How AI is shaping brand perception, and what you can do about it

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Table of contents

What does ChatGPT say about your brand? Or Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude? As AI agents emerge alongside traditional search engines as the starting point of discovery, the way they perceive and present your brand can directly shape customer trust and buying decisions. These models don’t know your brand the way people do. They learn it from the web, from structured data, citations, reviews, and the context you’ve built across digital touchpoints. The result: AI isn’t just reflecting your brand; it’s actively influencing how audiences experience it!

This article explores how AI is reshaping brand perception and, more importantly, what you can do about it.

How AI perceives your brand

AI doesn’t just read your brand; it interprets it. Instead of scanning isolated keywords, AI systems build a contextual map of who you are, what you offer, and how the world perceives you. This understanding comes from a combination of techniques like knowledge graphs, entity linking, relationship mapping, and sentiment analysis.

Here is a brief overview of different technologies that AI agents use for understanding brands:

Knowledge graphs

Image source: TechTarget

Knowledge graphs are structured databases that represent entities (like brands, products, or people) and the relationships between them. For AI, they serve as a kind of brand blueprint, linking Apple not only to ‘smartphones’ and ‘laptops’ but also to competitors like Samsung, product lines like iPhone, and audiences like ‘tech-savvy young adults.’ By connecting these dots, AI understands a brand’s position within a larger ecosystem.

Entity linking

Image source: Ontotext

Entity linking ensures that when AI encounters a brand reference – whether in a news article, review, or social post – it knows exactly which brand is being discussed. A mention of ‘Apple’s new iPhone’ doesn’t just get read as text; AI links ‘Apple’ and ‘iPhone’ to their knowledge graph entries, capturing the context that this is about Apple’s smartphone launch, not fruit.

Relationship mapping

Beyond direct links, AI maps relationships between entities to uncover patterns. This could mean identifying which product features resonate with certain customer segments or surfacing how a brand is associated with trends like sustainability or innovation. Relationship mapping highlights not only who is connected to a brand, but how.

Sentiment and perception analysis

AI also analyzes tone and sentiment across reviews, forums, social platforms, and media. These signals reveal whether people talk about a brand positively, negatively, or neutrally, and in what context. Over time, these insights shape how AI interprets a brand’s reputation and credibility.

Personalization and content alignment

Finally, AI uses this brand understanding to personalize consumer interactions and even generate content aligned with a brand’s tone and values. The more consistent the data and signals a brand sends out, the clearer its identity becomes in AI systems.

Taken together, these technologies mean AI doesn’t just see a brand as a logo or a tagline. It sees a web of relationships, perceptions, and behaviors, continuously updated in real time. AI understands brands through both what they say about themselves and how the world engages with them, but it often weighs the latter more heavily.

Overall, if we set aside the technical layers, the bigger picture is this: AI doesn’t see a brand as just a logo, tagline, or marketing claim. Instead, it constructs meaning from the countless interactions, mentions, and connections that exist around the brand. Every review, conversation, and association adds another layer to how AI perceives brand equity.

Your brand’s story was never yours alone; customers, communities, and competitors have always shaped it. What’s changing is that AI amplifies those influences in real time.

The new gatekeepers: LLMs & generative search

For decades, search has been the front door of the internet, the place where customers first discovered, compared, and connected with brands. Ranking high on Google meant visibility, trust, and traffic, and much of the brand strategy was built around that dynamic. But that front door is changing.

Today, large language models (LLMs) and generative AI are reshaping discovery itself. Search is no longer just a list of blue links you can optimize against. Instead, AI compresses, summarizes, and reinterprets content on behalf of the user. It’s faster, more convenient, and increasingly becoming the default way people search.

In fact, by 2028, organic search traffic could decline by 50% or more as consumers rely more heavily on generative AI-powered search.

This shift marks a turning point: discovery is moving from traditional search engines toward AI-driven experiences. And nowhere is this transformation clearer than in the evolution of search engines themselves.

Read more: LLM SEO optimization techniques (including llms.txt)

Let’s understand this shift and its different aspects in detail.

From traditional search to AI-driven discovery

In the pre-AI era, search meant competing for blue links. Your content carries not just keywords but also your voice, tone, and brand identity. That visibility gave businesses some control over how they were discovered.

Now, discovery is expanding beyond links into AI-generated answers, instant summaries, and conversational results. These systems don’t just point to your site; they synthesize information from multiple sources and deliver it directly to the user.

This shift means people are no longer ‘clicking through’ in the same way; they’re expecting instant, conversational results. It’s faster, more convenient, and quickly becoming the default search experience.

Search engines’ evolution into generative platforms

Search engines themselves are fuelling this transition. Google is the clearest example. It remains the dominant force in search, with usage rising more than 20% in 2024 and still delivering ~373X more searches than ChatGPT. But the nature of that search is changing.

Image source: SparkToro
  • AI Overviews, launched in May 2024, now appear in more than half of searches. Instead of users scrolling down to organic results, they see synthesized AI summaries right at the top.
  • AI Mode, rolling out widely in 2025, makes the entire experience conversational, with generative responses as the default surface, not the list of links below.
  • Behind all of this is Gemini, the model family that deepens Google’s ability to parse context, language, and intent, reshaping what it means for content to be ‘visible.’
An example of a search in Google AI Mode

For brands, this creates a paradox. Your content may be seen more often through impressions, but clicks decline because users often don’t need to leave the search results page. Instead of optimizing just for rankings, success depends on whether your content can deliver highly specific, immediately useful insights that AI wants to pull into its answers.

Recognizing this shift early opens up space to differentiate, while many competitors are still optimizing for the old playbook.

Read more: How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools

The branding challenges of AI mediation

While generative search improves user experience, it strips away brand nuance. AI blends multiple sources, compresses messaging, and removes design and visual branding, leading to tone flattening. A playful coffee brand known for witty puns and bold design may simply appear as ‘a coffee retailer offering various blends’. Stripped of its energy and personality.

There’s also the problem of sentiment drift. Because models rely on historical data, they may surface outdated or dominant narratives that don’t reflect your current positioning. A hotel that has rebranded into a luxury wellness retreat may still show up as ‘a budget accommodation option,’ simply because older reviews carry more weight in training data.

The risk here is bigger than being misrepresented; it’s being misunderstood at scale. In the AI-driven discovery era, your brand isn’t just competing for attention; it’s competing for interpretation.

Read more: What AI gets wrong about your site, and why it’s not your fault

What shapes your brand’s AI profile

AI agents build brand profiles not just from your owned content but from the network of signals surrounding it, some of which you can influence directly, others that linger long after you’ve moved on.

Everything mentioned till now clearly shows that AI agents’ answers for your brand depend on several factors, like:

  • Structured data and schema usage provide machines with a clear blueprint of who you are, what you offer, and why it matters. Without this scaffolding, your content risks being flattened into something indistinguishable.
  • Citations in authoritative sources act like trust anchors. When established publications, industry bodies, or credible researchers reference your brand, AI models absorb those signals and treat them as validation.
  • Consistency of context, making sure your brand name, description, and expertise align across platforms, ensures that fragmented or contradictory mentions don’t dilute your identity in AI summaries.
  • Depth and authority of content matter more than sheer volume. AI is tuned to favor content that demonstrates expertise and perspective, not just keyword density.
  • Geographical and personalization cues influence how your brand is profiled in specific markets or for specific user types. For instance, a brand may appear as a local leader in one geography and an emerging player in another.

  • Reputation signals like reviews, press coverage, and forum discussions shape how AI remembers your brand. Unlike a campaign you can sunset, these signals persist in training data.A software tool that fixed its early bugs, for example, might still be labelled unreliable in AI-generated summaries because forum complaints from years ago remain part of the record.

Together, these factors reveal an uncomfortable truth: your brand’s AI profile is not solely in your control. It is co-authored by every structured markup, citation, review, and discussion thread tied to your name.

And that’s exactly why the next step isn’t just about visibility, it’s about equity. If machines are going to carry your reputation forward, then the real question becomes: how do you actively shape and protect that equity in the AI era?

What you can do about it: building brand equity in the AI era

If AI is going to summarize your brand for users, the challenge is no longer just getting to page one; it’s making sure those summaries capture the right story. That means shifting your strategy from chasing rankings to actively shaping the signals AI pulls from.

Here’s how to start:

Audit how AI describes your brand

Don’t assume your website is the only source AI is pulling from. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini to ‘Describe [Your Brand]’ every quarter. Track how those descriptions change, whether they reflect your current positioning, and if old baggage is still showing up. This gives you a baseline for what’s working and what needs fixing.

For deeper insights, tools like Yoast AI Brand Insights go a step further, tracking mentions, sentiment, and visibility across AI assistants so you can see exactly how your brand is represented and take control of the narrative.

Keep ‘anchor’ content fresh

Pages like your About, product introductions, and service overviews are disproportionately influential. Refresh them regularly with clear, keyword-rich descriptors that reinforce your current narrative. These are often the first things AI models latch onto, so make sure they reflect today’s positioning, not yesterday’s.

Infuse brand storytelling into content

Generic descriptions fade in summaries; unique stories stick. Instead of ‘We sell camping gear,’ write ‘We help families turn weekends into campfire stories.’ Language that’s memorable, metaphorical, or emotionally charged has a better chance of surviving AI compression and carrying your brand identity with it.

Experiment beyond traditional blog posts

AI models ingest more than just written blogs. Case studies, explainer videos, podcasts, interviews, or even forum contributions can influence how your expertise gets profiled. A varied content mix increases the likelihood that your brand is represented in different contexts and query types.

Work on visibility across multiple touchpoints

Don’t let your footprint be limited to your own site. Citations in industry publications, guest appearances, reviews, and even thoughtful participation in online discussions expand the sources AI relies on. The broader your presence, the harder it is for AI to miss you.

Always think about intent and context

AI-powered discovery isn’t keyword stuffing; instead, it’s intent recognition. Structure your content around the problems your audience is trying to solve, not just the queries you want to rank for. When your answers consistently match user intent, AI is more likely to position you as relevant and authoritative.

Invest in tools that guide AI to your brand

Unlike search engines, AI tools don’t crawl your full site; they only scan small pieces of content in real time. This means important details can be missed or outdated. That’s where Yoast SEO’s llms.txt feature helps.

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This feature automatically creates a file that acts as a map for AI assistants, pointing them to your most important, cleanly structured content. No setup required. By doing this, you give LLMs a better chance of representing your business accurately in their answers.

The future of brand perception

We’ve entered a new era of discovery. Customers aren’t just scanning pages; they’re trusting AI-generated answers to shape their perception of your brand. That shift comes with both risk and opportunity.

On one hand, AI assistants can strip away the nuance, tone, and ownership brands that brands once held over how they’re presented. On the other hand, they offer a chance to reach audiences in more natural, context-rich ways than ever before, if you prepare for it.

The path forward isn’t about chasing rankings alone. It’s about ensuring your brand is understood, accurately represented, and consistently visible across this new AI-powered landscape. That means building content that survives summarization, experimenting beyond traditional formats, and guiding AI to the information that matters most about you.

But awareness is only the first step; you also need visibility into how AI tools are currently describing and interpreting your brand.

That’s where Yoast AI Brand Insights comes in. With AI visibility scores, sentiment tracking, and real-time monitoring of mentions across tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, you’ll finally have a clear picture of how your brand lives inside AI answers, and how to shape it.

The future of brand perception isn’t written by you alone. It’s written by the AI that your customers trust. The question is: will you leave that story to chance, or take control of it?

👉 [Join the waitlist for Yoast AI Brand Insights] and be among the first to shape how AI sees your brand.

The post How AI is shaping brand perception, and what you can do about it appeared first on Yoast.

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Product page SEO: 5 things to improve

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Having great product pages is important for your sales. After all, it’s where people decide to click that buy button. Besides optimizing your product pages for user experience, you also want to make sure these pages work for your SEO. You might think this is obvious. That’s why we’ll show you a few less obvious elements of product page SEO in this post. And we’ll explain why it’s so important to take these things into account. Let’s go!

Table of contents

1. The basics of product page SEO

First things first: a product page on an online store is a page too. This means that all the SEO things that matter for your content pages matter for your product pages as well. Of course, there’s a lot more to product page SEO. But for now, this will be your basic optimization. Tip: If you offer not-so-exciting products on your site, you may want to read our post on SEO for boring products.

Let’s start with the basics.

A great title

Try to focus on the product name and include the manufacturer’s name, if applicable. In addition, if your product is a small part of a larger machine (screw, tube), for example, you should include the SKU as well. People might search for that specifically.

A proper and unique product description

While it might be tempting to use the same description as the product’s manufacturer, you really shouldn’t. That description might be found on hundreds of websites, which means it’s duplicate content and a sign of low quality for your website (to Google). Remember, you want to prevent duplicate content at all times!

Now, you might think: “But all my other content (content pages, category pages, blog) is unique!” However, if the content on hundreds of product pages isn’t unique, then the majority of your website’s content still won’t be up to par. So make time to create unique content! And if you need help, the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin comes with product-specific content and SEO analysis that helps you produce great product descriptions.

An inviting meta description

A product page usually contains a lot of general information, like the product’s dimensions or your company’s terms of service. To avoid Google using that unrelated text in a meta description, you want to add a meta description to your product pages. It’s arguably even more important than adding one to your content pages!

Next, try to come up with unique meta descriptions. This can be difficult sometimes. You might come up with a sort of template, where you only change the product name per product. That’s okay to start with. But ideally, all your meta descriptions should be unique. Yoast SEO has various AI features that will help you with this.

Pick a great and easy-to-remember URL

We recommend using the product name in the URL. However, keep it short and simple so that it is still readable for site visitors.

Add high-quality and well-optimized images with proper ALT text

Include the product name in at least the main product image. This will help you do better in visual search. Also, don’t forget video — if applicable.

Focus on your product page UX

Last but not least: UX, or user experience. This is an important step because it’s all about making your product pages as user-friendly as possible. Plus, it’s an important part of holistic SEO. There are many parts to UX, which is why we wrote a post with product page UX examples. Give it a read!

Read more: Write great product descriptions with WooCommerce SEO »

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2. Add structured data for your products and get rich results

Structured data is an essential part of a modern SEO strategy. You simply can’t do without structured data for your product pages anymore, because they help your product page stand out. For example, there is a specific Product schema that helps you get highlighted search results, so-called rich results. These are great for your site’s visibility, and they can also increase your click-through rate! And if you mark up customers’ reviews with Review structured data, they will show up in the search results. Seeing those beautiful stars underneath a product page will convince people they should check out your site!

Another reason to add it is to manage customers’ expectations. Your visitors will know your price up front and that the product is still in stock. How’s that for user experience?

Search engines and AI/LLMs will understand your page better

Structured data is also important for your product page SEO because the major search engines came up with this markup, not the W3C consortium. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex agreed upon this markup, so they could identify product pages and all the product elements and characteristics more easily. Why? So they could a) understand these pages a lot better and b) show you rich snippets like this:

That’s a lot of info in the search results, right?

The Product schema tells the search engine more about the product. It could include characteristics like product description, manufacturer, brand, name, dimensions, and color, but also the SKU we mentioned earlier. The Offer schema includes more information on price and availability, like currency and stock. It can even include something called priceValidUntil to let search engines know that the price offer is for a limited time only.

Add structured data with Yoast SEO

Boost your website’s presence with powerful schema structured data features, included for free with Yoast SEO.

Try Yoast SEO Free »

Options to add structured data for product page SEO

Schema.org has a lot of options, but only a limited set of properties are supported by search engines. For instance, look at Google’s page on product page structured data to see what search engines expect in your code and what they can do with it.

This is why you want to add Schema.org data for product page SEO: It’s easier to recognize for Google, and it makes sure to include important extras in Google already. If you have a WooCommerce shop, our WooCommerce SEO plugin takes care of a lot of this stuff behind the scenes.

Keep reading: Rich results, structured data and Schema: a visual guide to help you understand »

A preview of how your product might look in Google thanks to structured data

3. Add real reviews

Reviews are important. In fact, 74% of consumers say that they check reviews on at least two sites before buying anything online or locally. Although not everyone trusts online reviews, many do, so they can be very helpful.

If you are a local company, online reviews are even more important. Most reviews tend to be extremely positive, but it might just be the negative reviews that give a better sense of what is going on with a company or product. In addition, getting awesome testimonials is another way of showing your business means business.

Leading Dutch online store Coolblue gives consumers a lot of options to make relevant and useful reviews of the products they buy

Try to get your customers to leave reviews, then show the reviews on your product page. Do you get a negative review? Contact the writer, find out what’s wrong, and try to mitigate the situation. Maybe they can turn their negative review into a positive one. Plus: You’ve gained new insights into your work.

If you’re not sure how to get those ratings and reviews, check out our blog post: how to get ratings and reviews for your business. And don’t forget to mark up your reviews and ratings with Review and Rating schema so search engines can pick them up and show rich results on the search results pages.

4. Make your product page lightning fast

Nobody enjoys waiting, especially when browsing on a mobile device. Many shoppers are now using their phones to make purchases, so speed on your product pages is crucial. Visitors expect instant access to content, and search engines reward that expectation. Compress images, implement responsive design, and streamline scripts to enhance load times. Regularly test your mobile layout to identify and fix problems before they impact your users. Prioritizing mobile performance not only satisfies your customers but also aligns with search engine preferences, potentially boosting your SEO rankings and increasing traffic.

Remember, a fast, mobile-friendly site is a win-win for everyone involved. To get you started, here’s a post about how to improve your Core Web Vital scores.

5. User test your product page

Looking at numbers in Google Analytics, Search Console, or other analytical tools can give you insight into how people find and interact with your page. These insights can help you improve the performance of a page even more. But there’s another way to ensure that your product page is as awesome as it can be: user testing. There are also many ways to get more value from site visitors with A/B testing.

How user testing can help you

Testers can find loads of issues for you, such as terrible use of images (including non-functioning galleries), bad handling of out-of-stock products, or inaccurate shipping and return information, which can lead to trust issues. Now, you might be thinking: Surely, my website doesn’t have those issues! But you’d be surprised.

In their Product Page UX research project, the Baymard Institute found that:

“The high-level benchmark results show that only 49% of e-commerce sites have an overall ‘decent’ or ‘good’ UX performance for their product pages, while 51% of sites have ‘mediocre’ or worse product page implementations. On the extreme ends of performance, only a couple of sites had a very ‘poor’ Product Page UX performance that failed to align with commonly observed user behavior in our large-scale PDP testing. This is a fortunate shift upward from 2021, which previously had 4% of sites with below ‘poor’ performances. At the other end of the scale, there aren’t any sites with an overall ‘Perfect’ or ‘“’State of the Art’ product page implementation (unchanged since 2021).

You can read this fascinating study on their Product Page UX site.

The Baymard report has loads of insights into the most common errors seen on product pages

While you compare your product pages to external user research, don’t forget to do your own user testing! Doing proper research will give you eye-opening results that you probably wouldn’t have found yourself.

Bonus: Build trust and show people your authenticity

Getting a stranger to buy something on your site involves a lot of trust. Someone needs to know you are authentic before handing you their hard-earned money, right? Google puts a lot of emphasis on the element of trust — It’s all over their famous Search Quality Raters Guidelines. The search engine tries to evaluate trust and expertise by looking at online reviews, the accolades a site or its authors receive, and much more.

Brand perception in AI and LLMs

AI search engines and LLMs also assess these trust factors to shape how your brand is presented. They analyze reviews, schema, and overall credibility to produce an accurate portrayal. A trustworthy online presence can positively influence how these systems perceive and convey your brand to users.

This is why it’s so important that your About Us and Customer Service pages are in order. Make sure people can easily find your contact information, information about returns and shipping, payment, privacy, etc. This will build trust with your customers. So, don’t forget!

Social proof is another way to build trust with your customers. Adding social proof to your product pages can significantly influence buying decisions. Display customer reviews, testimonials, and ratings to build trust and demonstrate real-life experiences. Include trust badges, like security symbols or industry awards, to boost credibility. Encourage happy customers to share photos or videos of your products and showcase this content on your website. These elements help assure visitors that your products are both credible and valued by others.

Conclusion: Be serious about your product page SEO

If you’re serious about optimizing your product page, you shouldn’t focus on regular SEO and user experience alone. You’ll have to dig deeper into other aspects of your product pages. For instance, you could add the Product and Offer Schema, so Google can easily index all the details about your product and show these as rich results in the search results. In addition, you should make your product pages fast, add user reviews, and try to enhance your website’s trustworthiness. And don’t forget to test everything you do!

Need a helping hand? Be sure to check out our ecommerce SEO training course. Learn what ecommerce SEO entails, how to optimize your site, and boost your online presence. Want to get your products ranking in the shopping search results? We’ll tell you how. Start your free trial lesson today! Full access to Yoast SEO Academy is included in Yoast SEO Premium, which also includes all other plugins — including Local SEO for optimizing your performance in local search.

Check out our overview of product page must-haves

To help you stay on top of your product pages, we created a PDF that you can use to optimize your product pages. Most of what’s discussed in this blog post can be found in the PDF, plus more tips! Just click on the image to go to the PDF and download it.

preview product page must haves
Click on the image to download the PDF

Read on: 7 ways to improve product descriptions in your online store »

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LLM SEO Optimization Techniques: (including llms.txt)

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Table of Contents

  1. How to Make Your Content Visible in the Age of AI Search
  2. What Are LLMs and Why Should You Care?
  3. The New Way of Searching
  4. SEO vs. GEO vs. AEO vs. LLMO: Are We Just Rebranding SEO?
  5. Key LLM SEO Optimization Techniques
  6. Bonus Strategies for LLM Optimization
  7. The Role of llms.txt: Giving AI Search All the Right Signals
  8. LLM Optimization vs. Traditional SEO
  9. Common Mistakes to Avoid
  10. Tools and Resources to Get Started
  11. Conclusion

How to make your content visible in the age of AI search 

So, what exactly is LLM Optimization? Well, the answer to that question depends on who you ask. For example, if you ask a machine learning engineer, they’ll tell you it’s all about tweaking prompts and token limits to get better performance from a large language model. In fact, Iguazio actually defines LLM optimization as improving the way models respond, which means smarter, faster, and with more contextual recognition.    

If, on the other hand, you are a content strategist or SEO enthusiast, LLM optimization will mean something completely different to you and that is making sure that your content shows up in AI-generated search results. And, that needs to be true no matter whether you’re talking to ChatGPT, searching with Perplexity, or scanning Google’s new AI Mode for answers. Some call this ChatGPT SEO or Generative Engine Optimization. 

So, if you fall into the latter of those two groups, ie: the people who want their content and product pages to be seen and clicked, then this article is for you. And, if you’d like to read on, we’ll show you why LLM optimization in an AI-search landscape isn’t some sort of luxury option; it’s an absolute necessity. 

What are LLMs and why should you care? 

AI engineers train Large Language models on huge amounts of text and data to generate answers, summaries, code, and human-like language. They’ve read everything (not just the Classics) and that includes blogs, news articles and your website.   

The reason that’s important is that LLMs don’t crawl your website in real time like Search Engines do. What they do is read it, learn from it and when someone asks them a question, they try to recall what they saw and rephrase it into an answer. If your site shows up as the answer, “Great” but if not, you’ve got a visibility problem. 

The new way of searching 

Search is not just about Google anymore. Also, it’s not as if just one other thing has come to dominate which means we’re left with a rather messy mix of Perplexity answers, Chat GPT chats, Gemini summaries and voice assistants reading out answers while we try to do two tasks at once. 

In short, people aren’t just searching, they’re conversing and if your content can’t hold its own in this environment then you’re missing out on visibility, traffic, and the ability to build trust.  We’ll walk you through exactly how to fix that.   

Read more: How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools 

SEO vs. GEO vs. AEO vs. LLMO: Are we just rebranding SEO? 

If you’ve been wondering whether you now need four different strategies for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization), relax, it’s not as big a deal as you might think. You see, despite all the buzzwords, the core of optimization hasn’t changed much. 

All four terms point to the same central goal: making your content more findable, quotable, and credible in machine-generated output regardless of whether that comes from Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, or an answer box on Bing. 

So, should you overhaul your entire content strategy to ‘do LLMO’? 

Not really. At least, not yet. 

Most of what boosts your presence in LLMs is already what SEO professionals have been doing for years. Structured content, semantic clarity, topical authority, entity association, clean internal linking, it’s all classic SEO.  

Where they slightly diverge: 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  Relies on backlinks and site architecture to establish authority 
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization  Puts extra emphasis on unlinked brand mentions and semantic association 
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)  Focuses on being the single best, most concise, and sourceable response to a specific query 
LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization)  Leans into optimizing content not just for people or search crawlers but for LLMs reading in chunks, skipping JavaScript, and relying on embeddings and grounding datasets  

But the thing is: you don’t need four different playbooks. All you need is one solid SEO foundation. In fact, this point is backed up by Google’s Gary Illyes who confirmed that AI Search does not require specialized optimization, saying that “AI SEO” is not necessary and that standard SEO is all that is needed for both AI Overviews and AI Mode. 

  • Focus more on entity mentions, not just links 
  • Treat your core site pages (home, pricing, about) and PDFs as important LLM fuel.
  • Remember that AI crawlers don’t render JavaScript, so client-side content might be invisible   
  • Think about how LLMs process structure (chunking, context, citations), not just how humans skim it 

So, if you’ve already been investing in foundational SEO, you’re already doing most of what GEO, AEO, and LLMO ae all about. That’s why not every new acronym needs you to have a whole rethink on your efforts. Sometimes, it’s just like SEO. 

Key LLM SEO optimization techniques 

Now that we know LLMs aren’t crawling our site but are understanding it, we need to think a little differently about how we create and construct content and for more on this, you may find this article extremely insightful. This is not about cramming in keywords or trying to play the algorithm, it’s about clarity, structure and credibility because these are the things LLMs care about when deciding what to quote, summarize or ignore. Below are some techniques that will help your content stay visible now that people are using generative search.   

The bar has been raised on the quality of content  

LLMs love clarity. The more natural and specific your language is, the easier it is for them to understand and reuse your content. That means not using jargon, avoiding ambiguity and instead, focusing on writing like you’re explaining something to a colleague. 

To give an exact example: 

Don’t Say: 

“Our innovative tool revolutionizes the digital landscape for modern businesses.” 

Instead Say: 

“The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress helps businesses to improve their website’s visibility and appear inn search results 

Use Structure, Chunked Formatting

Chunked formatting means breaking your content into small pieces (chunks) of informatin that are easy to understand and remember. LLMs tend to prioritize the most easily digestible content construction – which means your headings, bullet points, and clearly defined sections must do a lot of heavy lifting. Not only does organizing your content like this help people to skim read, but it also helps machines understand what each section is about.  

Structuring your content like this will help: 

  • Write clear, descriptive H2s and 3s 
  • Use bullet points that can provide standalone value 
  • Include summaries and tables to give quick overviews 

Be Factual, Transparent, and Authoritative 

Just like Google, LLMs need to trust that your content is reliable before they start taking you seriously. This means you need to show your working out, quote sources, reveal authors, and follow the principles of E-E-A-T. Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. 

Follow these E-E-A-T principles 

To do this: 

  • Include an author bio and credentials if possible (include a link to actual author bios and social profiles) 
  • Name your sources when you use claims or statistics 
  • Share real experiences if possible “As a small business owner…” 

The more real, relatable and trustworthy your content looks, the more AI will like it.  

Optimize for Summarization 

LLMs won’t quote your entire blog post; they’ll only use snippets. Your job is to make those snippets irresistible. Start with strong lead sentences so that each paragraph begins with a clear point followed by context. Also, it’s a good idea to front-load your content. Don’t save your best bits for the end.  

As a reminder: 

  • Start each section with what you want the key takeaway to be 
  • Keep paragraphs short and self-contained 
  • Create standalone summary paragraphs as these often get quoted in AI generated answers 

Use Schema 

Behind every great summary is a structured content model. That’s where Schema markup comes in and to help the AI understand your content, you need to speak in a certain way.   

Read more about schema markup 

To make things clear, use: 

  • Article for blog content 
  • FAQPage for questions and answers 
  • HowTo for instructions 
  • Author and Person for writer’s bio
  • WebPage for generic content 

Bonus strategies for LLM optimization

Once you’ve got the basics completed, like clear writing, structure and trust signals, there’s still more you can do to give your content the best shot at visibility. These bonus strategies focus on how to make your site even more AI-friendly by anticipating how LLMs interpret and reuse information. 

Use Explicit Context and Clear language 

Humans have an incredible ability to be able to ‘fill in the blanks’ and still ‘get the message’ even if the information they got was vague or unclear. One of the biggest differences between humans and LLMs? Humans can infer meaning from vague references. LLMs on the other hand… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t come naturally to them. 

In any case, the point is that if your article mentions “this tool” or “our product” without any context, an LLM might miss the connection entirely. The result? You’re left out of the answer, even if you’re the best source. 

So, to give your content the clarity it deserves: 

  • Use the full product or brand name, like “Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress,” not just “Yoast” 
  • Define technical or niche terms before using them 
  • Avoid vague language (“this page,” “the above section,” “click here”) 

You don’t need to be repetitive, but you do need to be explicit rather than implicit.  

Leverage FAQs and Conversational Formats 

LLMs love FAQs because they’re direct, predictable, and easy to quote. They closely match real user intent and provide high-value snippets that tools like Perplexity and Gemini can pull from without much guesswork. 

How to use the FAQ block in WordPress 

That said, there’s an important limitation to keep in mind if you’re using the Yoast SEO FAQ block in Gutenberg: 

You cannot use H2 or H3 heading tags inside the FAQ block. 
The block creates its own question-answer formatting using custom HTML, which is great for structured data (FAQ Page schema), but it doesn’t support native heading tags which limits your ability to optimize AI readability and skimmability. 

So, if your goal is to appear in AI-generated summaries or answer boxes, where headings like “What is LLM SEO?” make it easy for AI to quote your content, you might be better off using manual formatting. 

Here’s how to get the best of both worlds: 

  • STEP 1: Use H2 or H3 tags for each question (e.g., “What is llms.txt?”) and write a clear, short answer beneath it. This improves LLM visibility but doesn’t generate structured FAQ schema. 
  • Step 2: Use the Yoast FAQ block for schema support but know that it won’t give you a proper heading structure. 

 Ultimately, the more your FAQs resemble natural, searchable questions — and are structured in a way that both humans and AI can easily parse — the more likely they are to be featured in answers. 

Enhance Trust with Freshness Signals  

Just like search engines, some LLMs give preference to newer content, but remember that we need to talk to them in a certain way to get the best out of them. 

Older content can be overlooked. Worse, it can be quoted incorrectly if something has changed since you last hit publish. 

Make sure your pages include: 

  • A clear “last updated” timestamp (can we get a picture of what one would look like for clarification?) 
  • Regular reviews for accuracy 
  • Changelogs or update notes if applicable (especially for software or plugin content) 

It doesn’t have to be complicated, even a simple “Last updated: June 2025” can help both readers and AI systems trust that your content is current.  

How to keep content fresh 

Prioritize Author Visibility and Credibility 

Today, we’re entering a phase where who wrote your content is just as important as what it says. That means you need to highlight author visibility and put effort into signaling real-world experience. 

Here’s how: 

  • Include author bios in WordPress with credentials and links to their professional profiles 
  • Use Person schema to formally associate the content with a specific individual 
  • Weave in relevant experience (“As an SEO consultant who works with SaaS brands…”) 

Remember, LLMs are more likely to trust, quote, and amplify expert-authored content. 

Use Internal Linking Strategically 

Think of internal linking as your site’s nervous system. It helps both humans and LLMs understand what’s important, how topics relate, and where to go next. 

But internal linking isn’t just about SEO hygiene anymore — it’s also a way to establish topic authority and help LLMs build a map of your expertise. 

Do: 

  • Cluster related articles together (e.g., link from “LLM Optimization” to “Schema Markup for SEO”) 
  • Use descriptive anchor text like “read our full guide to Schema markup,” not just “click here” 
  • Ensure every piece of content supports a broader narrative 

Our internal linking feature is available for free with a Yoast SEO Premium plugin. 

The role of llms.txt. Giving AI search all the right signals 

Now let’s talk about one of the most recent developments in LLM visibility; a little file called llms.txt. 

Think of it as a sibling to robots.txt, but instead of guiding search engines, it tells AI tools how they’re allowed to interact with your content. Note: llms.txt is still an evolving standard, and support across AI tools may vary, but it’s a smart step toward asserting control 

With llms.txt, you can: 

  • Define how your content may be reused or summarized 
  • Set clear expectations around attribution, licensing 

It’s not just about protection, it’s about being proactive as AI usage accelerates. 

Even better: Yoast now offers llms.txt integration right inside the plugin, so you don’t need to mess around with code or server settings. If you want to future-proof your site’s visibility (and your IP), this is where you start. 

The llms.txt feature is available for both free and premium customers.   

LLM Optimization vs Traditional SEO: 

LLM Optimization and SEO are part of the same family, but they serve different functions and require slightly different thinking. 

Let’s compare: 

Traditional SEO  LLM Optimization 
Crawled and ranked by bots  Read, remembered, and reused by AIs 
Emphasizes keywords  Emphasizes context and clarity 
   
Optimizes for SERPs  Optimizes for AI-generated summaries and answers 

The takeaway? You can’t ignore either. One brings traffic; the other boosts brand visibility within AI responses. 

And considering that 42% of users now start their research with an LLM (not Google), you’ll want to be found in both places. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid 

Even well-meaning content creators fall into holes. So, take a look at the tips below to avoid any mishaps that could damage your LLM visibility: 

  • Writing like a robot or allowing a robot to write for you (ironically, not appreciated by robots) 
  • Leaving your content undated and unchanged for years 
  • Publishing posts without any author information or editorial standards 
  • Ignoring internal links or leaving orphaned pages 
  • Using vague headings or anchor text like “read more” or “this article” 

If your content looks generic, outdated, or anonymous, it won’t earn any trust. And, without trust, it won’t get quoted. 

 Tools and Resources to Get Started 

Search used to be about visibility within SERPs. But now, it’s also about being seen in summaries, answers, snippets, and chats. LLMs aren’t just shaping the future of search; they’re shaping how your brand is perceived to both humans and robots alike. 

To stand out: 

  • Write with clarity and context 
  • Structure for humans and machines 
  • Cite your expertise and show your authors 
  • Use tools like Yoast and llms.txt to signal your intent 

Future-proof your visibility with Yoast SEO. From llms.txt integration to schema support, Yoast gives you all the tools you need to speak AI’s language and dominate both generative answers and search engines. Get started with Yoast SEO Premium now and make it easy for AI to say something accurate, useful, and… ideally, about you. 

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How to drive traffic to my website

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Table of contents

Excited to launch your website, but how to drive traffic to your website? A beautifully designed site without visitors is like a shop with no customers — that’s why traffic matters. Wondering how to get visitors to your site? You’re in the right place. In this post, we’ll walk you through simple yet practical tips on how to drive traffic to a website and attract your first visitors, and even better, keep them coming back.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear roadmap for improving your website’s visibility.

Why is driving traffic to your website important?

Well, you want people to discover your website and not just keep it to yourself within the design drafts; therefore, driving traffic is important.

Website traffic is the number of website visitors over a set time. It’s not just a vanity metric—it represents potential customers, greater visibility, and stronger brand awareness. If you’re just getting started, boosting your search visibility can feel overwhelming. However, by following these simple and practical tips, you’ll start to see your traffic grow exponentially.

Top 5 practical tips to boost website traffic

Here are the top 5 tips that will help you drive traffic to your website:

Understand your target audience

Before you dive into posting content on your website’s landing pages, it’s crucial to take a step back and ask yourself: Who am I trying to reach? Defining your target audience is the very first step if you’re serious about learning how to drive traffic to your website.

Creating content that resonates and drives engagement becomes much easier when you know your audience — their interests, challenges, and goals. Without audience clarity, even your best-written content might be a mismatch, targeting everyone but reaching no one.

Google Analytics is one of the best ways to perform audience research. It provides powerful insights into key metrics like:

  • What time of day does your audience visit your website
  • Which age groups are engaging with your content
  • Where your visitors are located

And much more!

Feeling lost when looking at analytics data? Don’t worry — you can check out this guide on Google Segments to help bring clarity to your dashboard.

Focus on SEO basics

Getting the SEO basics right is the easiest way to boost organic traffic to your website. It also makes it easier for search engines to understand the content on your website and index pages to make them accessible to searchers.

Here are some beginner-friendly SEO techniques for website traffic:

Add keywords naturally

Keywords play an essential role in boosting the searchability of your website. Think of keywords as phrases used by search engines like Google to match your content with what people are searching for. Do keyword research so your content matches what people are searching for. Once you’ve identified the relevant search phrases, sprinkle them contextually in important spots like headings, content, and alt texts.

Here’s a video for you:

Write clear and structured headings

It’s not just about writing content to incorporate keywords; presentation matters too if you want the readers to stay on your website. Therefore, it’s important to write content that is pleasant to the eyes and readable.

Organize your content with H1, H2, and H3 tags. Clear headings make your blog posts and landing pages easy to scan, improve readability, and help improve visibility on Google.

Add meta descriptions

Meta descriptions appear under your page title in search results. Although they don’t directly boost rankings, they encourage clicks, helping increase website visitors. Make them short, relevant, and inviting.

Use descriptive alt text for images

Alt text helps search engines “read” your images and makes your website more accessible. In fact, according to EU stats, a large portion of users with disabilities depend on well-structured web content to browse effectively.

Invest in seo tools to make it easier

Managing all these tasks can feel overwhelming at first. That’s why using beginner-friendly SEO tools can make a big difference. For example, the Yoast SEO plugin offers real-time suggestions for keyword usage, readability improvements, meta descriptions, and technical SEO essentials like XML sitemaps—all inside your WordPress dashboard. Some features, such as advanced keyword optimization and certain integrations, are available in Yoast SEO Premium.

A screenshot of the SEMrush related keyphrase overlay window with a highlight on the Volume and Trend columns

Plus, with Yoast’s built-in integration with Semrush, you can access high-performing keywords with just a few clicks, and that too without even leaving your editor.

Also, with Yoast’s newly launched Site Kit by Google insights integration, you can take your SEO management to the next level. Instead of switching between different tools to check your site’s analytics and search data, you’ll see key insights—like organic traffic, impressions, clicks, and bounce rates—directly in your Yoast Dashboard.

A smarter analysis in Yoast SEO Premium

Yoast SEO Premium has a smart content analysis that helps you take your content to the next level!

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $118.80 / year (ex VAT)

Optimize for AI and LLMs

AI-driven search is transforming how people discover information. Search results are no longer just a list of blue links—they’re increasingly delivered as direct, conversational answers through platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. If your brand isn’t showing up in the answers your customers see, you’re missing a significant visibility opportunity.

Studies show consumers rely on AI-generated responses for nearly 40% of their searches.

To improve your chances of being featured in AI-generated answers, start with the basics: use relevant keywords, write clear and concise copy for your webpages, maintain a well-structured hierarchy with proper headings, and craft descriptive meta titles and descriptions.

Here’s the good news—Yoast has the tools to help you optimize your content for AI and LLM comprehension. The newly launched llms.txt feature guides AI models like ChatGPT to better understand your business.

With just one click, Yoast SEO generates an llms.txt file that enables AI bots to scan specific parts of your website in real-time, ensuring they accurately present your brand when answering user queries.

Create quality content that provides value

Content is king — but only if it’s high quality. Once you have identified your target audience and completed your keyword research, it’s time to start publishing content on your website. Remember, you’re not just publishing keywords — we share that you’re creating content that solves problems and answers real questions. Valuable content builds trust, boosts engagement, and naturally increases website visitors.

Need help checking your content’s quality? Try Yoast’s Real-time Content Analysis editor to assess readability and SEO performance as you type, on the go!

Leverage social media to share and increase the reach

63.9% of the world’s population uses social media, which is a huge number waiting to be tapped. Social media platforms are powerful and free tools that help you drive traffic to your website. Posting regularly on your social media helps boost brand exposure and serves as a traffic channel for your website.

But here’s the key — don’t just drop links and disappear. Add a personal touch: explain why your post is valuable, start a conversation, or ask a question. You can even repurpose your blog posts into bite-sized social media content to reach more people and channel your followers back to your website.

With its social previews feature, the Yoast SEO plugin takes your social sharing game up a notch. Instead of guessing how your post will look when shared, you can see an exact visual preview for Facebook and Twitter right inside your editor.

This means you can fine-tune your title, description, and image before hitting publish, ensuring your post looks click-worthy and on-brand wherever it’s shared.

Keep your site fast & mobile-friendly

Website speed and mobile-friendliness are crucial factors in attracting traffic and retaining it. If your website is slow or hard to use on mobile, visitors will leave before reading a word..

Do you know there are over 6.8 billion people who own a smartphone?

Page speed impacts user experience and SEO, and search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading websites. If your website is slow, it may experience higher bounce rates, because users want instant access to information.

To improve your website’s performance, check your site speed with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Then, consider practices like optimizing your images, using lazy loading, and reducing JavaScript to improve site speed.

Mobile optimization takeaways:

Bonus tips for boosting traffic

The five core strategies above will set you on the right path—but why stop there? If you’re ready to go the extra mile in learning how to drive traffic to your website, try these bonus tactics:

Build an email list

Offering a valuable freebie (ebook, checklist, or discount) in exchange for emails remains one of the best strategies to drive traffic to a website. Once subscribers opt in, send them helpful newsletters that solve real problems rather than just promotions. Over time, this nurtures trust and encourages repeat visits.

Off-page SEO for link building

Off-page SEO—earning links from other reputable sites—signals authority to Google and helps you grow your search visibility. Guest posting on industry blogs, forming partnerships for co-authored articles, and outreach for natural backlinks are proven ways to drive quality traffic to your website.

Also Read: SEO Basics: What is link building?

Join online communities and forums

Active participation in Facebook groups, LinkedIn communities, Reddit threads, and Quora spaces related to your niche gives you direct access to potential visitors. First, add genuine value—answer questions, share insights—then naturally reference your blog posts when relevant. This free method to grow website traffic fosters credibility while driving organic clicks.

Local SEO

If you own a business with a physical address, local SEO is your savior.

Local SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your website to attract people searching the “nearby…” keyphrases. It is a technique that helps you get searchable both online and offline.

Here are some basic local SEO practices that you can follow:

Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile:

  • Include location-specific keywords, such as “family dentist Chicago,” in your page titles, headings, and meta descriptions.
  • Earn citations in local directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.
  • Encourage customer reviews.

If you want to rank your website locally and on Google Maps, do check out Yoast Local SEO plugin for WordPress.

Ready to drive traffic to your website?

Driving traffic to your website is not about quick wins—it’s a marathon. With consistent efforts and offering value to your audience, you will see long-term benefits, and your website will top the SERPs.

Keep refining your on-page SEO and publishing content that truly resonates with your audience. By applying the tips mentioned in this guide, your website’s visibility will gradually boost.

For continued learning and more in-depth insights on SEO, Yoast Academy is your go-to resource for mastering the art of improving your online presence. From SEO training for beginners to performing robust keyword research, Yoast Academy offers all-around SEO training.

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 A smoother Redirect Manager and Yoast AI Optimize for Classic Editor 

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We just introduced two new updates to Yoast SEO Premium that focus on clarity and speed. Yoast SEO Redirect Manager just got a cleaner, more user-friendly workspace. After heavy testing, Yoast AI Optimize is now available for the Classic Editor. It helps you optimize your copy for readability and SEO without disrupting your workflow or website performance. 

Redirects, made simpler 

The Redirect Manager helps you prevent errors like 404s and 410s by automatically prompting you to create redirects when you move or delete content. The core functionality remains the same. The new design makes redirect management easier and clearer. 

Here’s a quick reminder of what the Redirect Manager helps you do: 

  • Quickly set up and manage redirects without digging through menus 
  • See exactly where each redirect starts and ends 
  • Import and export multiple redirects in bulk using CSV files 
  • Apply advanced regex rules to support more complex setups, such as full migrations 

Whether you’re making small updates or handling a major restructuring, everything is easier to manage. No extra tools or technical steps required. It’s all built into your Yoast SEO Premium. 

Yoast AI Optimize in the Classic Editor 

Yoast AI Optimize brings smart, targeted SEO support into your writing flow. After heavy testing, we extended it to the Classic Editor. Improvements are easy to review and apply, and the final decision stays within the editor, under your complete control. 

Optimize faster, keep your control: 

  • Get real-time AI suggestions that help improve SEO and readability 
  • Edit suggestions to match your style and tone of voice 
  • Apply or dismiss suggestions easily without breaking your writing flow 
  • Use it in both the Classic and Block editors with Yoast SEO Premium 

Supports optimization for: 

  • Keyphrase in introduction 
  • Keyphrase distribution 
  • Keyphrase density 
  • Sentence length 
  • Paragraph length 

Yoast AI Optimize helps improve SEO scores faster while keeping a natural writing style, in both the Classic and Block editors. 

A smarter analysis in Yoast SEO Premium

Yoast SEO Premium has a smart content analysis that helps you take your content to the next level!

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $118.80 / year (ex VAT)

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Get discovered before it’s too late: top Yoast SEO for Shopify features to outperform competitors this Black Friday

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Before we know it, the winter hues will set in, and with them comes the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Black Friday 2024 was a goldmine for online businesses, clocking in record-breaking numbers. Online shoppers spent over $10 billion, marking a 10% jump from the previous year, and 2025 is shaping up to be even bigger.

In this blog post, we’ll break down the most powerful features of the Yoast SEO for Shopify app and show you how to make the most of them. The goal? Help boost your SEO game, improve your store’s visibility, and stay ahead of the competition this Black Friday.

How is Yoast SEO a game-changer for your Shopify store?

When it comes to ecommerce, SEO plays a crucial role in getting your product pages in front of potential buyers. That visibility becomes even more important during high-traffic events like Black Friday, when every click counts.

Let’s talk numbers: the #1 result in Google’s organic search sees an average click-through rate of 27.6%, while only 0.63% of users click on something on the second page. In short, first page converts most.

This is where SEO—and more specifically, Yoast SEO steps in to boost your chances of winning those clicks. Enhancing your visibility in search results helps drive more clicks, traffic, and ultimately, sales during peak shopping seasons, such as Black Friday.

Top Yoast SEO for Shopify Features to help maximize your Black Friday visibility

Yoast SEO for Shopify provides the necessary tools to optimize your Shopify website, just when shoppers are searching the most. Here are the top features that make it possible –

1. Instantly generate SEO-friendly meta titles and descriptions with one-click AI

Black Friday is one of the most competitive times of the year for online stores, and your product pages need to do more than exist—they need to stand out.

Optimized meta titles and descriptions can help you grab attention in search results, improve your click-through rates, and drive more qualified traffic when people are actively looking to buy.

How Yoast SEO for Shopify helps

Yoast SEO for Shopify makes this process fast and effortless with Yoast AI Generate. With just one click, you get multiple meta titles and descriptions optimized for search engines and the audience.

You can easily pick a suggestion that fits, tweak it to match your brand tone, or generate fresh variations until you find the perfect match. It’s a huge time-saver, especially when you’re racing against the Black Friday clock.

Hint: Yoast AI doesn’t have any hidden (AI) fees.

2. SEO and readability analysis

So, you’ve optimized your meta titles and descriptions and successfully caught a shopper’s attention in the search results. That’s great, but the job isn’t done yet. Now it’s time to turn that click into a conversion.

Whether you’re writing fresh product copy or trying to fix an underperforming one, your product pages should answer the searcher’s intent. If your page is overloaded with keywords or dull copy, shoppers will bounce fast. That means lost sales and more abandoned carts.

    A well-written, easy-to-read product page could boost your search visibility and build trust with your buyers. It helps them feel confident, informed, and ready to hit that “Buy Now” button.

    How Yoast SEO for Shopify helps

    Yoast SEO for Shopify gives you real-time SEO and Readability Analyses through a traffic light system as you write. It helps you find the right balance between being search-friendly and human-friendly. With its signature traffic light system, you’ll know instantly whether your content is on track or needs work.

    The best part? The analysis is tailored to the type of content you’re creating, whether it’s a product page, a blog post, a static page, or even a collection. And yes, it works in 20+ languages, so you’re covered even if you’re targeting international audiences.

    See more: Yoast Readability Analysis feature

    3. Automatic product structured data

    Structured data helps search engines understand your content, and more importantly, helps your products stand out in search results. When done correctly, it can get your store featured in rich results, including price, reviews, and availability, directly in the SERPs. That kind of visibility can seriously boost your click-through rates and drive more qualified traffic to your store.

    For ecommerce, structured data (or schema markup) is a big deal. It tells search engines exactly what your page is about, whether it’s a product, a brand, or an offer, and helps it display that information in a more attractive and informative way.

    How Yoast SEO for Shopify helps

    Yoast SEO for Shopify handles the heavy lifting automatically. It adds clean and complete structured data behind the scenes using JSON-LD, covering essentials like Product, Organization, Website, WebPage, BreadcrumbList, Article, and Offer.

    And if you’re using product review apps like Judge.me, Loox, Ali Reviews, or Opinew —Yoast seamlessly integrates with them to include the AggregateRating schema, making your products look even more trustworthy at a glance.

    No need to fiddle with code. Just set it up once, and Yoast does the rest.

    See more: Yoast Structured Data feature

    4. Optimize how your store appears on search and social media  

    Another important factor that can make or break your Black Friday traffic is how your store shows up, both in search results and across social media. With thousands of brands vying for attention, a strong, well-optimized snippet or preview can give you the edge you need to get noticed and clicked on.  

    Your product might be perfect, but you risk getting lost in the noise if it doesn’t look compelling in Google results or stand out in a social feed. When people search and scroll with urgency on a day like Black Friday, those tiny first impressions can mean a big difference in click-throughs and conversions.  

    How Yoast SEO for Shopify helps  

    Yoast SEO for Shopify lets you take control of how your product pages and content appear in search. You can easily edit your title, slug, and meta description and preview how they’ll look on mobile and desktop, ensuring your Black Friday deals look as irresistible as they are.  

    On top of that, Yoast helps you fine-tune how your pages appear when shared on platforms like Facebook and X. You get to set the title, description, and the preview image, so every share looks polished, on-brand, and click-worthy.

    In short, it helps your content stand out where it matters most—whether it’s a Google search result or a viral Black Friday post on social media.

    See more: Yoast Content Preview feature

    Other notable features

    We’ve already covered some core features that make the Yoast SEO for Shopify app a powerful tool, but that’s not where the value ends. The app packs in several other features that make your experience smoother, smarter, and way more worth the spend, especially as you gear up for high-pressure sales periods like Black Friday.

    Here are a few extra perks worth mentioning:

    • Free trial: Yoast offers a 14-day free trial so you can explore all its features and see how it fits into your Shopify store without spending a penny upfront.
    • Seamless theme compatibility: Yoast works smoothly with most Shopify themes and automatically removes any conflicting code. That means a cleaner site, faster load times, and a better shopping experience, exactly what you need when traffic spikes during Black Friday.
    • Learn with Yoast SEO Academy: The Yoast SEO Academy gives you access to beginner to expert-level SEO courses that cover everything from ecommerce SEO to keyword research, SEO copywriting, and more. It’s a great way to build your skills while the app handles the technical side, so you can focus on selling.
    • 24/7 support, all year round: Yoast’s support team is available 24/7, 365 days a year. Whether you’re setting things up or stuck somewhere in the middle of Black Friday madness, they’ve got your back.

    Over to you…

    With Black Friday coming up, it’s important to start optimizing your Shopify store, and SEO is one area you really don’t want to overlook. It can get tricky, especially for small businesses, but having the right tools in place can make it much more manageable.

    To improve your chances of appearing when shoppers search, you must cover the ecommerce SEO basics. And when you pair that with a tool like Yoast SEO for Shopify, you get a solid set of features that help you save time, avoid technical headaches, and stay one step ahead of your competitors.

    Also read, Holiday season SEO: 10 tips to start preparing!

    The post Get discovered before it’s too late: top Yoast SEO for Shopify features to outperform competitors this Black Friday appeared first on Yoast.

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    10 Yoast WooCommerce SEO features to boost Black Friday rankings and revenue   

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    Black Friday isn’t just a sales event; it’s a battle for attention. Whenever product, price, and promotion fight for a click, visibility becomes a battle for dominance, not just survival. Are you a WooCommerce store owner pouring your energy and budget into paid ads, but not getting the required results? But what about organic traffic? That’s free traffic, compounding over time. Does it often get ignored, just when it matters most?

    This Black Friday, Yoast WooCommerce SEO offers a more innovative way to boost visibility in search engines. It’s built to help ecommerce teams and SEO beginners optimize product listings at scale, improve product rankings, and get their products seen by relevant traffic without relying on developers or SEO agencies. From structured data that powers Google Shopping to auto-generated meta descriptions that convert, Yoast SEO for product pages helps you unlock visibility where it counts.  

    10 features designed to help WooCommerce stores sell more!  

    1. Make your products pop in search with Automated Schema Markup  

    SEO plugin for WooCommerce automatically adds structured data to your product pages, including price, stock status, and review ratings, so Google knows exactly what you’re selling.  

    Here’s why this is essential during Black Friday:

    • Earn more visibility with essential markups  

    Your products become eligible for enhanced display formats in Google search and Google Shopping, like star ratings, price tags, and “In stock” labels, which catch the eye and drive more clicks.  

    • Show up in search with enhancements.  

    Your products become eligible for rich results in Google Search and Shopping, helping you stand out with product snippets with visual cues, giving you a critical edge to gain buyers’ trust.  

    • Scale stress free during busy hours  

    Whether you have 10 products or 10,000, the automation works across your entire catalog, giving your store a visibility boost without coding or development support.  

    2. Ecommerce SEO for product pages 

    Black Friday is approaching, and you shouldn’t settle for generic Black Friday ecommerce SEO advice. Product pages must be fast, focused, and fully optimized, yet most tools fall short.  

    Yoast SEO for WooCommerce gives you a more intelligent SEO analysis tailored to your e- commerce needs.    

    Here’s why it matters right now:  

    • Optimize faster with checks tailored for online stores.  

    Yoast SEO for WooCommerce knows the difference between product pages and blog posts. SEO for product pages enables ecommerce-specific analysis looks for missing GTINs, product images, short descriptions, and key product data, which impact how your listings rank and appear in search.  

    • Clean content with more intelligent optimization  

    When your product pages meet SEO best practices, they stand a better chance of ranking, earning clicks, and converting buyers, especially during peak sales like Black Friday.  

    • Built-in guidance to tackle high-traffic periods  

    The tool flags what’s missing, offers suggestions to fix it, and helps you complete each page with confidence, no spreadsheets, no second-guessing.  

    3. Keep your sale pages in the spotlight with canonical URLs 

    When your store has filters, variants, or dynamic parameters, it can unintentionally create multiple URLs for the same product. Yoast Black Friday ecommerce SEO handles this with canonical tags, ensuring search engines focus on the most critical version. It’s an essential tool to safeguard your rankings during high-traffic periods like Black Friday.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  

    • Prevents internal competition in search results  

    Filters or variants like color, size, or other factors can generate dozens of duplicate URLs. Canonicals ensure your main product page ranks, and not identical clones.  

    • Keeps the focus on your high-converting sale URLs  

    During campaigns, you want one clear URL driving all traffic and shares. Canonical control lets you guide the attention of search engines and shoppers to the most profitable path.  

    • Avoids SEO dilution across extensive seasonal catalogs  

    Black Friday season sales often mean bulk uploads across many categories. Canonicals help you scale without wrecking your SEO by telling search engines which URLs to prioritize.  

    4. AI-Powered meta titles and descriptions  

    Writing compelling meta titles and descriptions across hundreds of product and category pages can take up time, especially during Black Friday. Yoast SEO’s generative AI tool relieves pressure by helping you act fast and stay consistent.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday ecommerce SEO:  
     

    • Instantly creates five optimized options per page.  

    No more starting from scratch. Whether you have 10 or 1,000 products, you’ll get fast, relevant, SEO-friendly, and conversion-focused suggestions.  

    • Let’s you inject urgency and seasonal phrases automatically.  

    You can easily add terms like “Black Friday Deals,” “Only Today,” or “Hurry—Ends Soon” into your metadata so your listings match the season’s tone and urgency.  

    • Reduces writing time and boosts consistency  

    When every product needs a compelling meta description, AI speeds up the process while keeping branding and tone aligned. 

    Help your online store stand out!

    Get this and much more in the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin!

    Get Yoast WooCommerce SEO Only $178.80 / year (ex VAT)

    5. Increase shoppers’ engagement with internal linking suggestions  

    Intelligent internal linking isn’t just good for SEO. It boosts time on site and nudges shoppers toward more purchases. Yoast SEO automatically recommends links to related products, categories, or promo pages while editing, so you never miss a chance to cross-promote during a high-traffic season.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Recommends relevant internal links  

    Link high-traffic Black Friday products to similar deals or bundles to increase cart size and page views.  

    • Improves site structure and shopper retention  

    A clear internal linking strategy guides users deeper into your store, helping them discover more of what they want.  

    • Distributes SEO value to priority pages  

    Funnel link authority toward your most profitable or seasonal categories without manual planning.  

    6. Polish every share with social preview customization  

    First impressions on social media can make or break a click. Yoast SEO lets you control how every product or sale page appears when shared on Facebook and X. You can customize your posts without relying on a designer.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Customize how each page looks when shared  

    Align visuals and messaging for your most significant sales to match the tone and urgency of your ad campaigns.  

    • Prevent broken or off-brand previews  

    Avoid the risk of blank images, awkward text cuts, or generic-looking links that lower CTR.  

    • Make every page share-ready, instantly  

    Eliminate the need for external tools by handling everything within WordPress.  

    7. Eliminate broken links with the Redirect Manager  

    During seasonal updates, product URLs change, stock rotates, and categories shift. Yoast SEO’s Redirect Manager keeps your store agile and error-free by prompting for redirects when you move or delete a page and letting you manage them in bulk for larger campaigns.  
     

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Prompts for redirects automatically  

    Stay ahead of 404 errors when product pages are removed or consolidated during your Black Friday refresh.  

    • Prevents lost traffic in live campaigns  

    Ensure shoppers don’t land on dead ends from searches, ads, or email links.  

    • Bulk manages redirects at scale  

    Easily import/export rules so you can update entire catalogs in one go.  

    8. Prioritize what matters with a WooCommerce optimized sitemap  

    Yoast SEO generates a lean, clean XML sitemap that emphasizes your key products and categories so Google can quickly find and index the right pages.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Excludes non-essential elements  

    Keep bots focused on pages that convert, not test products or expired deals.  

    • Prioritizes core product/category pages  

    Surface your highest-converting listings sooner in search.  

    • Boosts crawl efficiency during rapid updates  

    Frequent product additions or updates? No problem. Your sitemap stays updated and focused. 

    9. Reach the right shoppers with multilingual & regional SEO  

    Black Friday is global, but search intent varies by country. With Yoast SEO, your WooCommerce store can automatically serve the correct language and regional content, ensuring each shopper lands a relevant, localized experience.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Directs users to the correct language or market page  

    Auto-detects delivers region-appropriate content for better engagement.  

    • Reduces bounce from mismatched traffic  

    Avoid shoppers clicking away due to currency issues or unfamiliar language.  

    • Supports UK, US, and international targeting  

    Essential if your campaign runs across multiple storefronts or regions.  

    10. Stay search-ready with built-in best practices  

    Black Friday ecommerce SEO campaigns move fast, and so do SEO rules. Yoast SEO keeps your store aligned with the latest Google guidelines in real time, so you don’t have to double-check every tag, title, or markup under pressure.  

    Why it matters for Black Friday:  
     

    • Updates in sync with Google’s changes  

    Trust that your store is optimized even as algorithms evolve.  

    • Prevents technical errors during fast changes  

    Launch flash sales, new landing pages, or content tweaks without risking SEO slip-ups.  

    • Maintains quality under pressure  

    Even during high-stress periods, you’ll ship content that performs well in search.  

    Ready to make this your best Black Friday yet?  

    Don’t wait until the last minute. Install and configure Yoast SEO for WooCommerce now and start optimizing your store with robust, scalable tools. From automated metadata to intelligent internal linking, everything is built to save time and boost results. With Yoast, you’re not just keeping up, you’re staying ahead.  

    Start now, as the sales surge, and you will find your store miles ahead.  

    Help your online store stand out!

    Get this and much more in the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin!

    Get Yoast WooCommerce SEO Only $178.80 / year (ex VAT)

    The post 10 Yoast WooCommerce SEO features to boost Black Friday rankings and revenue    appeared first on Yoast.

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    Try AI-powered SEO with 10 free Sparks.

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    Writing the right SEO title or meta description can be time-consuming, especially when unsure what works best. That’s where Yoast AI Generate comes in. Now, all Yoast SEO users can try it with 10 free Sparks. 

    What does Yoast AI Generate do? 

    Yoast AI Generate suggests SEO titles and meta descriptions based on your content and keyphrase to help your content stand out in search results and attract more visitors.  

    It analyzes your post and offers tailored suggestions that are clear, relevant, and optimized for search, without starting from scratch.  

    Use Yoast AI Generate to:  

    • Speed up your workflow  
    • Improve your search snippet quality  
    • Feel more confident about what you publish  

    You stay in control: review, edit, or regenerate suggestions before applying them.  

    Here’s why you’ll love this opportunity  

    • You can try Yoast AI Generate with 10 free Sparks   
    • You don’t need to create an account   
    • You don’t need to upgrade or share credit card information  

    The free sparks do not regenerate; this is a one-time offer.

    Why we’re offering this  

    Not everyone can experience the effectiveness of our AI tools, especially if you’re using the free plugin. This offer makes it easy to try Yoast AI Generate immediately and see the value for yourself, without needing to commit. It’s a simple way to explore what smarter SEO can look like in your workflow  

    Read how to use Yoast AI Generate in your Yoast SEO and start optimizing.  

     

    The post Try AI-powered SEO with 10 free Sparks. appeared first on Yoast.

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    Updated llms.txt: More control for future discovery 

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    Table of contents

    AI tools are changing how people discover your website, and not always in the way you’d want. 

    They might surface old blog posts, low-priority pages, or content that no longer reflects your brand. That can confuse users, damage trust, and dilute your expertise. 

    That’s where llms.txt comes in. And now, you can personalize it. 

    Choose what AI sees 

    The llms.txt file points large language models to the content on your site that deserves attention. With the latest update, you’re in control: 

    • Manual mode: Pick the exact pages you want to include. 
    • Automatic mode: Let Yoast handle it by prioritizing cornerstone content. Updated for you weekly. 
    • Easy toggle: Turn the feature on or off anytime. No coding, uploads, or extra tools. 

    Why this matters 

    AI is already influencing how people experience your site and brands through summaries, answers, and search results. 

    If it highlights the wrong content, it can: 

    • Misrepresent your business 
    • Confuse your audience 
    • Undermine your credibility 

    This update gives you more control over how your site is understood by large language models now and as AI-driven search continues to evolve. 

    Built for the future of SEO 

    • Fully integrated in Yoast SEO and Yoast SEO Premium 
    • No third-party plugins needed 
    • Designed specifically for AI visibility, not just general SEO 

    You’ll find all llms.txt settings in the Site Features panel. Just flip the switch and choose the setup that works best for you. 

    Learn how to set up llms.txt in Yoast SEO 

    The post Updated llms.txt: More control for future discovery  appeared first on Yoast.

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    What is Google AI Mode? 

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    Google AI Mode is search with a brain. It uses AI to answer questions directly, so it’s no longer about just blue links. Type, talk, or upload a photo, and it gives you a useful summary plus follow-ups. Here’s how it works and why it matters. 

    Table of contents

    Say hello to Google’s AI Mode

    Google AI Mode is a feature in Search that uses generative AI to deliver full, conversational answers instead of just showing a list of links. It breaks questions into parts, pulls information from across the web, and presents a direct, useful response at the top of the results page. 

    This new feature doesn’t replace traditional search just yet, but it does build on it. As a result, it changes how people explore information and how content gets surfaced. 

    Are you curious about how this works? Check out the video below to see Google AI Mode in action while planning an autumn trip to Banff, Canada.

    Search becomes a lot smarter 

    AI Mode handles different types of input, not just text. You can type a question, say it out loud, or upload a photo, and it works out what you mean. That flexibility makes it easier to search however and whenever it makes sense, whether you’re speaking into your phone, typing at your desk, or pointing your camera at something you want to learn more about. 

    It also uses what Google calls query fan-out. That means it quietly rewrites your question into a bunch of related ones and looks for answers across those variations. Ask something broad, like “best credit card for travel,” and the system may branch off behind the scenes, looking at fees, perks, user reviews, and so on. 

    AI Mode also pays attention to context. It keeps your previous queries in mind and follows the thread. You can ask follow-ups and get refined answers without starting from scratch. 

    An example of a search in Google AI Mode

    How Google AI Mode works in practice 

    Using Google AI Mode feels different from standard search, and that shows up in how it delivers answers. 

    When someone asks a question, AI Mode doesn’t just take the words at face value—it tries to understand the intent behind them. It rewrites the query in several different ways behind the scenes, each one focused on a specific angle.  

    For example, a search like “what are the best places to travel in fall” might also trigger more specific questions in the background, like “pleasant weather and fewer crowds,” “fall foliage and scenic beauty,” or “unique experiences and cultural events.” AI Mode runs all of those in parallel, scans multiple online sources for useful information, and pieces together a response that covers what the user likely meant, even if they didn’t spell it out. 

    The response doesn’t look like a typical search results page. Instead of a list of links, users see a short summary stitched together from different sources. It reads more like an answer than a directory and can include images, maps, and more. 

    With AI Mode, you can also keep the conversation going. You could ask follow-up suggestions like “compare destinations in Canada,” “check visa requirements for Canada,” or “see average weather in British Columbia”. It helps users toward the next thing they might want to know without making them start over. The video at the top of this article shows this in practice.

    The opening screen of Google’s AI Mode where you enter your questions

    Behind the scenes, AI Mode uses passage-level retrieval. Rather than ranking entire pages, it scans individual sections, like a single paragraph, list, or sentence, to find the parts that answer specific pieces of the question.  

    That means a well-written section buried halfway down a product guide or FAQ could be surfaced, even if the full page wouldn’t normally show up high in the results.  

    This alone could make us rethink visibility. It’s less about a page’s overall ranking and more about whether any part of it directly addresses what someone is asking. 

    The focus of content is changing 

    AI Mode shifts how content gets discovered. It’s less about ranking in the traditional sense and more about providing answers that are both useful and directly relevant to what someone is asking. 

    The system is looking for content that fits into a specific response. That means structure matters, like clear headings, focused sections, and formatting that makes key points easy to extract. But usefulness on its own doesn’t guarantee visibility. The content has to align with the intent of the query in a very specific way. 

    Covering a topic from different angles helps. It gives your content more chances to match how people frame their questions, even when those questions vary in wording, detail, or focus. Visibility often depends not just on quality, but on precision. 

    Google AI Mode does several searches at the same time, while also looking at a large number of sites

    What does Google AI Mode mean for SEO? 

    Google AI Mode could shift what we aim for. Visibility now depends on whether your content can deliver value right away, often in small, specific pieces. Google’s pulling answers from across the web: a sentence from one page, a stat from another, maybe a checklist from a support article. 

    That might feel limiting, but it opens up opportunities. If others are still optimizing for old patterns, there’s space to improve. Recognizing this shift early can give your brand a real advantage. 

    It also rewards a stronger understanding of how people search. Pages, tools, and features that directly answer real questions and make that answer easy to find stand a better chance of getting picked up. 

    Find out how to optimize your content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools.

    Google added an AI Mode button to its search homescreen

    Where it’s going 

    Google is folding AI Mode into regular search experiences. On some questions, especially ones that ask for a comparison, a definition, or a plan, it’s already showing AI-generated results first. 

    That approach is expanding. More queries will likely trigger this kind of response over time, which means the way content gets surfaced will keep shifting. Long, keyword-heavy pages won’t offer the same payoff they once did. What works now is content that’s clear, helpful, and flexible enough to match how people explore a topic. 

    Chances are, AI Mode isn’t a side feature for long. It’s looking more and more like the future of Google Search. 

    How to access Google AI Mode 

    AI Mode is rolling out now in the U.S. and India. If you’re using Google Search or the Google app, you’ll start to see a new AI Mode tab either at the top of the results page or right in the search bar. This gives you access to more advanced AI responses, improved reasoning, and a deeper view of web content through follow-up questions and linked sources. 

    If you don’t see AI Mode yet, it’s likely still rolling out. Expect it to appear automatically soon. Once it shows up, you can use it without any special sign-up or activation. Once Google figures out monetization, we’ll see it roll out AI Mode to more countries soon. 

    You can also access it from search results. If Google thinks your query fits, a “Try in AI Mode” option may appear automatically. Trying it out firsthand gives the clearest insight into how responses are built and how your content appears. 

    Meet Google’s AI Mode 

    Google AI Mode signals a shift in how search works. It’s not just about rankings anymore. It’s about how helpful your content is and how easily it can be used to respond to real questions. 

    This change gives SEO and content teams a reason to look at their work differently. Clear structure, focused writing, and alignment with how people search all play a bigger role in visibility. 

    It’s a good time to step back, reassess what’s working, and explore areas you may have overlooked. For many, this is a chance to improve useful content, refine formats, and meet search expectations in new ways. 

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