Your executive and technical leaders must reliably contribute substantive, non-commoditized insights to reputable developer repositories, trusted industry publications, and independent community forums.",[14,4107,4108],{},"When your brand maintains an uninterrupted cadence of high-value, expert data across the web, you continuously feed the exact informational nodes that language models crawl and index. This pattern of cross-platform validation tells the model that your company is an immutable category leader.",[14,4110,4111],{},"A short-term, campaign-driven approach fails completely under this new paradigm. You cannot buy your way into an LLM's next training or inference cycle with a temporary advertising blitz. The models are built to recognize long-term consensus and verified expertise. Maintaining a structured, disciplined distribution rhythm ensures your technical capabilities are permanently embedded in the underlying datasets used to generate vendor shortlists.",[24,4113,4115],{"id":4114},"transitioning-to-a-structured-knowledge-system","Transitioning to a Structured Knowledge System",[14,4117,4118],{},"The core advantage of an optimized brand presence is the velocity at which you can capture modern enterprise intent. When a buyer forces an engine to evaluate the marketplace, the system naturally routes toward the path of least risk and highest data integrity.",[14,4120,4121],{},"Consider the contrasting outcomes between two distinct operational approaches:",[46,4123,4124,4130],{},[49,4125,4126,4129],{},[52,4127,4128],{},"The Creative Brochure Site:"," A company relies on highly stylized, abstract copywriting hidden inside interactive web elements or gated PDF forms. The conversational engine cannot confidently extract technical metrics, deployment speeds, or API compliance standards. Fearing an inaccurate response, the engine excludes the brand from the user's answer.",[49,4131,4132,4135],{},[52,4133,4134],{},"The Machine-Readable Knowledge Base:"," A company deploys advanced semantic layers, using clean schema markup, clear product tables, and consistent platform definitions across all channels. The engine instantly extracts, validates, and incorporates the brand's exact specifications, placing them at the top of the recommended shortlist with explicit trust citations.",[14,4137,4138],{},"This comparison illustrates why deep technical documentation has become a critical driver of middle-funnel conversion. API tables, integration matrices, and security registries are no longer merely passive references for post-sale support; they now serve as high-value entry points for automated vendor discovery. By presenting this information in a clear, structured way to machine web agents, you remove the friction that prevents your brand from being surfaced by automated evaluation systems.",[14,4140,4141],{},[75,4142],{"alt":77,"src":4143},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F23bac03b-041d-4119-842a-86228876c352-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-image-3.png",[24,4145,4147],{"id":4146},"operationalizing-your-response-presence","Operationalizing Your Response Presence",[14,4149,4150],{},"Succeeding in this decentralized landscape requires moving past traditional organic search tactics and installing a repeatable, unified operational system. Marketing departments must stop operating as creative project centers and begin running like data-driven technical operations.",[14,4152,4153],{},"This requires aligning your weekly execution around three concrete operational areas:",[46,4155,4156,4162,4167],{},[49,4157,4158,4161],{},[52,4159,4160],{},"Citation Frequency Tracking:"," Monitor how frequently major conversational engines cite your domain or your trusted independent profiles relative to your primary competitors during category-focused research prompts.",[49,4163,4164,4166],{},[52,4165,3724],{}," Implement strict internal compliance to ensure that every public listing of your features, security standards, and integration protocols matches perfectly across your website, product registries, and press releases.",[49,4168,4169,4172],{},[52,4170,4171],{},"Review Stream Automation:"," Build a continuous customer feedback mechanism that feeds recent, highly detailed textual review data into third-party evaluation directories, keeping the engines supplied with fresh trust signals.",[14,4174,4175],{},"When these operations run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds a permanent competitive advantage. You stop chasing unpredictable search engine algorithm updates and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs all automated business decisions.",[24,4177,4179],{"id":4178},"reclaiming-the-funnel-in-the-era-of-inference","Reclaiming the Funnel in the Era of Inference",[14,4181,4182],{},"The rise of conversational discovery is not an existential threat to marketing leaders who operate with deep expertise, operational rigor, and strong engineering discipline. It is a threat to organizations that depend on high-volume, generic content and unverified marketing assertions. If your digital presence resembles an unindexed corporate brochure, automated models will quietly exclude you from consideration.",[14,4184,4185],{},"We specialize in designing and engineering the modern technical architectures and go-to-market operational systems that keep organizations visible across the entire modern discovery landscape. By combining technical semantic layer engineering with disciplined execution rhythms, we ensure your brand authority is clear, verifiable, and undeniable to both human buyers and machine-learning algorithms.",[14,4187,4188],{},"Do not allow your organization to be quietly displaced from your ideal market segments by an information structure failure. Audit your digital footprint, structure your institutional knowledge, and implement a brand-visibility operating model built to dominate the modern synthesis.",[24,4190,3034],{"id":3033},[14,4192,4193],{},"The B2B buying journey has undergone a fundamental structural shift, with 51% of software buyers now beginning vendor research inside AI chatbots rather than on traditional search engines. This behavioral change creates a significant risk of competitive displacement for brands that do not appear in model outputs or are omitted from automatically generated shortlists. To safeguard your pipeline, enterprises must implement a rigorous Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) strategy. By conducting systematic prompt diagnostics to assess Search Sentiment, maintaining a consistent cadence of expert content publication, and ensuring all product capabilities are clearly represented in LLM Training Data, organizations can secure automated market discovery and regain narrative control across every AI search interface.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4195},[4196,4197,4198,4199,4200,4201,4202],{"id":4034,"depth":291,"text":4035},{"id":4061,"depth":291,"text":4062},{"id":4098,"depth":291,"text":4099},{"id":4114,"depth":291,"text":4115},{"id":4146,"depth":291,"text":4147},{"id":4178,"depth":291,"text":4179},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-06-10T16:08:09.873Z","B2B search is shifting fast. Strong visibility now means showing up across Google, AI answers, and the discovery paths buyers actually use.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ffc323672-061d-46ab-9bd0-60927e7379e5-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-hero-image.webp","performance review sheet",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026",{"title":4008,"description":4204},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026","kY-aX26oqZes9I2N7n1EQcNJeA0NPcURG5mSVrmgK_c",[],{"id":4214,"title":4215,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":4216,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":4410,"description":4411,"extension":318,"img":4412,"imgAlt":4413,"meta":4414,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":4415,"seo":4416,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4417,"updated":7,"__hash__":4418,"people":4419},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Finvisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt.md","Invisible by Default - Why Your Growth Plateau is Actually an AI Visibility Debt",{"type":11,"value":4217,"toc":4402},[4218,4221,4224,4227,4234,4241,4246,4250,4253,4256,4259,4262,4266,4269,4272,4292,4295,4300,4304,4313,4316,4336,4339,4344,4348,4351,4354,4374,4377,4381,4384,4387,4390,4392,4395],[14,4219,4220],{},"Scaling an enterprise to $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) reflects strong product–market fit, founder resilience, and effective early execution. By this point, your go-to-market motion often feels solidified: you’ve invested heavily in traditional acquisition funnels, built out a sales team, and watched organic search impressions grow. Yet many executive teams encounter an invisible ceiling at exactly this stage. Historical pipeline engines start to lose efficiency, customer acquisition costs rise, and legacy growth strategies begin to stall.",[14,4222,4223],{},"When you turn to your usual marketing dashboards to diagnose the slowdown, the numbers obscure the real structural issue. Website traffic appears steady, ad click-through rates look serviceable, and SEO tools report healthy organic rankings. But the breakdown isn’t occurring on your website or in the channels you’re measuring. The real risk sits where your modern buyers are actually making their decisions.",[14,4225,4226],{},"A major behavioral shift has fundamentally reshaped the B2B buying cycle. Enterprise procurement teams and decision-makers are no longer paging through traditional search results, hopping between blogs, or downloading gated whitepapers to assemble their initial vendor lists. Instead, they’re feeding complex procurement criteria directly into large language models and conversational search tools—and using the synthesized outputs to create their shortlists.",[14,4228,4229,4230,4233],{},"This behavior is a structural reality. Data from ",[206,4231,3604],{"href":3602,"rel":4232},[210]," reveals that 51% of B2B software buyers now prioritize starting their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. When a decision-maker commands an engine to compare mid-market enterprise platforms based on specific compliance standards, deployment speeds, and past user sentiment, the platform delivers a synthesized, definitive response.",[14,4235,4236,4237,4240],{},"If your brand is entirely absent from that generated output—if the engine cites three of your primary competitors as the market standards while your company is completely omitted—you are invisible by default. This is not a standard search engine ranking issue; it is an accrued ",[52,4238,4239],{},"Visibility Debt"," that actively suppresses your revenue potential. Overcoming this stagnation requires shifting away from legacy traffic metrics and executing a precise diagnostic audit to identify and close the brand-to-bot gap.",[14,4242,4243],{},[75,4244],{"alt":77,"src":4245},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9d1f342d-2771-4e82-910f-1e49caca001c-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-1.png",[24,4247,4249],{"id":4248},"the-reality-of-the-zero-click-funnel","The Reality of the Zero-Click Funnel",[14,4251,4252],{},"To understand how a company can thrive in legacy channels yet remain invisible to an LLM, you have to examine the data structure of the Zero-Click Reality. Traditional search engines function as directories, sending human users to external websites where information lives. Success in that model is measured by traffic generation. Conversational search engines, by contrast, act as inference engines, synthesizing massive data repositories to deliver a complete, self-contained answer—without ever sending the user elsewhere.",[14,4254,4255],{},"When a model receives a prompt from a prospective buyer, it looks for verified consensus, clear entities, and authoritative proof points across its training data and live web indexes. It effectively acts as an automated procurement officer, evaluating which solutions pose the lowest operational risk based on the buyer’s stated criteria.",[14,4257,4258],{},"Many high-growth companies carry significant visibility debt because their digital footprint was created for human readers, not for machine consumption. They’ve invested in creative copy, design-heavy landing pages, and disconnected campaigns. While these assets may impress a human visitor, the underlying data layers are often unstructured, poorly indexed, or entirely absent from the authoritative repositories that language models rely on to validate brand claims.",[14,4260,4261],{},"This operational gap leads directly to competitive displacement. Your product may be technically superior, your customer success scores may be higher, and your pricing may be more attractive than the alternatives surfaced by the model. But the engine cannot parse or verify that superiority if your institutional knowledge is locked inside a black box of unstructured formats. If the machine cannot confidently confirm your capabilities, it will exclude you from the narrative to avoid hallucinating your value.",[24,4263,4265],{"id":4264},"calculating-the-brand-to-bot-gap","Calculating the Brand-to-Bot Gap",[14,4267,4268],{},"Clearing your visibility debt begins with a structured, technical investigation into how conversational engines perceive your organization. You must audit the digital gap between what your company actually does and what the models say you do. This requires a rigorous diagnostic protocol that treats brand presence as a data-engineering problem rather than a creative messaging exercise.",[14,4270,4271],{},"This diagnostic protocol focuses on three critical assessment areas:",[46,4273,4274,4280,4286],{},[49,4275,4276,4279],{},[52,4277,4278],{},"Inference Share-of-Voice:"," Evaluate a comprehensive matrix of intent-based procurement prompts across all primary conversational models. Document exactly how often your brand is included in generated shortlists, which competitors dominate the recommendations, and what specific attributes the models use to justify their selections.",[49,4281,4282,4285],{},[52,4283,4284],{},"Source Citation Mapping:"," Analyze the underlying domains, review networks, and community spaces that the engines cite when generating responses for your category. Identifying these source nodes reveals exactly where the models pull their authority data, showing you where your digital footprint is lacking.",[49,4287,4288,4291],{},[52,4289,4290],{},"Semantic Entity Integrity:"," Audit how consistently your primary features, target verticals, and compliance standards are stated across the web. Disconnected information, shifting nomenclature, and outdated product registries confuse the pattern-matching algorithms of language models, leading to a complete omission of your brand due to data uncertainty.",[14,4293,4294],{},"Transitioning to this diagnostic approach changes how you evaluate your competitive standing. You stop guessing why your sales pipeline is stalling and begin identifying the explicit technical and data-structure deficiencies that prevent your brand from being recognized as a market leader.",[14,4296,4297],{},[75,4298],{"alt":77,"src":4299},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F0e789da1-7a18-466c-a46a-76c14cdbfb85-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-2.png",[24,4301,4303],{"id":4302},"implementing-generative-engine-optimization","Implementing Generative Engine Optimization",[14,4305,4306,4307,4312],{},"Resolving an AI visibility deficit requires an intentional transition to ",[206,4308,4310],{"href":3153,"rel":4309},[210],[52,4311,3476],{},". This framework is not about manipulating an algorithm or inflating surface-level metrics; it is about structuring your company’s real-world expertise, product specifications, and customer validation into machine-readable data layers that engines can easily ingest and trust.",[14,4314,4315],{},"This structural optimization requires executing three precise operational phases:",[46,4317,4318,4324,4330],{},[49,4319,4320,4323],{},[52,4321,4322],{},"Technical Semantic Architecture:"," Deploy comprehensive schema markups across your entire digital footprint. Ensure your product capabilities, pricing architectures, geographic availability, and security standards are explicitly coded, transforming your corporate website into a clear, structured knowledge graph for web crawlers.",[49,4325,4326,4329],{},[52,4327,4328],{},"Un-gating Institutional Knowledge:"," Redesign your content distribution strategy to prioritize data accessibility. Move critical technical specifications, API documentation, and detailed deployment case studies out of hidden, gated PDF downloads and place them directly onto clean, indexable pages that conversational web agents can completely crawl and process.",[49,4331,4332,4335],{},[52,4333,4334],{},"Decentralized Trust Syndication:"," Build a structured operational cadence to feed independent, authoritative third-party data sources. Language models heavily weight community discussions, technical forums, and third-party review platforms to validate corporate claims. Ensuring your brand has a steady stream of user validation on these independent nodes builds the cross-reference patterns that engines require to verify your authority.",[14,4337,4338],{},"When these three phases are executed systematically, your digital presence shifts from a collection of creative marketing materials to an authoritative node in the web's knowledge graph. You give conversational engines the exact, high-integrity data points they need to confidently feature your platform on every enterprise shortlist.",[14,4340,4341],{},[75,4342],{"alt":77,"src":4343},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F14fbaccb-7940-4e86-9deb-c443cc852444-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-3.png",[24,4345,4347],{"id":4346},"de-risking-your-long-term-growth-narrative","De-risking Your Long-Term Growth Narrative",[14,4349,4350],{},"The primary benefit of clearing your visibility debt is the creation of a predictable, self-sustaining pipeline engine that scales entirely independent of rising advertising costs. When your brand is systematically hardcoded into the training data and inference models of your industry, your company becomes an un-bypassable option whenever a buyer initiates a research prompt.",[14,4352,4353],{},"Consider the operational differences between an enterprise burdened by visibility debt and one optimized for generative discovery:",[46,4355,4356,4362,4368],{},[49,4357,4358,4361],{},[52,4359,4360],{},"Capital Allocation Efficiency:"," While a burdened organization must continually increase its digital ad spend to maintain pipeline visibility, a GEO-optimized brand naturally captures a steady stream of high-intent buyers through automated shortlists.",[49,4363,4364,4367],{},[52,4365,4366],{},"Accelerated Sales Velocity:"," Prospects who discover your solution through a conversational engine arrive at the sales conversation with a clear, pre-validated understanding of your technical alignment, significantly reducing the overall deal cycle time.",[49,4369,4370,4373],{},[52,4371,4372],{},"Sustainable Market Authority:"," By embedding your subject matter expertise into the foundational datasets that power automated search, you build an enduring competitive moat that cannot be washed away by a competitor's short-term advertising blitz.",[14,4375,4376],{},"For an organization aiming to scale past the $5M ARR milestone, true operational maturity means ensuring your visibility is insulated against shifts in buyer behavior. It requires building a growth framework in which your institutional value is completely clear to both the human executive who signs the contract and the machine-learning interface they use to discover you.",[24,4378,4380],{"id":4379},"establishing-the-growth-engine-of-the-future","Establishing the Growth Engine of the Future",[14,4382,4383],{},"The evolution of the B2B buying journey is a powerful opportunity for enterprise leaders who prioritize data integrity, technical transparency, and disciplined execution. It shifts the advantage away from brands that depend on high-volume, shallow content and instead rewards organizations that deliver clear, verifiable, and authoritative information.",[14,4385,4386],{},"We design, build, and operate the modern data architectures and go-to-market systems that eliminate visibility debt. By replacing scattered, ad hoc marketing efforts with a unified, closed-loop growth engine, we ensure your organization’s real capabilities are visible across the full modern discovery landscape.",[14,4388,4389],{},"Don’t let your hard-won market authority stay buried inside an unstructured black box. Audit your brand-to-bot gap, optimize your semantic data infrastructure, and build an enterprise growth engine that wins every synthesis.",[24,4391,3034],{"id":3033},[14,4393,4394],{},"Many high-growth B2B companies that have hit a revenue plateau are actually dealing with an unresolved Visibility Debt driven by major changes in buyer behavior. Today, 51% of software buyers use conversational AI interfaces instead of traditional search engines to create their vendor shortlists. As a result, organizations that still depend on legacy marketing structures are at immediate risk of Competitive Displacement.",[14,4396,4397,4398,4401],{},"Breaking through this plateau means moving beyond superficial vanity traffic and implementing a holistic ",[206,4399,3476],{"href":3153,"rel":4400},[210]," strategy. By running a technical brand-to-bot diagnostic, removing gates around key institutional knowledge, and embedding structured product data into LLM Training Data, enterprise leaders can secure their place in the Zero-Click Reality and build a highly visible, automated growth engine.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4403},[4404,4405,4406,4407,4408,4409],{"id":4248,"depth":291,"text":4249},{"id":4264,"depth":291,"text":4265},{"id":4302,"depth":291,"text":4303},{"id":4346,"depth":291,"text":4347},{"id":4379,"depth":291,"text":4380},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-06-02T15:24:04.123Z","Explore why strong B2B content may still go unseen in AI search, and how to improve discoverability across answer engines and buyer journeys.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fe9858bf4-e35a-4936-afec-f847048cb846-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-hero-image.webp","Invisible by Default ",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Finvisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt",{"title":4215,"description":4411},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Finvisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt","1_jDyJQP1hswlDJvQ-xIFC_efk8LrqRbBNQCRYKj0ys",[],{"id":4421,"title":4422,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":4423,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":4776,"description":4777,"extension":318,"img":4778,"imgAlt":4779,"meta":4780,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":4781,"seo":4782,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4783,"updated":7,"__hash__":4784,"people":4785},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-may-2026.md","Monthly Search Industry Report - May 2026",{"type":11,"value":4424,"toc":4757},[4425,4429,4474,4478,4484,4496,4509,4514,4544,4548,4554,4567,4578,4584,4587,4618,4624,4636,4640,4644,4658,4662,4691,4697,4708,4714,4717,4720,4726,4746],[24,4426,4427],{"id":914},[52,4428,917],{},[46,4430,4431,4443,4456,4468],{},[49,4432,4433,4436,4437,4442],{},[52,4434,4435],{},"Search Becomes an AI Assistant:"," At Google I\u002FO 2026, ",[206,4438,4441],{"href":4439,"rel":4440},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fseo-pulse-google-launches-core-update-amid-i-o-ai-search-overhaul\u002F575676\u002F",[210],"Google officially shifted"," from a traditional link directory to an AI-driven assistant ecosystem. The classic search box is being replaced by a conversational screen that focuses on long, detailed prompts and uploaded files rather than simple keywords.",[49,4444,4445,4448,4449,4455],{},[52,4446,4447],{},"Core Update Waves Shake Up Rankings:"," Google launched its ",[206,4450,4452],{"href":4439,"rel":4451},[210],[52,4453,4454],{},"May 2026 Core Update"," on May 21, right alongside major design changes to its AI Search. This update is hitting sites hard if they rely on quick, superficial tricks to land AI citations.",[49,4457,4458,4461,4462,4467],{},[52,4459,4460],{},"Smarter, More Specific AI Citing:"," A mid-May update changed ",[206,4463,4466],{"href":4464,"rel":4465},"https:\u002F\u002Fnetconnectdigital.com\u002Fblog-google-ai-overviews-update-may-2026\u002F",[210],"how Google links out to sources in AI Overviews",". Links have moved from a generic stack of buttons at the bottom right into the text itself, meaning success now depends on how well the AI can pull out individual, specific sentences from your pages.",[49,4469,4470,4473],{},[52,4471,4472],{},"Brand Authority and Real Authors Matter:"," With new hover previews on desktop and Google's AI Mode hitting 1 billion monthly users, having a recognizable brand and verified expert authors is now a requirement to protect your click-through rates.",[24,4475,4476],{"id":969},[52,4477,972],{},[81,4479,4481],{"id":4480},"the-may-2026-core-update",[52,4482,4483],{},"The May 2026 Core Update",[14,4485,4486,4487,4490,4491,4495],{},"On May 21, 2026, Google rolled out its",[206,4488,1043],{"href":4439,"rel":4489},[210],"May 2026 Core Update, as confirmed on the ",[206,4492,4494],{"href":4439,"rel":4493},[210],"Google Search Status Dashboard",". Coming just six weeks after the March update wrapped up, this fast pace shows Google is aggressively speeding up how it grades content quality.",[14,4497,4498,4499,4503,4504,4508],{},"Data tracked by",[206,4500,1043],{"href":4501,"rel":4502},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002F",[210],"Search Engine Roundtable points to ",[206,4505,4507],{"href":4501,"rel":4506},[210],"major ranking swings"," during the weekends of May 23 and May 30, with the rollout expected to wrap up in early June.",[14,4510,4511],{},[52,4512,4513],{},"What is changing under the hood:",[46,4515,4516,4528],{},[49,4517,4518,4521,4522,4527],{},[52,4519,4520],{},"Clamping Down on AI Citation Gaming:"," Early data shows this update is ",[206,4523,4526],{"href":4524,"rel":4525},"https:\u002F\u002Fcliquestudios.com\u002Fclique-university\u002Fgoogle-may-2026-core-update-ai-search",[210],"penalizing sites"," trying to force their way into AI Overviews using heavy keyword stuffing in subheadings, thin FAQ schemas, or massive programmatic rewrites.",[49,4529,4530,4533,4534,4538,4539,4543],{},[52,4531,4532],{},"Technical Performance is Non-Negotiable:"," The 2026 search setup places a",[206,4535,1043],{"href":4536,"rel":4537},"https:\u002F\u002Fheydaymarketing.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-algorithm-updates-2026-key-changes-explained",[210],"much higher premium on ",[206,4540,4542],{"href":4536,"rel":4541},[210],"fast mobile speeds and clean code",". Growth-stage tech companies with heavy JavaScript or clunky mobile rendering are seeing their visibility drop.",[24,4545,4546],{"id":3147},[52,4547,3148],{},[81,4549,4551],{"id":4550},"google-io-2026-the-conversational-search-box",[52,4552,4553],{},"Google I\u002FO 2026: The Conversational Search Box",[14,4555,4556,4557,4562,4563,4566],{},"At Google I\u002FO in mid-May, Google introduced what it calls the ",[206,4558,4561],{"href":4559,"rel":4560},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.google\u002Fproducts-and-platforms\u002Fproducts\u002Fsearch\u002Fsearch-io-2026\u002F",[210],"biggest change to the search box in 25 years",". The standard box is turning into a dynamic terminal powered by ",[52,4564,4565],{},"Gemini 3.5 Flash",". Users can now type in full business briefs, upload files, and hold back-and-forth conversations that remember past questions.",[14,4568,4569,4570,4573,4574,4577],{},"Google's internal data shows ",[52,4571,4572],{},"AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly users",". Conversational queries are averaging ",[38,4575,4576],{},"three times longer"," than old-school search terms, and planning-related searches are up 80% quarter-over-quarter.",[81,4579,4581],{"id":4580},"how-ai-overviews-and-links-changed",[52,4582,4583],{},"How AI Overviews and Links Changed",[14,4585,4586],{},"A major mid-month update completely changed how Google gives credit to websites in AI answers, shifting how users click:",[132,4588,4589,4600,4606],{},[49,4590,4591,4594,4595,4599],{},[52,4592,4593],{},"Inline Source Links:"," Links have moved from the bottom of the answer and are now ",[206,4596,4598],{"href":4464,"rel":4597},[210],"placed directly next to the exact sentence or data point"," the AI pulled from your site.",[49,4601,4602,4605],{},[52,4603,4604],{},"Desktop Hover Previews:"," Hovering over an inline link now opens a preview card showing the site name, logo, and page title. Google added this to make users feel more secure about clicking; as a result, strong brand recognition instantly boosts click rates inside AI answers.",[49,4607,4608,4611,4612,4617],{},[52,4609,4610],{},"The \"Expert Advice\" Carousel:"," AI Overviews now feature dedicated rows to highlight ",[206,4613,4616],{"href":4614,"rel":4615},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002F",[210],"first-hand experiences, named experts, and community insights"," (from places like LinkedIn, Reddit, or forums), explicitly skipping standard corporate marketing copy.",[81,4619,4621],{"id":4620},"the-paid-ai-landscape-chatgpt-search-ads",[52,4622,4623],{},"The Paid AI Landscape: ChatGPT Search Ads",[14,4625,4626,4627,4630,4631,4635],{},"At the same time, the broader AI search landscape is expanding.",[206,4628,1043],{"href":4614,"rel":4629},[210],"OpenAI confirmed it will ",[206,4632,4634],{"href":4614,"rel":4633},[210],"launch ad campaigns inside ChatGPT"," on June 5, 2026. For tech brands, this means you need a two-part plan: optimize organically for AI answers while getting ready for paid AI ad spaces.",[24,4637,4638],{"id":1052},[52,4639,1055],{},[81,4641,4642],{"id":3210},[52,4643,3211],{},[46,4645,4646,4652],{},[49,4647,4648,4651],{},[52,4649,4650],{},"Daily Ranking Jumps:"," Don't let your marketing team panic or rewrite content while the May Core Update is still rolling out. Early ranking shifts change quickly and don't reflect where your site will actually land.",[49,4653,4654,4657],{},[52,4655,4656],{},"The \"Block All AI Crawlers\" Trend:"," The debate over using llms.txt to block AI bots isn't practical for B2B or B2C SaaS companies looking to grow. Blocking these bots doesn't protect your brand; it just ensures your product is completely invisible to 1 billion AI Mode users.",[81,4659,4660],{"id":3222},[52,4661,3223],{},[46,4663,4664,4670,4685],{},[49,4665,4666,4669],{},[52,4667,4668],{},"Write Content for Easy AI Extraction:"," Audit your high-intent product and features pages. Make sure your content uses clear, direct definitions, step-by-step guides, and clean data tables. This makes it easy for Gemini and Perplexity to read, digest, and cite your site.",[49,4671,4672,4675,4676,4679,4680,4684],{},[52,4673,4674],{},"Use Real, Verifiable Authors:"," Get rid of generic \"Marketing Team\" bylines. Google's AI search prefers to pull from",[206,4677,1043],{"href":4524,"rel":4678},[210],"content tied to ",[206,4681,4683],{"href":4524,"rel":4682},[210],"real, verifiable people with clear author schema",". Every key piece of content should feature an author bio backed by proper Schema.org code.",[49,4686,4687,4690],{},[52,4688,4689],{},"Turn Content into Visual and File Formats:"," Because the new search box lets users upload files and images, back up your technical text with clear, branded diagrams, charts, and video clips to capture visual spots in AI results.",[81,4692,4694],{"id":4693},"looking-ahead-the-june-watch-item",[52,4695,4696],{},"Looking Ahead: The June Watch Item",[14,4698,4699,4700,4703,4704,4707],{},"Keep an eye on how your traffic settles after the May Core Update, and track the launch of ChatGPT Ads on June 5. Look at your analytics to separate ",[52,4701,4702],{},"traditional search clicks"," from ",[52,4705,4706],{},"AI referral traffic",". Understanding the gap between these two will help you decide how to split your budget between traditional SEO and AI-focused content in the second half of the year.",[24,4709,4711],{"id":4710},"call-to-action-optimize-for-the-future",[52,4712,4713],{},"Call to Action: Optimize for the Future",[14,4715,4716],{},"The updates from May 2026 make one thing clear: scaling a tech company through search isn't about ranking in a list of ten blue links anymore. It means making sure your brand shows up across traditional search, AI answers, and automated assistants.",[14,4718,4719],{},"Old SEO playbooks are losing traffic because they don't account for how AI pulls out sentences, verifies authors, or reads complex prompts. To keep your customer acquisition costs (CAC) low and your pipeline predictable, your team needs a modern Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) strategy.",[81,4721,4723],{"id":4722},"how-mkg-helps-you-win-in-ai-search",[52,4724,4725],{},"How MKG Helps You Win in AI Search:",[46,4727,4728,4734,4740],{},[49,4729,4730,4733],{},[52,4731,4732],{},"GEO\u002FAEO Gap Analysis:"," We analyze how your brand stands up in Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT Search to find where competitors are taking your citations—and we fix your content to win them back.",[49,4735,4736,4739],{},[52,4737,4738],{},"Technical Entity Setup:"," We update your site's backend code with precise Schema.org integrations (for your People, Products, and Organization) so AI assistants can read and trust your data.",[49,4741,4742,4745],{},[52,4743,4744],{},"Full-Funnel Attribution:"," We separate your classic search clicks from new AI referral traffic, giving your executive team clear, fluff-free ROI numbers.",[14,4747,4748,1043,4751,4756],{},[52,4749,4750],{},"Stop guessing how AI is affecting your pipeline.",[206,4752,4755],{"href":4753,"rel":4754},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002F",[210],"Book a Discovery Call"," with the MKG SVO Team today to check your AI search footprint and protect your growth strategy.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4758},[4759,4760,4763,4768,4773],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972,"children":4761},[4762],{"id":4480,"depth":297,"text":4483},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148,"children":4764},[4765,4766,4767],{"id":4550,"depth":297,"text":4553},{"id":4580,"depth":297,"text":4583},{"id":4620,"depth":297,"text":4623},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055,"children":4769},[4770,4771,4772],{"id":3210,"depth":297,"text":3211},{"id":3222,"depth":297,"text":3223},{"id":4693,"depth":297,"text":4696},{"id":4710,"depth":291,"text":4713,"children":4774},[4775],{"id":4722,"depth":297,"text":4725},"2026-06-02T14:26:32.875Z","Stay updated on the May 2026 search landscape: May Core Update waves, Gemini’s new 1-billion-user conversational terminal, inline source citations, and prepping for ChatGPT Search Ads.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F5da1685a-a7a2-4395-9652-0fff5237fa43-mkg-blog-seo-industry-overview-may-2026.webp","Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Monthly Overview",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-may-2026",{"title":4422,"description":4777},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-may-2026","WERYlL3lAnIon_8q0Fz6OJsJnHYRAqT6svILYzsQkVs",[],{"id":4787,"title":4788,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":4789,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":4966,"description":4967,"extension":318,"img":4968,"imgAlt":4969,"meta":4970,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":4971,"seo":4972,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4973,"updated":7,"__hash__":4974,"people":4975},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm.md","The 2026 Brand Visibility Audit: Is Your ICP Finding Your Competitors in the LLM?",{"type":11,"value":4790,"toc":4957},[4791,4794,4797,4806,4809,4814,4820,4823,4826,4829,4832,4838,4841,4844,4855,4858,4863,4869,4872,4875,4878,4881,4887,4890,4893,4901,4904,4909,4915,4918,4921,4932,4935,4941,4944,4947,4950,4954],[14,4792,4793],{},"For years, B2B marketing operated on a straightforward logic: win the search engine results page, win the pipeline. Teams engineered content to capture specific keywords, mapped backlinks to boost domain authority, and celebrated when landing pages claimed the top spots on Google. If a prospective customer in your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) looked for a solution, your site appeared.",[14,4795,4796],{},"That logic no longer holds. A complete decoupling has occurred between traditional website traffic and the actual vendor shortlisting process. B2B buyers are bypassing the endless lists of blue links entirely. Instead of clicking through five different websites to read corporate marketing copy, they are leveraging large language models (LLMs) to perform the heavy lifting of vendor evaluation.",[14,4798,4799,4800,4805],{},"This behavior is a structural reality. Data from",[206,4801,1043,4803],{"href":3602,"rel":4802},[210],[3879,4804,3604],{}," reveals that 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. Buyers are leaning into a centralized discovery model in which they issue a single, structured prompt to an LLM to compare market options. The model synthesizes data from across the web, evaluates capabilities, and surfaces a definitive recommendation.",[14,4807,4808],{},"The challenge arises when your target accounts run these prompts, and your competitors are consistently cited as the preferred solution while your brand is completely left out of the answer. It is a highly efficient form of Competitive Displacement. If your organization does not appear in the model's synthesized output, you are filtered out before a sales representative is even considered. Reclaiming your place in the funnel requires moving past traditional SEO and mastering Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO).",[14,4810,4811],{},[75,4812],{"alt":77,"src":4813},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F15431b64-54bd-447a-b57e-c64f2f7b9398-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-1.png",[24,4815,4817],{"id":4816},"the-reality-of-llm-synthetic-vetting",[52,4818,4819],{},"The Reality of LLM Synthetic Vetting",[14,4821,4822],{},"When an LLM builds a B2B vendor shortlist, it doesn’t scan the web like a human. It isn’t impressed by a sleek homepage or polished brand copy. Instead, it treats the digital landscape as a single, connected dataset and assesses vendors based on entity clarity, semantic relevance, and pattern recognition.",[14,4824,4825],{},"If an enterprise software buyer asks an LLM for platforms that meet specific compliance standards, deployment models, and pricing structures, the model goes back to its processed data layers for hard evidence. It searches for alignment across technical documentation, community conversations, and independent sources before producing an answer.",[14,4827,4828],{},"That creates a serious blind spot for teams still operating on legacy marketing assumptions. You might own the top spot on a traditional search engine for a high-intent keyword, but if the model can’t confidently interpret your product architecture or validate your customer satisfaction, you’ll be excluded from its comparison set. Instead, it will surface competitors whose data is clean, structured, and consistently verified across the web.",[14,4830,4831],{},"In this new reality, visibility is less about acquisition and more about indexation and structure. To influence how models evaluate your company, you must deliberately manage the information they ingest. Treat the public web as your LLM training data layer—and consider audited, third-party environments as your core competitive arena.",[24,4833,4835],{"id":4834},"executing-a-diagnostic-brand-visibility-audit",[52,4836,4837],{},"Executing a Diagnostic Brand Visibility Audit",[14,4839,4840],{},"To correct a deficit in AI search visibility, an enterprise cannot rely on guesswork. You need a systematic, repeatable diagnostic protocol to discover exactly where the models are pulling their information, why they favor alternative solutions, and how they perceive your overall Search Sentiment.",[14,4842,4843],{},"This diagnostic process requires three foundational execution phases:",[46,4845,4846,4849,4852],{},[49,4847,4848],{},"Intent-Based Prompt Baselining: Test a standardized matrix of procurement prompts across major models like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. Document the exact terminology used to describe your category, track which competitors populate the shortlists, and analyze the specific source citations generated by the engines to back up their recommendations.",[49,4850,4851],{},"Review Ecosystem Quantification: Assess the volume, recency, and detailed text sentiment of your third-party evaluation profiles. Models rely heavily on independent customer validation to verify brand claims; a stagnation in your review pipeline signals a high risk of model omission.",[49,4853,4854],{},"Entity Verification and Mapping: Inspect how consistently your core capabilities, naming structures, and integrations are stated across public channels. Inconsistent nomenclature across your website, product registries, and press releases dilutes the LLM's pattern-matching capability, causing it to bypass your brand due to data uncertainty.",[14,4856,4857],{},"By treating this audit as a precise engineering diagnostic rather than a creative exercise, you reveal the specific technical gaps that are causing your competitive omission. You shift the conversation from a vague discussion about brand awareness to a concrete roadmap for structural data optimization.",[14,4859,4860],{},[75,4861],{"alt":77,"src":4862},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F7ff92deb-11ff-4c70-acaa-433b513eeac0-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-2.png",[24,4864,4866],{"id":4865},"establishing-narrative-control-via-consistency",[52,4867,4868],{},"Establishing Narrative Control via Consistency",[14,4870,4871],{},"The definitive solution to an AI visibility deficit is a relentless dedication to operational Consistency. In a marketing landscape that changes every quarter, consistency is the operational framework that turns sporadic actions into a predictable, compounding authority engine. For a language model to confidently output your brand name as a trusted option, it must recognize a steady, unfragmented pattern of authoritative data over time.",[14,4873,4874],{},"This operational rhythm applies directly to how you structure and distribute your subject matter expertise. Language models prioritize information that is backed by verified experts, deep industry use cases, and recurring, high-value concepts. When your technical leaders contribute regular, deep-dive insights to reputable public engineering repositories, trusted community hubs, and authoritative industry spaces, you continuously feed the exact data pools that models crawl.",[14,4876,4877],{},"A short-term, campaign-driven approach fails completely under this model. You cannot run a one-time push to force your way into an LLM's next update cycle. The models are designed to identify long-term consensus and verified domain expertise.",[14,4879,4880],{},"Maintaining a disciplined, predictable cadence of technical data output ensures your company is recognized as an immutable category leader. This approach hardcodes your product capabilities into the data layers that models rely on to construct competitive matrix responses, thereby protecting your pipeline from displacement.",[24,4882,4884],{"id":4883},"why-structured-data-ingestion-wins-the-funnel",[52,4885,4886],{},"Why Structured Data Ingestion Wins the Funnel",[14,4888,4889],{},"The primary advantage of a fully optimized brand footprint is the velocity at which you can capture modern buyer intent. When an AI search engine is tasked with compiling an urgent vendor shortlist, it favors the path of least risk and highest data integrity.",[14,4891,4892],{},"Consider the contrasting outcomes between two distinct structural approaches:",[46,4894,4895,4898],{},[49,4896,4897],{},"The Unstructured Site: A company relies on creative, stylized copywriting buried inside static image layouts or gated PDF forms. The LLM cannot confidently extract technical metrics, security protocols, or API pricing structures. Fearing a hallucination, the model excludes the company from the generated answer.",[49,4899,4900],{},"The Structured Knowledge Base: A company deploys an advanced technical semantic layer that utilizes clean schemas, verified review pipelines, and consistent cross-platform definitions. The model instantly extracts, categorizes, and validates the company's compliance credentials, placing them at the top of the recommended shortlist with explicit trust citations.",[14,4902,4903],{},"This dynamic demonstrates why modern technical documentation is an essential component of a mid-funnel conversion strategy. API tables, security registries, and integration matrices are no longer just assets for post-sale implementation; they are high-value entry points for automated procurement discovery. By making this information perfectly machine-readable, you eliminate the friction that keeps your brand from being detected by automated evaluation systems.",[14,4905,4906],{},[75,4907],{"alt":77,"src":4908},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F80069c1b-7cc2-44cd-abe9-bc52ca56473f-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-3.png",[24,4910,4912],{"id":4911},"systematized-brand-visibility-optimization",[52,4913,4914],{},"Systematized Brand Visibility Optimization",[14,4916,4917],{},"Succeeding in this decentralized landscape requires moving past ad-hoc optimization tactics and installing a repeatable, unified operational system. Marketing programs must stop acting like creative experimental centers and begin running like structured technical operations.",[14,4919,4920],{},"This requires aligning your cross-functional execution around three operational areas:",[46,4922,4923,4926,4929],{},[49,4924,4925],{},"Citations and Authority Share: Track how frequently major models cite your domain or your trusted third-party profiles relative to your primary competitors during category-focused prompts.",[49,4927,4928],{},"Data Pattern Uniformity: Enforce a strict internal governance model to ensure that every public reference to your product capabilities, pricing architectures, and compliance standards matches perfectly across the web.",[49,4930,4931],{},"Review Ingestion Velocity: Build an automated customer feedback mechanism that continuously streams fresh, high-context review text into independent directories, keeping the models supplied with recent trust signals.",[14,4933,4934],{},"When these operations run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds an enduring market advantage. You stop chasing shifting search engine algorithms and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs all automated business decisions.",[24,4936,4938],{"id":4937},"reclaiming-the-initiative-in-the-era-of-inference",[52,4939,4940],{},"Reclaiming the Initiative in the Era of Inference",[14,4942,4943],{},"The emergence of the AI-driven buyer is not an existential threat to organizations that lead with deep expertise, operational clarity, and strict engineering discipline. It is a threat to organizations that rely on high-volume, generic content inflation and unverified marketing claims. If your digital presence reads like an un-indexed corporate brochure, automated systems will drop you from consideration.",[14,4945,4946],{},"We specialize in designing and implementing the technical architectures and operating cadences that keep organizations highly visible across the entire modern discovery funnel. By combining technical semantic layer engineering with disciplined execution rhythms, we ensure your brand authority is clear, verifiable, and undeniable to both human buyers and machine-learning algorithms.",[14,4948,4949],{},"Do not allow your company to be quietly displaced from your ideal market segments by an information structure failure. Audit your digital footprint, structure your institutional knowledge, and implement a brand-visibility operating model built to dominate the modern synthesis.",[24,4951,4952],{"id":3033},[52,4953,3034],{},[14,4955,4956],{},"The B2B purchasing journey has undergone a dramatic structural shift, with 51% of software buyers now launching vendor research inside AI chatbots rather than traditional search engines. This behavioral change introduces a major risk of Competitive Displacement for brands that are missing from model outputs or excluded from automatic shortlist synthesis. To protect your pipeline, enterprises must deploy a rigorous Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) strategy. By running systematic prompt diagnostics to audit Search Sentiment, maintaining a regular schedule for publishing expert content, and ensuring that all product capabilities are cleanly embedded in LLM Training Data, organizations can secure automated market discovery and reclaim narrative control across every AI search interface.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4958},[4959,4960,4961,4962,4963,4964,4965],{"id":4816,"depth":291,"text":4819},{"id":4834,"depth":291,"text":4837},{"id":4865,"depth":291,"text":4868},{"id":4883,"depth":291,"text":4886},{"id":4911,"depth":291,"text":4914},{"id":4937,"depth":291,"text":4940},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-05-27T14:44:51.901Z","When your target accounts use AI search to shortlist vendors, do you exist? Here is how to audit your brand presence and reverse competitive displacement.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F1ebdbd36-b81a-40c3-b8d6-528986294139-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-hero-image.webp","Brand Visibility Audit",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm",{"title":4788,"description":4967},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm","X1_wLj2J4vXg6EKLKjTR5U6YiLrhubcrEiryxemQsN8",[],{"id":4977,"title":4978,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":4979,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":5167,"description":5168,"extension":318,"img":5169,"imgAlt":5170,"meta":5171,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":5172,"seo":5173,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":5174,"updated":7,"__hash__":5175,"people":5176},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fescaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you.md","Escaping the Black Box - Installing an SVO Operating System That Runs Without You",{"type":11,"value":4980,"toc":5159},[4981,4984,4987,4990,4999,5002,5005,5010,5014,5017,5020,5040,5043,5046,5050,5053,5056,5076,5079,5084,5088,5091,5094,5114,5117,5121,5124,5127,5130,5135,5139,5142,5145,5148,5151,5153,5156],[14,4982,4983],{},"Many founders eventually hit a point where marketing feels less like a predictable growth engine and more like an expensive experiment. Budgets get spent, campaigns go live, and specialized agencies share intricate dashboards full of surface-level metrics. But despite all that activity, what's actually happening inside the operation remains unclear. Pipeline swings up and down, and the real drivers stay hidden in a \"black box\" of technical jargon, fragmented reports, and assumptions no one can confidently prove.",[14,4985,4986],{},"When marketing runs this way, the burden shifts back onto leadership. You're pulled into weekly status calls to fix strategy on the fly, interpret conflicting channel data, and manually translate between siloed teams. Instead of guiding the company's growth, you're stuck overseeing execution. You effectively become the project manager of your own growth engine—a role that drains your attention and pulls you away from running the business.",[14,4988,4989],{},"As the digital landscape continues to evolve, this model simply doesn't hold. The old approach, buying traffic and sending it to a static landing page to collect a form fill, is breaking down under new buyer behavior. The customer journey has split into multiple paths, and traditional search alone can no longer capture every qualified prospect who raises their hand.",[14,4991,4992,4993,4998],{},"According to",[206,4994,4997],{"href":4995,"rel":4996},"https:\u002F\u002Flearn.g2.com\u002Fg2-2026-ai-search-insight-report",[210]," G2's 2026 Answer Economy Insight Report",", 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their purchasing research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. These buyers are bypassing search results entirely, using structured prompts to command large language models (LLMs) to synthesize vendor shortlists on their behalf. They are looking for direct, synthesized comparisons rather than an endless list of blue links to open individually.",[14,5000,5001],{},"If your marketing program only works when you're personally involved, it isn't built for a world where machines are increasingly evaluating other machines. When a large language model scans the web to build a vendor shortlist for an enterprise buyer, it's not admiring your branding or clicking on your clever CTAs; it's processing data.",[14,5003,5004],{},"Breaking out of this pattern requires moving away from one-off tactics and toward Systematized Growth. That means putting a true operational structure in place, a Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework, designed to automatically capture demand from generative search, so your company can scale without constant founder oversight.",[14,5006,5007],{},[75,5008],{"alt":77,"src":5009},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F01d3c7af-7410-4a50-8d1c-d1ed6728438d-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-1.png",[24,5011,5013],{"id":5012},"the-operational-breakdown-of-gated-marketing","The Operational Breakdown of Gated Marketing",[14,5015,5016],{},"When marketing turns into an unmanaged black box, it's often because the company has grown on random acts of marketing. One contractor runs ads, an agency owns organic search, and someone in-house is responsible for content. Each group uses its own tools, cadence, and success metrics—leaving the founder to play interpreter and enforcer, tying everything together by hand.",[14,5018,5019],{},"This manual oversight introduces severe structural vulnerabilities across the organization:",[46,5021,5022,5028,5034],{},[49,5023,5024,5027],{},[52,5025,5026],{},"Fragmented Data Layers:"," The advertising team measures cost per click, while the content team tracks page views. Neither team can tell you how their efforts affect the AI models actively shaping your industry's vendor shortlists, leaving a massive gap in your overall pipeline attribution.",[49,5029,5030,5033],{},[52,5031,5032],{},"Wasted Executive Energy:"," You spend critical leadership hours in meetings that read updates out loud, rather than making strategic adjustments based on data trends. Instead of reviewing outcomes, you are tracking tasks.",[49,5035,5036,5039],{},[52,5037,5038],{},"Invisible Funnel Leaks:"," When a buyer asks an LLM to compare your product to a competitor, and the model misrepresents your pricing or ignores your core security features, your team doesn't catch it. The loss happens in private, untrackable environments before a lead is ever generated.",[14,5041,5042],{},"To remove this friction, marketing needs to run on a repeatable, transparent operating system. Work can't live in someone's inbox or on a personal drive—it has to move through a shared workspace where priorities, blockers, and owners are immediately clear.",[14,5044,5045],{},"With this kind of systemic visibility in place, you can achieve true off-my-plate execution. The founder can quickly check progress at any time, without chasing down updates or pulling the team into extra status meetings.",[24,5047,5049],{"id":5048},"structuring-the-svo-operating-system","Structuring the SVO Operating System",[14,5051,5052],{},"A scalable marketing engine cannot rely on human vigilance; it must rely on a closed-loop infrastructure. We apply a standardized architecture that aligns strategy, processes, and people into a singular operating rhythm. This framework ensures that your technical authority is structured correctly for both the human prospect and the LLM crawler, operating entirely without founder hand-holding.",[14,5054,5055],{},"This structural shift requires executing three distinct operational deployment steps:",[46,5057,5058,5064,5070],{},[49,5059,5060,5063],{},[52,5061,5062],{},"Funnel Bottleneck Diagnosis:"," Strip away channel-specific commentary to analyze exactly where pipeline value is stalling—whether it is an attribution deficit in your digital advertising or a visibility failure inside AI search databases. We locate the single point of failure rather than spreading focus across twenty different minor metrics.",[49,5065,5066,5069],{},[52,5067,5068],{},"Weekly Sprint Cadence:"," Shift execution from monolithic quarterly goals to predictable weekly sprint cycles. Each sprint must assign clear deliverables, explicit ownership, and measurable output criteria to eliminate execution drift and keep the team focused on high-priority tasks.",[49,5071,5072,5075],{},[52,5073,5074],{},"Semantic Layer Integration:"," Map your product specifications, technical case studies, and compliance data into clean, structured schemas that LLMs use to validate brand capabilities, turning your website into an authoritative knowledge base that can be indexed programmatically.",[14,5077,5078],{},"When these components run in harmony, marketing ceases to feel like a series of disconnected bets. It becomes a predictable workflow that converts institutional knowledge into structured data, ensuring your business is automatically indexed wherever buyers are conducting research. The machine does the heavy lifting of discovery, freeing up your team to focus on conversion and retention.",[14,5080,5081],{},[75,5082],{"alt":77,"src":5083},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F0d285696-fa87-49eb-8fb7-497be4070be7-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-2.png",[24,5085,5087],{"id":5086},"why-a-systematized-infrastructure-always-wins","Why a Systematized Infrastructure Always Wins",[14,5089,5090],{},"The primary benefit of removing the founder from the daily execution loop is speed and consistency. When your marketing is run through a rigorous operating system, it builds a compounding data advantage that ad-hoc campaigns cannot match. It shifts the organization from a reactive posture to a proactive, predictable model of demand generation.",[14,5092,5093],{},"Consider the operational differences between an ad-hoc marketing structure and a systematized environment:",[46,5095,5096,5102,5108],{},[49,5097,5098,5101],{},[52,5099,5100],{},"Continuous Market Alignment:"," While an unmanaged team waits for a monthly review to pivot strategy, a sprint-based system adjusts execution every seven days based on real-world data signals and performance trends.",[49,5103,5104,5107],{},[52,5105,5106],{},"Automated Authority Building:"," Instead of treating executive thought leadership as a sporadic task dependent on free time, a systematized cadence turns your team's subject-matter expertise into machine-readable assets on a fixed schedule.",[49,5109,5110,5113],{},[52,5111,5112],{},"Predictable Scaling:"," By isolating the exact variables that drive discovery—such as peer review frequency, schema deployment, or technical documentation clarity—you can scale your program based on operational data rather than guesswork or creative intuition.",[14,5115,5116],{},"This infrastructure turns your digital footprint into an automated sales engine. When an AI search engine crawls the web to construct a head-to-head comparison table for a prospective buyer, a systematized site provides unambiguous, verified criteria that force the model to rank your brand as a low-risk option. The competitor relying on creative, un-indexed copywriting is filtered out before a sales call is ever booked, giving your sales pipeline an unfair advantage.",[24,5118,5120],{"id":5119},"shifting-from-babysitting-to-strategic-calibration","Shifting from Babysitting to Strategic Calibration",[14,5122,5123],{},"Stepping out of the marketing black box doesn't mean giving up visibility into your growth metrics. Real operational control doesn't come from micromanaging tasks or personally reviewing every headline; it comes from having a single, reliable source of truth where progress is obvious, data is unfiltered, and accountability is built in.",[14,5125,5126],{},"Your job as an executive is to tune the engine, not to crank the gears yourself. Once you have an operating system that runs on its own, your relationship with marketing changes. Weekly status calls full of personal updates give way to focused working sessions aimed at clearing technical roadblocks, improving conversion performance, and removing friction for your execution team.",[14,5128,5129],{},"That level of clarity also reshapes how you invest in growth. You stop betting on scattered channel experiments and start funding specific data advantages. If your analytics show that buyers are discovering you through technical reviews cited in AI tools, you can allocate budget precisely to strengthening that part of your digital footprint. The guesswork disappears from your spending, and every dollar is tied to a clear, system-driven objective.",[14,5131,5132],{},[75,5133],{"alt":77,"src":5134},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F88f64901-fbdc-41f1-ae77-6a2cee60417f-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-3.png",[24,5136,5138],{"id":5137},"building-the-off-my-plate-reality","Building the Off-My-Plate Reality",[14,5140,5141],{},"For a growing company, marketing maturity means moving past a reliance on individual heroics or founder oversight. A business that depends on the founder's daily cognitive energy to execute its visibility strategy cannot scale its pipeline, build predictable equity, or achieve true operational freedom.",[14,5143,5144],{},"Establishing this maturity requires an intentional investment in your company's operational skeleton. It means rejecting vague performance summaries, dismantling uncoordinated team structures, and installing a unified system that operates systematically across every channel, platform, and automated interface.",[14,5146,5147],{},"We design and implement the technical architecture and operating rhythms that allow business leaders to confidently step away from daily campaign execution. By replacing the black box with radical visibility and a closed-loop sprint cycle, we ensure your growth engine compounds value every single week, building one that automatically captures modern demand.",[14,5149,5150],{},"Do not let your company's market visibility remain tethered to your personal schedule or individual oversight. Systematize your expertise, build a structured digital footprint, and install an operating system designed for the future of automated discovery.",[24,5152,3034],{"id":3033},[14,5154,5155],{},"Many B2B founders find themselves stuck babysitting their marketing because teams are fragmented and reporting is hard to trust. That level of dependency poses a serious risk as the market shifts into the Answer Economy, where more than half of software buyers now rely on AI chat tools rather than traditional search engines to build their vendor shortlists.",[14,5157,5158],{},"To get out of this bottleneck, you have to move beyond disconnected tactics and adopt a Systematized Growth model built on a disciplined Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework. By putting an operating system in place, one that runs on weekly sprints, full task transparency, and machine-readable technical architecture, lean teams can achieve true \"off-my-plate\" execution, capturing AI-driven demand without constant founder involvement.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5160},[5161,5162,5163,5164,5165,5166],{"id":5012,"depth":291,"text":5013},{"id":5048,"depth":291,"text":5049},{"id":5086,"depth":291,"text":5087},{"id":5119,"depth":291,"text":5120},{"id":5137,"depth":291,"text":5138},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-05-20T16:17:50.900Z","When marketing feels like a high-priced experiment you have to babysit, it's time to build a system that captures AI demand autonomously.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F24970ef5-a49e-4a91-b5fd-c8c55d107084-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-hero-image.webp","Thought leadership workspace with AI strategy planning.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fescaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you",{"title":4978,"description":5168},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fescaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you","-6NSwCNEHDM9QofxJoc38qHTZDTc2xKqZQKDYnWL7IA",[],{"id":5178,"title":5179,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":5180,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":5394,"description":5395,"extension":318,"img":5396,"imgAlt":7,"meta":5397,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":5398,"seo":5399,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":5400,"updated":7,"__hash__":5401,"people":5402},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms.md","The Synthesized Buyer - Mastering the 2026 Brand Visibility Audit for LLMs",{"type":11,"value":5181,"toc":5384},[5182,5185,5199,5202,5205,5212,5215,5218,5221,5224,5227,5231,5238,5244,5247,5254,5257,5260,5280,5283,5287,5294,5297,5300,5307,5310,5313,5333,5336,5340,5343,5346,5349,5353,5356,5366,5369,5371],[14,5183,5184],{},"The B2B buying journey isn’t happening on search results pages anymore. For a long time, marketing success basically meant winning on Google: rank in the top organic spots, pick the right keywords, watch the clicks, and call more traffic “more authority.” But in 2026, something else is quietly running the show in procurement: large language models (LLMs).",[14,5186,5187,5188,5194,5195,5198],{},"This isn’t a distant trend; it is the current reality of B2B procurement. New research from",[206,5189,5191,5192],{"href":3602,"rel":5190},[210],"  ",[3879,5193,3604],{}," shows that ",[52,5196,5197],{},"51% of B2B software buyers"," now begin their research in an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. These buyers aren’t paging through search results. They are using single prompts to ask AI tools to compare enterprise platforms based on specific needs. In that moment, the AI synthesizes an answer from the data it has already processed, effectively \"one-shotting\" the shortlist before a vendor is ever contacted. ",[14,5200,5201],{},"If your brand isn’t in that data, if you’re missing from high-authority industry conversations, technical communities, or archives of executive thought leadership, you’re effectively shut out of that synthesis. Buyers don’t see you, long before they even think about visiting your website. That means we need to rethink what brand authority actually looks like and how we measure it.",[14,5203,5204],{},"To stay in the game, traditional SEO alone isn’t enough. You need to focus on Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO). BVO isn’t about gaming an algorithm; it’s about becoming a stable, trustworthy source of information that automated systems consistently recognize and surface. In practice, that means ensuring your brand appears in the internet’s most trusted and widely referenced data sources.",[24,5206,5208,5211],{"id":5207},"the-transition-of-the-procurement-funnel",[75,5209],{"alt":77,"src":5210},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Faccd88f6-f3c6-4b91-bb0e-bb9642914996-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-1.png","The Transition of the Procurement Funnel",[14,5213,5214],{},"For years, traditional marketing treated visibility like a straight line: push out enough content and ads, and sooner or later, buyers would notice you. But that’s not how people actually buy today.",[14,5216,5217],{},"Modern buyers lean on what’s often called \"dark social\"—recommendations, peer reviews, and technical back-and-forth that live in private Slack channels, Discord servers, group DMs, and niche community forums. None of this shows up in your typical analytics, but it heavily shapes who makes the shortlist.",[14,5219,5220],{},"AI models are being trained on this messy, decentralized ecosystem. When they generate a recommendation, they’re effectively scanning for patterns: where is there consensus, and which brands keep getting mentioned in these communities?",[14,5222,5223],{},"That creates a real risk for lean B2B teams: cranking out large volumes of generic content that adds nothing new. If what you publish reads like a generic brochure, the model will treat it as background noise rather than a signal.",[14,5225,5226],{},"To be surfaced and cited by an AI, your brand needs to contribute something specific and useful—unique, field-tested insight that helps the model justify its answer. In other words, you have to publish the kind of information the model relies on to feel confident that it’s right.",[24,5228,5230],{"id":5229},"establishing-the-pattern-the-consistency-cadence","Establishing the Pattern: The Consistency Cadence",[14,5232,5233,5234,5237],{},"At the core of Brand Visibility Optimization is the concept of ",[52,5235,5236],{},"Consistency",". This is the factor that separates a single campaign from a reliable growth system. For a model to recognize your brand as an authority, it needs to see a persistent, high-quality pattern of information over time.",[14,5239,5240,5241,212],{},"Executive thought leadership is a critical technical asset in this process. Models prioritize data linked to verifiable experts and recurring themes. When your leadership team maintains a consistent cadence and regularly contributes technical insights to industry forums and reputable publications, you establish your brand as a primary source in the ",[52,5242,5243],{},"LLM Training Data for Brands",[14,5245,5246],{},"A short-term approach does not work here. You cannot establish authority in a training set with a single project. You must show up regularly and deliver a steady stream of professional insights. This approach ensures that when models are updated, your brand is a core component of the system's understanding of your category.",[24,5248,5250,5253],{"id":5249},"the-brand-visibility-audit-where-do-you-exist",[75,5251],{"alt":77,"src":5252},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9639ded1-86f0-4500-bb1a-c2ad511e205b-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-2.png","The Brand Visibility Audit: Where Do You Exist?",[14,5255,5256],{},"Mastering BVO begins with a technical audit of your brand's digital footprint. You must ask: if an automated agent were vetting this company, what evidence would it find?",[14,5258,5259],{},"The audit should focus on three primary areas:",[132,5261,5262,5268,5274],{},[49,5263,5264,5267],{},[52,5265,5266],{},"Community Mentions:"," AI models place a heavy weight on community-driven platforms like Reddit and technical forums. Are practitioners discussing your product or solving problems using your documentation? Without community discussion, the model is unlikely to recommend you.",[49,5269,5270,5273],{},[52,5271,5272],{},"Expert Proximity:"," Is your brand associated with recognized experts in your field? When your team is cited in third-party research or technical interviews, it creates a link that models use to determine authority.",[49,5275,5276,5279],{},[52,5277,5278],{},"Technical Transparency:"," Models require structured, accurate data. If your technical specifications, API documentation, and pricing structures are inconsistent or difficult to access, the system cannot build an accurate profile of your business.",[14,5281,5282],{},"Many brands are currently failing this audit because they are invisible in the places where information is synthesized. To fix this, stop treating social media as just a distribution channel and start treating it as a space to establish your brand’s technical authority.",[24,5284,5286],{"id":5285},"navigating-dark-social-attribution","Navigating Dark Social Attribution",[14,5288,5289,5290,5293],{},"A significant challenge of the BVO era is that the most valuable interactions are difficult to track. ",[52,5291,5292],{},"Dark Social Attribution"," is often invisible to those who rely only on dashboards. A lead might appear as a direct search, but the reality is that the buyer spent months seeing your name in private communities and reading summaries of your executive's insights.",[14,5295,5296],{},"Because you cannot track every touchpoint, you must optimize the environment where the buyer spends time. This means providing human, relatable, and technical content that people want to share in private channels.",[14,5298,5299],{},"When your content is shared in a private group, it eventually reaches the public web through summaries and community archives. This is the long-term goal of BVO. You are establishing authority in private spaces that eventually informs the data models used in public searches.",[24,5301,5303,5306],{"id":5302},"systematizing-authority-moving-from-reactive-to-rhythmic",[75,5304],{"alt":77,"src":5305},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ffdbe942b-e9d7-4a74-8829-9e9587fdd7b6-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-3.png","Systematizing Authority: Moving from Reactive to Rhythmic",[14,5308,5309],{},"The transition to a BVO-focused strategy requires moving from reactive marketing to a systematic operation. A \"launch and leave\" mentality is no longer effective. You need a system that ensures your brand's data is constantly updated and reinforced.",[14,5311,5312],{},"This involves:",[46,5314,5315,5321,5327],{},[49,5316,5317,5320],{},[52,5318,5319],{},"Executive Cadence:"," A strict schedule for your leadership team to contribute to external platforms.",[49,5322,5323,5326],{},[52,5324,5325],{},"Structured Knowledge:"," A website that acts as a hub of structured data that is easy for agents to crawl and understand.",[49,5328,5329,5332],{},[52,5330,5331],{},"Community Engagement:"," Participating in the spaces where your buyers live and providing value without expecting an immediate click.",[14,5334,5335],{},"When these elements are connected, marketing moves from disconnected tactics to a reliable system. You stop spending budget on ads that are ignored and start building brand authority that models are required to cite.",[24,5337,5339],{"id":5338},"the-future-of-b2b-visibility","The Future of B2B Visibility",[14,5341,5342],{},"The rise of the modern buyer is not a threat to brands that prioritize accuracy and consistency. It is a threat to brands that rely on generic, high-volume content. If your content sounds like a brochure, the AI will summarize the basic points and move on. But if your content contains specific tactics and operational honesty, you add value that the system recognizes.",[14,5344,5345],{},"We show personality through accuracy and tone, not through forced branding. In the world of generative search, being clear and authoritative is what gets your brand cited. It is about being professional and direct.",[14,5347,5348],{},"Recalibrating for 2026 is about returning to the fundamentals of building a brand that matters to both people and the systems they use. It is about moving away from short-term shortcuts and focusing on lasting authority.",[24,5350,5352],{"id":5351},"final-thoughts-the-path-to-synthesis","Final Thoughts: The Path to Synthesis",[14,5354,5355],{},"The B2B measurement gap is widening, and the ways we prove marketing value are changing. However, the goal remains the same: to be the most trusted and visible option for the buyer.",[14,5357,5358,5359,5362,5363,5365],{},"In 2026, that buyer is assisted by an LLM. By mastering ",[52,5360,5361],{},"Brand Visibility Optimization",", addressing the ",[52,5364,5292],{}," gap, and maintaining a consistent output of expertise, you ensure that your brand is recognized.",[14,5367,5368],{},"Do not be the brand that is missing from the synthesis. Build the authority that makes your presence clear. The success of your growth depends on this systematic approach.",[24,5370,3034],{"id":3033},[14,5372,5373,5374,5377,5378,5380,5381,5383],{},"The 2026 B2B buyer journey has changed: 35% use AI tools for vendor selection. To remain visible, brands must adopt ",[52,5375,5376],{},"Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO)"," to ensure they are present in ",[52,5379,5243],{},". Success requires navigating ",[52,5382,5292],{},", the private channels where peer consensus is formed. By implementing a consistent cadence for executive thought leadership and treating the digital footprint as a data pattern for AI recognition, B2B teams can overcome inefficiencies and build authority in an AI-driven marketplace.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5385},[5386,5387,5388,5389,5390,5391,5392,5393],{"id":5207,"depth":291,"text":5211},{"id":5229,"depth":291,"text":5230},{"id":5249,"depth":291,"text":5253},{"id":5285,"depth":291,"text":5286},{"id":5302,"depth":291,"text":5306},{"id":5338,"depth":291,"text":5339},{"id":5351,"depth":291,"text":5352},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-05-06T15:28:34.835Z","If you aren’t in the training data, you aren’t on the shortlist. Here is how to master Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) for the AI-driven buyer.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F73b38499-1c0a-46c3-aaaf-a824ff083005-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-hero-image.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms",{"title":5179,"description":5395},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms","LuaBKf4qNg72i598hr9hCNopQ9Wb0VWsZaZ_o1Gmvi0",[],{"id":5404,"title":5405,"author":7,"authors":5406,"body":5407,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":5654,"description":5655,"extension":318,"img":5656,"imgAlt":5657,"meta":5658,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":5660,"seo":5661,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":5662,"updated":7,"__hash__":5663,"people":5664},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-april-2026.md","Monthly Search Industry Report - April 2026",[],{"type":11,"value":5408,"toc":5647},[5409,5413,5439,5443,5446,5498,5502,5505,5547,5551,5556,5564,5568,5589,5594,5600,5604,5607,5610,5628,5633,5644],[24,5410,5411],{"id":914},[52,5412,917],{},[46,5414,5415,5421,5427,5433],{},[49,5416,5417,5420],{},[52,5418,5419],{},"March Core Update Completion:"," The major ranking update that began in March finished on April 8. It shifted traffic toward specialist sites and away from general content aggregators.",[49,5422,5423,5426],{},[52,5424,5425],{},"The \"Back Button\" Ban:"," Google officially labeled \"back button hijacking\" as spam. Sites that trap users by blocking their ability to return to search results will face penalties starting June 15.",[49,5428,5429,5432],{},[52,5430,5431],{},"Search as a \"Task Engine\":"," Google is adding agentic features, like AI that can call stores to check inventory or build travel itineraries, shifting the focus from clicks to completed actions.",[49,5434,5435,5438],{},[52,5436,5437],{},"GPT-5.5 Launch:"," OpenAI released its most capable agentic model yet, designed to perform multi-step work independently, further changing how users find professional information.",[24,5440,5441],{"id":969},[52,5442,972],{},[14,5444,5445],{},"The focus this month shifted from ranking keywords to punishing deceptive user experiences and rewarding technical efficiency.",[46,5447,5448,5459,5473,5486],{},[49,5449,5450,5453,5454,5458],{},[52,5451,5452],{},"March Core Update Wraps:"," Google confirmed the March 2026 Core Update ended on April 8. Analysis from ",[206,5455,3195],{"href":5456,"rel":5457},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fmarch-2026-google-core-update-what-changed-474397",[210]," indicates that niche, authoritative brands saw the most growth, while broad comparison sites lost ground.",[49,5460,5461,5464,5465,5472],{},[52,5462,5463],{},"Back Button Hijacking Policy:"," On April 13, Google introduced a ",[206,5466,5469],{"href":5467,"rel":5468},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fblog\u002F2026\u002F04\u002Fback-button-hijacking?authuser=2",[210],[3879,5470,5471],{},"new spam policy"," targeting sites that interfere with browser navigation. If your site uses scripts to trap users or redirect them when they try to leave, you face automated demotions.",[49,5474,5475,1043,5478,5485],{},[52,5476,5477],{},"The 2MB Fetch Limit:",[206,5479,5482],{"href":5480,"rel":5481},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Ftechnical-seo-audit-new-layer\u002F571583\u002F",[210],[3879,5483,5484],{},"Search Engine Journal"," highlighted a critical technical threshold: Googlebot generally stops reading a page after the first 2MB. For tech companies with heavy code or long documentation, this makes code efficiency a direct ranking factor.",[49,5487,5488,5491,5492,5497],{},[52,5489,5490],{},"\"Read More\" Optimization:"," There’s now ",[206,5493,5496],{"href":5494,"rel":5495},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-adds-read-more-links-best-practices-474807",[210],"new guidance"," for content hidden behind \"Read More\" buttons. Google now recommends keeping key information visible on page load to ensure it is indexed for AI answers.",[24,5499,5500],{"id":3147},[52,5501,3148],{},[14,5503,5504],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) is moving into the \"Agentic Era,\" where AI doesn't just find information, it performs tasks.",[46,5506,5507,5521,5535],{},[49,5508,5509,5512,5513,5520],{},[52,5510,5511],{},"Google's \"Task Assistant\":"," Google launched new features that allow ",[206,5514,5517],{"href":5515,"rel":5516},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.lumar.io\u002Fblog\u002Findustry-news\u002Fseo-ai-search-industry-news-april-2026\u002F",[210],[3879,5518,5519],{},"AI to call stores"," to check product availability and manage complex travel bookings directly in the SERP. This prioritizes structured data (Schema) over traditional blog content.",[49,5522,5523,5526,5527,5534],{},[52,5524,5525],{},"GPT-5.5 Agentic Workflows:"," Released on April 23, ",[206,5528,5531],{"href":5529,"rel":5530},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.artificialintelligence-news.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgpt-5-5-is-openais-most-capable-agentic-ai-model-yet-at-twice-the-api-price\u002F",[210],[3879,5532,5533],{},"GPT-5.5"," is built to handle real work, such as planning and tool coordination. This model is more likely to cite sources that provide clear, executable data rather than long-form prose.",[49,5536,5537,5540,5541,5546],{},[52,5538,5539],{},"Chrome's AI Mode Integration:"," Google is rolling out an ",[206,5542,5545],{"href":5543,"rel":5544},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Fgoogle-tests-enter-ai-mode-button-37145.html",[210],"\"Enter AI Mode\""," button in the Chrome address bar. This allows the browser to answer questions by reading the user's open tabs, making on-page context more valuable than ever for brand visibility.",[24,5548,5549],{"id":1052},[52,5550,1055],{},[5552,5553,5554],"h4",{"id":3210},[52,5555,1062],{},[46,5557,5558],{},[49,5559,5560,5563],{},[52,5561,5562],{},"Vanity Link Building:"," With Google's new focus on \"Experience\" and \"Task Completion,\" old-school guest posting for links is yielding diminishing returns. Focus on being the answer-first resource, ** ** the domain AI chooses to complete a user's task.",[5552,5565,5566],{"id":3222},[52,5567,1068],{},[46,5569,5570,5583],{},[49,5571,5572,5575,5576,5582],{},[52,5573,5574],{},"Audit for \"History Hijacking\":"," Ensure your marketing or ad scripts aren't accidentally violating the new ",[206,5577,5579],{"href":5467,"rel":5578},[210],[3879,5580,5581],{},"Back Button policy",". Even vignette ads can sometimes trigger these penalties.",[49,5584,5585,5588],{},[52,5586,5587],{},"Structure for Agents:"," To be hired by a Google or OpenAI agent, your business data (pricing, features, availability) must be in a machine-readable format, such as JSON-LD. If an agent can’t \"read\" your inventory, it will recommend a competitor with better-structured data.",[5552,5590,5591],{"id":1085},[52,5592,5593],{},"Looking Ahead:",[14,5595,5596,5599],{},[52,5597,5598],{},"The \"Side-Panel\" Habit:"," Watch how Google's new side-by-side view in Chrome changes click behavior. Users are now staying on your site while chatting with an AI on the side. In May, we expect to see \"Time on Page\" metrics rise, but \"Internal Clicks\" fall as the AI does the navigating for them.",[24,5601,5602],{"id":4710},[52,5603,4713],{},[14,5605,5606],{},"The April updates signal a shift from a \"web of pages\" to a \"web of actions.\" For B2B and SaaS leaders, being found is no longer enough; your site must be optimized to help AI agents complete their work.",[14,5608,5609],{},"MKG helps VC-backed companies dominate this new landscape via:",[46,5611,5612,5617,5623],{},[49,5613,5614,5616],{},[52,5615,4732],{}," Identifying where AI agents are failing to \"see\" your core product data.",[49,5618,5619,5622],{},[52,5620,5621],{},"SVO Focus:"," Incorporating all areas of search into one, holistic and coherent strategy.",[49,5624,5625,5627],{},[52,5626,4744],{}," Measuring how AI Mode interactions contribute to your bottom line, even without a traditional click.",[14,5629,5630],{},[52,5631,5632],{},"Don't get trapped by the old playbook.",[14,5634,5635,5643],{},[206,5636,5639],{"href":5637,"rel":5638},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fbook-a-call\u002F",[210],[52,5640,5641],{},[3879,5642,4755],{}," to secure your visibility in the agentic search era.",[5645,5646],"br",{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5648},[5649,5650,5651,5652,5653],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055},{"id":4710,"depth":291,"text":4713},"2026-05-05T16:25:00Z","Stay updated with the April 2026 search landscape: core update impacts, back button crackdown, task-driven search, and the rise of agent-powered visibility.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-search-industry-overview-april.webp","Monthly Search Industry Report",{"_schema":5659},"default","\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-april-2026",{"title":5405,"description":5655},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-april-2026","KenbpuJtGD09qn_e4amsOZ-QUig7Nc9-oJzJkFcumI0",[],{"id":5666,"title":5667,"author":7,"authors":5668,"body":5669,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":5880,"description":5881,"extension":318,"img":5882,"imgAlt":5883,"meta":5884,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":5885,"seo":5886,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":5887,"updated":7,"__hash__":5888,"people":5889},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fagentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric.md","Agentic Procurement - Is Your Website Machine-Readable or Just Human-Centric?",[],{"type":11,"value":5670,"toc":5870},[5671,5674,5677,5680,5683,5688,5694,5697,5700,5703,5706,5712,5715,5718,5721,5724,5729,5735,5738,5741,5744,5764,5767,5770,5776,5779,5782,5802,5805,5810,5816,5819,5822,5825,5828,5834,5837,5840,5843,5846,5852,5855,5858,5861,5865,5868],[14,5672,5673],{},"B2B procurement is undergoing a fundamental restructuring. For the past twenty years, the B2B buying process has been defined by human-to-human interaction. Marketing teams built websites to persuade, inform, and nurture human prospects. Companies focused on mobile design, conversion paths, and lead forms.",[14,5675,5676],{},"That era of human-centric commerce is ending. By 2026, a massive portion of B2B spend will be mediated by AI agents. This is a shift in the fundamental infrastructure of the global economy.",[14,5678,5679],{},"In this environment, a website is no longer just a digital brochure for a human audience. It is a data source for an automated vetting process. When an AI agent is tasked with finding a vendor that meets specific security, price, and capability criteria, it does not analyze copy in a traditional sense. It does not assess branding or testimonials. It evaluates the site as machine-readable data. If a digital presence cannot be parsed, validated, and structured by an agent, the company does not exist in the procurement funnel.",[14,5681,5682],{},"This transition is the emergence of Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO). The winners in 2026 are the companies that stop treating their websites as destinations for humans and start treating them as dynamic, structured knowledge bases that AI agents can use to provide direct answers and make procurement decisions.",[14,5684,5685],{},[75,5686],{"alt":77,"src":5687},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ff48096ed-38dd-417b-a905-819c2602bc6e-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-1.jpg",[24,5689,5691],{"id":5690},"the-reality-of-agentic-procurement",[52,5692,5693],{},"The Reality of Agentic Procurement",[14,5695,5696],{},"Agentic procurement is the process of delegating the vendor selection and vetting phase to an AI agent. Instead of a procurement manager spending weeks issuing requests for proposals and scanning websites, they provide an AI agent with a set of constraints and objectives. The agent scans the web, analyzes the technical capabilities of potential vendors, assesses compliance, compares pricing, and shortlists candidates.",[14,5698,5699],{},"This process is objective and data-driven. It removes the friction of subjective marketing claims and replaces them with an audit of the technical layer of a web presence. When an AI agent visits a site, it looks for specific, unambiguous data points to synthesize an answer. It needs to know API capabilities, pricing, uptime guarantees, and security certifications.",[14,5701,5702],{},"If this information is trapped inside an image file, buried in a document, or obscured by marketing copy designed for humans, the agent ignores it. It does not include instructions for inferring meaning from general articles. It needs structured, machine-readable data to provide a direct answer.",[14,5704,5705],{},"Many B2B companies have a disconnect. They have invested in high-end design, video, and storytelling. While these elements have value for human stakeholders, they are often invisible or confusing to an AI agent. The technical architecture of most corporate websites is designed for visual display, not for programmatic extraction. To succeed in the era of AI-mediated spend, companies must implement a strategy that prioritizes machine-readability.",[24,5707,5709],{"id":5708},"moving-beyond-seo-to-agent-readiness-optimization-aro",[52,5710,5711],{},"Moving Beyond SEO to Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO)",[14,5713,5714],{},"For years, SEO was the primary discipline for increasing visibility. Teams focused on keywords, search intent, and ranking in search results. Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO) is a different discipline. ARO is not about ranking for a search term; it is about providing the definitive, structured data that an AI agent requires to vet a vendor and provide a direct answer.",[14,5716,5717],{},"ARO requires a shift in how digital assets are structured. It requires implementing a technical semantic layer. A semantic layer acts as a translator between raw data and the AI agents that need to consume it. It ensures that when an agent asks, \"What are the core technical capabilities of this platform?\", it receives a direct, unambiguous answer, not a marketing description.",[14,5719,5720],{},"This involves several components. First, it requires using standardized schemas, such as Schema.org, to define the entities on a page. By marking up content, a company tells the AI exactly what each piece of information represents. Second, it requires that data be accessible and consistent across the entire web presence.",[14,5722,5723],{},"When a company treats its website as a knowledge graph, it maps the relationships between products, technical specifications, and organizational data. It creates a clear, interconnected structure that an AI agent can navigate to build its response. It moves from unstructured content to structured knowledge. This allows an AI agent to build a profile of a company without needing human intervention.",[14,5725,5726],{},[75,5727],{"alt":77,"src":5728},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fd42946f6-7f69-4eed-853f-c8f845347ce1-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-2.png",[24,5730,5732],{"id":5731},"the-systematic-approach-treating-your-site-as-a-knowledge-graph",[52,5733,5734],{},"The Systematic Approach: Treating Your Site as a Knowledge Graph",[14,5736,5737],{},"The approach to this challenge is to move beyond the page-by-page content strategy and view the website as a comprehensive data system. It is necessary to focus on integrating services and technical architecture to create a resilient knowledge graph.",[14,5739,5740],{},"Superficial fixes are not effective. Instead, a technical audit of a site’s ability to communicate with AI agents is required. A company must analyze its ability to output structured data and ensure that technical documentation, pricing structures, and capability matrices are fully indexable.",[14,5742,5743],{},"This involves specific operational steps:",[46,5745,5746,5752,5758],{},[49,5747,5748,5751],{},[52,5749,5750],{},"Intent-Based Categorization:"," Structure your content based on how an agent classifies information, rather than how a human visitor navigates a menu.",[49,5753,5754,5757],{},[52,5755,5756],{},"Data Prominence:"," Surface your most critical technical and commercial specifications within your structured data to ensure they are instantly discoverable during an automated audit.",[49,5759,5760,5763],{},[52,5761,5762],{},"Machine-Ready Compliance:"," Format your compliance documentation—including security protocols, certifications, and uptime logs—for machine-learning ingestion, so automated systems can verify your credentials without human intervention.",[14,5765,5766],{},"This approach requires collaboration between your technical and marketing teams. The marketing team provides the strategic narrative, while the technical team ensures it is translated into a language agents understand. By combining these perspectives, a brand ensures its authority is reflected in its machine-readable data.",[14,5768,5769],{},"When a company treats its site as a knowledge graph, it prepares the business for the future. It moves from a model in which it hopes marketing materials influence the buyer to one in which it actively supplies the data the agent uses to confirm fitness as a vendor.",[24,5771,5773],{"id":5772},"why-machine-readable-content-wins",[52,5774,5775],{},"Why Machine-Readable Content Wins",[14,5777,5778],{},"The primary advantage of having a machine-readable website is the velocity of the procurement process. An AI agent is not slowed by human schedules or traditional sales bottlenecks. When a site provides the answers a company needs immediately, that site becomes the direct, verifiable option.",[14,5780,5781],{},"Key advantages of machine-readability include:",[46,5783,5784,5790,5796],{},[49,5785,5786,5789],{},[52,5787,5788],{},"Always-On Availability:"," Unlike human sales teams, AI agents operate 24\u002F7. Your site is being vetted for procurement regardless of time zone or office hours.",[49,5791,5792,5795],{},[52,5793,5794],{},"Removal of Friction:"," AI agents do not wait for sales representatives to respond to emails or demo requests. They require immediate, self-service access to technical data to complete their vetting process.",[49,5797,5798,5801],{},[52,5799,5800],{},"Instant Verification:"," By surfacing specs, security protocols, and pricing in a machine-readable format, you allow an agent to confirm requirements in seconds, positioning your company as the most efficient and low-risk choice.",[14,5803,5804],{},"Contrast this with a competitor whose site is visually polished but lacks the technical structure required for indexing. That competitor is filtered out by the agent before a human ever sees their brand. This is an automated process of elimination. A company may not even know it was considered for a procurement mandate, nor why it was passed over.",[14,5806,5807],{},[75,5808],{"alt":77,"src":5809},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4840c7d2-ba0e-4ce6-a9f7-3eb021a8fb44-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-3.jpg",[24,5811,5813],{"id":5812},"the-competitive-advantage-of-structured-data",[52,5814,5815],{},"The Competitive Advantage of Structured Data",[14,5817,5818],{},"The transition to ARO is a competitive advantage. Companies that understand how to present data in a structured, semantic format will have an advantage in the automated B2B marketplace.",[14,5820,5821],{},"Consider the difference in how two companies present service levels. One company uses an infographic with text that an agent cannot parse. The agent cannot process the information, which creates a high level of risk. The company is filtered out. The second company uses a structured data table that clearly maps service levels to technical specifications, accompanied by schema markup that validates those claims. The agent ingests this data instantly, verifies it against the procurement requirements, and flags the company as a candidate with high confidence.",[14,5823,5824],{},"This second company wins because it made the task easier for the agent. It demonstrated operational maturity. In the era of AI-mediated spend, technical documentation is sales collateral. API references are landing pages. Compliance data is the brand story.",[14,5826,5827],{},"Organizations must build this infrastructure. They must move from a focus on brochures to a data-driven model. A website should act as a sales engineer, providing the data agents need to select a company as their preferred partner.",[24,5829,5831],{"id":5830},"recalibrating-your-digital-strategy",[52,5832,5833],{},"Recalibrating Your Digital Strategy",[14,5835,5836],{},"If a digital strategy is currently too human-centric, now is the time to recalibrate. This is not about sacrificing brand voice or the experience provided to human visitors. It is about adding a layer of technical rigor that makes the site work for both the human buyer and the procurement agent.",[14,5838,5839],{},"A structured approach to ARO involves a technical audit of the existing infrastructure. Companies must analyze where data is hidden, where structures are brittle, and where opportunities are lost because information is not parsable. They then implement a structured data strategy that enables knowledge to flow into the systems that drive the majority of B2B procurement decisions.",[14,5841,5842],{},"This is not a project that can be delegated to a generic agency. It requires a combination of technical capability, strategic oversight, and an understanding of how AI models consume information. It requires the discipline to treat information as a system.",[14,5844,5845],{},"By controlling the technical semantic layer, a company controls its future in the B2B market. It ensures it is not left behind as spend shifts to vendors who have built the infrastructure to support AI-driven answers.",[24,5847,5849],{"id":5848},"final-thoughts-the-new-era-of-visibility",[52,5850,5851],{},"Final Thoughts: The New Era of Visibility",[14,5853,5854],{},"The transition to AI-mediated procurement is a significant shift in the business environment. It requires a change in mindset—from how to persuade the buyer, to how to provide the data the agent needs to select a vendor.",[14,5856,5857],{},"We specialize in the intersection of services and technical architecture. We help clients navigate this shift by building websites that are robust, structured, and intelligent. We provide the technical backbone that allows a business to thrive in a world of automated decision-making.",[14,5859,5860],{},"Do not let a brand fall into the gap between traditional marketing and AI-driven procurement. Organize expertise, structure data, and build a digital presence that's future-ready. The era of the agent is here. Ensure you are ready.",[24,5862,5863],{"id":3033},[52,5864,3034],{},[14,5866,5867],{},"The landscape of B2B procurement is shifting toward agent-mediated models. This transition necessitates a shift from human-centric web design to Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO), which prioritizes machine-readable content and structured semantic layers. By treating a website as a knowledge graph, a company allows AI agents to autonomously vet the business, verify technical capabilities, and provide direct answers for procurement mandates. The competitive advantage now lies in the ability to present pricing, specifications, and compliance data in a way that is easily consumable by the systems that drive the modern B2B economy.",[5645,5869],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5871},[5872,5873,5874,5875,5876,5877,5878,5879],{"id":5690,"depth":291,"text":5693},{"id":5708,"depth":291,"text":5711},{"id":5731,"depth":291,"text":5734},{"id":5772,"depth":291,"text":5775},{"id":5812,"depth":291,"text":5815},{"id":5830,"depth":291,"text":5833},{"id":5848,"depth":291,"text":5851},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-04-29T17:59:00Z","Procurement is moving to AI agents. If your site isn't optimized for agent readiness, you are invisible to the new buyer.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-agentic-procurement-hero-image.webp","Agentic Procurement",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fagentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric",{"title":5667,"description":5881},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fagentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric","lwloy9LzbvQFfPw1o_nsFI6O2VTB2NkvkMp8pmGrB7s",[],{"id":5891,"title":5892,"author":7,"authors":5893,"body":5895,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":6049,"description":6050,"extension":318,"img":6051,"imgAlt":6052,"meta":6053,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":6054,"seo":6055,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":6056,"updated":7,"__hash__":6057,"people":6058},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking.md","Google is Cracking Down on Back Button Hijacking",[5894],"Jared Gerling",{"type":11,"value":5896,"toc":6042},[5897,5900,5906,5909,5912,5923,5926,5932,5935,5938,5949,5952,5958,5961,5970,5979,5984,5987,5990,5996,5999,6002,6005,6008,6014,6017,6020,6023,6026,6037,6040],[14,5898,5899],{},"Back button hijacking has always been a frustrating, if obscure, part of the web. Now, Google is making it clear: if your site uses it, your site could take a hit.",[24,5901,5903],{"id":5902},"what-is-back-button-hijacking",[52,5904,5905],{},"What is back button hijacking?",[14,5907,5908],{},"Back button hijacking is when a website interferes with your browser’s back button, preventing you from easily leaving the page.",[14,5910,5911],{},"Instead of returning to the previous page, clicking “back” might:",[46,5913,5914,5917,5920],{},[49,5915,5916],{},"Reload the same page",[49,5918,5919],{},"Send you to a different page on the same site",[49,5921,5922],{},"Redirect you to an ad or pop-up",[14,5924,5925],{},"It’s usually done with scripts that manipulate the browser’s history. But for users, it feels like getting stuck, or worse, being manipulated.",[24,5927,5929],{"id":5928},"why-do-sites-use-it",[52,5930,5931],{},"Why do sites use it",[14,5933,5934],{},"Sites use back button hijacking to force users to stay on their website longer, artificially inflating page views and ad impressions while preventing them from leaving.",[14,5936,5937],{},"The goals are usually:",[46,5939,5940,5943,5946],{},[49,5941,5942],{},"Increase pageviews",[49,5944,5945],{},"Boost time on site",[49,5947,5948],{},"Push users toward ads or conversions",[14,5950,5951],{},"It can make engagement numbers look better on paper. But it does that by forcing behavior, not by improving user experience.",[24,5953,5955],{"id":5954},"googles-new-spam-policy-update",[52,5956,5957],{},"Google’s new spam policy update",[14,5959,5960],{},"All that said, steps to curb back-button hijacking are finally being taken.",[14,5962,5963,5964,5969],{},"Recent ",[206,5965,5968],{"href":5966,"rel":5967},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cnet.com\u002Ftech\u002Fservices-and-software\u002Fgoogle-punish-websites-browser-back-button-hijacking-annoying\u002F",[210],"reporting"," confirms that Google is now treating back button hijacking as a policy violation.",[14,5971,5972,5973,5978],{},"In its official announcement, ",[206,5974,5977],{"href":5975,"rel":5976},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fblog\u002F2026\u002F04\u002Fback-button-hijacking",[210],"Google says",":",[14,5980,5981],{},[52,5982,5983],{},"“Back button hijacking is a deceptive practice that interferes with the user’s ability to navigate the web and creates a frustrating experience. Pages that engage in this behavior may be subject to ranking demotions or removal from search results.”",[14,5985,5986],{},"What’s changed is the level of enforcement. Google has addressed shady UX tactics before, but this update clearly ties back button hijacking to search penalties. That means it’s no longer just a bad practice, but rather something that can directly impact visibility.",[14,5988,5989],{},"This also aligns with Google’s broader push to reduce manipulative behaviors in search. As its systems get better at evaluating real user experience, tactics that artificially inflate engagement are becoming easier to identify and penalize at scale.",[24,5991,5993],{"id":5992},"why-this-matters",[52,5994,5995],{},"Why this matters",[14,5997,5998],{},"This update is a clear signal about how Google evaluates site quality.",[14,6000,6001],{},"Back button hijacking works by blocking normal user behavior. When someone clicks “back,” they’ve already decided the page didn’t meet their needs. Preventing that action creates friction and frustration, which is exactly what Google is trying to avoid in its results.",[14,6003,6004],{},"It also undermines the reliability of engagement metrics. If users are being forced to stay on a site, metrics like time on page or pages per session no longer reflect real interest. That makes those signals less trustworthy, and makes sites using these tactics stand out for the wrong reasons.",[14,6006,6007],{},"There’s also a compounding effect. Poor user experience can lead to lower trust, fewer return visits, and weaker brand perception. Combined with potential ranking drops, the downside is much bigger than any short-term gain.",[24,6009,6011],{"id":6010},"the-mkg-pov",[52,6012,6013],{},"The MKG POV",[14,6015,6016],{},"Our view at MKG is simple: don’t use tactics that work against the user.",[14,6018,6019],{},"Back button hijacking tries to force engagement rather than earn it. That approach doesn’t hold up, especially now that Google is actively penalizing it.",[14,6021,6022],{},"If users are leaving a page, that’s useful feedback. It usually points to an issue with content, intent, or usability. Fixing those problems is what improves performance over time.",[14,6024,6025],{},"The safest approach is still the best one:",[46,6027,6028,6031,6034],{},[49,6029,6030],{},"Follow Google’s guidelines",[49,6032,6033],{},"Focus on useful, clear content",[49,6035,6036],{},"Make it easy for users to navigate",[14,6038,6039],{},"Shortcuts like this may offer a temporary lift, but they create long-term risk. Sites that stick to best practices are the ones that keep their rankings and their audience.",[5645,6041],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6043},[6044,6045,6046,6047,6048],{"id":5902,"depth":291,"text":5905},{"id":5928,"depth":291,"text":5931},{"id":5954,"depth":291,"text":5957},{"id":5992,"depth":291,"text":5995},{"id":6010,"depth":291,"text":6013},"2026-04-28T17:59:00Z","Google is penalizing back button hijacking. Learn what it is, why it hurts SEO, and how to keep your site compliant and user-friendly.\n","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-back-button-hijacking.webp","back button hijacking",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking",{"title":5892,"description":6050},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking","jwB0Nr_PERdWpD0AdSbs9RYoEJktNHluEokrlpjfvY4",[6059],{"id":6060,"title":5894,"body":6061,"date":7,"description":6091,"extension":318,"images":6092,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":6094,"linkedIn":6095,"meta":6096,"name":5894,"navigation":322,"path":6097,"quote":6098,"quoteCite":6099,"ref":6100,"seo":6101,"sequence":6102,"stem":6103,"team":6104,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":6105},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fjared-gerling.md",{"type":11,"value":6062,"toc":6089},[6063,6066,6069,6072,6075,6078],[14,6064,6065],{},"Jared's journey into digital marketing started with answering a classified ad for a company looking for people with writing backgrounds for a position in SEO. As a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in Creative Writing, this sounded like the perfect opportunity.",[14,6067,6068],{},"This small agency taught him SEO from the ground up, and, after taking a break from digital marketing to receive his MA from DePaul University, Jared jumped back into the field at a medium-sized agency out of Chicago as an SEO analyst.",[14,6070,6071],{},"Since then, Jared has worked for large and small marketing agencies for over a decade, providing expert SEO services in almost every industry that has a website on the internet. And with his background in writing, Jared feels most at home in the content and customer facing side of SEO and digital marketing.",[14,6073,6074],{},"It was first and foremost the people that drew Jared to MKG. Everyone at MKG has been so in tune with his values and his personality, and they've made his time at MKG easily the best experience of his career.",[14,6076,6077],{},"Fun Facts:",[46,6079,6080,6083,6086],{},[49,6081,6082],{},"I love to travel with my wife. We've been to many incredible places over the years, and are always on the lookout for our next destination.",[49,6084,6085],{},"I was a college rower in my younger days. I rowed mostly eights as a port, and competed against some of the best schools in the nation...and lost to most of them.",[49,6087,6088],{},"I love a really good French Martini.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6090},[],"Meet Jared Gerling, one of MKG Marketing’s thoughtful SEO Experts, bringing 10+ years of experience, intentionality, and creativity to the team.",{"landscape":6093},"jared-gerling.webp","SEO Expert","jaredgerling",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fjared-gerling","The truth is, most of us discover where we are heading when we arrive.","Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)","jared-gerling",{"description":6091},55,"team\u002Fjared-gerling","SEO Experts","1TbRdjbaY8GvD4YbpM3Pm85IGECKXrMtdVY8OquXFkg",{"id":6107,"title":6108,"author":7,"authors":6109,"body":6110,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":6267,"description":6268,"extension":318,"img":6269,"imgAlt":6270,"meta":6271,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":6272,"seo":6273,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":6274,"updated":7,"__hash__":6275,"people":6276},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-invisibility-trap-why-page-1-ranking-is-failing-the-ai-agent-test.md","The Invisibility Trap - Why Page 1 Ranking is Failing the AI-Agent Test",[],{"type":11,"value":6111,"toc":6257},[6112,6115,6118,6121,6124,6128,6131,6134,6137,6143,6146,6149,6152,6158,6161,6172,6177,6183,6186,6189,6192,6198,6201,6204,6207,6212,6218,6221,6224,6227,6230,6236,6239,6242,6245,6249,6252,6255],[14,6113,6114],{},"For a decade, Page 1 was the promised land. If you held a top-three spot for your core commercial keywords, the math was simple: high rankings equaled high traffic, which equaled a healthy pipeline. You could take those green arrows in your SEO dashboard to the board and confidently declare victory.",[14,6116,6117],{},"But in 2026, that math is broken. We’ve entered the era of the Invisibility Trap.",[14,6119,6120],{},"Today, B2B marketing teams are reporting a baffling paradox: their keyword rankings are at an all-time high, yet their organic lead flow is flat—or worse, declining. Traditional SEO metrics have become a vanity project. While you’re celebrating a #1 ranking, AI Overviews (SVO) and generative agents are capturing your prospect's intent before they ever have a reason to click your link.",[14,6122,6123],{},"Your audience isn't scrolling past you; they are getting the answer they need from an AI-generated summary that has scraped your expertise and served it up without the referral credit. If your strategy is still built on Keyword Tracking, you are effectively invisible to the agents that now gatekeep the B2B buyer’s journey. At MKG, we speak like a senior strategist who’s been in the mess and knows how to clear the fog. We know that marketing-muddled metrics won't save a stalling pipeline. It’s time to get your brain back.",[24,6125,6127],{"id":6126},"the-death-of-the-click-and-the-rise-of-the-agent","The Death of the Click and the Rise of the Agent",[14,6129,6130],{},"The B2B buyer has changed. They are no longer interested in opening multiple tabs while they hunt through ten different blue links to find a lead-scoring model or a B2B tech stack audit. They are asking LLMs to do the heavy lifting for them. When a prospect asks, \"What are the best lead scoring models for Series B SaaS?\", they aren't looking for a list of blogs; they are looking for a definitive answer.",[14,6132,6133],{},"If an AI Overview provides that answer using your data but fails to cite you—or worse, cites your competitor—you’ve lost. Traditional SEO was about traffic; Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) is about authority.",[14,6135,6136],{},"We see overwhelmed marketers meeting this challenge with more of the same: more keywords, more blogs, more \"B2B brochure\" content. But you don't need another channel; you need a compounding rhythm. You need to shift from being a link to being an entity that the AI recognizes as the primary source of truth. We have our systems dialed, our values straight, and our heads on.",[24,6138,6140],{"id":6139},"shifting-from-keywords-to-entity-visibility",[52,6141,6142],{},"Shifting from Keywords to Entity Visibility",[14,6144,6145],{},"In the mkgOS, we don't talk in trends; we talk in tactics and systems. To escape the Invisibility Trap, we use the Knowledge pillar of our system to move beyond the Keyword Tracking of the past. This isn't just about being strategic, not sterile; it’s about B2B Generative Engine Optimization.",[14,6147,6148],{},"AI agents don't just read keywords; they map entities and relationships. They are looking for the senior strategist voice—the one who has done the reps and knows the acronyms. To win the AI Overview Ranking, your brand must be institutionalized as the definitive source in the LLM’s training data and real-time search index.",[14,6150,6151],{},"This requires a fundamental shift in how you build content. We lead with insight, not ego. Instead of asking \"What keywords should we rank for?\", we ask \"What unique information gain are we providing that an LLM can't hallucinate?\" We skip the fluff.",[24,6153,6155],{"id":6154},"institutionalizing-authority-via-the-mkgos",[52,6156,6157],{},"Institutionalizing Authority via the mkgOS",[14,6159,6160],{},"The mkgOS (Tech + Strategy) approach is built for humans but proven in dashboards. When we tackle SVO, we aren't just \"polishing\" your content; we are re-engineering your digital footprint to be AI-Agent ready. This involves three core tactical shifts:",[46,6162,6163,6166,6169],{},[49,6164,6165],{},"Entity-First Content Architecture: We stop treating pages as isolated islands. We build a web of interconnected entities that define your expertise.",[49,6167,6168],{},"The Accountability of Citations: We ensure your data is so specific and crisp that an AI agent has no choice but to cite you as the primary source.",[49,6170,6171],{},"Operator Energy in Metadata: We speak fluently in ops because we live in operations. From Asana to OKRs, we apply technical rigor to your schema and backend data structures so LLMs can ingest your insights with zero friction.",[14,6173,6174],{},[75,6175],{"alt":77,"src":6176},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fb7c46bb0-1fc4-4b45-9491-a5275664f33f-mkg-blog-the-invisibility-trap-image-2.png",[24,6178,6180],{"id":6179},"why-volume-is-a-random-act-of-marketing",[52,6181,6182],{},"Why Volume is a Random Act of Marketing",[14,6184,6185],{},"Most SEO strategies in 2026 are Random Acts of Marketing dressed up in expensive reporting tools. They focus on volume over value. If you’re experiencing tactical inefficiencies where your traffic is up but your demo requests are down, you are likely a victim of the content inflation crisis.",[14,6187,6188],{},"AI agents are trained to filter out fluff. If your content sounds like a generic B2B brochure, the agent will summarize the basic points and move on. However, if your content provides specific, field-tested tactics and unique operational insights, you add real value that an AI can recognize and prioritize.",[14,6190,6191],{},"We show personality through accuracy and tone, not through forced jokes or loud branding. In the world of generative search, being clear and authoritative is what gets your brand cited.",[24,6193,6195],{"id":6194},"search-visibility-optimization-svo-the-new-metric-of-success",[52,6196,6197],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO): The New Metric of Success",[14,6199,6200],{},"You have to say things that stick. An AI agent is more likely to cite a source that provides a direct, clear, confident, and no-B.S. plan than one that waffles through 2,000 words of jargon. We’re not afraid to say things the way our clients are thinking them. That directness is exactly what an AI looks for when it’s trying to provide a Verified Human answer.",[14,6202,6203],{},"In 2026, we don't just track where you sit on a page; we track your \"Share of Model.\" SVO measures how often your brand is cited in AI Overviews and generative responses across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Search.",[14,6205,6206],{},"This is the heart of the MKG approach. We care deeply about people—and that means we care about where they are getting their information. If they are getting it from an agent, we make sure the agent speaks your language. AI Overview Ranking is not about luck; it’s about a system. We meet overwhelmed marketers with empathy and a plan.",[14,6208,6209],{},[75,6210],{"alt":77,"src":6211},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ffb0b7474-f30a-4bfb-b395-c424f67224c3-mkg-blog-the-invisibility-trap-image-3.png",[24,6213,6215],{"id":6214},"getting-your-brain-back-from-the-algorithms",[52,6216,6217],{},"Getting Your Brain Back from the Algorithms",[14,6219,6220],{},"If you feel like you’re treading water with your current SEO agency, it’s probably because they’re still playing a 2022 game. They’re giving you sterile reports when what you actually need are strategic insights.",[14,6222,6223],{},"Let’s get your brain back.",[14,6225,6226],{},"The Invisibility Trap is only a trap if you refuse to see the walls. When you shift your focus to B2B Generative Engine Optimization, you stop chasing the ghosts of clicks past and start building a moat around your brand’s authority. You become the senior strategist the AI agents want to quote.",[14,6228,6229],{},"We don’t need to be zany to be memorable. We just need to be the most reliable, grounded, and sharp source in the room. When an LLM goes looking for an answer to a complex marketing operations question, mkgOS makes sure it finds you.",[24,6231,6233],{"id":6232},"final-thoughts-stop-ranking-start-being-cited",[52,6234,6235],{},"Final Thoughts: Stop Ranking, Start Being Cited",[14,6237,6238],{},"You aren't broken; the system is. The transition from \"Page 1\" to \"AI Citation\" is the most significant shift in the history of search, and it requires more than just \"more content.\" It requires Operator Energy.",[14,6240,6241],{},"It requires a partner who has been in the mess and knows how to clear the fog. At MKG, we are warm, not waffling. We are here to help you navigate the Generative Engine era with a plan that actually works.",[14,6243,6244],{},"Don't let your brand fall into the Invisibility Trap. Let's move from \"reactive mode\" to a \"rhythm that compounds\". We're human. We're here to help.",[24,6246,6247],{"id":3033},[52,6248,3034],{},[14,6250,6251],{},"In 2026, traditional SEO metrics are drifting further away from what actually drives the pipeline. As AI Overviews (SVOs) capture search intent at the very top of the results page, many B2B brands are getting caught in an “Invisibility Trap”—they still rank on Page 1, but lose conversions to the generative summary above them.",[14,6253,6254],{},"With the mkgOS Knowledge pillar, MKG helps brands shift from chasing “keywords” to building true “entity visibility,” so large language models recognize your company and cite it as the authoritative source. It’s time to think beyond the click and start winning in the generative era with B2B Generative Engine Optimization.",[5645,6256],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6258},[6259,6260,6261,6262,6263,6264,6265,6266],{"id":6126,"depth":291,"text":6127},{"id":6139,"depth":291,"text":6142},{"id":6154,"depth":291,"text":6157},{"id":6179,"depth":291,"text":6182},{"id":6194,"depth":291,"text":6197},{"id":6214,"depth":291,"text":6217},{"id":6232,"depth":291,"text":6235},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-04-08T17:59:00Z","Your SEO metrics are green, but your pipeline is flat. Here is how to stop chasing clicks and start winning the AI Overview.\n","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-invisibility-trap-hero-image.webp","The Invisibility Trap",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-invisibility-trap-why-page-1-ranking-is-failing-the-ai-agent-test",{"title":6108,"description":6268},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-invisibility-trap-why-page-1-ranking-is-failing-the-ai-agent-test","2XM7Vp0aDcL5UpgbgbTita5FQsV81dvfbVPvOik6pKg",[],{"id":6278,"title":6279,"author":7,"authors":6280,"body":6281,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":6531,"description":6532,"extension":318,"img":6533,"imgAlt":5657,"meta":6534,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":6535,"seo":6536,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":6537,"updated":7,"__hash__":6538,"people":6539},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-march-2026.md","Monthly Search Industry Report - March 2026",[],{"type":11,"value":6282,"toc":6520},[6283,6287,6313,6317,6320,6370,6374,6377,6417,6421,6425,6438,6442,6461,6465,6471,6475,6481,6484,6502,6507,6518],[24,6284,6285],{"id":914},[52,6286,917],{},[46,6288,6289,6295,6301,6307],{},[49,6290,6291,6294],{},[52,6292,6293],{},"Google’s \"Double Update\":"," Google released two major ranking changes back-to-back this month, causing significant shifts in who shows up at the top of search results.",[49,6296,6297,6300],{},[52,6298,6299],{},"The Citation Shift:"," Being #1 in organic search no longer guarantees you'll be cited in AI Overviews. Data now shows that most AI sources come from pages ranked outside the top 10.",[49,6302,6303,6306],{},[52,6304,6305],{},"Video is Winning:"," YouTube has become the most-cited domain in Google’s AI results, making video a required part of any search strategy.",[49,6308,6309,6312],{},[52,6310,6311],{},"AI Search Goes Premium:"," Perplexity AI has stopped using ads to focus on a subscription model, while ChatGPT has started adding location-based features to compete with local search.",[24,6314,6315],{"id":969},[52,6316,972],{},[14,6318,6319],{},"March was a high-intensity month for Google's core systems, with updates moving faster than we’ve seen in years.",[46,6321,6322,6343,6356],{},[49,6323,6324,6327,6328,6335,6336,6342],{},[52,6325,6326],{},"Overlapping Updates:"," On March 24, Google launched a ",[206,6329,6332],{"href":6330,"rel":6331},"https:\u002F\u002Fcoalitiontechnologies.com\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-march-2026-google-core-algorithm-update-what-you-need-to-know",[210],[3879,6333,6334],{},"(Global Spam Update)",", followed just three days later by the ",[206,6337,6339],{"href":6330,"rel":6338},[210],[3879,6340,6341],{},"(March 2026 Broad Core Update)",". This \"double-tap\" approach means ranking volatility is currently at an all-time high.",[49,6344,6345,6348,6349,6355],{},[52,6346,6347],{},"Focus on Comparative Value:"," Google is no longer just looking at your page in isolation. It is increasingly ",[206,6350,6352],{"href":6330,"rel":6351},[210],[3879,6353,6354],{},"(ranking content based on how it compares)"," to every other result for that same topic.",[49,6357,6358,6361,6362,6369],{},[52,6359,6360],{},"The End of \"AI Bait\":"," The spam update specifically targeted low-effort content created just to \"trick\" AI models into citing it. Quality signals like E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust) are being ",[206,6363,6366],{"href":6364,"rel":6365},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.quantifimedia.com\u002Fmarch-2026-google-core-update",[210],[3879,6367,6368],{},"(weighted more heavily)"," than ever.",[24,6371,6372],{"id":3147},[52,6373,3148],{},[14,6375,6376],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) is diverging from traditional SEO. Where you rank and where you are cited are now two different battles.",[46,6378,6379,6393,6405],{},[49,6380,6381,6384,6385,6392],{},[52,6382,6383],{},"The Citation Gap:"," New research shows a massive drop in \"Top 10\" overlap. In 2025, 76% of AI Overview citations came from the top 10 organic results. ",[206,6386,6389],{"href":6387,"rel":6388},"https:\u002F\u002Falmcorp.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-ai-overview-citations-drop-top-ranking-pages-2026\u002F",[210],[3879,6390,6391],{},"(That number has fallen to 38%)"," as of March 2026.",[49,6394,6395,6398,6399,6404],{},[52,6396,6397],{},"YouTube’s Dominance:"," YouTube is now the ",[206,6400,6403],{"href":6401,"rel":6402},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-ai-overview-citations-from-top-ranking-pages-drop-sharply\u002F568637\u002F",[210],"(single most-cited domain)"," in Google's AI Overviews. If a query can be answered with a video, Google's AI is increasingly choosing that over a text-based article.",[49,6406,6407,6410,6411,6416],{},[52,6408,6409],{},"ChatGPT Location Tracking:"," OpenAI introduced ",[206,6412,6415],{"href":6413,"rel":6414},"https:\u002F\u002Fhelp.openai.com\u002Fen\u002Farticles\u002F6825453-chatgpt-release-notes",[210],"(optional location sharing)"," this month. This allows ChatGPT to provide local recommendations (like \"best coffee near me\"), putting it in direct competition with Google Maps for local intent.",[24,6418,6419],{"id":1052},[52,6420,1055],{},[81,6422,6423],{"id":3210},[52,6424,1062],{},[46,6426,6427],{},[49,6428,6429,6432,6433,6437],{},[52,6430,6431],{},"Keyword-Only Reporting:"," Stop obsessing over being \"Position 1\" for a specific word. With ",[206,6434,6436],{"href":6387,"rel":6435},[210],"(61% less clicks)"," happening on queries that have AI Overviews, a #1 rank doesn't mean the traffic it used to.",[81,6439,6440],{"id":3222},[52,6441,1068],{},[46,6443,6444,6455],{},[49,6445,6446,6449,6450,6454],{},[52,6447,6448],{},"Put Answers First:"," AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini often pull information from the ",[206,6451,6453],{"href":6401,"rel":6452},[210],"(first third of a page)",". Move your most important insights, data points, and \"bottom line\" conclusions to the top of your content.",[49,6456,6457,6460],{},[52,6458,6459],{},"Build Video Assets:"," If you aren't creating helpful, short-form video content on YouTube, you are effectively invisible to 18% of the AI citation market.",[81,6462,6463],{"id":1085},[52,6464,5593],{},[14,6466,6467,6470],{},[52,6468,6469],{},"Predictive Search:"," As location sharing becomes the norm for AI assistants, expect \"Search\" to become \"Proactive Suggestions.\" The win for brands in April will be that their content appears in the \"Recommendations\" feed before a user even types a query.",[24,6472,6473],{"id":3240},[52,6474,3241],{},[14,6476,6477,6478],{},"The updates this month prove that the old SEO playbook is being rewritten. High rankings are no longer enough; you must be ",[52,6479,6480],{},"citeable.",[14,6482,6483],{},"MKG helps VC-backed companies bridge this gap with:",[46,6485,6486,6491,6497],{},[49,6487,6488,6490],{},[52,6489,4732],{}," We find exactly where AI is ignoring your brand and fix it.",[49,6492,6493,6496],{},[52,6494,6495],{},"Technical Entity Guardrails:"," We structure your site so AI models can read and trust your data instantly.",[49,6498,6499,6501],{},[52,6500,4744],{}," We track the value of AI citations, even when they don't lead to a traditional click.",[14,6503,6504],{},[52,6505,6506],{},"Ensure your brand isn't left out of the answer.",[14,6508,6509,6517],{},[206,6510,6513],{"href":6511,"rel":6512},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fbook-a-call\u002F&authuser=2",[210],[52,6514,6515],{},[3879,6516,4755],{}," with an MKG expert today.",[5645,6519],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6521},[6522,6523,6524,6525,6530],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055,"children":6526},[6527,6528,6529],{"id":3210,"depth":297,"text":1062},{"id":3222,"depth":297,"text":1068},{"id":1085,"depth":297,"text":5593},{"id":3240,"depth":291,"text":3241},"2026-04-02T16:25:00Z","Stay updated with the March 2026 search landscape: AI Overviews, zero-click trends, algorithm volatility, and key SEO strategies shaping modern search visibility.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-monthly-search-report-march.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-march-2026",{"title":6279,"description":6532},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-march-2026","vf6YethPYOpbYOykwPUj49JlzyeNt5SxXdu3fihMJbE",[],{"id":6541,"title":6542,"author":7,"authors":6543,"body":6544,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":6776,"description":6777,"extension":318,"img":6778,"imgAlt":6779,"meta":6780,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":6781,"seo":6782,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":6783,"updated":7,"__hash__":6784,"people":6785},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-trust-dividend-why-ai-governance-is-the-new-competitive-advantage.md","The Trust Dividend - Why AI Governance is the New Competitive Advantage",[],{"type":11,"value":6545,"toc":6765},[6546,6549,6552,6555,6558,6563,6569,6572,6575,6586,6589,6595,6598,6601,6604,6615,6621,6624,6627,6630,6645,6650,6656,6659,6662,6673,6676,6682,6685,6688,6695,6701,6704,6715,6718,6724,6730,6733,6736,6739,6745,6748,6751,6754,6758,6761,6763],[14,6547,6548],{},"We’ve reached the tipping point. In 2026, the B2B landscape isn't just crowded; it’s buried under a mountain of synthetic mediocrity. For the last two years, brands have been \"feeding the machine\" with high-volume, low-insight AI content, and the result is a massive trust deficit.",[14,6550,6551],{},"Buyers are exhausted. They are drowning in 2,000-word guides that say absolutely nothing new. When every LinkedIn post and white paper sounds like it was written by the same polite, slightly detached algorithm, the market begins to retreat. They aren't looking for more \"content\"; they are looking for \"Verified Human\" signals.",[14,6553,6554],{},"This is the chaos of the current moment: Your prospects are no longer just skeptical of your product—they are skeptical of your very information. They are looking for the marketing leader they’d actually want to work with: sharp, grounded, a little funny, and always focused on what actually works.",[14,6556,6557],{},"If your strategy is still focused on volume, you aren't building authority; you’re just contributing to the fog. To win in this era, you need to pivot from volume to Information Gain—adding data and perspectives that an AI simply cannot hallucinate. This is where AI Governance for Marketing stops being a legal hurdle and starts being your primary competitive advantage.",[14,6559,6560],{},[75,6561],{"alt":77,"src":6562},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F17c11c60-d099-41f2-afe9-0f80d5413370-mkg-blog-the-trust-dividend-image-1.png",[24,6564,6566],{"id":6565},"the-content-inflation-crisis-and-the-flight-to-quality",[52,6567,6568],{},"The Content Inflation Crisis and the Flight to Quality",[14,6570,6571],{},"We’ve said it before: marketing should not feel like you’re treading water with a laptop, which is what can happen when teams use AI to churn out generic thought leadership articles. When you recite a B2B brochure, you sound dry and detached.",[14,6573,6574],{},"The trust deficit has created a demand for quality, and B2B buyers are now prioritizing:",[46,6576,6577,6580,6583],{},[49,6578,6579],{},"First-Party Data: Real numbers from real campaigns, not \"industry averages\".",[49,6581,6582],{},"Hard-Won Lessons: Experiences that a senior strategist has actually lived through and knows how to navigate.",[49,6584,6585],{},"Contrarian Insights: The willingness to say things the way clients are actually thinking them.",[14,6587,6588],{},"If your AI isn't governed by a human system that prioritizes these B2B trust signals, you are essentially invisible. It’s not you, it’s the lack of a system. At MKG, we lead with insight, not ego.",[24,6590,6592],{"id":6591},"institutionalizing-accountability-the-mkgos-approach",[52,6593,6594],{},"Institutionalizing Accountability: The mkgOS Approach",[14,6596,6597],{},"At MKG, we don’t talk in trends; we talk in tactics and systems. To address the trust deficit, we turn to the Accountability pillar of our operating system. We believe that AI Governance for Marketing isn’t about restriction; it’s about creating a disciplined, thoughtful approach to generative technology.",[14,6599,6600],{},"True governance means having your systems dialed and your values straight. It means moving beyond the \"prompt and post\" mentality and building a rhythmic engine that compounds trust over time.",[14,6602,6603],{},"When we talk about the TRACK (Accountability) pillar, we are talking about:",[132,6605,6606,6609,6612],{},[49,6607,6608],{},"Verification Layers: Every piece of output must be stress-tested by someone who has \"done the reps\".",[49,6610,6611],{},"Information Gain SEO: Shifting the focus from keyword density to unique insight density that AI can't mimic.",[49,6613,6614],{},"Human-in-the-Loop Operations: Ensuring that personality comes through truth and tone, not through forced jokes.",[24,6616,6618],{"id":6617},"information-gain-adding-what-the-machine-cant-hallucinate",[52,6619,6620],{},"Information Gain: Adding What the Machine Can't Hallucinate",[14,6622,6623],{},"The secret to Information Gain SEO in 2026 is simple: speak like a senior strategist who’s been in the mess. AI can summarize the internet, but it cannot tell you how a specific lead-scoring model failed or why a certain OKR structure fell apart in Asana.",[14,6625,6626],{},"This mix of compassion for the overwhelmed marketer and clarity about the plan is our superpower. Governance is the \"hold the line\" part of that equation. It ensures that we never sound like we’re reciting a brochure.",[14,6628,6629],{},"To achieve Information Gain, your governance model must mandate:",[46,6631,6632,6635,6642],{},[49,6633,6634],{},"Proprietary Frameworks: Like the \"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast\" mentality that adds flavor, not fluff.",[49,6636,6637,6638,6641],{},"Negative Constraints: Explicitly stating what ",[38,6639,6640],{},"not"," to do, based on actual failures.",[49,6643,6644],{},"Operator Energy: Speaking fluently in operations because you actually live in them.",[14,6646,6647],{},[75,6648],{"alt":77,"src":6649},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F7111446e-0d38-4f17-a8e0-39872d387d54-mkg-blog-the-trust-dividend-image-2.png",[24,6651,6653],{"id":6652},"operationalizing-trust-the-use-this-not-this-of-ai-governance",[52,6654,6655],{},"Operationalizing Trust: The \"Use This, Not This\" of AI Governance",[14,6657,6658],{},"To institutionalize trust, your team needs to understand the difference between tactical efficiency and strategic impact. We don’t need to be zany to be memorable, but we do say things that stick.",[14,6660,6661],{},"Here’s how AI governance changes your output in practice:",[46,6663,6664,6667,6670],{},[49,6665,6666],{},"Instead of: “Maximize your ROI with smarter marketing systems.”\u2028Use: “Let’s get your brain back.”",[49,6668,6669],{},"Instead of: “Marketing agility requires proactive planning.”\u2028Use: “Still stuck in reactive mode?”",[49,6671,6672],{},"Instead of: “You may be experiencing tactical inefficiencies.”\u2028Use: “You’re not broken. The system is.”",[14,6674,6675],{},"By leading with \"Clear, Confident, and No B.S.\" communication, you skip the fluff. Your words remain tight, thoughtful, and human—not marketing-muddled or loaded with jargon. This directness is what buyers are craving in an era of AI-generated waffling.",[24,6677,6679],{"id":6678},"why-volume-is-the-enemy-of-authority",[52,6680,6681],{},"Why Volume is the Enemy of Authority",[14,6683,6684],{},"In the early days of AI, the goal was efficiency—how many articles can we produce? But that mindset leads to \"random acts of marketing\". When your competitors are flooding the market with 10% variations of the same ChatGPT response, your high-density, experience-backed insight stands out like a lighthouse.",[14,6686,6687],{},"We lead with insight, not ego. The \"Truth Deficit\" occurs when marketing teams prioritize the appearance of authority over its substance. They want \"Personality Without Performance\".",[14,6689,6690,6691,6694],{},"But in a market where everyone is using the same LLMs, your personality ",[38,6692,6693],{},"is"," your performance. We show that personality through \"Kerry-isms\" and direct, no-B.S. communication. We aren't afraid to tell a client, \"You're doing too much\". Let's replace those random acts with something that actually works.",[24,6696,6698],{"id":6697},"the-logistics-of-governance-from-asana-to-okrs",[52,6699,6700],{},"The Logistics of Governance: From Asana to OKRs",[14,6702,6703],{},"AI Governance isn't a PDF that sits on a shared drive; it’s a compounding rhythm. We speak fluently in ops because we live in operations. For governance to work, it must be baked into your project management tools.",[46,6705,6706,6709,6712],{},[49,6707,6708],{},"In Asana, every AI-assisted task includes a “Human Truth Check” subtask, in which a subject-matter expert validates the output against real-world lead-scoring models or OKR results.",[49,6710,6711],{},"In Brand Voice: We use our voice pillars to audit AI output. If it sounds “cutesy,” “waffling,” or “cold,” it goes back to the drawing board.",[49,6713,6714],{},"In SEO: We audit for Information Gain by asking, “Does this article provide information that wasn’t present in the top 10 search results yesterday?”",[14,6716,6717],{},"By implementing this strict framework, you ensure that every touchpoint reinforces your brand as a human entity. You move from \"Still stuck in reactive mode?\" to \"Built for humans. Proven in dashboards\".",[14,6719,6720,6721],{}," ",[75,6722],{"alt":77,"src":6723},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F72e0b775-d69c-4c76-8a28-55d5eeab9c15-mkg-blog-the-trust-dividend-image-3.png",[24,6725,6727],{"id":6726},"the-long-term-play-trust-as-a-moat",[52,6728,6729],{},"The Long-Term Play: Trust as a Moat",[14,6731,6732],{},"The \"Trust Dividend\" is the measurable ROI you gain when your audience stops questioning your motives and starts following your lead. It’s what happens when you are strategic, not sterile.",[14,6734,6735],{},"When your competitors are waffling, you are warm but firm. While they are being \"cutesy\" with AI avatars, you are being experienced, not inflated. This competitive advantage isn't built overnight. It’s a rhythm. It’s about having your systems dialed and staying focused on what actually works.",[14,6737,6738],{},"It’s about recognizing that you don't need to be zany to be memorable—you just need to say things that stick. Whether it's \"Feed the machine\" or \"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast\", these anchors of truth build a bridge over the trust deficit.",[24,6740,6742],{"id":6741},"final-thoughts-get-your-brain-back",[52,6743,6744],{},"Final Thoughts: Get Your Brain Back",[14,6746,6747],{},"If your team is currently \"treading water with a laptop,\" trying to keep up with the AI content arms race, it’s time for a pivot. You aren't broken; the current system is.",[14,6749,6750],{},"Let's get your brain back. By institutionalizing AI Governance through the lens of accountability and information gain, you stop being a producer of noise and start being a source of truth. You move from \"reactive mode\" to true \"Operator Energy\".",[14,6752,6753],{},"In 2026, the most valuable thing you can own is a buyer’s trust. Don't let an ungoverned algorithm cannibalize it. We're human. We're here to help.",[24,6755,6756],{"id":3033},[52,6757,3034],{},[14,6759,6760],{},"The rise of generative AI has created a \"Content Inflation Crisis,\" leading B2B buyers to tune out generic, synthetic marketing. To win in 2026, brands must pivot from high-volume output to a strategy of Information Gain, adding unique insights that AI cannot replicate. By institutionalizing AI Governance through the TRACK (Accountability) pillar of the mkgOS, marketing leaders can clear the fog of AI noise, build genuine B2B Trust Signals, and turn governance into a sustainable competitive advantage.",[5645,6762],{},[5645,6764],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6766},[6767,6768,6769,6770,6771,6772,6773,6774,6775],{"id":6565,"depth":291,"text":6568},{"id":6591,"depth":291,"text":6594},{"id":6617,"depth":291,"text":6620},{"id":6652,"depth":291,"text":6655},{"id":6678,"depth":291,"text":6681},{"id":6697,"depth":291,"text":6700},{"id":6726,"depth":291,"text":6729},{"id":6741,"depth":291,"text":6744},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-04-01T17:59:00Z","In a world of AI-generated noise, trust is the only currency that still compounds. Here is how to institutionalize human expertise.\n","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-trust-dividend-hero-image.webp","The Trust Dividend",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-trust-dividend-why-ai-governance-is-the-new-competitive-advantage",{"title":6542,"description":6777},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-trust-dividend-why-ai-governance-is-the-new-competitive-advantage","4rb9sKuAKZLNuo6l_M6ATulxwQfQ4Z4m81OTfG_XwW0",[],{"id":6787,"title":6788,"author":7,"authors":6789,"body":6790,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":6963,"description":6964,"extension":318,"img":6965,"imgAlt":6966,"meta":6967,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":6968,"seo":6969,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":6970,"updated":7,"__hash__":6971,"people":6972},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-franken-stack-failure-why-your-disconnected-tools-are-cannibalizing-your-series-b-roi.md","The 'Franken-Stack' Failure - Why Your Disconnected Tools are Cannibalizing Your Series-B ROI",[],{"type":11,"value":6791,"toc":6953},[6792,6795,6801,6804,6807,6812,6818,6821,6824,6827,6830,6833,6857,6863,6866,6869,6874,6880,6883,6886,6889,6900,6906,6909,6912,6918,6921,6924,6929,6935,6938,6941,6945,6948,6951],[14,6793,6794],{},"You’ve raised the capital. You’ve hired the \"rockstar\" VPs. You’ve greenlit a tech budget that would make a 2015 startup weep with envy. And yet, if you’re honest, your marketing department feels less like a well-oiled machine and more like a collection of expensive, shouting islands.",[24,6796,6798],{"id":6797},"welcome-to-the-franken-stack",[52,6799,6800],{},"Welcome to the Franken-Stack.",[14,6802,6803],{},"It starts innocently enough. A specialized tool for email, another for intent data, a third for LinkedIn automation, and a \"must-have\" dashboard that promised to unify it all. By the time you hit Series B, growth executives are often drowning in 20+ SaaS subscriptions that don’t share data, don't talk to your CRM, and certainly don't provide a clear picture of ROI.",[14,6805,6806],{},"The result? You aren't executing a strategy; you're performing \"Random Acts of Marketing\". You’re treading water with a laptop, and the CFO is starting to ask why the customer acquisition cost looks like a heart monitor in a horror movie.",[14,6808,6809],{},[75,6810],{"alt":77,"src":6811},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9f17ff93-4a9d-442b-a53c-398b00c3f978-The-Franken-Stack-Failure-blog-image-1.png",[24,6813,6815],{"id":6814},"the-cost-of-tool-bloat-performance-or-performance-art",[52,6816,6817],{},"The Cost of Tool-Bloat: Performance or Performance Art?",[14,6819,6820],{},"Most B2B companies treat their Marketing Operations like a junk drawer. Whenever a new problem arises—\"We need more leads!\" or \"Our attribution is fuzzy!\"—the reflex is to buy another piece of software.",[14,6822,6823],{},"But here’s the truth: You don't need another channel; you need a rhythm that compounds.",[14,6825,6826],{},"When your tools don't communicate, your team spends half their week playing \"data janitor.\" They are manually exporting CSVs from one platform to upload them into another, trying to figure out if that MQL from last Tuesday actually came from the $10k-a-month ad spend or a stray LinkedIn post. This isn't marketing agility; it's a lack of a system.",[14,6828,6829],{},"At MKG, we’ve been in the mess, and we know how to clear the fog. We know that when the stack becomes a monster, the \"strategy\" becomes whatever the software allows you to do. We’re not afraid to say what you’re thinking: You're doing too much. We skip the fluff and lead with insight, not ego.",[14,6831,6832],{},"The 'Franken-Stack' Is Cannibalizing Your ROI. In the Series B world, efficiency isn't just a buzzword; it’s the difference between a successful exit and a \"restructuring\" conversation. A disconnected stack creates three specific ROI killers:",[132,6834,6835,6843,6851],{},[49,6836,6837,6840,6841],{},[52,6838,6839],{},"The Attribution Mirage:"," If your lead scoring model lives in a vacuum, you’re optimizing for clicks that don't convert. You’re celebrating \"wins\" in a dashboard that doesn't reflect your bank account.",[5645,6842],{},[49,6844,6845,6848,6849],{},[52,6846,6847],{},"The Context Gap:"," Sales doesn't know what Marketing is doing. Marketing doesn't know which leads are actually closing. You’re paying for data you can’t use because it’s trapped in a silo.",[5645,6850],{},[49,6852,6853,6856],{},[52,6854,6855],{},"The \"Slow is Smooth\" Problem:"," As we like to say, \"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast\". A fragmented stack is the opposite of smooth. Every new campaign requires a \"workaround.\" You’re moving slowly because your tools are fighting each other. ",[24,6858,6860],{"id":6859},"why-your-growth-execs-are-drowning-and-how-to-save-them",[52,6861,6862],{},"Why Your Growth Execs are Drowning (And How to Save Them)",[14,6864,6865],{},"Growth leaders at the Series B stage are often forced into a \"performance\" mindset, feeling they must use every shiny new tool to prove they are staying ahead of the curve. But personality and success come through truth and tone, not forced jokes or loud branding.",[14,6867,6868],{},"When you are \"marketing-muddled,\" your message gets lost in the pipes. Instead of sharp, grounded leadership, you get a \"B2B brochure\" sound that says everything and means nothing. We prefer to be crisp without being clipped. We meet overwhelmed marketers with empathy and a plan, holding space for the chaos while holding the line on the strategy.",[14,6870,6871],{},[75,6872],{"alt":77,"src":6873},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F0068a9b3-9f23-4702-9a93-f2f88a49af9b-The-Franken-Stack-Failure-blog-image-2.png",[24,6875,6877],{"id":6876},"a-better-way-forward-introducing-the-mkgos",[52,6878,6879],{},"A Better Way Forward: Introducing the mkgOS",[14,6881,6882],{},"We don't believe in adding more noise to the signal. We believe in a unified layer of Strategy + Services + Tech—what we call the mkgOS.",[14,6884,6885],{},"Think of mkgOS not as another tool to add to the pile, but as the operating system that makes the pile functional. We don't talk in trends; we talk in tactics and systems. We speak fluently in ops because we live in operations—from Asana to OKRs to lead scoring models.",[14,6887,6888],{},"The mkgOS approach replaces tool-bloat with a predictable system by:",[46,6890,6891,6894,6897],{},[49,6892,6893],{},"Auditing for Impact: Cutting the tools that are just \"performance art\" and doubling down on the ones that actually \"feed the machine\".",[49,6895,6896],{},"Connecting the Pipes: Ensuring your data flows from initial touchpoint to final sale without manual intervention.",[49,6898,6899],{},"Operationalizing Strategy: Turning high-level goals into rhythmic execution.",[24,6901,6903],{"id":6902},"the-b2b-tech-stack-audit-clearing-the-fog",[52,6904,6905],{},"The B2B Tech Stack Audit: Clearing the Fog",[14,6907,6908],{},"A proper B2B Tech Stack Audit isn't just about cutting costs; it's about reclaiming your team's mental bandwidth. We want to \"get your brain back\". When we dive into your operations, we look for the \"ghosts in the machine\"—those automated sequences that no longer match your brand voice, or the \"zombie\" subscriptions that everyone forgot were even running.",[14,6910,6911],{},"We lead with a Lean Marketing Strategy. This isn't about being cheap; it's about being strategic, not sterile. It’s about ensuring that every dollar spent on a tool contributes to a clear, confident, no-B.S. bottom line.",[24,6913,6915],{"id":6914},"built-for-humans-proven-in-dashboards",[52,6916,6917],{},"Built for Humans. Proven in Dashboards.",[14,6919,6920],{},"We’ve done the reps. We know that a Lean Marketing Strategy isn't about doing less; it's about doing what actually works. We’re direct without being cold and crisp without being clipped.",[14,6922,6923],{},"If your current marketing setup feels like \"tactical inefficiencies\", it’s time to stop the random acts. You aren't broken. The system is. We meet overwhelmed marketers with empathy and a plan. We’re experienced, but not inflated.",[14,6925,6926],{},[75,6927],{"alt":77,"src":6928},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc87e1693-0539-4302-b811-2f035a971543-The-Franken-Stack-Failure-blog-image-3.png",[24,6930,6932],{"id":6931},"stop-treading-water",[52,6933,6934],{},"Stop Treading Water",[14,6936,6937],{},"The \"Franken-Stack\" doesn't just cost money; it costs momentum. Every day your team spends fighting their tools is a day they aren't spending on outthinking your competition.",[14,6939,6940],{},"It’s time to move from \"reactive mode\" to a proactive, rhythmic engine. Let’s replace the fluff with something tight, thoughtful, and human. We’re here to help. We’re not afraid to say things the way our clients are thinking them—it's time to kill the Franken-Stack and build something that actually works.",[24,6942,6943],{"id":3033},[52,6944,3034],{},[14,6946,6947],{},"High-growth companies often fall into the \"Franken-Stack\" trap—owning dozens of disconnected tools that create data silos and \"Random Acts of Marketing\". This fragmentation wastes Series B capital and obscures true ROI. By implementing mkgOS, MKG Marketing provides a unified layer of strategy and operations that clears the fog, streamlines Marketing Operations, and replaces expensive tool bloat with a lean, predictable system that actually works.",[14,6949,6950],{},"Would you like me to draft a checklist for your first B2B Tech Stack Audit to see which of your tools are actually \"feeding the machine\"?",[5645,6952],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":6954},[6955,6956,6957,6958,6959,6960,6961,6962],{"id":6797,"depth":291,"text":6800},{"id":6814,"depth":291,"text":6817},{"id":6859,"depth":291,"text":6862},{"id":6876,"depth":291,"text":6879},{"id":6902,"depth":291,"text":6905},{"id":6914,"depth":291,"text":6917},{"id":6931,"depth":291,"text":6934},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-03-25T17:59:00Z","Stop committing random acts of marketing. It’s time to trade tool-bloat for a predictable system that actually compounds.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-franken-stack-failure-hero-image-1.webp","The 'Franken-Stack' Failure",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-franken-stack-failure-why-your-disconnected-tools-are-cannibalizing-your-series-b-roi",{"title":6788,"description":6964},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-franken-stack-failure-why-your-disconnected-tools-are-cannibalizing-your-series-b-roi","obZpdPzzRX_kMmt0msBbvS5HlVW9Igj1KFU2rNS7dGU",[],{"id":6974,"title":6975,"author":7,"authors":6976,"body":6977,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":7315,"description":7316,"extension":318,"img":7317,"imgAlt":7318,"meta":7319,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":7320,"seo":7321,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":7322,"updated":7,"__hash__":7323,"people":7324},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-rhythmic-engine-why-your-big-launch-mentality-is-stalling-your-growth.md","The Rhythmic Engine - Why Your 'Big Launch' Mentality is Stalling Your Growth",[],{"type":11,"value":6978,"toc":7299},[6979,6982,6985,6988,6991,6994,6997,7000,7003,7006,7011,7017,7020,7023,7026,7043,7049,7052,7055,7058,7061,7064,7070,7077,7080,7083,7090,7104,7107,7110,7112,7117,7123,7126,7129,7132,7138,7141,7147,7150,7153,7159,7162,7168,7171,7174,7180,7183,7186,7192,7195,7212,7215,7221,7224,7238,7241,7247,7250,7253,7258,7264,7267,7270,7285,7288,7291,7294,7297],[14,6980,6981],{},"Big launches are intoxicating.",[14,6983,6984],{},"They come with urgency, deadlines, and a clear finish line. Everyone rallies. The deck gets polished. The campaign goes live. The team feels momentum, because for a moment, everything moves at once.",[14,6986,6987],{},"Then… it fades.",[14,6989,6990],{},"The backlog fills up again. Priorities shift. The team goes quiet while they “catch up.” And the market stops hearing from you until the next big push.",[14,6992,6993],{},"That cycle—burst, silence, burst—has become the default operating mode for many Series A–C teams. It’s understandable. Resources are lean. Everyone wears five hats. The calendar is full. So marketing becomes a series of sprints toward a launch and long stretches of maintenance in between.",[14,6995,6996],{},"But here’s the problem: the market doesn’t reward bursts. It rewards presence. And in 2026, it’s not just humans paying attention. AI systems are constantly learning your category, absorbing patterns, sources, and repeated signals of authority.",[14,6998,6999],{},"When you disappear, you don’t just lose awareness. You lose momentum within the systems that shape recommendations.",[14,7001,7002],{},"This is the quiet cost of “big launch mentality”: you stall your own growth engine.",[14,7004,7005],{},"Because growth isn’t a one-time event. It’s a rhythm.",[14,7007,7008],{},[75,7009],{"alt":77,"src":7010},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F6d4df7af-cd24-460a-ab36-7f054fbbd218-The-Rhythmic-Engine-blog-image-1.png",[24,7012,7014],{"id":7013},"bursts-silence-and-the-new-cost-of-going-quiet",[52,7015,7016],{},"Bursts, Silence, and the New Cost of Going Quiet",[14,7018,7019],{},"The chaos is subtle because bursts can still produce wins. You might see a spike in traffic. A jump in demos. A short-lived lift in the pipeline. The team celebrates. It worked.",[14,7021,7022],{},"But then you go quiet, and the compounding stops.",[14,7024,7025],{},"Here’s what that burst-and-silence pattern creates:",[46,7027,7028,7031,7034,7037,7040],{},[49,7029,7030],{},"Your messaging changes every launch, so the market never learns your true position",[49,7032,7033],{},"Your channels never stabilize long enough to optimize properly",[49,7035,7036],{},"Your reporting resets every quarter instead of building trend clarity",[49,7038,7039],{},"Your content footprint looks inconsistent, even if each piece is good",[49,7041,7042],{},"Your audience hears from you in waves, not in a steady cadence",[14,7044,7045,7046,212],{},"And now there’s a newer problem: ",[52,7047,7048],{},"Share of Model",[14,7050,7051],{},"AI systems learn from repeated, consistent signals across the web. They pick up on brands that appear frequently, say the same thing consistently, and earn citations over time. If your presence is episodic, you’re easier to forget and harder to recommend.",[14,7053,7054],{},"In other words: you’re not just competing for attention. You’re competing for memory.",[14,7056,7057],{},"A launch spike doesn’t build memory. Rhythm does.",[14,7059,7060],{},"That’s why “Random Acts” marketing is so expensive. Not because it never works, but because it can’t compound. It creates isolated moments instead of an engine.",[14,7062,7063],{},"If your team is constantly trying to recreate momentum from scratch, it’s not a creativity problem. It’s an operating problem.",[24,7065,7067],{"id":7066},"rhythm-track-and-the-systemic-always-on-model",[52,7068,7069],{},"Rhythm (TRACK) and the Systemic Always-On Model",[14,7071,7072,7073,7076],{},"At MKG, we anchor the fix to the ",[52,7074,7075],{},"Rhythm"," pillar of TRACK.",[14,7078,7079],{},"Rhythm is what turns marketing from a series of heroic pushes into a predictable engine. It’s the cadence that keeps your message, your channels, and your measurement moving forward—even when no “big launch” is happening.",[14,7081,7082],{},"When Rhythm is present, momentum becomes structural.",[14,7084,7085,7086,7089],{},"That’s what mkgOS is built to do: create a ",[52,7087,7088],{},"Systemic Always-On"," approach where progress is weekly, not occasional. It’s not “always-on” in the sense of running the same campaign forever. It’s always-on in the sense of maintaining a consistent operating heartbeat:",[46,7091,7092,7095,7098,7101],{},[49,7093,7094],{},"Weekly priorities",[49,7096,7097],{},"Weekly shipping",[49,7099,7100],{},"Weekly learning",[49,7102,7103],{},"Weekly refinement",[14,7105,7106],{},"This is how you stay top-of-mind for humans, and stay present in the training data patterns that shape AI recommendations.",[14,7108,7109],{},"And it’s how you stop treating growth like a series of events and start treating it like a system.",[5645,7111],{},[14,7113,7114],{},[75,7115],{"alt":77,"src":7116},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F63e2878c-3d12-44d3-bb65-405da405de1b-The-Rhythmic-Engine-blog-image-2.png",[24,7118,7120],{"id":7119},"why-rhythm-beats-launches-even-when-launches-are-good",[52,7121,7122],{},"Why Rhythm Beats Launches (Even When Launches Are Good)",[14,7124,7125],{},"Launches have a place. But launches are peaks. And peaks only matter if there’s a base underneath them.",[14,7127,7128],{},"Rhythm builds the base.",[14,7130,7131],{},"Here’s what changes when you shift from “big launch” to “rhythmic engine”:",[81,7133,7135],{"id":7134},"_1-your-message-becomes-learnable",[52,7136,7137],{},"1) Your message becomes learnable",[14,7139,7140],{},"A market can’t remember what keeps changing. When you ship consistently, your core story repeats across multiple surfaces. That repetition isn’t boring—it’s what creates clarity. It’s how people (and AI systems) learn what you’re known for.",[81,7142,7144],{"id":7143},"_2-your-channels-become-optimizable",[52,7145,7146],{},"2) Your channels become optimizable",[14,7148,7149],{},"Bursts don’t allow iteration. Rhythm does.",[14,7151,7152],{},"Paid campaigns get smarter because learnings roll forward week after week. Content gets sharper because you’re building depth, not just volume. Landing pages improve because you’re refining based on patterns, not hunches.",[81,7154,7156],{"id":7155},"_3-your-measurement-becomes-trustworthy",[52,7157,7158],{},"3) Your measurement becomes trustworthy",[14,7160,7161],{},"When everything happens in spikes, measurement becomes emotional. A rhythm creates baselines. Baselines create honest decisions. Honest decisions create better outcomes.",[81,7163,7165],{"id":7164},"_4-your-team-stops-restarting",[52,7166,7167],{},"4) Your team stops restarting",[14,7169,7170],{},"This is the hidden benefit. Rhythm reduces reinvention. When you run an operating cadence, you’re not rebuilding a plan every time. You’re adjusting a system that’s already moving.",[14,7172,7173],{},"This is the difference between pushing a stalled car and driving an engine that’s already running.",[24,7175,7177],{"id":7176},"what-systemic-always-on-looks-like-in-practice",[52,7178,7179],{},"What “Systemic Always-On” Looks Like in Practice",[14,7181,7182],{},"Systemic always-on doesn’t mean doing everything, all the time. It means doing the right things consistently.",[14,7184,7185],{},"Here’s the mkgOS-style structure:",[81,7187,7189],{"id":7188},"weekly-ship-something-that-compounds",[52,7190,7191],{},"Weekly: Ship something that compounds",[14,7193,7194],{},"Not “post for posting’s sake.” Something that moves the system:",[46,7196,7197,7200,7203,7206,7209],{},[49,7198,7199],{},"A new insight published in an authoritative lane.",[49,7201,7202],{},"A landing page refinement tied to performance data.",[49,7204,7205],{},"A campaign iteration based on what the market responded to.",[49,7207,7208],{},"A proof asset, case snippet, or use-case expansion.",[49,7210,7211],{},"A distribution push that earns external mentions",[14,7213,7214],{},"The key is that each week builds on the last.",[81,7216,7218],{"id":7217},"monthly-turn-learning-into-next-actions",[52,7219,7220],{},"Monthly: Turn learning into next actions",[14,7222,7223],{},"Monthly shouldn’t be “reporting theater.” It should be:",[46,7225,7226,7229,7232,7235],{},[49,7227,7228],{},"What worked",[49,7230,7231],{},"What didn’t",[49,7233,7234],{},"What we’re changing",[49,7236,7237],{},"What we’re doubling down on",[14,7239,7240],{},"This is how marketing consistency becomes measurable, not just aspirational.",[81,7242,7244],{"id":7243},"quarterly-use-launches-as-accelerators-not-lifeboats",[52,7245,7246],{},"Quarterly: Use launches as accelerators, not lifeboats",[14,7248,7249],{},"Launches become strategic peaks atop a stable base. Instead of “we need a launch to create momentum,” it becomes “the launch amplifies the momentum we already have.”",[14,7251,7252],{},"That’s how launches become powerful again: because they’re not carrying the entire strategy.",[14,7254,7255],{},[75,7256],{"alt":77,"src":7257},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fe69b6e90-0e83-4fb1-8c81-6502374189f5-The-Rhythmic-Engine-blog-image-3.png",[24,7259,7261],{"id":7260},"the-2026-reality-consistency-is-the-growth-strategy",[52,7262,7263],{},"The 2026 reality: Consistency is the growth strategy",[14,7265,7266],{},"In 2026, you don’t just need a strong message. You need a strong cadence.",[14,7268,7269],{},"Markets are noisy. Trust is scarce. AI tools are compressing categories into shortlists based on repeated, consistent signals. If you go quiet, you don’t just lose attention—you lose position.",[14,7271,7272,7273,7276,7277,7280,7281,7284],{},"This is why ",[52,7274,7275],{},"Marketing Consistency"," isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a core lever in any modern ",[52,7278,7279],{},"B2B Growth Strategy"," (and yes, even if you avoid the acronym in your public-facing copy, the operational reality is the same). It’s also why teams focused on ",[52,7282,7283],{},"Scaling Series B Marketing"," hit a wall when they rely on launches: the business outgrows burst mode.",[14,7286,7287],{},"The brands that win aren’t the ones with the biggest moments. They’re the ones with the steadiest engine.",[14,7289,7290],{},"mkgOS exists for this exact shift: from random acts to rhythm, from spikes to systems, from launch mentality to compounding momentum.",[14,7292,7293],{},"Because the real unlock isn’t the next big launch.",[14,7295,7296],{},"It’s the rhythmic engine you build in between.",[5645,7298],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":7300},[7301,7302,7303,7309,7314],{"id":7013,"depth":291,"text":7016},{"id":7066,"depth":291,"text":7069},{"id":7119,"depth":291,"text":7122,"children":7304},[7305,7306,7307,7308],{"id":7134,"depth":297,"text":7137},{"id":7143,"depth":297,"text":7146},{"id":7155,"depth":297,"text":7158},{"id":7164,"depth":297,"text":7167},{"id":7176,"depth":291,"text":7179,"children":7310},[7311,7312,7313],{"id":7188,"depth":297,"text":7191},{"id":7217,"depth":297,"text":7220},{"id":7243,"depth":297,"text":7246},{"id":7260,"depth":291,"text":7263},"2026-03-18T17:59:00Z","Bursts feel productive. Rhythm builds momentum—especially when AI is learning your category every day.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FThe-Rhythmic-Engine-hero-image.webp","The Rhythmic Engine",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-rhythmic-engine-why-your-big-launch-mentality-is-stalling-your-growth",{"title":6975,"description":7316},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-rhythmic-engine-why-your-big-launch-mentality-is-stalling-your-growth","2ZOAcfS_t6D6R1_5b_WDkUrhwfTmT1K1IATw5boNW0o",[],{"id":7326,"title":7327,"author":7,"authors":7328,"body":7329,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":7766,"description":7767,"extension":318,"img":7768,"imgAlt":7769,"meta":7770,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":7771,"seo":7772,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":7773,"updated":7,"__hash__":7774,"people":7775},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-content-inflation-crisis-how-to-build-brand-authority-in-an-era-of-ai-mediocrity.md","The Content Inflation Crisis - How to Build Brand Authority in an Era of AI Mediocrity",[],{"type":11,"value":7330,"toc":7751},[7331,7334,7337,7344,7347,7354,7357,7363,7366,7369,7374,7380,7383,7386,7389,7406,7412,7419,7425,7433,7445,7452,7455,7468,7471,7476,7490,7493,7500,7520,7527,7530,7550,7557,7563,7569,7572,7578,7581,7588,7602,7605,7622,7625,7631,7634,7651,7656,7662,7665,7668,7674,7677,7680,7685,7691,7694,7697,7724,7731,7734,7737,7740,7743],[14,7332,7333],{},"The internet is drowning in content, and your buyers are getting picky.",[14,7335,7336],{},"Not picky about the \"let’s compare five options\" way. Picky in the I’m not reading any of this way.",[14,7338,7339,7340,7343],{},"That’s the Content Inflation Crisis: the supply of content exploded, the average quality dropped, and trust became a scarce resource. AI accelerated the problem by making it cheap to produce words that look convincing but say nothing. The result is what people are calling ",[38,7341,7342],{},"AI-slop","—generic content that feels polished yet strangely empty.",[14,7345,7346],{},"And the consequences are real.",[14,7348,7349,7350,7353],{},"Gartner has predicted that traditional search engine volume will drop ",[52,7351,7352],{},"25% by 2026",", as people shift from classic search toward AI chatbots and other virtual agents. That isn’t just a traffic forecast. It’s a behavioral forecast: fewer clicks, fewer opportunities to win the visit, and more decisions made within summaries.",[14,7355,7356],{},"So even if your content still ranks, it may not perform. Because buyers are filtering faster, and AI systems are summarizing the web into shortlists.",[14,7358,7359,7360,212],{},"In other words, content isn’t competing for attention anymore. It’s competing for ",[52,7361,7362],{},"trust",[14,7364,7365],{},"If your current strategy is to publish more, 2026 will feel brutal. More content will not solve a trust deficit. It will usually make it worse.",[14,7367,7368],{},"What works now is the opposite: fewer pieces, more substance, and a system built to compound authority over time.",[14,7370,7371],{},[75,7372],{"alt":77,"src":7373},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fdee800c7-74ac-4280-a8d3-166b63509954-mkg-blog-the-content-inflation-crisis-image1.png",[24,7375,7377],{"id":7376},"when-more-content-produces-less-impact",[52,7378,7379],{},"When “More Content” Produces Less Impact",[14,7381,7382],{},"Here’s the chaos: marketing teams are shipping more than ever, and results are getting harder to prove.",[14,7384,7385],{},"Buyers have learned to pattern-match fluff. They can smell a generic article from the first paragraph. They skim, bounce, and move on—or they ask an AI tool to summarize the answer without visiting a site at all.",[14,7387,7388],{},"That creates a nasty double bind:",[46,7390,7391,7394,7397,7400],{},[49,7392,7393],{},"Your team publishes more to keep up.",[49,7395,7396],{},"The market is less trusting as average content quality declines.",[49,7398,7399],{},"AI systems summarize your category using sources that seem more credible than your own.",[49,7401,2972,7402,7405],{},[38,7403,7404],{},"top-of-funnel"," traffic becomes less predictable, even when rankings look fine.",[14,7407,7408,7409,212],{},"This is why traditional content marketing is starting to feel ineffective. It’s not that the content stopped working. It’s that ",[38,7410,7411],{},"mediocre content is no longer tolerated",[14,7413,7414,7415,7418],{},"And if your brand blends into the sea of sameness, you don’t just lose readers. You lose ",[52,7416,7417],{},"Brand Trust","—the real currency now.",[24,7420,7422],{"id":7421},"knowledge-consistency-track-in-a-world-of-ai-mediocrity",[52,7423,7424],{},"Knowledge + Consistency (TRACK) in a World of AI Mediocrity",[14,7426,7427,7428,2623,7431,212],{},"At MKG, we pivot out of this inflation trap by leaning on two pillars that don’t care about trends: ",[52,7429,7430],{},"Knowledge",[52,7432,5236],{},[46,7434,7435,7440],{},[49,7436,7437,7439],{},[52,7438,7430],{}," means your content is led by real expertise—insight the market can’t get from a generic rewrite. It’s opinionated, specific, and grounded in experience.",[49,7441,7442,7444],{},[52,7443,5236],{}," means your expertise shows up predictably over time, across topics, and across formats, so trust compounds rather than resets with every post.",[14,7446,7447,7448,7451],{},"This is where most brands get it wrong. They think authority is a content volume problem. It’s not. Authority is a ",[52,7449,7450],{},"signal quality"," problem.",[14,7453,7454],{},"And in 2026, signal quality faces a new requirement: it must survive AI.",[14,7456,7457,7458,2623,7461,7463,7464,7467],{},"That’s why we connect TRACK to ",[52,7459,7460],{},"SVO (Search Visibility Optimization)",[52,7462,769],{},". The goal isn’t just to be discoverable. It’s to ensure your best ",[38,7465,7466],{},"human"," insights are the ones AI engines actually cite when generating answers.",[14,7469,7470],{},"Because if AI systems become the front door, you want your expertise to be the source material—not someone else’s summary of your category.",[14,7472,7473],{},[75,7474],{"alt":77,"src":7475},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F29db045a-a12d-4fd1-938f-c92d18774e31-mkg-blog-the-content-inflation-crisis-image2.png",[24,7477,7479,1043,7482,1043,7487],{"id":7478},"what-authority-looks-like-when-ai-is-doing-the-summarizing",[52,7480,7481],{},"What",[38,7483,7484],{},[52,7485,7486],{},"Authority",[52,7488,7489],{},"Looks Like When AI Is Doing the Summarizing",[14,7491,7492],{},"If you want to build authority in this era, you need to understand what AI engines tend to reward.",[14,7494,7495,7496,7499],{},"They don’t ",[38,7497,7498],{},"love"," your brand. They love what they can confidently reuse:",[46,7501,7502,7505,7508,7511,7514,7517],{},[49,7503,7504],{},"Clear definitions",[49,7506,7507],{},"Specific frameworks",[49,7509,7510],{},"Distinct points of view with reasoning",[49,7512,7513],{},"Examples, constraints, and lessons learned",[49,7515,7516],{},"Consistent language across your site and footprint",[49,7518,7519],{},"Proof that sounds like reality, not marketing",[14,7521,7522,7523,7526],{},"This is where ",[52,7524,7525],{},"AI Governance in Marketing"," matters. Not as bureaucracy—as discipline. Governance is how you prevent your brand from becoming an inconsistent set of claims across dozens of posts written by different people (or tools). It’s how you enforce a shared voice, shared definitions, and shared standards so the market—and AI—can learn who you are.",[14,7528,7529],{},"Authority is built when your content is:",[132,7531,7532,7538,7544],{},[49,7533,7534,7537],{},[52,7535,7536],{},"Original"," (not a rewrite of what’s already ranking)",[49,7539,7540,7543],{},[52,7541,7542],{},"Structured"," (easy to extract and summarize)",[49,7545,7546,7549],{},[52,7547,7548],{},"Repeated"," (reinforced across multiple angles over time)",[14,7551,7552,7553,7556],{},"That’s the play. Not ",[38,7554,7555],{},"more content",". Better signal.",[24,7558,7560],{"id":7559},"the-svo-playbook-make-your-expertise-citable",[52,7561,7562],{},"The SVO Playbook: Make Your Expertise Citable",[14,7564,7565,7566],{},"SVO is the operating system for modern visibility. It forces one question: ",[38,7567,7568],{},"Will this be trusted, reused, and cited—across surfaces?",[14,7570,7571],{},"Here’s how to execute SVO without turning it into an endless content project.",[81,7573,7575],{"id":7574},"_1-pick-35-authority-lanes",[52,7576,7577],{},"1) Pick 3–5 “authority lanes.”",[14,7579,7580],{},"Most brands publish across too many topics and end up owning none of them. Choose a small set of themes where you can be unmistakably helpful and consistently specific.",[14,7582,7583,7584,7587],{},"This is the foundation of ",[52,7585,7586],{},"Content Strategy 2026",": focus beats frequency.",[81,7589,7591,1043,7594,1043,7599],{"id":7590},"_2-build-answer-shaped-assets-not-generic-posts",[52,7592,7593],{},"2) Build",[38,7595,7596],{},[52,7597,7598],{},"answer-shaped",[52,7600,7601],{},"assets, not generic posts",[14,7603,7604],{},"AI engines tend to cite content that is structured like guidance:",[46,7606,7607,7610,7613,7616,7619],{},[49,7608,7609],{},"“What is X?” definitions with clear boundaries",[49,7611,7612],{},"“X vs Y” comparisons with tradeoffs",[49,7614,7615],{},"“How to choose” decision criteria",[49,7617,7618],{},"Step-by-step frameworks",[49,7620,7621],{},"Common mistakes and how to avoid them",[14,7623,7624],{},"These formats aren’t trendy. They’re extractable.",[81,7626,7628],{"id":7627},"_3-add-proof-that-cant-be-faked",[52,7629,7630],{},"3) Add proof that can’t be faked",[14,7632,7633],{},"Authority doesn’t come from adjectives. It comes from evidence:",[46,7635,7636,7639,7642,7645,7648],{},[49,7637,7638],{},"What you tried",[49,7640,7641],{},"What happened",[49,7643,7644],{},"What you changed",[49,7646,7647],{},"What you learned",[49,7649,7650],{},"What you’d do differently next time",[14,7652,7522,7653,7655],{},[38,7654,7466],{}," content wins. AI can generate generic advice. It can’t generate your lived pattern recognition.",[81,7657,7659],{"id":7658},"_4-standardize-language-across-the-footprint",[52,7660,7661],{},"4) Standardize language across the footprint",[14,7663,7664],{},"If you use five different phrases for the same concept, you dilute your signal. Consistency matters for humans and machines. Define your core terms, naming conventions, and positioning statements—and reuse them across content.",[14,7666,7667],{},"That’s governance again. It’s also how you stop AI from summarizing you inaccurately.",[81,7669,7671],{"id":7670},"_5-publish-less-but-publish-on-purpose",[52,7672,7673],{},"5) Publish less, but publish on purpose",[14,7675,7676],{},"The goal is compounding authority. That only happens when each new piece reinforces a lane, links to the core assets, and adds a new layer of depth.",[14,7678,7679],{},"If your content calendar is a roulette wheel, authority won’t compound. It will reset.",[14,7681,7682],{},[75,7683],{"alt":77,"src":7684},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F2c25e537-e024-40a9-abde-481e425d66b3-mkg-blog-the-content-inflation-crisis-image3.png",[24,7686,7688],{"id":7687},"the-bottom-line-authority-is-the-only-moat-left",[52,7689,7690],{},"The Bottom Line: Authority Is the Only Moat Left",[14,7692,7693],{},"In an era of AI mediocrity, the brands that win won’t be the ones who publish the most. They’ll be the hardest to replace.",[14,7695,7696],{},"That requires a shift:",[46,7698,7699,7702,7705,7708,7718],{},[49,7700,7701],{},"From volume to signal",[49,7703,7704],{},"From generic to expert-led",[49,7706,7707],{},"From one-off posts to consistent authority lanes",[49,7709,7710,7711,7714,7715,7717],{},"From ",[38,7712,7713],{},"ranking"," to ",[52,7716,769],{}," that earns citations",[49,7719,7720,7721,7723],{},"From content output to ",[52,7722,7417],{}," as the metric that matters",[14,7725,7726,7727,7730],{},"If Gartner is right and classic search volume drops meaningfully by 2026, the brands that survive will be the ones whose expertise shows up ",[38,7728,7729],{},"in the answers",", not just on the results page.",[14,7732,7733],{},"The Content Inflation Crisis is real. But it’s also an opportunity.",[14,7735,7736],{},"Because when most content becomes noise, the market becomes desperate for signal. And if you build with Knowledge, enforce Consistency, and run SVO like a system, your brand won’t just be visible.",[14,7738,7739],{},"It’ll be trusted.",[14,7741,7742],{},"Add in a Call to Action section here that guides users to the next logical step (link to SVO Services page, ",[14,7744,7745,7750],{},[206,7746,7749],{"href":7747,"rel":7748},"https:\u002F\u002F1zgok.share.hsforms.com\u002F2cOmJ7URST7aHvXaKILoupg",[210],"Book a Discovery call",", Join our Newsletter.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":7752},[7753,7754,7755,7757,7765],{"id":7376,"depth":291,"text":7379},{"id":7421,"depth":291,"text":7424},{"id":7478,"depth":291,"text":7756},"What Authority Looks Like When AI Is Doing the Summarizing",{"id":7559,"depth":291,"text":7562,"children":7758},[7759,7760,7762,7763,7764],{"id":7574,"depth":297,"text":7577},{"id":7590,"depth":297,"text":7761},"2) Build answer-shaped assets, not generic posts",{"id":7627,"depth":297,"text":7630},{"id":7658,"depth":297,"text":7661},{"id":7670,"depth":297,"text":7673},{"id":7687,"depth":291,"text":7690},"2026-03-11T17:59:00Z","When everyone can publish, most content becomes noise. Here’s how to earn trust—and be cited—in 2026.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-content-inflation-crisis-image.webp","The Content Inflation Crisis",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-content-inflation-crisis-how-to-build-brand-authority-in-an-era-of-ai-mediocrity",{"title":7327,"description":7767},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-content-inflation-crisis-how-to-build-brand-authority-in-an-era-of-ai-mediocrity","6HUMP0adpUYJihvQ6-YUnmGWVWtgmKd_IAJ1wkqBON4",[],{"id":7777,"title":7778,"author":7,"authors":7779,"body":7780,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":8156,"description":8157,"extension":318,"img":8158,"imgAlt":8159,"meta":8160,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":8161,"seo":8162,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":8163,"updated":7,"__hash__":8164,"people":8165},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-the-attribution-mirage-solving-the-2026-truth-deficit-in-paid-social.md","Beyond the Attribution Mirage - Solving the 2026 'Truth' Deficit in Paid Social",[],{"type":11,"value":7781,"toc":8144},[7782,7785,7788,7791,7794,7797,7800,7805,7811,7814,7817,7820,7837,7840,7843,7846,7852,7861,7871,7874,7885,7933,7936,7942,7949,7955,7958,7961,7967,7970,7981,7988,7994,7997,8000,8014,8017,8023,8026,8029,8043,8046,8052,8059,8062,8079,8082,8087,8093,8096,8116,8119,8122,8125,8128,8132,8142],[14,7783,7784],{},"Paid social has a credibility problem—not because it stopped working, but because platform and CRM stories don’t line up.",[14,7786,7787],{},"You’ve seen it: the platform says, “conversions are up,” sales says, “We can’t find these people.” In-channel, numbers look great. In the CRM, they don’t. That gap doesn’t just confuse—it creates friction.",[14,7789,7790],{},"Marketing thinks they’re delivering. Sales thinks they’re getting ghosts. Leadership thinks they’re paying for an activity no one can defend. That friction is costly: it slows decision-making, erodes trust, and pushes teams to chase easy metrics instead of real revenue.",[14,7792,7793],{},"In 2026, this gets worse. Privacy changes, modeled conversions, partial tracking, cross-device behavior, and AI optimization make platform reporting more aggressive—sometimes “right” in-platform and still wrong where it counts: your revenue system.",[14,7795,7796],{},"That’s the problem: an attribution mirage—what happens when measurement turns into marketing.",[14,7798,7799],{},"The fix isn’t abandoning paid social. It’s rebuilding truth and accountability from click to closed-won.",[14,7801,7802],{},[75,7803],{"alt":77,"src":7804},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa7822f1e-6f9d-45b2-ac53-8b9b43c20a82-MKG-Blog-beyond-the-attribution-mirage-image-1.png",[24,7806,7808],{"id":7807},"the-chaos-hook-when-conversions-dont-exist-in-the-crm",[52,7809,7810],{},"The Chaos Hook: When “Conversions” Don’t Exist in the CRM",[14,7812,7813],{},"Here’s the chaos: platforms like LinkedIn can report conversions that never show up as real records downstream.",[14,7815,7816],{},"On paper, it looks like success. In the CRM, it doesn’t exist.",[14,7818,7819],{},"This shows up in a few familiar ways:",[46,7821,7822,7825,7828,7831,7834],{},[49,7823,7824],{},"Leads appear in a platform dashboard but don’t exist in your CRM.",[49,7826,7827],{},"Leads exist, but the source is wrong or missing.",[49,7829,7830],{},"Leads exist, but sales can’t contact them, qualify them, or tie them to revenue.",[49,7832,7833],{},"“Conversions” spike after tracking changes, but the pipeline doesn’t move.",[49,7835,7836],{},"Marketing optimizes toward what the platform calls a conversion, while sales judges success by meetings and revenue.",[14,7838,7839],{},"And then comes the predictable meeting dynamic: marketing defends the report, sales rejects the leads, and leadership gets stuck trying to reconcile two realities.",[14,7841,7842],{},"This isn’t a “marketing vs sales” personality problem. It’s a data pipeline problem.",[14,7844,7845],{},"If the pipeline from click → form → database → qualification → opportunity → closed-won is broken anywhere, you’ll get mirage metrics. And the more you spend, the more confidently wrong the story becomes.",[24,7847,7849],{"id":7848},"the-mkg-pivot-truth-accountability-track-from-click-to-closed-won",[52,7850,7851],{},"The MKG Pivot: Truth + Accountability (TRACK) from Click to Closed-Won",[14,7853,7854,7855,2623,7858,212],{},"At MKG, we treat this as a TRACK problem—specifically, the pillars that keep performance honest: ",[52,7856,7857],{},"Truth",[52,7859,7860],{},"Accountability",[14,7862,7863,7865,7866,7868,7870],{},[52,7864,7857],{}," means we don’t accept platform-reported success as reality. We verify it in the systems that carry revenue.",[5645,7867],{},[52,7869,7860],{}," means marketing performance is tied to outcomes that matter—meetings, opportunities, closed-won—not just clicks or in-platform “conversions.”",[14,7872,7873],{},"Here’s the practical version.",[14,7875,7876,7877,7880,7881,7884],{},"LinkedIn reports ",[52,7878,7879],{},"48 conversions"," last month. Sales says they only worked on ",[52,7882,7883],{},"12"," new records. We don’t debate the dashboard—we trace one conversion end-to-end:",[132,7886,7887,7893,7899,7905,7915,7921,7927],{},[49,7888,7889,7892],{},[52,7890,7891],{},"Click"," → UTMs captured",[49,7894,7895,7898],{},[52,7896,7897],{},"Form submit"," → submission event fires",[49,7900,7901,7904],{},[52,7902,7903],{},"Form tool"," → UTMs stored with the record",[49,7906,7907,7910,7911,7914],{},[52,7908,7909],{},"CRM sync"," → lead\u002Fcontact created ",[38,7912,7913],{},"or"," matched",[49,7916,7917,7920],{},[52,7918,7919],{},"Routing"," → owner assigned, no silent rejects",[49,7922,7923,7926],{},[52,7924,7925],{},"Sales disposition"," → qualified or not (with a reason)",[49,7928,7929,7932],{},[52,7930,7931],{},"Progression"," → meeting → opportunity → closed-won (or it stops)",[14,7934,7935],{},"When the numbers don’t match, it’s almost always a breakpoint: duplicate counting, UTMs dropped, CRM rejects\u002Fquarantine rules, or “conversions” that matched existing contacts and never became new pipeline.",[14,7937,7938,7939],{},"That’s the pivot: ",[52,7940,7941],{},"optimize to what the business can prove—not what the platform can claim.",[14,7943,7944,7947],{},[75,7945],{"alt":77,"src":7946},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc4044d36-bcaf-4e33-bb62-a485a6896249-MKG-Blog-beyond-the-attribution-mirage-image-2.png",[5645,7948],{},[24,7950,7952],{"id":7951},"the-truth-audit-how-to-validate-paid-social-performance-end-to-end",[52,7953,7954],{},"The Truth Audit: How to Validate Paid Social Performance End-to-End",[14,7956,7957],{},"If you want to solve the mirage, you need to stop debating dashboards and start tracing the pipeline.",[14,7959,7960],{},"Here’s a practical audit sequence we run.",[81,7962,7964],{"id":7963},"_1-start-with-one-conversion-eventand-follow-it-like-a-detective",[52,7965,7966],{},"1) Start with one conversion event—and follow it like a detective",[14,7968,7969],{},"Pick the primary conversion event you’re optimizing toward (form fill, demo request, contact form, etc.). Then map the actual path:",[46,7971,7972,7975,7978],{},[49,7973,7974],{},"Click captured → landing page loads → form submit → thank-you event → platform conversion recorded",[49,7976,7977],{},"Form data captured → routed to CRM → assigned to owner → disposition recorded",[49,7979,7980],{},"Meeting booked\u002Fheld → opportunity created → outcome logged",[14,7982,7983,7984,7987],{},"You’re not looking for perfection. You’re looking for ",[52,7985,7986],{},"breakpoints","—places where reality disappears.",[81,7989,7991],{"id":7990},"_2-verify-identity-resolution-and-deduplication",[52,7992,7993],{},"2) Verify identity resolution and deduplication",[14,7995,7996],{},"A “conversion” isn’t valuable if it creates duplicates, overwrites existing contacts, or gets routed incorrectly.",[14,7998,7999],{},"Common issues:",[46,8001,8002,8005,8008,8011],{},[49,8003,8004],{},"Duplicate records for the same person across sources.",[49,8006,8007],{},"Auto-enrichment tools overwriting attribution fields.",[49,8009,8010],{},"Form tools passing partial data (missing parameters).",[49,8012,8013],{},"CRM rules that block creation when required fields are missing.",[14,8015,8016],{},"If sales can’t find the record, nothing else matters.",[81,8018,8020],{"id":8019},"_3-validate-attribution-fields-where-decisions-are-made",[52,8021,8022],{},"3) Validate attribution fields where decisions are made",[14,8024,8025],{},"This is where the mirage often lives. The platform sees one story; the CRM sees another.",[14,8027,8028],{},"You need to confirm:",[46,8030,8031,8034,8037,8040],{},[49,8032,8033],{},"UTMs persist through redirects and form tools",[49,8035,8036],{},"First-touch and last-touch logic is consistent",[49,8038,8039],{},"“Source \u002F Medium \u002F Campaign” fields populate reliably",[49,8041,8042],{},"Offline conversion uploads (if used) match the right records",[14,8044,8045],{},"If your CRM attribution is inconsistent, your reporting will become political.",[81,8047,8049],{"id":8048},"_4-build-a-reconciliation-report-that-both-teams-trust",[52,8050,8051],{},"4) Build a reconciliation report that both teams trust",[14,8053,8054,8055,8058],{},"This is the bridge to ",[52,8056,8057],{},"Marketing-Sales Alignment 2026",": one shared scoreboard.",[14,8060,8061],{},"A reconciliation report answers:",[46,8063,8064,8067,8070,8073,8076],{},[49,8065,8066],{},"How many platform conversions became CRM records?",[49,8068,8069],{},"How many became qualified conversations?",[49,8071,8072],{},"How many became opportunities?",[49,8074,8075],{},"What’s the lag time by stage?",[49,8077,8078],{},"Which campaigns produce real downstream movement?",[14,8080,8081],{},"This turns “platform performance” into a business conversation.",[14,8083,8084],{},[75,8085],{"alt":77,"src":8086},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F27564711-2b1c-4544-be07-4d7ab2b5b2f2-MKG-Blog-beyond-the-attribution-mirage-image-3.png",[24,8088,8090],{"id":8089},"what-changes-when-truth-and-accountability-are-non-negotiable",[52,8091,8092],{},"What Changes When Truth and Accountability Are Non-Negotiable",[14,8094,8095],{},"When you run this audit, three things happen fast:",[132,8097,8098,8104,8110],{},[49,8099,8100,8101,8103],{},"You stop paying for invisible outcomes.",[5645,8102],{},"Campaigns that “look great” but don’t produce real records get exposed.",[49,8105,8106,8107,8109],{},"You regain control of optimization.",[5645,8108],{},"Instead of optimizing for platform-defined conversions, you optimize for verified signals that feed into the pipeline.",[49,8111,8112,8113,8115],{},"You rebuild trust between marketing and sales.",[5645,8114],{},"Because the conversation shifts from “I swear these conversations are real” to “Here’s the chain of evidence from click to closed-won.”",[14,8117,8118],{},"That’s what Truth does. It stops the arguing.",[14,8120,8121],{},"And Accountability makes the next step possible: changing what you optimize for.",[14,8123,8124],{},"In 2026, paid social won’t be won by the teams with the flashiest creative or the biggest budgets. It will be won by the teams who can prove what’s real.",[14,8126,8127],{},"Because when measurement becomes marketing, the only way forward is to audit the truth.",[24,8129,8130],{"id":3033},[52,8131,3034],{},[14,8133,8134,8135,8138,8139,8141],{},"Platforms will keep reporting conversions. The question is whether those conversions survive the journey into your revenue system. If your LinkedIn “wins” don’t appear in the CRM, you’re facing an attribution mirage, and it will keep creating friction until you audit the click-to-closed-won pipeline. Using the Truth and Accountability pillars of TRACK, validate identity, attribution fields, routing rules, and stage progression, so ",[52,8136,8137],{},"Paid Social ROI"," is defensible, and ",[52,8140,8057],{}," becomes a shared reality, not a debate.",[5645,8143],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":8145},[8146,8147,8148,8154,8155],{"id":7807,"depth":291,"text":7810},{"id":7848,"depth":291,"text":7851},{"id":7951,"depth":291,"text":7954,"children":8149},[8150,8151,8152,8153],{"id":7963,"depth":297,"text":7966},{"id":7990,"depth":297,"text":7993},{"id":8019,"depth":297,"text":8022},{"id":8048,"depth":297,"text":8051},{"id":8089,"depth":291,"text":8092},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2026-03-05T17:59:00Z","If the platform claims conversions your CRM never sees, you don’t have a performance problem; you have a truth problem.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-beyond-the-attribution-mirage-hero-image.webp","Beyond the Attribution Mirage",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-the-attribution-mirage-solving-the-2026-truth-deficit-in-paid-social",{"title":7778,"description":8157},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fbeyond-the-attribution-mirage-solving-the-2026-truth-deficit-in-paid-social","Tr_gMLDUUByREiR9Jz-1SREZ1xqW7Vwtkr0UO98c0o4",[],{"id":8167,"title":8168,"author":7,"authors":8169,"body":8170,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":8497,"description":8498,"extension":318,"img":8499,"imgAlt":5657,"meta":8500,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":8501,"seo":8502,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":8503,"updated":7,"__hash__":8504,"people":8505},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-february-2026.md","Monthly Search Industry Report - February 2026",[],{"type":11,"value":8171,"toc":8480},[8172,8176,8236,8240,8246,8256,8270,8276,8291,8295,8301,8308,8322,8328,8331,8360,8364,8368,8392,8396,8412,8418,8430,8434,8440,8445,8462,8478],[24,8173,8174],{"id":914},[52,8175,917],{},[46,8177,8178,8193,8207,8222],{},[49,8179,8180,8183,8184,8192],{},[52,8181,8182],{},"Google Discover Pivot:"," Google concluded its first-ever ",[206,8185,8188,8189],{"href":8186,"rel":8187},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-february-2026-discover-core-update-is-now-complete-469450",[210],"(",[3879,8190,8191],{},"Discover-only core update)"," (Feb 5–27), signaling a permanent shift toward hyper-local relevance and \"Brand Journalism\" over traditional SEO-at-scale.",[49,8194,8195,8198,8199,8206],{},[52,8196,8197],{},"GEO Saturation & Volatility:"," New data shows ",[206,8200,8188,8203],{"href":8201,"rel":8202},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Frecap-02-27-2026-41007.html",[210],[3879,8204,8205],{},"Gemini 3 has removed 42% of previously cited domains)"," from AI Overviews, raising the threshold for \"Information Gain\" and citation eligibility.",[49,8208,8209,8212,8213,8221],{},[52,8210,8211],{},"The Ad-Free AI Divergence:"," Perplexity officially ",[206,8214,8188,8217,8220],{"href":8215,"rel":8216},"https:\u002F\u002Falmcorp.com\u002Fblog\u002Fperplexity-ai-abandons-advertising-2026-analysis\u002F",[210],[3879,8218,8219],{},"abandoned its advertising model",")"," in February to preserve user trust, while OpenAI aggressively expanded ads into the ChatGPT Free and \"Go\" tiers.",[49,8223,8224,8227,8228,8233,8234,6720],{},[52,8225,8226],{},"Intent Tailoring:"," A new Google patent suggests a move toward ",[206,8229,8232],{"href":8230,"rel":8231},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-patent-hints-searchers-will-land-on-ai-generated-pages-and-not-web-pages-470499",[210],"(AI-generated landing pages)"," that replace brand URLs in the SERP, potentially disrupting the standard traffic-to-conversion funnel.",[5645,8235],{},[24,8237,8238],{"id":969},[52,8239,972],{},[81,8241,8243],{"id":8242},"_1-the-february-2026-discover-core-update",[52,8244,8245],{},"1. The February 2026 Discover Core Update",[14,8247,8248,8249,8255],{},"While traditionally bundled with search, this update targeted ",[206,8250,8188,8252,8220],{"href":8186,"rel":8251},[210],[3879,8253,8254],{},"Google Discover's surfacing logic","specifically for US English users.",[46,8257,8258,8264],{},[49,8259,8260,8263],{},[52,8261,8262],{},"Impact:"," Visibility shifted toward sites with deep, topic-specific expertise rather than broad domain authority.",[49,8265,8266,8269],{},[52,8267,8268],{},"Key Signal:"," \"Locally relevant\" content (defined as content produced by those physically or operationally rooted in a specific region) received a measurable boost. Broad, national-level content that lacked \"geographic framing\" saw some dips.",[81,8271,8273],{"id":8272},"_2-crawl-budget-resource-management",[52,8274,8275],{},"2. Crawl Budget & Resource Management",[14,8277,8278,8279,8284,8285,8290],{},"Google clarified that its crawler ",[206,8280,8283],{"href":8281,"rel":8282},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-explains-why-its-crawler-ignores-your-resource-hints\u002F568321\u002F",[210],"(ignores resource hints)"," (like prefetch or preload) for crawling prioritization. Furthermore, John Mueller warned that ",[206,8286,8289],{"href":8287,"rel":8288},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FDigitalMarketing\u002Fcomments\u002F1rjp4tx\u002Fseo_digest_february_2026_google_discover_core\u002F",[210],"(sitemaps are not a \"force index\" solution)","; Google is increasingly deprioritizing the indexing of sites that fail to demonstrate consistent \"Information Gain\" or new value.",[24,8292,8293],{"id":3147},[52,8294,3148],{},[81,8296,8298],{"id":8297},"ai-overviews-geo-gemini-3",[52,8299,8300],{},"AI Overviews (GEO) & Gemini 3",[14,8302,8303,8304,8307],{},"The rollout of Gemini 3 has tightened the criteria for AI Overviews (AIO). The \"Atomic Answer\" framework is now the baseline; however, Google is now prioritizing ",[52,8305,8306],{},"\"Citation Velocity\"","—the frequency with which a brand is mentioned across independent, high-authority technical hubs.",[46,8309,8310],{},[49,8311,8312,8315,8316,8321],{},[52,8313,8314],{},"Evidence:"," Early data suggests a ",[206,8317,8320],{"href":8318,"rel":8319},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Fgoogle-ai-overviews-gemini-3-globally-40824.html",[210],"(consolidation of sources)",", with fewer domains occupying the top citation slots in AIO.",[81,8323,8325],{"id":8324},"perplexity-vs-chatgpt-aeo",[52,8326,8327],{},"Perplexity vs. ChatGPT (AEO)",[14,8329,8330],{},"A fundamental split in monetization emerged this month:",[46,8332,8333,8346],{},[49,8334,8335,8338,8339,8345],{},[52,8336,8337],{},"Perplexity:"," Pivoted to a ",[206,8340,8188,8342],{"href":8215,"rel":8341},[210],[3879,8343,8344],{},"trust-first, ad-free model)",", emphasizing organic brand visibility through clean structured data and technical entity mapping.",[49,8347,8348,8351,8352,8359],{},[52,8349,8350],{},"ChatGPT:"," Introduced ",[206,8353,8188,8356],{"href":8354,"rel":8355},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.jumpfly.com\u002Fblog\u002Fai-in-online-advertising-5-key-trends-from-february-2026\u002F",[210],[3879,8357,8358],{},"sponsored modules)"," for its 200M+ free users. For B2B leaders, this means ChatGPT is becoming a \"Pay-to-Play\" environment, while Perplexity remains a pure \"Optimization-to-Play\" landscape.",[24,8361,8362],{"id":1052},[52,8363,1055],{},[81,8365,8366],{"id":3210},[52,8367,3211],{},[46,8369,8370,8380],{},[49,8371,8372,8375,8376,8379],{},[52,8373,8374],{},"Broad Domain Authority (DA) Obsession:"," The Discover update proves that high DA no longer protects \"thin\" or \"generalized\" content. Stop chasing generic backlinks; start chasing ",[52,8377,8378],{},"entity-specific mentions"," in your niche.",[49,8381,8382,8385,8386,8391],{},[52,8383,8384],{},"SEO Listicles:"," Google is ",[206,8387,8390],{"href":8388,"rel":8389},"https:\u002F\u002Fadsroid.com\u002Fgoogle-new-stance-self-promotional-listicles-seo-ai-visibility\u002F",[210],"(cracking down on self-promotional \"Best of\" lists)",". If your blog's \"Top Tools\" list ranks your own product without objective data, expect a visibility drop.",[81,8393,8394],{"id":3222},[52,8395,3223],{},[46,8397,8398],{},[49,8399,8400,8403,8404,8411],{},[52,8401,8402],{},"Invest in Brand Journalism:"," Shift content budgets from \"SEO writers\" to subject matter experts (SMEs). Content must include ",[206,8405,8188,8408],{"href":8406,"rel":8407},"https:\u002F\u002Fkwsmdigital.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogles-february-2026-core-update-why-brand-journalism-is-effective-seo-regardless-of-search-trends\u002F",[210],[3879,8409,8410],{},"first-hand accounts, case studies, and unique data)","to survive the \"Information Gain\" filter.",[81,8413,8415],{"id":8414},"looking-ahead-the-watch-item",[52,8416,8417],{},"Looking Ahead: The \"Watch Item\"",[14,8419,8420,8423,8424,8429],{},[52,8421,8422],{},"Agentic Commerce Optimization:"," Watch for the expansion of ",[206,8425,8428],{"href":8426,"rel":8427},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.google\u002Fproducts\u002Fads-commerce\u002Fagentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms\u002F",[210],"(Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP))",". As search becomes more \"agentic,\" the ability for AI to complete transactions without a user visiting your site will be the next major hurdle for CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) modeling.",[24,8431,8432],{"id":3240},[52,8433,3241],{},[14,8435,8436,8437,8439],{},"The February shifts confirm that ",[52,8438,168],{}," is no longer an elective—it is a defensive necessity. As Google moves toward tailoring landing pages and consolidates AI citations, \"business as usual\" SEO will lead to a terminal decline in organic reach.",[14,8441,8442],{},[52,8443,8444],{},"How MKG Supports Your Transition:",[46,8446,8447,8452,8457],{},[49,8448,8449,8451],{},[52,8450,4732],{}," We identify why Gemini or Perplexity is citing your competitors over you.",[49,8453,8454,8456],{},[52,8455,6495],{}," We move your brand beyond keywords into a machine-readable entity.",[49,8458,8459,8461],{},[52,8460,4744],{}," We track \"Zero-Click\" influence to ensure your ROI is accurately measured in an AI-first world.",[14,8463,8464,8471],{},[52,8465,8466,8467,8469],{},"Ready to future-proof your visibility? ",[5645,8468],{},[5645,8470],{},[206,8472,8475],{"href":8473,"rel":8474},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=%23&authuser=2",[210],[3879,8476,8477],{},"Book a Discovery Call with the MKG Team.",[5645,8479],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":8481},[8482,8483,8487,8491,8496],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972,"children":8484},[8485,8486],{"id":8242,"depth":297,"text":8245},{"id":8272,"depth":297,"text":8275},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148,"children":8488},[8489,8490],{"id":8297,"depth":297,"text":8300},{"id":8324,"depth":297,"text":8327},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055,"children":8492},[8493,8494,8495],{"id":3210,"depth":297,"text":3211},{"id":3222,"depth":297,"text":3223},{"id":8414,"depth":297,"text":8417},{"id":3240,"depth":291,"text":3241},"2026-03-04T16:25:00Z","February 2026 search trends: Google’s Discover update, Gemini 3 citation volatility, AI search monetization shifts, and why brands must pivot to SVO and entity-driven visibility.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FMKG-monthly-search-report-feb.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-february-2026",{"title":8168,"description":8498},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-february-2026","RMXhuf9yT3h1PITZ3XJQmNg542v26hrZ4NcmvyCW71M",[],{"id":8507,"title":8508,"author":7,"authors":8509,"body":8510,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":8847,"description":8848,"extension":318,"img":8849,"imgAlt":8850,"meta":8851,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":8852,"seo":8853,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":8854,"updated":7,"__hash__":8855,"people":8856},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-ghost-in-the-machine-why-your-seo-strategy-is-invisible-to-chatgpt-and-gemini.md","The Ghost in the Machine - Why Your SEO Strategy Is Invisible to ChatGPT and Gemini",[],{"type":11,"value":8511,"toc":8828},[8512,8515,8518,8521,8528,8531,8534,8537,8540,8543,8550,8556,8559,8562,8565,8579,8582,8585,8588,8594,8597,8609,8612,8619,8622,8628,8639,8642,8649,8655,8658,8661,8667,8670,8676,8679,8685,8688,8694,8697,8703,8706,8711,8717,8720,8723,8729,8732,8738,8741,8758,8761,8767,8770,8776,8779,8785,8788,8802,8805,8811,8814,8817,8820,8823,8826],[14,8513,8514],{},"You can be doing everything “right” and still disappear.",[14,8516,8517],{},"The page ranks #1. The traffic chart looks steady. The team feels confident. Then someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini the same question your page answers—and your brand is nowhere to be found. No mention. No citation. No link. Just… silence.",[14,8519,8520],{},"That silence is the new failure mode.",[14,8522,8523,8524,8527],{},"It’s not a ranking drop. It’s not an algorithm penalty you can see in a tool. It’s a ",[52,8525,8526],{},"Visibility Cliff","—a quiet slide into irrelevance happening above the search results, inside the answers people trust most.",[14,8529,8530],{},"Because the behavior has changed. People aren’t just searching. They’re asking. And the answer layer is compressing the web into a shortlist of sources it considers credible enough to reference.",[14,8532,8533],{},"This is why the “ghost in the machine” metaphor fits: your SEO strategy might be working within the old system while remaining invisible in the new one. You appear on the page, but you don’t appear in the answer.",[14,8535,8536],{},"If you’ve felt a weird disconnect—rankings stable, yet fewer high-intent conversations—you’re not imagining it. You may have fallen off the citation map without realizing it.",[14,8538,8539],{},"And the worst part? Most teams won’t notice until the cliff has already done damage. There’s no alert for “you were omitted.”",[14,8541,8542],{},"There’s only the slow realization that being #1 doesn’t automatically mean being trusted anymore.",[14,8544,8545,8547],{},[5645,8546],{},[75,8548],{"alt":77,"src":8549},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-ghost-in-the-machine-image-1.png",[24,8551,8553],{"id":8552},"the-chaos-hook-the-silent-visibility-cliff",[52,8554,8555],{},"The Chaos Hook: The Silent Visibility Cliff",[14,8557,8558],{},"This is the chaos: brands are winning on the traditional scoreboard but losing on the new one.",[14,8560,8561],{},"A top ranking used to be the finish line. Now it’s just table stakes. LLMs don’t reward the same signals that pushed pages up the SERP. They reward trust, consistency, and “quotability” across sources they’ve learned to rely on.",[14,8563,8564],{},"So you get a strange and painful pattern:",[46,8566,8567,8570,8573,8576],{},[49,8568,8569],{},"You rank well, but don’t appear in AI Overviews.",[49,8571,8572],{},"You rank well, but aren’t cited when the answer is generated.",[49,8574,8575],{},"You rank well, but competitor names show up instead.",[49,8577,8578],{},"You rank well, but the click never happens because the decision was made in the answer.",[14,8580,8581],{},"That creates a new kind of internal tension. Teams keep doing SEO “the right way,” leadership keeps asking why the impact feels smaller, and nobody can point to a clean failure in Search Console.",[14,8583,8584],{},"Because the cliff is quiet. It’s happening in a different layer of visibility.",[14,8586,8587],{},"The old model assumed the user would click and choose. The new model assumes the system summarizes and recommends. If you’re not in the recommendations, your ranking becomes a trophy with diminishing returns.",[24,8589,8591],{"id":8590},"the-mkg-pivot-svo-and-the-race-to-trust",[52,8592,8593],{},"The MKG Pivot: SVO and the Race to Trust",[14,8595,8596],{},"This is where the strategy has to evolve.",[14,8598,8599,8600,212],{},"At MKG, we frame the shift as ",[206,8601,8606],{"href":8602,"target":8603,"rel":8604},"\u002Fresources\u002Fthe-ultimate-guide-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo\u002F","_blank",[8605],"noopener",[52,8607,8608],{},"SVO: Search Visibility Optimization",[14,8610,8611],{},"SVO isn’t a new acronym for the sake of it. It’s the recognition that “search visibility” now includes more than blue links. Your visibility is the total footprint of where you appear when people seek answers: classic results, AI Overviews, citations, summaries, and recommendation shortlists.",[14,8613,8614,8615,8618],{},"SVO is how you optimize for ",[52,8616,8617],{},"being referenced",", not just being ranked.",[14,8620,8621],{},"And that requires a unified approach. SEO alone—treated as a channel with a checklist—won’t consistently win the new layer of trust. Neither AEO nor GEO will run as separate initiatives in isolation.",[14,8623,8624,8625,5978],{},"To win the Race to Trust, ",[52,8626,8627],{},"SEO + AI Answer Engine Optimization + GEO vs SEO strategy must be one coordinated play",[46,8629,8630,8633,8636],{},[49,8631,8632],{},"SEO to earn discoverability and crawlable authority",[49,8634,8635],{},"AI Answer Engine Optimization to be quotable, cited, and summarized accurately",[49,8637,8638],{},"GEO to ensure your brand is present where generative answers are shaped, influenced, and sourced",[14,8640,8641],{},"The future isn’t “SEO or GEO.” It’s “SEO plus GEO,” unified under SVO.",[14,8643,8644,8646],{},[5645,8645],{},[75,8647],{"alt":77,"src":8648},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-ghost-in-the-machine-image-2.png",[24,8650,8652],{"id":8651},"why-youre-invisible-to-chatgpt-and-gemini-even-if-you-rank",[52,8653,8654],{},"Why you’re invisible to ChatGPT and Gemini (even if you rank)",[14,8656,8657],{},"If you want a brutal truth: ranking signals and citation signals are not identical.",[14,8659,8660],{},"Here are the most common reasons LLMs skip brands that rank well.",[81,8662,8664],{"id":8663},"_1-your-content-is-optimized-for-scanning-not-extraction",[52,8665,8666],{},"1) Your content is optimized for scanning, not extraction",[14,8668,8669],{},"A lot of SEO content is built to rank: target keyword, headings, internal links, and “helpful” length. But LLMs need content they can extract and restate confidently. Clear definitions. Direct answers. Structured comparisons. Steps. Evidence. If your content reads like a polished brochure, it’s harder to cite.",[81,8671,8673],{"id":8672},"_2-your-claims-arent-anchored-to-proof",[52,8674,8675],{},"2) Your claims aren’t anchored to proof",[14,8677,8678],{},"LLMs prefer sources that include verifiable detail: examples, data, process, constraints, and outcomes. “Best-in-class” doesn’t help. Real specifics do. If your pages lack proof, AI systems are hesitant to cite you.",[81,8680,8682],{"id":8681},"_3-your-authority-is-trapped-on-your-own-site",[52,8683,8684],{},"3) Your authority is trapped on your own site",[14,8686,8687],{},"Citation systems lean heavily on trusted ecosystems: reputable publications, documentation-style pages, deep explainers, widely referenced sources, and community consensus. If your brand footprint is mostly self-published, you may look less “reference-worthy” than a competitor with a broader external presence.",[81,8689,8691],{"id":8690},"_4-you-dont-match-the-prompt-language",[52,8692,8693],{},"4) You don’t match the prompt language",[14,8695,8696],{},"Prompts shape results. If people ask for “AI answer engine optimization” and your site talks about “next-gen visibility,” you may be semantically adjacent but not a match. The system tends to favor sources that use the same language as the user.",[81,8698,8700],{"id":8699},"_5-your-content-doesnt-help-the-system-choose",[52,8701,8702],{},"5) Your content doesn’t help the system choose",[14,8704,8705],{},"LLMs often respond with a shortlist. If your content never draws distinctions—when to use one approach vs another, what to consider, what tradeoffs exist—it won’t be the source that wins trust. It’s not just about information. It’s about judgment.",[14,8707,8708],{},[75,8709],{"alt":77,"src":8710},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-ghost-in-the-machine-image-3.png",[24,8712,8714],{"id":8713},"what-to-do-now-build-svo-like-an-operating-system",[52,8715,8716],{},"What to do now: Build SVO like an operating system",[14,8718,8719],{},"If SVO is the strategy, execution needs a system.",[14,8721,8722],{},"Here’s the practical play:",[81,8724,8726],{"id":8725},"_1-merge-seo-ai-answer-engine-optimization-and-geo-into-one-roadmap",[52,8727,8728],{},"1) Merge SEO, AI Answer Engine Optimization, and GEO into one roadmap",[14,8730,8731],{},"Separate teams create separate outcomes. One unified roadmap creates compounding visibility. That means your content strategy, technical SEO, and “answer readiness” work from the same priority list.",[81,8733,8735],{"id":8734},"_2-rewrite-key-pages-for-answer-shapes",[52,8736,8737],{},"2) Rewrite key pages for “answer shapes.”",[14,8739,8740],{},"You don’t need to rewrite everything. Start with the pages most likely to be summarized:",[46,8742,8743,8746,8749,8752,8755],{},[49,8744,8745],{},"Definitions (“what is…”)",[49,8747,8748],{},"Comparisons (“X vs Y”)",[49,8750,8751],{},"Selection guidance (“how to choose…”)",[49,8753,8754],{},"Frameworks (“step-by-step…”)",[49,8756,8757],{},"Best practices and common mistakes",[14,8759,8760],{},"These shapes are easier to cite, and they tend to become source material for Overviews.",[81,8762,8764],{"id":8763},"_3-add-proof-that-can-be-quoted",[52,8765,8766],{},"3) Add proof that can be quoted",[14,8768,8769],{},"Build a proof library inside your site: examples, outcomes, case snippets, constraints, and lessons learned. Make it easy for a system to reference you without having to invent claims.",[81,8771,8773],{"id":8772},"_4-expand-your-trusted-footprint-beyond-your-domain",[52,8774,8775],{},"4) Expand your trusted footprint beyond your domain",[14,8777,8778],{},"Earn mentions where trust is already established: guest contributions, interviews, partner pages, credible community discussions, and respected publications. This is how you stop being a ghost outside your own site.",[81,8780,8782],{"id":8781},"_5-measure-visibility-across-surfaces",[52,8783,8784],{},"5) Measure visibility across surfaces",[14,8786,8787],{},"Traditional tracking won’t catch the cliff. You need to monitor:",[46,8789,8790,8793,8796,8799],{},[49,8791,8792],{},"Whether you appear in AI Overviews for target topics",[49,8794,8795],{},"Where citations come from",[49,8797,8798],{},"Which prompts trigger competitor mentions",[49,8800,8801],{},"How often is your brand summarized accurately",[14,8803,8804],{},"That’s SVO in practice: optimizing for presence, accuracy, and trust across the new answer layer.",[24,8806,8808],{"id":8807},"the-bottom-line",[52,8809,8810],{},"The bottom line",[14,8812,8813],{},"The web is still being searched. But it’s also being summarized. And summarization creates winners and ghosts.",[14,8815,8816],{},"If you’re ranking #1 and still invisible to ChatGPT and Gemini, you’re not failing at SEO. You’re playing only one part of the new game.",[14,8818,8819],{},"SVO—Search Visibility Optimization—is how you unify SEO, AI Answer Engine Optimization, and GEO vs SEO strategy into one trust-first approach.",[14,8821,8822],{},"Because the real race isn’t to rank.",[14,8824,8825],{},"It’s the Race to Trust.",[5645,8827],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":8829},[8830,8831,8832,8839,8846],{"id":8552,"depth":291,"text":8555},{"id":8590,"depth":291,"text":8593},{"id":8651,"depth":291,"text":8654,"children":8833},[8834,8835,8836,8837,8838],{"id":8663,"depth":297,"text":8666},{"id":8672,"depth":297,"text":8675},{"id":8681,"depth":297,"text":8684},{"id":8690,"depth":297,"text":8693},{"id":8699,"depth":297,"text":8702},{"id":8713,"depth":291,"text":8716,"children":8840},[8841,8842,8843,8844,8845],{"id":8725,"depth":297,"text":8728},{"id":8734,"depth":297,"text":8737},{"id":8763,"depth":297,"text":8766},{"id":8772,"depth":297,"text":8775},{"id":8781,"depth":297,"text":8784},{"id":8807,"depth":291,"text":8810},"2026-02-25T17:59:00Z","Ranking first isn’t the same as being chosen. The new visibility cliff is silent—and it’s already here.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-ghost-in-the-machine-hero-image.webp","The Ghost in the Machine",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-ghost-in-the-machine-why-your-seo-strategy-is-invisible-to-chatgpt-and-gemini",{"title":8508,"description":8848},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-ghost-in-the-machine-why-your-seo-strategy-is-invisible-to-chatgpt-and-gemini","lDpSVM0wWdqEG-DnSq424I3Gzz-H6zVHV76fM_wznj0",[],{"id":8858,"title":8859,"author":7,"authors":8860,"body":8861,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":9204,"description":9205,"extension":318,"img":9206,"imgAlt":5657,"meta":9207,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":9208,"seo":9209,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":9210,"updated":7,"__hash__":9211,"people":9212},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-january-2026.md","Monthly Search Industry Report - January 2026",[],{"type":11,"value":8862,"toc":9196},[8863,8867,8919,8923,8929,8936,8967,8973,8981,8985,8991,9001,9024,9030,9054,9058,9062,9085,9089,9119,9125,9135,9141,9151,9156,9173,9178,9188],[24,8864,8865],{"id":914},[52,8866,917],{},[46,8868,8869,8880,8895,8910],{},[49,8870,8871,8874,8875,8879],{},[52,8872,8873],{},"The \"Post-Query\" Shift:"," Google is transitioning from reactive search to predictive intent. New research into small multimodal models suggests a future where AI infers user needs before a query is typed (",[206,8876,3195],{"href":8877,"rel":8878},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-research-post-query-future-search-intent-468085",[210],").",[49,8881,8882,8885,8886,8889,8890,8879],{},[52,8883,8884],{},"Zero-Click Dominance:"," New data confirms that roughly ",[52,8887,8888],{},"60% of searches"," now yield no clicks, as AI Overviews (AIO) satisfy informational intent directly on the SERP (",[206,8891,8894],{"href":8892,"rel":8893},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002F@Michael38\u002Fwhat-2026-will-look-like-for-seo-and-geo-third-party-signals-ai-overviews-and-the-rise-of-brand-79829270e4a9",[210],"Search Engine Journal\u002FMedium",[49,8896,8897,8900,8901,8904,8905,8879],{},[52,8898,8899],{},"Monetization of AI:"," OpenAI has begun testing ads within ChatGPT (Free and \"Go\" tiers), while Google launched the ",[52,8902,8903],{},"Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)"," to facilitate AI-agent-led transactions (",[206,8906,8909],{"href":8907,"rel":8908},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Frecap-01-19-2026-40784.html",[210],"SE Round Table",[49,8911,8912,8914,8915,8879],{},[52,8913,6383],{}," Local and B2B brands are facing a \"visibility crisis,\" with AI assistants recommending only 1% to 11% of eligible locations despite traditional high rankings (",[206,8916,3195],{"href":8917,"rel":8918},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fai-local-visibility-report-2026-468085",[210],[24,8920,8921],{"id":969},[52,8922,972],{},[5552,8924,8926],{"id":8925},"january-2026-volatility-the-quality-recalibration",[52,8927,8928],{},"January 2026 Volatility: The Quality Recalibration",[14,8930,8931,8932,8879],{},"January saw \"super-heated\" ranking volatility as Google refined systems following the massive December 2025 Core Update (",[206,8933,8909],{"href":8934,"rel":8935},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Fgoogle-ranking-volatility-january-29-30-2026.html",[210],[46,8937,8938,8948],{},[49,8939,8940,8943,8944,8879],{},[52,8941,8942],{},"Entity Clarity & E-E-A-T:"," The focus has moved from keyword matching to \"entity recognition.\" Google is now parsing a brand’s entire digital footprint—including LinkedIn engagement and third-party citations—to determine authority (",[206,8945,5484],{"href":8946,"rel":8947},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fa-breakdown-of-microsofts-guide-to-aeo-geo\u002F565651\u002F",[210],[49,8949,8950,8953,8954,8957,8958,8961,8962,8879],{},[52,8951,8952],{},"Technical Thresholds:"," Core Web Vitals remain a \"table stakes\" requirement. Sites with a ",[52,8955,8956],{},"Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)"," over 2.5 seconds saw an average ",[52,8959,8960],{},"23% traffic loss"," during January’s updates (",[206,8963,8966],{"href":8964,"rel":8965},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.numinix.com\u002Fblog\u002Fjanuary-2026-seo-algorithm-news-update\u002F",[210],"Numinix",[5552,8968,8970],{"id":8969},"local-proximity-accuracy",[52,8971,8972],{},"Local & Proximity Accuracy",[14,8974,8975,8976,8879],{},"Google intensified the weighting of \"distance signals\" and \"business detail consistency.\" Listings with steady NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data saw 27% fewer drops during January’s tests compared to inconsistent profiles (",[206,8977,8980],{"href":8978,"rel":8979},"https:\u002F\u002Fseovendor.co\u002Fgoogle-algorithm-updates-january-2026\u002F",[210],"SEO Vendor",[24,8982,8983],{"id":3147},[52,8984,3148],{},[5552,8986,8988],{"id":8987},"ai-overviews-geo-gemini-3-pro",[52,8989,8990],{},"AI Overviews (GEO) & Gemini 3 Pro",[14,8992,8993,8994,8997,8998,8879],{},"Google officially integrated ",[52,8995,8996],{},"Gemini 3 Pro"," into AI Overviews for complex, multi-step queries (",[206,8999,8909],{"href":8907,"rel":9000},[210],[46,9002,9003,9014],{},[49,9004,9005,9008,9009,8879],{},[52,9006,9007],{},"Follow-up Efficiency:"," AIOs now allow users to ask conversational follow-up questions without leaving the results page, further compressing the funnel and reducing referral traffic to deep-link content (",[206,9010,9013],{"href":9011,"rel":9012},"https:\u002F\u002Flocaldominator.co\u002Fseo-news\u002Fseo-news-roundup-january-26-to-february-1-2026\u002F",[210],"Local Dominator",[49,9015,9016,9019,9020,8879],{},[52,9017,9018],{},"Content \"Chunking\":"," For Series A–C tech companies, \"chunking\" content into extractable, factual blocks is no longer optional; it is the primary way to secure a citation in the Gemini 3 Pro reasoning layer (",[206,9021,5484],{"href":9022,"rel":9023},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fa-little-clarity-on-seo-geo-and-aeo\u002F565522\u002F",[210],[5552,9025,9027],{"id":9026},"openai-perplexity-aeo",[52,9028,9029],{},"OpenAI & Perplexity (AEO)",[46,9031,9032,9041],{},[49,9033,9034,9037,9038,8879],{},[52,9035,9036],{},"ChatGPT Ads:"," The rollout of ads in ChatGPT responses marks the end of the \"organic-only\" era for Answer Engine Optimization. High-growth brands must now evaluate \"Prompt-aligned\" ad spend (",[206,9039,8909],{"href":8907,"rel":9040},[210],[49,9042,9043,9046,9047,9050,9051,8879],{},[52,9044,9045],{},"Intent Density:"," While AI-referred traffic volume is lower than traditional search, it converts ",[52,9048,9049],{},"4.4x better",", signaling a shift toward optimizing for \"Intent Density\" over raw sessions (",[206,9052,5484],{"href":8892,"rel":9053},[210],[24,9055,9056],{"id":1052},[52,9057,1055],{},[5552,9059,9060],{"id":3210},[52,9061,3211],{},[46,9063,9064,9074],{},[49,9065,9066,9069,9070,9073],{},[52,9067,9068],{},"Traditional CTR Benchmarks:"," With zero-click searches exceeding 60%, the old \"10 blue links\" CTR models are obsolete. Evaluate performance based on ",[52,9071,9072],{},"AI Visibility Scores"," and brand mention frequency.",[49,9075,9076,9079,9080,8879],{},[52,9077,9078],{},"Templated Content Scaling:"," Google is actively devaluing mass-produced AI content that lacks \"lived experience\" or original data. Mass volume without unique insight is now a liability for CAC (",[206,9081,9084],{"href":9082,"rel":9083},"https:\u002F\u002Fdigiday.com\u002Fmedia\u002Fmedia-briefing-googles-latest-core-update-a-reminder-that-pageviews-cant-remain-the-primary-metric\u002F",[210],"Digiday",[5552,9086,9087],{"id":3222},[52,9088,3223],{},[46,9090,9091,9105],{},[49,9092,9093,9096,9097,9100,9101,8879],{},[52,9094,9095],{},"First-Touch Attribution:"," Since AI answers often satisfy the user’s initial need, shift measurement to ",[52,9098,9099],{},"First-Touch Analytics"," to capture the discovery value of SEO\u002FGEO that last-click models miss (",[206,9102,3195],{"href":9103,"rel":9104},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Ffirst-touch-analytics-seo-2026-468085",[210],[49,9106,9107,9110,9111,9113,9114,8879],{},[52,9108,9109],{},"Structured Data for Agents:"," Implement the ",[52,9112,8903],{}," and robust Schema markup to ensure your product and service data is readable by the emerging class of \"Agentic\" AI shoppers (",[206,9115,9118],{"href":9116,"rel":9117},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Ffeedarmy.com\u002Fhow-to-enable-ucp-payments-google-merchant-center\u002F",[210],"FeedArmy",[24,9120,9122],{"id":9121},"looking-ahead-the-agentic-watch-item",[52,9123,9124],{},"Looking Ahead: The \"Agentic\" Watch Item",[14,9126,9127,9130,9131,8879],{},[52,9128,9129],{},"Watch Item: SAGE (Small Agentic General Intelligence)."," Google’s recent SAGE research points toward deep-research AI agents that can perform autonomous tasks like competitor price audits and procurement. For B2B leaders, ensuring your technical documentation is \"agent-ready\" will be the critical differentiator in Q2 2026 (",[206,9132,5484],{"href":9133,"rel":9134},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogles-sage-agentic-ai-research\u002F",[210],[24,9136,9138],{"id":9137},"optimize-for-svo-the-future-of-search-with-mkg",[52,9139,9140],{},"Optimize for SVO, the Future of Search, with MKG",[14,9142,9143,9144,9147,9148,9150],{},"The search landscape has moved beyond simple rankings into a complex ecosystem of ",[52,9145,9146],{},"AI citations, zero-click answers, and agentic discovery."," As the January 2026 data shows, staying visible requires more than traditional SEO; it requires a sophisticated ",[52,9149,7460],{}," strategy that aligns your brand with how AI engines actually think and recommend.",[14,9152,9153],{},[52,9154,9155],{},"How MKG Marketing Supports Your Growth:",[46,9157,9158,9163,9168],{},[49,9159,9160,9162],{},[52,9161,4732],{}," We audit your content to ensure it’s structured for Gemini 3 Pro and ChatGPT citations.",[49,9164,9165,9167],{},[52,9166,6495],{}," We secure your technical foundation, from Core Web Vitals to UCP compliance.",[49,9169,9170,9172],{},[52,9171,4744],{}," We move beyond \"vanity clicks\" to measure the real impact of AI visibility on your pipeline.",[14,9174,9175],{},[52,9176,9177],{},"Stop chasing keywords and start owning the answer.",[14,9179,9180],{},[206,9181,9183],{"href":7747,"rel":9182},[210],[52,9184,9185],{},[3879,9186,9187],{},"Book a Discovery Call with MKG Marketing",[14,9189,9190,9192,9194],{},[5645,9191],{},[5645,9193],{},[5645,9195],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":9197},[9198,9199,9200,9201,9202,9203],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972},{"id":3147,"depth":291,"text":3148},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055},{"id":9121,"depth":291,"text":9124},{"id":9137,"depth":291,"text":9140},"2026-02-24T16:25:00Z","January 2026 search trends reveal the post-query shift, 60% zero-click dominance, AI monetization, and why brands must pivot to Search Visibility Optimization.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-monthly-search-industrty-report.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-january-2026",{"title":8859,"description":9205},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fmonthly-search-industry-report-january-2026","9Jozpmi6C6Y_-qXspxG6L_tx_BBRKXWyey6UksRkc-A",[],{"id":9214,"title":9215,"author":7,"authors":9216,"body":9217,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":9564,"description":9565,"extension":318,"img":9566,"imgAlt":9567,"meta":9568,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":9569,"seo":9570,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":9571,"updated":7,"__hash__":9572,"people":9573},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-mql-why-2026-demands-a-truth-audit.md","The Death of the MQL - Why 2026 Demands a 'Truth' Audit",[],{"type":11,"value":9218,"toc":9552},[9219,9222,9225,9228,9231,9234,9237,9240,9243,9250,9256,9259,9262,9265,9282,9288,9291,9294,9308,9311,9314,9320,9325,9328,9331,9337,9340,9343,9360,9367,9374,9380,9383,9389,9392,9395,9412,9415,9421,9424,9438,9444,9450,9464,9467,9470,9476,9479,9487,9495,9500,9506,9509,9526,9529,9532,9536,9539,9542,9545],[14,9220,9221],{},"The MQL isn’t dying because marketing stopped working. It’s dying because the definition of “working” got distorted.",[14,9223,9224],{},"Lean leaders are tired of the same loop: marketing celebrates lead volume, sales complains those leads don’t convert, and everyone ends up negotiating reality inside a spreadsheet. The dashboard looks healthy. The pipeline doesn’t. Sales starts distrusting anything that comes from marketing. Marketing starts distrusting sales follow-up. And the business quietly pays for the friction—lost time, missed quarters, and teams pulling in opposite directions.",[14,9226,9227],{},"High-volume, low-intent MQLs are the ultimate Random Act of Marketing. They create motion without momentum. They make reports look good while relationships between teams get worse.",[14,9229,9230],{},"And here’s what makes 2026 different: AI-fueled buying behavior, noisier intent signals, and tighter budgets are exposing every weak spot in the funnel. You can’t afford to optimize for clicks and call it progress. You can’t afford to “hit the number” while missing the truth.",[14,9232,9233],{},"In 2026, the question isn’t, “How many leads did we generate?”",[14,9235,9236],{},"It’s, “How many were real—and how do we prove it?”",[14,9238,9239],{},"That’s why we’re calling it: the death of the MQL. Not the death of demand. The death of a metric that no longer earns trust.",[14,9241,9242],{},"The fix isn’t another scoring tweak. It’s a Truth Audit.",[14,9244,9245,9247],{},[5645,9246],{},[75,9248],{"alt":77,"src":9249},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-death-of-the-mql-image-1.png",[24,9251,9253],{"id":9252},"when-more-leads-makes-everything-worse",[52,9254,9255],{},"When “More Leads” Makes Everything Worse",[14,9257,9258],{},"If you run a lean team, you feel this pain in your bones.",[14,9260,9261],{},"You don’t have the luxury of busywork. You need marketing to drive revenue outcomes, not just activity. But the traditional MQL model often does the opposite. It incentivizes volume, then acts surprised when sales can’t turn that volume into a pipeline.",[14,9263,9264],{},"What happens next is predictable:",[46,9266,9267,9270,9273,9276,9279],{},[49,9268,9269],{},"Marketing tunes campaigns toward form fills because they’re measurable.",[49,9271,9272],{},"Sales rejects the leads because the intent is thin.",[49,9274,9275],{},"Marketing blames follow-up speed.",[49,9277,9278],{},"Sales blames lead quality.",[49,9280,9281],{},"Leadership gets stuck refereeing instead of scaling.",[14,9283,9284,9285,212],{},"This is not a “sales problem” or a “marketing problem.” It’s an ",[52,9286,9287],{},"accountability problem",[14,9289,9290],{},"Because the MQL was never a revenue metric. It was a proxy—useful in a simpler era. But proxies break when the environment changes. And the environment has changed.",[14,9292,9293],{},"In practice, most MQL systems mix two very different things into one bucket:",[132,9295,9296,9302],{},[49,9297,9298,9301],{},[52,9299,9300],{},"Declared intent"," (signals that someone is actively evaluating)",[49,9303,9304,9307],{},[52,9305,9306],{},"Noise"," (signals that someone is curious, researching, or accidentally caught in targeting)",[14,9309,9310],{},"When you treat those as equals, you get chaos. Your pipeline math gets fuzzy, your forecasts get fragile, and your teams lose trust in the funnel.",[14,9312,9313],{},"That’s why the “MQL vs sales” argument never ends. Everyone is arguing about a number that doesn’t describe reality.",[24,9315,9317],{"id":9316},"the-mkg-pivot-the-truth-pillar-and-why-2026-needs-a-truth-audit",[52,9318,9319],{},"The MKG Pivot: The “Truth” Pillar and Why 2026 Needs a Truth Audit",[14,9321,9322,9323,212],{},"At MKG, we anchor this to one of our non-negotiables: ",[52,9324,7857],{},[14,9326,9327],{},"Truth means we don’t hide behind vanity metrics. We don’t optimize for numbers that feel good. We don’t let marketing success be defined by what’s easy to measure. We measure what matters, even when it’s uncomfortable—because that’s how alignment and growth become repeatable.",[14,9329,9330],{},"In 2026, Truth requires a pivot: stop treating the funnel as a single stream and start treating it as two distinct systems.",[14,9332,9333,9334,212],{},"We call this: ",[52,9335,9336],{},"Split the Funnel",[14,9338,9339],{},"It’s an mkgOS-style operating move: create a clear separation between what’s real and what’s noise—using your own CRM data as the source of truth.",[14,9341,9342],{},"Because your CRM already knows what your dashboards don’t:",[46,9344,9345,9348,9351,9354,9357],{},[49,9346,9347],{},"Which “leads” became meetings",[49,9349,9350],{},"Which meetings became opportunities",[49,9352,9353],{},"Which opportunities became revenue",[49,9355,9356],{},"Which sources consistently produce real buyers",[49,9358,9359],{},"Which campaigns generate activity that never converts",[14,9361,9362,9363,9366],{},"A ",[52,9364,9365],{},"Lead Quality Audit"," isn’t a creative project. It’s a truth project. It’s how marketing becomes accountable for outcomes, not just clicks.",[14,9368,9369,9371],{},[5645,9370],{},[75,9372],{"alt":77,"src":9373},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-death-of-the-mql-image-2.png",[24,9375,9377],{"id":9376},"split-the-funnel-a-practical-approach-to-auditing-truth",[52,9378,9379],{},"Split the Funnel: A Practical Approach to Auditing Truth",[14,9381,9382],{},"Here’s how we operationalize the shift, without turning it into a months-long analytics rabbit hole.",[81,9384,9386],{"id":9385},"step-1-define-declared-intent-in-plain-terms",[52,9387,9388],{},"Step 1: Define “declared intent” in plain terms",[14,9390,9391],{},"No buzzwords. No wishful thinking. Define the behaviors that actually correlate with conversion in your world.",[14,9393,9394],{},"Examples might include:",[46,9396,9397,9400,9403,9406,9409],{},[49,9398,9399],{},"Requesting a demo or consultation",[49,9401,9402],{},"Visiting high-intent pages repeatedly within a short time window",[49,9404,9405],{},"Replying to outreach with specific buying questions",[49,9407,9408],{},"Coming in through a comparison or “alternatives” journey",[49,9410,9411],{},"Converting and then taking a second action (follow-up intent)",[14,9413,9414],{},"The point is to define intent based on what you’ve seen turn into revenue—not what feels like intent.",[81,9416,9418],{"id":9417},"step-2-pull-a-crm-truth-sample-not-a-vanity-report",[52,9419,9420],{},"Step 2: Pull a CRM truth sample (not a vanity report)",[14,9422,9423],{},"Pick a time window (e.g., the last 2–4 quarters) and pull the records that show the full journey:",[46,9425,9426,9429,9432,9435],{},[49,9427,9428],{},"Lead → meeting held → opportunity created → revenue (or not)",[49,9430,9431],{},"Source\u002Fmedium\u002Fcampaign",[49,9433,9434],{},"First-touch and last-touch",[49,9436,9437],{},"Sales disposition reasons (where available)",[14,9439,7522,9440,9443],{},[52,9441,9442],{},"B2B Revenue Attribution"," becomes practical, not theoretical. You’re not trying to build a perfect model. You’re trying to surface patterns that change decisions.",[81,9445,9447],{"id":9446},"step-3-split-the-funnel-into-two-lanes",[52,9448,9449],{},"Step 3: Split the funnel into two lanes",[14,9451,9452,9453,9456,9457,9459,9460,9463],{},"Lane A: ",[52,9454,9455],{},"Declared Intent"," (signals that map to revenue outcomes)",[5645,9458],{},"Lane B: ",[52,9461,9462],{},"Engagement \u002F Awareness"," (valuable, but not counted as “lead success”)",[14,9465,9466],{},"Both lanes matter. But they are not the same job. And they can’t be measured with the same yardstick.",[14,9468,9469],{},"This one change reduces friction instantly, because marketing and sales stop arguing about mixed data. Sales gets a cleaner lane. Marketing still gets credit for influence—without pretending influence is a pipeline.",[81,9471,9473],{"id":9472},"step-4-rebuild-reporting-around-outcomes-not-volume",[52,9474,9475],{},"Step 4: Rebuild reporting around outcomes, not volume",[14,9477,9478],{},"Once the funnel is split, reporting becomes simple:",[46,9480,9481,9484],{},[49,9482,9483],{},"Lane A is measured by the number of meetings held, opportunities created, conversion rates, and revenue contribution.",[49,9485,9486],{},"Lane B is measured by reach, engagement quality, and progression signals (that can be nurtured into Lane A).",[14,9488,9489,9490,9492,9493],{},"Now marketing has a scoreboard that leadership and sales can trust. That’s how ",[52,9491,8057],{}," stops being a workshop topic and becomes a working reality.",[5645,9494],{},[14,9496,9497],{},[75,9498],{"alt":77,"src":9499},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-death-of-the-mql-image-3.png",[24,9501,9503],{"id":9502},"what-changes-when-you-run-a-truth-audit",[52,9504,9505],{},"What Changes When You Run a Truth Audit",[14,9507,9508],{},"When you stop optimizing for MQL volume and start optimizing for truth, a few powerful things happen:",[46,9510,9511,9514,9517,9520,9523],{},[49,9512,9513],{},"You immediately identify which channels generate revenue and which generate noise.",[49,9515,9516],{},"You stop spending the budget to manufacture “leads” that sales can’t use.",[49,9518,9519],{},"You gain cleaner feedback loops between marketing activity and pipeline outcomes.",[49,9521,9522],{},"You reduce friction with sales because both teams are using the same definition of “real.”",[49,9524,9525],{},"You make forecasting less emotional by grounding the inputs in conversion history.",[14,9527,9528],{},"Most importantly: you stop relying on the MQL as a proxy for progress.",[14,9530,9531],{},"Because proxies are expensive in 2026.",[24,9533,9534],{"id":8807},[52,9535,8810],{},[14,9537,9538],{},"The MQL isn’t dead because demand is dead. It’s dead because trust is dead.",[14,9540,9541],{},"If you want marketing to be treated as a revenue driver—and if you want sales to stop seeing marketing as a lead factory—you need to replace the old scoreboard with something real.",[14,9543,9544],{},"A Truth Audit does that. And the Split the Funnel approach makes it operational: declared intent in one lane, engagement in another, and accountability built around what converts.",[14,9546,9547,9548,9551],{},"If 2026 demands anything, it demands this: ",[52,9549,9550],{},"tell the truth about what’s working."," Then build your system around it.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":9553},[9554,9555,9556,9562,9563],{"id":9252,"depth":291,"text":9255},{"id":9316,"depth":291,"text":9319},{"id":9376,"depth":291,"text":9379,"children":9557},[9558,9559,9560,9561],{"id":9385,"depth":297,"text":9388},{"id":9417,"depth":297,"text":9420},{"id":9446,"depth":297,"text":9449},{"id":9472,"depth":297,"text":9475},{"id":9502,"depth":291,"text":9505},{"id":8807,"depth":291,"text":8810},"2026-02-18T17:57:00Z","If “lead volume” is still the headline metric, you’re paying for noise. 2026 is the year to split the funnel and prove what’s real.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmkg-blog-the-death-of-the-mql-hero-image-1.webp","The Death of the MQL",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-mql-why-2026-demands-a-truth-audit",{"title":9215,"description":9565},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-death-of-the-mql-why-2026-demands-a-truth-audit","h2VfZQ0mLg7LEnRRp0CkeZccSDGqx4LwZ5t9L7Xaimw",[],{"id":9575,"title":9576,"author":7,"authors":9577,"body":9578,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":9906,"description":9907,"extension":318,"img":9908,"imgAlt":9909,"meta":9910,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":9911,"seo":9912,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":9913,"updated":7,"__hash__":9914,"people":9915},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-how-mkgos-makes-every-channel-work-together.md","Stop the Random Acts – How mkgOS™️ Makes Every Channel Work Together",[],{"type":11,"value":9579,"toc":9892},[9580,9583,9586,9589,9592,9595,9598,9604,9607,9610,9613,9633,9636,9647,9653,9656,9662,9668,9685,9688,9691,9697,9704,9707,9713,9716,9719,9722,9728,9731,9734,9737,9743,9746,9749,9760,9766,9769,9772,9775,9781,9784,9787,9790,9796,9799,9831,9834,9840,9846,9849,9866,9869,9872,9878,9881,9884,9887,9890],[14,9581,9582],{},"Most marketing teams aren’t short on effort. They’re short on alignment.",[14,9584,9585],{},"That’s how you end up with “random acts” that look productive on their own, but don’t add up to momentum. A landing page gets rebuilt because it feels stale. Ads get refreshed because performance dipped. A content push occurs when someone sees a competitor's post. Analytics gets reviewed because reporting is due. Everyone is working, but the work isn’t working together.",[14,9587,9588],{},"The problem isn’t creativity. It’s coordination.",[14,9590,9591],{},"When channels operate like separate departments, they create separate realities: separate goals, metrics, priorities, and timelines. And the only thing holding it together is meetings—lots of meetings—where people try to stitch together a story after the fact.",[14,9593,9594],{},"mkgOS™️ exists to stop that cycle.",[14,9596,9597],{},"It’s the operating system underneath the work. Not software—structure. The system that keeps every channel moving in the same direction, using the same plan, the same definitions, and the same cadence. It’s how you turn marketing from a set of disconnected “apps” into a single engine that compounds.",[24,9599,9601],{"id":9600},"what-random-acts-actually-cost-you",[52,9602,9603],{},"What “random acts” actually cost you",[14,9605,9606],{},"Random acts don’t just waste budget. They waste learning.",[14,9608,9609],{},"When work isn’t connected, you can’t trace outcomes to inputs. You don’t know which message is landing, because each channel is testing something different. You don’t know which audiences are the best fit, because tracking is inconsistent across touchpoints. You don’t know what’s actually working, because the “win” might be happening in one channel while another is quietly undermining it.",[14,9611,9612],{},"Here’s how it usually shows up:",[46,9614,9615,9618,9621,9624,9627,9630],{},[49,9616,9617],{},"Paid campaigns drive traffic to pages that weren’t built for that intent.",[49,9619,9620],{},"Content is written without knowing what the ads promise.",[49,9622,9623],{},"SEO and ads compete rather than reinforce each other.",[49,9625,9626],{},"Reporting happens monthly, but decisions are made at random.",[49,9628,9629],{},"Channel owners optimize their lane, not the whole journey.",[49,9631,9632],{},"New ideas get shipped, but nothing gets finished end to end.",[14,9634,9635],{},"The result is busywork. It feels like motion, but it doesn’t compound.",[14,9637,9638,9639,9641,9643],{},"mkgOS fixes this by creating a shared operating rhythm where every channel plugs into the same system: one goal, one plan, one backlog, one set of priorities.",[5645,9640],{},[5645,9642],{},[75,9644],{"alt":9645,"src":9646},"Graphic illustrating the cost of random marketing acts, such as wasted budget and misaligned channels, with icons representing analytics, ads, content, and reporting.","\u002Fimages\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-image-1.png",[24,9648,9650],{"id":9649},"the-job-of-an-operating-system-make-channels-behave-like-a-team",[52,9651,9652],{},"The job of an operating system: make channels behave like a team",[14,9654,9655],{},"The easiest way to understand mkgOS is to think in two layers:",[14,9657,9658,9661],{},[52,9659,9660],{},"The “apps”"," are the channels: paid media, search, content, site, email, analytics, creative, partner campaigns—whatever mix you’re running.",[14,9663,9664,9667],{},[52,9665,9666],{},"The OS"," is what makes those apps cooperate. It defines:",[46,9669,9670,9673,9676,9679,9682],{},[49,9671,9672],{},"Where work lives (so nothing disappears)",[49,9674,9675],{},"How priorities get set (so you stop thrashing)",[49,9677,9678],{},"How decisions get made (so work doesn’t stall)",[49,9680,9681],{},"How execution stays visible (so you don’t chase updates)",[49,9683,9684],{},"How learnings translate into following actions (so you compound)",[14,9686,9687],{},"Without an OS, channels optimize for themselves. With an OS, channels optimize for the outcome.",[14,9689,9690],{},"That’s the difference between marketing that “runs” and marketing that “works.”",[24,9692,9694],{"id":9693},"how-mkgos-makes-every-channel-work-together",[52,9695,9696],{},"How mkgOS makes every channel work together",[14,9698,9699,9700,9703],{},"mkgOS doesn’t force every channel into the same tactic. It forces every channel into the same ",[38,9701,9702],{},"truth",". Same goal. Same language. Same plan. Same cadence.",[14,9705,9706],{},"Here’s what that looks like in practice.",[81,9708,9710],{"id":9709},"_1-one-shared-goal-that-doesnt-change-every-week",[52,9711,9712],{},"1) One shared goal that doesn’t change every week",[14,9714,9715],{},"When a team doesn’t share a goal, it shares opinions. And opinions breed random acts.",[14,9717,9718],{},"mkgOS starts by clarifying what “good” actually means—then locking that into the operating rhythm. Not vague aspirations. Concrete outcomes. Clear definitions. Shared assumptions.",[14,9720,9721],{},"Once the goal is clear, each channel has a role to play. And that’s where alignment actually begins.",[81,9723,9725],{"id":9724},"_2-one-backlog-one-prioritization-method",[52,9726,9727],{},"2) One backlog, one prioritization method",[14,9729,9730],{},"Random acts are usually just unprioritized work.",[14,9732,9733],{},"mkgOS replaces that with a single backlog and a single way to decide what matters most. Every request, idea, improvement, and optimization enters the same system. Then it gets sized, scored, and placed into “now \u002F next \u002F later” based on impact and effort.",[14,9735,9736],{},"That’s how you stop doing “what’s loud” and start doing “what moves.”",[81,9738,9740],{"id":9739},"_3-weekly-sprints-that-force-coordinated-execution",[52,9741,9742],{},"3) Weekly sprints that force coordinated execution",[14,9744,9745],{},"The OS runs on weekly sprints because momentum needs a clock.",[14,9747,9748],{},"Each sprint defines what gets shipped that week, who owns it, what “done” means, and what needs approval. Channels aren’t making independent plans. They’re contributing to one plan.",[14,9750,9751,9752,9754,9756],{},"This is where the magic happens: paid and content stop drifting apart because they’re planned together. Site updates get tied to campaign needs. Analytics gets implemented before launch, not after results disappoint.",[5645,9753],{},[5645,9755],{},[75,9757],{"alt":9758,"src":9759},"Illustration representing weekly sprint planning and collaboration across marketing teams, with arrows and checklist icons showing shared execution.","\u002Fimages\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-image-2.png",[81,9761,9763],{"id":9762},"_4-a-single-source-of-truth-that-eliminates-update-meetings",[52,9764,9765],{},"4) A single source of truth that eliminates update meetings",[14,9767,9768],{},"mkgOS runs on radical transparency. The workflow is visible. Owners are visible. Dependencies are visible. Approvals are visible. Nothing lives in someone’s head.",[14,9770,9771],{},"That’s why the meeting load drops. When the work is visible, the call doesn’t need to be an update. It can be a decision.",[14,9773,9774],{},"And when decisions happen faster, channels stop waiting on each other.",[81,9776,9778],{"id":9777},"_5-a-quality-standard-that-travels-across-channels",[52,9779,9780],{},"5) A quality standard that travels across channels",[14,9782,9783],{},"When work is modular, quality can be inconsistent. One channel looks polished, another looks rushed, another feels off-brand. That inconsistency creates drag because teams start redoing and second-guessing.",[14,9785,9786],{},"The MKG Standard solves that. It’s the shared bar for strategy, execution, QA, and reporting—so the experience stays consistent no matter who's in motion.",[14,9788,9789],{},"This is how you build trust in the system: the output is predictable, even when the inputs change.",[24,9791,9793],{"id":9792},"what-coordination-looks-like-across-real-channels",[52,9794,9795],{},"What coordination looks like across real channels",[14,9797,9798],{},"When mkgOS is running, you stop seeing “channels.” You see a coordinated journey.",[46,9800,9801,9807,9813,9819,9825],{},[49,9802,9803,9806],{},[52,9804,9805],{},"Search and content"," work from the same intent map, so pages answer fundamental questions and match what people are actually looking for.",[49,9808,9809,9812],{},[52,9810,9811],{},"Paid and landing pages"," are built as a pair, so the promise in the ad matches the experience on the page.",[49,9814,9815,9818],{},[52,9816,9817],{},"Analytics and reporting"," are built into the workflow, so tracking isn’t an afterthought.",[49,9820,9821,9824],{},[52,9822,9823],{},"Creative and messaging"," are reused across the system, so each channel reinforces the same story.",[49,9826,9827,9830],{},[52,9828,9829],{},"Optimization"," becomes continuous because learnings from one channel feed improvements in another.",[14,9832,9833],{},"The real win isn’t that each channel performs slightly better. It’s that the whole machine stops leaking value.",[14,9835,9836],{},[75,9837],{"alt":9838,"src":9839},"Graphic showing aligned marketing journey across channels, where each channel supports a unified strategy with shared messaging and goals.","\u002Fimages\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-image-3.png",[24,9841,9843],{"id":9842},"the-compounding-effect-less-chaos-more-leverage",[52,9844,9845],{},"The compounding effect: less chaos, more leverage",[14,9847,9848],{},"Here’s what changes when you stop random acts:",[46,9850,9851,9854,9857,9860,9863],{},[49,9852,9853],{},"You stop restarting every month because the plan is continuous",[49,9855,9856],{},"You stop debating priorities because the system makes tradeoffs explicit",[49,9858,9859],{},"You stop losing momentum to approvals because decision paths are clear",[49,9861,9862],{},"You stop over-meeting because updates live in the workflow",[49,9864,9865],{},"You stop optimizing in silos because channels share the same goal",[14,9867,9868],{},"And the most significant shift: your learnings start stacking. You don’t just run tests—you build institutional knowledge that makes next quarter brighter than last quarter.",[14,9870,9871],{},"That’s what people mean when they say “marketing that compounds.” It’s not a trick. It’s a system.",[24,9873,9875],{"id":9874},"what-mkgos️-really-does",[52,9876,9877],{},"What mkgOS™️ really does",[14,9879,9880],{},"mkgOS doesn’t make marketing easier by making it smaller. It makes marketing easier by coordinating it.",[14,9882,9883],{},"It’s how every channel stops acting like a separate project and starts acting like part of one operating rhythm. It’s how strategy turns into weekly shipping. It’s how reporting turns into decisions. And it’s how teams stop relying on heroics to get results.",[14,9885,9886],{},"If your marketing feels like a pile of tactics instead of an actual engine, you don’t need another brainstorm. You need an operating system.",[14,9888,9889],{},"That’s what mkgOS™️ is built to be.",[5645,9891],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":9893},[9894,9895,9896,9903,9904,9905],{"id":9600,"depth":291,"text":9603},{"id":9649,"depth":291,"text":9652},{"id":9693,"depth":291,"text":9696,"children":9897},[9898,9899,9900,9901,9902],{"id":9709,"depth":297,"text":9712},{"id":9724,"depth":297,"text":9727},{"id":9739,"depth":297,"text":9742},{"id":9762,"depth":297,"text":9765},{"id":9777,"depth":297,"text":9780},{"id":9792,"depth":291,"text":9795},{"id":9842,"depth":291,"text":9845},{"id":9874,"depth":291,"text":9877},"2026-01-21T16:59:00Z","A marketing operating system that turns disconnected efforts into one coordinated engine.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-hero-image.webp","Illustration showing a marketing system diagram or flow that contrasts random disconnected actions with a coordinated operating system approach",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-how-mkgos-makes-every-channel-work-together",{"title":9576,"description":9907},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fstop-the-random-acts-how-mkgos-makes-every-channel-work-together","_fKRhGwfHKaiXig2DxJpMzR2iJRzZFpB7kg3XbPAEYw",[],{"id":9917,"title":9918,"author":7,"authors":9919,"body":9920,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":10222,"description":10223,"extension":318,"img":10224,"imgAlt":77,"meta":10225,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":10226,"seo":10227,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":10228,"updated":7,"__hash__":10229,"people":10230},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fproactive-by-design-how-mkg-builds-partnerships-that-last.md","Proactive by Design - How MKG Builds Partnerships That Last",[],{"type":11,"value":9921,"toc":10208},[9922,9925,9928,9931,9934,9941,9944,9947,9950,9956,9959,9962,9965,9968,9988,9998,10004,10007,10010,10021,10024,10027,10030,10033,10036,10053,10056,10062,10065,10071,10074,10077,10080,10086,10089,10092,10095,10101,10104,10107,10117,10123,10126,10129,10132,10138,10141,10144,10150,10153,10156,10173,10176,10179,10184,10190,10193,10196,10199,10202],[14,9923,9924],{},"Most partnerships don’t break because people stop caring. They fail because the operating rhythm breaks.",[14,9926,9927],{},"The early days are easy. Everyone’s energized. The goals are clear. The backlog feels manageable. Then the real world shows up: priorities shift, approvals slow down, internal teams get stretched, a key stakeholder changes roles, the quarter gets tight, the “simple” launch gets complicated. Suddenly, the partnership isn’t being measured by the strategy you pitched—it’s being measured by how you show up when things get messy.",[14,9929,9930],{},"That’s where most agencies lose trust.",[14,9932,9933],{},"Not because they’re incompetent, but because they’re reactive. They wait for direction. They wait for the next meeting. They wait for the client to spot the problem and name it. They wait to be asked.",[14,9935,9936,9937,9940],{},"At MKG, we’ve learned something the hard way: ",[52,9938,9939],{},"the strongest partnerships aren’t built on output. They’re built on proactive behavior."," Not as a personality trait, but as a design principle—baked into the way work runs, decisions get made, and progress stays visible.",[14,9942,9943],{},"That’s what “proactive by design” means.",[14,9945,9946],{},"It means we don’t just deliver. We anticipate. We don’t just execute. We connect dots. We don’t just report. We translate insights into subsequent actions. We don’t just attend meetings. We reduce the number of meetings you need to hold.",[14,9948,9949],{},"And over time, that’s what makes a partnership last: the quiet confidence that you’re not carrying the system alone.",[24,9951,9953],{"id":9952},"proactive-isnt-a-vibe-its-a-system",[52,9954,9955],{},"Proactive isn’t a vibe. It’s a system.",[14,9957,9958],{},"Many teams talk about being proactive. What they really mean is that they have good intentions, they’ll respond quickly, and they’ll bring ideas when asked.",[14,9960,9961],{},"That’s not proactivity. That’s responsiveness.",[14,9963,9964],{},"Real proactivity is when progress continues even when nobody is watching, when risks are spotted before they become fire drills. When opportunities surface before the quarterly planning doc is due. When your partner doesn’t need to be managed because the work has a rhythm.",[14,9966,9967],{},"Proactive partnerships don’t happen by accident. They happen when the relationship is built around a shared operating system:",[46,9969,9970,9973,9976,9979,9982,9985],{},[49,9971,9972],{},"Clear owners",[49,9974,9975],{},"Clear priorities",[49,9977,9978],{},"Clear “done” definitions",[49,9980,9981],{},"Clear decision paths",[49,9983,9984],{},"Visibility without chasing",[49,9986,9987],{},"A consistent cadence that doesn’t collapse under pressure",[14,9989,9990,9991,9993,9995],{},"That’s why we obsess over how we work, not just what we deliver. Because marketing gets complicated, the partnership can’t.",[5645,9992],{},[5645,9994],{},[75,9996],{"alt":77,"src":9997},"\u002Fimages\u002Fproactive-by-design-image-2.jpg",[24,9999,10001],{"id":10000},"the-difference-between-vendor-and-partner",[52,10002,10003],{},"The difference between “vendor” and “partner.”",[14,10005,10006],{},"A vendor does tasks. A partner shares outcomes.",[14,10008,10009],{},"Transactions usually define the vendor relationship:",[46,10011,10012,10015,10018],{},[49,10013,10014],{},"“Here’s the request.”",[49,10016,10017],{},"“Here’s the deliverable.”",[49,10019,10020],{},"“Here’s the report.”",[14,10022,10023],{},"It can look smooth on paper and still feel heavy in practice—because the client is doing the integration work: aligning stakeholders, connecting channels, translating goals into priorities, spotting gaps, and pushing things over the finish line.",[14,10025,10026],{},"A true partner reduces that load.",[14,10028,10029],{},"Partnership means you don’t just receive orders—you help shape them. You don’t just ship work—you protect the strategy. You don’t just show what happened—you recommend what to do next. You don’t just operate inside your lane—you notice what’s happening across the whole system.",[14,10031,10032],{},"This is why “partner” hits differently. It’s not a label. It’s a behavior pattern.",[14,10034,10035],{},"And it shows up in the small moments:",[46,10037,10038,10041,10044,10047,10050],{},[49,10039,10040],{},"You bring a fix before the client brings a complaint",[49,10042,10043],{},"You flag a risk before it becomes a missed deadline",[49,10045,10046],{},"You summarize decisions clearly, so nobody leaves confused",[49,10048,10049],{},"You keep work moving between meetings",[49,10051,10052],{},"You say “here’s what I recommend” instead of “what do you want?”",[14,10054,10055],{},"Those moments are what create peace. And peace is what makes partnerships durable.",[24,10057,10059],{"id":10058},"how-mkg-is-proactive-by-design",[52,10060,10061],{},"How MKG is proactive by design",[14,10063,10064],{},"Here’s what we actually do that makes proactivity repeatable.",[81,10066,10068],{"id":10067},"_1-we-run-on-radical-transparency",[52,10069,10070],{},"1) We run on radical transparency",[14,10072,10073],{},"If the work lives in email threads, proactivity dies. People can’t anticipate what they can’t see.",[14,10075,10076],{},"We treat visibility as a feature, not a courtesy. The plan is visible. The backlog is visible. Owners, blockers, and decisions are visible. That means clients aren’t chasing updates, and we’re not waiting for the next call to move work forward.",[14,10078,10079],{},"Transparency turns a relationship from “check-ins” to “check the system.”",[81,10081,10083],{"id":10082},"_2-we-use-a-weekly-operating-rhythm",[52,10084,10085],{},"2) We use a weekly operating rhythm",[14,10087,10088],{},"Partnerships fall apart when execution is sporadic.",[14,10090,10091],{},"A weekly cadence creates predictability: priorities are set, work is shipped, learnings are reviewed, and decisions are made—every week. When the rhythm is steady, the partnership doesn’t depend on heroics. It depends on the process.",[14,10093,10094],{},"This also makes it easier to adapt. When priorities change (and they will), you don’t need to rebuild the entire plan. You rebalance the next sprint.",[81,10096,10098],{"id":10097},"_3-we-translate-insights-into-assignments",[52,10099,10100],{},"3) We translate insights into assignments",[14,10102,10103],{},"A lot of agencies report. Few operationalize.",[14,10105,10106],{},"We treat every meaningful insight as a decision point: do we keep going, change course, or test something new? And if it’s worth discussing, it’s worth assigning.",[14,10108,10109,10110,10112,10114],{},"That’s the difference between “interesting data” and compounding results.",[5645,10111],{},[5645,10113],{},[75,10115],{"alt":77,"src":10116},"\u002Fimages\u002Fproactive-by-design-image-2.png",[24,10118,10120],{"id":10119},"_4-we-lead-with-senior-operators",[52,10121,10122],{},"4) We lead with senior operators",[14,10124,10125],{},"Proactivity requires judgment.",[14,10127,10128],{},"If your day-to-day team is junior, they can execute tasks, but they can’t reliably anticipate. They don’t yet know what to look for, what to question, or when to challenge a plan.",[14,10130,10131],{},"Our model is built around senior strategists who think, lead, and do. That reduces back-and-forth. It reduces rework. And it creates a partnership where you don’t have to translate your needs into perfect instructions to get excellent output.",[81,10133,10135],{"id":10134},"_5-were-built-to-integrate-not-just-produce",[52,10136,10137],{},"5) We’re built to integrate, not just produce",[14,10139,10140],{},"The longest partnerships aren’t the ones that have the most deliverables. They’re the ones that reduce friction over time.",[14,10142,10143],{},"We’re structured to plug into your team like an extension—aligning with stakeholders, collaborating across functions, and keeping work moving even when internal bandwidth gets tight. We don’t win by being loud. We win by being reliable.",[24,10145,10147],{"id":10146},"what-lasting-partnerships-feel-like",[52,10148,10149],{},"What lasting partnerships feel like",[14,10151,10152],{},"When proactivity is real, the client experience changes.",[14,10154,10155],{},"It feels like:",[46,10157,10158,10161,10164,10167,10170],{},[49,10159,10160],{},"Fewer meetings, because visibility replaces status updates",[49,10162,10163],{},"Faster decisions, because issues are surfaced early and clearly",[49,10165,10166],{},"Less rework, because strategy and execution stay aligned",[49,10168,10169],{},"More confidence, because there’s a plan and it’s moving",[49,10171,10172],{},"More calm, because you’re not carrying the system alone",[14,10174,10175],{},"This is the part most people don’t say out loud: the best partnerships sell peace. Not complacency—momentum without chaos.",[14,10177,10178],{},"And that peace compounds. When you’re not exhausted by coordination, you have more energy for strategy. When the system runs smoothly, you can take bigger swings. When you trust the rhythm, you can play the long game.",[14,10180,10181],{},[75,10182],{"alt":77,"src":10183},"\u002Fimages\u002Fproactive-by-design-image-3.jpg",[24,10185,10187],{"id":10186},"proactive-by-design-is-a-choice",[52,10188,10189],{},"Proactive by design is a choice",[14,10191,10192],{},"Most teams don’t need a new agency. They need a partner who makes marketing feel lighter because the operating rhythm is heavier—structured, clear, and consistent.",[14,10194,10195],{},"That’s what MKG builds.",[14,10197,10198],{},"We build partnerships that last by designing proactivity into the work: transparent workflows, weekly momentum, decision-driven reporting, senior ownership, and integration that reduces your load instead of adding to it.",[14,10200,10201],{},"Because the strategy matters. The output matters.",[14,10203,10204,10205],{},"But in the end, partnerships last for one reason: ",[52,10206,10207],{},"you trust what will happen next.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":10209},[10210,10211,10212,10217,10220,10221],{"id":9952,"depth":291,"text":9955},{"id":10000,"depth":291,"text":10003},{"id":10058,"depth":291,"text":10061,"children":10213},[10214,10215,10216],{"id":10067,"depth":297,"text":10070},{"id":10082,"depth":297,"text":10085},{"id":10097,"depth":297,"text":10100},{"id":10119,"depth":291,"text":10122,"children":10218},[10219],{"id":10134,"depth":297,"text":10137},{"id":10146,"depth":291,"text":10149},{"id":10186,"depth":291,"text":10189},"2026-01-13T16:59:00Z","The work matters. The way we work matters more—because it’s what makes results repeatable.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fproactive-by-design-image-hero-image.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fproactive-by-design-how-mkg-builds-partnerships-that-last",{"title":9918,"description":10223},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fproactive-by-design-how-mkg-builds-partnerships-that-last","cSB_Jdb0okU2t9JlLbTvjgaThnrBlg6Aj0_n33jp57w",[],{"id":10232,"title":10233,"author":7,"authors":10234,"body":10235,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":10472,"description":10473,"extension":318,"img":10474,"imgAlt":77,"meta":10475,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":10476,"seo":10477,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":10478,"updated":7,"__hash__":10479,"people":10480},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbuild-a-marketing-operating-system-here-s-what-mkgos-really-means.md","Build a Marketing Operating System (Here is What mkgOS™ Really Means)",[],{"type":11,"value":10236,"toc":10464},[10237,10240,10243,10246,10249,10255,10258,10261,10264,10271,10276,10282,10285,10303,10318,10321,10327,10330,10384,10391,10397,10400,10403,10411,10416,10422,10425,10440,10443,10449,10452,10455,10461],[14,10238,10239],{},"If marketing feels like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, it’s usually not because your team lacks talent. It’s because the work is being run like a pile of “apps” with no operating system underneath. One person is pushing ads, another is rewriting pages, someone is in analytics, someone else is chasing approvals, and you’re stuck in the middle, stitching it together with meetings and follow-ups.",[14,10241,10242],{},"mkgOS™️ exists to fix that.",[14,10244,10245],{},"It’s not a piece of software. It’s the way marketing runs when you stop treating every initiative like a one-off campaign and start treating growth like a system. It’s how we make multiple specialists, channels, and priorities move in the same direction—without you having to play project manager, traffic cop, and translator.",[14,10247,10248],{},"In plain language: mkgOS is MKG’s operating system for marketing execution. It’s the framework that makes our strategy and our services work together in a choreographed way, so the client experience feels simple—even when the work is complex.",[24,10250,10252],{"id":10251},"why-an-operating-system-at-all",[52,10253,10254],{},"Why an “Operating System” at all?",[14,10256,10257],{},"Most teams already have plenty of tools. The problem is the handoffs between them: between strategy and execution, between paid and organic, between reporting and action, between “we should” and “it shipped.”",[14,10259,10260],{},"An operating system solves for coordination. It gives everyone the same rules of engagement: where work lives, how decisions get made, what “done” means, and how progress gets communicated. That’s why we coined the term. Not for branding. For survival.",[14,10262,10263],{},"Without a system, you get the same symptoms every month: priorities reset every week because nothing is anchored; work gets stuck in approval limbo with no clear path to unblock it; reporting becomes theater (lots of slides, few decisions); specialists operate in lanes even though outcomes happen across lanes; and meetings multiply because updates live in people’s heads instead of in a workflow.",[14,10265,10266,10268],{},[5645,10267],{},[75,10269],{"alt":77,"src":10270},"\u002Fimages\u002Fwhat-mkgos-really-means-image1-1.png",[14,10272,10273],{},[52,10274,10275],{},"mkgOS turns that mess into a repeatable operating rhythm.",[24,10277,10279],{"id":10278},"what-mkgos-isand-what-its-not",[52,10280,10281],{},"What mkgOS is—and what it’s not",[14,10283,10284],{},"Let’s draw a clean boundary.",[14,10286,10287,10288,10290,10291,10293,10294,10296,10297,10299,10300,10302],{},"mkgOS is:",[5645,10289],{},"A repeatable way to run marketing work with clarity and momentum",[5645,10292],{},"A standard operating rhythm (weekly sprints) that turns insight into action",[5645,10295],{},"A shared system for visibility, ownership, and accountability (Asana is the source of truth)",[5645,10298],{},"A communication model designed to reduce meetings, not create them",[5645,10301],{},"A quality standard that travels across service lines, specialists, and partners",[14,10304,10305,10306,10308,10309,10311,10312,10314,10315,10317],{},"mkgOS is not:",[5645,10307],{},"“Just project management”",[5645,10310],{},"A static playbook that ignores context",[5645,10313],{},"A tool stack you have to adopt overnight",[5645,10316],{},"A set of pretty dashboards that don’t change what happens next",[14,10319,10320],{},"Project management is the core engine, but the OS is bigger than tasks. It’s the whole loop: plan, prioritize, execute, measure, adjust—then do it again next week with more clarity than the week before.",[24,10322,10324],{"id":10323},"the-non-negotiables-inside-the-os",[52,10325,10326],{},"The non-negotiables inside the OS",[14,10328,10329],{},"If you strip mkgOS down to the essentials, a few components never move. These are the pieces that make the system feel calm instead of chaotic.",[132,10331,10332,10343,10354,10365,10373],{},[49,10333,10334,10337,10339,10340,10342],{},[52,10335,10336],{},"Radical transparency (no black boxes)",[5645,10338],{},"Work doesn’t “live” in someone’s inbox or brain. It lives in the workflow. In practice, that means Asana is not optional. You can see what’s in motion, what’s blocked, what’s shipping next, who owns what, and what decisions are pending.",[5645,10341],{},"This is how we remove the client’s need to “check in.” You shouldn’t have to ask where things stand. You should be able to see it.",[49,10344,10345,10348,10350,10351,10353],{},[52,10346,10347],{},"Weekly sprints (predictable progress)",[5645,10349],{},"We run in weekly sprints because momentum loves a clock. Each sprint has clear priorities, clear owners, and clear deliverables—plus a plan for what gets done this week (not “sometime”).",[5645,10352],{},"Weekly sprints also prevent the classic drift where goals are clear in week one and forgotten by week three.",[49,10355,10356,10359,10361,10362,10364],{},[52,10357,10358],{},"Outcome-driven meetings (not status meetings)",[5645,10360],{},"We use a Traction EOS L10-style structure because it forces the correct behavior: identify issues, solve them, and assign the following action. Meetings are for decisions and removals of blockers, not for reading updates out loud.",[5645,10363],{},"And because updates live in the workflow, calls can stay sharp.",[49,10366,10367,10370,10372],{},[52,10368,10369],{},"A consistent “MKG Standard.”",[5645,10371],{},"An operating system is valid only if it provides a consistent experience. The MKG Standard is how we maintain high quality even as work flexes across disciplines and contributors. Strategy, execution, QA, reporting—each has a clear bar, and that bar doesn’t change depending on who is working the ticket.",[49,10374,10375,10378,10380,10381,10383],{},[52,10376,10377],{},"Modular “apps” that plug in when needed",[5645,10379],{},"Marketing needs to change. A quarter that starts heavy on messaging might end heavy on optimization. A launch might demand web support. A channel might need a specialist for eight weeks, not eight months.",[5645,10382],{},"mkgOS is built to deploy services like apps: plug them in, run them hard, and rebalance as priorities evolve. That includes MKG services and, when needed, vetted partners. One system. One set of standards. One plan.",[14,10385,10386,10388],{},[5645,10387],{},[75,10389],{"alt":77,"src":10390},"\u002Fimages\u002Fwhat-mkgos-really-means-image2-1.png",[24,10392,10394],{"id":10393},"what-it-feels-like-when-the-os-is-running",[52,10395,10396],{},"What it feels like when the OS is running",[14,10398,10399],{},"The easiest way to understand mkgOS is to compare the “before” and “after.”",[14,10401,10402],{},"Before: You’re managing vendors, chasing updates, and trying to connect dots across teams. Work happens, but it doesn’t compound. You spend more time coordinating than creating.",[14,10404,10405,10406,10408,10409],{},"After: You get a single operating rhythm. Strategy is connected to execution. Reporting turns into decisions. Priorities stop thrashing. You see progress every week, and you can trace it back to the goal it supports.",[5645,10407],{},"People often describe it the same way: less chaos, more clarity. And if we’re being honest, the real product is peace. You shouldn’t need to babysit your marketing to make it move.",[5645,10410],{},[14,10412,10413],{},[75,10414],{"alt":77,"src":10415},"\u002Fimages\u002Fwhat-mkgos-really-means-image3-1.png",[24,10417,10419],{"id":10418},"the-loop-that-makes-the-results-compound",[52,10420,10421],{},"The loop that makes the results compound",[14,10423,10424],{},"mkgOS works because it turns marketing into a closed-loop system—one where learning feeds action, not just commentary.",[14,10426,10427,10428,10430,10431,10433,10434,10436,10437,10439],{},"Align on the goal. Not vanity metrics. The real goal.",[5645,10429],{},"Translate the goal into a weekly plan: clear priorities, owners, and due dates.",[5645,10432],{},"Execute with shared visibility: no hidden work, no mystery timelines.",[5645,10435],{},"Measure what matters. The signals that indicate quality and progress, not noise.",[5645,10438],{},"Turn insights into assignments. If it’s worth noticing, it’s worth acting on.",[14,10441,10442],{},"That last step is where most programs fail. They collect insights like souvenirs. mkgOS treats insights like fuel.",[24,10444,10446],{"id":10445},"what-mkgos️-really-means",[52,10447,10448],{},"What mkgOS™️ really means",[14,10450,10451],{},"mkgOS is our promise that marketing doesn’t have to feel like herding cats. It can feel like a system: steady, visible, and built to adapt without falling apart.",[14,10453,10454],{},"It means you get senior operators who can think, lead, and do—inside a structure that makes progress predictable. It means fewer meetings, fewer dropped handoffs, and fewer “wait, who’s doing that?” moments. It means the work keeps moving even when life happens, priorities shift, or the plan needs to change.",[14,10456,10457,10458,10460],{},"Or said another way:",[5645,10459],{},"We manage the details. You capture the market.",[14,10462,10463],{},"That’s what mkgOS™️ really means.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":10465},[10466,10467,10468,10469,10470,10471],{"id":10251,"depth":291,"text":10254},{"id":10278,"depth":291,"text":10281},{"id":10323,"depth":291,"text":10326},{"id":10393,"depth":291,"text":10396},{"id":10418,"depth":291,"text":10421},{"id":10445,"depth":291,"text":10448},"2026-01-07T18:08:00Z","Stop running marketing like disconnected apps. mkgOS™️ turns strategy, execution, and reporting into one system that compounds.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-mkgos-really-means-heroimage-1.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbuild-a-marketing-operating-system-here-s-what-mkgos-really-means",{"title":10233,"description":10473},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fbuild-a-marketing-operating-system-here-s-what-mkgos-really-means","ysw-FpR7mH1R2yE9NO1Zz4ee3anJ4Oxcz60zdZ_59qg",[],{"id":10482,"title":10483,"author":7,"authors":10484,"body":10486,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":10622,"description":10623,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":10625,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":10626,"seo":10627,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":10628,"updated":7,"__hash__":10629,"people":10630},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-content-readability.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Content Readability",[10485,7],"Austin Ellis",{"type":11,"value":10487,"toc":10606},[10488,10494,10497,10503,10506,10512,10523,10529,10532,10538,10546,10552,10555,10561,10569,10575,10578,10584,10592,10598,10601,10604],[24,10489,10491],{"id":10490},"introduction",[52,10492,10493],{},"Introduction",[14,10495,10496],{},"When you run a cybersecurity website, ensuring your content is easy to understand is good for your readers and helps your SEO. This article will show you how to create readable and SEO-friendly content.",[24,10498,10500],{"id":10499},"make-content-easy-to-read",[52,10501,10502],{},"Make Content Easy to Read",[14,10504,10505],{},"Good content should be easy to follow and engaging. This helps readers grasp your message quickly and encourages them to read more.",[81,10507,10509],{"id":10508},"tips-for-readable-content",[52,10510,10511],{},"Tips for Readable Content:",[46,10513,10514,10517,10520],{},[49,10515,10516],{},"Use Simple Words: Avoid complex jargon unless necessary, and explain terms clearly.",[49,10518,10519],{},"Organize Well: Use headings and lists to structure your content. This helps readers skim and find what they need faster.",[49,10521,10522],{},"Add Images: Pictures, diagrams, and infographics can explain complex ideas more easily than text alone.",[24,10524,10526],{"id":10525},"better-user-experience",[52,10527,10528],{},"Better User Experience",[14,10530,10531],{},"How enjoyable your site is to use—its user experience—affects how long people stay and how much they interact with your content.",[81,10533,10535],{"id":10534},"why-user-experience-matters",[52,10536,10537],{},"Why User Experience Matters:",[46,10539,10540,10543],{},[49,10541,10542],{},"Keep Readers Engaged: Well-formatted content with visual aids keeps people interested.",[49,10544,10545],{},"Make It Easy to Navigate: Clear headings and logical organization help users find information quickly.",[24,10547,10549],{"id":10548},"keep-visitors-on-your-site-longer",[52,10550,10551],{},"Keep Visitors on Your Site Longer",[14,10553,10554],{},"The easier your content is to read, the longer people stay on your site. This means they find your content valuable and help improve your SEO.",[81,10556,10558],{"id":10557},"how-readability-affects-seo",[52,10559,10560],{},"How Readability Affects SEO:",[46,10562,10563,10566],{},[49,10564,10565],{},"Increase Dwell Time: If your site is enjoyable to read, visitors will stay longer, which search engines like Google take as a sign of good quality.",[49,10567,10568],{},"Reduce Bounce Rates: If people find your content immediately useful, they're less likely to leave quickly.",[24,10570,10572],{"id":10571},"more-shares-and-links",[52,10573,10574],{},"More Shares and Links",[14,10576,10577],{},"Readable content is more likely to be shared by readers, spreading your reach and improving your site’s credibility and SEO.",[81,10579,10581],{"id":10580},"how-sharing-helps-seo",[52,10582,10583],{},"How Sharing Helps SEO:",[46,10585,10586,10589],{},[49,10587,10588],{},"Boosts Traffic: Shares on social media can drive more people to your site.",[49,10590,10591],{},"Builds Links: When people share your content, it can lead to other sites linking back to yours, which is great for SEO.",[24,10593,10595],{"id":10594},"conclusion",[52,10596,10597],{},"Conclusion",[14,10599,10600],{},"Creating content that’s easy to read is crucial for engaging your audience and boosting your SEO. By focusing on clarity, and structure, and adding helpful visuals, your cybersecurity site can attract more visitors and encourage them to stay longer.",[14,10602,10603],{},"If these tips could help improve your content and you want to discuss more strategies, contact us. We’re here to help you enhance your website’s performance.",[5645,10605],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":10607},[10608,10609,10612,10615,10618,10621],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":10499,"depth":291,"text":10502,"children":10610},[10611],{"id":10508,"depth":297,"text":10511},{"id":10525,"depth":291,"text":10528,"children":10613},[10614],{"id":10534,"depth":297,"text":10537},{"id":10548,"depth":291,"text":10551,"children":10616},[10617],{"id":10557,"depth":297,"text":10560},{"id":10571,"depth":291,"text":10574,"children":10619},[10620],{"id":10580,"depth":297,"text":10583},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-07-01T18:23:16Z","Discover why readability is crucial for educating users and improving accessibility. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcategory-seo.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-content-readability",{"title":10483,"description":10623},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-content-readability","Kmv1724RkTDtbSFjOmtGsbdbXZ9pcZ0D1Y0WrkRdD84",[],{"id":10632,"title":10633,"author":7,"authors":10634,"body":10635,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":10769,"description":10770,"extension":318,"img":10771,"imgAlt":77,"meta":10772,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":10773,"seo":10774,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":10775,"updated":7,"__hash__":10776,"people":10777},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-relevant-image-use.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Relevant  Image Use",[7,10485],{"type":11,"value":10636,"toc":10753},[10637,10641,10644,10650,10653,10659,10667,10673,10676,10682,10690,10696,10699,10705,10716,10722,10725,10731,10739,10745,10748,10751],[24,10638,10639],{"id":10490},[52,10640,10493],{},[14,10642,10643],{},"Images are more than just a way to make your site look good. They can also help your cybersecurity website rank better in search results and make your content more engaging. This article will show you how to use images effectively to boost your SEO.",[24,10645,10647],{"id":10646},"choose-the-right-images",[52,10648,10649],{},"Choose the Right Images",[14,10651,10652],{},"It’s important to use images that are related to your content. This helps explain your topics better and allows you to use keywords in your image descriptions, which is great for SEO.",[81,10654,10656],{"id":10655},"why-relevant-images-matter",[52,10657,10658],{},"Why Relevant Images Matter:",[46,10660,10661,10664],{},[49,10662,10663],{},"Make Content Attractive: Good images draw readers in and keep them interested.",[49,10665,10666],{},"Explain Complex Ideas: Pictures can help clarify tricky cybersecurity topics, making them easier for your audience to understand.",[24,10668,10670],{"id":10669},"make-your-site-easier-to-use-with-images",[52,10671,10672],{},"Make Your Site Easier to Use with Images",[14,10674,10675],{},"Images can make your content easier to read and more enjoyable, which makes visitors more likely to stick around.",[81,10677,10679],{"id":10678},"tips-for-better-user-experience",[52,10680,10681],{},"Tips for Better User Experience:",[46,10683,10684,10687],{},[49,10685,10686],{},"Break Up Text: Images can give readers a break from reading, which can keep them on your page longer.",[49,10688,10689],{},"Support Your Points: Use pictures to help illustrate and strengthen the points you make in your text.",[24,10691,10693],{"id":10692},"get-more-visitors-from-image-searches",[52,10694,10695],{},"Get More Visitors from Image Searches",[14,10697,10698],{},"By optimizing your images, you can attract more visitors not just from regular search results but also from image searches.",[81,10700,10702],{"id":10701},"how-to-optimize-images",[52,10703,10704],{},"How to Optimize Images:",[46,10706,10707,10710,10713],{},[49,10708,10709],{},"Use Descriptive Names: Name your images with clear, relevant terms.",[49,10711,10712],{},"Add ALT Text: Include keywords in your ALT text to help search engines understand what the image is about.",[49,10714,10715],{},"Fill Out Metadata: Adding extra details like captions and descriptions helps search engines index your images better.",[24,10717,10719],{"id":10718},"boost-your-websites-authority-with-quality-images",[52,10720,10721],{},"Boost Your Website’s Authority with Quality Images",[14,10723,10724],{},"Using high-quality images can make your website look more credible and authoritative, which helps with SEO.",[81,10726,10728],{"id":10727},"enhancing-your-sites-authority",[52,10729,10730],{},"Enhancing Your Site’s Authority:",[46,10732,10733,10736],{},[49,10734,10735],{},"Use Professional Images: High-resolution, professional images can make your content look more trustworthy.",[49,10737,10738],{},"Pair with Strong Content: Combine great images with detailed, informative text to improve your chances of ranking well in searches.",[24,10740,10741,10743],{"id":10594},[5645,10742],{},[52,10744,10597],{},[14,10746,10747],{},"Adding images to your cybersecurity content isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s a strategic move that can improve how engaging, understandable, and visible your content is. Properly chosen and optimized images can lead to better user engagement, improved search rankings, and more traffic to your site.",[14,10749,10750],{},"If you find these tips useful and want to upgrade your website’s SEO, consider contacting us for more personalized advice. We specialize in helping cybersecurity businesses enhance their online presence.",[5645,10752],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":10754},[10755,10756,10759,10762,10765,10768],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":10646,"depth":291,"text":10649,"children":10757},[10758],{"id":10655,"depth":297,"text":10658},{"id":10669,"depth":291,"text":10672,"children":10760},[10761],{"id":10678,"depth":297,"text":10681},{"id":10692,"depth":291,"text":10695,"children":10763},[10764],{"id":10701,"depth":297,"text":10704},{"id":10718,"depth":291,"text":10721,"children":10766},[10767],{"id":10727,"depth":297,"text":10730},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-06-25T14:12:14Z","Discover why relevant, strategic images can make your site easier to use and attractive to users. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fseo-predictions.webp",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-relevant-image-use",{"title":10633,"description":10770},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-relevant-image-use","U78zmbZowzbxZmJZZhZ6OAEf-tdevlXnuA2Ziat9vQs",[],{"id":10779,"title":10780,"author":7,"authors":10781,"body":10782,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":10911,"description":10912,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":10913,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":10914,"seo":10915,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":10916,"updated":7,"__hash__":10917,"people":10918},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-strategic-internal-linking.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Strategic Internal Linking",[10485,7],{"type":11,"value":10783,"toc":10895},[10784,10788,10791,10797,10800,10806,10814,10820,10823,10829,10837,10843,10846,10852,10860,10866,10869,10875,10883,10887,10890,10893],[24,10785,10786],{"id":10490},[52,10787,10493],{},[14,10789,10790],{},"Internal linking—connecting your site’s pages to each other—is a simple yet powerful tool for improving your cybersecurity website’s SEO. It helps users navigate your site and strengthens your site’s standing in search results. This article explains how to use internal links effectively.",[24,10792,10794],{"id":10793},"why-internal-links-matter",[52,10795,10796],{},"Why Internal Links Matter",[14,10798,10799],{},"Internal links are crucial because they help share authority across your site and guide visitors to more of your content.",[81,10801,10803],{"id":10802},"benefits-of-internal-links",[52,10804,10805],{},"Benefits of Internal Links",[46,10807,10808,10811],{},[49,10809,10810],{},"Connect Content: Link-related articles or pages to keep readers on your site longer.",[49,10812,10813],{},"Share Authority: Links from your popular pages can help newer or less visible pages get noticed by search engines.",[24,10815,10817],{"id":10816},"better-navigation-with-internal-links",[52,10818,10819],{},"Better Navigation with Internal Links",[14,10821,10822],{},"Good internal linking makes your website easier to use, which keeps visitors happy and engaged.",[81,10824,10826],{"id":10825},"improving-site-navigation",[52,10827,10828],{},"Improving Site Navigation:",[46,10830,10831,10834],{},[49,10832,10833],{},"Easy Access: Help visitors find information quickly by linking to it from related pages.",[49,10835,10836],{},"Keep Visitors Longer: When people find more interesting content through links, they’re more likely to stick around.",[24,10838,10840],{"id":10839},"spread-ranking-power",[52,10841,10842],{},"Spread Ranking Power",[14,10844,10845],{},"By linking your pages to each other, you can help improve how they rank in search engines.",[81,10847,10849],{"id":10848},"how-to-spread-ranking-power",[52,10850,10851],{},"How to Spread Ranking Power:",[46,10853,10854,10857],{},[49,10855,10856],{},"Link High to Low: Use links from your stronger pages to boost your newer or weaker pages.",[49,10858,10859],{},"Faster Indexing: Internal links help search engines find and list your pages quicker, improving your site’s visibility.",[24,10861,10863],{"id":10862},"strengthen-keywords-and-relevance",[52,10864,10865],{},"Strengthen Keywords and Relevance",[14,10867,10868],{},"Internal links are also great for highlighting your key topics and associated keywords.",[81,10870,10872],{"id":10871},"tips-for-using-keywords-in-links",[52,10873,10874],{},"Tips for Using Keywords in Links:",[46,10876,10877,10880],{},[49,10878,10879],{},"Use Descriptive Text: When you link, use words that describe the linked page’s content, especially your target keywords.",[49,10881,10882],{},"Build Topic Authority: Linking pages on similar topics tells search engines that you have a lot of good content on those topics, which can help your rankings.",[24,10884,10885],{"id":10594},[52,10886,10597],{},[14,10888,10889],{},"Using internal links wisely can transform how visitors and search engines see your cybersecurity website. It’s a straightforward technique that can lead to big improvements in how users interact with your site and how it performs in search results.",[14,10891,10892],{},"If these tips have been useful and you're thinking about enhancing your website’s SEO, reach out to discuss more strategies. We're here to help you get the best results from your digital marketing efforts.",[5645,10894],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":10896},[10897,10898,10901,10904,10907,10910],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":10793,"depth":291,"text":10796,"children":10899},[10900],{"id":10802,"depth":297,"text":10805},{"id":10816,"depth":291,"text":10819,"children":10902},[10903],{"id":10825,"depth":297,"text":10828},{"id":10839,"depth":291,"text":10842,"children":10905},[10906],{"id":10848,"depth":297,"text":10851},{"id":10862,"depth":291,"text":10865,"children":10908},[10909],{"id":10871,"depth":297,"text":10874},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-06-18T15:25:12Z","Discover how incorporating strategic internal linking can build site authority and improve user navigation. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-strategic-internal-linking",{"title":10780,"description":10912},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-strategic-internal-linking","3Pw_YT7qhbnt1pJ5Zz35I9x7q1ZpuV9cC0yyNYTgvEQ",[],{"id":10920,"title":10921,"author":7,"authors":10922,"body":10923,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11055,"description":11056,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11057,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11058,"seo":11059,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11060,"updated":7,"__hash__":11061,"people":11062},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-captivating-introductions.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Captivating Introductions",[10485,7],{"type":11,"value":10924,"toc":11039},[10925,10929,10932,10938,10941,10946,10954,10960,10963,10969,10977,10983,10986,10990,10998,11004,11007,11013,11021,11025,11028,11031],[24,10926,10927],{"id":10490},[52,10928,10493],{},[14,10930,10931],{},"If you run a cybersecurity website, the first paragraph of your articles is crucial. It needs to grab attention and contain the right keywords to help your SEO. This guide will explain how to craft introductions that are not only engaging but also boost your site’s visibility on search engines.",[24,10933,10935],{"id":10934},"crafting-engaging-introductions",[52,10936,10937],{},"Crafting Engaging Introductions",[14,10939,10940],{},"Your introduction should quickly summarize the content and include important keywords. This helps search engines understand what your page is about and shows readers they’ve found what they’re looking for.",[81,10942,10943],{"id":5992},[52,10944,10945],{},"Why This Matters:",[46,10947,10948,10951],{},[49,10949,10950],{},"Boost SEO: Using keywords early helps search engines see your page as relevant.",[49,10952,10953],{},"Grab Attention: A strong start makes readers want to keep reading.",[24,10955,10957],{"id":10956},"enhancing-visibility",[52,10958,10959],{},"Enhancing Visibility",[14,10961,10962],{},"A good introduction makes it clear your page is relevant to the search query, which can help it show up higher in search results.",[81,10964,10966],{"id":10965},"how-to-do-it",[52,10967,10968],{},"How to Do It:",[46,10970,10971,10974],{},[49,10972,10973],{},"Use Keywords Wisely: Place your main keyword in the first few sentences.",[49,10975,10976],{},"Outline the Content: Give readers a quick preview of what they’ll learn, matching what they're searching for.",[24,10978,10980],{"id":10979},"improving-user-experience",[52,10981,10982],{},"Improving User Experience",[14,10984,10985],{},"The clearer your introduction, the easier it is for readers to understand what your page is about. This keeps them on your site longer.",[81,10987,10988],{"id":10678},[52,10989,10681],{},[46,10991,10992,10995],{},[49,10993,10994],{},"Set Clear Expectations: Tell readers exactly what the article covers.",[49,10996,10997],{},"Engage Quickly: Start with interesting facts or questions to keep readers interested.",[24,10999,11001],{"id":11000},"establishing-your-sites-credibility",[52,11002,11003],{},"Establishing Your Site’s Credibility",[14,11005,11006],{},"Regularly appearing in search results with well-written content builds trust and shows you’re a reliable source of information.",[81,11008,11010],{"id":11009},"building-trust",[52,11011,11012],{},"Building Trust:",[46,11014,11015,11018],{},[49,11016,11017],{},"Demonstrate Expertise: Use the introduction to show your knowledge.",[49,11019,11020],{},"Consistent Quality: Being consistently good in your articles helps people trust your site more.",[24,11022,11023],{"id":10594},[52,11024,10597],{},[14,11026,11027],{},"Great introductions are key to getting both readers and search engines to love your cybersecurity website. They help with SEO and make sure people stick around to read more.",[14,11029,11030],{},"If these tips have been helpful and you want to boost your website even more, consider getting in touch with us. We specialize in SEO strategies for cybersecurity companies and would love to help you succeed.",[14,11032,11033,11035,11037],{},[5645,11034],{},[5645,11036],{},[5645,11038],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11040},[11041,11042,11045,11048,11051,11054],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":10934,"depth":291,"text":10937,"children":11043},[11044],{"id":5992,"depth":297,"text":10945},{"id":10956,"depth":291,"text":10959,"children":11046},[11047],{"id":10965,"depth":297,"text":10968},{"id":10979,"depth":291,"text":10982,"children":11049},[11050],{"id":10678,"depth":297,"text":10681},{"id":11000,"depth":291,"text":11003,"children":11052},[11053],{"id":11009,"depth":297,"text":11012},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-06-11T14:51:02Z","Discover how to build trust and improve user experience through captivating introduction paragraphs. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-captivating-introductions",{"title":10921,"description":11056},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-captivating-introductions","1_d7JLdN0o6TbQJBNg5u4AAxL1w-zoCpaeoL2LM7eK4",[],{"id":11064,"title":11065,"author":7,"authors":11066,"body":11067,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11202,"description":11203,"extension":318,"img":10771,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11204,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11205,"seo":11206,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11207,"updated":7,"__hash__":11208,"people":11209},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-smart-headers.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Smart Headers",[10485,7],{"type":11,"value":11068,"toc":11186},[11069,11073,11076,11082,11085,11091,11099,11105,11108,11114,11125,11131,11134,11140,11148,11154,11157,11163,11174,11178,11181,11184],[24,11070,11071],{"id":10490},[52,11072,10493],{},[14,11074,11075],{},"Effective headers on your website can make a big difference in how both people and search engines view your pages. This guide will show you how to use headers to make your content easier to read and better ranked in search engines.",[24,11077,11079],{"id":11078},"why-headers-matter",[52,11080,11081],{},"Why Headers Matter",[14,11083,11084],{},"Headers help organize your content and get the attention of search engines by using keywords effectively.",[81,11086,11088],{"id":11087},"tips-for-using-headers",[52,11089,11090],{},"Tips for Using Headers:",[46,11092,11093,11096],{},[49,11094,11095],{},"Use Main Keywords: Include your most important keywords in headers to improve search rankings.",[49,11097,11098],{},"Organize Your Content: Headers (like H1, H2, H3) help break your content into sections that are easy to navigate.",[24,11100,11102],{"id":11101},"make-your-site-easier-to-read",[52,11103,11104],{},"Make Your Site Easier to Read",[14,11106,11107],{},"Clear headers can make your website easier to scan and understand.",[81,11109,11111],{"id":11110},"benefits-of-clear-headers",[52,11112,11113],{},"Benefits of Clear Headers:",[46,11115,11116,11119,11122],{},[49,11117,11118],{},"Quick Scanning: Visitors can find what they need faster.",[49,11120,11121],{},"Keep Visitors Longer: Well-organized content helps reduce the number of people leaving your site quickly.",[49,11123,11124],{},"Happy Visitors: Easy-to-find information leads to happier visitors and possibly more customers.",[24,11126,11128],{"id":11127},"boost-seo-with-keywords-in-headers",[52,11129,11130],{},"Boost SEO with Keywords in Headers",[14,11132,11133],{},"Putting keywords in your headers is key to showing search engines what your content is about.",[81,11135,11137],{"id":11136},"how-keywords-help",[52,11138,11139],{},"How Keywords Help:",[46,11141,11142,11145],{},[49,11143,11144],{},"Better Rankings: Keywords in headers help match your content with what people are searching for.",[49,11146,11147],{},"Get Featured in Search Results: Good headers can help your content show up in special search results like snippets, which are more noticeable.",[24,11149,11151],{"id":11150},"how-to-use-headers-for-better-visibility",[52,11152,11153],{},"How to Use Headers for Better Visibility",[14,11155,11156],{},"Search engines use headers to pick content for snippets, which appear at the top of search results.",[81,11158,11160],{"id":11159},"getting-into-snippets",[52,11161,11162],{},"Getting Into Snippets:",[46,11164,11165,11168,11171],{},[49,11166,11167],{},"Be Informative: Make sure your headers clearly describe what follows.",[49,11169,11170],{},"Ask Questions: Use headers to pose common questions that your audience might search for.",[49,11172,11173],{},"Give Straight Answers: Provide clear answers right after your headers to increase your chances of being featured in search results.",[24,11175,11176],{"id":10594},[52,11177,10597],{},[14,11179,11180],{},"Using headers wisely can greatly improve your cybersecurity website’s readability and search rankings. It’s an easy step that can bring big benefits.",[14,11182,11183],{},"If you think these tips could help you and you’re interested in more strategies, contact us to talk more about your needs. We’re here to help you get the most out of your digital marketing efforts.",[5645,11185],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11187},[11188,11189,11192,11195,11198,11201],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":11078,"depth":291,"text":11081,"children":11190},[11191],{"id":11087,"depth":297,"text":11090},{"id":11101,"depth":291,"text":11104,"children":11193},[11194],{"id":11110,"depth":297,"text":11113},{"id":11127,"depth":291,"text":11130,"children":11196},[11197],{"id":11136,"depth":297,"text":11139},{"id":11150,"depth":291,"text":11153,"children":11199},[11200],{"id":11159,"depth":297,"text":11162},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-06-03T16:52:12Z","Discover how writing smart headers helps users and search engines consume your helpful content.  Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-smart-headers",{"title":11065,"description":11203},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-smart-headers","RSFE6LWYxIRk3OlTauerMBkzgaVZt9f20Nhs0qqcNi4",[],{"id":11211,"title":11212,"author":7,"authors":11213,"body":11214,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11345,"description":11346,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11347,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11348,"seo":11349,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11350,"updated":7,"__hash__":11351,"people":11352},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-powerful-meta-descriptions.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Powerful Meta Descriptions",[10485,7],{"type":11,"value":11215,"toc":11329},[11216,11220,11223,11229,11232,11238,11246,11252,11255,11261,11269,11275,11278,11284,11292,11298,11301,11307,11317,11321,11324,11327],[24,11217,11218],{"id":10490},[52,11219,10493],{},[14,11221,11222],{},"Meta descriptions are a key tool for any cybersecurity business looking to stand out online. These summaries appear under your webpage title in search results and can make a big difference in whether someone clicks on your link. This article explains creating meta descriptions that grab attention and get clicks.",[24,11224,11226],{"id":11225},"create-meta-descriptions-that-inspire-action",[52,11227,11228],{},"Create Meta Descriptions That Inspire Action",[14,11230,11231],{},"A good meta description makes someone want to read more. It's your chance to show what's special about your content right from the search results.",[81,11233,11235],{"id":11234},"tips-for-writing-meta-descriptions",[52,11236,11237],{},"Tips for Writing Meta Descriptions:",[46,11239,11240,11243],{},[49,11241,11242],{},"Use Action Words: Phrases like \"Learn more,\" \"Discover,\" or \"Get started\" invite people to click.",[49,11244,11245],{},"Highlight Benefits: Quickly tell what someone will gain by visiting your page, whether it's helpful tips, important insights, or an exclusive offer.",[24,11247,11249],{"id":11248},"boost-your-click-through-rates-ctr",[52,11250,11251],{},"Boost Your Click-Through Rates (CTR)",[14,11253,11254],{},"Meta descriptions help improve how often people decide to click on your site instead of others in the search results.",[81,11256,11258],{"id":11257},"how-to-get-more-clicks",[52,11259,11260],{},"How to Get More Clicks:",[46,11262,11263,11266],{},[49,11264,11265],{},"Summarize Your Page: Give a clear, attractive preview of what's on your page.",[49,11267,11268],{},"Meet User Needs: Write descriptions that answer the questions or solve the problems that led someone to search in the first place.",[24,11270,11272],{"id":11271},"increase-user-engagement",[52,11273,11274],{},"Increase User Engagement",[14,11276,11277],{},"Well-written meta descriptions do more than just improve clicks; they also prepare visitors for what to expect on your site, which can make them more likely to stick around.",[81,11279,11281],{"id":11280},"tips-for-better-engagement",[52,11282,11283],{},"Tips for Better Engagement:",[46,11285,11286,11289],{},[49,11287,11288],{},"Be Honest: Make sure your meta description accurately reflects the content of the page.",[49,11290,11291],{},"Draw Them In: Use lively, interesting language that makes people want to learn more.",[24,11293,11295],{"id":11294},"strengthen-your-brand",[52,11296,11297],{},"Strengthen Your Brand",[14,11299,11300],{},"Consistent use of your brand’s voice and key messages in your meta descriptions can help people recognize and trust your brand.",[81,11302,11304],{"id":11303},"building-your-brand-with-meta-descriptions",[52,11305,11306],{},"Building Your Brand with Meta Descriptions:",[46,11308,11309,11312],{},[49,11310,11311],{},"Keep It Consistent: Use a similar tone and style in all your meta descriptions to help people recognize your brand.",[49,11313,11314,11315,6720],{},"Promote What Makes You Unique: Clearly state what sets your cybersecurity solutions apart from others.",[5645,11316],{},[24,11318,11319],{"id":10594},[52,11320,10597],{},[14,11322,11323],{},"Crafting effective meta descriptions is a powerful way to improve your cybersecurity firm’s online presence. By focusing on creating engaging, informative summaries, you can increase clicks, attract more visitors, and enhance brand recognition.",[14,11325,11326],{},"If you’re looking to enhance your digital strategy and want expert advice, feel free to reach out. We’re here to help you get the most out of your online efforts.",[5645,11328],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11330},[11331,11332,11335,11338,11341,11344],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493},{"id":11225,"depth":291,"text":11228,"children":11333},[11334],{"id":11234,"depth":297,"text":11237},{"id":11248,"depth":291,"text":11251,"children":11336},[11337],{"id":11257,"depth":297,"text":11260},{"id":11271,"depth":291,"text":11274,"children":11339},[11340],{"id":11280,"depth":297,"text":11283},{"id":11294,"depth":291,"text":11297,"children":11342},[11343],{"id":11303,"depth":297,"text":11306},{"id":10594,"depth":291,"text":10597},"2024-05-29T14:36:09Z","Discover how to enhance your cybersecurity SEO through attention-grabbing meta descriptions.  Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-powerful-meta-descriptions",{"title":11212,"description":11346},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-powerful-meta-descriptions","ycPQ8OS7k-cPyilslMVrHPJGk0pP-VRtLIp3b53dVuI",[],{"id":11354,"title":11355,"author":7,"authors":11356,"body":11357,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11481,"description":11482,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11483,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11484,"seo":11485,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11486,"updated":7,"__hash__":11487,"people":11488},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-effective-title-tags.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity -  Effective Title Tags",[10485,7],{"type":11,"value":11358,"toc":11468},[11359,11363,11366,11372,11375,11381,11389,11395,11398,11404,11412,11418,11421,11427,11435,11441,11444,11450,11458,11462,11465],[24,11360,11361],{"id":10490},[52,11362,10493],{},[14,11364,11365],{},"Creating effective title tags is essential for any digital marketing strategy, especially in cybersecurity. A good title tag helps search engines understand your content and draws in potential clients. Here’s a straightforward guide on how to make your title tags work harder for your business.",[81,11367,11369],{"id":11368},"why-focused-title-tags-matter",[52,11370,11371],{},"Why Focused Title Tags Matter",[14,11373,11374],{},"A focused title tag is like a quick introduction. It should be closely related to the content on your page and include the main keywords you want to rank for. This helps your page show up in the right search results.",[81,11376,11378],{"id":11377},"key-points",[52,11379,11380],{},"Key Points:",[46,11382,11383,11386],{},[49,11384,11385],{},"Stay Relevant: Your title tag should match the content on the page.",[49,11387,11388],{},"Use Keywords: Include important keywords to improve how visible your page is in searches.",[81,11390,11392],{"id":11391},"best-practices-for-seo-effective-title-tags",[52,11393,11394],{},"Best Practices for SEO-Effective Title Tags",[14,11396,11397],{},"Title tags are important for search engine optimization (SEO). They tell search engines what your page is about and help your page show up in search results.",[81,11399,11401],{"id":11400},"easy-tips",[52,11402,11403],{},"Easy Tips:",[46,11405,11406,11409],{},[49,11407,11408],{},"Find the Right Keywords: Look for keywords that match what your content is about and what people are searching for.",[49,11410,11411],{},"Keep it Clear and Short: Write clear, descriptive title tags that tell what the page is about. Keep them under 60 characters so they don’t get cut off in search results.",[81,11413,11415],{"id":11414},"make-title-tags-better-for-users",[52,11416,11417],{},"Make Title Tags Better for Users",[14,11419,11420],{},"Your title tag is the first thing people see in search results, so make it count. It should encourage people to click and read more.",[81,11422,11424],{"id":11423},"how-to-draw-readers",[52,11425,11426],{},"How to Draw Readers:",[46,11428,11429,11432],{},[49,11430,11431],{},"Be Direct and Interesting: Use strong words and make it exciting to get more clicks.",[49,11433,11434],{},"Show What’s Special: Tell readers right away what they’ll get from reading your page.",[81,11436,11438],{"id":11437},"increase-brand-awareness-with-title-tags",[52,11439,11440],{},"Increase Brand Awareness with Title Tags",[14,11442,11443],{},"Using your brand name in title tags can help people easily recognize your business. It also helps you look consistent across different online platforms.",[81,11445,11447],{"id":11446},"branding-tips",[52,11448,11449],{},"Branding Tips:",[46,11451,11452,11455],{},[49,11453,11454],{},"Add Your Brand Name: Put your brand at the end of the title tag so people start to recognize it.",[49,11456,11457],{},"Stay Consistent: Use the same style in your title tags to make your brand feel familiar and reliable.",[81,11459,11460],{"id":10594},[52,11461,10597],{},[14,11463,11464],{},"For CMOs in cybersecurity, understanding how to craft effective title tags is crucial. Good title tags improve your SEO and make a strong first impression. With these tips, you can attract more visitors and turn them into customers.",[14,11466,11467],{},"If these tips helped you and you’re looking for more ways to boost your online presence, contact us to schedule a discovery call today. We’re experts in making SEO work for cybersecurity businesses.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11469},[11470],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493,"children":11471},[11472,11473,11474,11475,11476,11477,11478,11479,11480],{"id":11368,"depth":297,"text":11371},{"id":11377,"depth":297,"text":11380},{"id":11391,"depth":297,"text":11394},{"id":11400,"depth":297,"text":11403},{"id":11414,"depth":297,"text":11417},{"id":11423,"depth":297,"text":11426},{"id":11437,"depth":297,"text":11440},{"id":11446,"depth":297,"text":11449},{"id":10594,"depth":297,"text":10597},"2024-04-29T16:40:00Z","Discover how effectively optimizing title tags will boost organic performance and entice users. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-effective-title-tags",{"title":11355,"description":11482},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-seo-in-cybersecurity-effective-title-tags","7xCEEReYcR79yH_TlKOP-QMkgkCs63x8HhGdbt-9aKA",[],{"id":11490,"title":11491,"author":7,"authors":11492,"body":11493,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11631,"description":11632,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11633,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11634,"seo":11635,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11636,"updated":7,"__hash__":11637,"people":11638},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-semantic-keyword-variation.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Semantic Keyword Variation",[7,10485],{"type":11,"value":11494,"toc":11617},[11495,11499,11502,11508,11511,11517,11525,11531,11534,11540,11548,11554,11560,11568,11574,11582,11588,11591,11597,11605,11609,11612,11615],[24,11496,11497],{"id":10490},[52,11498,10493],{},[14,11500,11501],{},"If you’re leading marketing at a cybersecurity firm, you know how crucial it is to be visible online. This guide will show you how to use keywords smarter to boost your search rankings and get noticed by more potential clients.",[81,11503,11505],{"id":11504},"understand-semantic-keywords",[52,11506,11507],{},"Understand Semantic Keywords",[14,11509,11510],{},"Semantic keywords help search engines understand what your content is about. This is especially important in cybersecurity, where terms can be complex.",[81,11512,11514],{"id":11513},"why-use-semantic-keywords",[52,11515,11516],{},"Why Use Semantic Keywords?",[46,11518,11519,11522],{},[49,11520,11521],{},"Better Understanding: They help Google and other search engines get the context of your content, which means better matching with search queries.",[49,11523,11524],{},"Direct Answers: Your content answers specific questions people are asking, making it more useful and relevant.",[81,11526,11528],{"id":11527},"using-keyword-variations",[52,11529,11530],{},"Using Keyword Variations",[14,11532,11533],{},"By using different forms and synonyms of your main keywords, your website can show up in more search results, reaching a wider audience.",[81,11535,11537],{"id":11536},"tips-for-using-keyword-variations",[52,11538,11539],{},"Tips for Using Keyword Variations:",[46,11541,11542,11545],{},[49,11543,11544],{},"Include Synonyms: Use different words that mean the same thing to capture more searches.",[49,11546,11547],{},"Add Related Terms: Use technical terms and related words that cybersecurity experts might be searching for.",[81,11549,11551],{"id":11550},"improve-your-search-rankings-and-user-experience",[52,11552,11553],{},"Improve Your Search Rankings and User Experience",[81,11555,11557],{"id":11556},"how-to-use-keywords-to-rank-higher",[52,11558,11559],{},"How to Use Keywords to Rank Higher:",[46,11561,11562,11565],{},[49,11563,11564],{},"Speak Like Your Audience: Use words and phrases your audience uses to improve the relevance of your content.",[49,11566,11567],{},"Add Semantic Variants: These are variations that help search engines connect your content to related searches, improving how often your site shows up.",[81,11569,11571],{"id":11570},"enhance-user-experience",[52,11572,11573],{},"Enhance User Experience:",[46,11575,11576,11579],{},[49,11577,11578],{},"Target-Specific Queries: Attract visitors who are looking for exactly what you offer.",[49,11580,11581],{},"Reach a Wider Audience: Broad keywords help pull in more visitors, increasing your site's traffic and potential conversions.",[81,11583,11585],{"id":11584},"drive-more-traffic-and-increase-conversions",[52,11586,11587],{},"Drive More Traffic and Increase Conversions",[14,11589,11590],{},"Using keywords well not only helps with SEO but also attracts more people to your site who are likely to become customers.",[81,11592,11594],{"id":11593},"benefits-of-more-traffic",[52,11595,11596],{},"Benefits of More Traffic:",[46,11598,11599,11602],{},[49,11600,11601],{},"More Exposure: More visitors mean more people know about your cybersecurity firm.",[49,11603,11604],{},"More Sales: With more relevant visitors, you're likely to see more inquiries and sales.",[81,11606,11607],{"id":10594},[52,11608,10597],{},[14,11610,11611],{},"Using keywords effectively is key to online marketing for cybersecurity firms. It helps people find you when they need you, and it makes your site more engaging.",[14,11613,11614],{},"If you want to discuss how to apply these strategies to your business, reach out to schedule a talk with our agency today. We’re here to help you get the results you want.",[5645,11616],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11618},[11619],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493,"children":11620},[11621,11622,11623,11624,11625,11626,11627,11628,11629,11630],{"id":11504,"depth":297,"text":11507},{"id":11513,"depth":297,"text":11516},{"id":11527,"depth":297,"text":11530},{"id":11536,"depth":297,"text":11539},{"id":11550,"depth":297,"text":11553},{"id":11556,"depth":297,"text":11559},{"id":11570,"depth":297,"text":11573},{"id":11584,"depth":297,"text":11587},{"id":11593,"depth":297,"text":11596},{"id":10594,"depth":297,"text":10597},"2024-04-19T17:26:34Z","Discover how mastering keyword variation and clustering boosts your cybersecurity marketing efforts. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-semantic-keyword-variation",{"title":11491,"description":11632},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Foptimizing-semantic-keyword-variation","n4-DtgPOuYW5vfCvjq4CqxBN-M7uf6maV8slRyLObiI",[],{"id":11640,"title":11641,"author":7,"authors":11642,"body":11643,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11746,"description":11747,"extension":318,"img":10771,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11748,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11749,"seo":11750,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11751,"updated":7,"__hash__":11752,"people":11753},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcomprehensive-content.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity: Comprehensive Content",[7,10485],{"type":11,"value":11644,"toc":11737},[11645,11649,11652,11658,11661,11667,11670,11681,11685,11688,11702,11708,11711,11725,11729,11732,11735],[24,11646,11647],{"id":10490},[52,11648,10493],{},[14,11650,11651],{},"In the realm of digital marketing for cybersecurity, the strategy surrounding content creation is pivotal. Recent shifts in SEO practices have highlighted a clear trend: longer content often translates to better performance. Understanding why and how to effectively implement this can significantly impact your agency's online visibility and authority.",[81,11653,11655],{"id":11654},"the-significance-of-long-form-content-in-seo",[52,11656,11657],{},"The Significance of Long-Form Content in SEO",[14,11659,11660],{},"Long-form content is increasingly recognized for its ability to enhance search engine performance. This is not merely due to the length but due to the depth and breadth of information it covers, which aligns closely with Google’s algorithms favoring comprehensive resources.",[81,11662,11664],{"id":11663},"comprehensive-coverage-boosts-seo",[52,11665,11666],{},"Comprehensive Coverage Boosts SEO",[14,11668,11669],{},"Long articles provide the perfect platform for a natural integration of a broad spectrum of relevant keywords and phrases. This does several things:",[46,11671,11672,11675,11678],{},[49,11673,11674],{},"Enhances relevance: By covering topics thoroughly, the content aligns more closely with various search queries.",[49,11676,11677],{},"Demonstrates authority: Detailed discussions of topics showcase your knowledge and position your site as an authoritative source.",[49,11679,11680],{},"Improves keyword optimization: The space to discuss numerous related points allows for effective targeting of both short-tail and long-tail keywords.",[81,11682,11684],{"id":11683},"benefits-of-enhanced-relevance-and-keyword-optimization","Benefits of Enhanced Relevance and Keyword Optimization",[14,11686,11687],{},"Expanding on detailed content not only supports SEO through improved keyword density but also by engaging readers:",[46,11689,11690,11693,11696,11699],{},[49,11691,11692],{},"Increases dwell time: Longer, engaging content keeps visitors on your page longer.",[49,11694,11695],{},"Signals content effectiveness: It shows search engines that your content is likely fulfilling user intent, a key metric for ranking.",[49,11697,11698],{},"Lowers bounce rates: By providing valuable insights, users are less likely to return to search results quickly.",[49,11700,11701],{},"Encourages backlinks and social sharing: Quality, informative content is more likely to be referenced by other sites and shared across social platforms, further enhancing its SEO impact.",[81,11703,11705],{"id":11704},"establishing-authority-and-expertise",[52,11706,11707],{},"Establishing Authority and Expertise",[14,11709,11710],{},"The depth of long-form content allows you to showcase your expertise extensively:",[46,11712,11713,11716,11719,11722],{},[49,11714,11715],{},"Showcases expertise: Detailed explanations and advanced topic exploration establish your knowledge.",[49,11717,11718],{},"Builds trust: As readers perceive your content as thorough and informative, trust grows.",[49,11720,11721],{},"Enhances visibility: In-depth content tends to rank higher, making your site more visible to potential clients.",[49,11723,11724],{},"Attracts quality backlinks: Authoritative content earns links from reputable sites, which strengthens your site’s SEO profile.",[81,11726,11727],{"id":10594},[52,11728,10597],{},[14,11730,11731],{},"For CMOs in the cybersecurity sector, leveraging the power of long-form content can transform your SEO strategy from good to great. By focusing on creating detailed, informative content, your agency not only improves its search engine rankings but also establishes a reputation as a trustworthy authority in cybersecurity.",[14,11733,11734],{},"If you've found these insights helpful and are looking to boost your digital strategy, consider reaching out to schedule a discovery call with our marketing agency today.",[5645,11736],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11738},[11739],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493,"children":11740},[11741,11742,11743,11744,11745],{"id":11654,"depth":297,"text":11657},{"id":11663,"depth":297,"text":11666},{"id":11683,"depth":297,"text":11684},{"id":11704,"depth":297,"text":11707},{"id":10594,"depth":297,"text":10597},"2024-04-19T15:26:50Z","Discover how writing comprehensive content is crucial for bolstering your cybersecurity marketing efforts. Read more of MKG’s series on SEO best practices.",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcomprehensive-content",{"title":11641,"description":11747},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fcomprehensive-content","qWeHsKKbdrONhEdOSqq2wR42MsaSnnLqUesl-J9Xmu8",[],{"id":11755,"title":11756,"author":7,"authors":11757,"body":11758,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":11833,"description":11834,"extension":318,"img":10624,"imgAlt":77,"meta":11835,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":11836,"seo":11837,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":11838,"updated":7,"__hash__":11839,"people":11840},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcreating-helpful-content.md","Optimizing SEO in Cybersecurity–Creating Helpful Content",[7,10485],{"type":11,"value":11759,"toc":11823},[11760,11762,11765,11769,11772,11776,11779,11783,11791,11795,11803,11807,11818,11820],[24,11761,10493],{"id":10490},[14,11763,11764],{},"As the digital world evolves, Google’s 2023 Helpful Content Update has ushered in a new era where the focus is squarely on providing users with thoughtful, in-depth responses. For cybersecurity firms looking to enhance their online presence, this means redefining SEO strategies to prioritize content that not only answers queries but also adds significant value.",[81,11766,11768],{"id":11767},"the-imperative-for-deep-engaging-content","The Imperative for Deep, Engaging Content",[14,11770,11771],{},"The update from Google prioritizes content that meticulously addresses user queries with expertise and insight. For a digital marketing agency specializing in cybersecurity, creating content that effectively informs and resolves specific security issues is paramount. Such content should offer clear, actionable solutions that go beyond mere information dissemination.",[81,11773,11775],{"id":11774},"the-role-of-e-e-a-t-in-seo-success","The Role of E-E-A-T in SEO Success",[14,11777,11778],{},"Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are critical in defining what Google considers 'helpful content.' This emphasizes the need for articles that not only cover topics extensively but are also crafted by knowledgeable authors.",[81,11780,11782],{"id":11781},"enhancing-content-quality","Enhancing Content Quality:",[46,11784,11785,11788],{},[49,11786,11787],{},"Content Length and Quality: Successful SEO content often contains 1,000 to 2,000+ words, allowing for a comprehensive discussion of topics. The depth provided in longer articles facilitates a higher rank, with top-performing content averaging about 2,416 words.",[49,11789,11790],{},"Impact of Comprehensive Articles: In-depth content is more likely to attract backlinks and social shares, which are essential for increasing referral traffic, enhancing brand awareness, and improving off-site SEO factors.",[81,11792,11794],{"id":11793},"building-authority-through-expert-content","Building Authority Through Expert Content",[46,11796,11797,11800],{},[49,11798,11799],{},"Showcasing Expertise: Your content should reflect a deep understanding of cybersecurity, demonstrating both your direct experience and specialized knowledge.",[49,11801,11802],{},"Establishing Trust: Detailed explorations of topics help affirm your agency’s authority, fostering trust and encouraging readers to engage more deeply with your material, ultimately boosting your brand’s credibility.",[81,11804,11806],{"id":11805},"actionable-tips-for-cmos-in-cybersecurity","Actionable Tips for CMOs in Cybersecurity",[46,11808,11809,11812,11815],{},[49,11810,11811],{},"Focus on Depth: Aim to produce content that delves deeply into subjects, providing substantial information that meets and exceeds user expectations.",[49,11813,11814],{},"Utilize Case Studies: Incorporate real-world scenarios and case studies to illustrate key points, which can help validate your expertise and the effectiveness of your approaches.",[49,11816,11817],{},"Engage Industry Experts: Partner with thought leaders to bring additional credibility and varied perspectives to your content, enhancing its value and authority.",[81,11819,10597],{"id":10594},[14,11821,11822],{},"Leveraging these SEO best practices will not only boost your website's visibility but also position your firm as a reliable resource in the cybersecurity industry. If you’ve found these insights valuable and are considering stepping up your digital strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a discovery call with our marketing agency today.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":11824},[11825],{"id":10490,"depth":291,"text":10493,"children":11826},[11827,11828,11829,11830,11831,11832],{"id":11767,"depth":297,"text":11768},{"id":11774,"depth":297,"text":11775},{"id":11781,"depth":297,"text":11782},{"id":11793,"depth":297,"text":11794},{"id":11805,"depth":297,"text":11806},{"id":10594,"depth":297,"text":10597},"2024-04-18T20:06:59Z","Discover how creating helpful content can boost your cybersecurity SEO efforts. This is the first in MKG’s series on SEO best practices. Read more today!",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcreating-helpful-content",{"title":11756,"description":11834},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fcreating-helpful-content","C45jbW2H5pNcvt-gSwkTStsdx8GgsyoirF0vF6S3l58",[],{"id":11842,"title":11843,"author":7,"authors":11844,"body":11847,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":12127,"description":12128,"extension":318,"img":12129,"imgAlt":12130,"meta":12131,"minutes":12132,"navigation":322,"path":12133,"seo":12134,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":12135,"updated":7,"__hash__":12136,"people":12137},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-ai-in-the-serps-mkg-marketing.md","The MKG Vantage: AI in the SERPs",[11845,11846,10485],"Nathan Stenberg","Anna Powers",{"type":11,"value":11848,"toc":12125},[11849,11854,11859,11865,11870,11873,11876,11879,11890,11895,11898,11901,11904,11907,11914,11917,11922,11925,11931,11934,11940,11943,11949,11954,11961,11968,11971,11976,11979,11984,11992,11999,12004,12007,12010,12015,12018,12023,12028,12038,12043,12046,12051,12054,12059,12062,12067,12072,12077,12080,12085,12090,12093,12096,12099],[14,11850,11851,11853],{},[5645,11852],{},"We challenged MKG’s three SEOs to get opinionated on how AI in the SERPs will impact organic search. How do they see search results and user behavior changing? And how will this change SEO as a discipline and a service? ",[14,11855,11856],{},[52,11857,11858],{},"We Asked: Currently, if you are opted in, how do you feel generative AI impacts search engine results? ",[14,11860,11861,11864],{},[52,11862,11863],{},"MKG Verdict:"," The current AI-powered search experience is decent, but its helpfulness also depends on what stage of the funnel the searcher is at. ",[14,11866,11867],{},[52,11868,11869],{},"Nathan Stenberg, MKG Strategist and SEO Expert: ",[14,11871,11872],{},"The current experience (in Google) is fairly reasonable. In most cases, it tries to provide an answer for you but in some cases, it actually just asks if you would like a response generated.",[14,11874,11875],{},"When an answer is provided, it usually contains links to supporting documentation about the initial search query and it will also provide a few additional prompts to dive deeper into the topic. ",[14,11877,11878],{},"Example: If you search for “Avalanche Energy” it will return a response about the energy startup, Avalanche Energy. It also provides three links to specific web pages as well as a prompt to “Ask a Follow Up” which allows you to enter a new custom query and 3 topic specific prompts:",[132,11880,11881,11884,11887],{},[49,11882,11883],{},"Who are the competitors of Avalanche Energy?",[49,11885,11886],{},"Who is the CEO of Avalanche Energy?",[49,11888,11889],{},"Avalanche Energy stock",[14,11891,11892],{},[52,11893,11894],{},"Anna Powers, MKG SEO Team Lead: ",[14,11896,11897],{},"I would agree with Nathan that the current Google AI-powered experience is decent, especially for TOFU queries like the branded search example he shared above. But my opinion gets more complicated as we go down the funnel.",[14,11899,11900],{},"A middle-of-the-funnel search for “email security features” gives me an AI-generated list of possible features to look for, which is pretty good! A thought starter for me as I scroll through the blue links below. In this use case, the AI-generated results are helpful but not necessary. ",[14,11902,11903],{},"A bottom-of-the-funnel search for “email security tools pricing” generates prices in the AI results, without attributing them to a source. Hmmm. This I do not trust, so I scroll right past to the links underneath so I can get pricing directly from websites selling email security tools. In this use case, the blue links capture the click. ",[14,11905,11906],{},"For searches that matter (YMYL, cough cough), the SGE results are just not there yet, and they might never be. Google knows this, which is why YMYL searches are, for the most part, not showing AI-generated results. ",[14,11908,11909,11911],{},[5645,11910],{},[52,11912,11913],{},"Austin Ellis, MKG SEO Manager: ",[14,11915,11916],{},"I have yet to opt in to the Search Generative Experience, particularly because it’s still in early stages of beta testing after being announced at Google I\u002FO in May. From what I’ve read, it seems as though the AI tends to get even basic facts incorrect in its presentation. ",[14,11918,11919],{},[52,11920,11921],{},"What We Asked: In the moment, as well as in the future, how will generative AI affect traditional SEO practices and strategies?",[14,11923,11924],{},"**MKG Verdict: **We will need to adapt, but we don’t know to what. For now, stay the SEO course with helpful content and sticking to E-E-A-T best practices.",[14,11926,11927,11930],{},[52,11928,11929],{},"Nathan:"," In this current moment, the impact is minimal and SEOs just need to stay focused on what has worked, getting great content produced that is topically relevant to the keywords that you are trying to rank for. In my opinion, this will always be the case in some capacity as brands need to build trust and authority around the topics that they want to own even if the search engine experience shifts.",[14,11932,11933],{},"However, in the big picture, I feel that the focus will need to be on making each section of content more impactful as the response in the generative AI experience tends to be about the size of a large website module (100 words or 500 - 700 characters). There is a strong possibility that this will require a shift in the approach to content development to make the content more conversational as well as comprehensive and thoroughly detailed.",[14,11935,11936,11939],{},[52,11937,11938],{},"Anna:"," In the current moment, we should continue to focus on making our content as helpful as possible and following E-E-A-T best practices. But in the long term, I am not going to hedge: SEO will need to adapt. We just don’t know what that's going to look like yet. ",[14,11941,11942],{},"Easy, top of funnel traffic might very well dry up, and those awful long recipe blog posts that are padded for word count will disappear (thank goodness). The most helpful content, in the human and SEO sense of the word, will still get visibility and clicks even with AI content taking up much of the real estate at the top of the page. ",[14,11944,11945,11948],{},[52,11946,11947],{},"Austin:"," It’s entirely possible that Google will uphold its promise and its stance that creating helpful content and topical authority will rise to the top of the SERP. However, those who work with smaller niches and markets will potentially have to fight with larger unrelated sites based on what the AI understands, which could be limited. ",[14,11950,11951],{},[52,11952,11953],{},"We Asked: Of the search engines that have implemented generative AI in their SERPs, which is your favorite and why?",[14,11955,11956,11958,11960],{},[5645,11957],{},[52,11959,11863],{}," Split decision here, but it’s clear that Bing’s integration of AI has finally made it a player in the search space. ",[14,11962,11963,11965,11967],{},[5645,11964],{},[52,11966,11929],{}," Personally, I am partial to the Google user experience as Google is a far superior search engine and it was a hassle to try and get set up for Bing. ",[14,11969,11970],{},"However, seeing as Bing is using OpenAI, which really broke the use of AI into the general market, I do feel that Bing has increased its competitiveness with Google making it more of a viable search engine for users who have Bing installed by default on their home or work computers.",[14,11972,11973,11975],{},[52,11974,11938],{}," Bing is the best in terms of accuracy and trustworthiness, in my opinion. I surprised myself with this answer, but Bing runs on OpenAI’s GPT4 and delivers a list of links that looks like the current SERPs. Bing’s AI-generated summary is off to the side and easy to ignore, unlike Google’s, which is the first thing on the page and takes up a huge amount of space above the fold. ",[14,11977,11978],{},"Google’s SGE summary also has the unpleasant tendency to scrape content (without attribution!) from other sites, which feels like a content grab and frankly, disrespectful to content creators. This would need to be fixed before I take the SGE at its word for serious research.   ",[14,11980,11981,11983],{},[52,11982,11947],{}," I’ve heard that Bing’s incorporation of ChatAI has been more accurate than Google’s Bard. I don’t know if that’s due to the quality of the training materials or because OpenAI absolutely exploded a few months back, with more users and more queries to understand searchers.",[14,11985,11986,1043,11989],{},[52,11987,11988],{},"We Asked:",[52,11990,11991],{},"How will generative AI impact user behavior and search intent?",[14,11993,11994,11996,11998],{},[5645,11995],{},[52,11997,11863],{}," Search behavior will change, but intent might not.",[14,12000,12001,12003],{},[52,12002,11929],{}," Generative AI will initially change the way users research topics and in time, will impact the way users shop as well. ",[14,12005,12006],{},"From the research lens, this supports the idea that the content a website provides will need to be detailed and thorough as well as try to anticipate the next question the user is going to ask so it can be the “source of truth.” This doesn’t really change much as this is the type of content websites should be providing to their visitors.",[14,12008,12009],{},"From the shopping lens, I can see the need for reviews coming heavily into play. It would make a lot of sense to provide a recommendation for the “best hotel in Cancun” or the “best 8k USB-C to HDMI adapter for Mac” by scraping the product reviews from different sites and then combine that with reviews of the company offering the product or service to generate a recommendation.",[14,12011,12012,12014],{},[52,12013,11938],{}," I think Google’s new Perspectives filter, introduced to complement AI results, will be big.  Perspectives pulls in top results from platforms like YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and blogs, presumably based on content helpfulness, likes \u002F shares, and overall quality. ",[14,12016,12017],{},"You could use Google proper for a search like “best hotel in Cancun” (to use Nathan’s example), comb through the SERPs for a minute after reading the AI-generated results, then pop over to the Perspectives results for a different, well, perspective. The user intent doesn’t change–the user still wants a hotel recommendation–but the user experience and behavior certainly does.",[14,12019,12020,12022],{},[52,12021,11947],{}," While much of this is speculative, user behavior may be altered more subtly at first, shortening the attention spans or tolerance for poor website experiences. Meta titles have been and will perhaps be more direct, straight to the point. ",[14,12024,12025],{},[52,12026,12027],{},"We Asked: What are the potential implications of generative AI on website rankings and organic search traffic?",[14,12029,12030,12032,12033,12037],{},[52,12031,11863],{}," Generative AI might create more opportunities to compete for a spot at the top of the SERPs ",[38,12034,12035],{},[52,12036,7913],{}," tank organic traffic. TOFU, e-commerce, and B2C searches might be the most impacted, but it’s hard to tell. ",[14,12039,12040,12042],{},[52,12041,11929],{}," It will depend on the type of search that is being performed but for now the generative AI is like a very robust Featured Snippet so while it may provide some solid detail in the actual search page, a user may still continue through to the website to really dig in. ",[14,12044,12045],{},"However, in the big picture, we could easily see Organic Traffic decrease significantly so SEOs and digital marketing agencies will need to look to other metrics to show that their efforts are still needed and are driving success.",[14,12047,12048,12050],{},[52,12049,11938],{}," Agreed. I think that AI-generated results–particularly those that appear at the very top of the SERPs–will have a huge impact on top-of-the-funnel, informational searches, your garden variety “what is” queries. Try it: turn on the SGE and search for “what is a prime number.” Do you need to go any further? Sorry Wikipedia, but I predict your traffic is going to suffer. ",[14,12052,12053],{},"To Nathan’s point, I’m waiting to see how Google will measure and report on appearances in AI-generated results. Clients are going to be very interested in this as well, since there might be more of a chance to compete for a spot in the AI-generated carousel at the top of the SERPs. ",[14,12055,12056,12058],{},[52,12057,11947],{}," The potential implications are many, depending on how far Google is willing to push it. It seems as though this new layout has been geared towards expediting and enhancing B2C searches and the shopping experience. ",[14,12060,12061],{},"This brings potential conflicts if certain sites (Amazon) have a monopoly on the AI generated search spots due to Domain Authority. Google already has control of the SERPs and it seems as though SGE is a further step in the same direction. ",[14,12063,12064],{},[52,12065,12066],{},"We Asked: Are there any best practices or guidelines for optimizing websites for generative AI-powered search results?",[14,12068,12069,12071],{},[52,12070,11863],{}," Not yet. Stay the course with solid content, good site architecture and technical SEO, and on-page optimizations that are enhanced with structured data.  ",[14,12073,12074,12076],{},[52,12075,11929],{}," All of the research I did around this returned pretty much the current SEO optimization tactics so stay the course for the time being. ",[14,12078,12079],{},"Personally, beyond the “standard” optimization approaches, I would focus on providing as much context to the search engines by putting extra emphasis on marking up the content with a clear, easily-navigated HTML structure and, when applicable, comprehensive Structured Data.",[14,12081,12082,12084],{},[52,12083,11938],{}," The content carousels included in the SGE’s AI-generated results are probably going to operate a lot like featured snippets and other rich results, which Nathan also mentioned up above. Earning your website a spot in the carousel will require high-quality, helpful content that is proven to get a high CTR in the SERPs. We might even get AI-specific structured data to mark up our content at some point. ",[14,12086,12087,12089],{},[52,12088,11947],{}," We will have to see once SGE is available on a wider scale but, it seems that the foundational SEO approaches should hold up and remain just as important. The best SEO practices hopefully will continue to be: creating helpful content and structuring sites in a logical manner. Google has already made its negative stance on AI-generated content clear. ",[14,12091,12092],{},"—",[14,12094,12095],{},"So this is the MKG Vantage on AI in the SERPs, based on our expert opinion and the information we have so far. Google has made a big deal in recent days about SEO fundamentals, how first principles like “make content for people, not search engines” haven’t changed in the past 20 years since we’ve been practicing SEO. While this is probably an effort to reassure nervous SEOs about AI in the SERPs, it’s probably also true. ",[14,12097,12098],{},"What we know for sure is that Google and Bing’s best interests are served by integrating AI in a way that 1) still allows them to make major money off ad revenue, and 2) still encourages people and organizations to create good content so that the search engines have something to index. Just how that happens is going to be a wild ride.  ",[14,12100,12101,12103,12106,12108,12109,12113,12114,12118,12119,12124],{},[5645,12102],{},[52,12104,12105],{},"What now?",[5645,12107],{},"If you could use a hand with your ",[206,12110,12112],{"href":12111},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fmarketing-strategy\u002F","content strategy"," and ensuring your ",[206,12115,12117],{"href":12116},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fsearch-engine-optimization\u002F","website is optimized"," to still perform in the SERP results, reach out and ",[206,12120,12123],{"href":12121,"rel":12122},"https:\u002F\u002F1zgok.share.hsforms.com\u002F2cOmJ7URST7aHvXaKILoupg?uuid=11a19469-5397-4111-90ab-08d517b6bddc?month=2023-08",[210],"book an appointment"," with our sales team today!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":12126},[],"2023-08-07T10:36:00Z","MKG Marketing’s SEO squad weighs in on the impact of AI in the SERPs. Discover how they feel this will impact the search experience moving forward.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fsearch-back-to-school-2-width-1200-format-webp.webp","AI-powered Search experience",{"_schema":5659},10,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-ai-in-the-serps-mkg-marketing",{"title":11843,"description":12128},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-ai-in-the-serps-mkg-marketing","p3ilsWpEeHQWmiQSZ5HWX8mjzdGEv8ugpkcq-DFcM1s",[12138],{"id":12139,"title":11845,"body":12140,"date":7,"description":12160,"extension":318,"images":12161,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":12163,"linkedIn":12164,"meta":12165,"name":11845,"navigation":322,"path":12166,"quote":12167,"quoteCite":12168,"ref":12164,"seo":12169,"sequence":3296,"stem":12170,"team":12171,"twitter":12172,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":12173},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg.md",{"type":11,"value":12141,"toc":12158},[12142,12146,12149,12152,12155],[14,12143,12145],{"className":12144},[1671],"Our SEO Expert, Nathan, comes to MKG with an extensive background in digital marketing from front-end development to omni-channel marketing strategy.",[14,12147,12148],{},"He discovered SEO as part of a tech support job with a template website company where he was supporting clients with their websites. There he defined and developed the standards and processes that the SEO team would use for keyword research as well as the writing and implementation of the optimization. He then leveraged these standards to create an add-on subscription-based SEO product called “SEO Boost” which provided clients with a more proactive SEO service for their websites. This resulted in him providing keyword research and optimization recommendations for close to 1,500 websites during his tenure.",[14,12150,12151],{},"From there Nathan moved into the agency world, staring with a small boutique firm in Portland, OR, providing SEO audits and recommendations for clients ranging from small businesses to enterprise e-commerce companies.",[14,12153,12154],{},"He then moved to a larger agency and, once again, developed the SEO Team processes as the agency transitioned from an email-focused agency to a full-service digital marketing agency. During this time, Nathan was able to explore different areas of digital marketing strategy and really developed an understanding and passion for omni-channel marketing.",[14,12156,12157],{},"When Nathan is not working, he enjoys spending time with his partner and two children. You can find him playing casual sports, music, and Overwatch as well as snowboarding and cooking.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":12159},[],"Meet Nathan Stenberg, one of MKG Marketing’s Digital Marketing Strategist, with an extensive background in digital marketing from front-end development to omni-channel strategy. ",{"landscape":12162},"nathan-stenberg.webp","Director, Strategy","nathan-stenberg",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg","Repetition is the path to mastery.","Zenyatta",{"description":12160},"team\u002Fnathan-stenberg","Marketing Strategists","natestenberg23","1moy0e42nEoQgH0weNaASdQ6FTDWXwC5TDftv5YS3tU",{"id":12175,"title":12176,"author":7,"authors":12177,"body":12178,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":12369,"description":12370,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":77,"meta":12371,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":12372,"seo":12373,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":12374,"updated":7,"__hash__":12375,"people":12376},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-map-keywords.md","How to Conduct Keyword Mapping for SEO | MKG Marketing",[11846],{"type":11,"value":12179,"toc":12363},[12180,12183,12186,12200,12204,12207,12210,12214,12217,12220,12231,12234,12237,12240,12245,12248,12252,12255,12258,12261,12264,12268,12271,12351,12354],[14,12181,12182],{},"Keyword mapping just sounds like a Herculean task. The idea of mapping anything sounds overwhelming, as if you need to understand the entire topography of the landscape before you can get started. But fear not! While choosing the right keywords to map to a website’s pages might seem like a heavy lift, this post will show you how the MKG Approach can simplify and streamline this foundational SEO task.",[14,12184,12185],{},"You’ll learn: ",[46,12187,12188,12191,12194,12197],{},[49,12189,12190],{},"The definition of keyword mapping",[49,12192,12193],{},"Why keyword cannibalization is bad for websites and other living things",[49,12195,12196],{},"What search intent is and why it matters",[49,12198,12199],{},"How to perform keyword mapping the MKG way",[81,12201,12203],{"id":12202},"what-is-keyword-mapping","What Is Keyword Mapping?",[14,12205,12206],{},"Keyword mapping is the process of selecting the most applicable, unique, and commercially relevant keyword for optimizing a page. Once a keyword has been mapped to a page, that keyword should be incorporated into the page’s metadata and on-page content, and its performance tracked to understand the page’s progression through the SERPs. ",[14,12208,12209],{},"Keyword mapping involves understanding your users’ search intent–which is essentially why users are searching for a given query, which we’ll talk more about in a minute–and matching your content to their needs in the given moment.",[81,12211,12213],{"id":12212},"why-does-keyword-mapping-matter","Why Does Keyword Mapping Matter?",[14,12215,12216],{},"Without keyword mapping, multiple pages of content from the same website often compete against each other for the same keyword phrase, a phenomenon known as cannibalization. In the simplest terms, cannibalization means your website’s own pages are gobbling up clicks and traffic from the other pages on your site. Instead of sending organic traffic to many internal pages on your site, keyword cannibalization concentrates your traffic, sending it to just a few lucky pages instead of throughout the site. Unless each one of these pages is the mega-best-top-only-guide-you’ll-ever-need on a given subject, there’s probably a more relevant page on your site for many searchers. ",[14,12218,12219],{},"Since the practice of eating others–either pages or humans–is unfortunate for all involved, we don’t recommend it. Cannibalization can happen when: ",[46,12221,12222,12225,12228],{},[49,12223,12224],{},"SEOs are lazy",[49,12226,12227],{},"Sites are huge and unattended to, SEO-wise",[49,12229,12230],{},"Multiple teams are creating content without understanding the overall content strategy.",[14,12232,12233],{},"The fix is simple: a site keyword audit with a tool like SEMrush can help you identify if cannibalization is an issue for your site. ",[14,12235,12236],{},"Keyword mapping also allows you to create topically related keyword clusters, which can build massive amounts of topical authority for a given subject and provide a logical structure for internal linking on your website. If you search for “keyword cluster example,” you’ll see lots of e-commerce and lifestyle content examples, but not necessarily examples from B2B tech & cybersecurity websites. ",[14,12238,12239],{},"Well, that’s what we’re here for. Keyword clusters might look something like this, if you’re trying to achieve SEO dominance for the topic of “data security”:",[75,12241],{"width":12242,"height":12243,"src":12244},1746,1082,"\u002Fimages\u002Fdata-security-kw-map.jpeg",[14,12246,12247],{},"In other words, without keyword mapping, the keyword strategy on your website will be a free-for-all. Keyword mapping brings strategy and intentionality to your SEO efforts, ensuring your website shows up as the right answer to your users’ queries at the right moment in their search journeys.",[81,12249,12251],{"id":12250},"a-word-about-search-intent","A Word About Search Intent",[14,12253,12254],{},"To fully understand how to perform keyword mapping, we must fully understand the concept of “search intent.” Search intent refers to the why behind the search and what search result the user is hoping to find. ",[14,12256,12257],{},"Generally speaking, we can group search intent into four categories: informational, commercial, transactional, and navigational. Informational searches are for learning more about a topic (TOFU), commercial searches are for researching products or services (MOFU), transactional purchases are for buying something (BOFU), and navigational searches are for going to a specific website (anywhere in the funnel). ",[14,12259,12260],{},"SEMrush, the tool we use for our keyword research, categorizes keyword phrases by intent, which makes the process easier. But it’s also possible to determine the intent of a search phrase by stepping into the mind of the searcher. Phrases like “what is” or “why does” or “how to” indicate an informational search, while phrases with “best,” “top,” “reviews” or “vs” in them indicate a commercial search. ",[14,12262,12263],{},"Matching keywords to intent ensures that you meet your users where they are at in their buyers’ journey, capturing the click in the SERPs and delivering the most relevant content to move them to conversion.",[81,12265,12267],{"id":12266},"how-should-i-perform-keyword-mapping","How Should I Perform Keyword Mapping?",[14,12269,12270],{},"The basic process looks like this:",[46,12272,12273,12287,12301,12315,12329,12340],{},[49,12274,12275,12276],{},"Establish the landscape for your topic by exporting a list of every indexed page on your website and the keywords each page is ranking for\n",[46,12277,12278,12281,12284],{},[49,12279,12280],{},"Since SEMrush is our primary in-house SEO tool, we would use its Organic Research report to gather this information",[49,12282,12283],{},"If SEMrush’s Position Tracker is set up, you can also consult its Cannibalization Report to jumpstart your research",[49,12285,12286],{},"Google Search Console is a free source for this data, although any downloads from this platform will require more cleanup and analysis",[49,12288,12289,12290],{},"Decide which keywords are high-value for your business \n",[46,12291,12292,12295,12298],{},[49,12293,12294],{},"These may or may not be keywords that your site is already ranking for",[49,12296,12297],{},"You’ll want to consider all stages of the marketing funnel here: a TOFU blog post answering queries like “why is secure email important” or “how to set up a honeypot for network security” might be a trust builder that results in newsletter signups or repeat website visits, seeding the opportunity for these visitors to turn into leads later on",[49,12299,12300],{},"After considering user intent, you also want to take into consideration the number of monthly searches and keyword difficulty - a rough guideline here is to look for the phrase with the highest search volume and low to medium keyword difficulty, which measures how competitive the current SERP is and how challenging it will be to rank",[49,12302,12303,12304],{},"Decide which pages on your site best match the searchers’ intent for these keywords\n",[46,12305,12306,12309,12312],{},[49,12307,12308],{},"First look at what keywords the pages are already ranking for, which will give you a good idea of what is possible",[49,12310,12311],{},"TOFU searches are usually informational: at this stage of B2B buying, searchers know they have a problem that needs solving but are using more generic, broad terms - blog posts or internal pages are good destinations for these",[49,12313,12314],{},"MOFU users are often comparing two solutions, so “X tool vs Y tool” or “tool reviews” appears in their searches - more sales & conversion-focused pages that share features & benefits, user reviews, or pricing are candidates for capturing this traffic",[49,12316,12317,12318],{},"Add these keyword phrases to a spreadsheet or your SEO tracking software so that you don’t accidentally use a keyword phrase twice \n",[46,12319,12320,12323,12326],{},[49,12321,12322],{},"Each page gets its own unique phrase ",[49,12324,12325],{},"Beyond that, popular pages tend to rank for a whole cluster of related keywords, so you don’t want to optimize several pages for similar keywords (back to that keyword cannibalization thing again)",[49,12327,12328],{},"To benchmark current performance, note how many impressions and clicks the page is currently getting from non-brand keywords",[49,12330,12331,12332],{},"Work your new keyword phrase into the metadata and page copy\n",[46,12333,12334,12337],{},[49,12335,12336],{},"Use in the title tag, meta description, and H1",[49,12338,12339],{},"Use at least once in the body copy, but consider semantic edits that align your page with other related keywords that help Google and the user understand your topic - SEMrush’s Content Template helps us automate the process of semantic keyword research",[49,12341,12342,12343],{},"Monitor your results and iterate\n",[46,12344,12345,12348],{},[49,12346,12347],{},"Recently we’ve seen pages crawled and re-indexed within 24 hours of republishing, so real-world feedback from the SERPs in terms of impressions and clicks should start flowing into GSC soon ",[49,12349,12350],{},"If you’re not seeing the results you expect, it’s likely that your chosen keyword phrase was too competitive, the content on your page doesn’t match user intent, or there aren’t enough monthly searches for the phrase to get good data",[14,12352,12353],{},"There you have it: the MKG SEO team’s approach to keyword mapping. There are few SEO activities as satisfying as producing a spreadsheet of carefully researched keywords and bringing them to life in the SERPs with your site. ",[14,12355,12356,12357,12362],{},"What level of organic visibility–and what caliber of leads–can MKG achieve for your enterprise cybersecurity organization’s website? ",[206,12358,12361],{"href":12359,"rel":12360},"https:\u002F\u002F1zgok.share.hsforms.com\u002F2cOmJ7URST7aHvXaKILoupg?uuid=11a19469-5397-4111-90ab-08d517b6bddc",[210],"Click here to Book a Discovery Call"," and get started today!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":12364},[12365,12366,12367,12368],{"id":12202,"depth":297,"text":12203},{"id":12212,"depth":297,"text":12213},{"id":12250,"depth":297,"text":12251},{"id":12266,"depth":297,"text":12267},"2023-06-21T21:51:39Z","Discover  the definition of keyword mapping, how to execute it,  and how to our experts align these carefully curated phrases with existing website content. ",{"_schema":5659},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-map-keywords",{"title":12176,"description":12370},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-map-keywords","AK5UUwjEO5FAq8JaKAPxp53sN1XI84uVEu0s2V9DQBk",[],{"id":12378,"title":12379,"author":7,"authors":12380,"body":12381,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":12581,"description":12582,"extension":318,"img":77,"imgAlt":77,"meta":12583,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":12584,"seo":12585,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":12586,"updated":7,"__hash__":12587,"people":12588},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-site-audit-no-longer-the-way-to-start-your-seo-engagement.md","The Site Audit: No Longer the Way to Start Your SEO Engagement",[11845],{"type":11,"value":12382,"toc":12562},[12383,12386,12390,12393,12397,12400,12403,12407,12410,12427,12430,12434,12437,12441,12444,12448,12451,12455,12458,12462,12465,12469,12472,12476,12479,12483,12486,12503,12507,12510,12527,12531,12534,12538,12541,12545,12548,12550,12553,12556],[14,12384,12385],{},"When it comes to starting an SEO engagement, the site audit used to be the go-to method for many agencies and consultants. However, with changes in the search landscape and the evolution of SEO practices and tools, the site audit is not necessarily the best way to start an SEO engagement. In this article, we'll explore why the site audit is no longer effective and what you should do instead to start your SEO engagement.",[24,12387,12389],{"id":12388},"the-site-audit-what-it-is-the-business-impact","The Site Audit: What It is & the Business Impact",[14,12391,12392],{},"Before we dive into the nuts and bolts of the article, a quick, high-level reminder of what a site audit is and the impact it can have on a business.",[81,12394,12396],{"id":12395},"what-is-a-site-audit","What is a Site Audit?",[14,12398,12399],{},"A Technical Site Audit is a process of examining a website's technical infrastructure to identify and address any issues that may affect its performance, usability, and search engine optimization (SEO). The audit involves analyzing various elements of a website such as its server, coding, and content to ensure that they are optimized for both users and search engines.",[14,12401,12402],{},"During a technical site audit, a website is evaluated based on various factors including page speed, mobile responsiveness, URL structure, meta tags, internal linking, broken links, duplicate content, XML sitemaps, and robots.txt files. The audit is usually conducted by SEO experts and web developers who have the knowledge and expertise to identify and fix technical issues that may be hindering a website's performance.",[81,12404,12406],{"id":12405},"what-impact-can-a-site-audit-deliver-for-a-business","What Impact can a Site Audit Deliver for a Business?",[14,12408,12409],{},"A site audit can have a significant impact on a business in several ways:",[132,12411,12412,12415,12418,12421,12424],{},[49,12413,12414],{},"Improved Website Performance: A site audit can identify technical issues that may be hindering the performance of a website, such as slow loading times, broken links, or poor mobile responsiveness. By fixing these issues, the website's overall performance can improve, resulting in better user engagement, increased conversions, and ultimately, more revenue for the business.",[49,12416,12417],{},"Better User Experience: A site audit can also identify user experience (UX) issues that may be causing frustration or confusion for website visitors. By improving the UX of a website, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to higher retention rates and repeat business.",[49,12419,12420],{},"Increased Search Engine Visibility: A site audit can help a business to identify SEO issues that may be impacting their website's visibility in search engines. By optimizing the website's content, structure, and technical elements, businesses can increase their search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic to their website.",[49,12422,12423],{},"Improved Website Security: A site audit can also identify security vulnerabilities on a website, such as outdated software or weak passwords. By addressing these issues, businesses can prevent data breaches and other security incidents that could damage their reputation and lead to financial losses.",[49,12425,12426],{},"Competitive Advantage: Finally, a site audit can give a business a competitive advantage by identifying areas for improvement that their competitors may be overlooking. By addressing these issues, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract more customers.",[14,12428,12429],{},"As you can see, the Site Audit is a key piece of the optimization and improvement of a website. However, we’re here to talk about why this is not necessarily the best place to kick-off a new SEO engagement, so let’s dive in!",[24,12431,12433],{"id":12432},"the-limitations-of-the-site-audit","The Limitations of the Site Audit",[14,12435,12436],{},"While site audits can provide valuable insights into a website's technical SEO health, they have several limitations. For one, site audits are often focused solely on technical issues, neglecting other important aspects of SEO such as content and off-page factors. Additionally, site audits can be time-consuming and expensive, taking weeks or even months to complete and costing thousands of dollars.",[24,12438,12440],{"id":12439},"the-shift-towards-holistic-strategic-seo","The Shift Towards Holistic & Strategic SEO",[14,12442,12443],{},"Another reason why site audits are no longer the best way to start an SEO engagement is the shift towards holistic SEO. Holistic SEO takes into account all aspects of SEO, from technical issues to content, user experience, and off-page factors. By taking a holistic approach to SEO, you can better understand the needs of your target audience and create a comprehensive SEO strategy that drives long-term results.",[24,12445,12447],{"id":12446},"the-importance-of-data-analysis","The Importance of Data Analysis",[14,12449,12450],{},"Data analysis has become increasingly important in SEO, and the site audit is not the best way to gather the data you need to make informed decisions. Instead, you should use a combination of tools and techniques to gather data about your website, your competitors, and your target audience. By analyzing this data, you can gain a deeper understanding of your website's strengths and weaknesses and develop a data-driven SEO strategy that drives results.",[24,12452,12454],{"id":12453},"the-need-for-flexibility","The Need for Flexibility",[14,12456,12457],{},"Finally, the site audit is no longer effective because SEO is an ever-changing landscape. As search algorithms evolve and user behavior changes, your SEO strategy needs to be flexible and adaptable. By focusing too much on the site audit, you may miss out on opportunities to improve your website's performance and stay ahead of the competition.",[24,12459,12461],{"id":12460},"the-new-approach-to-starting-your-seo-engagement","The New Approach to Starting Your SEO Engagement",[14,12463,12464],{},"So, what should you do instead of starting with a site audit? Here are some steps to take:",[81,12466,12468],{"id":12467},"define-your-goals-and-objectives","Define your goals and objectives",[14,12470,12471],{},"Before you start any SEO engagement, it's essential to define your goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve with your SEO strategy? Who is your target audience? What are their needs and pain points?",[81,12473,12475],{"id":12474},"analyze-your-websites-data","Analyze your website's data",[14,12477,12478],{},"Use a combination of tools and techniques to gather data about your website, your competitors, and your target audience. This data will help you understand your website's strengths and weaknesses and identify areas for improvement.",[5552,12480,12482],{"id":12481},"examples-of-website-analysis-tools","Examples of Website Analysis Tools",[14,12484,12485],{},"Here are some examples of tools that can be used to analyze a website's data:",[46,12487,12488,12491,12494,12497,12500],{},[49,12489,12490],{},"Google Analytics: This is a free tool offered by Google that provides valuable information about a website's traffic, including how many visitors it receives, where they are coming from, and what pages they are visiting.",[49,12492,12493],{},"SEMrush: This is a comprehensive SEO tool that can be used to analyze a website's traffic, as well as its search engine rankings, backlinks, and more. It also provides recommendations for improving a website's overall SEO performance.",[49,12495,12496],{},"Moz Pro: This is another SEO tool that can be used to analyze a website's traffic and search engine rankings, as well as identify and fix technical SEO issues.",[49,12498,12499],{},"Ahrefs: This is a powerful SEO tool that can be used to analyze a website's backlink profile, as well as identify new link-building opportunities.",[49,12501,12502],{},"Hotjar: This is a user behavior analysis tool that can be used to track how visitors interact with a website, including how they navigate through pages, where they click, and how long they spend on each page.",[5552,12504,12506],{"id":12505},"examples-of-website-analysis-techniques","Examples of Website Analysis Techniques",[14,12508,12509],{},"There are many different techniques that can be used to analyze a website's data, including:",[46,12511,12512,12515,12518,12521,12524],{},[49,12513,12514],{},"Traffic analysis: This involves examining a website's traffic data to determine how many visitors it receives, where they are coming from, and what pages they are visiting.",[49,12516,12517],{},"Search engine optimization (SEO) analysis: This involves examining a website's search engine rankings, backlinks, and other SEO factors to determine how well it is optimized for search engines.",[49,12519,12520],{},"User behavior analysis: This involves tracking how visitors interact with a website, including how they navigate through pages, where they click, and how long they spend on each page.",[49,12522,12523],{},"Conversion rate optimization (CRO) analysis: This involves examining a website's conversion rate (i.e., the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form) and identifying ways to improve it.",[49,12525,12526],{},"Heat mapping: This involves using software to create a visual representation of where users are clicking on a website, which can help identify areas of the site that are most engaging and where users may be encountering usability issues.",[81,12528,12530],{"id":12529},"conduct-a-content-audit","Conduct a content audit",[14,12532,12533],{},"Content is a critical aspect of SEO, and a content audit can help you identify gaps in your content strategy and opportunities to improve your website's content.",[81,12535,12537],{"id":12536},"develop-a-comprehensive-seo-strategy","Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy",[14,12539,12540],{},"Based on your goals, objectives, and data analysis, develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that takes into account all aspects of SEO, from technical issues to content, user experience, and off-page factors.",[81,12542,12544],{"id":12543},"monitor-and-adapt","Monitor and adapt",[14,12546,12547],{},"As with any SEO strategy, it's essential to monitor your website's performance and adapt your strategy as needed. Use data analysis to track your progress and identify opportunities for improvement.",[24,12549,3034],{"id":3033},[14,12551,12552],{},"While the site audit used to be the go-to method for starting an SEO engagement, it's no longer the best approach. Instead, take a holistic approach to SEO, gather data about your website, your competitors, and your target audience, conduct a content audit, and develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that takes into account all aspects of SEO. By doing so, you can drive long-term results and success for your business.",[24,12554,12105],{"id":12555},"what-now",[14,12557,12558,12559,12362],{},"Are you ready to take a holistic and strategic approach to the optimization of your website? If so, we’d be happy to help. Click here to ",[206,12560,4755],{"href":12359,"rel":12561},[210],{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":12563},[12564,12568,12569,12570,12571,12572,12579,12580],{"id":12388,"depth":291,"text":12389,"children":12565},[12566,12567],{"id":12395,"depth":297,"text":12396},{"id":12405,"depth":297,"text":12406},{"id":12432,"depth":291,"text":12433},{"id":12439,"depth":291,"text":12440},{"id":12446,"depth":291,"text":12447},{"id":12453,"depth":291,"text":12454},{"id":12460,"depth":291,"text":12461,"children":12573},[12574,12575,12576,12577,12578],{"id":12467,"depth":297,"text":12468},{"id":12474,"depth":297,"text":12475},{"id":12529,"depth":297,"text":12530},{"id":12536,"depth":297,"text":12537},{"id":12543,"depth":297,"text":12544},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},{"id":12555,"depth":291,"text":12105},"2023-04-11T07:00:39.000+00:00","Take a deep dive into the classic Site Audit and learn why our experts don’t always start off a new SEO engagement by recommending a technical site audit.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-site-audit-no-longer-the-way-to-start-your-seo-engagement",{"title":12379,"description":12582},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-site-audit-no-longer-the-way-to-start-your-seo-engagement","8piL9lMYwvUeBuwtDCAqk_3l9XbZQADZAdReKyzWfSk",[12138],{"id":12590,"title":12591,"author":7,"authors":12592,"body":12594,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":13012,"description":13013,"extension":318,"img":77,"imgAlt":77,"meta":13014,"minutes":13015,"navigation":322,"path":13016,"seo":13017,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":13018,"updated":7,"__hash__":13019,"people":13020},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-is-digital-advertising-mkg-marketing.md","What is Digital Advertising?",[12593,11845],"Jessyca Sulfsted",{"type":11,"value":12595,"toc":13003},[12596,12599,12602,12605,12609,12613,12616,12619,12623,12626,12629,12633,12636,12639,12644,12647,12651,12654,12657,12661,12671,12674,12678,12683,12686,12689,12695,12699,12705,12709,12715,12718,12722,12727,12733,12737,12742,12745,12749,12752,12756,12759,12763,12768,12776,12780,12787,12791,12794,12797,12800,12803,12820,12824,12827,12832,12837,12840,12845,12853,12857,12860,12865,12897,12901,12904,12907,12910,12913,12916,12919,12926,12930,12982,12986,12994],[81,12597,12591],{"id":12598},"what-is-digital-advertising",[14,12600,12601],{},"From the MKG Marketing expert lens, digital advertising is an ecosystem of paid marketing channels that marketers can use to support their overall digital marketing strategies.",[14,12603,12604],{},"However, as you begin to explore the digital advertising ecosystem you find that it is a magnificent, complicated, complex, and ever-evolving set of interconnected yet unique levers that can be pulled to reach target audiences where they are at, on the journey you want them to take, to get the desired result or conversion point for your marketing effort.",[81,12606,12608],{"id":12607},"what-are-the-advantages-of-digital-advertising","What are the Advantages of Digital Advertising?",[5552,12610,12612],{"id":12611},"targeting","Targeting",[14,12614,12615],{},"One of the primary advantages that digital advertising provides when compared to more traditional analog advertising is the ability to granularly target audiences across a myriad of platforms and devices.",[14,12617,12618],{},"“[digital advertising]...it's come a long way in terms of the targeting capabilities, which are now also starting to become a little less available because of third party cookies and privacy concerns and things like that.” ~ Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[5552,12620,12622],{"id":12621},"targeting-in-digital-marketing-defined","Targeting in Digital Marketing: Defined",[14,12624,12625],{},"Targeting, or audience targeting, is a method that identifies a specific demographic, psychographic and\u002For geographic audience and then is used to serve very intentional and unique content in an effort to drive the audience to become aware, consider, and complete a transaction of some form such as purchasing a pair of shoes or signing up for a newsletter.",[14,12627,12628],{},"“So essentially, if you're using those [targets] correctly, you should be able to reach the people that you really want to reach and not have a lot of waste [ad spend].” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[5552,12630,12632],{"id":12631},"real-time-data","Real-time Data",[14,12634,12635],{},"Having access to the results of your digital advertising campaigns is key to being able to identify areas to iterate and improve as well as highlight success and inform opportunities to scale your efforts.",[14,12637,12638],{},"“having data in real time]...allows for pretty quick optimizations and adjustments [to campaigns]” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[14,12640,12641],{},[52,12642,12643],{},"Real-Time Data in Digital Marketing: Defined",[14,12645,12646],{},"Real-time data is data that's instantly available and gives marketers the opportunity to identify trends and make immediate adjustments to dynamic creatives and campaigns as well as enabling brands to be proactive in their customer retention and experience.",[81,12648,12650],{"id":12649},"digital-advertising-channels-a-peek-behind-the-curtain","Digital Advertising Channels: A Peek Behind the Curtain",[14,12652,12653],{},"As we stated above digital advertising is an ecosystem and this ecosystem is made up of different channels to leverage depending on who your audience is, what content they consume, and where they consistently go to consume the content.",[14,12655,12656],{},"Let’s take a look at some of the different digital advertising channels that are available to digital marketers today.",[5552,12658,12660],{"id":12659},"search-engine-marketing-sem","Search Engine Marketing (SEM)",[14,12662,12663,12666,12667,12670],{},[75,12664],{"alt":77,"src":12665},"\u002Fimages\u002Fgoogle-ppc-ads.png","\nAccording to Wikipedia, “Search engine marketing is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages primarily through paid advertising.”\nSometimes ",[206,12668,12669],{"href":12116},"search engine optimization (SEO)"," can be wrapped into this topic, but as stated in the definition, it is predominantly used in reference to paid advertising.",[14,12672,12673],{},"A common example of SEM advertising are the ads that appear at the top of the search results page in Google above the natural, organic results.",[5552,12675,12677],{"id":12676},"paid-social-advertising","Paid Social Advertising",[14,12679,12680],{},[75,12681],{"alt":77,"src":12682},"\u002Fimages\u002Flinkedin-image.png",[14,12684,12685],{},"According to Gartner, “Paid social is the practice of displaying sponsored advertising content on third-party social networking platforms with the goal of targeting specific customers.”",[14,12687,12688],{},"These are the non-organic efforts that a brand makes on the social platform where their target audience is most likely to exist in an effort to drive awareness and ultimately, conversion.",[14,12690,12691,12694],{},[52,12692,12693],{},"PROTIP",": Ads on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok can, and should, appear to be very similar to actual posts in an effort to provide a positive user experience for your target audience.",[5552,12696,12698],{"id":12697},"display-advertising-aka-banner-ads","Display Advertising (aka Banner Ads)",[14,12700,12701,12704],{},[75,12702],{"alt":77,"src":12703},"\u002Fimages\u002Fdisplay-1.png","\nDisplay or banner advertising is a type of digital advertising that leverages a creative, rectangular ad and are normally shown along the top, side, or bottom of a website with the goal of driving traffic to the advertiser’s website as well as generate awareness and overall brand consideration.",[5552,12706,12708],{"id":12707},"native-advertising","Native Advertising",[14,12710,12711,12714],{},[75,12712],{"alt":77,"src":12713},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnative.png","\nWhile similar to display advertising, native ads can sometimes take the form of text advertisements and are always created to match the design, typeface, and look of the website they are presented on.",[14,12716,12717],{},"They commonly show up on publisher websites such as Forbes or CNN as In-Feed, Sponsored\u002FRecommended Content, Search & Promoted Listings, Promoted Stories, and more.",[5552,12719,12721],{"id":12720},"digital-out-of-home-dooh-advertising","Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Advertising",[14,12723,12724],{},[75,12725],{"alt":77,"src":12726},"\u002Fimages\u002Fooh-ad.png",[14,12728,12729,12732],{},[75,12730],{"alt":77,"src":12731},"\u002Fimages\u002Fdooh-ad.png","\nDigital Out-of-Home Advertising reaches users in a digital format in public spaces or in other ways when a user is outside of their home. Some examples of DOOH advertising include, but are not limited to: billboards, bus stops, posters, and movie theaters.",[5552,12734,12736],{"id":12735},"over-the-top-ott-advertising","Over-the-Top (OTT) Advertising",[14,12738,12739],{},[75,12740],{"alt":77,"src":12741},"\u002Fimages\u002Fott.png",[14,12743,12744],{},"OTT ads (aka streaming TV ads) are the advertisements delivered to viewers within Over-the-Top or streaming video content. OTT ads offer an exceptional opportunity for advertisers to reach new audiences at scale as more and more users are leveraging streaming video platforms such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and more.",[81,12746,12748],{"id":12747},"digital-advertising-platforms-what-are-they","Digital Advertising Platforms: What Are They?",[14,12750,12751],{},"Digital advertising platforms are the different tools that are used to place ads into the different digital channels that we just discussed above. Some platforms are native such as Google Ads is used to place the search ads in Google’s search results while others are able to place ads into different channels depending what the campaign calls for.",[5552,12753,12755],{"id":12754},"digital-ad-platforms-for-sem","Digital Ad Platforms for SEM",[14,12757,12758],{},"With the two major search engines being Google and Bing, there are two primary ad platforms used to serve ads:",[5552,12760,12762],{"id":12761},"google-ads","Google Ads",[14,12764,12765],{},[75,12766],{"alt":77,"src":12767},"\u002Fimages\u002Fgoogle-dashboard.png",[14,12769,12770,12771,8220],{},"Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. (",[206,12772,12775],{"href":12773,"rel":12774},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FGoogle_Ads",[210],"Wikipedia",[5552,12777,12779],{"id":12778},"microsoft-ads","Microsoft Ads",[14,12781,12782,12783,8220],{},"Microsoft Advertising is a service that provides pay per click advertising on the Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo search engines. (",[206,12784,12775],{"href":12785,"rel":12786},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMicrosoft_Advertising",[210],[5552,12788,12790],{"id":12789},"digital-ad-platforms-for-social-media","Digital Ad Platforms for Social Media",[14,12792,12793],{},"Most social media platforms have their own advertising platform built-in and in some cases, they overlap.",[14,12795,12796],{},"For example, digital advertising on Facebook & Instagram are managed through the Facebook Ads Manager as Facebook owns both platforms.",[14,12798,12799],{},"Similarly, YouTube, which is another social media platform as well as a search engine in its own right, has ads placed via the Google Ads platform as Google owns YouTube so they use their ad platform to serve the ads.",[14,12801,12802],{},"Below is a quick list of social media platforms with their own native ad offerings:",[132,12804,12805,12808,12811,12814,12817],{},[49,12806,12807],{},"LinkedIn",[49,12809,12810],{},"Twitter",[49,12812,12813],{},"Snapchat",[49,12815,12816],{},"TikTok",[49,12818,12819],{},"Pinterest",[5552,12821,12823],{"id":12822},"digital-ad-platforms-for-dooh-advertising","Digital Ad Platforms for DOOH Advertising",[14,12825,12826],{},"With this being a “newer” space for digital ads, there are not an extensive amount of platforms out there that currently serve DOOH ads, but they are becoming more prevalent.",[14,12828,12829],{},[52,12830,12831],{},"Check out these examples of DOOH platforms:",[14,12833,12834],{},[52,12835,12836],{},"Place Exchange",[14,12838,12839],{},"Place Exchange unifies execution, reporting, and attribution for OOH with other programmatic channels for the first time. (Visit website)",[14,12841,12842],{},[52,12843,12844],{},"Vistar Media",[14,12846,12847,12848,8220],{},"Vistar powers today’s out-of-home industry with technology that dramatically enhances the buying, selling and management of digital signage media. (",[206,12849,12852],{"href":12850,"rel":12851},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.placeexchange.com\u002F",[210],"Visit website",[5552,12854,12856],{"id":12855},"digital-ad-platforms-for-ott-advertising","Digital Ad Platforms for OTT Advertising",[14,12858,12859],{},"With millions of users consuming content via connected smart devices and streaming platforms, the ability to reach them in very impactful micro-moments becomes a huge opportunity for advertisers. Connect TV (CTV) ads display on TVs connected to the Internet, also called smart TVs. On the other hand, OTT ads display on any device, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs.",[14,12861,12862],{},[52,12863,12864],{},"Checkout three of the OTT digital advertising platforms that are available to digital marketers today!",[132,12866,12867,12877,12887],{},[49,12868,12869,12870,12872,12873,8220],{},"PubMatic",[5645,12871],{},"This popular advertising platform boasts over 400 billion impressions and almost 1.5 trillion bids a day, easily making PubMatic one of the largest and best OTT ad exchanges. (",[206,12874,12852],{"href":12875,"rel":12876},"https:\u002F\u002Fpubmatic.com\u002F",[210],[49,12878,12879,12880,12882,12883,8220],{},"Google ADX",[5645,12881],{},"Google is the owner of one of the largest ad exchanges on the internet known as Google ADX, a programmatic ad platform that offers the highest CPMs, only trades in the most premium inventory, and utilizes real-time bidding auctions to trade inventory. (",[206,12884,12852],{"href":12885,"rel":12886},"https:\u002F\u002Fadmanager.google.com\u002F",[210],[49,12888,12889,12890,12892,12893,8220],{},"Brid.TV Marketplace",[5645,12891],{},"Brid.TV Marketplace is a video ad network that allows OTT publishers to monetize content through an array of video ad formats. It leverages top-tier programmatic advertising tech and is compatible with all kinds of OTT devices. (",[206,12894,12852],{"href":12895,"rel":12896},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.brid.tv\u002Fads-marketplace\u002F",[210],[81,12898,12900],{"id":12899},"digital-advertising-strategy-should-you-have-a-gameplan","Digital Advertising Strategy: Should you have a gameplan?",[14,12902,12903],{},"The short answer is: Yes, you should.",[14,12905,12906],{},"It is not wise to invest resources regardless of whether it is time or money to create a campaign if you don’t know what you are hoping to achieve with the marketing efforts.",[14,12908,12909],{},"We would also recommend being as precise as possible in an effort to be able to measure, iterate, and test.",[14,12911,12912],{},"For example, if you are doing a brand awareness campaign, your goal should not be to increase impressions. Your goal should be to increase impressions by a set number or a percentage so there is a fixed target you are aiming for.",[14,12914,12915],{},"Additionally, you want to make sure that your digital advertising efforts are not being executed in a vacuum.",[14,12917,12918],{},"“...you have to have a strategy, but you have to have an overall marketing strategy that aligns with the overall business goals and then you figure out how the digital advertising fits into that overall marketing strategy.” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[14,12920,12921,12922,12925],{},"Digital advertising has the potential to deliver far more impact if its efforts are integrated with the efforts of other digital marketing channels in a cohesive and complete ",[206,12923,12924],{"href":12111},"marketing strategy"," focused on achieving the core business objectives.",[81,12927,12929],{"id":12928},"digital-advertising-protips-three-things-to-review-when-optimizing-a-ppc-campaign","Digital Advertising Protips: Three things to review when optimizing a PPC campaign",[132,12931,12932,12950,12966],{},[49,12933,12934,12935,12937,12940,12941,12943,12944,12946,12949],{},"Wasted Spend",[5645,12936],{},[52,12938,12939],{},"What to look for:"," Keywords with clicks but no conversions",[5645,12942],{},"“...a click costs you money and if it's not generating anything for you, get that cleaned up [to save ad spend]” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[5645,12945],{},[52,12947,12948],{},"Recommendation:"," Remove the terms and consider adding these terms to a negative keywords list.",[49,12951,12952,12953,12955,12957,12958,12960,12961,12963,12965],{},"Click Through Rate (CTR)",[5645,12954],{},[52,12956,12939],{}," Ads with high impressions but low clicks",[5645,12959],{},"“...[CTR] is an indication that the keywords and text in your ads are compelling and relevant for people to want to click through…” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[5645,12962],{},[52,12964,12948],{}," Tweak existing ad copy or write new ad copy",[49,12967,12968,12969,12971,12973,12974,12976,12977,12979,12981],{},"Conversion Rate",[5645,12970],{},[52,12972,12939],{}," Ads with good CTR but a low conversion rate",[5645,12975],{},"“...ads that have a really high click through rate, but then a low conversion rate indicate that your landing page isn't great.” - Jess Sulfstead, MKG Digital Marketing Expert",[5645,12978],{},[52,12980,12948],{}," Review the landing page experience and optimize the page for conversion",[81,12983,12985],{"id":12984},"ready-to-get-started-with-digital-advertising","Ready to get started with Digital Advertising?",[14,12987,12988,12989,12993],{},"If you would like to learn more about the Digital Advertising services and team that MKG Marketing provides, feel free to visit the ",[206,12990,12992],{"href":12991},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fdigital-advertising\u002F","Digital Advertising Services"," page.",[14,12995,12996,12997,13002],{},"However, if you’d like to get your digital advertising efforts started today, reach out and ",[206,12998,13001],{"href":12999,"rel":13000},"https:\u002F\u002F1zgok.share.hsforms.com\u002F2cOmJ7URST7aHvXaKILoupg?uuid=11a19469-5397-4111-90ab-08d517b6bddc?month=2023-01",[210],"book a chemistry call"," with our business development team.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":13004},[13005,13006,13007,13008,13009,13010,13011],{"id":12598,"depth":297,"text":12591},{"id":12607,"depth":297,"text":12608},{"id":12649,"depth":297,"text":12650},{"id":12747,"depth":297,"text":12748},{"id":12899,"depth":297,"text":12900},{"id":12928,"depth":297,"text":12929},{"id":12984,"depth":297,"text":12985},"2023-01-24T02:43:34.000+00:00","What is digital advertising? Our MKG experts offer their perspective on the advantages of utilizing real-time data and a cohesive search engine marketing, paid, DOOH, and OOT  strategy.",{},9,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-is-digital-advertising-mkg-marketing",{"title":12591,"description":13013},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-is-digital-advertising-mkg-marketing","TKLceVGxjp4rzYdp-e7t44hb_cO_ZsuUgxa0fciTr0c",[12138],{"id":13022,"title":13023,"author":77,"authors":13024,"body":13026,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":13179,"description":13180,"extension":318,"img":13181,"imgAlt":13182,"meta":13183,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":13184,"seo":13185,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":13186,"updated":7,"__hash__":13187,"people":13188},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-google-s-helpful-content-update.md","The MKG Vantage: Google’s “Helpful Content” Update",[13025,11845,11846],"Alicia Hardy",{"type":11,"value":13027,"toc":13164},[13028,13031,13034,13041,13045,13049,13058,13061,13065,13068,13071,13085,13089,13093,13096,13099,13103,13106,13117,13120,13127,13130,13134,13138,13141,13144,13148,13151,13154,13156],[14,13029,13030],{},"The world of SEO is ever-evolving, often cloaked in secrecy. However, the goal of every update is to yield better results for the person behind the search.",[14,13032,13033],{},"The most recent update is the first major attempt since Panda to improve the quality of content ranking in Google Search. Our experts are excited by the impact and opportunities this holds for our clients, and all Googlers!",[14,13035,13036,13037,13040],{},"Discover what our former and current SEO Experts–Alicia Hardy, ",[206,13038,11845],{"href":13039},"\u002Fabout\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg\u002F",", and Anna Powers–thoughts are on the update and the potential impact it brings…",[24,13042,13044],{"id":13043},"alicia-hardy-digital-strategist-seo-expert","ALICIA HARDY: Digital Strategist & SEO Expert",[81,13046,13048],{"id":13047},"people-first-seo-for-the-win","People-First SEO for the Win!",[14,13050,13051,13052,13057],{},"Google’s ",[206,13053,13056],{"href":13054,"rel":13055},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fblog\u002F2022\u002F08\u002Fhelpful-content-update",[210],"new Helpful Content Update"," targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”",[14,13059,13060],{},"Our SEO services are rooted first in understanding buyers' challenges and aspirations, as well as our client's business goals. Then we recommend a content strategy that anticipates the searchers' needs based on where they are in their buyer journey . I'm excited about this update because it attempts to solve a massive problem with search results–content for the sake of content, instead of content that answers the searchers' intent.",[81,13062,13064],{"id":13063},"how-will-googles-helpful-content-update-impact-cybersecurity-seo","How Will Google’s Helpful Content Update Impact Cybersecurity SEO?",[14,13066,13067],{},"Our cybersecurity clients tend to have content written by highly-skilled experts in their niche. This is the content that Google wants to rank well.",[14,13069,13070],{},"My advice is to:",[132,13072,13073,13076,13079,13082],{},[49,13074,13075],{},"Double down on expert-led content that is topically connected to your products and services. This isn't the time to cut corners on content creation.",[49,13077,13078],{},"Take steps to improve E-A-T signals.",[49,13080,13081],{},"If your site is due for a content audit, don't push that to low priority. Check your website for low-quality content and unpublish or rewrite as needed.",[49,13083,13084],{},"Don't panic. This update is aimed at spam. If some pages do lose visibility, the issues are likely fixable.",[24,13086,13088],{"id":13087},"nathan-stenberg-digital-strategist-seo-expert","NATHAN STENBERG: Digital Strategist & SEO Expert",[81,13090,13092],{"id":13091},"what-are-you-surprised-content-is-king","What? Are You Surprised? Content Is King!",[14,13094,13095],{},"At an initial glance, this update looks like it might shake up the SEO world pretty drastically. And it might, if you, as an SEO, or the SEO agency you engage with haven’t had the production of high-quality content as a core focus of your SEO game plan.",[14,13097,13098],{},"But for me, as well as the team here at MKG, building authoritative content is always central to my SEO strategies due to the simple fact that this is exactly the kind of content that Google and other search engines want to return to their customers in the search results.",[81,13100,13102],{"id":13101},"how-do-you-produce-helpful-content","How Do You Produce “Helpful Content”?",[14,13104,13105],{},"My approach to producing high-quality, SEO-focused content has been to use a Define, Educate, and Inspire content model which effectively creates a natural funnel, whether it is a module or an entire blog post, that:",[132,13107,13108,13111,13114],{},[49,13109,13110],{},"Sets the stage for the user",[49,13112,13113],{},"Provides them with a deeper understanding of the topic",[49,13115,13116],{},"Inspires them to take the next action.",[14,13118,13119],{},"When you combine thorough, well-written content produced inside of this framework along with fundamental SEO best practices for on-page and technical optimization, you end up with an authoritative piece of content that should move users to the next step of their journey, setting the stage for A\u002FB testing and CRO (conversion rate optimization) which will help you maximize the effectiveness of the content over time.",[14,13121,13122,13123,13126],{},"So, as long as producing ",[52,13124,13125],{},"helpful content"," has been a key focus for a business or entity, then I don’t foresee a major impact on their site performance.",[14,13128,13129],{},"However, if they have been cutting corners and not producing authentic, high-quality content there could be some very real repercussions that may take significant resources and time to recover from.",[24,13131,13133],{"id":13132},"anna-powers-digital-marketing-seo-expert","ANNA POWERS: Digital Marketing & SEO Expert",[81,13135,13137],{"id":13136},"a-google-update-over-ten-years-in-the-making","A Google Update Over Ten Years in the Making",[14,13139,13140],{},"My teammates offered some solid advice above, so here’s a reflection on where we’ve been and where we might go.",[14,13142,13143],{},"The Helpful Content update is, to my mind, the logical progression of what the Panda update began back in 2011: Google’s deliberate redirection of the internet to be a more useful space. Back then, I was working in content production as a website editor, and I remember thinking, “We [meaning everyone on the internet] are going to need SO much more content. And that content will actually need to be good.” Also: hooray! Panda was great for content creators since it started to push the most well-researched, well-sourced, authoritative content to page one, encouraging the rise of content marketing as a discipline and E-A-T as a practice (even if we didn’t call it that yet).",[81,13145,13147],{"id":13146},"why-helpful-content-matters","Why Helpful Content Matters",[14,13149,13150],{},"Post-Panda, there was a real feeling that the best stuff would rise to the top of the SERPs. Over ten years later I still (mostly) believe that, although some of the wild, wonderful content that you found deeper in the search results—I see you, LiveJournal—has been displaced by carefully optimized long-form content promising the ultimate\u002Fdefinitive\u002Fonly guide you’ll ever need to whatever subject it is that you’re learning about.",[14,13152,13153],{},"I’m not knocking content optimization, since it will continue to be foundational to our work as SEOs. What I am calling out is exactly the kind of content that this Google update is supposed to address: content that is devoid of personality or that isn’t empathetic to the needs of other people (otherwise known as search intent). Alicia calls this “content for the sake of content,” and she’s absolutely right. B2C and B2B content should always be, to use Nathan’s description, high-quality and authentic. I would add that content should always be humane in the sense that it is considerate of other humans, their desires, and needs. If Google’s Helpful Content update moves the internet closer to those goals, then it will benefit all of us.",[24,13155,12105],{"id":12555},[14,13157,13158,13159,13163],{},"Now that you have a sense of what to expect with this new update, it’s time to capitalize on the opportunity. If you could use a hand with your content strategy and ensuring SEO stays top of mind, ",[206,13160,13162],{"href":13161},"\u002Fcontact\u002F","reach out","!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":13165},[13166,13170,13174,13178],{"id":13043,"depth":291,"text":13044,"children":13167},[13168,13169],{"id":13047,"depth":297,"text":13048},{"id":13063,"depth":297,"text":13064},{"id":13087,"depth":291,"text":13088,"children":13171},[13172,13173],{"id":13091,"depth":297,"text":13092},{"id":13101,"depth":297,"text":13102},{"id":13132,"depth":291,"text":13133,"children":13175},[13176,13177],{"id":13136,"depth":297,"text":13137},{"id":13146,"depth":297,"text":13147},{"id":12555,"depth":291,"text":12105},"2022-08-31T05:30:00.000+00:00","Discover what our SEO Experts’–Alicia, Nathan, and Anna–thoughts are on Google’s Helpful Content Update and the potential impact it brings…","\u002Fimages\u002Fuseful-content-update-r1.webp","Person looking at their phone while holding a coffee",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-google-s-helpful-content-update",{"title":13023,"description":13180},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-vantage-google-s-helpful-content-update","j1VcTWzJ7hUD1LSNrVozVbDypp8PnrpAchOYfIMrGcU",[12138],{"id":13190,"title":13191,"author":7,"authors":13192,"body":13193,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":13939,"description":13940,"extension":318,"img":13941,"imgAlt":7,"meta":13942,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":13943,"seo":13944,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":13945,"updated":7,"__hash__":13946,"people":13947},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhtml-5-and-seo.md","HTML5 and SEO",[11845],{"type":11,"value":13194,"toc":13924},[13195,13198,13202,13216,13219,13225,13232,13238,13244,13250,13262,13265,13276,13528,13534,13794,13801,13816,13823,13826,13835,13838,13841,13844,13848,13851,13855,13858,13866,13875,13878,13886,13890,13896,13899,13902,13906,13913,13920],[14,13196,13197],{},"When HTML5 was released back in 2014, it delivered a bunch of new semantic elements intentionally designed to help web pages to be structured more clearly and, while this benefited the web development community, it helped the SEO community by providing a much clearer page structures that are easier for the search engines to crawl and “understand.”",[24,13199,13201],{"id":13200},"what-is-html5","What is HTML5",[14,13203,13204,13205,1732,13209,1732,13212,13215],{},"HTML5 is the current industry-standard of the web programming language and it provides new semantic HTML elements that clearly define and indicate the different areas of a web page (",[13206,13207,13208],"code",{},"\u003Cheader>",[13206,13210,13211],{},"\u003Cfooter>",[13206,13213,13214],{},"\u003Cnav>",", etc.).",[14,13217,13218],{},"There is one specific element that can be specifically leveraged to mark up the page that support the recent algorithm updates focused on sub-category and passage ranking as well as can provide targeted keyword optimization opportunities from a SEO perspective.",[14,13220,13221,13222,212],{},"This element is the ",[13206,13223,13224],{},"\u003Csection>",[24,13226,13228,13229,13231],{"id":13227},"the-section-element","The ",[13206,13230,13224],{}," element",[81,13233,13235,13236,13231],{"id":13234},"what-is-the-section-element","What is the ",[13206,13237,13224],{},[14,13239,13240,13241,13243],{},"The HTML ",[13206,13242,13224],{}," element defines a section or “module” of a HTML document, which doesn't have a more specific semantic element to represent it.",[14,13245,13246,13247,13249],{},"Another way to look at this, is that the ",[13206,13248,13224],{}," element turns a complete web page into a bunch of smaller pages which, when combined together, make the complete page. This actually makes a lot of sense from a web design perspective as most websites leverage a modular design layout.",[14,13251,13252,13253,13258,13259,13261],{},"With the recent ",[206,13254,13257],{"href":13255,"rel":13256},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-passage-ranking-martin-splitt\u002F388206\u002F",[210],"algorithm update"," that can now deliver “passages” of websites in the search results, leveraging the ",[13206,13260,13224],{}," element intentionally can help the search engines better understand and consume the content on a page as well as focus the keyword and content optimization of a web page to a module by module approach that can result in passages of web page content being ranked more effectively.",[14,13263,13264],{},"Another SEO opportunity with this element is you can restart HTML heading structures so you can actually end up with multiple H1 elements on a page which provides a higher weighted value to the keywords it contains.",[14,13266,13267,13268,13271,13272,13275],{},"What we traditionally find is a document structure that opens with a ",[13206,13269,13270],{},"\u003Ch1>"," wrapping the Page Title and then in the first module it opens with a ",[13206,13273,13274],{},"\u003Ch2>"," .",[13277,13278,13282],"pre",{"className":13279,"code":13280,"language":13281,"meta":77,"style":77},"language-html shiki shiki-themes github-light github-dark","\u003Chtml>\n  \u003Chead>\n    \u003Ctitle>Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Ftitle>\n  \u003C\u002Fhead>\n  \u003Cbody>\n    \u003Cheader>\n      \u003Cnav>\u003C\u002Fnav>\n    \u003C\u002Fheader>\n    \u003Cmain>\n      \u003Ch1>Page Title\u003C\u002Fh1>\n\n      \u003Ch2>Module 1 Title - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Fh2>\n      Module 1 Body Copy\n      \u003Ch3>Module 1 SubTitle - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Fh3>\n      Module 1 Body Copy\n\n      \u003Ch2>Module 2 Title - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Fh2>\n      Module 2 Body Copy\n      \u003Ch3>Module 2 SubTitle - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Fh3>\n      Module 2 Body Copy\n    \u003C\u002Fmain>\n    \u003Cfooter>\u003C\u002Ffooter>\n  \u003C\u002Fbody>\n\u003C\u002Fhtml>\n","html",[13206,13283,13284,13298,13308,13323,13332,13341,13350,13365,13374,13383,13397,13403,13417,13423,13437,13442,13447,13461,13467,13481,13486,13495,13509,13518],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,13286,13288,13292,13295],"span",{"class":13287,"line":1713},"line",[13285,13289,13291],{"class":13290},"sVt8B","\u003C",[13285,13293,13281],{"class":13294},"s9eBZ",[13285,13296,13297],{"class":13290},">\n",[13285,13299,13300,13303,13306],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,13301,13302],{"class":13290},"  \u003C",[13285,13304,13305],{"class":13294},"head",[13285,13307,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13309,13310,13313,13316,13319,13321],{"class":13287,"line":297},[13285,13311,13312],{"class":13290},"    \u003C",[13285,13314,13315],{"class":13294},"title",[13285,13317,13318],{"class":13290},">Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13320,13315],{"class":13294},[13285,13322,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13324,13325,13328,13330],{"class":13287,"line":3296},[13285,13326,13327],{"class":13290},"  \u003C\u002F",[13285,13329,13305],{"class":13294},[13285,13331,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13333,13334,13336,13339],{"class":13287,"line":1774},[13285,13335,13302],{"class":13290},[13285,13337,13338],{"class":13294},"body",[13285,13340,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13342,13343,13345,13348],{"class":13287,"line":586},[13285,13344,13312],{"class":13290},[13285,13346,13347],{"class":13294},"header",[13285,13349,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13351,13352,13355,13358,13361,13363],{"class":13287,"line":321},[13285,13353,13354],{"class":13290},"      \u003C",[13285,13356,13357],{"class":13294},"nav",[13285,13359,13360],{"class":13290},">\u003C\u002F",[13285,13362,13357],{"class":13294},[13285,13364,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13366,13367,13370,13372],{"class":13287,"line":3555},[13285,13368,13369],{"class":13290},"    \u003C\u002F",[13285,13371,13347],{"class":13294},[13285,13373,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13375,13376,13378,13381],{"class":13287,"line":13015},[13285,13377,13312],{"class":13290},[13285,13379,13380],{"class":13294},"main",[13285,13382,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13384,13385,13387,13390,13393,13395],{"class":13287,"line":12132},[13285,13386,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13388,13389],{"class":13294},"h1",[13285,13391,13392],{"class":13290},">Page Title\u003C\u002F",[13285,13394,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13396,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13398,13400],{"class":13287,"line":13399},11,[13285,13401,13402],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":322},"\n",[13285,13404,13406,13408,13410,13413,13415],{"class":13287,"line":13405},12,[13285,13407,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13409,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13411,13412],{"class":13290},">Module 1 Title - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13414,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13416,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13418,13420],{"class":13287,"line":13419},13,[13285,13421,13422],{"class":13290},"      Module 1 Body Copy\n",[13285,13424,13426,13428,13430,13433,13435],{"class":13287,"line":13425},14,[13285,13427,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13429,81],{"class":13294},[13285,13431,13432],{"class":13290},">Module 1 SubTitle - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13434,81],{"class":13294},[13285,13436,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13438,13440],{"class":13287,"line":13439},15,[13285,13441,13422],{"class":13290},[13285,13443,13445],{"class":13287,"line":13444},16,[13285,13446,13402],{"emptyLinePlaceholder":322},[13285,13448,13450,13452,13454,13457,13459],{"class":13287,"line":13449},17,[13285,13451,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13453,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13455,13456],{"class":13290},">Module 2 Title - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13458,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13460,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13462,13464],{"class":13287,"line":13463},18,[13285,13465,13466],{"class":13290},"      Module 2 Body Copy\n",[13285,13468,13470,13472,13474,13477,13479],{"class":13287,"line":13469},19,[13285,13471,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13473,81],{"class":13294},[13285,13475,13476],{"class":13290},">Module 2 SubTitle - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13478,81],{"class":13294},[13285,13480,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13482,13484],{"class":13287,"line":13483},20,[13285,13485,13466],{"class":13290},[13285,13487,13489,13491,13493],{"class":13287,"line":13488},21,[13285,13490,13369],{"class":13290},[13285,13492,13380],{"class":13294},[13285,13494,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13496,13498,13500,13503,13505,13507],{"class":13287,"line":13497},22,[13285,13499,13312],{"class":13290},[13285,13501,13502],{"class":13294},"footer",[13285,13504,13360],{"class":13290},[13285,13506,13502],{"class":13294},[13285,13508,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13510,13512,13514,13516],{"class":13287,"line":13511},23,[13285,13513,13327],{"class":13290},[13285,13515,13338],{"class":13294},[13285,13517,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13519,13521,13524,13526],{"class":13287,"line":13520},24,[13285,13522,13523],{"class":13290},"\u003C\u002F",[13285,13525,13281],{"class":13294},[13285,13527,13297],{"class":13290},[14,13529,13530,13531,13533],{},"However, a very simplified example of what this could look like using the ",[13206,13532,13224],{}," element is:",[13277,13535,13537],{"className":13279,"code":13536,"language":13281,"meta":77,"style":77},"\u003Chtml>\n  \u003Chead>\n    \u003Ctitle>Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002Ftitle>\n  \u003C\u002Fhead>\n  \u003Cbody>\n    \u003Cheader>\n      \u003Cnav>\u003C\u002Fnav>\n    \u003C\u002Fheader>\n    \u003Cmain>\n      \u003Csection>\n        \u003Ch1>_Page Title - 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Insert Target Keyword Here_\u003C\u002F",[13285,13639,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13641,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13643,13644,13647,13649],{"class":13287,"line":13405},[13285,13645,13646],{"class":13290},"      \u003C\u002F",[13285,13648,13625],{"class":13294},[13285,13650,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13652,13653,13655,13657],{"class":13287,"line":13419},[13285,13654,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13656,13625],{"class":13294},[13285,13658,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13660,13661,13663,13665,13668,13670],{"class":13287,"line":13425},[13285,13662,13632],{"class":13290},[13285,13664,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13666,13667],{"class":13290},">_Module 1 Title - Insert Target Keyword Here_\u003C\u002F",[13285,13669,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13671,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13673,13674],{"class":13287,"line":13439},[13285,13675,13676],{"class":13290},"        Module 1 Body Copy\n",[13285,13678,13679,13681,13683,13686,13688],{"class":13287,"line":13444},[13285,13680,13632],{"class":13290},[13285,13682,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13684,13685],{"class":13290},">_Module 1 Subtitle - Insert Target Keyword Here_\u003C\u002F",[13285,13687,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13689,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13691,13692],{"class":13287,"line":13449},[13285,13693,13694],{"class":13290},"        Module 1 Subtitle Body Copy\n",[13285,13696,13697,13699,13701],{"class":13287,"line":13463},[13285,13698,13646],{"class":13290},[13285,13700,13625],{"class":13294},[13285,13702,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13704,13705,13707,13709],{"class":13287,"line":13469},[13285,13706,13354],{"class":13290},[13285,13708,13625],{"class":13294},[13285,13710,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13712,13713,13715,13717,13719,13721],{"class":13287,"line":13483},[13285,13714,13632],{"class":13290},[13285,13716,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13718,13456],{"class":13290},[13285,13720,13389],{"class":13294},[13285,13722,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13724,13725],{"class":13287,"line":13488},[13285,13726,13727],{"class":13290},"        Module 2 Body Copy\n",[13285,13729,13730,13732,13734,13737,13739],{"class":13287,"line":13497},[13285,13731,13632],{"class":13290},[13285,13733,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13735,13736],{"class":13290},">Module 2 Subtitle - Insert Target Keyword Here\u003C\u002F",[13285,13738,24],{"class":13294},[13285,13740,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13742,13743],{"class":13287,"line":13511},[13285,13744,13745],{"class":13290},"        Module 2 Subtitle Body Copy\n",[13285,13747,13748,13750,13752],{"class":13287,"line":13520},[13285,13749,13646],{"class":13290},[13285,13751,13625],{"class":13294},[13285,13753,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13755,13757,13759,13761],{"class":13287,"line":13756},25,[13285,13758,13369],{"class":13290},[13285,13760,13380],{"class":13294},[13285,13762,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13764,13766,13768,13770,13772,13774],{"class":13287,"line":13765},26,[13285,13767,13312],{"class":13290},[13285,13769,13502],{"class":13294},[13285,13771,13360],{"class":13290},[13285,13773,13502],{"class":13294},[13285,13775,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13777,13779,13781,13783],{"class":13287,"line":13778},27,[13285,13780,13327],{"class":13290},[13285,13782,13338],{"class":13294},[13285,13784,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,13786,13788,13790,13792],{"class":13287,"line":13787},28,[13285,13789,13523],{"class":13290},[13285,13791,13281],{"class":13294},[13285,13793,13297],{"class":13290},[14,13795,13796,13797,2623,13799,13275],{},"By inserting target keywords and semantic variations into the Heading elements gives them more weight than if they are just added to the body copy of a page so you can see, in the example above, that there are multiple opportunities to get keywords into Heading elements but not just Heading elements, the top 2 Heading elements, ",[13206,13798,13270],{},[13206,13800,13274],{},[14,13802,13803,13804,13806,13807,13810,13811,13806,13813,13815],{},"To be clear, the first example is a “correct” structure that still works and was definitely the standard of document layout for a long time but it can definitely leave some optimization opportunities on the table such as putting the target keywords in ",[13206,13805,13274],{},"’s and ",[13206,13808,13809],{},"\u003Ch3>","’s vs ",[13206,13812,13270],{},[13206,13814,13274],{},"’s.",[81,13817,13819,13820,13822],{"id":13818},"so-why-isnt-everyone-using-the-section-element-for-seo","So why isn’t everyone using the ",[13206,13821,13224],{}," element for SEO?",[14,13824,13825],{},"It seems pretty simple to layout a document like the example listed above, yet not a lot of websites are leveraging this structure or even all of the applicable HTML5 elements in their website so you might wonder: What’s the roadblock?",[14,13827,13828,13829,13834],{},"Since there are over a billion websites online (",[206,13830,13833],{"href":13831,"rel":13832},"https:\u002F\u002Fsiteefy.com\u002Fhow-many-websites-are-there\u002F",[210],"see for yourself","), the reasons for a complete adoption of HTML5 can vary.",[14,13836,13837],{},"In some cases, shifting an entire website from HTML4 to HTML5 completely would be a cost-prohibitive process and could cause complications that a company is not willing to chance.",[14,13839,13840],{},"In other cases, developers want to leverage global styles that are applied to certain HTML elements for templating purposes to maximize time and efficiency VS having to write unique CSS at a module by module level.",[14,13842,13843],{},"And still in other situations, a user may be constrained by the template limitations of the CMS platform that is being used to create the website.",[24,13845,13847],{"id":13846},"our-seo-experts-point-of-view","Our SEO Experts Point of View",[14,13849,13850],{},"In light of the opportunities that HTML5 elements provide to enhance the optimization of the content of a website, our SEO experts would recommend:",[81,13852,13854],{"id":13853},"complete-adoption-of-the-html5-standard","Complete adoption of the HTML5 standard",[14,13856,13857],{},"Companies should make the move to completely adopt the current industry standard of HTML as it improves the ability for search engines to consume the web page content which results in the maximization of the search engines crawl budget and delivers a more complete and comprehensive indexing of a website.",[14,13859,13860,13861,2623,13863,13865],{},"Additionally, leveraging the HTML5 semantic elements such as ",[13206,13862,13224],{},[13206,13864,13214],{}," can drive improved visibility and user experience in the search engine results.",[14,13867,13868,13869,13871,13872,13874],{},"Below is a screenshot of the search result for the Google Passage Ranking article we linked to above and as you can see there are three “sitelinks” below the result. These sitelinks are part of a Table of Contents contained above the article content that contained in a ",[13206,13870,13214],{}," element which is wrapped in a ",[13206,13873,13224],{}," element.",[75,13876],{"src":13877},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-seo-google-passage.webp",[14,13879,13880,13881,1259,13883,13885],{},"While Google can return results such as the ones above without the use of the ",[13206,13882,13214],{},[13206,13884,13224],{}," elements, intentionally indicating to the search engines can “tell” them what should be displayed in these areas.",[81,13887,13889],{"id":13888},"take-a-modular-optimization-approach","Take a Modular Optimization Approach",[14,13891,13892,13893,13895],{},"If the HTML5 ",[13206,13894,13224],{}," element is being used, take the opportunity to leverage the HTML heading structure to target a core topic keyword for each module and thoroughly develop the content contained in each module.",[14,13897,13898],{},"This is essentially the same approach that SEO’s have been taking with complete pages so from a process standpoint it is merely adding another layer of granularity to the optimization process.",[14,13900,13901],{},"Additionally, from a content strategy standpoint, this is a great time to look at the content of each page and truly identify the ideal user journey for each module and create ideal customer journey paths through the content of the website that ultimately lead a visitor to the point of conversion.",[24,13903,13905],{"id":13904},"looking-for-expert-seo-services","Looking for Expert SEO Services?",[14,13907,13908,13909,13912],{},"Thanks for reading the article and making it this far, we appreciate you taking the time. If you are in need of ",[206,13910,13911],{"href":12116},"seo services",", our team of SEO experts is ready and willing to take your SEO strategy and website optimization to the next level.",[14,13914,13915,13916],{},"Click here to ",[206,13917,13919],{"href":12359,"rel":13918},[210],"Schedule a Discovery Call",[13921,13922,13923],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .sVt8B, html code.shiki .sVt8B{--shiki-default:#24292E;--shiki-dark:#E1E4E8}html pre.shiki code .s9eBZ, html code.shiki .s9eBZ{--shiki-default:#22863A;--shiki-dark:#85E89D}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}html.dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":13925},[13926,13927,13934,13938],{"id":13200,"depth":291,"text":13201},{"id":13227,"depth":291,"text":13928,"children":13929},"The \u003Csection> element",[13930,13932],{"id":13234,"depth":297,"text":13931},"What is the \u003Csection> element",{"id":13818,"depth":297,"text":13933},"So why isn’t everyone using the \u003Csection> element for SEO?",{"id":13846,"depth":291,"text":13847,"children":13935},[13936,13937],{"id":13853,"depth":297,"text":13854},{"id":13888,"depth":297,"text":13889},{"id":13904,"depth":291,"text":13905},"2021-04-09","Discover our SEO Experts POV on HTML5 and creative ways to leverage the HTML5 code structure to impact keyword and passage rankings.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fpexels-danny-meneses-943096.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhtml-5-and-seo",{"title":13191,"description":13940},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fhtml-5-and-seo","4WR-OJxtYJNA5uu2xo0XLDg4P-KTKR5HsNlvhqZex-U",[12138],{"id":13949,"title":13950,"author":7,"authors":13951,"body":13953,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":14147,"description":14148,"extension":318,"img":14149,"imgAlt":7,"meta":14150,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":14151,"seo":14152,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":14153,"stem":14154,"updated":7,"__hash__":14155,"people":14156},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbacklinks-number-1-criteria-for-ranking-well.md","Why Backlinks Are Not The Number 1 Criteria for Ranking Well in SEO",[13952],"Tammy Wood",{"type":11,"value":13954,"toc":14144},[13955,13958,13964,13971,13976,13979,13982,13991,13995,13998,14007,14010,14025,14028,14031,14034,14037,14040,14043,14074,14077,14080,14083,14112,14115,14122,14125,14132,14139],[14,13956,13957],{},"Part of my job, and to be honest one of my favorite parts as SEO Director role here at MKG, is answering clients questions about SEO as a whole, not just pertaining to their specific website. I was lucky to receive a great question today:",[13959,13960,13961],"blockquote",{},[14,13962,13963],{},"Someone just told me that backlinks is the #1 criteria for ranking well in SEO. Sure page load speed, tagging, schema, etc. are all important but backlinks is the most important. Is this accurate?",[14,13965,13966,13967,13970],{},"My answer as you’d expect was typical “SEO speak”, yes and ",[52,13968,13969],{},"NO",". Hard on the “No.” So we venture to “it depends” level of an answer.",[14,13972,13973],{},[52,13974,13975],{},"To Clarify:",[14,13977,13978],{},"Links are a part of Google’s algorithm.",[14,13980,13981],{},"Links are beneficial as a signal to Google of content on the page of website.",[14,13983,13984,13985,13990],{},"Links are easily manipulated through link purchasing and link building schemes, which prompted Google to release a major algorithmic update, across all domains. This update was named ",[206,13986,13989],{"href":13987,"rel":13988},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Flibrary\u002Fgoogle\u002Fgoogle-penguin-update",[210],"Penguin"," and released in 2012. The intent was to devalue links that were acquired for the sole purpose of building rankings through links.",[24,13992,13994],{"id":13993},"links-and-seo-in-2019","Links and SEO in 2019",[14,13996,13997],{},"All links are not counted equally. Link quality is more important than raw link quantity, which means that you’ll want to get links from relevant, high-authority domains and contain relevant, accurate anchor text.",[14,13999,14000,14001,14006],{},"If your website has a lot of low-quality, unrelated websites linking to your website, this may have a negative impact on your rankings — and you may even be at risk of a Google Penguin or “unnatural links” ",[206,14002,14005],{"href":14003,"rel":14004},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FGoogle_penalty",[210],"penalty",", this penalty can also include a partial link penalty.",[14,14008,14009],{},"Google is swift to assign a penalty and slow in recovery. A penalty can result in your entire URL \u002F Domain being “deindexed”, which means no longer searchable in the SERPs. Even by your brand name, that action is devastating to your business.",[14,14011,14012,1043,14015,1043,14022],{},[38,14013,14014],{},"“Overstock.com – During fiscal year 2011,",[206,14016,14019],{"href":14017,"rel":14018},"https:\u002F\u002Farchive.sltrib.com\u002Farticle.php?id=53632081&itype=CMSID",[210],[38,14020,14021],{},"Overstock.com",[38,14023,14024],{},"attributed a decrease from $1.08 billion to $1.05 billion in revenue to Google penalties.”",[14,14026,14027],{},"In some cases, such as a partial manual penalty, Google will just drop the offending URL’s from the index, which can be any page Google chooses, this is probably the most difficult to locate and resolve, even a partial penalty can cost your business money.",[14,14029,14030],{},"Anchor text refers to the clickable text (e.g. hyperlinked) in a link and when we conduct link audits, we review the anchor text of the links pointing to your website to see what kind of words they include. Analysis of the incoming anchor text is a large part of a backlink audit.",[14,14032,14033],{},"For years, Google has been penalizing websites for having over-optimized anchor text, so it’s important to keep your anchor text natural. A sign of a natural link profile is that most of the anchor text is brand-based (the name of your website or your company) with a smaller ratio of keyword-based anchor text (the non-brand keywords you want to rank for).",[14,14035,14036],{},"So, for example, if you have an unnatural concentration of valuable non-brand anchor text, you may be at risk of a Google penalty.",[14,14038,14039],{},"Another tool has given us the analysis that while you have a tremendous amount of links, they do offer value to the visitor, and have a varied amount of ‘influence’. All in all these are “ok”.",[14,14041,14042],{},"MKG believes there are several factors that trigger a possible penalty:",[46,14044,14045,14048,14051,14054,14057,14060,14063,14071],{},[49,14046,14047],{},"Widget Links & App Links with identical anchor text",[49,14049,14050],{},"100’s of links that respond with server errors or timeouts",[49,14052,14053],{},"Quality of the incoming links from smaller websites (most have a low domain score due to the nature of the website).",[49,14055,14056],{},"Links containing parametered URLs and use a 301 redirect to the homepage- this creates the appearance of manipulation via link schemes.",[49,14058,14059],{},"Lack of parameter handling rules within Google Search Console",[49,14061,14062],{},"Large amount of links from same domain",[49,14064,14065,14066],{},"Ratio of incoming links vs. number of domains\n",[46,14067,14068],{},[49,14069,14070],{},"e.g. 1000 incoming links from 30 domain",[49,14072,14073],{},"Participation in link buying scheme, these are identified by our staff",[14,14075,14076],{},"Penguin (the Google update that focuses on unnatural link schemes), is an aggressive update and often difficult to recover from. In certain situations the best option is to delete and recreate the page that has the unnatural anchor text and links.",[14,14078,14079],{},"Aside from unnatural and\u002For empty anchor text in tens of thousands links, another negative to the backlink profile is the domain authority of the linking site.",[14,14081,14082],{},"MKG reviews the entire backlink profile with the following questions in mind:",[46,14084,14085,14088,14091,14094,14097,14100,14103,14106,14109],{},[49,14086,14087],{},"What was the intent of the link? Is it designed to help users, or just to get better Google rankings?",[49,14089,14090],{},"Is the link on a site\u002Fpage that is not topically related to your website?",[49,14092,14093],{},"Was the link purchased?",[49,14095,14096],{},"Does the link use a keyword phrase as the anchor text?",[49,14098,14099],{},"Is the link site wide or in a footer (possible risk factors)?",[49,14101,14102],{},"Was the link editorially given by the webmaster?",[49,14104,14105],{},"Is the link on a site banned or penalized by Google?",[49,14107,14108],{},"Is the linking site part of a network of sites (especially if the network of site has low trust metrics or other spammy-characteristics)?",[49,14110,14111],{},"Is the link on a page with spun, low quality, or duplicate content?",[14,14113,14114],{},"The Penguin algorithm was created in order to catch websites that are cheating in order to get higher Google rankings. If the algorithm determines that a high number of your links are unnatural, then this lowers the amount of trust that Google puts in your site. As a result, your entire site, (not just the pages to which you have built unnatural links,) can struggle to regain rankings.",[14,14116,14117,14118,14121],{},"The only sites that will recover from Penguin are ones that did an extremely thorough link cleanup. In many cases, these sites may have disavowed some links that could have potentially been good links, but in my mind it's better to err on the side of caution if it gives you a better chance of getting ",[38,14119,14120],{},"all"," of the links that is causing the Penguin algorithm to distrust your site.",[14,14123,14124],{},"As the last refresh that was identified as Penguin, was in 2017 followed in 2018 this was rolled into the main algorithm of Google. These are now difficult to assign for ranking drops, as part of the overall algorithm so recovery and or penalty can happen at any time. Sadly, recovery isn't going to happen until Google decides your site is trustworthy and your URL is an authority on your industry.",[14,14126,14127,14128,14131],{},"Some sites will need to see ",[38,14129,14130],{},"two"," Penguin refreshes before recovery happens. The reason for this is that in some cases, it can take up to six months for your disavow file to be completely processed. Google has also announced that a partial “penguin” algorithm has been rolled into the main algorithm.",[14,14133,14134,212],{},[206,14135,14138],{"href":14136,"rel":14137},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fwebmasters\u002Fanswer\u002F66356?hl=en",[210],"Here is a list with examples and recommendations from Google",[14,14140,14141],{},[52,14142,14143],{},"MKG offers various solutions to this problem, if we locate issues with your backlink profile, MKG will walk you through the steps to a full recovery. We have a 100% success rate.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":14145},[14146],{"id":13993,"depth":291,"text":13994},"2019-02-22","Our SEO Director, Tammy Wood, says yes and NO. Hard on the “No.” Read why.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-penguin-2.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fbacklinks-number-1-criteria-for-ranking-well",{"title":13950,"description":14148},"Backlinks Are Not Key To Ranking Well In SEO | MKG Marketing","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fbacklinks-number-1-criteria-for-ranking-well","kH0R2JAJSUIRxvFweRmAaoH8qW6qzvRHlIBasPXmWfM",[],{"id":14158,"title":14159,"author":7,"authors":14160,"body":14161,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":14240,"description":14241,"extension":318,"img":14242,"imgAlt":7,"meta":14243,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":14244,"seo":14245,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":14159,"stem":14246,"updated":7,"__hash__":14247,"people":14248},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F2018-brightedge-edgie-award-winners.md","MKG Wins 2018 BrightEdge Edgie Award",[9],{"type":11,"value":14162,"toc":14238},[14163,14189,14192,14215,14218,14235],[14,14164,14165,14166,14171,14172,14177,14178,2623,14183,14188],{},"Congratulations to our Informatica Team - SEO Expert, ",[206,14167,14170],{"href":14168,"rel":14169},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fchristianbullock\u002F",[210],"Christian Bullock",", our Analytics Expert, Spencer Mayes, and Account Director Jenna Hasenkampf for winning the ",[206,14173,14176],{"href":14174,"rel":14175},"https:\u002F\u002Fedgiesawards.splashthat.com\u002F",[210],"2018 BrightEdge Edgie Award for Performance and Results",". Thanks to our marketing team at Informatica, ",[206,14179,14182],{"href":14180,"rel":14181},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fsyedkashifali\u002F",[210],"Syed Ali",[206,14184,14187],{"href":14185,"rel":14186},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmoniquewhite\u002F",[210],"Monique White"," for their partnership in guidance, trust, and implementation in bringing our recommendations and ultimately Informatica's business outcomes to life. We can make all the recommendations in the world, but until they are implemented, they are meaningless.\nIn early 2018 we became a BrightEdge certified agency. It was our goal to aggregate optimization opportunities and results from one place for all our clients. Thanks to our team's dedication in taking the time to really understand the platform and how to utilize it fully we were able to improve Informatica's impressions, sessions, and pipeline create.",[14,14190,14191],{},"Here was the submission by Christian Bullock that lead us to winning this award:",[13959,14193,14194,14197,14200,14203,14206,14209,14212],{},[14,14195,14196],{},"MKG Marketing has utilized BrightEdge to drive record-breaking first half 2018 organic search metrics for Informatica, an enterprise cloud data management company. These metrics include session growth, better crawl metrics, more organic search user form fills and increased organic search pipeline create.",[14,14198,14199],{},"Data Cube helped us find keyword targets to drive our on-page SEO strategy. Specifically, looking at search volume, competition and universal listing opportunities has fueled our organic search exposure. Q1 2018 was a record-breaking quarter, producing the highest quarterly organic traffic Informatica has ever generated with +32% Y\u002FY growth. Q2 2018 broke Q1's quarterly record. Combined, the first half of 2018 has generated a +23% increase in organic search sessions for Informatica.com.",[14,14201,14202],{},"ContentIQ allowed the team to clean up technical issues. Focusing on fixing severe and moderate issues from this site audit tool has allowed Informatica to have +12% more pages indexed in Google Search looking at the beginning of 2018 to the end of June. More pages included in the index equal more opportunities to rank.",[14,14204,14205],{},"Both of these tactics combined has Google Search Console reporting a +173% increase in organic search impressions from the first half of 2018 vs 2017.",[14,14207,14208],{},"Form fills from organic search users have flourished due to these metrics. Following organic search's footsteps, Q1 2018 was a record-breaking quarter with +93% more form fills Y\u002FY. Q2 2018 broke Q1's quarterly record for this metric as well. Combined, the first half of 2018 has generated a +73% increase in organic search form fills for Informatica.com.",[14,14210,14211],{},"Perhaps most important is how BrightEdge has helped Informatica's bottom line: organic search pipeline create. The first half of 2018 was a record-breaking period, with the highest first half of the year organic pipeline created ever. This was an 8% increase Y\u002FY.",[14,14213,14214],{},"We're excited about these results and utilizing BrightEdge further to push them to even higher record-breaking levels.",[14,14216,14217],{},"To distill that submission down to just the year-over-year organic search comparison results:",[46,14219,14220,14223,14226,14229,14232],{},[49,14221,14222],{},"+173% impressions",[49,14224,14225],{},"+73% conversion actions (form fills)",[49,14227,14228],{},"+23% sessions",[49,14230,14231],{},"+12% more pages indexed",[49,14233,14234],{},"+8% pipeline value",[14,14236,14237],{},"Our team is super pumped to have won this award! Other companies and agencies that we were able to contend with included McKesson, Merkle, Rogers, IBM and VMware, to name a handful.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":14239},[],"2018-10-10","Thanks to all our hard work in conjunction with our Informatica marketing team we have won the 2018 BrigeEdge Edgie Award for Performance and Results!","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbright-edge-edgie-award.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F2018-brightedge-edgie-award-winners",{"title":14159,"description":14241},"blog\u002Fseo\u002F2018-brightedge-edgie-award-winners","VTjh_WJZ-yW1t4Fa-y4Pc5oKzeqXED0xkdAcr0gI9tA",[1664,1718],{"id":14250,"title":14251,"author":7,"authors":14252,"body":14254,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":14472,"description":14473,"extension":318,"img":14474,"imgAlt":7,"meta":14475,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":14476,"seo":14477,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":14478,"updated":7,"__hash__":14479,"people":14480},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Finformatica-seo-training.md","Operation SEO Training",[14253],"Mike Krass",{"type":11,"value":14255,"toc":14466},[14256,14259,14262,14271,14274,14279,14282,14285,14296,14305,14309,14312,14315,14324,14333,14336,14339,14342,14362,14365,14369,14372,14375,14378,14381,14393,14404,14415,14423,14426,14430,14433,14436,14439,14446,14450,14453,14460,14463],[14,14257,14258],{},"Last month we had the pleasure of welcoming two of our client stakeholders to our office in New Orleans.\nSyed and Monique represent Organic Media and Web Marketing for our client, Informatica.",[14,14260,14261],{},"While we have a healthy meeting cadence in place (every week + additional topic-specific meetings each month) there were some important strategic topics that we just hadn't been able to cover.",[14,14263,14264,14265,14270],{},"As we talked about the importance of these topics we realized that they deserved serious time and attention. They ",[206,14266,14269],{"href":14267,"rel":14268},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fpulse\u002Fman-island-kerry-guard\u002F",[210],"couldn't be handled remotely"," or as \"one-off\" discussions.",[14,14272,14273],{},"Our client's boss, Gary, has a great saying:",[13959,14275,14276],{},[14,14277,14278],{},"It's all important. It's up to us to prioritize and make time.",[14,14280,14281],{},"In an amazing show of making time, Syed and Monique joined Tammy and Christian in New Orleans for an intensive 2 day SEO training workshop.",[14,14283,14284],{},"We covered quite a few topics, with the highlights being:",[46,14286,14287,14290,14293],{},[49,14288,14289],{},"Explanation of Content Silos as they relate to Informatica.com",[49,14291,14292],{},"How search engines crawl a website or URL (complete with a New vs Old Google Search Console review)",[49,14294,14295],{},"Workflow: Past, present and future",[14,14297,14298,14299,14304],{},"While the bulk of our conversation was specific to ",[206,14300,14303],{"href":14301,"rel":14302},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.informatica.com",[210],"Informatica",", there were a few topics that could be valuable to any SEO or Digital Marketer wanting to improve the Organic Search performance of their website.",[24,14306,14308],{"id":14307},"content-silos","Content Silos",[14,14310,14311],{},"Content silos are difficult to explain over the phone or a Webex meeting.",[14,14313,14314],{},"Due to many factors -- including the depth of products and solutions presented to visitors on Informatica.com -- Content Silos are becoming a really important.",[14,14316,14317,14318,14323],{},"Our fellow SEO Cyrus Shepard agrees with their importance, noting ",[206,14319,14322],{"href":14320,"rel":14321},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002FCyrusShepard\u002Fstatus\u002F1034344400912957441",[210],"Content Silos as a Top 3 site architecture element"," to help your website rank better on Organic Search.",[14,14325,14326,14327,14332],{},"In our training session, Christian and Tammy decided to use ",[206,14328,14331],{"href":14329,"rel":14330},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002FMKGMarketingInc\u002Fstatus\u002F1032015786288795648",[210],"_Sammiches _"," (short for sandwiches, of course) as our Content Silo example.",[14,14334,14335],{},"![SEO Content Silo Visual Explanation]('\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FSammiches Explanation for SEO Content Silos.webp')",[14,14337,14338],{},"What's the best way to explain the concept of Content Silos for websites?",[14,14340,14341],{},"With the overarching theme of Sammiches, of course!",[46,14343,14344,14350,14356],{},[49,14345,14346,14347],{},"Content Silos begin with an overarching theme. In this case, we used ",[52,14348,14349],{},"Sammiches",[49,14351,14352,14355],{},[52,14353,14354],{},"Categories and Subcategories"," fall under that theme. For example: Sammiches have cheese.",[49,14357,14358,14361],{},[52,14359,14360],{},"Posts"," that live under the Subcategories can add more Sammich modifiers. In our example, Sammich cheese could be American, Swiss, Gouda ... you get the point.",[14,14363,14364],{},"Speaking of sammiches ... is it lunchtime yet? Nope? Only 9am? Ok, onwards to talk about how search engines crawl your website :)",[24,14366,14368],{"id":14367},"how-search-engines-crawl-a-website","How Search Engines Crawl a Website",[14,14370,14371],{},"Have you ever seen the code that returns when you crawl your own website?",[14,14373,14374],{},"Here's an example with our own homepage:",[14,14376,14377],{},"![Google Search Console URL Inspection]('\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FGSC URL Inspection: MKGMarketingInc.com.png')",[14,14379,14380],{},"Actually visualizing what your website \"looks like\" to search engines is a useful exercise for Web Marketers, as they can see how company templates and code pushes are seen, crawled and indexed by search engines.",[14,14382,14383,14384],{},"Now that we have a visual reference, we can follow ",[206,14385,14388,14389,14392],{"href":14386,"rel":14387},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fhowsearchworks\u002Fcrawling-indexing\u002F",[210],"Google's explanation for how they ",[38,14390,14391],{},"crawl and index"," content on your website:",[46,14394,14395,14398,14401],{},[49,14396,14397],{},"Google reviews previous crawls as well as sitemap's submitted by website owners",[49,14399,14400],{},"Google then crawls your website (or part of it) again",[49,14402,14403],{},"The search algorithms are looking for key signals — anything \"from keywords to website freshness\" — in order to update their index and rank your website\u002FURL accordingly",[14,14405,14406,14407,14412],{},"There is an amazingly simple -- and effective -- video that explains the way search engines such as Google organize information on the Internet. You can watch it here: [",[206,14408,14411],{"href":14409,"rel":14410},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fhowsearchworks\u002Fcrawling-indexing\u002F%5D(",[210],"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fhowsearchworks\u002Fcrawling-indexing\u002F](",[206,14413,14386],{"href":14386,"rel":14414},[210],[14,14416,14417,14418,8220],{},"For the folks who love a good visual, here is a humorous example of Web Crawlers, Googlebot and Web Content working together (Source: ",[206,14419,14422],{"href":14420,"rel":14421},"https:\u002F\u002Fseotinker.tk\u002Flearn-google-discovers-crawls-serves-web-pages\u002F",[210],"SEOTinker",[14,14424,14425],{},"![How Google Search Works]('\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FHow Google Search Works.webp')",[24,14427,14429],{"id":14428},"one-of-a-kind-experiences","One of a Kind Experiences",[14,14431,14432],{},"New Orleans is 300 years old and history seeps out of every cobbled stone street, locals restaurant or pirate bar across the city.",[14,14434,14435],{},"That history led Syed, Christian and I to visit Aidan Gill for Men, a barbershop whose namesake has been a barber for nearly 50 years. Aidan's experience as a barber dates back to his start in Dublin, Ireland, when he began cutting hair at the young age of 15.",[14,14437,14438],{},"Before we began the training days, the guys went in to get a straight shave and haircut.",[14,14440,14441,14442,14445],{},"Wondering why everyone looks so happy and relaxed? Barbers at Aidan Gill for Men put on slow jazz music and work through ",[38,14443,14444],{},"seven hot towels on your face"," before giving their clients a shave. Show me an insomniac that can stay awake through that many relaxing hot towels ;)",[24,14447,14449],{"id":14448},"recognizing-the-trip-for-what-it-was-work","Recognizing The Trip for What it Was: Work!",[14,14451,14452],{},"At our final dinner before everyone departed back home, I mentioned how inspiring it was to see key stakeholders take time and energy to make this training trip happen.",[14,14454,14455,14456,14459],{},"Everyone ",[52,14457,14458],{},"committed"," to the process of growing the SEO presence of Informatica.com",[14,14461,14462],{},"That's not something that a client and SEO agency can make happen every day. And I'm tremendously proud that we could make this happen.",[14,14464,14465],{},"By the way .... this is an annual work trip now, right? ;)",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":14467},[14468,14469,14470,14471],{"id":14307,"depth":291,"text":14308},{"id":14367,"depth":291,"text":14368},{"id":14428,"depth":291,"text":14429},{"id":14448,"depth":291,"text":14449},"2018-09-11","Informatica's Web Marketing Team Visits the MKG New Orleans office for an Intensive 2 Day SEO Training.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Finformatica-mkgmarketing-seo-training.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Finformatica-seo-training",{"title":14251,"description":14473},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Finformatica-seo-training","ZbYErX-aZwDLkkf7hFU94uixJl2oTVl9hmrHH-HJkv8",[14481],{"id":14482,"title":14253,"body":14483,"date":7,"description":14511,"extension":318,"images":14512,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":14514,"linkedIn":14515,"meta":14516,"name":14253,"navigation":322,"path":14518,"quote":14519,"quoteCite":14520,"ref":14521,"seo":14522,"sequence":12132,"stem":14523,"team":7,"twitter":14515,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":14524},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmike-krass.md",{"type":11,"value":14484,"toc":14509},[14485,14489,14492,14495],[14,14486,14488],{"className":14487},[1671],"A proud Washington State University alum — Go Cougs! — who grew up on the west coast of the United States, Mike has lived on three continents during his lifetime.",[14,14490,14491],{},"Over the past decade Mike has led MKG Marketing in becoming a 7-figure business, joined the global Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) as a member as well as holds a seat on their Board of Directors and mentored other business owners through organizations like Idea Village, EO and General Assembly.",[14,14493,14494],{},"When he’s not at work, Mike enjoys:",[46,14496,14497,14500,14503,14506],{},[49,14498,14499],{},"Riding his beach cruiser bike in the park.",[49,14501,14502],{},"Reading business and spy novels (often at the same time — ask him how many half finished books he’s currently reading on his Kindle!)",[49,14504,14505],{},"Traveling the world.",[49,14507,14508],{},"Flying N5478N — his trusty 1981 Cessna 182.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":14510},[],"Meet Mike Krass, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. He currently drives the big picture vision for the agency and supports biz dev and sales efforts.",{"landscape":14513},"mike-krass.webp","Owner\u002FVisionary","mikekrass",{"imageDescription":14517},"Mike Krass, MKG Marketing’s Owner\u002FVisionary, standing in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter of New Orleans | MKG Marketing","\u002Fteam\u002Fmike-krass","Focus on the road, not the wall.","Alvin Alexander","mike-krass",{"description":14511},"team\u002Fmike-krass","WCJwOrpm4HOYHMODFwHdEILqPkcZwTSZUakkr3-n3rs",{"id":14526,"title":14527,"author":7,"authors":14528,"body":14529,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":14867,"description":14868,"extension":318,"img":14869,"imgAlt":7,"meta":14870,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":14871,"seo":14872,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":14527,"stem":14873,"updated":7,"__hash__":14874,"people":14875},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-generate-xml-sitemap.md","How to Generate an XML Sitemap",[14170],{"type":11,"value":14530,"toc":14856},[14531,14534,14537,14541,14544,14560,14564,14567,14578,14582,14585,14672,14675,14752,14755,14759,14762,14765,14768,14772,14775,14784,14788,14791,14800,14808,14812,14815,14824,14827,14831,14834,14837,14840,14844,14853],[14,14532,14533],{},"XML Sitemap defined: A “cheatsheet” for search engines to see all of the 200 OK URLs that you want to have in their indexes for your domain.\nThis file gives search engines access into every single URL you want to have ranked for your domain in a way that doesn’t make search engines rely on their spiders or crawlers find them all.",[14,14535,14536],{},"An XML sitemap file is almost always present at the root of a domain (e.g. example.com\u002Fsitemap.xml).",[24,14538,14540],{"id":14539},"xml-sitemap-use-cases","XML Sitemap Use Cases",[14,14542,14543],{},"You should always have an updated XML sitemap readily accessible for search engines to grab. However, there are circumstances where you need to pay some extra attention to this all-important file:",[132,14545,14546,14549,14557],{},[49,14547,14548],{},"Site migration – If you’re changing URL structures, when these changes are pushed live you should have your XML sitemap file reflect the new URLs.",[49,14550,14551,14552,212],{},"News – If you’re generating news at a fairly frequent clip, you should ensure your XML sitemap updates with these new URLs. Also look into a ",[206,14553,14556],{"href":14554,"rel":14555},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fnews\u002Fpublisher-center\u002Fanswer\u002F74288?hl=en",[210],"Google News XML sitemap",[49,14558,14559],{},"International – Each international “version” of your site, whether it’s on a subdomain or a subfolder, should have its own XML sitemap file.",[24,14561,14563],{"id":14562},"special-considerations-for-xml-sitemaps","Special Considerations for XML Sitemaps",[14,14565,14566],{},"The following are some things you should keep in mind when thinking about creating an XML sitemap:",[132,14568,14569,14572,14575],{},[49,14570,14571],{},"One XML sitemap per domain. This means if you have a subdomain, you would need to create an XML sitemap for that subdomain only and place it at the root.",[49,14573,14574],{},"URL limitations. If you have more than 50,000 URLs, you need to create separate XML sitemaps. In this case, you would create a parent XML sitemap file (sitemap-index.xml) and then have this file link off to each sitemap XML file (sitemap1.xml, sitemap2.xml). This content is more for site owners who have a website with less than 50,000 URLs. If you do, you can consult the XML sitemap website with instructions on this practice here.",[49,14576,14577],{},"International. If you have International content, such as a version of your site on a subfolder level (example.com\u002Fes\u002F), you would want to create an XML sitemap for this “section” of the site and place it at that subfolder level (example.com\u002Fes\u002Fsitemap.xml).",[24,14579,14581],{"id":14580},"xml-sitemap-example","XML Sitemap Example",[14,14583,14584],{},"These files are always constructed in the same way, a protocol that all search engines agree and follow.",[13277,14586,14590],{"className":14587,"code":14588,"language":14589,"meta":77,"style":77},"language-xml shiki shiki-themes github-light github-dark","\u003Curl>\n    \u003Cloc>The URL “location” (https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org). The only critically important element to have.\n    \u003Clastmod>The last time the page content has changed. Moderately important to include. Should follow this format: YEAR-MM-DD (2018-07-03).\n    \u003Cchangefreq>How frequently will the page content change. Slightly important to include. Values you can use are:\n        + always\n        + hourly\n        + daily\n        + weekly\n        + monthly\n        + yearly\n        + never\n    \u003Cpriority>A scale from 1.0 to 0.0 on how much “value” you believe each page has. Slightly important to include. You would likely follow the URL structure of your website in deeming importance, such as:\n        + example.org - 1.0\n        + example.org\u002Fpage\u002F - 0.9\n        + example.org\u002Fpage\u002Fanother-page\u002F - 0.8\n\u003C\u002Furl>\n","xml",[13206,14591,14592,14597,14602,14607,14612,14617,14622,14627,14632,14637,14642,14647,14652,14657,14662,14667],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,14593,14594],{"class":13287,"line":1713},[13285,14595,14596],{},"\u003Curl>\n",[13285,14598,14599],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,14600,14601],{},"    \u003Cloc>The URL “location” (https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org). The only critically important element to have.\n",[13285,14603,14604],{"class":13287,"line":297},[13285,14605,14606],{},"    \u003Clastmod>The last time the page content has changed. Moderately important to include. Should follow this format: YEAR-MM-DD (2018-07-03).\n",[13285,14608,14609],{"class":13287,"line":3296},[13285,14610,14611],{},"    \u003Cchangefreq>How frequently will the page content change. Slightly important to include. Values you can use are:\n",[13285,14613,14614],{"class":13287,"line":1774},[13285,14615,14616],{},"        + always\n",[13285,14618,14619],{"class":13287,"line":586},[13285,14620,14621],{},"        + hourly\n",[13285,14623,14624],{"class":13287,"line":321},[13285,14625,14626],{},"        + daily\n",[13285,14628,14629],{"class":13287,"line":3555},[13285,14630,14631],{},"        + weekly\n",[13285,14633,14634],{"class":13287,"line":13015},[13285,14635,14636],{},"        + monthly\n",[13285,14638,14639],{"class":13287,"line":12132},[13285,14640,14641],{},"        + yearly\n",[13285,14643,14644],{"class":13287,"line":13399},[13285,14645,14646],{},"        + never\n",[13285,14648,14649],{"class":13287,"line":13405},[13285,14650,14651],{},"    \u003Cpriority>A scale from 1.0 to 0.0 on how much “value” you believe each page has. Slightly important to include. You would likely follow the URL structure of your website in deeming importance, such as:\n",[13285,14653,14654],{"class":13287,"line":13419},[13285,14655,14656],{},"        + example.org - 1.0\n",[13285,14658,14659],{"class":13287,"line":13425},[13285,14660,14661],{},"        + example.org\u002Fpage\u002F - 0.9\n",[13285,14663,14664],{"class":13287,"line":13439},[13285,14665,14666],{},"        + example.org\u002Fpage\u002Fanother-page\u002F - 0.8\n",[13285,14668,14669],{"class":13287,"line":13444},[13285,14670,14671],{},"\u003C\u002Furl>\n",[14,14673,14674],{},"So an example of two URLs in a sitemap file would look something like this:",[13277,14676,14678],{"className":14587,"code":14677,"language":14589,"meta":77,"style":77},"\u003C?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n\u003Curlset xmlns=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.sitemaps.org\u002Fschemas\u002Fsitemap\u002F0.9\">\n    \u003Curl>\n        \u003Cloc>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org\u002F\u003C\u002Floc>\n        \u003Clastmod>2018-07-03\u003C\u002Flastmod>\n        \u003Cchangefreq>daily\u003C\u002Fchangefreq>\n        \u003Cpriority>1.0\u003C\u002Fpriority>\n    \u003C\u002Furl>\n    \u003Curl>\n        \u003Cloc>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org\u002Fpage\u002F\u003C\u002Floc>\n        \u003Clastmod>2018-07-03\u003C\u002Flastmod>\n        \u003Cchangefreq>weekly\u003C\u002Fchangefreq>\n        \u003Cpriority>0.9\u003C\u002Fpriority>\n    \u003C\u002Furl>\n\u003C\u002Furlset>\n",[13206,14679,14680,14685,14690,14695,14700,14705,14710,14715,14720,14724,14729,14733,14738,14743,14747],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,14681,14682],{"class":13287,"line":1713},[13285,14683,14684],{},"\u003C?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n",[13285,14686,14687],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,14688,14689],{},"\u003Curlset xmlns=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.sitemaps.org\u002Fschemas\u002Fsitemap\u002F0.9\">\n",[13285,14691,14692],{"class":13287,"line":297},[13285,14693,14694],{},"    \u003Curl>\n",[13285,14696,14697],{"class":13287,"line":3296},[13285,14698,14699],{},"        \u003Cloc>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org\u002F\u003C\u002Floc>\n",[13285,14701,14702],{"class":13287,"line":1774},[13285,14703,14704],{},"        \u003Clastmod>2018-07-03\u003C\u002Flastmod>\n",[13285,14706,14707],{"class":13287,"line":586},[13285,14708,14709],{},"        \u003Cchangefreq>daily\u003C\u002Fchangefreq>\n",[13285,14711,14712],{"class":13287,"line":321},[13285,14713,14714],{},"        \u003Cpriority>1.0\u003C\u002Fpriority>\n",[13285,14716,14717],{"class":13287,"line":3555},[13285,14718,14719],{},"    \u003C\u002Furl>\n",[13285,14721,14722],{"class":13287,"line":13015},[13285,14723,14694],{},[13285,14725,14726],{"class":13287,"line":12132},[13285,14727,14728],{},"        \u003Cloc>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.example.org\u002Fpage\u002F\u003C\u002Floc>\n",[13285,14730,14731],{"class":13287,"line":13399},[13285,14732,14704],{},[13285,14734,14735],{"class":13287,"line":13405},[13285,14736,14737],{},"        \u003Cchangefreq>weekly\u003C\u002Fchangefreq>\n",[13285,14739,14740],{"class":13287,"line":13419},[13285,14741,14742],{},"        \u003Cpriority>0.9\u003C\u002Fpriority>\n",[13285,14744,14745],{"class":13287,"line":13425},[13285,14746,14719],{},[13285,14748,14749],{"class":13287,"line":13439},[13285,14750,14751],{},"\u003C\u002Furlset>\n",[14,14753,14754],{},"You add the top lines to show this is an XML sitemap example and you add the trailing slash urlset to signify the end of the file.",[24,14756,14758],{"id":14757},"xml-sitemap-seo-importance","XML Sitemap SEO Importance",[14,14760,14761],{},"Like previously mentioned, XML sitemaps are cheatsheets for search engines. You can easily tell them to go out and crawl the listed URLs without having to rely on their spiders to find them all.",[14,14763,14764],{},"This can be both a blessing and a curse, whether your XML sitemap is up to date :)",[14,14766,14767],{},"We find that there is still some SEO value in having an up-to-date, maintained XML sitemap. While search engines (and their spiders) are getting smarter at finding all of the content for a domain and being able to crawl all types of content, why not give them a list of your URLs?",[24,14769,14771],{"id":14770},"how-to-generate-an-xml-sitemap-file-wordpress","How To Generate an XML Sitemap File - WordPress",[14,14773,14774],{},"If you’re using the WordPress platform, a whole slew of plugins give you the ability to create an XML sitemap for your website.",[14,14776,14777,14778,14783],{},"Perhaps the most popular way is by using ",[206,14779,14782],{"href":14780,"rel":14781},"https:\u002F\u002Fkb.yoast.com\u002Fkb\u002Fenable-xml-sitemaps-in-the-wordpress-seo-plugin\u002F",[210],"the Yoast plugin",". This plugin will also update your XML sitemap whenever any new content is posted on your site - automagically.",[24,14785,14787],{"id":14786},"how-to-generate-an-xml-sitemap-file-other-platforms-static-wix-etc","How To Generate an XML Sitemap File - Other Platforms (Static, Wix, etc.)",[14,14789,14790],{},"Never fear! If you’re using a CMS other than WordPress, there are still ways you can create and maintain an XML sitemap.",[14,14792,14793,14794,14799],{},"Our most-trusted tool is ",[206,14795,14798],{"href":14796,"rel":14797},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.xml-sitemaps.com\u002F",[210],"XML-Sitemaps",". This online tool will crawl and grab all of your URLs and automatically generate an XML sitemap. The limitation here is that the free version will only crawl up to 500 URLs.",[14,14801,14802,14803,212],{},"You can also use other tools to create XML sitemaps, such as ",[206,14804,14807],{"href":14805,"rel":14806},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.screamingfrog.co.uk\u002Fseo-spider\u002F",[210],"Screaming Frog SEO Spider",[24,14809,14811],{"id":14810},"checking-and-validating-your-xml-sitemap","Checking and Validating Your XML Sitemap",[14,14813,14814],{},"So you’ve created an XML sitemap file. Great! Now you should check and see if you did it right ☺",[14,14816,14817,14818,14823],{},"Google Search Console and ",[206,14819,14822],{"href":14820,"rel":14821},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bing.com\u002Ftoolbox\u002Fwebmaster",[210],"Bing Webmaster Tools",", the two places you should submit your XML sitemaps to if you have a primarily US-based website, offer input on whether they can “read” your sitemap files.",[14,14825,14826],{},"After validating your website, you’ll be able to have the option of giving each website your XML sitemap file URL address. When doing so, we recommend having them report to you about any errors they might be seeing. Maybe you didn’t close a tag properly. Or misspelled one of the labels. In any event, you want to make sure the validation comes back error free.",[24,14828,14830],{"id":14829},"submitting-an-xml-sitemap-file-to-google-and-bing-yahoo","Submitting an XML Sitemap File to Google and Bing \u002F Yahoo",[14,14832,14833],{},"Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are the two destinations for you to navigate to in order to submit your file to search engines. If you followed the checking and validating instructions, you’ll be able to access these two sites to submit your XML sitemaps to each search engine.",[14,14835,14836],{},"Note that Bing Webmaster Tools includes both Bing and Yahoo search indexes.",[14,14838,14839],{},"These two destinations will also alert you to any issues in the future if they find any URLs in the XML sitemap returning 4xx errors or redirects. It’s a good idea to check up on the health of these files in both places on a weekly basis.",[24,14841,14843],{"id":14842},"any-questions","Any Questions?",[14,14845,14846,14847,14852],{},"We hope you’ve learned a little bit more about XML sitemaps, why they’re important, and how to generate and submit these files to search engines. Have questions? ",[206,14848,14851],{"href":14849,"rel":14850},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002Fintent\u002Ftweet?screen_name=MKGMarketingInc&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw",[210],"Tweet at us"," and we’ll get back to you!",[13921,14854,14855],{},"html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}html.dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":14857},[14858,14859,14860,14861,14862,14863,14864,14865,14866],{"id":14539,"depth":291,"text":14540},{"id":14562,"depth":291,"text":14563},{"id":14580,"depth":291,"text":14581},{"id":14757,"depth":291,"text":14758},{"id":14770,"depth":291,"text":14771},{"id":14786,"depth":291,"text":14787},{"id":14810,"depth":291,"text":14811},{"id":14829,"depth":291,"text":14830},{"id":14842,"depth":291,"text":14843},"2018-07-06","A guide on what an XML Sitemap is, why it's important, how to generate one,  and then how to implement it. Get going.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fxml-sitemaps-generator.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-generate-xml-sitemap",{"title":14527,"description":14868},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fhow-to-generate-xml-sitemap","A8HiW_D6ZSAWr6KBz3yKe-VxAPm60ZpUC2rgb2Eqs4c",[],{"id":14877,"title":14878,"author":7,"authors":14879,"body":14880,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":15110,"description":14884,"extension":318,"img":15111,"imgAlt":7,"meta":15112,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":15113,"seo":15114,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":14878,"stem":15115,"updated":7,"__hash__":15116,"people":15117},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-voice-search.md","SEO Voice Search Best Practices",[13952],{"type":11,"value":14881,"toc":15101},[14882,14885,14888,14891,14895,14898,14901,14906,14911,14914,14917,14921,14923,14925,14929,14933,14935,14937,14978,14983,14987,14991,14994,15005,15008,15011,15014,15018,15021,15024,15035,15038,15041,15044,15047,15050,15055,15060,15065,15067,15070,15093],[14,14883,14884],{},"With the growth in mobile voice searches digital marketing, including SEO, has moved to an AI predictive model. To keep pace with technology, the marketers have done several surveys and studies to get ahead of the emerging trend.",[14,14886,14887],{},"The range of virtual assistants, such as Siri, Cortana, Google Voice Search\u002FNow, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, are collectively training people to search using their voices and to become more “conversational” with search and mobile devices.",[14,14889,14890],{},"While the research is compelling, this technology is still too new to have a complete picture and\u002For set best practices for SEO specifically.  However, there are several research studies from 2016- 2018 where a common theme has emerged.",[24,14892,14894],{"id":14893},"nlp-natural-language-processing","NLP : Natural Language Processing",[14,14896,14897],{},"Voice technology is another step in the direction of improving the user experience with semantics. RankBrain from Google further develops the use of user intent via NLP and other algorithm factors.",[14,14899,14900],{},"Marie-Claire Jenkins, a Ph.D. in Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence at the University of East Anglia, defines NLP:",[14,14902,14903],{},[38,14904,14905],{},"\"It is the area of computing that deals with words. Words form texts, texts form collections of many texts, leading to an awful lot of words. This \"bag of words\" needs to be analyzed so that a machine can make sense of them. If it can't, there is no way of retrieving information from the texts and so they are in effect useless.",[14,14907,14908],{},[38,14909,14910],{},"Linguistic analysis is used to analyze and represent the texts. Once the computer can represent the language in some way (patterns, reoccurring words, synonymy...) the information in the texts can be manipulated. This mimics the human understanding of language. NLP is a subfield of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.\"",[14,14912,14913],{},"Basically, Natural Language Processing (NLP) to recognize voice texture, interests, and behavior. With time, Google “learns” your language, accent, and other patterns in the way you speak, through your voice activated devices.",[14,14915,14916],{},"Now, and going forward Google’s RankBrain reinforces the AI used for voice searches, which focuses on the semantics and the wider contextual relevance of the user’s query.",[24,14918,14920],{"id":14919},"summary-of-our-most-interesting-findings","Summary of Our Most Interesting Findings:",[14,14922,14897],{},[14,14924,14900],{},[14,14926,14927],{},[38,14928,14905],{},[14,14930,14931],{},[38,14932,14910],{},[14,14934,14913],{},[14,14936,14916],{},[132,14938,14939,14942,14945,14948,14951,14960,14963,14969,14972,14975],{},[49,14940,14941],{},"PageSpeed appears to play a major role in voice search SEO. The average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds (52% faster than the average page).",[49,14943,14944],{},"HTTPS websites dominate Google’s voice search results. In fact, 70.4% of Google Home result pages are secured with HTTPS.",[49,14946,14947],{},"Google prefers short, concise answers to voice search queries. The typical voice search result is only 29 words in length.",[49,14949,14950],{},"Schema may not play a key role in voice search rankings. 36.4% of voice search results come from pages that use Schema (which is only slightly higher than the worldwide average of 31.3%).",[49,14952,14953,14954,14959],{},"Authoritative domains tend to produce voice search results significantly more than non-authoritative domains. Fortunately, the mean ",[206,14955,14958],{"href":14956,"rel":14957},"https:\u002F\u002Fahrefs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fdomain-rating\u002F",[210],"Ahrefs Domain Rating"," of a Google Home result is 76.8.",[49,14961,14962],{},"Content with high levels of social engagement tends to perform well in voice search. In fact, the average voice search result has 1,199 Facebook shares and 44 Tweets.",[49,14964,14965,14966,212],{},"Simple, easy-to-read content may help with voice search SEO. The average Google voice search result is written at a ",[52,14967,14968],{},"9th grade level",[49,14970,14971],{},"We found that very few voice search results had the exact query in their title tag. So, creating individual pages for each voice search query doesn’t appear to be an effective voice search SEO strategy.",[49,14973,14974],{},"The average word count of a voice search result page is 2,312 words. Therefore, Google tends to source voice search answers from long form content.",[49,14976,14977],{},"Content that ranks highly in desktop search is also very likely to appear as a voice search answer. In fact, approximately 75% of voice search results rank in the top 3 for that query.",[14,14979,14980],{},[75,14981],{"alt":77,"src":14982},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fvoice-search-results.webp",[24,14984,14986],{"id":14985},"optimization-techniques","Optimization Techniques",[81,14988,14990],{"id":14989},"content","Content",[14,14992,14993],{},"Content should be written at an easily understood level, on average a ninth-grade level, while being scannable for the key points of the page. Target keywords should be the long tail in nature and lead the user into schematic theming of the intent of the page.",[46,14995,14996,14999,15002],{},[49,14997,14998],{},"Use headlines",[49,15000,15001],{},"Short paragraphs",[49,15003,15004],{},"Separate out topics in a scannable format",[14,15006,15007],{},"Keyword research is the cornerstone of any content creation or optimization. When specifically targeting voice search.",[14,15009,15010],{},"Longer form content returns the top level results for voice search (so far), with over 2000 words per result. This may pose a problem for some of the top level landing pages on businesses’ website, however, as we move forward in creating new content length can become a higher priority.",[14,15012,15013],{},"Creating FAQ sections throughout the website is a way increase the opportunity for both voice search as well as queries that include “Who, What, Why, When or Where”.",[81,15015,15017],{"id":15016},"featured-snippets","Featured Snippets",[14,15019,15020],{},"Featured snippets (position 0) continue to be a significant benefit for URLs, the same is true for voice search results. Featured snippets are position zero and logically it makes sense to be the top result, in any type of search.  *Roughly 41 percent of voice search results came from Featured Snippets.",[14,15022,15023],{},"To increase our chances of being selected for a featured snippet, MKG takes a multi-pronged approach that includes:",[46,15025,15026,15029,15032],{},[49,15027,15028],{},"Content that clearly answers the question.",[49,15030,15031],{},"Clean code and tagging that Google can easily understand.",[49,15033,15034],{},"Positive user engagement signals.",[14,15036,15037],{},"MKG has identified opportunities for optimization for a featured snippet response does improve if you follow the content organizational model outlined below.",[14,15039,15040],{},"First, repeat the question that is the query, or which is implicit in the query, clearly and prominently on your web page.",[14,15042,15043],{},"Directly following the question, provide a short, direct, clear answer to the question.",[14,15045,15046],{},"Then, provide more information, data, images and so on to answer the question as fully and completely as possible.",[14,15048,15049],{},"One way to structure your content is to use what journalists refer to as “the inverted pyramid.” When following the inverted pyramid model, your page starts with the most important information that answers the question, then transitions to more detailed information, and finally wraps up with a broader look at the topic or perhaps a case study or an example.",[14,15051,15052],{},[75,15053],{"alt":77,"src":15054},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fvoice-search-content.webp",[14,15056,15057],{},[38,15058,15059],{},"Image Credit: The Air Force Departmental Publishing Office (AFDPO) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons",[14,15061,15062],{},[38,15063,15064],{},"SearchEngineland.com",[24,15066,3034],{"id":3033},[14,15068,15069],{},"Voice search is a new technology which will continue to modify how search engines evolve into voice and AI. While formatting specific content may increase the likelihood of inclusion in the results, there are no direct paths, on record yet. Common sense SEO rules still apply:",[132,15071,15072,15075,15078,15081,15084,15087,15090],{},[49,15073,15074],{},"Write for the visitors not search engines",[49,15076,15077],{},"Use simple explanations and language",[49,15079,15080],{},"Research your users\u002F visitors vocalize some common questions",[49,15082,15083],{},"Use long term keywords to expand on the schematic theme of the page",[49,15085,15086],{},"Optimize existing content to show in Featured Snippets",[49,15088,15089],{},"Continue to follow best practices",[49,15091,15092],{},"Create long-form content",[14,15094,15095,15096,212],{},"Additional reading:  ",[206,15097,15100],{"href":15098,"rel":15099},"https:\u002F\u002Fstorage.googleapis.com\u002Fguidelines-eyesfree\u002Fevaluation_of_search_speech_guidelines_v1.0.pdf",[210],"Google's newly-published Voice Search Quality Guidelines",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":15102},[15103,15104,15105,15109],{"id":14893,"depth":291,"text":14894},{"id":14919,"depth":291,"text":14920},{"id":14985,"depth":291,"text":14986,"children":15106},[15107,15108],{"id":14989,"depth":297,"text":14990},{"id":15016,"depth":297,"text":15017},{"id":3033,"depth":291,"text":3034},"2018-06-02","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fvoice-search-hero.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-voice-search",{"title":14878,"description":14884},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-voice-search","uSTNi2LCodbZ-Qt_EA_Fd8TC1cwVP7Gvx1fxjk3BfLg",[],{"id":15119,"title":15120,"author":7,"authors":15121,"body":15122,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":15299,"description":15300,"extension":318,"img":15301,"imgAlt":7,"meta":15302,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":15303,"seo":15304,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":15305,"stem":15306,"updated":7,"__hash__":15307,"people":15308},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-engine-user-optimization.md","Search Engine User Optimization - There’s no “U” in SEO",[14170],{"type":11,"value":15123,"toc":15293},[15124,15127,15130,15144,15150,15159,15166,15169,15172,15180,15185,15188,15194,15197,15203,15206,15209,15217,15220,15224,15227,15230,15233,15236,15239,15243,15246,15249,15252,15255,15258,15261,15264,15267,15271,15274,15277,15280,15283,15286,15290],[14,15125,15126],{},"... but there should be.",[14,15128,15129],{},"Those working in the SEO industry keep close tabs on search engine algorithm changes.",[46,15131,15132,15135,15138],{},[49,15133,15134],{},"How search engines are changing the way they’re displaying results.",[49,15136,15137],{},"How search engines spider web pages and impediments to that process.",[49,15139,15140,15141,212],{},"How search engines ",[38,15142,15143],{},"[insert a hundred other things]",[14,15145,15146,15147,212],{},"What is being lost with this focus on the search engine is ",[38,15148,15149],{},"thinking about the user",[14,15151,15152,15153,15158],{},"The SEO team here at MKG keeps our eyes and ears on ",[206,15154,15157],{"href":15155,"rel":15156},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.searchenginejournal.com\u002Fgoogle-algorithm-history\u002F",[210],"all of the algorithm changes"," search engines are rolling out… but I’d like to propose that we go a step further.",[14,15160,15161,15162,15165],{},"It’s something I’d like to call search engine ",[52,15163,15164],{},"user"," optimization.",[14,15167,15168],{},"SEUO.",[14,15170,15171],{},"It’s not just thinking of a website as a tool for search engines.",[14,15173,15174,15175],{},"Or evaluating a webpage’s on-page SEO based simply on ",[206,15176,15179],{"href":15177,"rel":15178},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fwebmasters\u002Fanswer\u002F7451184?hl=en",[210],"“SEO best practices.”",[14,15181,15182,212],{},[52,15183,15184],{},"SEOs need to think about the user first",[14,15186,15187],{},"How your web page result will be perceived by a user first before a search engine spider.",[14,15189,15190],{},[75,15191],{"alt":15192,"src":15193},"SEO Meta Description Boring Example","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcybersecurity-boring-listing-serp.webp",[14,15195,15196],{},"vs",[14,15198,15199],{},[75,15200],{"alt":15201,"src":15202},"SEO Meta Description Optimized Example","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcybersecurity-optimized-listing-serp.webp",[14,15204,15205],{},"Both elements include some “SEO best practices.” But one will absolutely stand out from the rest on the search engine results page.",[14,15207,15208],{},"Care to guess which?",[14,15210,15211,15216],{},[206,15212,15215],{"href":15213,"rel":15214},"https:\u002F\u002Fseopressor.com\u002Fblog\u002Fsecret-about-meta-description-that-improve-ctr\u002F",[210],"Here’s a case study"," about how focusing on optimizing purely the meta description for pages can lead to a click through rate increase of 3x.",[14,15218,15219],{},"In keeping users in mind when performing SEO, here is how MKG incorporates the “user” in our SEO process:",[24,15221,15223],{"id":15222},"decipher-keyword-research","Decipher keyword research",[14,15225,15226],{},"“How do users search for information that we’re providing?”",[14,15228,15229],{},"It’s a question that starts just about every web page optimization process we go through.",[14,15231,15232],{},"Instead of just providing a list of keywords and optimizing for the keywords with the highest search volume, it’s important to investigate the ‘why’ for each keyword. The intent of each query. Is it referential? Or transactional?",[14,15234,15235],{},"Decipher the keyword research and understand the trends of what you’re seeing.",[14,15237,15238],{},"Then think about the web page you’re optimizing. Will it satisfy the ‘why’ of the user’s intent with a search query? Or are we trying to shove a sales-heavy copy page (BOFU) to someone who is searching merely for information (TOFU)?",[24,15240,15242],{"id":15241},"evolve-seo-meta-data-messaging","Evolve SEO meta data messaging",[14,15244,15245],{},"Stand out from the crowd.",[14,15247,15248],{},"If ten organic search results are showing on a search engine result page and all are displaying SEO best practice title tags and meta descriptions, what is a search engine user to do?",[14,15250,15251],{},"Probably just click the first result and pray it’s the best one of the bunch.",[14,15253,15254],{},"Research suggests that the first result gets clicked the most.",[14,15256,15257],{},"What if you were ranked third on the page... but your result was different than the rest?",[14,15259,15260],{},"Might get some more clicks than a traditionally third-ranked result.",[14,15262,15263],{},"We know click through rate does influence rankings.",[14,15265,15266],{},"Congratulations - now your users are contributing to your SEO success.",[24,15268,15270],{"id":15269},"provide-value-every-time","Provide value - every time",[14,15272,15273],{},"We’re established that SEO is all about the user.",[14,15275,15276],{},"But it’s also about trust.",[14,15278,15279],{},"If a user visits your website and her first impression is a page where you’ve banged out 500 words in about 10 minutes about a subject that provides zero value about that subject, you bet she won’t be back to your site.",[14,15281,15282],{},"If a user visits your website and his first impression is a nifty newsletter sign-up lightbox within the first five seconds of his visit, he will be hard-pressed to come back.",[14,15284,15285],{},"Before publishing a piece of content, get a colleague or friend to review it. What do they think? Did they get anything out of it?",[24,15287,15289],{"id":15288},"focus-on-the-user","Focus on the user!",[14,15291,15292],{},"Treat your website visitors as royalty. Research how they’re searching for information, products or services you offer. Give them a reason why they should check out your web page listing on a search engine result page.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":15294},[15295,15296,15297,15298],{"id":15222,"depth":291,"text":15223},{"id":15241,"depth":291,"text":15242},{"id":15269,"depth":291,"text":15270},{"id":15288,"depth":291,"text":15289},"2018-05-13","Using SEO for Search Engine User Optimization- Write for the User","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fseou.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-engine-user-optimization",{"title":15120,"description":15300},"Search Engine User Optimization","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-engine-user-optimization","Ek4n6XlRJz0GsvQk5pqc3irCVrOKYoqe9H258T2Ayfs",[],{"id":15310,"title":15311,"author":7,"authors":15312,"body":15313,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":15348,"description":15349,"extension":318,"img":15350,"imgAlt":7,"meta":15351,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":15352,"seo":15353,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":15354,"stem":15355,"updated":7,"__hash__":15356,"people":15357},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fdigital-marketing-agency-clutch-reviews.md","MKG Marketing is now Featured on Clutch",[9],{"type":11,"value":15314,"toc":15346},[15315,15330,15336,15339],[14,15316,15317,15318,15323,15324,15329],{},"We were recently featured on Clutch, the leading B2B ratings and reviews service for digital service solution providers. They comprehensively research ",[206,15319,15322],{"href":15320,"rel":15321},"https:\u002F\u002Fclutch.co\u002Fseo-firms\u002Fseattle",[210],"SEO companies",", consultants, ppc companies, social media advertisers and many more digital, and ",[206,15325,15328],{"href":15326,"rel":15327},"https:\u002F\u002Fclutch.co\u002Fseo-firms",[210],"SEO service providers",", and effectively map them with their unique research methodology. Their methodology is scored and ranked by an ‘ability to deliver’ which accounts for factors such as market presence, clientele, and reviews. Reviews are the most heavily weighted factor in their research because it is increasingly important for B2B companies to have them.",[14,15331,15332],{},[75,15333],{"alt":15334,"src":15335},"Clutch Leaders Matrix","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmarket-leaders.webp",[14,15337,15338],{},"Buyers trust Clutch because of their detailed, unbiased, Clutch-analyst led reviews. Clutch provides case study-like reviews that detail a company’s technical prowess in addition to highlighting a company’s ability to provide superior customer satisfaction. We had a client share their feedback on their platform, and here’s what they had to say.",[14,15340,15341,15342,212],{},"We leveraged our years of experience to help Avalara reach their digital marketing goals they had set for their campaign. Our team collectively has over 50 years of experience, over 30,000 paid search conversions, and over 160 million impressions. We understand demand generation and we produce results for our clients, which is why 83% of them continue to work with us after initial launches. We are Google partnered and certified, and we bring big agency experience sans the big agency overhead so that we can remain flexible while delivering analytically driven results. Come learn more about the ",[206,15343,15345],{"href":15344},"\u002Fabout\u002Fvalues\u002F","our values",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":15347},[],"2018-02-21","See in depth client reviews about MKG Marketing.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fclutch-profile.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fdigital-marketing-agency-clutch-reviews",{"title":15311,"description":15349},"Featured on Clutch","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fdigital-marketing-agency-clutch-reviews","JEx1JBx8s39aaESLOFliGjL-Wdz4F9Sk8U_jQmsY2zk",[1664,1718],{"id":15359,"title":15360,"author":7,"authors":15361,"body":15362,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":15484,"description":15485,"extension":318,"img":15407,"imgAlt":7,"meta":15486,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":15487,"seo":15488,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":15360,"stem":15489,"updated":7,"__hash__":15490,"people":15491},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fdelete-google-search-listing.md","Delete a Search Engine Result Listing from Google",[14170],{"type":11,"value":15363,"toc":15478},[15364,15367,15370,15373,15378,15385,15392,15396,15399,15402,15408,15411,15417,15420,15424,15427,15430,15433,15438,15441,15445,15448,15455,15458,15463,15466,15470],[14,15365,15366],{},"Uh oh.\nYou accidentally pushed a page live.",[14,15368,15369],{},"And it’s showing up in Google searches!",[14,15371,15372],{},"You’re probably asking out loud:",[13959,15374,15375],{},[14,15376,15377],{},"How can I quickly delete this listing from the search engine results page?!",[14,15379,15380,15381,15384],{},"Well, good news! Below are ",[52,15382,15383],{},"three ways"," you can ensure a page gets wiped out from Google, Bing, or Yahoo search engine results.",[14,15386,15387,15388,15391],{},"Note: you can only do this for ",[38,15389,15390],{},"owned"," web properties. That is, domains that you own.\nDo note that to be extra sure a URL doesn’t show in search results, we recommend doing a combination of these techniques, even three if you want to send the clearest signal to search engines.",[24,15393,15395],{"id":15394},"_1-google-search-console-bing-webmaster-tools","1. Google Search Console \u002F Bing Webmaster Tools",[14,15397,15398],{},"Hopefully you’ve already verified your website for both of these platforms. Verification is easy and you can heaps of terrific insights into the performance of your site.",[14,15400,15401],{},"Google Webmaster Tools allows you to “temporarily” block URLs. This should be used as a band-aid approach to quickly block a URL. You will need to then utilize the second or third way below to completely remove it from Google’s index.",[14,15403,15404],{},[75,15405],{"alt":15406,"src":15407},"Google Search Console temporarily remove URLs image","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-search-console-temporarily-remove-urls.webp",[14,15409,15410],{},"Bing Webmaster Tools is a little more sophisticated with this way of removal. With BWT, you can remove a URL (not just temporarily) and also look to block off a subfolder.",[14,15412,15413],{},[75,15414],{"alt":15415,"src":15416},"Bing Webmaster Tools block URLs image","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbing-webmaster-tools-block-urls.webp",[14,15418,15419],{},"Consider this way your frontline option before moving onto another.",[24,15421,15423],{"id":15422},"_2-robotstxt","2. Robots.txt",[14,15425,15426],{},"A robots.txt file is the one place search engine spiders go to look for pages or subfolders that they should not crawl.",[14,15428,15429],{},"This file and its specific format is one that all search engines understand.",[14,15431,15432],{},"The file format goes like this:",[14,15434,15435],{},[13206,15436,15437],{},"User-agent: * Disallow: \u002FURL-of-content-you-want-to-block\u002F",[14,15439,15440],{},"You can add just a ‘\u002F’ to disallow all crawling and indexation of your website. You can also input a subfolder to block off a subfolder or a specific URL, as the example above shows. Know that you start immediately after the domain in the structure, as search engine spiders can understand the domain that they’re on when looking at your robots.txt file.",[24,15442,15444],{"id":15443},"_3-robots-meta-tag","3. Robots meta tag",[14,15446,15447],{},"A robots meta tag is a tag that tells search engines to either index or noindex the page or follow or nofollow links on the page.",[14,15449,15450,15451,15454],{},"This tag is placed in the ",[13206,15452,15453],{},"\u003Chead>"," part of a web page’s code.",[14,15456,15457],{},"An example of robots.txt code that you would want placed for a web page that you don’t want indexed looks like this:",[14,15459,15460],{},[13206,15461,15462],{},"\u003CMETA NAME=\"ROBOTS\" CONTENT=\"NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW\">",[14,15464,15465],{},"Having this in your page code tells search engine spiders do not index this page and do not follow any of these links.",[24,15467,15469],{"id":15468},"stories-to-share-or-questions","Stories to share or questions?",[14,15471,15472,15473,15477],{},"Do you have any horror stories of pages you didn’t want to show up in search results? Please share via ",[206,15474,12810],{"href":15475,"rel":15476},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002FMKGMarketingInc",[210],"! Also let us know if you have any questions about specific issues you may be having with URLs being included in a search engine index.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":15479},[15480,15481,15482,15483],{"id":15394,"depth":291,"text":15395},{"id":15422,"depth":291,"text":15423},{"id":15443,"depth":291,"text":15444},{"id":15468,"depth":291,"text":15469},"2018-02-12","Remove a listing TODAY! Learn how you can delete an owned-property search engine result listing from Google, Bing and Yahoo!",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fdelete-google-search-listing",{"title":15360,"description":15485},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fdelete-google-search-listing","N4IutaY2Xr3-7drCpc9iN17KRcLRiD6us3cbsGcgQcI",[],{"id":15493,"title":15494,"author":7,"authors":15495,"body":15496,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":15858,"description":15859,"extension":318,"img":15860,"imgAlt":7,"meta":15861,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":15862,"seo":15863,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":15864,"updated":7,"__hash__":15865,"people":15866},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fpage-load-speed.md","Page Load Speed | How to Make Your Website Faster to Rank Higher",[13952],{"type":11,"value":15497,"toc":15851},[15498,15507,15511,15543,15546,15552,15555,15581,15590,15594,15597,15603,15609,15617,15622,15628,15631,15747,15761,15764,15768,15771,15774,15780,15788,15792,15795,15800,15803,15809,15813,15816,15831,15837,15840,15848],[14,15499,15500,15501,15506],{},"A slow site is a poor experience for users. As a result, search engines tend to rank slower sites worse than faster sites. The site must load quickly and aim for 100% uptime. Until recently, Google would only offer suggestions on steps to take to improve page load speed using the ",[206,15502,15505],{"href":15503,"rel":15504},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fspeed\u002Fpagespeed\u002Finsights\u002F",[210],"Google PageSpeed Insights"," tool.",[24,15508,15510],{"id":15509},"googles-suggestions-to-improve-page-load-used-to-include","Google’s suggestions to improve page load used to include:",[46,15512,15513,15519,15525,15531,15537],{},[49,15514,15515,15518],{},[52,15516,15517],{},"Select a Reputable Hosting Provider:"," It is imperative for a business or organization to do their due diligence when choosing a provider asking specific questions as it pertains to page load speed is a priority.",[49,15520,15521,15524],{},[52,15522,15523],{},"Images that are Too Large (Heavy):"," Images which are too heavy to load can really lower your page speed, typically from a lack of compression. Google may prefer PNG for images that do not require high details like logos and JPEG for photos.",[49,15526,15527,15530],{},[52,15528,15529],{},"Too many\u002Fintrusive ads:"," Google has been penalizing websites that use excessive Ads and or interstitial ads ( pop ups, pop unders, etc), not only do these slow down your site, they also could get your site lowered in rankings.",[49,15532,15533,15536],{},[52,15534,15535],{},"Your theme or template:"," some highly designed themes on different CMS platforms, can contain a lot of effects can slow down every page in your site rendering it less user friendly.",[49,15538,15539,15542],{},[52,15540,15541],{},"Inline CSS \u002F Java:"," Having clean and fast loading code through use of externalizing javascript and CSS can improve page load speed and response time of the website.",[14,15544,15545],{},"In the summer of 2017 Google took the difficulty out of waiting for your internal development department to implement these optimizations.",[14,15547,15548],{},[75,15549],{"alt":15550,"src":15551},"Poor Site Speed Example","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fpoor-page-speed.webp",[14,15553,15554],{},"The results list out the best practices to increase the page load speed (Defined by Google):",[46,15556,15557,15560,15563,15566,15569,15572,15575,15578],{},[49,15558,15559],{},"Leverage browser caching",[49,15561,15562],{},"Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content",[49,15564,15565],{},"Optimize images",[49,15567,15568],{},"Minify JavaScript",[49,15570,15571],{},"Prioritize visible content",[49,15573,15574],{},"Enable compression",[49,15576,15577],{},"Minify HTML",[49,15579,15580],{},"Minify CSS",[14,15582,15583,15584,15589],{},"Following these general ",[206,15585,15588],{"href":15586,"rel":15587},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fspeed\u002Fdocs\u002Finsights\u002Frules",[210],"web performance best practices"," will help improve the site speed.",[24,15591,15593],{"id":15592},"render-blocking-javascript-and-css","Render Blocking JavaScript and CSS",[14,15595,15596],{},"Browsers wait for external JavaScript and CSS files to be fetched and loaded. If that JavaScript and CSS is required for the page to display and the files are big, then it can slow down a page's load time. It's an even bigger waste of load time when that JavaScript and CSS are not needed to display above-the-fold content.",[14,15598,15599,15602],{},[52,15600,15601],{},"Solution:"," To avoid JavaScript and CSS delaying page load time, consider the following implementations:",[14,15604,15605,15608],{},[52,15606,15607],{},"Asynchronously Load JavaScript:"," Asynchronous loading just means that the browser won't wait for that specific JavaScript to download and execute. The browser will continue loading the rest of the page. Be careful when the page display requires that JavaScript or the page may not work properly.",[14,15610,15611,15612,212],{},"Below is an example of how to asynchronously load an external JavaScript file using the async attribute, which is highlighted in yellow. Google's guide on render blocking JavaScript and CSS has more details on ",[206,15613,15616],{"href":15614,"rel":15615},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fspeed\u002Fdocs\u002Finsights\u002FBlockingJS#deferJS",[210],"how to use the async attribute",[14,15618,15619],{},[13206,15620,15621],{},"(\u003C)script async src=\"my.js\"(>)",[14,15623,15624,15627],{},[52,15625,15626],{},"Defer JavaScript:"," If any of the JavaScript files are not needed for the page to load properly, you can also defer them from loading until the rest of the page has rendered.",[14,15629,15630],{},"Below is an example of how to defer an external JavaScript file. Google's guide on render blocking JavaScript and CSS has more details on how to defer JavaScript.",[13277,15632,15636],{"className":15633,"code":15634,"language":15635,"meta":77,"style":77},"language-js shiki shiki-themes github-light github-dark","\u003Cscript type=\"text\u002Fjavascript\">\nfunction downloadJSAtOnload() {\nvar element = document.createElement(\"script\");\nelement.src = \"defer.js\";\ndocument.body.appendChild(element);\n}\nif (window.addEventListener)\nwindow.addEventListener(\"load\", downloadJSAtOnload, false);\nelse if (window.attachEvent)\nwindow.attachEvent(\"onload\", downloadJSAtOnload);\nelse window.onload = downloadJSAtOnload;\n\u003C\u002Fscript>\n","js",[13206,15637,15638,15659,15664,15685,15698,15709,15714,15719,15724,15729,15734,15739],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,15639,15640,15642,15645,15649,15653,15657],{"class":13287,"line":1713},[13285,15641,13291],{"class":13290},[13285,15643,15644],{"class":13294},"script",[13285,15646,15648],{"class":15647},"sScJk"," type",[13285,15650,15652],{"class":15651},"szBVR","=",[13285,15654,15656],{"class":15655},"sZZnC","\"text\u002Fjavascript\"",[13285,15658,13297],{"class":13290},[13285,15660,15661],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,15662,15663],{"class":13290},"function downloadJSAtOnload() {\n",[13285,15665,15666,15669,15671,15674,15677,15679,15682],{"class":13287,"line":297},[13285,15667,15668],{"class":13290},"var element ",[13285,15670,15652],{"class":15651},[13285,15672,15673],{"class":13290}," document.",[13285,15675,15676],{"class":15647},"createElement",[13285,15678,8188],{"class":13290},[13285,15680,15681],{"class":15655},"\"script\"",[13285,15683,15684],{"class":13290},");\n",[13285,15686,15687,15690,15692,15695],{"class":13287,"line":3296},[13285,15688,15689],{"class":13290},"element.src ",[13285,15691,15652],{"class":15651},[13285,15693,15694],{"class":15655}," \"defer.js\"",[13285,15696,15697],{"class":13290},";\n",[13285,15699,15700,15703,15706],{"class":13287,"line":1774},[13285,15701,15702],{"class":13290},"document.body.",[13285,15704,15705],{"class":15647},"appendChild",[13285,15707,15708],{"class":13290},"(element);\n",[13285,15710,15711],{"class":13287,"line":586},[13285,15712,15713],{"class":13290},"}\n",[13285,15715,15716],{"class":13287,"line":321},[13285,15717,15718],{"class":13290},"if (window.addEventListener)\n",[13285,15720,15721],{"class":13287,"line":3555},[13285,15722,15723],{"class":13290},"window.addEventListener(\"load\", downloadJSAtOnload, false);\n",[13285,15725,15726],{"class":13287,"line":13015},[13285,15727,15728],{"class":13290},"else if (window.attachEvent)\n",[13285,15730,15731],{"class":13287,"line":12132},[13285,15732,15733],{"class":13290},"window.attachEvent(\"onload\", downloadJSAtOnload);\n",[13285,15735,15736],{"class":13287,"line":13399},[13285,15737,15738],{"class":13290},"else window.onload = downloadJSAtOnload;\n",[13285,15740,15741,15743,15745],{"class":13287,"line":13405},[13285,15742,13523],{"class":13290},[13285,15744,15644],{"class":13294},[13285,15746,13297],{"class":13290},[132,15748,15749],{"start":297},[49,15750,15751,15754,15755,15760],{},[52,15752,15753],{},"Inline (JavaScript):"," If the external JavaScript or CSS needed to properly display the above-the-fold content page is small, then you can ",[206,15756,15759],{"href":15757,"rel":15758},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fspeed\u002Fdocs\u002Finsights\u002FBlockingJS#InlineJS",[210],"add it directly to your HTML",". This is known as \"inlining\" it into your page.",[14,15762,15763],{},"Technically, you're making the page bigger and slower by adding select snippets of JavaScript and CSS to the page. However, by being very careful about what JavaScript and CSS go into the page, your overall page load time can be improved.",[24,15765,15767],{"id":15766},"server-side-compression","Server-Side Compression",[14,15769,15770],{},"Smaller files are faster to download than larger files but it's difficult to individually compress every file on the site. There are a few commonly used files are found throughout the site that are slowing down the page load because they are uncompressed.",[14,15772,15773],{},"Web servers can compress certain file types before sending to browsers and significantly improve page speed. HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other text-based files can be compressed up to 86% by enabling gzip compression on the web server. Images, videos, and audio are usually already compressed, so enabling gzip doesn't apply to them.",[14,15775,15776,15779],{},[52,15777,15778],{},"Apache:"," Use mod_deflate",[13277,15781,15786],{"className":15782,"code":15784,"language":15785},[15783],"language-text","AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text\u002Fplain\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text\u002Fhtml\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text\u002Fxml\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text\u002Fcss\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application\u002Fxml\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application\u002Fxhtml+xml\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application\u002Frss+xml\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application\u002Fjavascript\nAddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application\u002Fx-javascript\n","text",[13206,15787,15784],{"__ignoreMap":77},[24,15789,15791],{"id":15790},"browser-caching","Browser Caching",[14,15793,15794],{},"Repeatedly downloading the same file wastes bandwidth. Browsers can cache local copies of certain files and avoid requesting the web server for the same file.\nSave bandwidth by enabling browser caching on the web server.",[14,15796,15797,15799],{},[52,15798,15778],{}," This is an example using Apache's latest mod_expires for caching specific file types.",[14,15801,15802],{},"Please note that the expiration times need to be customized to the site's needs.",[13277,15804,15807],{"className":15805,"code":15806,"language":15785},[15783],"\u003CIfModule mod_expires.c>\nExpiresActive On\nExpiresByType image\u002Fjpg \"access plus 1 year\"\nExpiresByType image\u002Fjpeg \"access plus 1 year\"\nExpiresByType image\u002Fgif \"access plus 1 year\"\nExpiresByType image\u002Fpng \"access plus 1 year\"\nExpiresByType text\u002Fcss \"access plus 1 month\"\nExpiresByType application\u002Fpdf \"access plus 1 month\"\nExpiresByType text\u002Fx-javascript \"access plus 1 month\"\nExpiresByType application\u002Fx-shockwave-flash \"access plus 1 month\"\nExpiresByType image\u002Fx-icon \"access plus 1 year\"\nExpiresDefault \"access plus 2 days\"\n\u003C\u002FIfModule>\n",[13206,15808,15806],{"__ignoreMap":77},[24,15810,15812],{"id":15811},"lossless-image-compression","Lossless Image Compression",[14,15814,15815],{},"Images often make up the biggest portion of a page's size. Applying lossless image compression shrinks the file size, keeps the same image quality, and speeds up page loads. Multiple images could be losslessly compressed across the site.",[14,15817,15818,15819,15824,15825,15830],{},"One thing to note: MKG finds it to be labor intensive and should be prioritized against other engineering needs. Lossless image compression reduces the file size without affecting image quality and results in faster page loads, especially for mobile devices. ",[206,15820,15823],{"href":15821,"rel":15822},"https:\u002F\u002Fnikkhokkho.sourceforge.net\u002Fstatic.php?page=FileOptimizer",[210],"FileOptimizer"," is a great all around image compression tool for jpg, gif, png, and other file types. Google also provides another ",[206,15826,15829],{"href":15827,"rel":15828},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fweb\u002Ffundamentals\u002Fperformance\u002Foptimizing-content-efficiency\u002Fimage-optimization#tools-and-parameter-tuning",[210],"list of image compression tools",".\nWhile the directions Google provides are valuable and a useful way to discuss with your web development team what needs to be done, yet Google has taken it a step further with the newest changes to the platform.\nIncluding a download of optimized files for your organization.",[14,15832,15833],{},[75,15834],{"alt":15835,"src":15836},"Download Optimized Files","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Foptimized-files.webp",[14,15838,15839],{},"With Google supplying the exact recommendations the ease of implementation and reduction of the bandwidth required from web development department.",[14,15841,15842,15843,13163],{},"Hope these tips were helpful. ",[206,15844,15847],{"href":15845,"rel":15846},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002Fintent\u002Ftweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmkgmarketinginc.com%2Fpage-load-speed%2F&via=crazywoody&text=Your-Question-Here&hashtags=seo",[210],"Feel free to ask questions via twitter about page load speed in the and I’ll respond",[13921,15849,15850],{},"html pre.shiki code .sVt8B, html code.shiki .sVt8B{--shiki-default:#24292E;--shiki-dark:#E1E4E8}html pre.shiki code .s9eBZ, html code.shiki .s9eBZ{--shiki-default:#22863A;--shiki-dark:#85E89D}html pre.shiki code .sScJk, html code.shiki .sScJk{--shiki-default:#6F42C1;--shiki-dark:#B392F0}html pre.shiki code .szBVR, html code.shiki .szBVR{--shiki-default:#D73A49;--shiki-dark:#F97583}html pre.shiki code .sZZnC, html code.shiki .sZZnC{--shiki-default:#032F62;--shiki-dark:#9ECBFF}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}html.dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":15852},[15853,15854,15855,15856,15857],{"id":15509,"depth":291,"text":15510},{"id":15592,"depth":291,"text":15593},{"id":15766,"depth":291,"text":15767},{"id":15790,"depth":291,"text":15791},{"id":15811,"depth":291,"text":15812},"2017-09-29","Page Load Speed and SEO, increase user engagement by speeding up your website.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fpage-load-speed.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fpage-load-speed",{"title":15494,"description":15859},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fpage-load-speed","Q1R-HJNZJtjA6ZtVknD2kf2Wxs-IzwTEL9a57a5CmLU",[],{"id":15868,"title":15869,"author":7,"authors":15870,"body":15871,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16031,"description":16032,"extension":318,"img":16033,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16034,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":16035,"seo":16036,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":16037,"updated":7,"__hash__":16038,"people":16039},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-stops-companies-from-hiring-seo-firms.md","What Stops Companies from Hiring SEO Firms?",[14253],{"type":11,"value":15872,"toc":16025},[15873,15877,15880,15885,15892,15895,15921,15925,15928,15931,15945,15948,15959,15963,15966,15969,15972,15975,15979,15982,15990,15993,16022],[24,15874,15876],{"id":15875},"seo-firms-to-hire-or-not-to-hire","SEO Firms: To Hire or Not to Hire?",[14,15878,15879],{},"The Chief Executive at a large residential real estate development company asked me a really good question the other day:",[13959,15881,15882],{},[14,15883,15884],{},"Why would I hire your SEO firm instead of a full time employee?",[14,15886,15887,15888,15891],{},"I responded with the answer that I’ve found to be true about hiring consultants ",[38,15889,15890],{},"of any type"," over the course of my career.",[14,15893,15894],{},"Professional services consultants are most commonly hired for two reasons:",[46,15896,15897,15900],{},[49,15898,15899],{},"Specialty: A particular firm, agency or group specializes in certain types of services within particular industries, sectors or verticals. After they pass a vetting process, you are hiring rockstar partners as opposed to investing time and money into recruiting and managing a new batch of (potential) rockstars of your own.",[49,15901,15902,15903,15908,15909,15914,15915,15920],{},"Scale: Professional services firms exist to help their customers scale to support a specific need. Take ",[206,15904,15907],{"href":15905,"rel":15906},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Ftom-o-brien-841b6942",[210],"Tom O’Brien"," (VP of Legal at ",[206,15910,15913],{"href":15911,"rel":15912},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.extrahop.com\u002F",[210],"ExtraHop Networks",", one of our clients) or ",[206,15916,15919],{"href":15917,"rel":15918},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fsabine-chalmers-a7854032\u002F",[210],"Sabine Chalmers"," (Chief Legal Officer at Anheuser-Busch\u002FInBev) as prime examples; they drive the legal and general counsel strategy of the entire business but partner with third party law firms to help write policy, submit briefs and handle a lot of the day-to-day grunt work.",[24,15922,15924],{"id":15923},"lets-make-this-relevant-to-seo-why-would-companies-hire-third-party-seo-agencies","Let’s make this relevant to SEO: Why would companies hire third party SEO agencies?",[14,15926,15927],{},"I’d stick with my original answer - specialty and scale.",[14,15929,15930],{},"Let’s take a current client of ours (who will remain nameless) as an example.",[46,15932,15933,15939,15942],{},[49,15934,15935,15936,15938],{},"They are a B2B business with a long sales cycle. Buyers conduct months of diligence and research ",[38,15937,3007],{}," they even invite this company (and their competitors) into an RFP process.",[49,15940,15941],{},"This business sells software in the form of annual licenses, seats and service packages (e.g. “support”). They are a 8-to-9 figure business in terms of annual sales.",[49,15943,15944],{},"More than one-third of all net-new customers enter their sales funnel through Organic Search. Additionally, Organic Search has the highest lead-to-customer close ratio of any marketing channel.",[14,15946,15947],{},"So, why did they hire us to assist them?",[46,15949,15950,15953,15956],{},[49,15951,15952],{},"Their “SEO manager” is the Director of Web Marketing. She is responsible for web content, marketing automation, email marketing and SEO.",[49,15954,15955],{},"She has neither the time (scale) or SEO experience (specialty) to put together and execute a SEO strategy.",[49,15957,15958],{},"In this instance, she hires us for both our ability to scale (without bringing on liability to her team in the form of FTE’s) as well as our speciality working with global, enterprise software businesses to help grow their SEO performance.",[24,15960,15962],{"id":15961},"are-there-any-reasons-not-to-hire-an-seo-firm","Are there any reasons not to hire an SEO firm?",[14,15964,15965],{},"There are quite a few, in fact! Here are a few of the most common answers I give to businesses who are interested to invest in SEO for the first time.",[14,15967,15968],{},"Your business doesn’t sell anything online (no e-commerce goals from search). Why invest in showing up in search rankings if they won’t affect your bottom line online (or off)?",[14,15970,15971],{},"There isn’t any search activity for your specific niche. We use tools like Moz, Majestic SEO and BrightEdge (amongst many others) to determine this.",[14,15973,15974],{},"You don’t have an online presence of any kind. Hiring an SEO firm to take you from 0 to 100 is going to take a significant amount of time and capital that could be invested elsewhere to move your business forward.",[24,15976,15978],{"id":15977},"i-believe-that-i-a-need-to-grow-my-organic-search-presence-and-b-require-a-seo-firm-to-help-me-out-with-that","I believe that I a) need to grow my Organic Search presence, and b) require a SEO firm to help me out with that.",[14,15980,15981],{},"Awesome! I’m glad that Organic Search can play a strong role in your growth strategy.",[14,15983,15984,15985],{},"Before a business invests in SEO for the first time, I recommend that they read this fantastic ",[206,15986,15989],{"href":15987,"rel":15988},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FSEO\u002Fcomments\u002F4k3xiw\u002Fwhats_stopping_you_from_spending_money_on_seo\u002F",[210],"Reddit thread from 2016 titled What’s stopping you from spending money on SEO?",[14,15991,15992],{},"While there is a lot to unpack in this thread there are a few common themes that I’ll outline in bullets.",[132,15994,15995,15998,16001,16004,16007,16010,16013,16016,16019],{},[49,15996,15997],{},"Ambiguity between what is proposed and what is actually delivered: Businesses should conduct regular check ins (we meet with our SEO customers every week) to track the progress and format of what we proposed compared to what was actually delivered.",[49,15999,16000],{},"Clear explanation of approach and\u002For methods: A great case in point is our home grown 6-Point SEO Audit. When we tell clients we’re going to perform a SEO audit across their site, we show them each and every part of their website we’re going to audit as well as show them the tangible output they will receive.",[49,16002,16003],{},"Also mention why this approach could not be done \"in house\": While I can’t speak for other SEO firms, our SEO team members all have 10 or more years of experience working on SEO for websites both large and small. Does your company have the ability to hire a half dozen SEO’s with a collective 60+ years of experience? If so, then by all means lead this practice “in house”!",[49,16005,16006],{},"Lack of expertise or more expertise represented than actually possess: This one is tough to judge. Oftentimes we break our agreements into 90 or 180 day projects for the first year to show them our expertise with the option to cancel the contract if things are not working out.",[49,16008,16009],{},"Budget that is not appropriate for goals desired: There is an old saying “Champagne taste on a beer-bottle budget”. More often than not, you get what you pay for.",[49,16011,16012],{},"Assurances and\u002For projections to deliver results: Nothing in life is guaranteed. NOTHING! Anybody who can ‘guarantee’ SEO outcomes or results is handing you a bill of sale that they cannot 100% back up (in my opinion).",[49,16014,16015],{},"Confusion over the ROI of investing in SEO: I’ve heard this one many times and it was brought up on the Reddit thread. Compared to Paid Search (where you can easily quantify if clicks drive sales or conversion activity) SEO is a bit more ambiguous. Here’s an example: If you double your Paid Search budget, and the campaigns perform the same, you should expect to double the outcomes. The same cannot always be said for SEO.",[49,16017,16018],{},"SEO agencies with subpar\u002Fnot optimized websites of their own: The cobbler’s son has no shoes. SEO agencies are usually so busy optimizing other people’s websites that their own falls by the wayside. Be frank with these firms; why is your website not optimized for search? How come you don’t rank for any of the key terms or queries you should appear for?",[49,16020,16021],{},"A proven track record of long term ranking increases on multiple websites: We address this up front with all new customers by showing them SEO results for multiple clients over two or more years of working together. Net Promoter Score and client referrals could also help you assess whether this SEO firm will work for you or not.",[14,16023,16024],{},"Keep some of these points in mind as you go through the procurement process for a SEO agency.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16026},[16027,16028,16029,16030],{"id":15875,"depth":291,"text":15876},{"id":15923,"depth":291,"text":15924},{"id":15961,"depth":291,"text":15962},{"id":15977,"depth":291,"text":15978},"2017-04-25","Read Some Common Objections or Obstacles that Companies Face When Deciding Whether to Invest in SEO as a Growth Channel.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fhire-seo-agency.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-stops-companies-from-hiring-seo-firms",{"title":15869,"description":16032},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhat-stops-companies-from-hiring-seo-firms","fvVbGvDCbh6YEO4vGH1J6Fdf5jfnODQfsTKLcBliq5A",[14481],{"id":16041,"title":16042,"author":7,"authors":16043,"body":16044,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16139,"description":16140,"extension":318,"img":16033,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16141,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":16142,"seo":16143,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":16144,"updated":7,"__hash__":16145,"people":16146},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-search-tips-hire-seo-2017.md","Google Search Team Tips to Hire an SEO – February 2017",[14253],{"type":11,"value":16045,"toc":16136},[16046,16050,16059,16064,16072,16086,16093,16108,16126,16129],[24,16047,16049],{"id":16048},"so-how-do-you-hire-an-seo","So ... how do you hire an SEO?",[14,16051,16052,16053,16058],{},"This week Google updated the ",[206,16054,16057],{"href":16055,"rel":16056},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fwebmasters\u002Fanswer\u002F35291?hl=en",[210],"'Do you need an SEO?'"," page of their webmaster support center with a video that outlined four key steps all businesses should take once they have decided to hire an SEO expert to help increase their organic search rankings and performance.",[14,16060,16052,16061,16058],{},[206,16062,16057],{"href":16055,"rel":16063},[210],[14,16065,16066,16071],{},[206,16067,16070],{"href":16068,"rel":16069},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmaileohye",[210],"Maile Ohye",", an 11 year Google veteran and Developer Programs Tech Lead, said that any SEO hiring process should follow these steps:",[132,16073,16074,16077,16080,16083],{},[49,16075,16076],{},"Conduct a 2-way interview with your potential SEO. Check that they seem genuinely interested in you and your business",[49,16078,16079],{},"Check their references.",[49,16081,16082],{},"Ask for (and you'll probably have to pay for) a technical and search audit.",[49,16084,16085],{},"Decide if you want to hire.",[14,16087,16088,16089,16092],{},"It's unique for Google Search or Webmasters team to make sure a definitive \"Here is how you do XYZ in Google Search\" statement. Looking at our own process for discovery and onboarding new SEO customers, these four recommended steps ",[38,16090,16091],{},"already exist"," in our flow!",[132,16094,16095,16098,16101],{},[49,16096,16097],{},"We vote on every client that walks through our doors. The vote (amongst FTE's of MKG) requires a 100% \"yes I would like to work with this customer\" response or we refer the client to another SEO consultancy.",[49,16099,16100],{},"After the initial discovery call, we ask the prospective client to speak to at least one of our customers before going any further in our discussion.",[49,16102,16103,16104,16107],{},"Our first order of business when hired is to perform our home grown ",[206,16105,16106],{"href":12116},"6-Point SEO Audit",". We audit technical and HTML aspects of your website, social signals, geographic ranking factors and more. A dummy template of this 6-Point Audit is shared with all prospective clients before they sign an agreement to work with us so they can tangibly see the output.",[14,16109,16110,16111,16116,16117,16122,16123,16125],{},"Additionally, Maile actually confirmed that it can take between ",[206,16112,16115],{"href":16113,"rel":16114},"https:\u002F\u002Fyoutu.be\u002FpiSvFxV_M04?t=1m40s",[210],"4 and 12 months upon hiring the SEO to see results",". A ",[206,16118,16121],{"href":16119,"rel":16120},"https:\u002F\u002Fahrefs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-long-does-it-take-to-rank\u002F",[210],"February 2017 hrefs study"," found that 95%+ of ",[38,16124,1236],{}," pages won't crack a top 10 SERP ranking in the first 12 months they are live, but for those that do it can take 2 to 6 months . This includes giving that resource time to perform an audit, put a plan in place, deploy changes to production and have search engines crawl and re-index those changes.",[14,16127,16128],{},"Check out Maile's tips in this video and let us know about YOUR experience hiring SEO's in the comments section of this post.",[16130,16131],"iframe",{"src":16132,"width":16133,"height":16134,"frameBorder":16135,"allowFullScreen":322},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FpiSvFxV_M04?rel=0&controls=0",640,360,"0",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16137},[16138],{"id":16048,"depth":291,"text":16049},"2017-02-15","Google updated the Do you need an SEO? page of their webmaster support center with a video that outlined four key steps all businesses should take once they have decided to hire an SEO expert.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-search-tips-hire-seo-2017",{"title":16042,"description":16140},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-search-tips-hire-seo-2017","l45iqFq-OF7mCFX_qzinFns-j0YRR6COoPpK_cTa4KE",[14481],{"id":16148,"title":16149,"author":7,"authors":16150,"body":16151,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16228,"description":16229,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16230,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":16231,"seo":16232,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":16233,"updated":7,"__hash__":16234,"people":16235},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhttps-seo.md","Should you switch to HTTPS for SEO in 2016?",[14170],{"type":11,"value":16152,"toc":16226},[16153,16156,16164,16167,16170,16199,16202,16211,16214,16217,16220,16223],[14,16154,16155],{},"A question we got a lot from our clients is:",[13959,16157,16158],{},[14,16159,16160,16161,212],{},"Is it worth switching our site to HTTPS to benefit our site's SEO?\nAs of right now, MKG believes that for most websites ",[52,16162,16163],{},"there isn't enough of a benefit to switch to HTTPS due to the amount of planning and resources it will take to make a complete, 100%, bug free transition",[14,16165,16166],{},"However, if your site has terrific on-page SEO, a high domain authority, and you can't actively working on anything that allows your web dev team to implement this properly, then you could make this switch (but make sure to measure impact!).",[14,16168,16169],{},"How did we arrive at this answer? Well, both \"first-party\" and third-party data sources:",[46,16171,16172,16175,16178,16185,16192],{},[49,16173,16174],{},"Data from client website that has had HTTPS in place for about 8 months now (~15k organic search sessions a month)",[49,16176,16177],{},"Data from client website that has had HTTPS in place for about one week now (~1m organic search sessions a month)",[49,16179,16180,16184],{},[206,16181,16182],{"href":16182,"rel":16183},"https:\u002F\u002Fbacklinko.com\u002Fsearch-engine-ranking",[210]," - Brian Dean is a terrific SEO resource",[49,16186,16187,16191],{},[206,16188,16189],{"href":16189,"rel":16190},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Fblog\u002Fhttps-tops-30-how-google-is-winning-the-long-war",[210]," - Dr. Pete is an incredibly sharp guy",[49,16193,16194,16198],{},[206,16195,16196],{"href":16196,"rel":16197},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wired.com\u002F2016\u002F05\u002Fwired-first-big-https-rollout-snag\u002F",[210]," - nice transparent story about the challenges with moving to HTTPS",[14,16200,16201],{},"Longer story:",[14,16203,16204,16205,16210],{},"Google HTTPS ranking boost announcement ",[206,16206,16209],{"href":16207,"rel":16208},"https:\u002F\u002Fwebmasters.googleblog.com\u002F2014\u002F08\u002Fhttps-as-ranking-signal.html",[210],"happened about two years ago",". Since then big, well-known websites such as Amazon, Wikipedia have switched to using this protocol.",[14,16212,16213],{},"We have not seen any cases - either from sites we actively provide SEO services for or a third-party case study - that suggests a direct correlation between switching to HTTPS and getting better search engine rankings.",[14,16215,16216],{},"Moving to HTTPS takes meticulous planning, some $$$, and a great deal of time. Most companies we work with have ongoing, in-depth projects they are always currently working through. Switching to HTTPS, which is an immense project would completely envelop the client's time and take away from those projects. All in search for a possible minor ranking boost.",[14,16218,16219],{},"Sometimes, a minor ranking boost isn't possible. Sometimes - you can't necessarily beat specific pages in the SERPs. With this, a minor ranking boost doesn't help.",[14,16221,16222],{},"We've found better opportunities by testing title tags and meta descriptions to produce more impressions (higher rankings) and better click through rate. Doing this allows a similar \"minor ranking boost\" effect while testing two easily editable elements of a web page.",[14,16224,16225],{},"We'll check back in six months and see if a move to HTTPS makes sense for most websites. But for right now, you shouldn't look to make the move to HTTPS simply to help your website's SEO.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16227},[],"2016-07-22","As of right now, MKG believes that for most websites there isn't enough of a benefit to switch to HTTPS due to the amount of planning and resources it will take to make a complete, 100%, bug free transition.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fhttps-seo",{"title":16149,"description":16229},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fhttps-seo","JLXktiiQ2KEMNL9gYzpfBL15dbJaepR4rYSuGCe9NeM",[],{"id":16237,"title":16238,"author":7,"authors":16239,"body":16240,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16657,"description":16658,"extension":318,"img":14982,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16659,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":16660,"seo":16661,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":16662,"stem":16663,"updated":7,"__hash__":16664,"people":16665},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains.md","This One Exercise Will Improve Your Site Ranking Strength Now (Break the 301 Redirect Chains)",[14170],{"type":11,"value":16241,"toc":16644},[16242,16245,16248,16251,16254,16257,16260,16265,16272,16277,16283,16286,16290,16293,16296,16299,16330,16333,16351,16354,16360,16363,16367,16370,16373,16376,16379,16390,16397,16400,16411,16418,16422,16425,16428,16431,16438,16441,16444,16448,16451,16455,16458,16466,16469,16472,16475,16478,16481,16484,16487,16493,16496,16504,16508,16511,16518,16526,16529,16532,16535,16538,16541,16544,16551,16555,16564,16567,16574,16577,16581,16584,16587,16590,16593,16601,16604,16608,16617,16621,16624,16635,16638,16641],[14,16243,16244],{},"Imagine: You've optimized your website.",[14,16246,16247],{},"On-page SEO is dialed in.",[14,16249,16250],{},"You spent some time building inbound links to your authoritative pages.",[14,16252,16253],{},"Your technical SEO audits show no problems with crawls or technical issues of your website.",[14,16255,16256],{},"Surely there isn't anything left you can do that can have an incredibly positive impact on the ranking strength of not only a handful of pages but your entire domain.",[14,16258,16259],{},"Right?",[16130,16261],{"src":16262,"width":16263,"height":16264,"frameBorder":16135,"allowFullScreen":322},"https:\u002F\u002Fgiphy.com\u002Fembed\u002F2mgJTRcGY8DaU",480,362,[14,16266,16267],{},[206,16268,16271],{"href":16269,"rel":16270},"https:\u002F\u002Fgiphy.com\u002Fgifs\u002Frose-ellen-dix-rosie-spaughton-and-2mgJTRcGY8DaU",[210],"via GIPHY",[14,16273,16274],{},[52,16275,16276],{},"Wrong!",[14,16278,16279,16280,212],{},"Today I'd like to show you how one easy exercise can help ",[52,16281,16282],{},"drastically improve your website's ranking strength",[14,16284,16285],{},"And it's all about 301 redirect chains.",[24,16287,16289],{"id":16288},"_301s-302s-and-you","301s, 302s and You",[14,16291,16292],{},"\"But wait!' you cry out. \"A 301 redirect are supposed to carrying page authority and 'link juice' from the old URL to the new URL?\"",[14,16294,16295],{},"Sure. This is true. Well, depending on who you believe.",[14,16297,16298],{},"Much like the SEO world as a whole, there's conflicting information out there:",[46,16300,16301,16308,16315,16322],{},[49,16302,16303],{},[206,16304,16307],{"href":16305,"rel":16306},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seroundtable.com\u002Fgoogle-302-301-permanent-redirect-21045.html",[210],"Does Google treat 302 redirects as 301 redirects over time?",[49,16309,16310],{},[206,16311,16314],{"href":16312,"rel":16313},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Flearn\u002Fseo\u002Fredirection",[210],"301 redirects retain 90-99% of link juice value.",[49,16316,16317],{},[206,16318,16321],{"href":16319,"rel":16320},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002FDuaneForrester\u002Fstatus\u002F311520451862069248",[210],"Bing's all good when they hit your 302 redirect multiple times and believe it was supposed to be a 301.",[49,16323,16324,16329],{},[206,16325,16328],{"href":16326,"rel":16327},"https:\u002F\u002Fjacquesmattheij.com\u002F301-redirects-a-dangerous-one-way-street",[210],"Even how 301s can be dangerous one-way streets when you want to bring back content to an old URL"," (my personal take is: no duh).",[14,16331,16332],{},"The fact of the matter is: people see 301s as being the \"good guys\" for SEO and 302s as being the \"bad guys.\" This is a fair assumption. However, opinions vary on how much link juice 301s really carry.",[14,16334,16335,16336,16340,16341,6720,16346,212],{},"Like mentioned above, ",[206,16337,16339],{"href":16312,"rel":16338},[210],"Moz mentions 90-99%",". ",[206,16342,16345],{"href":16343,"rel":16344},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seoblog.com\u002F2014\u002F06\u002Flink-juice-lost-301-redirect\u002F",[210],"Others mention \"most.\"",[206,16347,16350],{"href":16348,"rel":16349},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchenginewatch.com\u002Fsew\u002Fhow-to\u002F2377744\u002Fyour-guide-to-301-redirects-for-seo",[210],"And some people even say 15% lost",[14,16352,16353],{},"In the video below, Matt Cutts explains it's about 10-15% lost:",[14,16355,16356],{},[206,16357,16358],{"href":16358,"rel":16359},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=Filv4pP-1nw",[210],[14,16361,16362],{},"So who do you believe? I'm going to go with the source from Google. And go for the lower part of the range: 15% of link juice is lost via a 301 redirect.",[24,16364,16366],{"id":16365},"the-problem-is","The Problem Is...?",[14,16368,16369],{},"Well, from this concept, not much. There isn't anything else you CAN do if you're moving content from one URL to a new URL. You're going to take this 15% loss and just roll with it.",[14,16371,16372],{},"The problem starts cropping up when you have multiple redirects in place: 301 redirect chains.",[14,16374,16375],{},"Let's imagine a website that is four years old. Over time, they've had a couple of redesigns, changed its CMS a couple of times, and added some content as well as taken some content away.",[14,16377,16378],{},"Each one of these events could have likely changed URL structure of the website. Let's say, over these 4 years, there were 10 of these events. And out of these 10 events, URLs were changed 3 times (due to permalink structure changes, an SEO recommending a URL change, etc.).",[14,16380,16381,16382,16385,16386,16389],{},"That means the site has accrued 3 ",[52,16383,16384],{},"redirect events"," over time. ",[52,16387,16388],{},"Redirect events"," are when a round of 301 redirects are submitted and pushed into product.",[14,16391,16392,16393,16396],{},"Every redirect in a chain has a ",[52,16394,16395],{},"compounding effect"," on how valuable the 301 redirect really is.",[14,16398,16399],{},"It's simple math:",[46,16401,16402,16405,16408],{},[49,16403,16404],{},"One redirect = 85% inbound link juice retention",[49,16406,16407],{},"Two redirects = 72.25% inbound link juice retention",[49,16409,16410],{},"Three redirects = 61.4125% inbound link juice retention",[14,16412,16413,16414,16417],{},"If you have four redirects in a 301 redirect chain, ",[52,16415,16416],{},"you're losing almost half of the inbound link juice"," that the original URL has accrued.",[24,16419,16421],{"id":16420},"deeper-redirect-event-insight-is-required","Deeper Redirect Event Insight Is Required",[14,16423,16424],{},"When you look at a redirect at a high level, you see old URL --> target URL. The tactics in our how to fix section will allow deeper insight, showing whether there are additional redirects in that high level view.",[14,16426,16427],{},"Instead of simply seeing the input \u002F output, you see everything involved. The inner-workings, so to speak, of a redirect event.",[14,16429,16430],{},"And you'd be surprised at how many times our SEO team has found 302 redirects contained within a redirect event.",[14,16432,16433,16434,16437],{},"This wrinkle - discovering potential 302 redirects - ",[52,16435,16436],{},"takes a compounding loss into a total loss"," for 301 redirect chains.",[14,16439,16440],{},"If we go by what most SEOs feel - that 302 redirects do not pass link value - then you're seeing a chain that breaks. One that stops simply siphoning your link juice away but instead just throws it all away.",[14,16442,16443],{},"Fortunately, there is a way to find redirect chains you might have and \"unwind\" them to maximize the amount of link juice you should be rightfully accruing. You'll also be able to find any 302 redirects that are hidden in redirect chains.",[24,16445,16447],{"id":16446},"how-to-fix-redirect-chains","How to Fix Redirect Chains",[14,16449,16450],{},"The following are two tactics you can use to identify any 301 redirect chain issues your website may have.",[81,16452,16454],{"id":16453},"for-large-websites-500-web-pages-or-more","For large websites (500 web pages or more)",[14,16456,16457],{},"You really need a tool here that helps automate the discovery process.",[14,16459,16460,16461,16465],{},"Fortunately, ",[206,16462,14807],{"href":16463,"rel":16464},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.screamingfrog.co.uk",[210]," (a personal and one that is a favorite for our entire SEO team) comes equipped with an easy-to-use way to find redirect chains and export them into an .xlsx for you to review.",[14,16467,16468],{},"You do need to configure Screaming Frog to follow any + all redirects it hits. To do so, navigate to:",[14,16470,16471],{},"Configuration >> Spider >> Advanced",[14,16473,16474],{},"And tick \"Always Follow Redirects.\"",[14,16476,16477],{},"Now - input the URL of the site into the \"Enter URL to spider\" box and start the crawl.",[14,16479,16480],{},"Once complete, you'll want to navigate to Reports >> Redirect Chains.",[14,16482,16483],{},"What you'll get is a Excel worksheet that outputs the following  (used a random website URL + replaced domain name for anonymity) :",[75,16485],{"src":16486},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fscreaming-frog-redirect-chain-output.webp",[14,16488,16489,16490,212],{},"In this example, you'll see that there are between two to three redirect chains found. As we figured above, you'll notice some 302s in the mix as well, which means ",[52,16491,16492],{},"there's no value being had from the redirect",[14,16494,16495],{},"Bonus here is that SEO spider can also find redirects for images. This is useful, particularly if you're looking to rank for universal results for keyword searches showing images on the search engine result page.",[14,16497,16498,16499,212],{},"Screaming Frog has an excellent resource walking you through this same process. ",[206,16500,16503],{"href":16501,"rel":16502},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.screamingfrog.co.uk\u002Faudit-redirects\u002F",[210],"You can see that here",[81,16505,16507],{"id":16506},"for-smaller-websites-specifically-you-do-not-have-access-to-screaming-frog-seo-spider","For smaller websites (specifically: you do not have access to Screaming Frog SEO Spider)",[14,16509,16510],{},"This is a bit tougher. You do not have access to Screaming Frog, which means you don't have access to a crawling tool.",[14,16512,16513,16514,16517],{},"What you should have access to is ",[206,16515,14822],{"href":14820,"rel":16516},[210],". This is Bing's version of Google Search Console. BWT offers a wealth of insight about your site on Bing.",[14,16519,16520,16521,212],{},"Importantly, for this exercise, is ",[206,16522,16525],{"href":16523,"rel":16524},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bing.com\u002Fwebmaster\u002Fhelp\u002Findex-explorer-e00d30b5",[210],"BWT's Index Explorer tool",[75,16527],{"src":16528},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbing-webmaster-tools-index-explorer.webp",[14,16530,16531],{},"The following shows what BWT is reporting for our own website along with the \"301 redirects\" filer turned on (bolded)",[14,16533,16534],{},"By going to this view (Reports & Data >> Index Explorer), you'll be seeing a view of all of the URLs Bing's crawler tool has accessed on your website.",[14,16536,16537],{},"This helps our exercise because it also includes any 301 redirects the crawler has found.",[75,16539],{"src":16540},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbing-webmaster-tools-index-explorer-URL-details.webp",[14,16542,16543],{},"This is the output shown when selecting a specific URL. Looks like an older URL, crawled three months ago with a 301 redirect HTTP code",[14,16545,16546,16547,16550],{},"Again, this is a useful view for a smaller website because it's quite manual. But what it will do is help you track down any 301 redirects search engines (Bing) has seen, last crawl, what the HTTP code was and ",[52,16548,16549],{},"even most important of all"," if there were any inbound links to the page.",[81,16552,16554],{"id":16553},"bonus-third-tactic-look-for-top-page-issues","Bonus third tactic: look for top page issues",[14,16556,16557,16558,16563],{},"If you want to look for low effort \u002F high impact redirect event instances, then navigate over to ",[206,16559,16562],{"href":16560,"rel":16561},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Fresearchtools\u002Fose\u002F",[210],"Moz's Open Site Explorer tool",". Once there, input your home page URL then navigate to the \"Top Pages\" report.",[75,16565],{"src":16566},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fopen-site-explorer-http-status.webp",[14,16568,16569,16570,16573],{},"The list will automatically be sorted by page authority. This means ",[52,16571,16572],{},"any changes will be high impact ones",". I always investigate \"No data\" calls",[14,16575,16576],{},"If you find a 301 redirect chain or even a 302 in this list, boy oh boy, be on the lookout for some nice gains.",[24,16578,16580],{"id":16579},"measurement-strategy","Measurement Strategy",[14,16582,16583],{},"So you've audited your redirects, found some 301 redirect chain issues as well as discovered some 302s in the mix. You've collaborated with your IT team and they've fixed the problems.",[14,16585,16586],{},"Now what?",[14,16588,16589],{},"You should look at the following metrics for improving numbers. Benchmark where the numbers are now previous to your fix. Then look - at a weekly basis - to see how numbers change.",[14,16591,16592],{},"The metrics to look for improving numbers are:",[46,16594,16595,16598],{},[49,16596,16597],{},"Page authority of target URLs (e.g. the)",[49,16599,16600],{},"Overall domain authority",[14,16602,16603],{},"We've all been told: SEO is a long game. However, with 301 redirect chains, these changes can be reflected much quicker. Our SEO team has seen numbers start changing three weeks after a fix goes live, which in the SEO world is pretty darn fast.",[24,16605,16607],{"id":16606},"questions","Questions?",[14,16609,16610,16611,16616],{},"Feel free to reach out to me ",[206,16612,16615],{"href":16613,"rel":16614},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002Fchristianbk",[210],"on Twitter @christianbk"," and I can look to help OR comment below.",[24,16618,16620],{"id":16619},"ps-what-about-actually-fixing-fixing-the-redirects","P.S. What About Actually 'Fixing' Fixing The Redirects?",[14,16622,16623],{},"I consciously did not address this because, quite frankly, it's all about how your web server is set up, how your site is currently handling redirects (e.g. in a .htaccess file, as wildcards, etc.). I could spend an entire other blog post talking about this, quite frankly. But at its most basic point the 301 redirect chain fix process is:",[132,16625,16626,16629,16632],{},[49,16627,16628],{},"Remove the old redirect",[49,16630,16631],{},"Remove any of the \"chained\" redirects",[49,16633,16634],{},"Insert the new 1-to-1 redirect without the chain",[14,16636,16637],{},"This will then lead you to wonder:",[14,16639,16640],{},"\"What about the 'chained' redirect to the final URL?\"",[14,16642,16643],{},"You will then have to look and see where redirects of that URL are present in your list of redirects and make the change accordingly.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16645},[16646,16647,16648,16649,16654,16655,16656],{"id":16288,"depth":291,"text":16289},{"id":16365,"depth":291,"text":16366},{"id":16420,"depth":291,"text":16421},{"id":16446,"depth":291,"text":16447,"children":16650},[16651,16652,16653],{"id":16453,"depth":297,"text":16454},{"id":16506,"depth":297,"text":16507},{"id":16553,"depth":297,"text":16554},{"id":16579,"depth":291,"text":16580},{"id":16606,"depth":291,"text":16607},{"id":16619,"depth":291,"text":16620},"2016-06-29","How one easy exercise can help drastically improve your website's ranking strength.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains",{"title":16238,"description":16658},"Break 301 Redirect Chains","blog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains","toCzA35mDcGmRroXl2m_XIkRZ5vh01v2jwnqdru_yuE",[],{"id":16667,"title":16668,"author":7,"authors":16669,"body":16670,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16864,"description":16865,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16866,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":16867,"seo":16868,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":16869,"stem":16870,"updated":7,"__hash__":16871,"people":16872},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fword-count-seo.md","Word Counts for SEO: How Many Words Should Your Content \u002F SEO Elements Be?",[14170],{"type":11,"value":16671,"toc":16854},[16672,16675,16678,16681,16685,16688,16691,16708,16711,16714,16724,16729,16740,16745,16749,16752,16755,16759,16785,16789,16810,16814,16828,16832,16844,16848,16851],[14,16673,16674],{},"When it comes to SEO copywriting, know that there really isn't a hard set amount of words by page depth rule in place.",[14,16676,16677],{},"For SEO elements such as title tags and meta descriptions, there definitely are limits you want to look to not exceed.",[14,16679,16680],{},"What follows in this ultimate guide for SEO word counts are guidelines to help you make the most out of web page elements and content for SEO. This resource will continue to be updated when any new algorithm updates are made.",[24,16682,16684],{"id":16683},"seo-copywriting-for-content","SEO Copywriting for Content",[14,16686,16687],{},"The following are loose guideline to follow by page depth. This is because each website is different, and the user intent by page is going to also influence how many words you want to realistically display.",[14,16689,16690],{},"Our word count guidelines by page depth are as follows:",[46,16692,16693,16696,16699,16702,16705],{},[49,16694,16695],{},"Home page: 250 words",[49,16697,16698],{},"Primary level: 300 words",[49,16700,16701],{},"Secondary level: 350 words",[49,16703,16704],{},"Tertiary level: 400 words",[49,16706,16707],{},"Quaternary and deeper levels: 450 words",[14,16709,16710],{},"How we label page depth: domain.com\u002Fprimary\u002Fsecondary\u002Ftertiary\u002Fquaternary)",[14,16712,16713],{},"The following are facts that support our recommended word count guidelines:",[46,16715,16716],{},[49,16717,16718,16719,5978],{},"Google (in this case, John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google and one of the more outspoken employees who actually speaks about SEO) does not look for a specific number of words per page. They focus more on quality. ",[206,16720,16723],{"href":16721,"rel":16722},"https:\u002F\u002Fproductforums.google.com\u002Fforum\u002F#!topic\u002Fwebmasters\u002FZOfwb2gaOeo",[210],"Quote from John",[13959,16725,16726],{},[14,16727,16728],{},"There's no minimum length, and there's no minimum number of articles a day that you have to post, nor even a minimum number of pages on a website. In most cases, quality is better than quantity. Our algorithms explicitly try to find and recommend websites that provide content that's of high quality, unique, and compelling to users. Don't fill your site with low-quality content, instead work on making sure that your site is the absolute best of its kind.",[46,16730,16731],{},[49,16732,16733,16734,16739],{},"Google employs actual humans as \"quality raters\" to help make manual changes to search engine results. They follow a document with guidelines to help them make decisions. In this quality rater guidelines document (",[206,16735,16738],{"href":16736,"rel":16737},"https:\u002F\u002Fstatic.googleusercontent.com\u002Fmedia\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fen\u002F\u002Finsidesearch\u002Fhowsearchworks\u002Fassets\u002Fsearchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf",[210],"download the ~140 page PDF here, if interested","), it is stated:",[13959,16741,16742],{},[14,16743,16744],{},"An unsatisfying amount of MC (main content) is a sufficient reason to give a page a Low quality rating. This means that if a page is lacking in main content on the page, it can be a negative ranking factor.",[24,16746,16748],{"id":16747},"seo-element-word-character-counts","SEO Element Word \u002F Character Counts",[14,16750,16751],{},"The following are guidelines the MKG team follows when constructing two of the most important on-page SEO elements: a web page's title tag and a web page's meta description tag.",[14,16753,16754],{},"Know that the following elements of each web page should be unique. Duplication leads to search engine confusion, which leads to page cannibalization and sending a weaker signal to search engines as to what pages should rank for different keywords.",[81,16756,16758],{"id":16757},"title-tag-guidelines","Title Tag Guidelines",[46,16760,16761,16764,16767,16770,16773,16782],{},[49,16762,16763],{},"A title tag is your indicated clickable text for a web page's organic listing; search engines may chose to change it based on the query.",[49,16765,16766],{},"Write a title tag to be descriptive and make the searcher want to click on it.",[49,16768,16769],{},"The actual characters can exceed 55 characters; just know that an ellipsis will be displayed.",[49,16771,16772],{},"A search engine spider will crawl and \"read\" the entire tag content.",[49,16774,16775,16776,16781],{},"Ranking weight ",[206,16777,16780],{"href":16778,"rel":16779},"https:\u002F\u002Fahrefs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fon-page-seo\u002F",[210],"used to give priority to keywords used in the beginning of the tag",". This correlative factor is decreasing. As long as a keyword phrase is used anywhere in the tag, it will be effective.",[49,16783,16784],{},"A title tag remains one of the most important on-page SEO ranking factors.",[81,16786,16788],{"id":16787},"meta-description-tag-guidelines","Meta Description Tag Guidelines",[46,16790,16791,16794,16797,16804,16807],{},[49,16792,16793],{},"A meta description displays anywhere from 130-165 characters as a page's \"descriptive snippet\" in a web page's organic listing, based on pixel width of characters used.",[49,16795,16796],{},"The meta description may not show despite having one in place if search engines feel as if it doesn't match a user's query (in which case search engines will grab text from the page that they believe is the best relevancy for the query).",[49,16798,16799,16800,16803],{},"The keyword phrase you're targeting should be used anywhere in the text. If a keyword phrase that is used is matched to a user's query, ",[52,16801,16802],{},"that keyword phrase will be bold"," in your descriptive snippet.",[49,16805,16806],{},"A meta description tag carries no ranking weight.",[49,16808,16809],{},"A meta description tag can influence a page's click through rate greatly .",[81,16811,16813],{"id":16812},"text-headline-h1-tag-guidelines","Text Headline (H1) Tag Guidelines",[46,16815,16816,16819,16822,16825],{},[49,16817,16818],{},"No character restriction for this tag.",[49,16820,16821],{},"To test length: go to the page in a desktop browser window and on a mobile device. Make a UX-based decision.",[49,16823,16824],{},"Keyword phrase or keyword with modifier should be included in this tag.",[49,16826,16827],{},"One a single H1 tag instance should be used in a web page code.",[81,16829,16831],{"id":16830},"text-sub-headline-h2-h3-etc-tag-guidelines","Text Sub-Headline (H2, H3, etc.) Tag Guidelines",[46,16833,16834,16836,16838,16841],{},[49,16835,16818],{},[49,16837,16821],{},[49,16839,16840],{},"Topical terms should be used in these tags.",[49,16842,16843],{},"Don't make the page seem robotic in nature by using the keyword phrase + modifier in sub-headlines. Think about UX first then think if you can use a topical term.",[24,16845,16847],{"id":16846},"help-us-help-you","Help Us Help You",[14,16849,16850],{},"Did we not cover something you're curious about? Let us know in the comments below and we can update this guide accordingly.",[14,16852,16853],{},"Happy SEO word \u002F character counting!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16855},[16856,16857,16863],{"id":16683,"depth":291,"text":16684},{"id":16747,"depth":291,"text":16748,"children":16858},[16859,16860,16861,16862],{"id":16757,"depth":297,"text":16758},{"id":16787,"depth":297,"text":16788},{"id":16812,"depth":297,"text":16813},{"id":16830,"depth":297,"text":16831},{"id":16846,"depth":291,"text":16847},"2016-06-21","How to ensure your seo title and meta description get impressions and clicks but not exceeding word count limits.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fword-count-seo",{"title":16668,"description":16865},"Word Counts for SEO","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fword-count-seo","zdeTNdV9BRRqM7tO2xcBdycTIzyvWot7SzmHT5km9yo",[],{"id":16874,"title":16875,"author":7,"authors":16876,"body":16877,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":16936,"description":16937,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":16938,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":16939,"seo":16940,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":16941,"stem":16942,"updated":7,"__hash__":16943,"people":16944},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains-intro.md","301 Redirect Chains, Intro to an Advanced SEO Topic",[14253],{"type":11,"value":16878,"toc":16933},[16879,16882,16896,16900,16903,16906,16909,16912,16915,16918,16921,16924,16927],[14,16880,16881],{},"This is a little bit of a teaser post, but we wanted to go over the concept of what a 301 redirect chain is.\nMore specifically:",[46,16883,16884,16887,16890,16893],{},[49,16885,16886],{},"What it is",[49,16888,16889],{},"Impact on your website",[49,16891,16892],{},"Impact on page authority",[49,16894,16895],{},"Whenever you're doing any type of site migration or if you're changing URLs a lot, how it's critical to look into this element and make sure none of the 301 redirects you have in place are chaining.",[24,16897,16899],{"id":16898},"so301-redirect-chains","So 301 redirect chains:",[14,16901,16902],{},"I'm going to give you a little bit of a tease here.",[14,16904,16905],{},"Essentially, you can think of a 301 redirect like this:",[14,16907,16908],{},"You go to from an old URL to a new URL. From a user standpoint, it's hardly noticeable. For a search engine one, it's definitely noticeable. A 301 redirect is like giving the post office a change of address card to search engines.",[14,16910,16911],{},"In this scenario you will retain anywhere from ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of any and all link authority and the page authority of that old URL.",[14,16913,16914],{},"With a redirect chain, you amplify the loss by two, three, four, five, six times.",[14,16916,16917],{},"Essentially you have knowingly (or unknowingly) set up a 301 redirect to a URL with another 301 redirect. This is a 2 chain redirect.",[14,16919,16920],{},"Now for a worst-case scenario: If you have a chain of five, you're only retaining sixty to seventy-five-ish percent of that page authority! If you're talking about a whole bunch of URLs that could have a significant impact on your website.",[14,16922,16923],{},"That's a little bit of a teaser of what we're going to be talking about in a future post. The next post will go deeper on the definition of a redirect chain, how to run a couple of reports using some free tools you may or may not have access to to find those 301 redirect chains, and how to fix them.",[14,16925,16926],{},"PS: If you want to read the only thorough review of this topic that I've ever found, read Dan Shure's \"Stop pulling my redirect chain!\"",[14,16928,16929],{},[206,16930,16931],{"href":16931,"rel":16932},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fwebmasters\u002Fanswer\u002F6033086?hl=en",[210],{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":16934},[16935],{"id":16898,"depth":291,"text":16899},"2016-04-26","This is a little bit of a teaser post, but we wanted to go over the concept of what a 301 redirect chain is.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains-intro",{"title":16875,"description":16937},"What Are 301 Redirect Chains?","blog\u002Fseo\u002F301-redirect-chains-intro","McC24-QqAyNt-sz0YF36yIblcR5Uns34j7hGL8hRF7s",[14481],{"id":16946,"title":16947,"author":7,"authors":16948,"body":16949,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":17141,"description":16953,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":17142,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":17143,"seo":17144,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":17145,"stem":17146,"updated":7,"__hash__":17147,"people":17148},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsubdomain-seo-case-study.md","Subdomain SEO Case Study: Getting the most SEO out of a suboptimal situation",[14170],{"type":11,"value":16950,"toc":17131},[16951,16954,16973,16977,16985,16988,16991,16994,16997,17000,17006,17009,17012,17016,17019,17023,17026,17035,17039,17042,17045,17048,17052,17055,17062,17065,17068,17071,17074,17077,17080,17084,17087,17090,17093,17096,17099,17102,17105,17112,17116,17119,17122,17125,17128],[14,16952,16953],{},"Our digital marketing agency has always preached:",[13959,16955,16956,16959],{},[14,16957,16958],{},"Subdomains are not ideal for a website's site architecture.\nAn organized site architecture (or information architecture) is crucially important for effective on-site SEO. With an optimized architecture, the benefits are:",[46,16960,16961,16964,16967,16970],{},[49,16962,16963],{},"Optimized flow of PageRank through web page",[49,16965,16966],{},"Natural topical associations between pages",[49,16968,16969],{},"Better crawling experience for search engine spiders",[49,16971,16972],{},"Better usability experience for site visitors",[24,16974,16976],{"id":16975},"set-up","Set-Up",[14,16978,16979,16980,212],{},"One of our clients - VMware - had a problem: they had set up a new subdomain and intended to use it as its main \"home\" for ",[206,16981,16984],{"href":16982,"rel":16983},"https:\u002F\u002Fvcloud.vmware.com",[210],"its hybrid cloud solution vCloud Air",[14,16986,16987],{},"Uh-oh - subdomain.",[14,16989,16990],{},"The bigger problem? The newly established subdomain destination (known as the vCloud Air microsite or simply the microsite moving forward) was competing against a domain (vmware.com) with over 135k inbound links and a domain authority score of 93.",[75,16992],{"src":16993},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FScreen-Shot-2015-07-01-at-3.53.00-PM.webp",[14,16995,16996],{},"For outside comparisons, buzzfeed.com has the same reported domain authority score as the main VMware.com domain. Use Mint.com? VMware.com also trumps that website in regards to domain authority..",[14,16998,16999],{},"This all meant that when someone searched for vCloud Air, the service page on the main domain would show up due to the strength of all of the metrics we just covered off on.",[14,17001,17002,17005],{},[52,17003,17004],{},"To boil it down in a tweet",": our goal was to get the microsite to be THE authoritative resource for anything vCloud Air and to show microsite listings on the SERP.",[14,17007,17008],{},"Think of it as a David (microsite) vs. Goliath (main vmware.com domain) situation... if they were related.",[14,17010,17011],{},"How did we tackle this subdomain SEO issue? Read on for tactics and results.",[24,17013,17015],{"id":17014},"tactics","Tactics",[14,17017,17018],{},"Our strategy to make the most of this subdomain situation and to start associating the microsite as the authoritative resource included two off-site tactics and one on-site:",[81,17020,17022],{"id":17021},"off-site-knowledge-graph-optimization","Off-Site: Knowledge Graph Optimization",[14,17024,17025],{},"We wanted search engines - specifically Google - to know straight from their semantic-search driven sources that the subdomain was the authoritative page for the vCloud Air product. So we went to these sources, two of many which includeWikipedia and Freebase, and ensured that the \"official\" product page for vCloud Air was the subdomain and not the main domain.",[14,17027,17028,17029,17034],{},"With semantic search showing up more and more in the form of enriched search engine results (answer cards, universal results such as images and video, carousels and expanded information for weather, transportation and ",[206,17030,17033],{"href":17031,"rel":17032},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fwebhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#es_th=1&q=spice-girls",[210],"even the Spice Girls","), we wanted to ensure that search engines knew the authoritative URL for vCloud Air.",[81,17036,17038],{"id":17037},"off-site-influencer-program","Off-Site: Influencer Program",[14,17040,17041],{},"We find tremendous value in running uniquely set up influencer programs for our clients.",[14,17043,17044],{},"Not only do we see some of the highest referrer conversion rates from influencer-produced content clicks but all of links help in the form of inbound links going back to your site.",[14,17046,17047],{},"With the influencer program we crafted with vCloud Air, we had our brand ambassadors talking about the service, reviewing it, and linking back to the subdomain. This resulted in topical links built, which built up the site's authority from an off-page aspect.",[81,17049,17051],{"id":17050},"on-site-title-tag-optimization","On-Site: Title Tag Optimization",[14,17053,17054],{},"We looked to make a tweak to the single-most important ranking element on a web page - title tags - to help try to establish the subdomain as the authoritative vCloud Air website.",[14,17056,17057,17058,17061],{},"With title tags, ",[52,17059,17060],{},"search engines place weight more on words that appear at the front of the tag"," versus the end.",[14,17063,17064],{},"With this in mind, we tweaked title tags a bit to establish on-page authority.",[14,17066,17067],{},"Before our optimization recs, branded labeling was:",[14,17069,17070],{},"VMware vCloud Air",[14,17072,17073],{},"We recommended a change to:",[14,17075,17076],{},"Cloud Air by VMware",[14,17078,17079],{},"A small tweak, sure, but you're getting that brand that we're looking to rank for a bit closer to the beginning of the tag.",[81,17081,17083],{"id":17082},"results","Results",[14,17085,17086],{},"Search for \"vCloud Air\" yourself: we have a #1 and a #2 result, both with organic site links:",[75,17088],{"src":17089},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FScreen-Shot-2015-07-01-at-4.21.22-PM.webp",[14,17091,17092],{},"And even \"VMware vCloud Air\" ranking #1 with in-depth sitelinks:",[75,17094],{"src":17095},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FScreen-Shot-2015-07-01-at-7.40.29-PM.webp",[14,17097,17098],{},"Before these #1 rankings, search engines would serve a vmware.com page one day and a vcloud.vmware.com page before. Now? We get 100% impression share.",[14,17100,17101],{},"And the impact on organic traffic? Since we began grabbing more and more impression share for branded terms, look at this 12 month trend line:",[75,17103],{"src":17104},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FScreen-Shot-2015-07-01-at-7.51.12-PM.webp",[14,17106,17107,17108,17111],{},"That's ",[52,17109,17110],{},"an organic search traffic increase of 3.4X"," in a span of 12 months.",[81,17113,17115],{"id":17114},"takeaways","Takeaways",[14,17117,17118],{},"What should you do if approached with a subdomain situation like ours?",[14,17120,17121],{},"First, if you can convince your client (or if you're an in-house SEO, your execs) to move the subdomain to a subfolder and consolidate, then do that.",[14,17123,17124],{},"But if you're stuck with it, like we were, know that you need to tackle the problem of authority head on by establishing the subdomain as the most authoritative URL for what you're trying to rank for.",[14,17126,17127],{},"Do this by establishing off-page and on-page authority.",[14,17129,17130],{},"Then reap the traffic rewards :)",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":17132},[17133,17134],{"id":16975,"depth":291,"text":16976},{"id":17014,"depth":291,"text":17015,"children":17135},[17136,17137,17138,17139,17140],{"id":17021,"depth":297,"text":17022},{"id":17037,"depth":297,"text":17038},{"id":17050,"depth":297,"text":17051},{"id":17082,"depth":297,"text":17083},{"id":17114,"depth":297,"text":17115},"2015-07-06",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsubdomain-seo-case-study",{"title":16947,"description":16953},"Subdomain SEO Case Study","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsubdomain-seo-case-study","wvRlRdobNnpbGjLUAdFlD4v63t5PCtqlM39sCSIKTMw",[],{"id":17150,"title":17151,"author":7,"authors":17152,"body":17153,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":17227,"description":17228,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":17229,"minutes":1713,"navigation":322,"path":17230,"seo":17231,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":17232,"stem":17233,"updated":7,"__hash__":17234,"people":17235},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fenhance-your-brand-tweets-in-two-minutes-with-twitter-cards.md","Enhance your brand tweets in two minutes with Twitter Cards",[9],{"type":11,"value":17154,"toc":17225},[17155,17158,17164,17170,17173,17176,17207,17216,17219,17222],[14,17156,17157],{},"A client recently asked if there was a way to share an image with their Twitter posts through JetPack. I read a few documents to understand my options:",[14,17159,17160],{},[206,17161,17162],{"href":17162,"rel":17163},"https:\u002F\u002Fdev.twitter.com\u002Fcards\u002Ftypes\u002Fsummary-large-image",[210],[14,17165,17166],{},[206,17167,17168],{"href":17168,"rel":17169},"https:\u002F\u002Fdev.twitter.com\u002Fcards\u002Fcms-integration#plugin_yoast",[210],[14,17171,17172],{},"But at the end of the day I just felt overwhelmed and more confused than ever, so I went back to the original issue...",[14,17174,17175],{},"Share an image on Twitter along with the post. The post was already rendering the title and description, it was just missing an image and in the first piece of documentation there was code that read:",[13277,17177,17179],{"className":13279,"code":17178,"language":13281,"meta":77,"style":77},"<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\"> <meta\nname=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nytimes\">\n",[13206,17180,17181,17199],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,17182,17183,17187,17190,17193,17196],{"class":13287,"line":1713},[13285,17184,17186],{"class":17185},"sj4cs","<",[13285,17188,17189],{"class":13290},"meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\"",[13285,17191,17192],{"class":17185},">",[13285,17194,17195],{"class":17185}," <",[13285,17197,17198],{"class":13290},"meta\n",[13285,17200,17201,17204],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,17202,17203],{"class":13290},"name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nytimes\"",[13285,17205,17206],{"class":17185},">\n",[14,17208,17209,17210,17215],{},"So all I did was change \"@nytimes\" to \"@mkgmarketinginc\" and drop both tags in the \u003Chead> of our website and now, if you go to ",[206,17211,17214],{"href":17212,"rel":17213},"https:\u002F\u002Fcards-dev.twitter.com\u002Fvalidator",[210],"Twitter Card Validator"," and put in the url to this post you'll see that we are now sharing the image.",[14,17217,17218],{},"Leave JetPack to create the meta title and description and these added tags will add the image.",[14,17220,17221],{},"Easy peasy lemon squeezy.\nLeave me a comment if you have any questions.",[13921,17223,17224],{},"html pre.shiki code .sj4cs, html code.shiki .sj4cs{--shiki-default:#005CC5;--shiki-dark:#79B8FF}html pre.shiki code .sVt8B, html code.shiki .sVt8B{--shiki-default:#24292E;--shiki-dark:#E1E4E8}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}html.dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":17226},[],"2015-04-22","How to share an image on Twitter using WordPress JetPack.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fenhance-your-brand-tweets-in-two-minutes-with-twitter-cards",{"title":17151,"description":17228},"Twitter Cards - Brand Tweets In Two Minutes","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fenhance-your-brand-tweets-in-two-minutes-with-twitter-cards","QGt9KZPkNOX2NufxJ2iohr2FxcCeHUC9Qn9ZvgOA8k8",[1664,1718],{"id":17237,"title":17238,"author":7,"authors":17239,"body":17240,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":17527,"description":17528,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":17529,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":17530,"seo":17531,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":17532,"updated":7,"__hash__":17533,"people":17534},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcompetitive-seo-audit.md","How to Perform a Competitive SEO Audit for Executives",[14253],{"type":11,"value":17241,"toc":17519},[17242,17247,17250,17253,17261,17275,17282,17285,17290,17293,17296,17300,17303,17314,17317,17322,17325,17328,17332,17335,17338,17362,17365,17373,17376,17379,17383,17391,17394,17400,17403,17406,17409,17412,17415,17418,17422,17425,17428,17440,17443,17446,17449,17452,17455,17458,17461,17464,17467,17471,17474,17477,17480,17483,17486,17497,17500,17503,17506,17509,17512,17516],[14,17243,17244],{},[52,17245,17246],{},"TL;DR Version: A step-by-step guide to learn how to benchmark your websites ranking in search engines against competitors and compile your findings for an executive-level SEO conversation. Template download included!",[14,17248,17249],{},"Ever wonder how you stack up against your competitors on search engine results pages (SERPs)?",[14,17251,17252],{},"How about how much search engine market share you have compared to those same competitors?",[14,17254,17255,17256,212],{},"Even if you don't, there are tens of 1000's of people every day who do in fact look for that, as our friends over at Google Search Trends are kind enough to show us for the term ",[206,17257,17260],{"href":17258,"rel":17259},"https:\u002F\u002Ftrends.google.com\u002Ftrends\u002Fexplore?date=all&q=competitive+seo",[210],"competitive SEO",[14,17262,17263,17264,17269,17270,212],{},"If you're reading this story, then chances are you probably have also read Steve Webb's ",[206,17265,17268],{"href":17266,"rel":17267},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-perform-the-worlds-greatest-seo-audit",[210],"How to Perform the Worlds Greatest SEO Audit"," on the Moz blog as well as Hubspot's ",[206,17271,17274],{"href":17272,"rel":17273},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.hubspot.com\u002Fmarketing\u002Fhow-to-conduct-competitive-seo-audit",[210],"How to Perform a Competitive SEO Audit to Outrank Industry Rivals",[14,17276,17277,17278,17281],{},"And you know what? Those are two ",[52,17279,17280],{},"killer guides"," to help you perform your very own competitive SEO audit.",[14,17283,17284],{},"The difference between those two (and the 1000's of other guides) is that this guide will teach you how to perform a competitive SEO audit that you can actually show to your executive team without having to say something embarrassing like:",[14,17286,17287],{},[75,17288],{"alt":77,"src":17289},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fseo-1st-position-serp.webp",[14,17291,17292],{},"Last but certainly not least, we're offering a downloadable template to show you how we perform competitive SEO audits for our clients.",[14,17294,17295],{},"Wahoo -- Let's get to it!",[24,17297,17299],{"id":17298},"setting-the-table","Setting the Table",[14,17301,17302],{},"To perform a competitive SEO audit, we recommend the following:",[46,17304,17305,17308,17311],{},[49,17306,17307],{},"Google Analytics",[49,17309,17310],{},"SimilarWeb",[49,17312,17313],{},"Raven Tools",[14,17315,17316],{},"Now, the most important thing I'll ask you to remember during this exercise is:",[13959,17318,17319],{},[14,17320,17321],{},"Remember who your audience is!",[14,17323,17324],{},"You are preparing an executive level analysis of where you stack up compared to your competitors on search engines. NEVER FORGET THAT!",[14,17326,17327],{},"Alright, let's dive in to our methodology.",[24,17329,17331],{"id":17330},"step-1-setting-up-your-analysis","Step 1: Setting up your analysis",[14,17333,17334],{},"Your executive-level competitive SEO audit needs to be brief, filled with only the most pertinent information and packed with lots of \"Here is what we're gonna do next...\" action items.",[14,17336,17337],{},"We like to set up our competitive SEO audits in the following way:",[46,17339,17340,17343,17346,17359],{},[49,17341,17342],{},"Overview Section: This section defines the purpose and tools used to conduct the audit. This is your classic \"setting the table\" part of the analysis.",[49,17344,17345],{},"Your Website versus Competitors: Use RavenTools and SimilarWeb to compare how your website ranks against competitors when it comes to traffic, links, depth of website and SERP elements.",[49,17347,17348,17349,17354,17355,17358],{},"Your Website versus the Universe: This step makes use of the new(ish) ",[206,17350,17353],{"href":17351,"rel":17352},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fanalytics\u002Fanswer\u002F6086666",[210],"benchmarking feature of Google Analytics",". Plug in your website's vertical and ",[52,17356,17357],{},"BAM"," you've got aggregated stats for websites just like your own.",[49,17360,17361],{},"Summary and Recommended Actions: This is the most important section of your audit! Write this section so that if it's the only thing an executive reads, she will immediately know the key facts and actions that are being taken.",[14,17363,17364],{},"I plugged in an example of what one of our own competitive audits looks like below for reference.",[16130,17366],{"src":17367,"width":17368,"height":17368,"frameBorder":16135,"marginWidth":17369,"marginHeight":17369,"scrolling":17370,"className":17371},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.slideshare.net\u002Fslideshow\u002Fembed_code\u002F46732266",600,0,"no",[17372],"shadow-md",[14,17374,17375],{},"If you want to use or tweak our own audit template, we'd be happy to give it to you. Enter your email address below and then immediately check your email to confirm the request.",[14,17377,17378],{},"Now, let's walk through our process for comparing your website to a specific competitor set.",[24,17380,17382],{"id":17381},"step-2grab-competitive-traffic-data-from-similarweb","Step 2: Grab Competitive Traffic Data from SimilarWeb",[14,17384,17385,17386,17390],{},"If you've never used ",[206,17387,17310],{"href":17388,"rel":17389},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.similarweb.com\u002F",[210]," before, you're really missing out. For the purpose of your competitive SEO audit, you're going to use their free tool to track how much web traffic your competitors get.",[14,17392,17393],{},"Navigate yourself over to SimilarWeb.com and type in your website URL.",[14,17395,17396,17399],{},[75,17397],{"src":17398},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fsimilarweb.com-search.webp","The next step of the process will show you an estimate for web traffic (desktop only) for the previous 6 months.",[14,17401,17402],{},"As we've used the free version of SimilarWeb for about a year now, we've definitely run a few tests of our own and recognize that their estimates are +\u002F-t 10% to 15%. Take that into account mentally but leave the estimates alone.",[14,17404,17405],{},"We went ahead and inputted our own website into SimilarWeb. Here's what came back:",[75,17407],{"src":17408},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fsimilar-web-monthly-seo-traffic.webp",[14,17410,17411],{},"The final step here is to create an average traffic number from the past six months. Since SimilarWeb shows you projected month-by-month traffic estimates, you can total these up for yourself to confirm their estimates.",[14,17413,17414],{},"Once you have that number, drop it into an excel sheet that includes your own website  and  competitors. After you crank through all of your competitors data on SimilarWeb, you'll end up with a super duper fancy table that you can turn into a stunning bar graph like this to show traffic:",[75,17416],{"src":17417},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcompetitive-SEO-audit-graph.webp",[24,17419,17421],{"id":17420},"step-3grab-competitivekeyword-ranking-data-from-raven-tools","Step 3: Grab Competitive Keyword Ranking Data from Raven Tools",[14,17423,17424],{},"Bam! You've got the traffic figures lined up side-by-side. Now it's time to get an idea for how you stack up against your competitors on search engine results pages (SERP's).",[14,17426,17427],{},"Why is this important?",[46,17429,17430,17437],{},[49,17431,17432,17433,17436],{},"Because every senior level exec I've ever reported to has asked \"Where do we show up on Google when you search for ",[13285,17434,17435],{},"core keyword phrase","?\"and this trend will probably continue until the end of time",[49,17438,17439],{},"SERP data helps you understand how search engine algorithms view your website compared to your competitors",[14,17441,17442],{},"We use Raven Tools to pull down this competitive keyword and SERP data, so your first step should be to log in to your Raven account and head to the \"Research Central\" tab:",[75,17444],{"src":17445},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FResearch-Central-Feature-Raven-Tools.webp",[14,17447,17448],{},"Next up, you'll drop in a keyword from the keyword research (I'm assuming) that your brand has done at some point.",[14,17450,17451],{},"For this example, we'll use the keyword 'marketing agency' and see the top 25 results, inclusive of SEO metrics like page authority, citation flow and more.",[75,17453],{"src":17454},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FResearch-Central-Raven-Tools-Keyword-Research.webp",[14,17456,17457],{},"You can keep track of these results in a Google sheet (alongside all the other SEO metrics), use Raven's Keyword  or Competitor Manager tool to track keyword performance.",[14,17459,17460],{},"Regardless of whether you store your data in a spreadsheet or Raven Tools, we recommend showing executives the top five keywords (in terms of importance) in your competitive SEO audit. All other keyword data should be hosted in a separate link or spreadsheet for review at a later date (remember, you're not trying to give the executives  all the data  - just the most critical information).",[14,17462,17463],{},"Here's an example of how we display this information from our audit template:",[75,17465],{"src":17466},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcompetitive-SEO-audit-keyword-rankings.webp",[24,17468,17470],{"id":17469},"step-4-use-google-analytics-benchmarking-feature-for-industry-benchmarks","Step 4: Use Google Analytics' Benchmarking Feature for Industry Benchmarks",[14,17472,17473],{},"The most common question that we get from executives about SEO data is:  Okay, 'X, Y and Z' happened. But is our performance actually any good?",[14,17475,17476],{},"Seems like an easy question when you're in the weeds executing every day. But for an executive who possesses fair less context than you do, it's a huge barometer for them to understand how your website is doing.",[14,17478,17479],{},"One of our favorite new ways to grab industry benchmarking data is to log into Google Analytics and go to the 'Benchmarking' tool.",[75,17481],{"src":17482},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FGoogle-Analytics-Benchmarking-Feature.webp",[14,17484,17485],{},"And at this point you'll have three different report segments to review:",[46,17487,17488,17491,17494],{},[49,17489,17490],{},"Channels: How your website performs by different default channel groupings such as organic, paid, email and others",[49,17492,17493],{},"Location: Look at your website from a geographic view",[49,17495,17496],{},"Devices: Review your website benchmark position from a desktop, tablet and mobile standpoint",[14,17498,17499],{},"Here is a screengrab example:",[75,17501],{"src":17502},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FGoogle-Analytics-Benchmark-Tutorial-and-Definitions.webp",[14,17504,17505],{},"Again, remember who our audience is: execs!",[14,17507,17508],{},"While we provide a lengthy data backup, we like to display benchmarking data in a easy-to-read graph or set of bullet points.",[75,17510],{"src":17511},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002FGoogle-Analytics-Benchmarking-Data-Analysis-Competitive-SEO-Audit1.webp",[24,17513,17515],{"id":17514},"wam-bam-thank-you-david-bowie-what","Wam-bam! Thank you David Bowie! (what?)",[14,17517,17518],{},"There are other metrics we throw into our competitive SEO audits, but for the sake of brevity (And because we're offering a downloadable template) we left those out of this post.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":17520},[17521,17522,17523,17524,17525,17526],{"id":17298,"depth":291,"text":17299},{"id":17330,"depth":291,"text":17331},{"id":17381,"depth":291,"text":17382},{"id":17420,"depth":291,"text":17421},{"id":17469,"depth":291,"text":17470},{"id":17514,"depth":291,"text":17515},"2015-04-08","A step-by-step guide to learn how to benchmark your websites ranking in search engines against competitors and compile your findings for an executive-level SEO conversation.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcompetitive-seo-audit",{"title":17238,"description":17528},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fcompetitive-seo-audit","CKDi1QU61hqClxJzjK7Of0DejGfdlgl-WMrnCezSamc",[14481],{"id":17536,"title":17537,"author":7,"authors":17538,"body":17539,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":17987,"description":17988,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":17989,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":17990,"seo":17991,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":17992,"updated":7,"__hash__":17993,"people":17994},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fyoutube-seo-best-practices.md","YouTube SEO Best Practices [Free Download]",[14253],{"type":11,"value":17540,"toc":17978},[17541,17545,17548,17562,17565,17585,17589,17592,17641,17645,17648,17748,17754,17757,17767,17787,17790,17821,17827,17844,17847,17850,17886,17889,17895,17912,17915,17921,17924,17928],[24,17542,17544],{"id":17543},"youtube-best-practices","YouTube Best Practices",[14,17546,17547],{},"YouTube is a pretty big deal. Let's look at the numbers:",[46,17549,17550,17553,17556,17559],{},[49,17551,17552],{},"More than 1 billion people visit YouTube each month.",[49,17554,17555],{},"Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube – that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth.",[49,17557,17558],{},"100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.",[49,17560,17561],{},"According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network.",[14,17563,17564],{},"So how do you make sure your content is bubbling up to the top of YouTube’s search results? Here’s a list of tips, broken up into three different parts:",[132,17566,17567,17573,17579],{},[49,17568,17569,17572],{},[52,17570,17571],{},"Low Hanging Fruit"," – Easy steps to take to improve the general SEO of your videos.",[49,17574,17575,17578],{},[52,17576,17577],{},"Technical Tips"," – More technical in nature steps to improve overall SEO.",[49,17580,17581,17584],{},[52,17582,17583],{},"Don’t Forget"," – Things to do before and after your video is posted to improve the quality and shares of your video.",[24,17586,17588],{"id":17587},"the-low-hanging-fruit","The Low Hanging Fruit",[14,17590,17591],{},"Here are the basics you need to implement to make sure your video is covered for YouTube SEO.",[46,17593,17594,17600,17606,17612,17618],{},[49,17595,17596,17599],{},[52,17597,17598],{},"File Name:"," When preparing your video for upload, name your video files with your keywords in mind. YouTube will give your video preference if you use topical keywords in your file name. Include keywords closer to the beginning.",[49,17601,17602,17605],{},[52,17603,17604],{},"Video Title:"," As a general rule, include your company’s name in a video’s title. Make the title catchy and worthy of a click!",[49,17607,17608,17611],{},[52,17609,17610],{},"Video Description:"," Make the description at least 250 words and include your keyword 2-3 times in the description.",[49,17613,17614,17617],{},[52,17615,17616],{},"Valid Links:"," Direct viewers to related information on your website in your video’s description. You need to include a link in the description to where on your website viewers can find out more information. This is how you drive more traffic to your website. It allows for discovery of your product\u002Fcompany on YouTube and makes it easy to find more information where you want people to go – your website. Make sure your links are UTM-tagged and include bit.ly links to track clicks.",[49,17619,17620,17623,17624],{},[52,17621,17622],{},"Video Tags:"," Descriptive keywords that help YouTube’s discovery systems understand the video topic and therefore deliver it as a search result to new audiences. Remember:\n",[46,17625,17626,17629,17632,17635,17638],{},[49,17627,17628],{},"Each YouTube video offers an upload ability to add tags to the video. It is important to create tags that outline the most important topics for the video.",[49,17630,17631],{},"Include a mix of video-specific and more general (but still relevant) tags.",[49,17633,17634],{},"Only use enough tags to thoroughly and accurately describe your videos.",[49,17636,17637],{},"Update video tags when new and relevant viewership trends emerge.",[49,17639,17640],{},"Include keywords from your title in your video’s tags.",[81,17642,17644],{"id":17643},"channel-settings","Channel Settings:",[14,17646,17647],{},"In addition to having your videos optimized for SEO. Make sure your YouTube Channel is optimized as well.",[46,17649,17650,17656,17662,17668,17674,17680,17686,17692],{},[49,17651,17652,17655],{},[52,17653,17654],{},"Title:"," Include your company name in the title.",[49,17657,17658,17661],{},[52,17659,17660],{},"Visibility:"," Check the visibility to make your channel visible.",[49,17663,17664,17667],{},[52,17665,17666],{},"Email Location:"," Check the box so others can find your channel via email.",[49,17669,17670,17673],{},[52,17671,17672],{},"Channel Tags:"," This is the most important part of channel optimization. Choose three to five relevant keywords that are the same ones you use on your website. Separate each keyword with quotation marks.",[49,17675,17676,17679],{},[52,17677,17678],{},"Modules:"," Any modules are fine, but these three are necessary for optimization: Commenting, Subscriptions, and Friends.",[49,17681,17682,17685],{},[52,17683,17684],{},"Videos and Playlists:"," Always select the “My Uploaded Video” option in the featured content box. Always set one of your videos as the featured video. Check the box to play your featured video automatically.",[49,17687,17688,17691],{},[52,17689,17690],{},"Profile:"," Use your business name as the name of the profile. Write your exact website URL in the websites section. In your channel description, summarize the content of the channel and include a link to your company’s social media channels. In the “About Me” section, give a brief description of your company using targeted keywords.",[49,17693,17694,17697],{},[52,17695,17696],{},"Broadcasting and Sharing Options:",[46,17698,17699,17705,17711,17717,17722,17727,17732,17737,17742],{},[49,17700,17701,17704],{},[52,17702,17703],{},"Privacy:"," Set to Public",[49,17706,17707,17710],{},[52,17708,17709],{},"License:"," Select the standard YouTube license",[49,17712,17713,17716],{},[52,17714,17715],{},"Comments:"," Allow",[49,17718,17719,17716],{},[52,17720,17721],{},"Comment Voting:",[49,17723,17724,17716],{},[52,17725,17726],{},"Video Responses:",[49,17728,17729,17716],{},[52,17730,17731],{},"Rating:",[49,17733,17734,17716],{},[52,17735,17736],{},"Embedding:",[49,17738,17739,17716],{},[52,17740,17741],{},"Syndication:",[49,17743,17744,17747],{},[52,17745,17746],{},"Date and Map:"," Set the video’s location to the company address.",[14,17749,17750,17753],{},[52,17751,17752],{},"Captions and Subtitles:"," YouTube converts videos into Java, which makes the content unable to be crawled by search engines. By uploading a caption file, you give Google a giant block of copy to read. Transcribe the video into a .txt file. Use periods and commas to signify breaks in speech. This will help Google’s voice recognition service to time the captions properly. If the video contains no speech, use the annotations feature to create a caption with a call-to-action for the company website or social network page. Make sure the timing is set on the annotation to give the caption ample display time. Upload the transcript or caption file. It may take several minutes to process.",[24,17755,17577],{"id":17756},"technical-tips",[14,17758,17759,17762,17763,17766],{},[52,17760,17761],{},"Using Thumbnails on YouTube:"," Create an eye-catching thumbnail for your video. Hand-select a frame. You can edit it with Photoshop or any other image editor to accomplish this task. Make sure you name your thumbnail file with your main keyword of the video.\n",[52,17764,17765],{},"Build Your Subscribers:"," Subscribers receive notifications for new uploads in the main YouTube stream, this helps improve your organic views of your videos. Here are a few tips on how to grow subscribers:",[46,17768,17769,17775,17781],{},[49,17770,17771,17774],{},[52,17772,17773],{},"Be consistent"," – Upload videos on a consistent pace.",[49,17776,17777,17780],{},[52,17778,17779],{},"Provide value"," – In addition to promotional videos, don’t be afraid to film yourself speaking. This can give your audience someone to identify with.",[49,17782,17783,17786],{},[52,17784,17785],{},"Video annotation"," – Use video annotations to create a call to action to ask for subscribers. You can even add a “Subscribe” image to your video and draw a “Spotlight” annotation that links to your subscribe page.",[14,17788,17789],{},"Here are four ways you can create a call to action to get subscribers:",[132,17791,17792,17803,17809,17815],{},[49,17793,17794,17797,17798,17802],{},[52,17795,17796],{},"The Popup Link Method:"," Create a popup with a call to action to subscribe to your company’s YouTube channel. Just use this code ",[206,17799,17800],{"href":17800,"rel":17801},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fuser\u002FYOURUSERNAMEHERE?sub_confirmation=1",[210],". It will trigger a pop up asking viewers to subscribe to your channel. Use this on your social media channels.",[49,17804,17805,17808],{},[52,17806,17807],{},"The Website Badge:"," Add a badge on your website directing people to your YouTube channel. You can do this a few different ways.",[49,17810,17811,17814],{},[52,17812,17813],{},"The iFrame Method:"," Customizable to fit your website needs. If you want to display a box like that under your video and your have your video set to display at a certain size, you can add this below the video at the same width and it adds an amazing call to action for subscribers and looks like it is supposed to be there.",[49,17816,17817,17820],{},[52,17818,17819],{},"YouTube Javascript Subscribe Button Method:"," YouTube has ways to embed your channel on your website, just use the provided HTML code for your website.",[14,17822,17823,17826],{},[52,17824,17825],{},"Find Video Keywords:"," A normal search engine result page has 10 webpage results. However, Google has been updating the number of videos, news items, and extra information is displayed on this page. In general, Google tends to use video results for these types of keywords:",[46,17828,17829,17832,17835,17838,17841],{},[49,17830,17831],{},"How-to keywords",[49,17833,17834],{},"Reviews",[49,17836,17837],{},"Tutorials",[49,17839,17840],{},"Fitness \u002F Sports Related",[49,17842,17843],{},"Funny Videos",[14,17845,17846],{},"The easiest way to find video keywords is to search for keywords in your niche. Then see if any of the keywords you searched for have YouTube video results. Next, you need to check if there’s enough search volume for that keyword. (Just make sure your target keyword gets at least 300 average searches per month in Google. You can do this using Google Keyword Planner.)",[14,17848,17849],{},"Don’t forget! YouTube uses user experience metrics to determine the quality of your video. This includes:",[46,17851,17852,17858,17863,17869,17875,17881],{},[49,17853,17854,17857],{},[52,17855,17856],{},"Video retention:"," The percentage of your video people tend to watch.",[49,17859,17860,17862],{},[52,17861,17715],{}," If people comment, they probably enjoyed the video (or at least watched it).",[49,17864,17865,17868],{},[52,17866,17867],{},"Subscribes after watching:"," If someone subscribes to your channel after watching your video that sends a huge signal that you have an amazing video.",[49,17870,17871,17874],{},[52,17872,17873],{},"Shares:"," How many people share your video on social media channels.",[49,17876,17877,17880],{},[52,17878,17879],{},"Favorites:"," The number of people that favorite your video or add it to their “Watch Later” playlist.",[49,17882,17883],{},[52,17884,17885],{},"Thumbs Up \u002F Thumbs Down",[24,17887,17583],{"id":17888},"dont-forget",[14,17890,17891,17894],{},[52,17892,17893],{},"Make Your Video Awesome:"," In general, the more you put into your video, the more you’ll get out of it. Hire a professional videographer, pay an editor to add graphics and rent a studio. As long as your video is valuable and interested to watch, you are good to go. Just remember, quality matters so much because user engagement is the most important YouTube ranking signal.\nOnce published, share your video immediately. Here are some good starting places to share:",[46,17896,17897,17900,17903,17906,17909],{},[49,17898,17899],{},"Embed your video on a Google+ post with a description.",[49,17901,17902],{},"Share your video on all social media including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.",[49,17904,17905],{},"Email your video link to your website email subscribers.",[49,17907,17908],{},"Create a blog post around your video.",[49,17910,17911],{},"Find linking partners for your videos.",[14,17913,17914],{},"When sharing, ask engaging questions with your audience. Statements like “We can’t wait to hear what you think!” and “Leave a comment in the video and let us know if you have any questions.”",[14,17916,17917,17920],{},[52,17918,17919],{},"Embed Your Videos in Blog Posts and Company Website:"," Whenever you write a blog post (on your site or as a guest blog post for anther site) ask yourself, “Where can I embed a YouTube video on this post?”",[14,17922,17923],{},"Don’t forget to include these videos on your company’s sitemap. Make sure you have a separate landing page for each video so search engines can find and index each video asset individually.",[24,17925,17927],{"id":17926},"additional-resources","Additional Resources",[46,17929,17930,17938,17946,17954,17962,17970],{},[49,17931,17932,17935],{},[206,17933],{"href":17934},"https:\u002F\u002Fbacklinko.com\u002Fhow-to-rank-youtube-videos",[206,17936,17934],{"href":17934,"rel":17937},[210],[49,17939,17940,17943],{},[206,17941],{"href":17942},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.forbes.com\u002Fsites\u002Fjohnrampton\u002F2014\u002F06\u002F12\u002Fvideo-seo-guide-optimization-best-practices\u002F",[206,17944,17942],{"href":17942,"rel":17945},[210],[49,17947,17948,17951],{},[206,17949],{"href":17950},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchenginewatch.com\u002Fsew\u002Fhow-to\u002F2343365\u002F10-video-seo-tips-that-can-truly-impact-your-rankings",[206,17952,17950],{"href":17950,"rel":17953},[210],[49,17955,17956,17959],{},[206,17957],{"href":17958},"https:\u002F\u002Fmikegingerich.com\u002Foptimize-youtube-videos-seo\u002F",[206,17960,17958],{"href":17958,"rel":17961},[210],[49,17963,17964,17967],{},[206,17965],{"href":17966},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.prdaily.com\u002FMain\u002FArticles\u002FStepbystep_SEO_guide_for_YouTube_videos_11124.aspx",[206,17968,17966],{"href":17966,"rel":17969},[210],[49,17971,17972,17975],{},[206,17973],{"href":17974},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.scottbuehler.com\u002Fsocial-media\u002Fyoutube-guide\u002F",[206,17976,17974],{"href":17974,"rel":17977},[210],{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":17979},[17980,17981,17984,17985,17986],{"id":17543,"depth":291,"text":17544},{"id":17587,"depth":291,"text":17588,"children":17982},[17983],{"id":17643,"depth":297,"text":17644},{"id":17756,"depth":291,"text":17577},{"id":17888,"depth":291,"text":17583},{"id":17926,"depth":291,"text":17927},"2015-01-29","How you make sure your content is bubbling up to the top of YouTube’s search results.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fyoutube-seo-best-practices",{"title":17537,"description":17988},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fyoutube-seo-best-practices","h1709FPgfpoNjDdN4V1R9fptOJQRiEt7DI-Lr6M70L4",[14481],{"id":17996,"title":17997,"author":7,"authors":17998,"body":17999,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":18194,"description":18195,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":18196,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":18197,"seo":18198,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":18199,"stem":18200,"updated":7,"__hash__":18201,"people":18202},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fautomate-social-media-success-with-if-this-then-that.md","Automate Social Media Success with IFTTT (If This Then That)",[9],{"type":11,"value":18000,"toc":18183},[18001,18005,18031,18038,18043,18051,18054,18057,18060,18068,18072,18075,18079,18082,18085,18094,18098,18101,18105,18108,18111,18114,18117,18120,18123,18126,18129,18132,18136,18139,18142,18145,18149,18152,18155,18158,18161,18164,18167,18170,18174,18177,18180],[24,18002,18004],{"id":18003},"what-issocial-media-automation-who-cares","What is social media automation & who cares?",[14,18006,18007,18008,1732,18013,18018,18019,18024,18025,18030],{},"The marketing world is hellbent on automating everything: programmatic advertising (from folks like ",[206,18009,18012],{"href":18010,"rel":18011},"https:\u002F\u002Frocketfuel.com?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"Rocket Fuel",[206,18014,18017],{"href":18015,"rel":18016},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.dataxu.com\u002F?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"Data Xu"," and more), ",[206,18020,18023],{"href":18021,"rel":18022},"https:\u002F\u002Fliveintent.com?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"programmatic email marketing",", marketing automation from ",[206,18026,18029],{"href":18027,"rel":18028},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.marketo.com\u002F?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"Marketo"," and more.",[14,18032,18033,18034,18037],{},"So how can folks ",[52,18035,18036],{},"automate some of their social media activity","?",[13959,18039,18040],{},[14,18041,18042],{},"By using If This Then That (IFTTT)!",[14,18044,18045,18050],{},[206,18046,18049],{"href":18047,"rel":18048},"https:\u002F\u002Fifttt.com\u002F?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"IFTTT"," can automate some of the manual social activity (like sharing your favorite blog posts) from your favorite websites and increase engagement on your social channels.",[14,18052,18053],{},"There is one huge distinction to make: I AM NOT RECOMMENDING YOU AUTOMATE EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY.",[14,18055,18056],{},"This is simply a tactic to help broadcast more useful stories, graphics, videos, etc. from killer writers. And, you'll see in the bottom section, this tactic has worked really well in getting me more RT's, mentions, and followers on Twitter in an experiment I have been running for the past few months.",[14,18058,18059],{},"Bam! There it is. This guide will walk you through two things:",[132,18061,18062,18065],{},[49,18063,18064],{},"How you set up IFTTT to automate social media success",[49,18066,18067],{},"My own results from this experiment over the past 90 days",[24,18069,18071],{"id":18070},"how-to-set-up-ifttt-a-4-step-guide","How to Set Up IFTTT: A 4-Step Guide",[14,18073,18074],{},"There are four steps to set up IFTTT to auto-post awesome content from your favorite writers. Keep in mind, these are my four steps and I'm sure there are MANY other ways to go about this and get the same result.",[81,18076,18078],{"id":18077},"ifttt-setup-step-1-grab-rss-feed-url","IFTTT Setup Step 1: Grab RSS feed url",[14,18080,18081],{},"Even though Google's RSS product is dead, most websites still prominently feature an RSS feed icon (looks like a wifi symbol) on their websites near social media accounts or on a contact page.",[14,18083,18084],{},"Your first step is to scour the web, reading through your favorite author's websites and tracking down their RSS feed URL.",[14,18086,18087,18088,18093],{},"In the example below, I grabbed the RSS feed for ",[206,18089,18092],{"href":18090,"rel":18091},"https:\u002F\u002Fventurebeat.com?utm_source=mikekrass",[210],"VentureBeat",", a popular technology blog based in San Francisco.",[81,18095,18097],{"id":18096},"ifttt-setup-step-2-sign-up-for-ifttt-its-free","IFTTT Setup Step 2: Sign Up for IFTTT (it's free)",[14,18099,18100],{},"Head to IFTTT.com and set up an account. This is a free process that should take approximately 14 seconds.",[81,18102,18104],{"id":18103},"ifttt-setup-step-3-creating-your-recipe","IFTTT Setup Step 3: Creating your 'recipe'",[14,18106,18107],{},"A 'recipe,' as IFTTT calls them, is basically an automated command between two programs, social media accounts, etc.",[14,18109,18110],{},"At this point, you'll want to click on the 'browse' button once you've logged in. You are looking for a recipe that publishes a news story (Which will happen  every single time your favorite author publishes a story) to your social media account.",[14,18112,18113],{},"In my experience, the easiest recipe to use to autopost content is to push from an author's RSS feed (hence, gathering RSS feed URLs) to your social network (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc).",[14,18115,18116],{},"After clicking on 'browse' on the top menu bar, go ahead and type in the network you want to push from RSS. In this instance, I selected Twitter and searched for 'RSS twitter.'",[14,18118,18119],{},"I've used a few, but my favorite existing recipe is from a IFTTT user by the name of demoine (see screenshot below).",[14,18121,18122],{},"Go ahead and click on this option.",[14,18124,18125],{},"Now it's time to copy\u002Fpaste that RSS feed URL you have handy from your favorite site into the 'RSS feed link' box. Wahoo -- told ya that would come in handy!",[14,18127,18128],{},"Additionally, you have the option to customize the tweet (in this case) that will be sent out. I recommend making it sound somewhat unique; add #hashtags, use different intros and try to keep it short; keep in mind, the article title and url will be going in here too.",[14,18130,18131],{},"Then click 'Add Recipe.'",[81,18133,18135],{"id":18134},"ifttt-setup-step-4-verifying-your-recipe","IFTTT Setup Step 4: Verifying your 'Recipe'",[14,18137,18138],{},"Next step: Go to 'My Recipes' on the top menu bar. You'll need to make sure your recipe has a descriptive title and even test fire it to see it works.",[14,18140,18141],{},"Click on the top listed recipe. It will be the most recent one you created (which is shown in days and minutes).",[14,18143,18144],{},"Make sure that your recipe has a very descriptive title. This will allow you to recall which one is which, an important capability once you do this a few dozen times :-)",[24,18146,18148],{"id":18147},"the-results-to-date-how-is-this-going-mr-mike","The Results to Date: How is this going, Mr. Mike?",[14,18150,18151],{},"Okay Mr. Mike: you still haven't fully convinced me to automate some of the manual, tedious tasks in my social media activity.",[14,18153,18154],{},"But maybe if you showed me how it's worked for you over the past few months it would help!",[14,18156,18157],{},"Bam. No problem-o ladies and gentlemen.",[14,18159,18160],{},"During the past 91 days, I've gone from getting about 700 Twitter impressions on my shares per day to 725, a modest 4% increase.",[14,18162,18163],{},"I've gone from getting about 1 click per day on my shares to 2 clicks, a 50% jump (albeit small in volume, though).",[14,18165,18166],{},"Also, my followers have steadily increased by 14% (from 538 to 610 as of publishing this story).",[14,18168,18169],{},"As for RT's and and favorites, the numbers have held pretty steady there, continuing to average 1 of each on my personal Twitter account.",[24,18171,18173],{"id":18172},"in-closing-my-challenge-to-you-the-readers","In Closing: My challenge to you, the readers",[14,18175,18176],{},"This is a very contained and small experiment -- yet look at the results on my personal Twitter handle!",[14,18178,18179],{},"My challenge to you -- my readers -- is this: Who will use IFTTT to automate something bigger and better than my experiment?!",[14,18181,18182],{},"Share some ideas in the comments section below and I'll tackle them and share results in a separate blog post.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":18184},[18185,18186,18192,18193],{"id":18003,"depth":291,"text":18004},{"id":18070,"depth":291,"text":18071,"children":18187},[18188,18189,18190,18191],{"id":18077,"depth":297,"text":18078},{"id":18096,"depth":297,"text":18097},{"id":18103,"depth":297,"text":18104},{"id":18134,"depth":297,"text":18135},{"id":18147,"depth":291,"text":18148},{"id":18172,"depth":291,"text":18173},"2014-10-20","The marketing world is hellbent on automating everything: programmatic advertising (from folks like Rocket Fuel, Data Xu and more), programmatic email marketing, marketing automation from Marketo and more.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fautomate-social-media-success-with-if-this-then-that",{"title":17997,"description":18195},"Automate Social Media Success with If This Then That","blog\u002Fseo\u002Fautomate-social-media-success-with-if-this-then-that","3BSxDnkET0rCQec0gADBuEaHfoQy3ZJVFg0cnrBEBZo",[1664,1718],{"id":18204,"title":18205,"author":7,"authors":18206,"body":18207,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":18387,"description":18211,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":18388,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":18389,"seo":18390,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":18391,"updated":7,"__hash__":18392,"people":18393},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fknowledge-graph-optimization-serp-thought-leader.md","Knowledge Graph Optimization - Be A SERP Thought Leader",[9],{"type":11,"value":18208,"toc":18373},[18209,18212,18221,18224,18228,18231,18235,18238,18241,18245,18248,18252,18255,18259,18262,18265,18269,18272,18278,18281,18284,18287,18290,18293,18301,18304,18307,18310,18317,18320,18323,18326,18329,18332,18335,18342,18345,18349,18352,18355,18358,18361,18364,18367,18370],[14,18210,18211],{},"The future of search. Enhancing search engine's search results. Could change search forever.",[14,18213,18214,18215,18220],{},"All of these phrases are what others have used to describe the ",[206,18216,18219],{"href":18217,"rel":18218},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.google.com\u002Fposts\u002Fanswer\u002F7534842?visit_id=636722958800262850-473470539&rd=2",[210],"Knowledge Graph",". That being said, are you able to have influence over this \"Knowledge Graph\" and have it potentially serve up what you choose?",[14,18222,18223],{},"Yes you most certainly can. But first-",[24,18225,18227],{"id":18226},"what-is-the-knowledge-graph","What is the Knowledge Graph?",[14,18229,18230],{},"The Knowledge Graph is a database of real-world things and how they are all connected. These relationships help search engines display information in a way that allows users to get information that they are looking for in a rich information way. The Knowledge Graph is, at its core, a key way search engines are trying to bring in semantic search to show the most relevant search results to users as possible. They're digging through various points of semantics based on your query, dipping in their database of relationships and things, and bringing to the forefront exactly what they feel you are searching for.",[24,18232,18234],{"id":18233},"knowledge-graph-examples","Knowledge Graph Examples",[14,18236,18237],{},"Not following? I completely understand. You need to think about the Knowledge Graph as something working in the background and not as an actual database of information. The Knowledge Graph isn't just one \"thing\"; it's many different data sources all smashed together into a big resource of information.",[14,18239,18240],{},"Let's look at some examples. I bet you'll be surprised at how much exposure you really have with the Knowledge Graph:",[81,18242,18244],{"id":18243},"google-instant","Google Instant",[14,18246,18247],{},"Wonder how search engines can predict what you're possibly typing out when performing a search? Not only is it due to the gazillions of data points that they have for search patterns and the like for each of their respective engines, but it's also all about digging into the knowledge graph and understanding if you're truly looking for Rio the film, Rio de Janiero the city, or other associations and relationships things have with the query of \"Rio.\"",[81,18249,18251],{"id":18250},"carousel","Carousel",[14,18253,18254],{},"Displays results as a carousel on the top of the page. Try searching for your favorite sports team; those carousel results show you a lot of information very quickly (for the record, Slow Bar is the best of the bunch in this screenshot).",[81,18256,18258],{"id":18257},"answer-box","Answer Box",[14,18260,18261],{},"An answer box is meant to show you the answer to your query from a reputable source that is displayed prominently on the results page.",[14,18263,18264],{},"All of these search enhancements are because of the Knowledge Graph. See? Knew you would be familiar with it.",[24,18266,18268],{"id":18267},"knowledge-graph-optimization","Knowledge Graph Optimization",[14,18270,18271],{},"So now that you know what the Knowledge Graph is, it's time to learn how you - a search marketer who wants to be on the cutting edge of SEO - can shape and potentially influence what shows up for knowledge graph information.",[14,18273,18274,18275],{},"The example we'll be walking through for this post is how we were able to ",[52,18276,18277],{},"influence what shows up for an answer box.",[14,18279,18280],{},"As covered above, search engines choose to display answer boxes from data sources in the knowledge graph to try to get the most qualified answer to the searcher as up front as possible.",[14,18282,18283],{},"After some hard work both on-site and off-site, we were able to influence the Knowledge Graph for it to predominately display an answer box for one of our clients - Zweena Health - for a query that helps position them as a thought leader in the health care space.",[14,18285,18286],{},"So, naturally, the next question you have is-",[14,18288,18289],{},"How Were We Able to Optimize The Knowledge Graph and How You Can Too",[14,18291,18292],{},"This section is split up into two different principles we needed to practice in order to get the Knowledge Graph to display results in our favor:",[132,18294,18295,18298],{},[49,18296,18297],{},"On-Site SEO",[49,18299,18300],{},"Off-Site SEO",[81,18302,18297],{"id":18303},"on-site-seo",[14,18305,18306],{},"In order to optimize a page to potentially become something that is trustworthy enough to be used as knowledge graph data, you need to realize why search engines are using the Knowledge Graph more and more in search result: they want to show quality content that appears to be wholly trustworthy.",[14,18308,18309],{},"In a general sense, first and foremost, it's important for your website to be in good standing with search engines. It needs to be established, have been around for awhile, and accrued some inbound links. Basically - search engines need to know that your site has some skin in the game.",[14,18311,18312,18313,18316],{},"Secondly - you need to produce a piece of ",[52,18314,18315],{},"quality content"," based on what you're trying to display for a Knowledge Graph result.",[14,18318,18319],{},"So you need to dedicate some real time into writing up a quality piece of content that provides value and that also covers what you're trying to show up for.",[14,18321,18322],{},"For Zweena, this meant spending hours crafting a page all about what a health record was all about. We answered questions like why people need a health record and the benefits of having an up-to-date record of your health. Of course, we also wired it up for SEO by ensuring we optimized certain elements of the page for our keyword target, including the title tag, main headline, several mentions in the copy and other secondary elements that we look to optimize. All in all - this is an insightful quality piece of content that is optimized for search.",[81,18324,18300],{"id":18325},"off-site-seo",[14,18327,18328],{},"With the article outline carefully pieced together, drafted, edited and then launched, we began our off-site SEO phase.",[14,18330,18331],{},"Naturally, when you read \"off-site SEO\", you associate words like \"link building\", \"outreach\", etc. This was all very true of an off-site SEO program and is something that we definitely strive to do for all of our pieces of content.",[14,18333,18334],{},"That being said - outreach fizzled for this. We contacted some folks who we thought could potentially link to it - no dice. Looked to include it in some introductory pieces of content about personal health records - didn't really take. Being an all-white hat SEO, we didn't do anything like comment spam or throw this link into any resource in any kind of spammy way.",[14,18336,18337,18338,18341],{},"Simply put - it wasn't a very marketable piece of content. It is - however - a tremendous, ",[52,18339,18340],{},"quality"," piece of content for a user in the awareness bucket of the buying cycle for our client.",[14,18343,18344],{},"So while it's completely buttoned-up in regards to on-page SEO - one part of the organic search ranking equation - it really isn't showing many results for the other piece of the equation - link building or numbers of links being pointed in its direction.",[81,18346,18348],{"id":18347},"impact","Impact",[14,18350,18351],{},"What kind of impact does having a knowledge graph result like this give you in regards to impressions and site traffic? It has to be driving a bananas amount of traffic to the website with people converting like crazy, right?",[14,18353,18354],{},"Not really.",[14,18356,18357],{},"That being said, in regards to the reported number of monthly searches by Google's Keyword Planner tool for that keyword search and similar variations where our answer card result shows, it's looking like we get a click through rate of between 60-80%. Not bad!",[14,18359,18360],{},"Google Webmaster Tools is reporting something quite different, though. Impression numbers are a bit higher, as they tend to be when you look at what GWT spits out versus what Google's keyword planner shows. Out of those impressions the CTR has been anywhere from 18%-25% - again much lower than the keyword planner \u002F\u002F Google Analytics mash-up earlier.",[14,18362,18363],{},"I believe the real click through rate is probably between those percentages. It's just so hard to exactly pinpoint given how inconsistent the data is between tools. My gut tells me we probably get about a 30% CTR from this answer card with the other 70% of users just reading the definition or not finding the result to be to their satisfaction.",[81,18365,18366],{"id":12555},"What Now?",[14,18368,18369],{},"We've seen first-hand how having an answer box result can directly impact traffic and results. We're naturally hard at work looking to optimize more content for other searches in the buying cycle for our client to see how it might influence results with users in the consideration or purchase phases.",[14,18371,18372],{},"Additionally - this is only touching on optimizing one piece of the knowledge graph pie (an answer box). In the time to come, we'll also share our insights and results from having our owned content be in other places of where knowledge graph data shows.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":18374},[18375,18376,18381],{"id":18226,"depth":291,"text":18227},{"id":18233,"depth":291,"text":18234,"children":18377},[18378,18379,18380],{"id":18243,"depth":297,"text":18244},{"id":18250,"depth":297,"text":18251},{"id":18257,"depth":297,"text":18258},{"id":18267,"depth":291,"text":18268,"children":18382},[18383,18384,18385,18386],{"id":18303,"depth":297,"text":18297},{"id":18325,"depth":297,"text":18300},{"id":18347,"depth":297,"text":18348},{"id":12555,"depth":297,"text":18366},"2014-06-23",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fknowledge-graph-optimization-serp-thought-leader",{"title":18205,"description":18211},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fknowledge-graph-optimization-serp-thought-leader","uZdY99fh9tKIkCRUvJuYlhhdLbdi--wx_YxclXYUM3c",[1664,1718],{"id":18395,"title":18396,"author":7,"authors":18397,"body":18398,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":18577,"description":18578,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":18579,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":18580,"seo":18581,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":18582,"updated":7,"__hash__":18583,"people":18584},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsocial-signals-the-new-inbound-link-ranking-factor-for-organic-rankings.md","Social Signals: The New Inbound Link Ranking Factor for Organic Rankings",[9],{"type":11,"value":18399,"toc":18570},[18400,18418,18423,18426,18429,18438,18441,18444,18447,18451,18454,18457,18460,18465,18474,18477,18481,18484,18493,18500,18504,18523,18526,18529,18532,18539,18543,18546,18549,18553,18556,18564,18567],[14,18401,18402,18403,1043,18408,1043,18413,5978],{},"Everyone from Rand Fishkin of Moz to Neil Patel of KISSmetrics is ",[206,18404,18407],{"href":18405,"rel":18406},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Fsearch-ranking-factors",[210],"saying",[206,18409,18412],{"href":18410,"rel":18411},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.quicksprout.com\u002F2014\u002F01\u002F31\u002Fhow-social-signals-impact-search-engine-rankings\u002F",[210],"it",[206,18414,18417],{"href":18415,"rel":18416},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchenginewatch.com\u002Farticle\u002F2325343\u002FMatt-Cutts-Facebook-Twitter-Social-Signals-Not-Part-of-Google-Search-Ranking-Algorithms",[210],"lately",[13959,18419,18420],{},[14,18421,18422],{},"Social signals are proving to have influence over organic search ranking factors",[14,18424,18425],{},"For the most part, SEOs are blogging that social signals influence on organic search rankings is in it's infancy; that while it is a ranking factor it's not yet of the staples (e.g. link authority and on-page content optimization) of search engine rankings.",[14,18427,18428],{},"After doing some internal testing and doing some thinking of how search engines have historically ranked pages, I am confident in saying:",[13959,18430,18431],{},[14,18432,18433,18434,18437],{},"Social signals will start becoming a ",[52,18435,18436],{},"major ranking factor"," for Google in 2014.",[14,18439,18440],{},"You can quote me on that.",[14,18442,18443],{},"What is my thinking there, aside from our internal testing data that shows some good to conclude this?",[14,18445,18446],{},"Well, it all starts with a quick history lesson...",[24,18448,18450],{"id":18449},"google-came-along-and-changed-the-ranking-game","Google came along and changed the ranking game",[14,18452,18453],{},"Before Google came along, search engines ranked content based solely on what was on the page. On-page optimization ruled all.",[14,18455,18456],{},"This spurred the rise of keyword stuffing; putting white text on a page with white backgrounds, and utilizing the now useless meta keyword tag.",[14,18458,18459],{},"Google changed all this. What they set out to do was to take some ranking influence from this on-page optimization... but also look at what pieces of content people vouched for . How can you tell which article people \"vouch\" for more: Article A that's about cat pictures on the Internet or article B that's about cat pictures on the Internet? Both very similar, but have all of the SEO blocking and tackling in place. So which articles ranks highest?",[13959,18461,18462],{},[14,18463,18464],{},"By the number of inbound links each article received",[14,18466,18467,18468,18473],{},"The inbound linking factor that ",[206,18469,18472],{"href":18470,"rel":18471},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.webmasterworld.com\u002Fforum3\u002F13088-1-30.htm?highlight=dominic#msg160172",[210],"Google introduced in its \"Dominic\" update"," was what really set Google apart from the rest of search engines.",[14,18475,18476],{},"Low and behold, all search engines now place almost 50% of organic ranking weight to inbound link metrics (both on a domain and web page level).",[24,18478,18480],{"id":18479},"social-signals-are-the-new-vouching-method","Social signals are the new vouching method",[14,18482,18483],{},"Before social media became so predominant in our everyday life, linking to websites was the primary way of \"vouching\" for a page's content. This still holds true today: in fact, WordPress users create 40.5 million blog posts each month. This is simply one CMS platform!",[14,18485,18486,18487,18492],{},"Now with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and ",[206,18488,18491],{"href":18489,"rel":18490},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FList_of_social_networking_websites",[210],"hundreds of other popular social sharing platforms",", users can \"vouch\" by simply taking ten seconds and writing up 140 characters + a link about a web page. No longer does someone need to own a website in order to share content they like: social media makes this so easy a baby could do it.",[14,18494,18495,18496,18499],{},"Ok, maybe not ",[52,18497,18498],{},"THAT"," easy, but easy enough.",[24,18501,18503],{"id":18502},"but-matt-cutts-saidddddd","But Matt Cutts saidddddd!!!!",[14,18505,18506,18507,18511,18512,18517,18518,212],{},"Yes, ",[206,18508,18510],{"href":18415,"rel":18509},[210],"Matt Cutts recently said Facebook and Twitter social signals do not factor into search engine rankings"," (",[206,18513,18516],{"href":18514,"rel":18515},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=udqtSM-6QbQ",[210],"watch here","). This is interesting, because ",[206,18519,18522],{"href":18520,"rel":18521},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchenginewatch.com\u002Farticle\u002F2050218\u002FMatt-Cutts-Social-Signals-Author-Authority-Ranking-Factors-Google-Realtime",[210],"back in 2010 he said Google did use social signals as a small ranking factor",[14,18524,18525],{},"So that's it right? Finito. End of discussion.",[14,18527,18528],{},"Not so fast.",[14,18530,18531],{},"Neil Patel, a guy I consider one of the sharpest online marketing individuals on the planet, put out recent findings that shows a very positive impact on rankings when you get some social media sharing clout behind a website. See below for that (this gifograph is too good):",[14,18533,18534,18535],{},"Courtesy of: ",[206,18536,18538],{"href":18410,"rel":18537},[210],"Quick Sprout",[24,18540,18542],{"id":18541},"what-were-seeing-vs-what-matt-cutts-is-telling-us","What We're Seeing vs. What Matt Cutts is Telling Us",[14,18544,18545],{},"We're all seeing social signals impacting organic search rankings. We're seeing it here with our client roster at MKG Marketing. Others are blogging about how they're seeing it. And Neil Patel shows some pretty hard evidence of this happening as well.",[14,18547,18548],{},"So, this about sums up my thoughts on Matt Cutts' recent video that we hit on above:\n",[24,18550,18552],{"id":18551},"our-theory-google-search-rankings-are-connecting-social-media-and-seo-at-the-hip","Our Theory: Google Search Rankings are connecting social media and SEO at the hip!",[14,18554,18555],{},"To summarize our point, search engines looking to share the most relevant results possible to a user lean on two important pieces of ranking information:",[46,18557,18558,18561],{},[49,18559,18560],{},"On-page optimization",[49,18562,18563],{},"Inbound link authority",[14,18565,18566],{},"Social signals have shown to have a positive relation to organic ranking factors. Even with Matt Cutts stating that Google doesn't take these into account currently, plenty of other bloggers as well as our own data shows otherwise.",[14,18568,18569],{},"Don't delay: social signals will be the third-highest ranking factor for websites. Get your social media marketing plan buttoned-up and be prepared when search engines start leaning more towards social signals in ranking factors.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":18571},[18572,18573,18574,18575,18576],{"id":18449,"depth":291,"text":18450},{"id":18479,"depth":291,"text":18480},{"id":18502,"depth":291,"text":18503},{"id":18541,"depth":291,"text":18542},{"id":18551,"depth":291,"text":18552},"2014-02-06","Social signals are proving to have influence over organic search ranking factors.See how.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsocial-signals-the-new-inbound-link-ranking-factor-for-organic-rankings",{"title":18396,"description":18578},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsocial-signals-the-new-inbound-link-ranking-factor-for-organic-rankings","dzQNC7KjWW3O_kT6N254uY1EaWpQLqIQ1pJaR1RJjqc",[1664,1718],{"id":18586,"title":18587,"author":7,"authors":18588,"body":18589,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":18795,"description":18796,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":18797,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":18798,"seo":18799,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":18800,"updated":7,"__hash__":18801,"people":18802},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fseo-web-design-tips-for-fast-growing-companies.md","SEO & Web Design Tips for Fast Growing Companies",[9],{"type":11,"value":18590,"toc":18778},[18591,18595,18604,18621,18624,18628,18631,18639,18647,18650,18658,18662,18665,18668,18671,18675,18678,18681,18685,18699,18703,18706,18709,18711,18715,18724,18727,18730,18733,18736,18739,18743,18746,18748,18751,18759,18762,18765,18768,18772,18775],[24,18592,18594],{"id":18593},"can-you-guess-who-the-fastest-growing-companies-are-in-the-us","Can You Guess Who the Fastest Growing Companies Are in the US?",[14,18596,18597,18598,18603],{},"Each year, ",[206,18599,18602],{"href":18600,"rel":18601},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoney.cnn.com\u002Fmagazines\u002Ffortune\u002Ffastest-growing\u002F",[210],"CNN Money releases their 100 Fastest Growing Companies list","that highlights the fastest growing companies in the United States. The criteria include:",[46,18605,18606,18609,18612,18615,18618],{},[49,18607,18608],{},"Revenue ($)",[49,18610,18611],{},"Revenue Growth (3 year)",[49,18613,18614],{},"Profit Growth (3 year)",[49,18616,18617],{},"Total Return (3 year)",[49,18619,18620],{},"Net Income ($ millions)",[14,18622,18623],{},"The companies tend to change each and every year, but one thing stays the same:",[24,18625,18627],{"id":18626},"these-companies-websites-all-could-use-a-lot-of-work","These Companies Websites' All Could Use a Lot of Work",[14,18629,18630],{},"From the overall website design down to the user experience (UX), many companies on the rise simply don't have time to freshen up their website as they continue to grow.\nUnfortunately for these companies, a smooth functioning and well-designed website is an essential sales tool for an organization.",[14,18632,18633,18638],{},[206,18634,18637],{"href":18635,"rel":18636},"https:\u002F\u002Fstatic.googleusercontent.com\u002Fmedia\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fen\u002Fus\u002Fenterprise\u002Fsearch\u002Ffiles\u002FGoogle_MaximizingWebsiteROI.pdf",[210],"Google advocates a proven methodical approach"," to website design and UX that features four steps, one of which we have highlighted below:",[13959,18640,18641],{},[14,18642,18643,18644],{},"Optimize the site by determining which combinations of site content and design ",[52,18645,18646],{},"drive the most conversions",[14,18648,18649],{},"With that said, we randomly selected three companies from this years 100 Fastest Growing Companies List and noted:",[46,18651,18652,18655],{},[49,18653,18654],{},"One minor change they could make that would greatly improve their website design and UX",[49,18656,18657],{},"One change they can make to their website's SEO to improve their search ranking.",[24,18659,18661],{"id":18660},"united-therapeutics","United Therapeutics",[14,18663,18664],{},"United Therapeutics creates products that address the unmet needs of medical patients.",[14,18666,18667],{},"With 33% revenue growth over the past three years, United Therapeutics is positioning themselves to continue delivering valuable medical technologies to the world for years to come.",[14,18669,18670],{},"So what's wrong with their website?",[81,18672,18674],{"id":18673},"no-clear-call-to-action","No Clear Call to Action",[14,18676,18677],{},"As you reach their homepage, what action do you think they want you to take next? Read about the company history? Contact the company directly?",[14,18679,18680],{},"A well designed website will usually highlight specific actions site visitors should take based upon images, buttons, color schemes & other design elements.",[81,18682,18684],{"id":18683},"on-the-note-of-a-lacking-call-to-action-a-few-organic-search-improvements-we-noticed-were","On the note of a lacking call to action, a few organic search improvements we noticed were:",[132,18686,18687,18693],{},[49,18688,18689,18692],{},[52,18690,18691],{},"Create separate product pages for the three products currently in market."," Right now, they display all three of their products' information on the same page. If they could create a separate page for each and optimize these by name of product, they would have a better chance at having a higher ranking organic search position.",[49,18694,18695,18698],{},[52,18696,18697],{},"Currently, they have entirely independent domains for each product.","  Best case scenario would be to have those rank first or second along with a separate page on the Unither.com domain with additional information. Right now they're being beat out by websites like RXList.com, Mayoclinic.com, and medicinenet.com in organic search rankings",[24,18700,18702],{"id":18701},"questcor-pharmaceuticals","Questcor Pharmaceuticals",[14,18704,18705],{},"Questcor is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of patients with serious, difficult-to-treat autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.",[14,18707,18708],{},"With a 85% revenue increase over the past three years, Questcor saw their initial growth in the early 2000's from the purchase of an anti-inflammatory drug called Acthar Gel. Made from the pituitary glands of pigs and approved by the FDA in 1952 and bought for the bargain price of $100,000, Questcor improved the product and increased the cost per unit by 16x in a few short years, leading to a massive spike in stock price and enabling R&D into other medical products.",[14,18710,18670],{},[81,18712,18714],{"id":18713},"cluttered-pages-with-high-text-density","Cluttered Pages with High Text Density",[14,18716,18717,18718,18723],{},"As our friend ",[206,18719,18722],{"href":18720,"rel":18721},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hongkiat.com\u002Fblog\u002F11-common-mistakes-blunders-in-web-design\u002F",[210],"Hong Kiat wrote in 11 Common Mistakes in Web Design",", cluttered webpages that have a high text density are tough to consume for the visitor and lead to website bounces.",[81,18725,18684],{"id":18726},"on-the-note-of-a-lacking-call-to-action-a-few-organic-search-improvements-we-noticed-were-1",[14,18728,18729],{},"**Unique Meta Descriptions by Page:**Without a meta description tag, you rely on search engines, like Google and Bing, to predict what the most relevant snippet for your result should be.",[14,18731,18732],{},"By laying in meta description tags, you're able to control what the snippet will display,  allowing you to really hit on any messaging that you feel would sway a user into clicking on your result.",[14,18734,18735],{},"Meta descriptions do not influence ranking, but what they do affect click-through-rate on the search engine result page (SERP).",[14,18737,18738],{},"On a security note, we found a page on their website that displays names and email addresses for those taking charge of specific elements of their website. This page definitely should not be publicly viewable.",[24,18740,18742],{"id":18741},"taro-pharmaceutical-industries","Taro Pharmaceutical Industries",[14,18744,18745],{},"Simply put: Taro Pharmaceutical Industries develops, markets and researches prescription medications to many countries across the globe.",[14,18747,18670],{},[81,18749,18674],{"id":18750},"no-clear-call-to-action-1",[14,18752,18753,18754,18758],{},"Again, ",[206,18755,18757],{"href":18720,"rel":18756},[210],"Hong Kiat's article"," points out the dangers of having no real call to action on your website.",[81,18760,18684],{"id":18761},"on-the-note-of-a-lacking-call-to-action-a-few-organic-search-improvements-we-noticed-were-2",[14,18763,18764],{},"Taro also lacks title tags for MANY of their pages.",[14,18766,18767],{},"Having unique, optimized title tags helps improve on-page SEO as well as helping those pages show something that you can control on the search engine result page (a page's title tag is the clickable part of a web page's result).",[24,18769,18771],{"id":18770},"contrary-to-what-you-think-were-not-trying-to-be-jerks","Contrary to What You Think: We're not trying to be jerks!",[14,18773,18774],{},"We simply noticed that a few of the fastest growing companies have websites that don't accurately reflect the budding brand they are building.",[14,18776,18777],{},"There are many great web design resources out there. If you have a minute, please post some of your favorites in the comments section below!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":18779},[18780,18781,18782,18786,18790,18794],{"id":18593,"depth":291,"text":18594},{"id":18626,"depth":291,"text":18627},{"id":18660,"depth":291,"text":18661,"children":18783},[18784,18785],{"id":18673,"depth":297,"text":18674},{"id":18683,"depth":297,"text":18684},{"id":18701,"depth":291,"text":18702,"children":18787},[18788,18789],{"id":18713,"depth":297,"text":18714},{"id":18726,"depth":297,"text":18684},{"id":18741,"depth":291,"text":18742,"children":18791},[18792,18793],{"id":18750,"depth":297,"text":18674},{"id":18761,"depth":297,"text":18684},{"id":18770,"depth":291,"text":18771},"2013-12-12","What Do Many Fast Growing Companies All Have in Common? Subpar Websites! Read Our SEO & Web Design Tips for Fast Growing Companies to Fix This At Your Company.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fseo-web-design-tips-for-fast-growing-companies",{"title":18587,"description":18796},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fseo-web-design-tips-for-fast-growing-companies","UjumtSLBwPxlMlY_T8pA-E4lVoWN_uED6jAOjklk6SY",[1664,1718],{"id":18804,"title":18805,"author":7,"authors":18806,"body":18807,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":18906,"description":18907,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":18908,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":18909,"seo":18910,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":18911,"updated":7,"__hash__":18912,"people":18913},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F4-reasons-video-is-critical-for-every-search-engine-optimization-strategy.md","4 Reasons Video is Critical for Every Search Engine Optimization Strategy",[9],{"type":11,"value":18808,"toc":18895},[18809,18813,18820,18824,18827,18831,18839,18843,18846,18850,18858,18862,18878,18882,18891],[24,18810,18812],{"id":18811},"more-than-2-billion-google-searches-display-video-results-every-day-is-your-brand-involved","More than 2 BILLION Google Searches Display Video Results Every Day: Is Your Brand Involved?",[14,18814,18815,18816,18819],{},"Earlier this year, we began providing more value to our clients by ",[206,18817,18818],{"href":12116},"expanding our search engine optimization capabilities and experience."," A large portion of that expansion included writing long & short form articles as well as producing infographics.",[24,18821,18823],{"id":18822},"but-in-our-opinions-static-content-wasnt-enough","But in our opinions, static content wasn't enough",[14,18825,18826],{},"We not only wanted to expand into producing and marketing high-quality video content, we HAD TO expand to deliver more value for our clients.\nEven though video content is more time consuming and expensive to create, here are four reasons why your brand should invest in video SEO:",[81,18828,18830],{"id":18829},"_1-62-of-google-searches-include-video","1. 62% of Google searches include video",[14,18832,18833,18834],{},"This represents more than 2.2 billion searches every single day!\nTo put this into perspective, there are more Google searches that display video results than the entire population of China ... IN ONE SINGLE DAY.\nAdditionally, take a look at the image at the top of this post: Would you rather see a video about the best diving spots in Hawaii or read about it in plain-text form?\nSource: ",[206,18835,18838],{"href":18836,"rel":18837},"https:\u002F\u002Fmarketingland.com\u002Finfographic-video-youtube-wins-google-universal-search-37971",[210],"Marketingland.com",[81,18840,18842],{"id":18841},"_2-video-is-50x-more-likely-to-get-organic-page-ranks-compared-to-plain-text-results","2. Video is 50x more likely to get organic page ranks compared to plain-text results",[14,18844,18845],{},"Forrester pulled together a list of the 40 most heavily searched keywords across Google.\nThis research found it's 50x more likely to land a video asset on the 1st page of a Google search compared to plain-text results. Additionally, an average of 1.5 video results appear on Google's 1st page, making up an average of 15% of all first page results.",[81,18847,18849],{"id":18848},"_3-video-results-have-a-41-better-ctr-than-plain-text-results","3. Video results have a 41% better CTR than plain-text results",[14,18851,9362,18852,18857],{},[206,18853,18856],{"href":18854,"rel":18855},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reelseo.com\u002Fvideos-ranking-universal-search-results-video-seo-study\u002F",[210],"study performed by aimCLEAR"," found that video results generated a 41% better CTR than plain-text results.\nDigging deeper, their research found that the visual element of thumbnails present in the listing were a key factor that improved CTR.",[81,18859,18861],{"id":18860},"_4-articles-that-include-video-assets-generate-3x-more-inbound-links","4. Articles that include video assets generate 3x more inbound links",[14,18863,18864,18869,18870,18874],{},[206,18865,18868],{"href":18866,"rel":18867},"https:\u002F\u002Fmoz.com\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-makes-a-link-worthy-post-part-1",[210],"Casey Henry of Moz"," found that video content is the perfect piece of content to create & market because it fits the mold of both a) valuable, and b) sharable.\nGiven the choice, wouldn't you want each one of your articles to generate three times more inbound links?\nSource:",[206,18871,6720],{"href":18872,"rel":18873},"https:\u002F\u002Fblogs.forrester.com\u002Finteractive_marketing\u002F2009\u002F01\u002Fthe-easiest-way.html",[210],[206,18875,18877],{"href":18866,"rel":18876},[210],"Moz",[24,18879,18881],{"id":18880},"keep-in-mind-quality-over-quantity","Keep in Mind: Quality over Quantity",[14,18883,18884,18885,18890],{},"According to ",[206,18886,18889],{"href":18887,"rel":18888},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fyt\u002Fpress\u002Fstatistics.html",[210],"YouTube, more than 100 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute."," That's a lot of clutter to get lost in, so make sure the video content you produce is both a) valuable, b) sharable, and c) optimized for your audience.",[24,18892,18894],{"id":18893},"what-do-you-think-is-an-investment-in-video-content-going-to-help-or-hurt-your-search-engine-optimization-strategy","What do you think: Is an investment in video content going to help or hurt your search engine optimization strategy?",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":18896},[18897,18898,18904,18905],{"id":18811,"depth":291,"text":18812},{"id":18822,"depth":291,"text":18823,"children":18899},[18900,18901,18902,18903],{"id":18829,"depth":297,"text":18830},{"id":18841,"depth":297,"text":18842},{"id":18848,"depth":297,"text":18849},{"id":18860,"depth":297,"text":18861},{"id":18880,"depth":291,"text":18881},{"id":18893,"depth":291,"text":18894},"2013-11-01","Learn 4 Key Reasons Why All SEO & Content Marketing Strategies Should Include Video As a Key Component to Driving Site Traffic & Product Sales",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F4-reasons-video-is-critical-for-every-search-engine-optimization-strategy",{"title":18805,"description":18907},"blog\u002Fseo\u002F4-reasons-video-is-critical-for-every-search-engine-optimization-strategy","V8kHZUPaXZomFH6W7UwSsfGu8PuLNOVizUB7EkHGQaM",[1664,1718],{"id":18915,"title":18916,"author":7,"authors":18917,"body":18918,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":19126,"description":19127,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":19128,"minutes":3296,"navigation":322,"path":19129,"seo":19130,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":19131,"updated":7,"__hash__":19132,"people":19133},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F3-blog-content-tones-that-can-set-you-up-for-success.md","3 Blog Content Tones That Can Set You Up for Success",[14253],{"type":11,"value":18919,"toc":19117},[18920,18929,18932,18935,18943,18947,18950,18953,18962,18965,18968,18972,18976,18979,18987,18990,19010,19017,19021,19024,19032,19041,19045,19048,19051,19059,19062,19076,19079,19083,19086,19106,19109,19114],[14,18921,18922,18923,18928],{},"I recently read a blog post on ",[206,18924,18927],{"href":18925,"rel":18926},"https:\u002F\u002Fconversionxl.com",[210],"Conversion XL"," and I have to say, this guy is mean!",[14,18930,18931],{},"It's hard to care about what he's selling, because the tone of his content feels like he's either yelling at you or calling you an idiot, which as a potential client I don't really appreciate.",[14,18933,18934],{},"With that said, I'd like discuss:",[132,18936,18937,18940],{},[49,18938,18939],{},"Why tone matters in your blogging",[49,18941,18942],{},"Three types of blogging tones your content could have to set up a good relationship with your potential and current customers",[24,18944,18946],{"id":18945},"why-tone-matters-when-blogging","Why Tone Matters When Blogging",[14,18948,18949],{},"As I said in the example above, the tone of ConversionXL website is mean and because of it I have no interest in buying what he's selling.",[14,18951,18952],{},"I understand being assertive and conveying your expertise, but using negative statements such as the one below, you're pushing potential clients away before they've even met you.",[13959,18954,18955],{},[14,18956,18957,18958,18961],{},"So you have a landing page - or maybe 87 of them. ",[52,18959,18960],{},"Too bad you're screwing them up.","\nFirst of all, you don't know my website. How do you know I'm screwing it up?",[14,18963,18964],{},"In the same blog post Peep Laja goes on to say my headline sucks and I have no clear value proposition. How do you know Peep?  You've never been to my website?!?",[14,18966,18967],{},"As you can see, I'm getting angrier by the paragraph and it's clear that his tone is rubbing me the wrong way. It would have been a better approach to talk about  \"21 Best Practices to Follow and Improve your Conversion Rate\" .  Granted, not as \"punchy\" of a headline, but at least you're trying to sound helpful, not hurtful.",[24,18969,18971],{"id":18970},"three-types-of-tones-for-website-content","Three Types of Tones for Website Content",[81,18973,18975],{"id":18974},"_1-assertive","1. Assertive",[14,18977,18978],{},"You can talk about how awesome you are in a strong manner without coming off as a know-it-all.",[14,18980,18981,18986],{},[206,18982,18985],{"href":18983,"rel":18984},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.quicksprout.com\u002F",[210],"Neil Patel"," is probably the best example of this.  He knows he's amazing and conveys it in a really smart, lighthearted way.  The graphic below even shows Neils' shirt saying, \"I'm kind of a big deal.\"",[14,18988,18989],{},"There are many great ways Neil demonstrates his expertise and how you can benefit from his experience without belittling anything you've done or saying that you're stupid.",[46,18991,18992,18998,19004],{},[49,18993,18994,18997],{},[52,18995,18996],{},"Headline:"," Captivating Headline that is strong worded, but not negative.",[49,18999,19000,19003],{},[52,19001,19002],{},"Images:"," Bright images that set a tone of funny and quirky showing Neil's personality.",[49,19005,19006,19009],{},[52,19007,19008],{},"Body:"," The body of the content has a conversational tone that draws the audience in. You feel like Neil is having a conversation with you, not yelling at you.",[14,19011,19012,19013,19016],{},"Neil still uses strong language, like in the header, \"30 Quick Conversion Tips ",[52,19014,19015],{},"Every Marketer Needs to Know\"",". \"Every\" and \"Needs\" are both assertive words, but not negative or angry.",[81,19018,19020],{"id":19019},"_2-casual-conversational","2. Casual \u002F Conversational",[14,19022,19023],{},"Taking Neil's example and flipping it into something more laid back, he would use a header that was more like \"30 Things I Learned that You Could Benefit From\".  It's not aggressive what-so-ever, but it still shows he's trying to be helpful.",[14,19025,19026,19031],{},[206,19027,19030],{"href":19028,"rel":19029},"https:\u002F\u002Fsethgodin.typepad.com\u002F",[210],"Seth Godin"," is the king of casual content. Simple snippets he posts daily to speak his mind. He's never telling people what they have to do. This is effective because it's poignant and you can apply what he's saying to your everyday without feeling like he's shoving it down your throat.",[14,19033,19034,19035,19040],{},"Another blogger who has a similar style is ",[206,19036,19039],{"href":19037,"rel":19038},"https:\u002F\u002Fwilliejackson.com\u002F",[210],"Willie Jackson",". The difference is Willie's posts are not as obscure as Seth Godin's. He pays attention to his surroundings then reflects on how it impacts him, which in turn makes you think about how that could apply to you.",[81,19042,19044],{"id":19043},"_3-technical","3. Technical",[14,19046,19047],{},"The other tone you can convey is very matter of fact, or technical. Unlike assertive or casual tones, these posts don't convey an opinion but simply lay out the facts. A problem is laid out and you are walked through the solution.",[14,19049,19050],{},"No fuss. No muss.",[14,19052,19053,19054,19058],{},"Our own Search Director, ",[206,19055,14170],{"href":19056,"rel":19057},"https:\u002F\u002Fchristianbullock.net\u002F",[210],", does this very well.  He's a very straight forward technical writer, but still brings his personality through as to not have the content come off dry and boring.",[14,19060,19061],{},"In the example below, Christian walks us through what Google Tag Manager is and three common problems people have been running into. Watch the format here:",[132,19063,19064,19067,19070,19073],{},[49,19065,19066],{},"Defines what Google Tag Manager is",[49,19068,19069],{},"Explains why it's helpful",[49,19071,19072],{},"Walks through some potential problems",[49,19074,19075],{},"Lays out clear and easy solutions",[14,19077,19078],{},"Very straight forward with a very even tone.",[24,19080,19082],{"id":19081},"recap","Recap",[14,19084,19085],{},"To recap, there are three types of tones your blog posts can have:",[46,19087,19088,19094,19100],{},[49,19089,19090,19093],{},[52,19091,19092],{},"Assertive"," - Being direct and telling people what they need to know without being rude or calling your audience morons.",[49,19095,19096,19099],{},[52,19097,19098],{},"Casual"," - Laid back, full of your own opinions and views that users can take away and apply to their own lives.",[49,19101,19102,19105],{},[52,19103,19104],{},"Technical"," - Factual and devoid of a tone.  Straight facts that clearly lay out a problem and solution.  This does not mean it should lack personality, just your opinion.",[14,19107,19108],{},"No matter which tone you decide to use, just be consistent.",[14,19110,19111],{},[52,19112,19113],{},"We'd Like to Hear From You!",[14,19115,19116],{},"Do you need help with setting the tone of your blog content? Shoot us an email and let's chat for 15 minutes to see if we can help you get started in making sure you get off the right foot with your potential customers.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":19118},[19119,19120,19125],{"id":18945,"depth":291,"text":18946},{"id":18970,"depth":291,"text":18971,"children":19121},[19122,19123,19124],{"id":18974,"depth":297,"text":18975},{"id":19019,"depth":297,"text":19020},{"id":19043,"depth":297,"text":19044},{"id":19081,"depth":291,"text":19082},"2013-06-07","Read how your blog content writing style can have a big effect on how your readership remembers your brand.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002F3-blog-content-tones-that-can-set-you-up-for-success",{"title":18916,"description":19127},"blog\u002Fseo\u002F3-blog-content-tones-that-can-set-you-up-for-success","Zfd1miiHY8F1hX0APMMWwqK6iSs-ZAfHeFo7IhKxwXo",[14481],{"id":19135,"title":19136,"author":7,"authors":19137,"body":19138,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":19569,"description":19570,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":19571,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":19572,"seo":19573,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":19574,"updated":7,"__hash__":19575,"people":19576},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-8-great-content-types-to-produce.md","Content Marketing Bible: 8 Great Content Types to Produce",[9],{"type":11,"value":19139,"toc":19559},[19140,19144,19156,19159,19162,19166,19171,19174,19179,19182,19202,19207,19214,19218,19222,19225,19229,19232,19252,19256,19259,19263,19267,19270,19274,19277,19290,19294,19297,19302,19306,19309,19313,19316,19336,19340,19343,19346,19353,19357,19361,19376,19380,19383,19405,19413,19418,19422,19425,19429,19432,19446,19450,19458,19461,19465,19469,19472,19476,19479,19493,19497,19503,19506,19508,19512,19516,19519,19523,19526,19545,19549,19552,19556],[24,19141,19143],{"id":19142},"what-types-of-content-should-you-produce","What Types of Content Should You Produce?",[14,19145,19146,19147,19151,19152,212],{},"Our previous post in the ",[206,19148,19150],{"href":19149},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-media-group-content-marketing-bible-a-six-part-series\u002F","Content Marketing Bible series"," focused on ",[206,19153,19155],{"href":19154},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-creating-a-content-marketing-strategy\u002F","how to create a content marketing strategy",[14,19157,19158],{},"Within that post, we briefly touched on different types of content to utilize for your content marketing strategy.",[14,19160,19161],{},"This post will expand on that and focus exclusively on different types of content to utilize. Enjoy!",[24,19163,19165],{"id":19164},"_1-interviews","1. Interviews",[14,19167,19168],{},[52,19169,19170],{},"Why You Should Do It",[14,19172,19173],{},"One of the most underutilized content types are interviews. Interviews allow you to pick the brain of a person of authority on a specific topic and share their wealth of information with your readers -- what more valuable content could you ask for!",[14,19175,19176],{},[52,19177,19178],{},"Benefits",[14,19180,19181],{},"Aside from the valuable insights you'll likely glean from the interview, here are a few additional benefits:",[46,19183,19184,19190,19196],{},[49,19185,19186,19189],{},[52,19187,19188],{},"Added Exposure:"," Authority figure will likely promote their interview via social media, gaining your content additional exposure.",[49,19191,19192,19195],{},[52,19193,19194],{},"Easier to Produce:"," This content is less time consuming to create, as you can automate the process by sending a Google spreadsheet to your interviewee with the questions pre-written and simply format for publishing.",[49,19197,19198,19201],{},[52,19199,19200],{},"Future Opportunities:"," Oftentimes, we post an interview on our website and the interviewee returns months later and asks if he could do the same! This gains your brand additional exposure through the guest interview to be posted on their website.",[14,19203,19204],{},[52,19205,19206],{},"Example",[14,19208,19209,19210,212],{},"A great example of an interview post can be found ",[206,19211,19213],{"href":19212},"\u002Fblog\u002Fppc\u002Fguest-post-gretchen-sword-of-bloomberg-west\u002F","here when we interviewed Gretchen Sword of Bloomberg.com",[24,19215,19217],{"id":19216},"_2-blogging","2. Blogging",[14,19219,19220],{},[52,19221,19170],{},[14,19223,19224],{},"Blogging on a consistent basis is a great way to build up a steady stream of site traffic and leads to your website.",[14,19226,19227],{},[52,19228,19178],{},[14,19230,19231],{},"Aside from a steady stream of site traffic and leads, you should blog on a regular basis because:",[46,19233,19234,19240,19246],{},[49,19235,19236,19239],{},[52,19237,19238],{},"Database Marketing:"," Blogging on a regular basis gives your readers a good reason to opt in to your email and CRM databases, which allows you to communicate with them further down the road.",[49,19241,19242,19245],{},[52,19243,19244],{},"SEO:"," Steady content streams allow you to rank for search terms across Google, Bing & Yahoo that bring in the right type of site visitors (i.e. the kind you're writing for!).",[49,19247,19248,19251],{},[52,19249,19250],{},"Customer Engagement:"," Think that comment thread at the bottom of your blog posts is just for show? No way! As you provide information, your customers and site visitors can actively respond and provide feedback to your brand.",[14,19253,19254],{},[52,19255,19206],{},[14,19257,19258],{},"You're looking at one right now :-)",[24,19260,19262],{"id":19261},"_3-guest-blogging","3. Guest Blogging",[14,19264,19265],{},[52,19266,19170],{},[14,19268,19269],{},"Guest blogging allows your brand to tap into engaged content communities and provide your expert opinion. More importantly, it broadens your reach to additional customer segments who aren't current buyers ... but could be persuaded to be :-)",[14,19271,19272],{},[52,19273,19178],{},[14,19275,19276],{},"Aside from acting as an expert resource, guest blogging provides the following benefits",[46,19278,19279,19284],{},[49,19280,19281,19283],{},[52,19282,19244],{}," Providing an optimized piece of content offers you the chance to link back to your own website. Using the guest publications traffic, you can essentially 'rent' that link space for free as opposed to paying for keyword placement (i.e. paid search marketing)",[49,19285,19286,19289],{},[52,19287,19288],{},"Exposure:"," Opening up your brand to additional exposure from new customers is a great way to bring in new site traffic, leads & brand evangelists as they learn about your products and services",[14,19291,19292],{},[52,19293,19206],{},[14,19295,19296],{},"Take a look at the post below:",[132,19298,19299],{"start":3296},[49,19300,19301],{},"Images & Meme's",[14,19303,19304],{},[52,19305,19170],{},[14,19307,19308],{},"Images are fantastic link bait  and provide brands with the opportunity to create a shareable piece of content.",[14,19310,19311],{},[52,19312,19178],{},[14,19314,19315],{},"Additional benefits of producing images & meme's for content include:",[46,19317,19318,19324,19330],{},[49,19319,19320,19323],{},[52,19321,19322],{},"Linkbait:"," I can't say it enough - Images and memes are fantastic pieces of link bait and are extremely shareable.",[49,19325,19326,19329],{},[52,19327,19328],{},"Additional Exposure:"," Similar to interviews, many images & memes build off of an already popular topic. That being said, the creators of that topic love to see their creation live on and will likely re-share your content!",[49,19331,19332,19335],{},[52,19333,19334],{},"Great Short Form Content:"," Search engines definitely place value in long-form content, but if you are publishing content regularly you'll want to produce multiple formats to keep your community of readers coming back to consume your fresh, unique content.",[14,19337,19338],{},[52,19339,19206],{},[14,19341,19342],{},"Earlier this month, I posted the following meme based on Dos Equis' \"Most Interesting Man in the World\":",[14,19344,19345],{},"For those who are not aware, Buffer is a social media posting application for networks like Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.",[14,19347,19348,19349,19352],{},"And within ",[52,19350,19351],{},"24 hours of tweeting this, the image received more than 20 RT's, 5 favorites & multiple 'this is awesomes!'"," from Twitter users who found the meme to be fun!",[24,19354,19356],{"id":19355},"_5-video","5. Video",[14,19358,19359],{},[52,19360,19170],{},[14,19362,19363,19364,19369,19370,19375],{},"Multiple ",[206,19365,19368],{"href":19366,"rel":19367},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.smartinsights.com\u002Fecommerce\u002Fmerchandising\u002Fproduct-page-videos-ecommerce\u002F",[210],"studies from agency marketers"," as well as ",[206,19371,19374],{"href":19372,"rel":19373},"https:\u002F\u002Fvisualwebsiteoptimizer.com\u002Fsplit-testing-blog\u002Fvideo-conversion-rate\u002F",[210],"online giants like Google"," have proven one thing: Video assets increase users time on site, website engagement & conversion rate. That's why you should invest in video -- period!",[14,19377,19378],{},[52,19379,19178],{},[14,19381,19382],{},"Aside from the obvious stated above, you should utilize video because:",[46,19384,19385,19391,19397],{},[49,19386,19387,19390],{},[52,19388,19389],{},"Great 'How it Works' Channel:"," Not everything is black and white...  sometimes, you need a little more explanation to describe how your product or service works.  Video accomplishes that task by engaging your website visitors.",[49,19392,19393,19396],{},[52,19394,19395],{},"Increase Your Social Referral Traffic:"," Social networks like YouTube and Vimeo have the ability to generate massive traffic spikes to your website as well as multigenerational sharing, meaning shares on shares on shares!",[49,19398,19399,19402,19403],{},[52,19400,19401],{},"Increase Your Organic Referral Traffic:"," Submitting video site maps to services like Google Video can increase the number of search queries your video content appears for, bringing in more site visitors from organic search results.\n",[52,19404,19206],{},[14,19406,19407,19412],{},[206,19408,19411],{"href":19409,"rel":19410},"https:\u002F\u002Fwistia.com",[210],"Wistia",", a video hosting & application service, does a great job of explaining how video improves site performance and why you should invest in their service.",[132,19414,19415],{"start":586},[49,19416,19417],{},"Content Downloads",[14,19419,19420],{},[52,19421,19170],{},[14,19423,19424],{},"One of the oldest tricks in the inbound marketing book is to provide a valuable piece of content (industry report, 'how-to guide', etc) in exchange for a site visitors contact information. Gathering their contact information gives you permission to reach back out to them with additional marketing offers in the future!",[14,19426,19427],{},[52,19428,19178],{},[14,19430,19431],{},"Aside from building an email\u002FCRM database through content downloads, this content type is beneficial because of the following reasons:",[46,19433,19434,19440],{},[49,19435,19436,19439],{},[52,19437,19438],{},"'Passalong' Sharing:"," Many print publications, like Time or Newsweek, report on a metric called 'passalong' sharing. That means when one person gets a subscription on their magazine, they tend to pass it along to an additional 'x' amount of people. Content is the same -- as visitors download content, they tend to share with others.** **",[49,19441,19442,19445],{},[52,19443,19444],{},"Branding:"," Using services like SlideShare or LinkedIn Projects to host your content provides you with a public forum for people to see your content and learn about your brand. Guess what the last page\u002Fslide of every content download is? Contact information :-)",[14,19447,19448],{},[52,19449,19206],{},[14,19451,19452,19457],{},[206,19453,19456],{"href":19454,"rel":19455},"https:\u002F\u002Foptify.net",[210],"Optify",", a Seattle-based marketing automation company, regularly posts content that can be downloaded for free in exchange for contact information.",[14,19459,19460],{},"See an example below:",[24,19462,19464],{"id":19463},"_7-how-to-posts","7. How-to Posts",[14,19466,19467],{},[52,19468,19170],{},[14,19470,19471],{},"How-to posts provide you with the opportunity to get up on your soapbox and scream \"We know how to do really cool things, and we're going to explain how!\" They provide you with an opportunity to educate your site visitors and keep them coming back for expert advice.",[14,19473,19474],{},[52,19475,19178],{},[14,19477,19478],{},"Aside from being self-promoting, how-to posts are beneficial because:",[46,19480,19481,19487],{},[49,19482,19483,19486],{},[52,19484,19485],{},"Findable Search Engine Content:"," Millions of searches every day focus on one simple question: \"How do I do...\" Thanks to this it's easy to produce expert content by aligning with these exact search queries you will help your rank for long-tail keywords or phrases.** **",[49,19488,19489,19492],{},[52,19490,19491],{},"Great Community Builders:"," How-to posts let your community in on some of your 'special sauce', so to speak. And guess what? That's valuable content and will encourage your readers to become repeat visitors to learn the latest-and-greatest you have to offer.",[14,19494,19495],{},[52,19496,19206],{},[14,19498,19499,19502],{},[206,19500,9],{"href":19501},"\u002Fabout\u002Fteam\u002Fkerry-guard\u002F",", our agencies COO, wrote a great post about implementing 3rd party tags into Facebook applications like ShortStack when she found that there wasn't much documentation online to troubleshoot issues.",[14,19504,19505],{},"And guess what? The post is one of our most popular pieces of content this year!",[14,19507,19296],{},[24,19509,19511],{"id":19510},"_8-list-posts","8. List Posts",[14,19513,19514],{},[52,19515,19170],{},[14,19517,19518],{},"List posts are easy to scan and consume. What does this mean? It means that they tend to get shared a lot! :-)",[14,19520,19521],{},[52,19522,19178],{},[14,19524,19525],{},"Aside from creating content that is shareable, list posts are valuable for the following reasons:",[46,19527,19528,19539],{},[49,19529,19530,19533,19534,19538],{},[52,19531,19532],{},"Highlight Service Providers:"," Great list posts generally highlight things 'to do' or companies to work with. An example of this site that we recently posted was ",[206,19535,19537],{"href":19536},"\u002Fblog\u002Fppc\u002F3-steps-every-brand-agency-should-take-to-launch-a-digital-marketing-campaign\u002F","3 Things to Do Before Launching a Digital Marketing Campaign",", written by COO Kerry Guard",[49,19540,19541,19544],{},[52,19542,19543],{},"Warning Posts:"," Reading a 'what not to do' post is sometimes more valuable than a what 'to do' post! Warning posts provide you with the opportunity to learn from someone else's mistakes",[14,19546,19547],{},[52,19548,19206],{},[14,19550,19551],{},"Once again, you're looking right at a list post :-)",[24,19553,19555],{"id":19554},"in-review","In Review",[14,19557,19558],{},"Just to be clear, there are WAY MORE than eight types of content you can add to your content calendar. The examples outlined above are some of the more commonly used & effective ways to produce content that helps achieve your brands marketing goals.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":19560},[19561,19562,19563,19564,19565,19566,19567,19568],{"id":19142,"depth":291,"text":19143},{"id":19164,"depth":291,"text":19165},{"id":19216,"depth":291,"text":19217},{"id":19261,"depth":291,"text":19262},{"id":19355,"depth":291,"text":19356},{"id":19463,"depth":291,"text":19464},{"id":19510,"depth":291,"text":19511},{"id":19554,"depth":291,"text":19555},"2013-05-28","Part 2 of our 6 Part Content Marketing Bible Outlines Eight Great Types of Content to Include in Your Content Marketing Strategy",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-8-great-content-types-to-produce",{"title":19136,"description":19570},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-8-great-content-types-to-produce","w3ZT9h1xh7ue99h-Aa4zagx8zkMm3fzG1_JVxcpoZKM",[1664,1718],{"id":19578,"title":19579,"author":7,"authors":19580,"body":19581,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":20058,"description":20059,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":20060,"minutes":3555,"navigation":322,"path":20061,"seo":20062,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":20063,"updated":7,"__hash__":20064,"people":20065},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-creating-a-content-marketing-strategy.md","Content Marketing Bible: Creating a Content Marketing Strategy",[9],{"type":11,"value":19582,"toc":20044},[19583,19594,19597,19602,19609,19613,19620,19637,19641,19644,19650,19653,19661,19664,19672,19676,19679,19682,19712,19716,19719,19722,19725,19728,19748,19751,19754,19757,19760,19771,19774,19777,19780,19783,19787,19794,19798,19801,19809,19813,19816,19819,19822,19825,19828,19832,19835,19838,19841,19845,19848,19851,19854,19857,19860,19865,19868,19871,19876,19879,19882,19887,19890,19893,19896,19900,19903,19906,19911,19914,19919,19922,19926,19929,19932,19936,19942,19945,19948,19951,19965,19968,19971,19974,19977,19980,19991,19994,20017,20019,20022,20039],[14,19584,19585,19586,19589,19590,19593],{},"As we announced last week, our team",[206,19587,19588],{"href":19149}," is producing a six-part series on content marketing"," to be distributed for ",[52,19591,19592],{},"FREE"," via e-book at the end of June.",[14,19595,19596],{},"This series was born out of one simple question from a few of our clients:",[13959,19598,19599],{},[14,19600,19601],{},"What steps does your team use to approach content marketing?",[14,19603,19604,19605,19608],{},"Let's start at the beginning: ",[52,19606,19607],{},"How we create a content strategy."," Enjoy!",[24,19610,19612],{"id":19611},"part-one-of-six-creating-a-content-marketing-strategy","Part One of Six: Creating a Content Marketing Strategy",[14,19614,19615,19616,19619],{},"This first part of our ",[206,19617,19618],{"href":19149},"six part series"," will walk you through the following steps to create the strategy behind your content marketing efforts:",[132,19621,19622,19625,19628,19631,19634],{},[49,19623,19624],{},"Leading with a Goal Driven Strategy",[49,19626,19627],{},"Outline Parameters",[49,19629,19630],{},"Roles & Responsibilities",[49,19632,19633],{},"Using Data to Create a Master Keyword Playbook",[49,19635,19636],{},"Creating a Content Calendar",[24,19638,19640],{"id":19639},"lead-with-a-goal-driven-strategy","Lead with a Goal Driven Strategy",[14,19642,19643],{},"First and foremost: All efforts should have tangible goals to measure success against.",[14,19645,19646,19647],{},"To be more specific, these goals should focus exclusively on macro conversions, i.e. ",[52,19648,19649],{},"REVENUE.",[14,19651,19652],{},"As your group begins the strategic planning process, lead the entire strategy with these goals in mind.  Every single idea your team brainstorms should focus on directly improving your bottom line performance. Great questions to consistently ask yourselves in the planning phase is:",[46,19654,19655,19658],{},[49,19656,19657],{},"What is the purpose of this content?",[49,19659,19660],{},"What actions would we like our site visitors to take after viewing \u002F as a result of viewing this content?",[14,19662,19663],{},"Some great examples of tangible goals to measure success against include:",[132,19665,19666,19669],{},[49,19667,19668],{},"Increase in revenue from organic search engine referrals",[49,19670,19671],{},"Measure conversion percentage in converting non-paying leads into paying customers from content, such as e-books, white papers or other valuable resources",[24,19673,19675],{"id":19674},"outline-parameters-for-your-content-strategy","Outline Parameters for Your Content Strategy",[14,19677,19678],{},"You're focused on revenue - great start! Now, the process of outlining your content marketing strategy begins with assembling company stakeholders to have a candid conversation.",[14,19680,19681],{},"Here are a few great questions to kick things off:",[46,19683,19684,19687,19690,19693,19700,19703,19706,19709],{},[49,19685,19686],{},"Initially, how long will our content marketing effort last? A year-long test ... Maybe two?",[49,19688,19689],{},"What resources are we going to invest?",[49,19691,19692],{},"Who leads this strategy? What success framework should be built up around that individual?",[49,19694,19695,19696,19699],{},"How ",[52,19697,19698],{},"exactly"," will success be measured?\nAt the conclusion of outlining your content strategy parameters, your group should have the following questions answered:",[49,19701,19702],{},"Test timeframe for your content marketing strategy",[49,19704,19705],{},"Resources to be invested; budgets, tools & actual human labor",[49,19707,19708],{},"Roles and responsibilities",[49,19710,19711],{},"Estimated outcomes & tangible goals of your content strategy",[24,19713,19715],{"id":19714},"fantastic-your-team-has-outlined-the-parameters-for-your-content-marketing-strategy","Fantastic! Your team has outlined the parameters for your content marketing strategy.",[14,19717,19718],{},"Next Up: Who is responsible & for what?",[24,19720,19630],{"id":19721},"roles-responsibilities",[14,19723,19724],{},"We briefly touched on roles & responsibilities above, but felt the need to drive home how important it is that your team understands who is performing what actions as well as who the responsible stakeholders are.",[14,19726,19727],{},"A good way to break down roles & responsibilities is outlined below:",[46,19729,19730,19736,19742],{},[49,19731,19732,19735],{},[52,19733,19734],{},"Strategic Direction:"," This is a senior-level stakeholder who is going to drive the overall vision of the content marketing strategy",[49,19737,19738,19741],{},[52,19739,19740],{},"Mid-Level Managers:"," This stakeholder is part manager, part in-the-weeds with the assistants executing the content strategy",[49,19743,19744,19747],{},[52,19745,19746],{},"Assistant-Level Employees:"," These are the skilled individuals 'in the trenches' who are creating and promoting content",[14,19749,19750],{},"One of our favorite ways to visually display this is through a traditional org chart, like the drawing seen below:",[24,19752,19633],{"id":19753},"using-data-to-create-a-master-keyword-playbook",[14,19755,19756],{},"At this point, it's time to determine what type of keywords your content will be created to rank for & bring in revenue from.",[14,19758,19759],{},"In most cases, we pull this data from the following sources:",[46,19761,19762,19765,19768],{},[49,19763,19764],{},"Google Keyword Research Tool",[49,19766,19767],{},"Paid Search Marketing Data (Google Analytics)",[49,19769,19770],{},"Organic Search Marketing Data (Google Analytics)",[14,19772,19773],{},"Let's walk through each one of these data sources and then show you how to assemble the data.",[81,19775,19764],{"id":19776},"google-keyword-research-tool",[14,19778,19779],{},"Google Keyword Tool aggregates keyword performance data for each and every search performed on the Google search engine and presents it in a monthly snapshot. This tool hosts historic and current keyword data that can be used by marketers to use for research purposes.",[14,19781,19782],{},"Follow the steps below to use this tool for keyword research:",[5552,19784,19786],{"id":19785},"step-1-direct-browser-to-google-keyword-tool","Step #1: Direct Browser to Google Keyword Tool",[14,19788,19789,19790],{},"Point your browser to the following URL ",[206,19791,19792],{"href":19792,"rel":19793},"https:\u002F\u002FGoogleAds.google.com\u002Fko\u002FKeywordPlanner\u002F",[210],[5552,19795,19797],{"id":19796},"step-2-authenticate","Step #2: Authenticate",[14,19799,19800],{},"To authenticate, you'll need to do one of two things:",[132,19802,19803,19806],{},[49,19804,19805],{},"Be currently logged in to your Google Ads account",[49,19807,19808],{},"Enter a captcha (if you don't have an Google Ads account)",[5552,19810,19812],{"id":19811},"step-3-type-in-beginning-phrases","Step #3: Type in Beginning Phrases",[14,19814,19815],{},"At this point, it's time to type in beginning thoughts on keywords or keyword phrases that your content will focus on.",[14,19817,19818],{},"For example: Examples relevant to this article include 'content marketing strategy', 'content strategy' & 'content marketing', as you can see in the screenshot below.",[14,19820,19821],{},"Notice the labels 'competition' and 'local monthly searches'?",[14,19823,19824],{},"Competition indicates the amount of search competition those keywords have on a scale of 'high', 'medium' or 'low'.",[14,19826,19827],{},"Local monthly searches indicates the volume of searches each keyword recieves in the US each month.",[5552,19829,19831],{"id":19830},"step-4-expand-on-beginner-phrases","Step 4: Expand on Beginner Phrases",[14,19833,19834],{},"Notice below the 'search terms' section of Google Keyword Tool is a section labeled 'keyword ideas'. See the screenshot below.",[14,19836,19837],{},"The 'keyword ideas' section includes similar keywords or keyword phrases that you may want to include.",[14,19839,19840],{},"All these keywords can be expanded by clicking on the blue arrow to the right of the term and selecting 'show more like this', as seen in the screenshot below:",[5552,19842,19844],{"id":19843},"step-5-export-research","Step 5: Export Research",[14,19846,19847],{},"While Google Keyword Tool is a great start, your team is going to want to include more data from paid & organic search sources to create a final version of your Master Keyword Playbook.",[14,19849,19850],{},"With that in mind, check the keyword searches & ideas that you would like to export and hit the 'download' button.",[14,19852,19853],{},"See screenshot below:",[14,19855,19856],{},"If your company is running paid search marketing campaigns through Bing Ads or Google Ads, the keyword performance data can be a gold mine to include in your Master Keyword Playbook.",[14,19858,19859],{},"Let's walk through the process to pull this data from Google Ads:",[14,19861,19862],{},[52,19863,19864],{},"Step #1: Log Into Google Ads or Google Analytics",[14,19866,19867],{},"In most cases, we connect Google Ads and Analytics so paid search data flows directly into the clients Google Analytics account.",[14,19869,19870],{},"In this example, we would log in to Google Analytics to extract Paid Search Marketing data.",[14,19872,19873],{},[52,19874,19875],{},"Step #2: Drill Down into Advertising Traffic",[14,19877,19878],{},"Within the 'traffic sources' tab on the left-hand side of your Google analytics account, you'll notice a section labeled 'Advertising'. Expand this section along with the following section, labeled 'Google Ads', to find Google Ads Paid Search data.",[14,19880,19881],{},"After expanding those two sections, then click on 'keywords'.",[14,19883,19884],{},[52,19885,19886],{},"Step #3: Export Keyword Data",[14,19888,19889],{},"Similar to the Google Keyword Tool, you can & should export this keyword data out of Google Analytics.",[14,19891,19892],{},"After selecting the correct date range, scroll to the top of the 'keywords' section and click on the 'export' button. We recommend exporting all data as a .csv",[14,19894,19895],{},"See an example in the screenshot below:",[81,19897,19899],{"id":19898},"organic-search-marketing-data","Organic Search Marketing Data",[14,19901,19902],{},"In Google Analytics, the approach to find organic search marketing data is almost exactly the same as the approach we just walked through to find Paid Search Marketing data.",[14,19904,19905],{},"Just to be thorough, let's walk through how to pull organic search keywords from Google Analytics:",[14,19907,19908],{},[52,19909,19910],{},"Step #1: Log Into Google Analytics",[14,19912,19913],{},"Navigate to your Google Analytics account and log in to your website profile.",[14,19915,19916],{},[52,19917,19918],{},"Step #2: Look at Organic Search Traffic Sources",[14,19920,19921],{},"Navigate to 'traffic sources', then click 'search'. After the 'search' tab expand, click on the 'organic' section.",[14,19923,19924],{},[52,19925,19886],{},[14,19927,19928],{},"One thing to notice here is how Google Analytics will display keyword performance data by default (opposed to sources, landing pages & more). These keywords are the data you want to export.",[14,19930,19931],{},"Just as we did with Paid Search Marketing data, you'll want to hit the 'export' button and select the file type as .csv.",[81,19933,19935],{"id":19934},"assembling-the-data-into-a-master-keyword-playbook","Assembling the Data into a Master Keyword Playbook",[14,19937,19938,19939],{},"At this point, you'll need to assemble the keywords you've extracted from the three sources noted above and create a ",[52,19940,19941],{},"Master Keyword Playbook.",[14,19943,19944],{},"This playbook will determine what  keywords to target  when creating content and act as your north star -- all content creation decisions should be made using this playbook!",[14,19946,19947],{},"More importantly, these keywords should be what we call 'commerce keywords', or keywords \u002F keyword phrases that drive toward a revenue-positive action. In our own Master Keyword Playbook, an example of using 'commerce keywords' is using the phrase 'how to find content marketing agency' as opposed to \"content marketing tips\".",[14,19949,19950],{},"In assembling your data, you are going to break down into two groups:",[132,19952,19953,19959],{},[49,19954,19955,19958],{},[52,19956,19957],{},"Broad Range Topics:"," Start with the 50,000 foot view, broad-range topics that you will create content around. Our own master keyword playbook includes broad range topics like 'Internet Marketing', 'Agency' & 'B2B Marketing' as those are broad client verticals and services that we perform",[49,19960,19961,19964],{},[52,19962,19963],{},"Tight-Knit Keyword Groups:"," Within your broad topics, you need to create tight keyword groupings. Using the 'Agency' example above, our keyword groups contain keywords queries such as 'social media marketing agency' and 'social media marketing services'",[14,19966,19967],{},"The goal here is simple: Expand into as many broad range topics as possible, then tighten up your keyword groups within these topics.",[14,19969,19970],{},"This should all be performed within an excel spreadsheet. When your team has assembled the three data sources into a single spreadsheet, you'll end up with a document that contains 4 - 8 broad range topics and hundreds of tight keyword groupings.",[24,19972,19636],{"id":19973},"creating-a-content-calendar",[14,19975,19976],{},"You're so close to launching your content marketing strategy! At this point, we have established your content strategy parameters, tangible goals, stakeholders involved & what you are going to write about.",[14,19978,19979],{},"It's now time to create a content calendar to outline the following:",[132,19981,19982,19985,19988],{},[49,19983,19984],{},"Publishing Frequency",[49,19986,19987],{},"Publishing Dates \u002F Times",[49,19989,19990],{},"Content Types to Publish",[14,19992,19993],{},"There are a number of great content calendar tools that will help your group collobrate across the entire organization. We've taken the time to list a few of our favorites below:",[46,19995,19996,20003,20010],{},[49,19997,19998],{},[206,19999,20002],{"href":20000,"rel":20001},"https:\u002F\u002Fcontently.com",[210],"Contently",[49,20004,20005],{},[206,20006,20009],{"href":20007,"rel":20008},"https:\u002F\u002Fwordpress.org",[210],"WordPress",[49,20011,20012],{},[206,20013,20016],{"href":20014,"rel":20015},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.divvyhq.com\u002F",[210],"DivvyHQ",[24,20018,19555],{"id":19554},[14,20020,20021],{},"Over this course of this post, we have covered how to do the following things:",[46,20023,20024,20027,20030,20033,20036],{},[49,20025,20026],{},"Lead with a Goal-Driven Content Strategy",[49,20028,20029],{},"Outline Parameters for a Content Marketing Strategy",[49,20031,20032],{},"Assign Roles & Responsibilities",[49,20034,20035],{},"Create a Master Keyword Playbook",[49,20037,20038],{},"Create a Content Calendar",[14,20040,20041],{},[52,20042,20043],{},"Next week, we'll build on our discussion of content calendars by dissecting & reviewing different types of content formats.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20045},[20046,20047,20048,20049,20050,20051,20056,20057],{"id":19611,"depth":291,"text":19612},{"id":19639,"depth":291,"text":19640},{"id":19674,"depth":291,"text":19675},{"id":19714,"depth":291,"text":19715},{"id":19721,"depth":291,"text":19630},{"id":19753,"depth":291,"text":19633,"children":20052},[20053,20054,20055],{"id":19776,"depth":297,"text":19764},{"id":19898,"depth":297,"text":19899},{"id":19934,"depth":297,"text":19935},{"id":19973,"depth":291,"text":19636},{"id":19554,"depth":291,"text":19555},"2013-05-20","This Article Explains How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy. Establishing Goals, Outlining Parameters, Role & Responsibilities and using Data to Create a Master Keyword Playbook & Content Calendar.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-creating-a-content-marketing-strategy",{"title":19579,"description":20059},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fcontent-marketing-bible-creating-a-content-marketing-strategy","WMIsaExhYtjqIdVIo_Xi2p-eHHGXSfLTX0WcxG5OlEo",[1664,1718],{"id":20067,"title":20068,"author":7,"authors":20069,"body":20070,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":20119,"description":20120,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":20121,"minutes":1713,"navigation":322,"path":20122,"seo":20123,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":20124,"updated":7,"__hash__":20125,"people":20126},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-media-group-content-marketing-bible-a-six-part-series.md","The MKG Marketing Content Marketing Bible: A Six Part Series",[9],{"type":11,"value":20071,"toc":20116},[20072,20076,20087,20090,20110,20113],[24,20073,20075],{"id":20074},"content-is-king-dont-you-want-a-place-on-the-throne","Content is King: Don't you Want a Place on the Throne?",[14,20077,20078,20079,20082,20083,20086],{},"As clients continued to ask for our assistance with their content marketing strategy, we thought it would valuable to create a ",[52,20080,20081],{},"Content Marketing How-To Guide"," here on the blog for our loyal readers to learn more about our approach to ",[52,20084,20085],{},"Content Marketing Strategy"," here at MKG Marketing",[14,20088,20089],{},"During the next six weeks, we will discuss the following subjects:",[46,20091,20092,20095,20098,20101,20104,20107],{},[49,20093,20094],{},"Creating a Content Marketing Strategy",[49,20096,20097],{},"Description of Content Formats",[49,20099,20100],{},"Using Data to Determine What Content to Write",[49,20102,20103],{},"Using Data to Determine How Often to Publish Content",[49,20105,20106],{},"How to Promote Your Content",[49,20108,20109],{},"How to Measure the Success of Your Content Marketing Strategy",[14,20111,20112],{},"And if this couldn't get any better, at the conclusion of this series we will post the entire MKG Marketing Content Marketing Bible on our website as a free, downloadable e-book.",[14,20114,20115],{},"See you next week for Part 1: Creating a Content Marketing Strategy!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20117},[20118],{"id":20074,"depth":291,"text":20075},"2013-05-14","A Six Part Series on Content Marketing: The MKG Marketing Approach to Creating a Strategy, What Content To Create, How Often to Publish Content, Content Promotion & Data Driven Decision Making.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-media-group-content-marketing-bible-a-six-part-series",{"title":20068,"description":20120},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fthe-mkg-media-group-content-marketing-bible-a-six-part-series","DJGcXUfJvU1RMr2WQvN95g-yg3YfLWfmvR0ICfFro3A",[1664,1718],{"id":20128,"title":20129,"author":7,"authors":20130,"body":20131,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":20269,"description":20270,"extension":318,"img":7,"imgAlt":7,"meta":20271,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":20272,"seo":20273,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":20274,"updated":7,"__hash__":20275,"people":20276},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-authorship-a-how-to-guide.md","Google Authorship: A How-To Guide",[9],{"type":11,"value":20132,"toc":20264},[20133,20142,20146,20149,20153,20156,20159,20163,20166,20169,20187,20190,20233,20236,20244,20249,20255,20261],[14,20134,20135,20136,20141],{},"It's important to stand-out on a search engine results page. Recent studies show that the top three organic results (that is, the results that show up below any paid search ads at the top of the page) receive the lion's share of clicks from users - 68% in fact (",[206,20137,20140],{"href":20138,"rel":20139},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchenginewatch.com\u002Farticle\u002F2200730\u002FOrganic-vs.-Paid-Search-Results-Organic-Wins-94-of-Time",[210],"citation","). So if your result is below the top three results, you're already fighting an uphill battle to try to get users to click on your result.",[24,20143,20145],{"id":20144},"how-can-you-get-your-result-noticed-by-having-it-be-different-than-the-rest","How can you get your result noticed? By having it be different than the rest!",[14,20147,20148],{},"One of the easiest lowest hanging fruit action items you can do to get your result to stand out amongst the rest is participate in Google Authorship.\nWhat is Google Authorship?\nSee where the red arrow is pointing? This is Google Authorship in action. Notice how the blog \"Puck Daddy\" is the fourth result? According to the study linked to above, it's below the magical top three results. However, that site has Google Authorship enabled, which adds a headshot to the side of the result along with a snippet of G+ information such as how many circles the Author is in as well as a link to view more articles from the author.",[24,20150,20152],{"id":20151},"i-betcha-dollars-to-donuts-that-particular-result-is-clicked-on-more-than-8-of-the-time","I betcha dollars to donuts that particular result is clicked on more than 8% of the time.",[14,20154,20155],{},"This is what the study that was linked to above stated that the third-place result receives on average. Heck, it probably even beats out the reported 12% that the second-place result typically receives on average.",[14,20157,20158],{},"What's that you say? Only popular individuals can have their headshot appear in Google's organic search results?",[24,20160,20162],{"id":20161},"think-again","Think again!",[14,20164,20165],{},"The truth of the matter is that anyone can implement Google Authorship; it's simply a case of people not going through the steps to get it implemented. Several months ago, the steps presented by Google were a little muddy and lots of folks were having issues getting it implemented and having Google show Google Authorship properly for their site. Recently, Google has refined their steps but it's still a fairly confusing process.",[14,20167,20168],{},"Fortunately, we're put together a super-easy four step process on how you can get Google Authorship implemented for your website. Ready?",[132,20170,20171,20178,20181,20184],{},[49,20172,20173,20174],{},"Go here (when signed into your G+ account): ",[206,20175,20176],{"href":20176,"rel":20177},"https:\u002F\u002Fplus.google.com\u002Fauthorship",[210],[49,20179,20180],{},"Verify your email address. What Google is looking for is that you have an email address on the domain of which your content is on.",[49,20182,20183],{},"This then should automagically add \"yourdomain.com\" as one of your \"contributor to:\" list of websites in your G+ profile.",[49,20185,20186],{},"All of your \"owned content\" needs to have a link on the page to your G+ profile. You also need to ensure that the link has \"rel=author\" in it, as this is essentially telling Google, \"Hey! This is my content!\"",[14,20188,20189],{},"So the link I would use would be:",[13277,20191,20193],{"className":13279,"code":20192,"language":13281,"meta":77,"style":77},"\u003Ca\n  href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fplus.google.com\u002Fu\u002F0\u002F106102646493491560010?rel=author\"\n  rel=\"author\"\n  >Google+\u003C\u002Fa\n>\n",[13206,20194,20195,20202,20212,20222,20229],{"__ignoreMap":77},[13285,20196,20197,20199],{"class":13287,"line":1713},[13285,20198,13291],{"class":13290},[13285,20200,20201],{"class":13294},"a\n",[13285,20203,20204,20207,20209],{"class":13287,"line":291},[13285,20205,20206],{"class":15647},"  href",[13285,20208,15652],{"class":13290},[13285,20210,20211],{"class":15655},"\"https:\u002F\u002Fplus.google.com\u002Fu\u002F0\u002F106102646493491560010?rel=author\"\n",[13285,20213,20214,20217,20219],{"class":13287,"line":297},[13285,20215,20216],{"class":15647},"  rel",[13285,20218,15652],{"class":13290},[13285,20220,20221],{"class":15655},"\"author\"\n",[13285,20223,20224,20227],{"class":13287,"line":3296},[13285,20225,20226],{"class":13290},"  >Google+\u003C\u002F",[13285,20228,20201],{"class":13294},[13285,20230,20231],{"class":13287,"line":1774},[13285,20232,13297],{"class":13290},[14,20234,20235],{},"(Obviously replace the link with your G+ profile URL)",[14,20237,20238,20239,20243],{},"That should be it! When implemented, you can check to see if everything has been implemented properly by using Google's rich snippets testing tool - ",[206,20240,20241],{"href":20241,"rel":20242},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fwebmasters\u002Ftools\u002Frichsnippets",[210],". Do know that sometimes it takes a day or two for Google to \"catch-up\" to all of the changes that are made.",[132,20245,20246],{"start":1774},[49,20247,20248],{},"PSYCHE! Remember? Only 4 steps!",[14,20250,20251,20252],{},"Tell us what you think. Is this process easy to follow? Did you implement Google Authorship for your own website? Did you see a noticeable bump in organic search results because of it? ",[52,20253,20254],{},"Let us know!",[14,20256,20257,20260],{},[38,20258,20259],{},"Edit"," And look! Right after this post went live:",[13921,20262,20263],{},"html pre.shiki code .sVt8B, html code.shiki .sVt8B{--shiki-default:#24292E;--shiki-dark:#E1E4E8}html pre.shiki code .s9eBZ, html code.shiki .s9eBZ{--shiki-default:#22863A;--shiki-dark:#85E89D}html pre.shiki code .sScJk, html code.shiki .sScJk{--shiki-default:#6F42C1;--shiki-dark:#B392F0}html pre.shiki code .sZZnC, html code.shiki .sZZnC{--shiki-default:#032F62;--shiki-dark:#9ECBFF}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}html.dark .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-dark);background: var(--shiki-dark-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-dark-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-dark-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-dark-text-decoration);}",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20265},[20266,20267,20268],{"id":20144,"depth":291,"text":20145},{"id":20151,"depth":291,"text":20152},{"id":20161,"depth":291,"text":20162},"2013-01-22","How to Implement Google Authorship on Digital Content",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-authorship-a-how-to-guide",{"title":20129,"description":20270},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fgoogle-authorship-a-how-to-guide","I-b1wAMeAFXjbBkrM50aEt1I_ZWtaXtIcfDK6DuAPw4",[1664,1718],[20278,20325,20379,6059,20426,1664,20475,20523,1718,20585,14481,12138,20652,20695,20739],{"id":20279,"title":20280,"body":20281,"date":7,"description":20312,"extension":318,"images":20313,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":20315,"linkedIn":20316,"meta":20317,"name":20318,"navigation":322,"path":20319,"quote":20320,"quoteCite":20321,"ref":20316,"seo":20322,"sequence":297,"stem":20323,"team":1715,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20324},"team\u002Fteam\u002Falanna-moman-rawden.md","Alanna Moman Rawden",{"type":11,"value":20282,"toc":20309},[20283,20287,20290,20293,20296,20298],[14,20284,20286],{"className":20285},[1671],"Alanna graduated from the University of Alabama in 2004. She started her career at an advertising agency in Birmingham, AL, and has spent most of her career in Account Leadership roles working on consumer brands like Verizon Wireless, Books-A-Million, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos. In 2015, she left the agency world with a desire to gain more digital advertising experience, which led to her running a one-person digital department for a regional credit union.",[14,20288,20289],{},"Account Direction has always been a natural fit for Alanna because she enjoys managing projects, big picture strategy, and building relationships. She chose to come back to the agency world when she learned about MKG and our People First values.",[14,20291,20292],{},"She is most proud of the impact she had on her previous company by creating a positive and supportive environment for those she managed. ",[14,20294,20295],{},"Alanna enjoys spending time with her husband and two teenage daughters, has a very eclectic taste in music, and is an obsessive Hamilfan.",[81,20297,1692],{"id":1691},[46,20299,20300,20303,20306],{},[49,20301,20302],{},"In college, she won a radio contest for her youngest brother to have dinner with Nickelback. The band spent the entire evening trying to convince her, then 15-year-old, brother to drop out of school.",[49,20304,20305],{},"She once spent 3 hours convincing a famous country singer to get off his tour bus to shoot a commercial that her client had contracted him to be in.",[49,20307,20308],{},"Her family is a big fan of True Crime, and they binge Crime Junkie on every road trip.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20310},[20311],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":1692},"Meet Alanna Moman-Rawden, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing Account Directors, bringing 15+ years of account leadership and direction to the table.",{"landscape":20314},"alanna-moman-rawden.webp","Director, People & Culture","alanna-moman-rawden",{},"Alanna Moman-Rawden","\u002Fteam\u002Falanna-moman-rawden","I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable. I am an original.","Aaron Burr, Hamilton",{"description":20312},"team\u002Falanna-moman-rawden","WPmQvGfbA7GjEpvcVEps9YUFm4Ihb7jAlxEbp7tr3IA",{"id":20326,"title":20327,"body":20328,"date":7,"description":20367,"extension":318,"images":20368,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20370,"linkedIn":20371,"meta":20372,"name":20327,"navigation":322,"path":20373,"quote":7,"quoteCite":20321,"ref":20374,"seo":20375,"sequence":20376,"stem":20377,"team":20370,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20378},"team\u002Fteam\u002Falicia-antonow.md","Alicia Antonow",{"type":11,"value":20329,"toc":20365},[20330,20335,20338,20343,20346,20351,20354,20359,20362],[14,20331,20332],{},[52,20333,20334],{},"How I Got Into Digital Advertising",[14,20336,20337],{},"With a background as a nurse, my journey into digital advertising began unexpectedly when I back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. A Google Partner approached me to assist with healthcare content and ads. I quickly discovered a passion for the field, and with Google Ads sales training followed by SEM training, I was hooked.",[14,20339,20340],{},[52,20341,20342],{},"What I Love About Paid Search",[14,20344,20345],{},"Every campaign is like a unique puzzle, even within the same industry. Variations in geography, audiences, and keywords make each project different. I enjoy leveraging the full suite of Google products—Search, Display, Demand Gen, and YouTube—because they work best when integrated. The ever-evolving nature of the work keeps me inspired and challenged.",[14,20347,20348],{},[52,20349,20350],{},"Why I Chose MKG Marketing",[14,20352,20353],{},"I was drawn to MKG Marketing for its people-first culture. The company recognizes that we are all human, with lives outside of work, and fosters a supportive environment that values balance and well-being.",[14,20355,20356],{},[52,20357,20358],{},"Fun Facts About Me",[14,20360,20361],{},"I’m an avid traveler and love immersing myself in different cultures. Before having kids, my husband and I spent at least three months each year exploring the world.",[14,20363,20364],{},"I take cooking classes with locals wherever I go and love scuba diving whenever there’s water nearby.\nMy kids are my world—seeing their faces light up when experiencing something new brings me the greatest joy.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20366},[],"Meet Alicia Antonow, one of MKG Marketing’s saavy digital ads experts, bringing 15+ years of hands on execution and strategy to the table.",{"landscape":20369},"alicia-antonow.webp","Digital Advertising Experts","alicia-a-36459bb5",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Falicia-antonow","alicia-antonow",{"description":20367},54,"team\u002Falicia-antonow","dX6MgSjdInEGV2mLfl0Uv4cjJ2Si5idzNXLe33_xMZY",{"id":20380,"title":20381,"body":20382,"date":7,"description":20413,"extension":318,"images":20414,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20416,"linkedIn":20417,"meta":20418,"name":20381,"navigation":322,"path":20419,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":20420,"seo":20421,"sequence":20422,"stem":20423,"team":20424,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20425},"team\u002Fteam\u002Favery-davis.md","Avery Davis",{"type":11,"value":20383,"toc":20410},[20384,20388,20391,20394,20397,20399],[14,20385,20387],{"className":20386},[1671],"\nAvery began his digital marketing career at a tech startup focused on ID scanning and facial recognition software. In addition to gaining a deep understanding of paid media and analytics, this peaked his interest in cybersecurity and tech in general. He then transitioned to agency life where he specialized in SaaS marketing.\n",[14,20389,20390],{},"Over the years, Avery has touched a variety of verticals including health and beauty, eCommerce, medical\u002Fpharma, education, and more. He is drawn to agency life because of the variety of clients he is able to work with and, in turn, learn from.",[14,20392,20393],{},"Although he’s touched several areas of digital marketing, Avery feels most at home when doing Account\u002F Project Management as well as Copywriting.",[14,20395,20396],{},"As is the theme with many of our staff, Avery was drawn to MKG because of our culture. In Avery’s words “MKG shares the same values as I do in both my professional and my personal life. When I saw that we meshed so well, this was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse!”",[81,20398,1692],{"id":1691},[46,20400,20401,20404,20407],{},[49,20402,20403],{},"Avery is an avid racquetball player. Having first gotten into the sport in college, he’s had lots of fun playing over the years. He tries to get to the court at least once a week.",[49,20405,20406],{},"Avery is a hobby bartender and enjoys making, tasting, and learning about different drinks. He’s mainly a Kentucky bourbon guy but also loves Japanese whisky!",[49,20408,20409],{},"Avery is a black belt in Pasaryu. This is a Korean mixed martial art which includes karate, kung fu, and Taekwondo. He has also trained and competed with weapons: nunchucks and samurai sword just to name a couple!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20411},[20412],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":1692},"Avery Davis is an Account Superivor here at MKG Marketing.",{"landscape":20415},"avery-davis.webp","Account Supervisor","avery-davis-114055191",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Favery-davis","avery-davis",{"description":20413},59,"team\u002Favery-davis","Account Services","ysXkJK5t3F27trCgdjC7IRHXNs-Qxp9YxjH9QT3gDqQ",{"id":20427,"title":20428,"body":20429,"date":7,"description":20462,"extension":318,"images":20463,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20465,"linkedIn":7,"meta":20466,"name":20468,"navigation":322,"path":20469,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":20470,"seo":20471,"sequence":20472,"stem":20473,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20474},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fkathy-obrien.md","Kathy Obrien",{"type":11,"value":20430,"toc":20459},[20431,20435,20438,20443,20446,20448],[14,20432,20434],{"className":20433},[1671],"\nKathy loves details and has managed the finer details of business her entire career.  She started her career in Center City, Philadelphia working for several law firms.  After she was married and had her first son, she left the bustling city to work closer to home at an international publishing company.  In 1994, Kathy and her husband Bill moved with their two sons to Charlotte, North Carolina.  They eventually completed their family with two more boys born in Charlotte.\n",[14,20436,20437],{},"In 2000 they relocated to Chester County, a suburb of Philadelphia. After a hiatus and four sons, Kathy returned to work in Chester County. This time, she gave retail a whirl so that she could be home when her school age boys were home. She quickly found out Ann Taylor was employing one of their best customers. Kathy then spent the following 10+ years in the Non-Profit arena where she did whatever needed to be done to further the mission. No job was too big, small, or unimportant to tackle.",[13959,20439,20440],{},[14,20441,20442],{},"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.\nMother Teresa",[14,20444,20445],{},"By February 2020, Kathy was eager to build something for herself and her family. She set off on a new adventure of starting her own business when she was connected with Kerry, Mike, and MKG. Having commuted and worked outside of the home for 10+ years, she was ready to work from home and have a better life balance. She followed the rainbow and found MKG in her pot of gold. MKG is like no other firm or organization for which Kathy has worked. Their standard of people first is evident in every team member, every decision, every meeting, every interaction. They live their standard.",[81,20447,1692],{"id":1691},[46,20449,20450,20453,20456],{},[49,20451,20452],{},"Kathy’s dislikes: fruit & chocolate together and Tuesday.",[49,20454,20455],{},"Family: Kathy met her husband Bill in Wildwood, New Jersey after their high school graduations during “Senior Week”. They have 4 sons and 2 grandsons. There hasn’t been a girl born in the O’Brien family in 32 years! You will often hear Kathy saying her boys are the best 4 gifts she’s ever been given.",[49,20457,20458],{},"Special talent: Baking. Her boys’ (Bill included) favorites are Spritz Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. There is a running family debate as to whether Ricotta Cookies are cookies or biscuits. At Christmas time, Kathy has been known to hide cookies to save some for guests.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20460},[20461],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":1692},"Meet Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s amazing executive assistant who consistently supports all of MKG across the many needs of the company.",{"landscape":20464},"kathy-obrien.webp","Executive Assistant",{"imageDescription":20467},"Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s Executive Assistant, in front of a gray background | MKG Marketing","Kathy O'Brien","\u002Fteam\u002Fkathy-obrien","kathy-obrien",{"description":20462},80,"team\u002Fkathy-obrien","lRwZA7wCSBsHC6ufODo6kKfYgfp9Nf-RTYoTK1zEMo0",{"id":20476,"title":20477,"body":20478,"date":7,"description":20511,"extension":318,"images":20512,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20514,"linkedIn":20515,"meta":20516,"name":20477,"navigation":322,"path":20517,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":20518,"seo":20519,"sequence":20520,"stem":20521,"team":20370,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20522},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fleigh-snyder.md","Leigh Snyder",{"type":11,"value":20479,"toc":20508},[20480,20484,20487,20490,20493,20496,20499,20502,20505],[14,20481,20483],{"className":20482},[1671],"\nLeigh has over 15 years of experience of managing Paid Search campaigns. She started her career at Solid Cactus, a full service eCommerce agency in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. Having no experience in Paid Search, she learned as she went, starting out in the earlier days of Google Adwords, when Adwords Editor wasn't even being used yet.\n",[14,20485,20486],{},"Leigh loves to create accounts and watch them grow, even more she loves to take a poorly performing account and turn it around. Watching the KPIs increase from changes she has made or new ideas she implements, keeps her career exciting.",[14,20488,20489],{},"Managing a wide variety of accounts that include local car dealerships, worldwide clothing stores, online supplement shops to plastic surgeons and much much more, Leigh brings a vast knowledge of creative ways in managing accounts.",[14,20491,20492],{},"While working the majority of her career in local offices, the options for expanding her career were becoming less and less. She decided to apply for a remote job (before it was the norm) and was able to get experience that wasn't as prevalent in the smaller area in which she resides.",[14,20494,20495],{},"After working from home for the past 6 years the opportunities kept coming and when MKG reached out to her, she knew that there was something special about them and decided to take the leap. The people first environment is not just talked about here, but it is practiced everyday. MKG Marketing is unlike anywhere she has ever worked.",[14,20497,20498],{},"Outside of work, Leigh enjoys spending time with her husband Dustin, their blended family (Emma, Casey, Jake & Brayden) and their dog Millie.",[14,20500,20501],{},"The kitchen is where you will always find her, she loves to cook and bake all things Gluten Free and no one ever knows. When they are not at a swim meet or a baseball game they love swimming in their pool, long walks on the local trails, renovating their house and binging shows.",[81,20503,20504],{"id":1691},"Fun Facts",[14,20506,20507],{},"Although it was just was a short time, at age 19 Leigh drove cross country from a small town in PA and moved to Hollywood Hills, CA. Her view from her kitchen window was the Hollywood sign. Not a bad first apartment.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20509},[20510],{"id":1691,"depth":297,"text":20504},"Meet Leigh Snyder, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing digital advertising experts, bringing 15 plus years of experience to the team",{"landscape":20513},"leigh-snyder.webp","Digital Advertising Expert","leighasnyder",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fleigh-snyder","leigh-snyder",{"description":20511},50,"team\u002Fleigh-snyder","tY2JnqulQK9AU4TGRfATRnob3Thk9e9yAPu6iKBPA_s",{"id":20524,"title":20525,"body":20526,"date":7,"description":20573,"extension":318,"images":20574,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20576,"linkedIn":20577,"meta":20578,"name":20525,"navigation":322,"path":20580,"quote":20581,"quoteCite":20525,"ref":20577,"seo":20582,"sequence":321,"stem":20583,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20584},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux.md","Celeste Jacroux",{"type":11,"value":20527,"toc":20570},[20528,20536,20539,20546,20550],[14,20529,20531,20532,20535],{"className":20530},[1671],"\nCeleste Jacroux is a Go-to-Market architect for companies ready to graduate from \"random acts of marketing\" to a predictable revenue engine. As the Founder of ",[52,20533,20534],{},"Swell Marketing Advisors"," and a strategic partner to MKG, she brings deep expertise in aligning product, sales, and marketing into a cohesive GTM strategy.",[14,20537,20538],{},"Celeste understands that for founders, the hardest phase is often bridging the gap between a great product and the market that needs it. She specializes in clarifying positioning, defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and building the strategic roadmap that turns vision into traction.",[14,20540,20541,20542,20545],{},"At MKG, Celeste steps in as a Marketing Leader for our ",[52,20543,20544],{},"Marketing Leadership + Activation"," clients. She provides the senior-level direction and GTM rigor, working hand-in-hand with MKG’s activation teams to ensure that strategy doesn't just sit in a deck—it gets executed, measured, and optimized for growth.",[81,20547,20549],{"id":20548},"expertise","Expertise",[46,20551,20552,20558,20564],{},[49,20553,20554,20557],{},[52,20555,20556],{},"Go-to-Market Strategy:"," Launching new products and entering new markets with precision.",[49,20559,20560,20563],{},[52,20561,20562],{},"Positioning & Messaging:"," Translating complex tech into clear customer value.",[49,20565,20566,20569],{},[52,20567,20568],{},"Sales & Marketing Alignment:"," Ensuring the revenue team is fighting the same battle.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20571},[20572],{"id":20548,"depth":297,"text":20549},"Meet Celeste Jacroux, a strategic GTM partner to MKG and Founder of Sweel Marketing Advisors. She leads Go-to-Market strategy for high-growth companies.",{"landscape":20575},"celeste-jacroux.webp","Fractional GTM Leader | Founder, Swell Marketing Advisors","celeste-jacroux",{"imageDescription":20579},"Celeste Jacroux, Founder of Swell Marketing Advisors and MKG Partner","\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux","A great product doesn't win on its own. It wins when the story, the strategy, and the sales motion all pull in the exact same direction.",{"description":20573},"team\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux","xCdtcFdNV4sp78oidUDMCvxluqrG5iEdRJkxxEAOYq0",{"id":20586,"title":20587,"body":20588,"date":7,"description":20639,"extension":318,"images":20640,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20642,"linkedIn":20643,"meta":20644,"name":20646,"navigation":322,"path":20647,"quote":20648,"quoteCite":20646,"ref":20643,"seo":20649,"sequence":586,"stem":20650,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20651},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley.md","Laura Mcaliley",{"type":11,"value":20589,"toc":20636},[20590,20594,20605,20608,20614,20616],[14,20591,20593],{"className":20592},[1671],"\nLaura McAliley is the growth strategist founders call when they are ready to turn early traction into sustainable momentum. As the Founder of Pebble Marketing and a key Marketing Leadership partner for MKG, Laura bridges the gap between high-level vision and the gritty execution required to scale.",[14,20595,20596,20597,20600,20601,20604],{},"Her track record speaks the language of investors and boards. She has successfully scaled SaaS startups from seed stage through to exit, most notably orchestrating a ",[52,20598,20599],{},"3x revenue lift"," at ",[52,20602,20603],{},"Security Journey"," that led to a successful acquisition.",[14,20606,20607],{},"Laura thrives in the \"messy middle\" of growth. Whether she is navigating the complexities of a Fortune 100 account or launching a scrappy go-to-market strategy for a new startup, her approach is the same: build the brand, unlock the revenue, and get the business investor-ready.",[14,20609,20610,20611,20613],{},"At MKG, Laura acts as a Fractional CMO for our ",[52,20612,20544],{}," clients, bringing the senior firepower needed to professionalize your marketing function without the full-time executive headcount.",[81,20615,20549],{"id":20548},[46,20617,20618,20624,20630],{},[49,20619,20620,20623],{},[52,20621,20622],{},"SaaS Scaling:"," From Seed to Exit",[49,20625,20626,20629],{},[52,20627,20628],{},"Revenue Operations:"," Aligning marketing spend with sales outcomes",[49,20631,20632,20635],{},[52,20633,20634],{},"Brand Strategy:"," Positioning startups for acquisition and investment",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20637},[20638],{"id":20548,"depth":297,"text":20549},"Meet Laura McAliley, a strategic partner to MKG and Founder of Pebble Marketing. She serves as a Fractional CMO, helping founders scale from seed to exit.",{"landscape":20641},"laura-mcaliley.webp","Fractional CMO | Founder, Pebble Marketing","laura-mcaliley",{"imageDescription":20645},"Laura McAliley, Fractional CMO and Founder of Pebble Marketing","Laura McAliley","\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley","Founders don't need another slide deck. They need a roadmap to revenue and a partner willing to get their hands dirty to build it.",{"description":20639},"team\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley","ke5GsAQwur6LBbt6guZUCgKQT6MJJm8UL5XCaXjVnZM",{"id":20653,"title":20654,"body":20655,"date":7,"description":20683,"extension":318,"images":20684,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20514,"linkedIn":20686,"meta":20687,"name":20654,"navigation":322,"path":20688,"quote":20689,"quoteCite":1710,"ref":20690,"seo":20691,"sequence":20692,"stem":20693,"team":20370,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20694},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fnick-bare.md","Nick Bare",{"type":11,"value":20656,"toc":20681},[20657,20661,20664,20667,20670],[14,20658,20660],{"className":20659},[1671],"Nick Bare's college offered a digital technology and culture degree and heI ended up taking some communications and marketing classes as well and liked the thought of them all lining up with each other. Once he graduated, he landed a role in paid search and has been doing it for nine+ years now.",[14,20662,20663],{},"He loves that there's always a challenge to tackle. He enjoys taking on new accounts and getting into the weeds to see what can help them turn around and start driving more efficient leads.",[14,20665,20666],{},"He's most proud of being a dad.",[14,20668,20669],{},"Interesting facts:",[46,20671,20672,20675,20678],{},[49,20673,20674],{},"Born with a cleft lip and palate and has had seven surgeries in his life",[49,20676,20677],{},"Watched the Seahawks win Super Bowl 48 with his dad in New York",[49,20679,20680],{},"Travels around the country to visit all the MLB stadiums with his son",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20682},[],"Meet Nick Bare, one of MKG Marketing’s Digital Advertising Expert, bringing 15 plus years of experience to the team. ",{"landscape":20685},"nick-bare.webp","nickbare",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fnick-bare","We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can't have both.","nick-bare",{"description":20683},52,"team\u002Fnick-bare","yVusNcEIbiAvdPE02qyDKE_aINcQ0QMXSeyOKv9x5PE",{"id":20696,"title":20697,"body":20698,"date":7,"description":20683,"extension":318,"images":20725,"isLeader":1769,"jobTitle":20727,"linkedIn":20728,"meta":20729,"name":20697,"navigation":322,"path":20730,"quote":20731,"quoteCite":20732,"ref":20733,"seo":20734,"sequence":20735,"stem":20736,"team":20737,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20738},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fprachi-sarin.md","Prachi Sarin",{"type":11,"value":20699,"toc":20723},[20700,20703,20706,20709],[14,20701,20702],{},"Prachi has worked in marketing for over 10 years across various industries, but digital marketing has always been her true interest. She finally got the opportunity to pursue it when she moved to the United States and joined MKG as an apprentice, embarking on her digital marketing journey.​",[14,20704,20705],{},"Why I Joined MKG Marketing:\nI joined MKG Marketing because of its people-first culture, transparency, and commitment to growth. It’s a place where I can learn, contribute, and work with a team that genuinely cares.",[14,20707,20708],{},"Fun Facts About Me:",[46,20710,20711,20714,20717,20720],{},[49,20712,20713],{},"I love to read detective, thriller, and mystery books and watch shows in the same genre.",[49,20715,20716],{},"I’m a mom to twin girls—they are my world! Watching them grow, learn, and explore life brings me joy.",[49,20718,20719],{},"I love cooking for my family. It started with my husband, who’s a foodie, and now we cook together for our daughters.",[49,20721,20722],{},"Our family also enjoys playing video games—it’s our way to unwind and have fun together.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20724},[],{"landscape":20726},"prachi-sarin.webp","Digital Marketing Coordinator","prachisarin",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fprachi-sarin","We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.","Walt Disney","prachi-sarin",{"description":20683},75,"team\u002Fprachi-sarin","Digital Marketing","LjXpVTmZn-XwzExAyq2igbw_fHhrVcf4nOLoEmURbEQ",{"id":20740,"title":20741,"body":20742,"date":7,"description":20756,"extension":318,"images":20757,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":20759,"linkedIn":20760,"meta":20761,"name":20741,"navigation":322,"path":20762,"quote":20763,"quoteCite":20764,"ref":20765,"seo":20766,"sequence":291,"stem":20767,"team":1715,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":20768},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fsam-ellsworth.md","Sam Ellsworth",{"type":11,"value":20743,"toc":20754},[20744,20748,20751],[14,20745,20747],{"className":20746},[1671],"Sam has over 15 years of experience managing the development of marketing campaigns for national and global brands. She started her career in San Francisco, working in account management at ad agencies, where she managed a range of successful marketing campaigns from Super Bowl TV spots and fully-integrated product launches to social media campaigns and events.",[14,20749,20750],{},"After 12 years in San Francisco, Sam and her husband decided it was time to leave the big city and find a slower pace of life, settling down outside of Burlington, Vermont. Sam spent her first couple years in Vermont working remotely for a San Francisco agency and then as the Marketing Director at a local craft brewery before joining the MKG team. She was drawn to MKG due to our people first value and the opportunity to get to focus on a few specific, results driven marketing tactics.",[14,20752,20753],{},"Outside of work, Sam spends her time with her husband, 4-year-old daughter and chocolate lab exploring Vermont and all it has to offer — from hiking, skiing and enjoying all the local food to growing their backyard garden and working on a never-ending list of house renovations.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":20755},[],"Meet Sam Ellsworth, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing Account Directors, who brings over 15 years experience managing marketing campaign development. ",{"landscape":20758},"sam-ellsworth.webp","Director, Client Services","samantha-ellsworth-40875866",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fsam-ellsworth","Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.","Dr. Seuss","sam-ellsworth",{"description":20756},"team\u002Fsam-ellsworth","Xb0ljkUHaVzTObdBxfiOxIpE5jcK9HSfgiMlBhd8fuc",1787835199965]