You can only choose channels, messaging, and KPIs once you know what goal you’re supporting.
Of course, revenue growth is almost always the overarching goal.
But most marketing strategies ladder up to that larger goal by supporting things like:
Demand generation
Brand awareness
Retention or expansion
To define your own primary marketing goal, work through these steps:
Name the real problem marketing needs to solve right now: Is the issue volume? Lead quality? Retention? CAC? Awareness? Be specific.
Choose one primary goal: Over the next 6-12 months, what single outcome should marketing influence most?
Identify 1-2 secondary goals (optional): You can support these goals, but not at the expense of the primary goal.
Turn this into a SMART goal and pressure-test it: Pick a goal that you can measure and achieve in a set amount of time.
Of course, the “right” marketing goal depends on your situation.
Early-stage companies need momentum. Growth-stage teams focus on scalable demand. More mature companies might focus on efficiency, retention, or expansion.
The goal you choose sets the direction for every decision that follows.
Here’s an example:
In 2020, Fireflies.ai launched with a small team and limited marketing budget. They needed to drive user adoption and growth, fast.
So, they chose a strategy that focused on product-led, word-of-mouth growth. One of the best drivers: make it easy and worthwhile to refer new users.
They skipped popular tactics like paid acquisition, brand campaigns, and traditional demand gen funnels.
Why?
Because their resources, product design, and business stage made product-led growth the highest-impact path.
Their goal dictated everything else, including how they tracked success. Fireflies.ai co-founder and CEO Krish Ramineni talked about this. He said success was measured with:
Increased product usage
More users inviting Fireflies’ AI notetaker into their meetings
Organic mentions across the web
With this strategy, they were able to grow to over 10 million users, without ever using paid ads.
Before you choose channels or tactics, you need the same clarity Fireflies had. What outcome does marketing actually need to drive right now?
To go even deeper, answer the questions in Step 1 of our Marketing Strategy Workbook.
Step 2: Pinpoint Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
A strong unique value proposition (UVP) answers one question:
Why should someone choose you over the best alternative?
In other words, what makes your business meaningfully different from your competitors?
Here’s how to figure it out:
First, identify and analyze your best customers.
The most obvious candidates are the customers who renew subscriptions or keep purchasing from your brand.
But don’t forget your brand evangelists. Who is out there recommending your products regularly?
Once you’ve built that list, ask yourself:
What do these customers have in common?
Your UVP usually lives where you deliver the most consistent, measurable results.
Tip: Our marketing workbook walks you through more questions to help you identify your UVP.
Next, identify the core outcome. What real-world result do those customers get?
Go beyond the surface-level benefits. Think about what changes in your customers’ daily routine. How does your product affect their daily life? How does it impact their business?
Is it smoother communication? Fewer mistakes? Less stress? Better data? Stronger performance?
Anchor your UVP to a real outcome.
Then, define your defensible difference.
Now ask: what allows you to deliver that outcome better or differently than alternatives?
That could be:
Proprietary data
A specific process
Product architecture
Speed
Category specialization
Pricing structure
Brand trust
Community
Be specific. “Easy to use” and “innovative” don’t count unless you can prove why.
Finally, pressure test your analysis.
Ask yourself: If we disappeared tomorrow, what would our best customers struggle to replace?
That point of friction is your real differentiation. It means your UVP isn’t something interchangeable with any other brand in your industry.
Once you have this, your UVP becomes the baseline for the rest of your marketing strategy. It’s a foundation for your message that shows up over and over again.
Doordash is a great example of this. Their tagline is: “Everything you crave, delivered.”
This simple UVP defines:
The audience state (craving)
Breadth (everything)
Outcome (delivery convenience)
The same story shows up everywhere.
Homepage messaging. App story copy. Email newsletters.
The result of having that solid UVP?
DoorDash reinforces one idea: we’re the easiest way to get what you want, when you want it.
That’s the kind of core benefit you want your audience to remember.
Step 3: Perform Audience Research
Your UVP is your hypothesis.
Now, it’s time to validate it.
We have a full guide to audience research, so save that for later. In the meantime, here are three places to gather information:
Customers
Market perception
Competitors
First, let’s start with customer research.
Your goal: understand what your customers actually care about.
Start with a segment of your customers, ideally the high-value customers you identified in Step 2.
Then, answer these four questions:
What problem consistently pushes them to look for a solution?
What triggers that search?
What objections slow down decisions?
What words do they use to describe the problem?
You don’t need months of research.
Start with even just two or three customer conversations to understand how buyers describe their challenges. Talk to your sales or customer success teams to learn about top objections, misunderstandings, or decision blockers.
Next, dig into the market perception of your brand and industry.
Start with social media research. Search on relevant Reddit threads, skim through YouTube comments, or read reviews on third-party sites.
As real people describe the problems they’re facing, pay attention to the emotional language and repeated frustrations. Learn from the criteria they use to compare similar products.
Conversely, when someone recommends your brand specially, what’s the context?
For example: I searched for mentions of Omnisend in an email marketing subreddit. And I learned that the brand is often brought up in conversations about email marketing for ecommerce brands.
Given Omnisend brands itself as email marketing software for ecommerce, this lines up.
Essentially, Semrush runs AI searches for prompts related to your business and gathers a crowdsourced opinion of your brand.
Because LLMs are informed by how your brand appears across the web, this serves as a useful way to gauge both how your brand is perceived online and what the LLMs specifically are telling your target audience about your brand.
Head to the “Brand Performance” dashboard, then scroll to see “Key Business Drivers” to see the topics your brand is associated with in AI answers.
When I analyzed this data for Omnisend, I found that one of their top drivers is deep ecommerce store integration. Which aligns perfectly with what I saw earlier on Reddit.
When you’ve gathered this data, you can use it to pressure test your UVP from Step 2.
Do customers mention the differentiator you identified?
Do they value the outcome you thought was most important?
Are they choosing you for the reason you expected?
Pro tip: If everything feels perfectly aligned, you probably didn’t dig deep enough. This step should create clarity by surfacing the disconnect between what you want people to know, and what they actually know about your brand. The gap is what you aim to solve with your marketing strategy.
Lastly, competitor research can add another layer to this by telling you what’s already being said in the market.
For example, content marketing agency Animalz paid attention to competitors. They noticed that other agencies were competing for the same SEO-driven keywords.
Meanwhile, their ideal clients — CMOs and founders — cared more about experience-driven insight than traffic volume.
So Animalz leaned into what only they could offer: insights from hundreds of content programs.
They focused on original research, experience-driven frameworks, and thought leadership — not search volume.
The result? Fewer generic visitors, more high-quality leads. According to their homepage, their client list includes the likes of Google, Amazon, Airtable, and Atlassian.
That’s the goal here. Understand the audience. Study the landscape. Then, position yourself where you’re both relevant and differentiated.
By the end of this step, you should be able to clearly state:
The core problem your audience is trying to solve
The trigger that pushes them to act
The language they use
The top objection(s) you must address
That’s enough to inform channel decisions and messaging — without drowning in data.
Step 4: Choose Your Marketing Channels
You can’t reasonably “be everywhere.”
Every channel has different mechanics, expectations, and resource demands. So, choose a small number of channels based on:
Where you audience already spends time
Which channels best support your primary goal
What you can execute consistently with your current resources
Here’s what major channels can look like in practice:
Email marketing: High-ROI channel for nurturing, retention, and revenue expansion. It’s one of the most accessible channels to start with. And data shows consistently high conversion rates (2.8% for B2C and 2.4% for B2B).
HubSpot uses educational newsletters to deliver value first. Then, they naturally route engaged readers toward tools and upgrades.
Search (SEO + AI Optimization): When done well, long-form, evergreen content can drive results that compound over time. The key is to optimize for both traditional SEO ranking and AI summaries. Structure content clearly so it’s understood and surfaced — even in zero-click environments.
NerdWallet does this by publishing structured, comparison-driven guides. These rank in search and appear in AI answers. That builds visibility even when users don’t click.
Social media marketing: Platform-native content is built for discovery and engagement. It requires knowing your audience deeply, and playing into the right trends.
One of the most well-known examples of a brand that does this well is Duolingo. Their TikTok and Instagram content leads with humor. Over the years, it’s built massive awareness without traditional selling.
Affiliate and influencer marketing: Leverage trusted voices to expand reach and credibility.
Glossier does this by partnering with creators. This builds authentic recommendations into growth.
Paid advertising: Best for speed and high-intent capture. Requires budget discipline and clear measurement.
Shopify uses paid search to capture intent from searches like “how to start dropshipping for free”
And this likely pays off, considering Shopify has been bidding on the keyword (and ranking as the top ad) for the past year:
Customer and community marketing: Build owned spaces that compound trust and advocacy. It’s a big time lift, but it can pay off in the long run.
Notion supports user-led communities and templates. They’ve built a marketing engine that turns customers into educators and evangelists.
With these channels in mind, it’s time to narrow your focus.
Ask:
Does my audience actively use this channel?
Does this channel support my primary goal directly?
Do we have the skills and resources to execute this well?
Can we sustain this for at least 6-12 months?
Once you’ve committed to 1-2 primary channels, define what success looks like for each one. List the resources you’ll need, and be honest about constraints.
You can use the Marketing Strategy Workbook’s impact vs. effort scoring model to pressure-test your decisions before moving forward.
Step 5: Solidify Your Messaging and Differentiation by Channel
If you just copy-paste your messaging across platforms, it’ll feel out of place. But if you reinvent your story on each channel, your brand will feel fragmented.
This step is about finding the right balance.
For each channel, define:
Which problem you’re emphasizing
What format fits that channel
How your tone and depth should adjust
But your core promise stays intact.
This matters more now than ever because people encounter brands across platforms before they visit your website. On top of that, AI systems look for consistent messaging to help inform their responses to user prompts.
So, how do you build your own channel messaging playbook?
Use our Marketing Strategy Workbook to walk through the main audience problems, content formats, and how your brand should show up on each channel.
If you do this step well, you’ll end up with the right balance of consistency and adaptation.
Duolingo does this really well. Their core story is consistent: learning a language should feel fun, not intimidating.
What changes is how the brand shows up depending on the channel:
On TikTok they’re chaotic, with trend-driven, mascot-heavy humor. That entertainment-first strategy has earned them 17 million followers.
Their Instagram features similar humor, but slightly more polished and adapted to Reels culture.
Their Facebook uses toned-down humor for an older demographic.
And on LinkedIn, the brand keeps a professional tone, but still recognizably Duolingo.
Same brand. Same core message. Different execution.
That’s what you’re aiming for.
By the end of this step, you should be able to say:
What problem each channel focuses on
What format you’ll use
How your tone and depth will adapt — without changing your core message
Step 6: Assign Project Owners and Resources
A marketing strategy only works if someone owns it.
For every primary channel, there should be one person responsible for results. Otherwise, it’s easy for momentum to slide.
Before assigning that owner, do a quick reality check:
How much budget is actually available?
How many hours per week can realistically go toward this?
What skills are missing?
Will you need outside help?
You can use the Marketing Strategy Workbook to keep track of team capacity and resources:
Once you understand the constraints you’re working with, clarify roles using a RACI structure:
Responsible: Who executes the work?
Accountable: Who owns performance?
Consulted: Who provides input?
Informed: Who needs visibility?
Lastly, don’t let channels operate in silos. SEO should inform paid. Sales objections should shape content. Customer success insights should influence customer marketing tactics. All of these teams would fall into the “consulted” category in our RACI framework.
Cross-team collaboration gives your digital marketing strategy the right foundation to build on.
By the end of this step, your strategy should feel operational, not theoretical.
Step 7: Establish KPIs and a Reporting Plan
KPIs let you get feedback on your marketing strategy’s performance over time. And feedback allows you to improve (without guessing).
The problem is, it’s harder than ever to measure what’s working. Marketing channels don’t always tie back directly to revenue. Some channels influence things that are harder to quantify, like brand awareness, AI visibility, or trust.
Instead of forcing attribution into a neat checklist, track metrics in three layers:
Visibility: Are we being seen?
Engagement: Are people responding (positively)?
Trust and intent: Are signals improving?
For email, you could report on open rates (visibility), clicks (engagement), and conversions (intent).
For social media marketing, you might track metrics like reach (visibility), comments (engagement), or saves (trust).
Of course, most marketers still need to answer one uncomfortable question:
How does this tie back to revenue?
It won’t always be perfect. But you can create stronger connections with a few simple systems.
Use UTM parameters on every campaign link. That way, you can trace traffic and conversions back to specific channels, campaigns, or posts.
Set up goal tracking or conversion events in Google Analytics. See which channels drive form fills, purchases, demo requests, or trials.
Review user paths to understand how people move through your site before converting. Just remember: many buyers interact with multiple channels before taking action, so treat these as a guide, not as a definitive start-to-finish buying journey.
For B2B teams, align with sales on pipeline influence. Even if marketing isn’t the final touchpoint, it often plays an early role in deal creation.
Multi-touch attribution may not be possible from day one. But these steps will give you directional clarity.
If a channel consistently drives qualified traffic, assisted conversions, or branded search growth, it’s contributing to revenue — even if it’s not the last click.
Reporting should tell a story, not just hand out numbers. The idea is to show progress, but also know when you need to pivot.
So, take a deep breath, start small, and scale over time.
If fancy dashboards and complex reporting tools feel like too much, just pick 2-3 metrics per channel. Then, assign a clear reporting owner, and set up a review cadence (probably monthly or quarterly).
This is enough to get started.
Start with small tests to see what actually works in your industry, with your audience. Don’t get distracted by the noise of new tools and trends.
Focus on what’s actually working, and then improve and scale the ideas that work best.
Start Small, Scale Up
Important reminder: You don’t need to track everything perfectly from day one. Here’s a plan to scale reporting over time.
Month 1: Establish baselines
Set up tracking
Collect initial data
Identify what’s easiest to measure vs. what requires more setup
Months 2-3: Validate what matters
Test small initiatives
See what moves the needle
Adjust metrics if needed
Months 4+: Optimize and scale
Double down on what’s working
Cut or pivot what’s not
Refine your reporting process
Every quarter, revisit things like channel performance, KPI relevance, and execution quality.
When this is in place, build a simple feedback loop:
Analyze performance
Dig deeper to understand the patterns
Reprioritize channels and actions
Update your strategy and goals
Use the Marketing Strategy Workbook to run through this feedback loop, and document your insights and decisions. As your data improves, so will your strategy.
Evolve Your Marketing Strategy as You Grow
A marketing strategy is a living thing. That means you can revisit, refine, and strengthen the system over time.
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The best feature of HowSociable is the ability to see, at a glance, how you’re doing on each social network.
The visual interface for the free version shows mentions across 12 sites, including Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, WordPress, Blogger, and Foursquare.
With a premium account, you’ll be able to view up to 36 platforms.
You’re given a score based on several metrics, and you can check out competitors, too!
I’m clearly lagging most in my Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube accounts. Now I know where to dedicate my resources.
If you need a big-picture social scoreboard, look no further than HowSociable.
7. Klout
Klout is another platform that provides a simple score to show your social media reach.
It also shows what subjects you’re influential in.
Simply log in and connect your X, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Blogger, and YouTube accounts.
You’ll then be presented with cross-channel measurements of your reach and engagement.
Brands also use Klout to connect to micro-influencers and to schedule social posts.
It’s not the final word in your social reach, but it’s a great barometer.
8. TweetReach
TweetReach is another X-exclusive tool that’s useful for finding out more about your followers and brand mentions.
Check out how my username, @NeilPatel, stacks up.
I reach 481,939 people, nearly twice my actual follower count.
This is useful information to determine how influential your followers are.
You can use this data to guide your influencer programs and to determine who to follow.
It’s a great tool to scout the competition, as well.
9. Crowdfire
Crowdfire is a powerful tool for growing your X and Instagram followings.
Whether online through the web app or on a mobile device, you can analyze your accounts and engage in real time.
Learn what your friends talk about, blacklist or whitelist followers, automate posts, and more.
This robust tool has a simple UI and can be used as your go-to social media reader.
On top of these features, it helps you share relevant content as you browse the web. It even provides suggestions.
Crowdfire is like having your own social media assistant.
10. SocialPilot.co
SocialPilot rivals Hootsuite and Buffer as one of the top social media automation tools around.
The free version lets you connect up to 5 social media profiles. From each of these, you can post up to 10 times per day.
Using one app to post while you’re on the go frees up a lot of space on your mobile device.
Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr are supported.
You can also access Pages and Groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ — a feature that Hootsuite lacks.
The app team is great about fixing bugs and engaging with the community across social media and the app stores.
Great support makes for a better user experience.
11. Buffer
There are a ton of debates online that compare Buffer versus Hootsuite, and I prefer Buffer simply for its ability to schedule Instagram posts.
It’s also as good as SocialPilot at accessing Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ Pages and Groups.
These BI dashboards can track your reach across social networks. It even mines data from Klout.
This team can scrape all your social data and provide valuable insights into how to become a better marketer.
Whether you’re a social marketer, content marketer, or full-service digital agency, Simply Measured takes your analytics further.
Understand facts about the ages, locations, genders, and more about your followers.
Learn the time of day and day of the week when your posts perform best.
Simply Measured is worth the price, although the cost varies.
2. Mention
If you’re hoping to scale your social efforts to an entire team, Mention is a great place to start.
This simple UI monitors brand mentions across the web and social media, providing a ton of personalized insights.
What I love most about Mention are the real-time alerts.
You can use Google Alerts to a certain extent, but they’re often way behind Mention.
I’ll typically find a mention of myself before my Google Alerts do.
Mention beats me to the punch every time. The plans start at $29 per month.
3. Klear.com
Klear is an influencer marketing dashboard that lets you search for and connect with influencers.
You can also use it to see how you rank as an influencer against your followers.
For example, let’s search cycling.
Here we can find the most influential people who are discussing cycling in any country we want to target.
We can also check related keywords like biking, bikes, and cyclists.
From there, we can connect with these influencers and partner with them to promote our brand.
Cool, right?
The cost varies by the number of influencers you want to target.
4. Sentiment
Sentiment metrics help you analyze social performance across channels.
You’ll understand how customers engage with your brand, and you can even publish directly from the dashboard.
Plans start at $250 per month, and this site gives you all the tools necessary to manage a team of 10 social media analysts.
Built-in CRM, SLA, and scheduling tools make Sentiment a valuable asset for marketing agencies.
Even an in-house social marketing team could use it. Sentiment gives managers a way to quantify social media efforts and ROI.
5. ZoomSphere
ZoomSphere has a great graphical interface that reminds me of an amped-up WordPress dashboard.
Color-coded projects, channels, and modules can be created to manage your social efforts within a drag-and-drop interface.
At $400 a month, it’s not cheap, but it’s one of the best social media management tools on the market.
This one-price-fits-all model is great for businesses that overuse other social platforms and end up paying enterprise premiums.
Set up reports, access online and phone customer service, and gain valuable insight into your cross-platform digital marketing efforts.
6. Meltwater
Formerly IceRocket, a free, real-time social search engine, Meltwater provides powerful analytics and insights.
Companies like Johnny Rockets, LogMeIn, and the University of Michigan use it to great success.
Plans are priced according to your specific needs and cover a wide array of social analytics and tracking services.
Real-time analytics are sorted into colorful graphs and charts that make it easy to see exactly where your brand stands online.
You can also view your live feed and interact across social channels in one place.
Meltwater will explain at a glance who’s talking about you, where they’re mentioning you, and how they feel about you.
7. Webhose.io
The Webhose.io API scrapes data feeds all across the web and social media.
If you’re mentioned anywhere from major media to a tiny blog or even a Tweet, Webhose will find it.
This data analytics company is basically selling all the data you can eat!
Hook up a hose and grab as much as you can afford to find the most up-to-date information about any topic.
You may remember Webhose when it was known as Omgili (Oh My God I Love It!).
It was almost as good an Internet portal as Google itself.
Now it’s a paid service that you can use to make sense of data feeds around the Internet.
Don’t underestimate it because your competitors are likely using this type of data already.
FAQs
Which social media tool is best for small teams?
Buffer and Later are strong options for small teams. They’re easy to use, affordable, and focus on scheduling and basic analytics without overwhelming you. If you need more collaboration features, Hootsuite is a step up.
Which social media tool offers the best value?
Buffer gives solid value if you mainly need scheduling. Hootsuite and Sprout Social cost more, but they bundle scheduling, analytics, and engagement tools into one platform. The best value comes down to how many features you’ll actually use.
How many social media tools should a content team use?
Most teams only need two to three tools. One for scheduling (like Buffer or Later), one for analytics or management (like Sprout Social or Hootsuite), and optionally a listening or design tool. More than that usually creates friction.
Should you use an all-in-one tool like Hootsuite or separate tools like Buffer and Later?
All-in-one tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social work well if you want everything in one place. Separate tools like Buffer and Later are better if you want simplicity or lower costs. Start simple, then upgrade if your needs grow.
What features matter most when choosing a social media tool?
Look at scheduling, analytics, and ease of use first. Tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite stand out for reporting and team features, while Buffer and Later excel at straightforward scheduling. Pick based on how your team actually works.
Conclusion
Social media is one of the biggest channels for marketing in 2017 and beyond.
Everyone’s on social media, and brands are rushing to reach consumers where they congregate online.
Unfortunately, it can be a difficult task to stay active on so many social feeds.
Digital marketing agencies don’t have it any easier.
An analyst working at an agency could be in charge of dozens of Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn feeds at any given moment, and need to have the best social media content for each channel.
Keeping track of everything is difficult without the right tools.
I showed you my favorite social media tools. Now show me yours. If you need help choosing a social media agency, my team can help with that too.
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AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini now intercept patient and clinician research journeys at scale. For many healthcare organizations, third-party […]
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SEO fundamentals don’t require a lot of technical expertise. Even beginners can get results by starting with keyword research, then building content quality and site structure around what they find.
Strong SEO and AI visibility are built on the same principles. Authoritative content and a clear site structure help you rank in traditional search and get cited in AI-generated answers.
User experience directly affects SEO. Page speed, mobile optimization, and easy navigation are confirmed Google ranking factors.
Links from high-authority sites signal trust to search engines and AI systems alike. Quality always beats quantity when building your backlink profile.
Search engine optimization (SEO) remains one of the most reliable ways to drive consistent, targeted traffic to your site.
That hasn’t changed.
What has changed, though, is the environment in which it operates.
The difference now is that strong SEO doesn’t just help you rank on Google. It positions your content to be cited by the AI systems that increasingly shape what users see first.
This guide covers the SEO basics you need to build a foundation that holds up in both traditional and AI-driven search. If you’re new to SEO or tightening up an existing strategy, this is the right place to start.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s how you get your website to show up when people search for what you offer.
More specifically, it’s the process of improving your site’s performance, authority, and structure to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), including the AI Overviews (AIOs) that now sit at the top of many results pages.
Google gets more than 80 billion visits every month. That’s a lot of potential customers, but modern digital marketers have to consider more than Google alone.
Social SEO’s potential to reach new customers is off the charts, too. Nearly half of consumers use TikTok as a search engine, and more and more people (Gen Zers, in particular) use social platforms like YouTube and Instagram to find content that answers their questions.
Visibility on those platforms (and in AI systems) follows many of the same principles of traditional SEO: authoritative content, clear structure, and direct relevance to what people are actually asking.
The same is true for AI systems. Well-structured, credible content is what earns citations in AI Overviews and social search alike.
Why Is SEO Important?
AI taking up more SERP real estate doesn’t change the fundamentals of your marketing strategy.
The best way to reach and convert your target audience is to focus on the keywords they’re most likely to search for and the intent behind those searches. Those fundamentals hold true across both traditional blue links and AI-generated answers citing your content.
According to seoClarity’s analysis of 432,000 keywords, 97 percent of AI Overviews cite at least one source from the top 20 organic results, proving ranking well is a reliable path to AI visibility.
If that tells us anything, it’s that ranking well in traditional search and earning visibility in AI-generated answers are built on the same foundation.
Strong SEO basics build the infrastructure that AI systems draw on when deciding what to cite.
Nail the basics, and you’re not just competing for blue links. You’re competing for the answer, too.
Setting Yourself Up for SEO Success
Before getting into the SEO basics, make sure you have the right foundations in place.
Your domain name matters more than people think. Something straightforward and related to your business will perform better in search. A .com extension is the gold standard, but .net and .co are solid alternatives.
Your hosting platform is equally important. Choose one that prioritizes security and facilitates fast page loading. Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor, and a slow site hurts both your rankings and your users.
A logical site structure helps search engines find and index your pages. It also helps visitors quickly and intuitively navigate to whatever they’re looking for.
You’ll notice Kim’s Restaurant (above) as an example.
The homepage branches into four main category pages: Menu, Locations, Catering, and About. Only one of those categories (Locations) goes a level deeper, with a dedicated page for each neighborhood. Every page has a clear parent, and the structure mirrors how a real user would navigate the site.
None of this needs to be perfect on day one. Jonathan Hoffer, SEO Manager at NP Digital, puts it well:
“Often, when starting an SEO program, perfection is the enemy of starting. Zeroing in on your audience and what they’re searching for can help. The path to the top of the SERPs begins with a single article being published.”
Common SEO Myths
Before going further, it’s worth clearing up a few common SEO misconceptions that tend to trip people up:
SEO produces instant results. It doesn’t. Most strategies take three to six months before you see meaningful movement in rankings.
More keywords mean better rankings.Keyword stuffing actually hurts your rankings. Google rewards relevance and context, not repetition.
You only need to do SEO once. Search is a moving target. Algorithms are always being updated, and competitors are constantly adapting their strategies.
AI has made SEO obsolete. As we covered above, strong SEO is still the most reliable path to both organic and AI visibility.
SEO Subtypes
SEO breaks down into several subtypes. Depending on your target audience and your goals, certain types of SEO will matter more than others. Here’s a quick breakdown:
On-page SEO optimizes the content and HTML elements on individual pages, including keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, and headings. These are foundational elements in ranking for the right queries.
Off-page SEO builds your site’s authority through external signals, primarily backlinks from credible websites. More trust from other sites means more trust from search engines.
Technical SEO optimizes your site’s infrastructure so search engines can crawl and index your content correctly. This covers site speed, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and structured data.
Local SEO improves your visibility in location-based searches. It’s critical for brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers targeting customers in specific areas.
International SEO optimizes for audiences in different countries and languages. It’s particularly relevant for brands looking to grow beyond their domestic market.
Social SEO optimizes your presence on social platforms like TikTok and YouTube, which increasingly function as search engines in their own right.
SEO, GEO, and LLMO
AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode have sparked the creation of two more SEO subtypes: generative engine optimization (GEO) and large language model optimization (LLMO).
GEO focuses on structuring your content so generative AI systems pull from it when composing answers.
LLMO goes a step further, optimizing your brand’s presence across the large language models that power those systems.
The underlying principles closely mirror conventional SEO. Traditional ranking signals like strong E-E-A-T and clean site structure carry weight in GEO and LLMO, just as they do in traditional search.
SEO Basics #1: Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of identifying the specific words and phrases people use when looking for information on search engines.
For example, a vegan restaurant could use keywords like “vegan restaurant near me” and “best vegan burgers” in its website copy and blog posts to help it rank on the first page of Google.
Good keyword research can reveal:
How many people are searching for a specific keyword or phrase.
The search intent behind those queries. Are people looking for information, or are they ready to buy?
How relevant a keyword is for your target audience and content.
How competitive a keyword is based on what other sites are ranking for it.
Long-tail keywords that surface your audience’s pain points and suggest content topics.
Start by brainstorming relevant topics for your business, then run them through a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest or Semrush. Use what you find to shape your content strategy.
Here’s a look at the keyword opportunities our friends at the vegan burger restaurant might have:
Also, remember that search results are always changing. Be sure to revisit your strategy regularly as algorithms and competitors evolve.
Quick Tips for Keyword Research
Brainstorm seed keywords. Start with basic terms relevant to your business and industry, and use those as the foundation for deeper research.
Understand your audience. Identify the exact words and phrases potential customers type when searching for your product or service.
Target long-tail keywords. More specific phrases people use when they’re closer to a buying decision tend to have less competition and higher conversion rates.
Explore related keywords. Identifying terms closely related to your primary keywords helps you avoid keyword cannibalization.
Consider search intent. There are four types: informational (question-based queries), navigational (website- or webpage-specific queries), transactional (product or service queries), and commercial (research-based queries featuring words like “best” or “review”).
SEO Basics #2: Create Effective, Optimized Content
Good content is fundamental to SEO.
Useful content, from articles and infographics to videos and e-books, earns links from other websites. Prospective customers will also see you as a reliable, credible source of information.
Here’s what my colleague Matthew Santos, Chief Product Officer at NP Accel, has to say about content marketing:
“Over the past 20 years, we have seen so many new features come out from Google that have caused SEOs to adopt new tactics, but one constant we have never seen Google move away from is the importance of high-quality content. As we have continued to double down on high-quality content, we have seen thousands of customers over the last five years survive every single one of the major core algorithm updates.”
Regularly creating informative, relevant, and optimized content is one of the primary ways to grow your organic presence. It’s not a guarantee, but it stacks the deck in your favor alongside other SEO best practices.
Add your keywords where they feel natural and relevant. Stuffing keywords into your copy can make it unreadable and much less effective, causing your pages to drop in the rankings.
It also helps to add a key takeaways section at the top and an FAQ section at the bottom of your blogs. Both improve readability for human visitors and make your content significantly easier for LLMs to parse and cite.
Brainstorm content ideas based on audience needs. Use your target keywords to generate topics. A plumbing business targeting “how do I fix a sink” could turn that into an article explaining why hiring a professional is better than DIY.
Write clearly and concisely. Provide helpful information and cut the fluff. Use headings, bullet points, and formatting to improve readability and make content skimmable.
Implement E-E-A-T. Write well-researched and accurate content supported by expert quotes. Cite your sources, and build author bio pages that showcase each contributor’s credentials, demonstrating their status as subject-matter experts (SMEs).
Incorporate relevant keywords. Include your target keywords to optimize content for SEO, but always prioritize natural, readable prose over keyword density.
Use proprietary data. First-party statistics and unique insights give AI systems and readers something they can’t find anywhere else.
Try different content formats. Different formats serve different purposes. Infographics, for example, work well for data and case studies build authority, while blog posts drive ongoing organic traffic.
Repurpose and refresh old content. Repurposing your old content is one of the best ways to get the most value from it. For example, long-form content could be compiled into an e-book or published as a newsletter series. Updating dated references, stats, and facts keeps older posts relevant and valuable over time.
SEO Basics #3: Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions tell search engines what your site is about, helping them match your pages to the right search queries.
Optimizing them drives more traffic to your site and gives searchers a clearer picture of what you offer. They also directly influence your click-through rate, the percentage of users who see your listing in a SERP and decide to click it.
Title tags signal to visitors what they can expect to read. They should spark curiosity and encourage your audience to go deeper into your content.
Think of meta descriptions as a quick sales pitch. They’re your chance to attract and engage your audience right from the search results page, before they ever reach your site.
Urtopia’s meta description above tells e-bike shoppers exactly what they’ll find before they click. It provides a clear signal that pulls in the right audience and filters out the wrong one.
Quick Tips for Crafting Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Include relevant keywords. Keywords in title tags and meta descriptions boost your content’s visibility in search results, just as they do in body copy.
Place keywords close to the beginning. Search engines prioritize the most relevant content. Front-loading your keywords sends a clear signal about what the page covers.
Keep them focused and concise. Aim for 150–160 characters in a meta description that conveys the main benefit or unique selling proposition.
Use action-oriented language. Words like “now” and “today” create urgency, while action verbs like “discover” and “learn” can draw readers in.
Test variations. Try different keywords and sentence constructions to see which drives the highest click-through rates.
SEO Basics #4: Focus on User Experience (UX)
User experience (UX) refers to how easily people can use your website and find what they need. It’s one of the most overlooked areas of basic SEO for a website, as it’s consequential for rankings.
A user comes to your site to find a product or information. Your design and visuals can add real value, but they can’t compensate for a slow, confusing, or inaccessible site.
Google knows this.
Page speed and mobile-friendliness are confirmed ranking factors, and ease of navigation sends strong signals about usability, too. A site that frustrates users sends negative signals to search engines, while one that keeps visitors engaged sends positive ones.
According to Google, 53 percent of mobile users will abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load, confirming that mobile-friendliness and page speed are non-negotiable UX factors.
A positive user experience keeps visitors on your site longer and encourages them to explore multiple pages. Engaged visitors are also more likely to sign up for a newsletter or download a resource, leaving behind the engagement signals that tell search engines your site is useful.
Quick Tips for Improving UX
Increase site speed. Page speed is one of the most important ranking factors. Compressing images and removing unused plugins or third-party widgets can meaningfully improve load times.
Simplify navigation. Your main menu should be logical and easy to understand. Use submenus or drop-down menus to organize additional pages rather than overwhelming visitors with too many options at once.
Reduce clutter. Too many ads and pop-ups are distracting, particularly on mobile devices.
Provide clear calls to action. Don’t make visitors hunt for a way to schedule an appointment or view a demo. Most won’t stick around long enough to find it.
Make your website accessible. An accessible website means everyone can use it and keeps you compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
SEO Basics #5: Prioritize Mobile Experience
Mobile devices now account for more than 62 percent of global website traffic, and that number keeps climbing. Catering to mobile users is a must if you want your content to rank.
Google uses a mobile-first approach to indexing, meaning it crawls the mobile version of your website to understand and rank your pages.
A mobile-responsive website is essential. That means designing and coding your site so it automatically adjusts based on the device being used.
One of the best ways to test your mobile performance is Google’s Lighthouse tool for Chrome. It generates a detailed report like the one below, and tells you exactly what to fix.
Quick Tips for Improving Mobile Experience
Design for touch interaction. Larger buttons and clickable elements make it significantly easier to navigate on a small screen.
Keep content concise and scannable. Users reading on phones move fast. Short paragraphs, clear headings, and bullet points help them find what they need quickly.
Streamline forms and checkout processes. Minimize the number of fields and make error messages clear and easy to see on a small screen.
Optimize images for mobile. Large, uncompressed images are among the most common culprits of slow mobile load times. Compress them and use responsive image sizing.
Test across devices. Your site may look fine on one phone and break on another. Regular cross-device testing catches issues before your users do.
SEO Basics #6: Build Links
Backlinks from high-authority, relevant sites send a trust signal to Google. It’s like having somebody vouch for you. The more credible sites that link to yours, the more likely you are to rank well in the SERPs.
For example, here’s the Ubersuggest backlinks report for my own site. I’ve got a strong spread of backlinks across a range of sites, which signals to search engines that my website is a reliable and trustworthy source of information.
AI systems like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT increasingly favor sources with strong third-party credibility. Brand mentions and citations across the web all signal that your content is worth referencing.
Quick Tips for Building Links
Create valuable, educational resources. Original research, comprehensive guides, and data-driven content are the types of assets other sites naturally want to reference and link to.
Fix broken links. Use tools like Ubersuggest’s Site Audit feature to identify broken links on high-authority sites in your niche, then reach out and offer your content as a replacement.
Pursue media requests. Platforms like Connectively (formerly HARO) connect you with journalists looking for expert sources. A single mention in a major publication can earn a high-authority backlink and boost your AI visibility at the same time.
Run a competitive analysis. Identify which sites are linking to your competitors but not to you. Those are warm prospects. If your content is stronger, you have a compelling reason to reach out.
SEO Basics #7: Don’t Neglect Technical SEO
Good content won’t perform if your site has technical issues preventing search engines from finding and understanding it.
Technical SEO is the foundation that makes everything else work.
Without it, even your best content may never get indexed or ranked. Addressing the technical side of your site makes sure search engines can interpret your content and serve it to the right audience.
Tips for Improving Technical SEO
Optimize your site structure. Create a logical, hierarchical structure for your website. This helps both users and search engines navigate easily.
Improve site speed. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix issues slowing your site down. Compressing images and leveraging browser caching are good starting points.
Implement SSL. Secure your site with HTTPS. It protects user data and is a confirmed Google ranking factor.
Create and submit a sitemap. Generate an XML sitemap and submit it through Google Search Console. This helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.
Fix broken links. Regularly check for and repair broken links. Tools like Ubersuggest or Screaming Frog can help identify them quickly.
Manage duplicate content. Use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of a page when similar content exists across multiple URLs.
Optimize your robots.txt file. Make sure to configure your robots.txt file correctly to guide crawlers on which parts of your site to index and which to ignore.
Monitor crawl errors. Check Google Search Console regularly for crawl errors and address them promptly to keep your important pages indexed.
SEO Basics #8: Measure Your Results
Monitoring your SEO strategy’s performance over time lets you make data-driven decisions to improve it and boost your rankings.
Analyzing SEO metrics helps you spot opportunities to replicate high-performing content and catch technical issues that drag your content down.
It also helps you adjust your strategy to ensure you’re producing relevant, keyword-optimized content that targets the right audience. That’s what leads to higher organic traffic and better business outcomes that demonstrate SEO’s value to stakeholders.
With the rise of AI visibility, measurement now goes beyond rankings and clicks. So, you’ll need to monitor your presence in AI systems, too.
Tools like Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit and Otterly.ai let you track how often your brand is cited across AI-generated answers on platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
As AI search continues to grow, brands that measure both traditional SEO performance and AIO or GEO results will have a clearer picture of where they actually stand in search.
Quick Tips for Measuring Results
Define clear key performance indicators (KPIs). Choose the KPIs most relevant to your business that you can act on and improve, including traditional metrics like rankings and CTR, as well as AI visibility signals like citation frequency and share of voice.
Use analytics tools.Good tools to get started include Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Ubersuggest for traditional SEO. For tracking AI visibility, platforms like Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit are helpful.
Create a regular tracking cadence. Consistent monitoring helps you identify performance changes and uncover new optimization opportunities.
Benchmark your performance. Compare your results against industry standards and competitors to understand where you stand in both traditional search and AI-generated results.
Conduct A/B testing. Test different content variations, keyword approaches, and structural changes to see what performs best across both search and AI platforms.
Act on your results. Tracking your KPIs only matters if you take steps to resolve issues and build on what’s working.
FAQs
What is SEO?
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to increase the chances of it ranking high in search engine results.
It includes a wide range of elements, including keyword research, content creation, backlinks, and mobile responsiveness.
How do I do SEO?
Start by auditing your existing content. Make your pages more readable, add keyword-optimized headings, and create unique title tags and meta descriptions. From there, work through the fundamentals covered in this guide.
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the content and HTML elements on individual pages, including keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, and headings, to rank for the right queries.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO covers the infrastructure of your site, including speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, and structured data, ensuring search engines can find and index your content correctly.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to appear in location-based searches, which is critical for brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers targeting customers in a specific area.
Conclusion
Modern-day digital marketing is often like trying to fire an arrow at a moving target. Learning the SEO basics makes it much easier to hit the mark, and there’s a lot you can do to boost your rankings, even with limited technical skills.
Start by reviewing your existing content. What can you do to add value to your pages and make it easier for visitors to find what they need?
In today’s SERPs, hitting the mark means more than ranking on page one. It also means producing authoritative, well-structured content that also earns visibility in AI-generated answers.
Think of your audience and the search engines when working on your site. As your strategy matures, explore advanced SEO techniques and study the latest search engine trends to stay ahead of the curve.
For a long time, we defined SEO success by rankings and traffic. If you reached the top of the search results and brought people to your site, you did your job. That approach worked when discovery was linear, and search engines were the primary gatekeepers. But modern search behavior does not stop at discovery. Users want clarity, reassurance, and confidence before they make decisions. With so many options to choose from, users want to understand what a product does, how it compares to alternatives, and whether it fits their needs.
There is a shift in SEO, one that pushes closer to product thinking and long-term value creation. Search engines reward content and experiences that help users make informed decisions, not just pages that match keywords. That means SEO can no longer exist solely in the acquisition channel. SEO must support the entire journey, from first touch to post-purchase experience.
SEO now focuses on user clarity and informed decision-making rather than just rankings and traffic.
Businesses should adopt an approach that integrates product understanding and user intent into keyword research.
Technical SEO remains crucial; a well-structured site improves visibility for both users and AI systems.
Product content, including descriptions and FAQs, serves as a powerful SEO asset that should be optimized.
Schema markup is essential for AI systems to accurately interpret product information, enhancing visibility and recommendations.
Technical SEO has always been product thinking
Technical SEO has always mattered, and it’s been tied to product quality, or at least product page quality. Site speed, internal linking, structured content, and clear navigation all shape how users experience a product online.
A fast, well-structured site helps users and AI platforms better understand your products. That means better visibility in search engines and AI recommendations alike. Good SEO looks at the system as a whole, prioritizes changes based on impact, and focuses on removing friction, which are the same principles that guide good product decisions.
Think like a product marketer, not just an SEO
Ranking for keywords does not automatically mean you are reaching the right audience or communicating the right value. Product marketers spend time understanding who the product is for, what problem it solves, and why someone should choose it over alternatives. SEO benefits enormously from that same approach.
Keyword research is not just a targeting exercise. It reveals how people describe their problems, what they care about, and what information they need before making a decision. Applying those insights to product descriptions, category pages, and supporting content pulls SEO closer to real user intent.
This is how SEO moves beyond traffic and starts contributing to the full customer journey: awareness, consideration, conversion, and, just as importantly, retention.
Your product is your most underrated SEO asset
Many SEO strategies still treat content as something separate from the product. Blogs live in one place while product pages are left to focus purely on conversion.
But products are content. Product names, descriptions, specifications, FAQs, reviews, and even post-purchase information all reflect the real information users are looking for. This content often holds far more SEO value than a generic blog post. Still, most brands do not optimize it with the same level of care.
When product pages are clear, well-structured, and written in the language customers actually use, they become powerful discovery assets.
AI is changing how products are discovered and bought
ChatGPT now supports direct purchases through integrations with platforms like Shopify, using OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol. That means users can discover and buy products directly within an AI conversation without ever visiting a product page on a website.
For businesses, this changes what visibility looks like. SEO is no longer just about ranking in search results. SEO is about making sure your products are understandable, trustworthy, and accessible to AI systems that act as intermediaries.
And the scope of that is broader than it first appears. Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) extends AI-mediated commerce well beyond the checkout, covering the full lifecycle from product discovery through to order management, post-purchase support, and loyalty. That means the journey SEO needs to support has grown significantly. It is not just about being found and bought; it is about being the kind of brand an AI agent would confidently recommend, follow up with, and return to. Read more about ACP and UCP and what they mean for SEOs.
Why schema matters more than ever
If AI systems are going to recommend and sell products, they need structured information to rely on. Schema provides that structure. It tells search engines and AI platforms what a product is, how much it costs, whether it is available, how it is reviewed, and how it fits into a broader catalog.
Without structured data, products become harder for machines to interpret and surface. With it, they become eligible for richer visibility across search engines, LLMs, and emerging shopping experiences.
This goes beyond the basics. Pricing, availability, reviews, FAQs, shipping details, and even compatibility information all contribute to how well an AI agent can evaluate and surface your products. Third-party reviews on platforms like Trustpilot also play a role. Agents use external signals to validate brand credibility before making a recommendation. If that structured data is incomplete or inconsistent, your products risk being entirely invisible to agent-mediated discovery.
Conclusion
The rules of SEO have not been torn up but extended. Product thinking, structured data, clear content, and technical rigor have always mattered. What has changed is the audience you are optimizing for. Alongside the human visitor, you now have AI agents evaluating, recommending, and, in some cases, completing purchases on a user’s behalf. The businesses that will thrive are those that make their products easy to understand, easy to trust, and easy to surface, whether a person or a machine is doing the searching.
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Backlinks are links from other websites to yours, and they still matter because they help search engines evaluate how authoritative and trustworthy your site is.
Not all backlinks are equal. A few relevant, high-quality links from authoritative sites are usually more valuable than many weak or spammy ones.
Backlinks support AI visibility because generative engines and language models favor content from authoritative, trustworthy sources, and backlinks are one of the clearest signals of that authority.
Tracking backlinks means monitoring quality and growth. Pay attention to referring domains, anchor text distribution, and link stability over time.
The best way to build backlinks is to earn them through useful content and targeted outreach. You will need to keep refining your approach based on what works.
AI is reshaping search, but one traditional SEO practice has held its ground: backlinks.
A backlink in SEO is a link from another website that points to yours. These mentions across different websites help search engines understand how you fit into the overall picture of your industry, and sites that reference you repeatedly signal authority and trust to Google. That authority also carries weight in AI-driven search experiences, where AI platforms favor content from sources they consider trustworthy.
Backlinks still matter, and the case for them has only grown stronger as AI reshapes how search works.
So, What Exactly Are Backlinks?
A backlink forms when another site links to your page, signaling to search engines that your content is worth referencing. You may also hear them called inbound links or incoming links.
The screenshot below shows what a backlink looks like in practice, with one site linking directly to another as a reference.
Nikki Brandemarte, Senior SEO Strategist and Local SEO Team Lead at NP Digital, explains it well: “Getting backlinks from reputable sources can demonstrate to Google that you have expertise on the topics you cover. I like to think of quality backlinks as a ‘vote of confidence’ that you know what you’re talking about.”
Backlinks help search engines understand which pages other websites find useful and authoritative enough to mention. That same authority can also support visibility in AI search experiences, even if backlinks are not the main ranking factor there.
I’ll go into what makes a “good” and “bad” backlink later in this article. For now, the key thing to know is that backlinks are one of the clearest ways authority gets passed around the web.
Backlink Examples/Types
Dofollow backlinks are the standard links most site owners want. They allow search engine bots to crawl and index your site, passing authority signals that typically have the biggest SEO impact. These are the links worth prioritizing in your outreach and content efforts.
Dofollow HTML example: <a href=”https://example.com/”>anchor text</a>
Nofollow backlinks work differently. They carry a special HTML attribute that tells search engines not to pass authority, but they still drive referral traffic and keep your link profile looking natural. You’ll commonly find them on social media, forums, and sponsored content. Since 2019, Google has treated nofollow links as hints rather than strict directives, meaning some may still carry indirect value.
Nofollow HTML example: <a href=”https://example.com/” rel=”nofollow”>anchor text</a>
A healthy backlink profile includes both. Pursuing only dofollow links can signal to search engines that your links are artificially built rather than earned, which can work against you.
Why Are Backlinks Important For SEO?
Even as search has changed, backlinks still help search engines understand when other websites see your content as worth referencing. Authority and trust still influence rankings, especially for competitive topics.
Backlinks serve as a seal of approval from one site to another. They strengthen your site’s credibility and make it easier for search engines to surface your content in results. They’re also critical for driving targeted, quality traffic to your site. When someone clicks through from a relevant site, they arrive already interested in what you offer.
Backlinks also play a bigger role in the broader visibility ecosystem around search. Strong mentions and links earned through strategies like digital PR can support your presence across traditional and AI search.
Backlinks require ongoing attention, though. They aren’t “set it and forget it” things. A strong backlink profile is built over time and needs regular review. It’s an investment in your site’s long-term success and one of the clearest ways to build durable SEO authority.
Quality beats quantity when it comes to backlinks.
A single backlink from a high-authority, relevant site can do more for your SEO than dozens of low-quality links. High-quality backlinks strengthen your site’s authority and can push your rankings higher in search results.
Going after links without caring about their quality is a recipe for trouble. It’s like inviting a bunch of strangers to your party without checking if they vibe with your crowd. This approach can tarnish your site’s reputation and lower its ranking.
High-quality backlinks share a few common traits:
Relevancy: A link from a site in a related or complementary field helps Google see your link as more valuable.
Domain or page authority: When authoritative sites link to yours, Google assumes your site is more trustworthy as well.
Dofollow links: These pass authority signals to your site and are worth prioritizing in your outreach efforts. That said, a healthy backlink profile includes nofollow links too, since an all-dofollow profile can signal to search engines that you built your links artificially.
Anchor text: Relevant anchor text can provide an even bigger potential boost to rankings.
What counts as a quality backlink can also vary by industry and competition level. In more competitive spaces, you may need stronger, more relevant links to stand out. That’s especially true for ecommerce link building, where product and category pages aren’t naturally linkable and quality links are harder to earn.
Low-quality backlinks typically come from sites unrelated to your niche, sites with questionable content, or known spam sources. Paying for links or accepting them indiscriminately puts your SEO at risk, regardless of how tempting a shortcut it may seem.
Are Backlinks Important For AI?
Backlinks are still important in AI-driven search, though not as a direct ranking factor. Google has confirmed that the same core SEO guidance applies to AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, and backlinks are part of that foundation.
Backlinks support visibility across generative engine optimization (GEO), large language model optimization (LLMO), and answer engine optimization (AEO), the three major AI optimization frameworks shaping modern search. In GEO, which focuses on getting your content cited in generative summaries, backlinks signal the depth and authority generative engines favor. In LLMO, which shapes how language models understand and reference your brand, backlinks reinforce the consistent authority signals models rely on. Even AEO, which targets direct answer boxes and featured snippets, stronger backlink profiles help pages earn those placements more easily.
AI platforms tend to surface content from sites they consider authoritative. Semrush analyzed 1,000 unique domains and found a strong positive relationship between authority score, which reflects backlink quality, and how often a domain appears in AI-generated answers. The Pearson correlation of 0.65 and Spearman correlation of 0.57 from the study indicate a strong relationship, meaning sites with stronger backlink profiles show up in AI search results more consistently.
Publishing crawlable, useful content remains the priority, but backlinks across reputable sites reinforce that you are a trusted source worth surfacing.
Microsoft’s guidance on AI search visibility reinforces the same point, noting that traditional SEO fundamentals, including crawlability, backlinks, and content authority, remain central to whether content gets surfaced in AI-generated answers.
The chart below shows how different backlink metrics correlate with AI visibility across 1,000 unique domains. Authority Score, which reflects overall link quality, shows the strongest relationship by a significant margin.
For AI search, backlinks are one signal among many, but they remain a meaningful one.
How to Track Your Backlinks
Tracking your backlinks is just as important as building them. Backlink analysis tools show you which sites link to yours and help you catch problems before they affect your rankings.
Spot any links that could be dragging your rankings down, such as links from spammy or irrelevant sites.
Identify opportunities for higher-quality or more links.
You also want to understand which sites are linking to you, whether those sites are relevant to your niche, what anchor text they’re using, and whether your referring domains are growing over time. My backlink checker surfaces all of this in one place, giving you a clearer picture of whether your backlink profile is getting stronger or just getting bigger.
The tool also makes competitive analysis straightforward. Enter a competitor’s URL and you can see everyone linking to them but not to you, turning that gap into a list of actionable link-building opportunities. Advanced filtering lets you narrow results by region, anchor text, domain score, page score, and URL, and you can choose to view only dofollow or nofollow links. Once you’ve refined your results, you can export them to CSV for further analysis.
As you get more backlinks, monitoring them manually takes too much time and effort. The right backlink analysis tools make maintaining them much easier and help you make smarter link-building decisions and catch problems early.
Backlink Building Best Practices
You’re ready to start building backlinks, but you can’t just fire off pitches to every publisher with a major name. Here’s what Kimberly Deese, Director of Digital PR at NP Digital, has to say about it:
“Two factors that impact building high-quality backlinks are the target page you are trying to build links to and the number of opportunities that currently exist that are relevant to that target page. Personalize content to personas and specific use cases to create more opportunities to reach out and build that personalization into your pitch and call to action.”
The biggest best practice is relevance. Start creating content that’s valuable and relevant to your niche. Focus on content people want to cite, like original research or genuinely helpful guides.
You should also look for broken-link opportunities. When a site in your space points to an outdated resource, you can suggest your content as a replacement.
Media requests are another strong play. Journalists and editors regularly need expert quotes, and a strong response earns you authoritative links and mentions.
It also helps to study what’s already working. Competitive backlink analysis can show you which sites, formats, and outreach angles are earning links in your niche. These are some core moves, but backlink building rewards consistency. Check out our full guide on how to build backlinks for a deeper look at execution.
FAQs
What are backlinks?
Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are links from one website to a page on another website. Search engines treat them as endorsements, using them to evaluate your content’s credibility and relevance, which can improve your visibility and rankings. They also play a role in AI search visibility. AI platforms tend to surface content from authoritative sources, and backlinks are one of the clearest signals of that authority.
How do I build backlinks?
Building backlinks ethically means creating content that earns links organically and reaching out to reputable sites in your industry. The strongest approaches include original research that journalists want to cite, digital PR campaigns that earn coverage on authoritative publications, and broken-link outreach that positions your content as a replacement for outdated resources. Quality and relevance matter more than volume.
How do I check my backlinks?
Ubersuggest’s free Backlink Checker is a strong starting point. It shows you which sites link to yours, flags links that look spammy or weak, and tracks referring domains, anchor text, and new or lost links over time. Those metrics together tell you whether your backlink profile is genuinely strong or just large.
Conclusion
Backlinks are one of the most important parts of a solid SEO strategy. They build credibility and authority, and search engines notice. That same authority carries into AI-driven search, where platforms consistently favor content from sources they trust.
The work is ongoing. You need to track what you have, pursue broken link opportunities, cut what’s hurting you, and keep earning better links over time. When you approach backlinks correctly, the payoff compounds. Stronger links mean stronger rankings, and stronger rankings mean more of the right people finding your content.
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