You want more customers, and you’re ready to advertise your business.
But how should you do it?
There’s Google Ads. Instagram. Flyers. Billboards. TikTok. And dozens of other online and offline options.
Some deliver better results than others:
But that doesn’t mean they’ll work for you:
You have to find the right channels for your business, not just the ones that are popular.
At the agencies I’ve worked with, I’d often see small businesses like auto repair shops and restaurants boost ad returns by 50-200% — just by switching to better-fit channels.
In this guide, I’ll help you pinpoint the winning channels for your business — the ones that can unlock real revenue potential.
I’ll go through it step by step in three phases, covering:
How to choose the right channels
How to set up winning campaigns
How to measure your results (and what to do with the data)
And I’ll show you exactly how I’d do it if I had a starting budget of $500.
Note: Want a quick list of ad ideas? Grab this free sheet with 30 ways to promote your business.
Phase 1: Choose the Right Channels to Advertise On
There are dozens of channels you can use to advertise your business.
But unless you have a lot of time and budget, you can’t be everywhere.
In this phase, we’ll find out which ones are actually worth testing for your business.
I’ll use a local furniture store as a running example. But you can follow the same steps no matter what you sell.
Let’s start with the step most people skip:
Step 0: Should You Even Invest Money in Paid Ads?
If you’re short on time and want results fast, paid ads can absolutely work.
But that doesn’t mean they’re the best move right now.
Think of it like this:
Paid ads = renting attention. You pay, you get traffic. Stop paying, the traffic stops too.
Organic marketing = earning attention. It takes longer, but the traffic builds over time (and keeps going even when you stop).
Ideally, you’d do both.
Paid gets you quick wins, while organic builds trust and visibility in the long run.
But when you’re working with limited time and budget, you’ll need to choose:
Want calls, sales, or visits this week? Paid ads are your fastest bet.
Want to build long-term traffic without spending monthly? Start with organic.
If you’re ready to move forward with ads, let’s lock in your #1 goal.
Step 1: Pick One Result You Want from Your Ad
You can’t run effective ad campaigns until you know what you want it to achieve.
Your goal decides everything, from where you advertise to what your ad looks like.
One goal = one outcome = one high-converting ad.
Not “get more attention.”
Not “build awareness.”
We’re talking actual business outcomes, like:
Phone calls
Website visits
DMs
Online orders
Store walk-ins
Form submissions
Can ads do more than one thing? Sure.
But when you’re starting out, trying to get five outcomes with one campaign just spreads your budget thin and hurts your ROI.
So pick one.
Ask yourself: “When someone sees my ad, what’s the one action I want them to take?”
Let’s say I run a local furniture store. I’m not trying to sell sofas online, I just want people to visit the showroom.
That’s my goal, and everything in the ad should lead there.
Make yours just as clear (and measurable).
Pro tip: Use the SMART framework to help you choose the right goal.
Step 2: Find Out How Your Last 20-30 Customers Found You
Before you spend a dollar, look at how your last 20-30 customers found you.
Because chances are, your next customers will come from the same places.
Here’s how to do it:
Think back to recent calls, emails, or walk-ins
Skim your DMs or contact form entries
Ask your team: “Where did that lead come from?”
You’re looking for repeat mentions, or anything that stands out.
For example:
If 12 out of 30 found you on Google? That’s a sign to use Google Ads.
If multiple people say they found you on Instagram? That’s your sign to create ads on Instagram.
If you don’t have the answers yet, start collecting data now.
Ask every new lead: “How did you hear about us?”
Track the next 30 manually. Write each one down in Google Sheets or Docs.
Here’s what that might look like for my local furniture store:
Note: If you’re a brand new business with zero customers, clearly you won’t have any data yet. You can still use advertising channels, but your market research and competitor analysis (see below) will become even more important.
Step 3: Analyze How Your Top Competitors Are Advertising
Your competitors are already advertising. Which means they’ve already spent time and money figuring out what works.
So instead of guessing, reverse engineer them.
Here’s how it might look for my local furniture store:
One competitor sends weekly promo postcards. Another runs billboard ads on the freeway and has flyers at the nearby mall.
That tells me they’re spending heavily on local print and outdoor ads (and likely getting results from it).
I won’t copy them blindly. But I’ll take notes:
What channels they’re using
What offers they’re promoting
Whether they’re trying to drive foot traffic, calls, or website visits
Then I’ll go online.
I’ll start by manually checking if my competitors are running ads on major platforms.
Many ad platforms have public ad libraries you can search.
Like Google’s Ad transparency, where I can see if my competitors are running ads on Google Search, Google Shopping, and YouTube:
I can also look up their Instagram or Facebook ads in Meta’s Ad Library:
Step 4: List the Channels Your Audience Pays Attention To
Before you finalize your three channels, sanity-check them.
Just because a platform is popular doesn’t mean your audience is paying attention there.
You need to use what you know about your ideal customer’s habits to spot the right fit for your business specifically.
For instance, for my furniture store, let’s say I know that most of my buyers are homeowners in their 40s or 50s shopping for higher-ticket items.
(Ideally, you’ll have internal data to help here, but tools like Semrush can help here with their demographics feature.)
Based on that insight, they’re probably searching on Google, browsing Facebook, checking mailers, and listening to local radio. Not scrolling Snapchat or TikTok.
So I’ll cross those off my list, and I’ll focus on the ones that match how they already consume info.
How to Advertise Your Business on Instagram or Facebook
In my example, I also chose Facebook for one of my channels.
But Facebook and Instagram both use the same Meta ad platform.
So I can run one ad and show it on both platforms if I want.
Instead of targeting keywords (like Google Ads), you can reach people based on:
Location (like everyone within 10 miles of your store)
Demographics (homeowners aged 35–55)
Interests and behaviors (e.g., “interior design” or “recent movers”)
You can choose from image ads, videos, carousels, or Stories.
Meta lets you set your own budget and charges you per result (like per click, impression, or DM).
Before you run your ad, there are a few things you should understand to ensure good ROI:
What ad format matches your goal
How Facebook’s algorithm picks who sees your ad
What action you want people to take, and how to optimize for it
How to Advertise Your Business Locally with Postcards
Postcard campaigns are straightforward.
You create a physical card, choose the delivery area (like ZIP codes or neighborhoods), and send it to local homes through a provider like USPS Every Door Direct Mail or FedEx.
But to get real results, you need to understand the fundamentals:
How to target delivery routes effectively (without needing a mailing list)
What goes into pricing, including printing, postage, and quantity requirements
How early to plan your drop date so cards arrive during your promo window
How to track responses, like adding a unique offer code or asking “how did you hear about us?”
This is one of the simplest ways to advertise your business locally if you’re trying to drive foot traffic fast.
Where to Learn More
Some channels are simple. Like designing a flyer and dropping it off.
Others take more time and practice to get right. Like running Meta ads or setting up Google Ads campaigns.
You don’t need to master every feature. But you do need a handle on how your chosen channels actually work.
That way, your campaign isn’t based on guessing. It’s grounded in real data.
That’s why I’ve put together a free resource library with guides for all major channels. This will help you get up to speed with how each channel works.
When you focus on one product or service, everything gets easier — from writing the ad to measuring results.
Pick something simple, proven, and easy to sell. Ideally:
A best-seller
Something seasonal or in demand
Something customers already ask about often
Something your competitors are actively promoting
For my furniture store, I might go with loft chairs. They’re popular and high-margin.
And one of my competitors is promoting them in Google ads:
You can test other products later. But for your first campaign, keep it focused.
Step 8: Create a Clear, Time-Sensitive Offer
Even the best ad won’t work if there’s no reason to act.
That’s what your offer does. It gives people a reason to click, call, or visit now — not “later.”
Great offers are:
Easy to understand in 1-2 seconds
Focused on one product or service
Time-sensitive (like “ends soon” or “limited quantity”)
Backed by a clear benefit (like discount, free bonus, or fast delivery)
For my furniture store, I’ll offer “25% off all loft chairs until Sunday, June 22, while stock lasts.”
Like this competitor does:
It’s clear. It’s specific. And it makes people move.
A lot of small businesses don’t want to cut into their margins. That’s totally fair.
There are plenty of other ways to make your offer feel urgent, without lowering your price.
You could offer:
Free delivery (especially if competitors don’t)
A small bonus (like a free cushion or add-on service)
Priority scheduling (e.g., “Book this week for earliest delivery”)
A real deadline (something that ends or runs out, like an event or quantity)
Write down your offer clearly before you move on. This is what you’ll build your ad around.
Step 9: Define the Action You Want People to Take
Every ad needs one clear next step.
Click. Call. Visit. Book.
Not all four. Just one.
For my furniture store, I want people in my showroom.
So across Google Ads, Facebook, and postcards, the action would be the same: to get directions to my store.
One of my competitors does this with Google ads:
Whatever action you choose, make it obvious.
If you want calls, put the number up front
If you want bookings, link straight to your calendar
If you want foot traffic, use a bold address or a map pin
Step 10: Build Your Ad Content
This is where it all comes together — your channel, your offer, and your CTA.
Now you decide the ad format, write the copy, and choose (or design) the visuals.
For my furniture store, I’m running three ads across three channels: Google Search, Facebook, and postcards.
On Google, I’ll keep it tight. The ad will match what someone’s searching for. Like “recliner chairs near me.”
The headline? Something like: “20% Off Loft Chairs – This Week Only.”
The description line makes it actionable: “Visit our showroom in Queens. Free parking. Sale ends Sunday.”
No fluff. Just keywords + urgency + next step.
On Facebook, I’ll go visual. I’ll use a clean image of the actual loft chair in a styled room.
The headline might match the offer (“20% Off Loft Chairs”) and the text could highlight one feature. Like “Reclines fully, fits small spaces.”
The CTA button would be something like “Get Directions.” Like this:
For postcards, I’ll design it around simplicity.
Large product photo. Bold offer right up top. Short subtext that reinforces the benefit.
And the bottom section will show store hours, our address, and a small map.
No matter the channel, the roles of each part of your ad are the same:
Your offer is what grabs attention
Your visual or headline is what earns you that extra half-second before they scroll or toss it
Your CTA tells them exactly what to do
If anything’s vague, crowded, or trying to do too much, it gets ignored.
So before you launch, ask yourself:
Would I stop for this?
Would I click it?
Would I know what to do next?
If the answer isn’t yes within 3 seconds, it’s not ready yet.
But if it is ready, it’s now time to work out how to get the most out of your ad budget.
Step 11: Allocate Your $500 Budget Across the 3 Channels
Not every advertising channel costs the same to get results. And not every channel works the same way.
That’s why you don’t want to split your $500 evenly.
Instead, think through each channel using three simple questions:
How much does it cost to show up on this channel?
How likely is this channel to drive your goal?
What’s the minimum budget I need to test it properly?
Let’s walk through my setup.
For my ads on three channels, here’s how I’d split the budget:
Google Ads: $250
People are literally searching for what I sell. So the intent is high — and I want to show up.
But clicks cost more here.
$1.11 is the average cost per click for a keyword like “buy lounge chair.”
Just to give you a sense of scale:
If I spend $250 at $1.11 per click, I’ll get roughly 225 clicks. (This is an estimate. CPC is an average, not a fixed price per click.)
And if just 5% of those people visit the showroom, that’s 11 visits.
That’s why I’m putting the biggest share of my budget here.
It costs more to show up, but the intent is also higher. And that makes it worth testing.
Facebook Ads: $130-$150
I can reach local homeowners for less on Facebook than I can on Google Ads.
These ads aren’t as targeted by intent, but they’re great for visuals and awareness.
I’ll test a couple of versions to see what lands.
Postcards: $100-$120
These have a flat cost with no bidding to worry about.
I’ll send around 500 cards to homes near the store and track if anyone brings one in.
This will cost me approximately $115 to print at FedEx.
Will this split be perfect? No.
But that’s not the point.
You’re not trying to get every dollar “right.”
You’re testing to see which channel shows real promise. Then you can double down in the next round with more data, more confidence, and better returns.
Step 12: Launch All Ads Within the Same 1-2 Day Window
You’ve built the ads. You’ve set your budget.
Now it’s time to launch.
And when you do, launch everything at once.
Here’s why:
If your Google ads go live on Monday, your Facebook ads on Wednesday, and postcards land the week after, that’s three different tests. You won’t know what’s working and what’s just a matter of timing.
Launching all campaigns within the same 1-2 day window gives you a clean read.
Same market. Same conditions. Real signals.
That means:
Hit “publish” on your digital ads
Confirm your start dates on each platform
Submit postcards for mailing (or schedule the drop if you’re batching it)
And once they’re live, don’t touch anything.
No tweaking. No pausing. No panic edits.
You’ll optimize later.
In the next phase, you’ll learn how to track the results and double down on what’s working.
Note: Setting up and launching your first ad campaign takes time.
It has a steep learning curve and can feel overwhelming.
Here are a few things that’ll make it easier:
Check our resource library, where we’ve curated useful links for various ad channels to help you learn how to maximize your budget
Hire freelancers from platforms like Upwork or Fiverr for setup or design help
This phase is simple: Check your results, keep what worked, and fix or cut what didn’t.
Over the next few steps, you’ll learn how to track, compare, improve, and reallocate budget across your three channels.
This will help ensure your next ad campaign achieves better ROI (and avoid you wasting money).
Step 13: Track One Clear Result per Channel Over 14 Days
Don’t try to measure everything.
Just focus on the one action you wanted each ad to drive.
For my furniture store, here’s what I’m tracking:
Google search ads: How many people clicked “Get Directions”
Facebook ads: How many tapped the CTA or sent a message
Postcards: How many walked in with their card and/or mentioned the offer
Log your results in a simple spreadsheet, and check once a day for 14 days.
Two weeks should give your ads enough time to generate meaningful data for this small $500 budget.
Here’s how my spreadsheet might look:
Ad platforms generally provide detailed campaign reports that show metrics like clicks, impressions, cost, and more.
Like Google Ads:
And Facebook:
If you’re running offline ads, they’re harder to measure.
But here’s what I’ve seen work:
Add a promo code they need to show in-store
Ask every customer how they heard about your business
Use a unique phone number or custom page link for each flyer or postcard
You don’t need a fancy tool — just a clear record of what happened.
Because you’ll need that data to figure out what paid off, and what didn’t.
We’ll get into that next.
Step 14: Compare Results to Cost
You’ve seen what happened. Now it’s time to make sense of it.
Ask this question: Was this ad worth my money?
Let’s say, for my furniture store:
Google search ads brought in about 11 showroom visits (from 75 clicks)
Facebook ads brought four (from 48 DMs)
Postcards yielded 8 walk-ins
Let’s say 10 of those visits turned into customers, and each sale averaged $350.
That’s around $3,500 in revenue from a $500 budget.
If I have a 30% profit margin, that’s $1,050 in profit.
This isn’t deep analytics.
It’s a simple check to understand your ROI.
Later, as you test more channels and scale up your spend, you’ll want better tracking systems. But for your first campaign, this level of insight is enough.
Next, we’ll figure out why certain channels didn’t perform and what to do about them.
Step 15: Diagnose What Didn’t Work (and Fix It)
Some ads hit. Some didn’t. That’s normal.
The important part is knowing why.
Because a low-performing channel doesn’t always mean it was the wrong channel.
It might just mean the message was off. Or the audience was too broad. Or the offer didn’t land.
In my experience working with clients, there are four main reasons an ad doesn’t perform:
Wrong channel: It simply wasn’t built to drive the result you wanted
Weak targeting: The right message reached the wrong people
Low-impact creative: The ad didn’t stop the scroll or earn attention
Flat offer: The incentive wasn’t strong or urgent enough to act on
Go back to your underperforming ads and assess them against these factors. Write down where the breakdown likely happened.
And don’t just look at what failed: do the same for what worked.
For my Google Search ads, here’s what likely helped:
The offer matched exactly what people were searching for
The copy was short, specific, and action-focused
The CTA (“Get Directions”) matched the goal: showroom visits
For my postcards campaign, here’s what may have held it back:
I didn’t promote the right product
The headline didn’t stand out enough
The design felt too busy for a quick glance
It arrived too early and lost its urgency by the time the sale started
Don’t guess. Use your campaign data to spot friction and fix it before the next round.
Step 16: Plan Sprint 2 with Smarter Inputs
Your sprint 1 campaign is done. Now it’s time to level up.
You’ve seen what worked. You’ve seen what didn’t.
Here’s what you’ll typically do in the second sprint:
Finalize your channels, keeping what worked, and replacing what flopped.
Set a new, slightly bigger budget, and allocate it accordingly
Refine or upgrade your offer (e.g., stronger incentive, tighter deadline)
Create fresh creatives for each channel
Lock in your next 1-2 day launch window
Track results like before
In my case, for my next cycle, I’ll:
Double Google Ads spending (most visits, clean way to track ROI)
Rework the Facebook ad entirely (lots of clicks, poor conversion rate)
Replace postcards with flyers (cheaper, easier to test)
And I’m going to increase my budget to $1,000. Because now I know what works, I’m comfortable putting in more.
Eventually, as every subsequent sprint improves based on data, we’ll optimize our ads even further.
And with that, our ROI will go up.
Launch Your First Ad Campaign
How you advertise your small business comes down to three things:
Knowing how each ad channel works
Having practical ways to promote your product or service
Following a clear, step-by-step roadmap
To make things easier for you, we’ve put together a downloadable worksheet that includes:
A resource library to learn the top ad channels
A list of real ways to promote your business across different channels
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-25 13:48:412025-07-25 13:48:41How to Advertise Your Business with a $500 Budget
That’s a great example of trendjacking, or inserting your brand into viral online conversations.
It felt like every brand — from global airlines to your local coffee shop — jumped into labeling themselves. Some were hilariously on-point and others…well, not so. For every well-executed moment like a wellness brand that tailored their take to be timely, irreverent, and match their core voice, dozens more missed the mark. And like it or not, audiences can tell.
That’s the fine line with trendjacking. What was once a cheeky social media trick has become a high-stakes play for many modern social media marketers. To stand out and not alienate, brands need more than speed. They need emotional intelligence, audience awareness, and restraint to not jump on every viral moment.
How can you harness what’s trending without sounding tone-deaf or jumping the shark? Let’s break down the basics of effective trendjacking and how you can approach it in a smart way.
Key Takeaways
Trendjacking is the practice of inserting your brand into viral conversations in a way that feels timely, relevant, and authentic.
Success requires cultural awareness, audience alignment, and speed. Not every trend is right for every brand.
Smart brands use social listening tools and planned content workflows to catch trends before they peak.
Measuring trendjacking goes beyond likes. Look at sentiment shifts and meaningful engagement.
The future of trendjacking will likely be shaped by AI tools, new platforms, and the growing demand for authenticity.
What Is Trendjacking?
Trendjacking is the practice of injecting your brand into a popular or viral conversation to boost visibility, engagement, or relevance. Brands jump on trending topics like memes, social media challenges, or major pop culture moments to join the conversation in ways that are timely and clever.
Trendjacking really gained traction during the heyday of Twitter (now X), when brands like Oreo seized viral moments (the “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout) and earned massive engagement for real-time creativity. That post was a signal to marketers that being culturally responsive could pay huge engagement dividends.
Trendjacking isn’t a completely new strategy, though. It has its roots in the older PR strategy of newsjacking. Popularized by David Meerman Scott, newsjacking focused on inserting brands’ perspectives into breaking news stories to get media coverage. Trendjacking is just an evolution of that strategy, tapping into a broader range of online moments.
When you do it well, trendjacking can help your brand show personality, relevance, and humor. But it’s not a strategy without risks, especially if you do it without considering nuance or alignment to your brand’s values.
How to Pull off an Effective Trendjacking Campaign
Let’s say you’re ready to drive into trendjacking. How do you do it right? Like many effective social media strategies, the best trendjacking campaigns start long before a trend even surfaces. Success often hinges on preparation and cultural awareness, but the real secret is the agility to act fast without sacrificing your brand’s integrity.
Identify Potential Trends
Trendjacking starts with awareness. The earlier you spot a trend, the better your odds of leading the conversation rather than chasing it.
Start with traditional sources. Social listening tools such as AnswerThePublic, TikTok Creator Search Insights, or Sprout Social can surface what’s gaining traction across different platforms. The latter can help you keep an eye on places like X, Bluesky, TikTok’s trending page, Reddit threads, and even Google Trends to stay ahead of the curve. Using these tools doesn’t just tell you what’s trending. They help you catch the wave before it crests.
Effective trendjacking goes deeper than identifying meme formats or hashtags, though. Ask yourself these questions:
Why is this trending?
What emotion is it tapping into?
What cultural shift or behavioral insight is at play?
Take, for example, the “Girl Dinner” trend. It wasn’t just a meme. It was a commentary on autonomy, wellness fatigue, and the pushback against curated perfection.
In addition to staying on top of developing trends, think ahead. Certain events almost always spawn viral moments: award shows, the Met Gala, political debates, and major sporting events are excellent fodder for trends. Develop a calendar of these events and build a properly resourced team that can act when the internet lights up.
Assess the Trend’s Relevance
Before you jump into the trend, assess whether or not it’s right for you. Ask important, hard questions, like “Does this trend actually align with our brand?” and “Will our audience care?” Finally, will it feel authentic or forced?
Many brands falter here. Chasing a trend that’s off-brand does more than fall flat; it risks damaging your credibility. The Duolingo x Scrub Daddy “cursed collab” worked because both brands share a quirky, unfiltered tone. If a serious financial brand tried the same joke? Cue the confused and cringing followers.
Assess risk, too. Some trends carry baggage, like political undercurrents, social controversies, or rapidly shifting sentiment. Your internal team should include diverse perspectives to help flag possible missteps.
Beyond relevance, hopping on the trend should add to your brand’s story. If it doesn’t connect to your values or content pillars, it might be better to skip it. Not every viral moment is worth jumping into. Restraint is often what separates trend-chasers from trend leaders.
Produce the Content—Quickly!
Once you’ve vetted a trend, it’s “go time.” Timing is everything in trendjacking. Wait too long, and you’re just adding noise to an already crowded feed.
In practice, your team needs a streamlined workflow to move from idea to pressing the publish button in hours, not days. Empower social managers with decision-making autonomy. Maintain a library of pre-approved assets like brand visuals, fonts, and tone examples so your team can capitalize on trends without needing to create a full-scale design from scratch.
Creating internal “trend kits” or rapid response playbooks can help your team execute quickly and safely. Remember: the most memorable trendjacks feel both spontaneous and strategically on-brand because they are.
Creating Impactful Trendjacking Content
Once you’ve identified the right trend and confirmed it makes sense for your brand to participate, the real magic begins: creating content to hit the sweet spot of relevance, creativity, and authenticity. Not every trendjacking post needs to be laugh-out-loud funny or ultra-slick, but it should always bring something fresh and on-brand to the table. Some tried-and-true strategies for creating trendjacking content that resonates include:
1. Customize by Platform
What works on TikTok might not work on LinkedIn, and vice versa. Tailor your content’s tone, format, and visuals to the platform you’re posting on. Wendy’s built their brand on X with snarky one-liners, but the food chain takes a more curated and visual approach on Instagram.
2. Embrace the Weird (Strategically)
Humor, absurdity, and left-field creativity often fuel viral trends. But you can’t force it. Duolingo’s TikTok presence leans fully into weirdness, but it’s consistent with their edgy, millennial-savvy voice.
Add Value. Don’t Just Copy
Don’t simply copy-paste a trending meme format. Add your brand’s POV, a clever twist, or insights that enhance the original. For example, Canva recently leveraged the app’s ability to create color schemes with the growing popularity of Labubu toys.
4. Prioritize Authenticity
Your audience can smell a cash grab a mile away. If the trend doesn’t align with your values or voice, skip it. If you really feel like you need to participate, subtly nod to the trend without trying to dominate it. Engage, like, or reply to accounts that have posted content in the trend without creating new assets on your own.
5. Keep the Content High-Quality
Even in a fast-moving trend cycle, visuals (and sound) matter. Low-res graphics or clunky text overlays can kill your momentum. Use templates or pre-approved brand assets to keep things polished under pressure.
Trendjacking is not the time to let the copywriter have the keys to the Canva account.
When Trendjacking Goes Wrong…
Trendjacking is a real double-edged sword. When done right, it’s clever, memorable, and engaging. When done wrong, it’s also memorable, but for the wrong reasons; it’s tone-deaf, confusing, or even damaging to your brand. Avoid these common pitfalls.
Tone-deaf or Insensitive Posting
Some trends are tied to serious or sensitive events, and misjudging the tone can result in intense backlash. That’s what happened to Pepsi in 2017 for their ad that featured Kendall Jenner, which co-opted protest imagery to sell soda (and promptly got called out for trivializing real social movements).
Just because a topic is trending doesn’t mean it’s safe territory. Assign someone on your team to assess social sentiment and cultural context before engaging.
Jumping in Too Late
Timing is critical. A trend that peaked two days ago may already feel stale, especially if your post doesn’t add anything new. Joining late makes your brand look like it’s scrambling to stay relevant, not leading the conversation.
To avoid this, consider streamlining your approvals process and having brand-safe assets ready to go.
Misunderstanding the Trend
One of the fastest ways to make a brand look out of touch is to misinterpret the trend altogether. Imagine someone at your company wanted to tweet a meme that referenced “Netflix and chill,” without realizing its NSFW subtext. The internet might notice and not in a good way.
Before trendjacking, do a quick sentiment check. What does this trend actually mean to the people participating in it?
Forcing the Fit
If the trend doesn’t suit your brand voice, values, or audience, don’t force it. It’s painfully obvious when a B2B SaaS brand shoehorns itself into a Gen Z meme format meant for fashion or pop culture. This usually results in low engagement at best and audience cringe at worst.
Brands need a straightforward internal process for evaluating the risk of trendjacking campaigns. Who gets to greenlight? What criteria does the content meet? Building a lightweight risk assessment checklist or review board (creative + legal + DEI leads) can help you act quickly and responsibly.
Lack of Crisis Planning
Even with the best of intentions, things can go sideways fast. That’s why it’s smart to develop a basic crisis response protocol before engaging with fast-moving or culturally sensitive trends. Know who will respond, how quickly, and what steps to take if content sparks backlash.
Measuring Success and Finding Learnings for the Future
With your trendjacking content out in the world, it’s time to answer the big question: Did it work?
Start by measuring the basics: likes, shares, reach, and impressions. These top-level metrics help assess immediate visibility and initial audience reaction.
Smart marketers go further, though. The most impactful trendjacking efforts don’t just rack up views. They strengthen brand equity and move the needle on meaningful outcomes. Ask yourself:
Was the engagement meaningful? Analyze the sentiment and depth of conversation in your engagement. Did people share it with thoughtful comments or tag their friends, or was the engagement just a flood of indifferent likes?
Did it shape perception or sentiment? Use social listening tools to see if brand sentiment improved during and after the campaign. Google Analytics and UTM parameters can help tie social moments back to web traffic and conversion goals.
Did it drive real behavior? Track clicks, sign-ups, or sales lifts during and after the campaign. This is another instance where Google Analytics and UTM parameters can help tie those moments back to web traffic and conversion goals.
Did it strengthen community? Great trendjacking does more than entertain. It builds a sense of belonging. If the post sparked DMs, follow-up content ideas, or user-generated content (UGC), that’s a sign your audience is invested.
Want to level up your campaign? Try aligning your trendjacking posts with keyword-focused content or campaign themes. This gives your SEO strategy a boost, especially in a world where Search Everywhere is the norm (and users can Google the trend and stumble onto your brand).
Upcoming Trendjacking Trends
The art and science of trendjacking will only evolve as the digital landscape shifts. Marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve will need to keep a pulse on what’s trending and how those trends take shape and spread. The future of trendjacking will evolve thanks to things like AI, new platforms, and the rise of “unpolished” realness.
1. AI-powered Content Creation
AI is creating massive shifts in real-time marketing as tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Runway help brands generate reactive content faster than ever. From clever captions to custom visuals, the future of trendjacking likely includes AI-enhanced creativity. The big challenge for brands is to remain authentic in the face of automation.
Could ChatGPT help brands jump on the enthusiasm for Labubu without spending the time to go out and source a doll? Possibly.
2. New and Niche Platforms
Instagram, TikTok, and X may reign supreme among platforms, but that won’t always be the case. Bluesky is becoming increasingly popular, and YouTube Shorts has challenged TikTok as a vehicle for short-form video content creation. Expect trendjacking to require more platform-specific fluency, understanding not just the content but the culture of each channel.
3. The Rise of “Unpolished” Realness
Consumers are tired of overproduced content. The next wave of trendjacking will favor brands that show up with honesty, humor, and heart. Even if that means posting something that feels more lo-fi than high-concept. Authenticity isn’t just a “nice to have” anymore. It’s a prerequisite for engagement.
Bobe’s Pizza may be a small Indiana brand, but they lean on authentic content that resonates with their core audience.
The bottom line is that the future of trendjacking isn’t about being fast. It’s about being fast, smart, and real while building systems to let your brand respond with agility and intention.
FAQs
What is the difference between trendjacking and newsjacking?
While both strategies involve jumping into timely conversations, the difference lies in what you’re responding to. Newsjacking is about inserting your brand into breaking news stories — typically through PR or expert commentary — while trendjacking taps into broader online trends, like memes, pop culture moments, or viral challenges. Trendjacking is more social and creative, whereas newsjacking is often more formal and media-facing.
What is an example of trendjacking?
A classic example is Oreo’s “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout. The brand reacted in real time with a witty graphic and caption, and the internet loved it. More recently, brands like Ryanair and Duolingo have gone viral for trendjacking TikTok memes using their unique, offbeat brand voices. The key to successful trendjacking? Speed, creativity, and cultural fluency.
What is the trendjacking strategy?
When done well, trendjacking helps brands increase visibility, boost engagement, and connect with audiences in a culturally relevant way. It shows your brand has personality and a pulse. Beyond racking up likes, the real value comes from building brand affinity, sparking conversations, and staying top-of-mind in an increasingly noisy digital space.
Conclusion
Trendjacking is about moving fast and smart. When you do it right, it can drive massive visibility and deepen brand affinity. It takes planning, awareness, and a clear voice to avoid the pitfalls and stand out in the scroll. Whether it’s memes, moments, or movements, show up with purpose.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-22 19:00:002025-07-22 19:00:00What Is Trendjacking & How to Do it for Your Brand
Black Friday is the biggest rush of the year for most ecommerce businesses, and it is right around the corner. The most successful merchants prepare for Black Friday early and follow a structured plan to prepare their stores, ensure visibility, and convert first-time visitors into long-term customers.
This guide breaks down your preparation into three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each section builds on the last so that you can grow your readiness over time, regardless of your team size or budget.
Basic: Start with what you can control for Black Friday
These actions lay the groundwork for everything else. Without these, no advanced strategy will stick.
1. Optimize your metadata
First impressions matter, and your metadata is the first thing users see in search results. So make it count and leave a lasting impact.
Why it matters: Strong metadata can improve visibility and attract more clicks. When your titles and descriptions align with what shoppers seek, your chances of standing out rise significantly.
Actionable tips:
Prioritize metadata for high-traffic products and category pages.
Include seasonal keywords such as “Black Friday deals” or “holiday gift ideas.”
Keep titles and descriptions concise and compelling.
With Yoast SEO for Shopify and Yoast WooCommerce SEO, you can preview and improve your metadata in real time. The tools flag missing or duplicated fields and guide you on how to write content that earns clicks.
2. Optimize product pages for both humans and search engines
Product pages are the moment of truth. They’re where curiosity turns into clicks and clicks turn into customers.
Why it matters: No matter how great your traffic or ads are, most people will leave without buying if the product page feels confusing or incomplete. A well-structured page improves your chances of ranking in search and helps buyers feel confident in their decision.
Actionable tips:
Lead with benefits, not just specs. Tell shoppers how the product fits into their lives.
Use bullet points and headers to make details skimmable.
Reinforce trust by showing stock levels, customer reviews, and delivery clarity.
Bulk update how you showcase your product on Shopify using Yoast SEO for Shopify Content Templates feature.
Yoast WooCommerce SEO and Yoast SEO for Shopify help your product pages appear cleanly and clearly in search results. They add structured data behind the scenes and check your content for SEO and readability so you can focus on turning visitors into buyers.
3. Use internal links to guide traffic
Internal linking guides customer to surface key pages, maps user behavior, and boosts your site’s SEO.
Why it matters: Internal linking helps search engines understand your site structure, distributes authority to key pages, and guides visitors toward high-converting content. It keeps users engaged, supports SEO, and makes your promotions easier to surface across your site.
Actionable tips:
Link to your Black Friday page from key blogs and evergreen content.
Feature top categories or bestsellers in your navigation.
Use anchor text that aligns with what users are searching for.
Yoast WooCommerce SEO offers internal linking suggestions as you write, making keeping your content connected and strategic easier.
Fast wins and common pitfalls
Once you have set up the basics, some steps can help you boost impact quicker and avoid costly missed opportunities.
Fast wins:
Swap stock photos for original product shots
Double-check coupon logic and expiration dates
Test any gift wrap or personalization options on product pages
Big pitfalls to avoid:
Waiting until November to publish seasonal content
Using duplicate product descriptions from suppliers
Letting broken links or outdated pages remain live
Intermediate: Strengthen your SEO and campaign strategy
Once the technical foundation is stable, it’s time to focus on your content and promotions.
4. Test and improve your site’s speed
Site speed directly impacts user experience, especially during high-traffic periods like Black Friday. Slow-loading pages frustrate shoppers and lead to lost sales.
Why it matters: A fast site supports smoother browsing and quicker checkout. Search engines consider page performance in rankings, and users are more likely to buy when the experience feels seamless.
Actionable tips:
Use performance monitoring tools to identify slow pages.
Compress and resize large images to reduce page load times.
Deactivate unused plugins (WooCommerce) or apps (Shopify).
Clean up excessive code or bulky page elements.
While Yoast SEO is not a speed optimization tool, clean site structure and proper internal linking help improve crawlability and engagement, indirectly supporting performance.
5. Create a focused Black Friday landing page
Your landing page is the command center for your seasonal promotions. It’s where visitors decide to browse further or bounce.
Why it matters: A dedicated page gives your Black Friday campaign direction and cohesion. Instead of scattering your offers across the site, it provides a clear path for shoppers to follow. It simplifies navigation, allows for better internal linking, and gives you a consistent, trackable URL for email campaigns, ads, and site banners. Plus, it’s reusable! Just update the content each year.
Actionable tips:
Create a short, memorable URL like /black-friday-deals and keep it live year-round.
Showcase limited-time offers, bundles, top-selling categories, and exclusive discounts.
Use persuasive headers, quick-loading images, and CTA buttons that lead directly to product pages.
Answer common buyer concerns upfront, e.g., shipping deadlines, return windows, and local pickup options.
6. Segment your email list and automate flows
Email isn’t just another marketing channel during Black Friday; it’s your direct line to customers ready to buy.
Why it matters: Blasting the same message with monotonous tone to everyone no longer works. Crafting compelling emails with personalized messages that resonate with the reader is key to email marketing. People are more likely to open, click, and shop when an email speaks to their pain points and highlights the solution. A segmented email list means you’re talking to people based on what they care about: early access, bundles, or a product they viewed or left in their cart.
Actionable tips:
Break your list into clear segments, e.g., loyal customers, cart abandoners, and holiday-only shoppers.
Map out your flow: teaser email, early access offer, launch announcement, final hours.
Track performance with UTM parameters like utm_campaign=bf25 so you can optimize in real time.
7. Create content that helps people find your deals earlier
Buyers don’t always search for discounts. Many start with questions or ideas like “affordable gifts for coworkers” or “best tech gift under $100.”
Why it matters: Helpful blog posts and gift guides pull in people who aren’t searching for your brand yet. These early touchpoints introduce your products and lead them toward your Black Friday offers.
Actionable tips:
Write guides and roundups tied to real shopper intent.
Use long-tail keywords that match seasonal search habits.
Add smart internal links to featured products or your Black Friday landing page.
Fast wins and common pitfalls
Once your product pages are polished, tighten up the surrounding details.
Fast wins:
Set a calendar reminder for your campaign email and social media schedule
Add an announcement banner linking to your Black Friday page
Test your email signup and welcome flow to catch any issues
Big pitfalls to avoid:
Forgetting to link email campaigns to relevant landing pages
Using inconsistent messaging and UTMs across channels
Launching your Black Friday page too late for indexing and ranking
Buy WooCommerce SEO now!
Unlock powerful features and much more for your online store with Yoast WooCommerce SEO!
Advanced Black Friday preparation: Boost visibility, trust, and retention
If you’re already doing the essentials well, these strategies will help you scale.
7. Improve your chances of showing up in local search
If you offer in-store pickup or have a physical store, don’t miss out on the people searching near you. Shoppers looking for same-day purchases often skip past online-only stores.
Why it matters: When someone searches for a product near them, being present in the results can drive instant foot traffic and build trust before they even walk in.
Actionable tips:
Ensure your name, address, and phone (NAP) are identical across all pages and listings.
Update your opening hours and add clear pickup instructions.
Add content to your site that mentions your location, city, or neighborhood.
Yoast Local SEO is included in the Yoast WooCommerce SEO. It helps you create and manage local schema and landing pages that appear in search. (It is not available for Shopify.)
8. Use structured data to stand out in search
When someone searches for a product and your listing shows price, availability, or reviews, that’s not luck. That’s structured data.
Why it matters: Rich snippets give your products more space in search results, credibility, and clicks.
Actionable tips:
Add structured data (schema) for Product, Offer, and Review to top-selling listings.
Use Google’s tools to check that your schema is implemented correctly.
Use product variant schema to improve your chances of showing in rich search results.
9. Set up post-purchase flows before the sale starts
Black Friday may be over at checkout, but it’s just the beginning of your relationship with a new customer.
Why it matters: People who buy during Black Friday often need reassurance and support. They’re far more likely to come back if they feel taken care of.
Actionable tips:
Set up automated flows for thank-you messages, setup tips, and review requests.
Offer a discount for a second purchase or referral.
Guide people back to your product pages or Google review profile.
Taking care of this now means you can focus on fulfillment and service during the Black Friday rush.
Fast wins and common pitfalls
A thoughtful follow-up and last check make sure you build on opportunities and are ready for what might come your way.
Fast wins:
Recheck your sitemap to ensure new pages are indexed
Update your business hours and contact details in your footer
Enable review requests to trigger automatically post-purchase
Big pitfalls to avoid:
Making last-minute technical changes with no buffer
Ignoring mobile performance and checkout testing
Overlooking schema validation or broken structured data
Final thoughts
Preparing for Black Friday is about being proactive, not reactive. Every SEO improvement you make now, from product pages to local visibility, will help you attract more shoppers and turn clicks into customers.
Yoast gives you the tools to stay ahead: clearer product listings, stronger search visibility, and smart automations that scale with your store. Whether you’re using Shopify or WooCommerce, optimize now to be ready before the crowds arrive.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-22 12:40:022025-07-22 12:40:02How to prep your Shopify or WooCommerce store for Black Friday before the rush starts
The summer is well on its way. Should you already start preparing for Black Friday and the holiday season? Yes! They’re the biggest sales of the year, and ranking in Google is something you take time to do. It’s never too early to start getting your deals ready. So, if you are a merchant with an online store or an ecommerce business, let’s start working on your holiday season and Black Friday SEO immediately!
Don’t forget that Black Friday (November 28, 2025) and Cyber Monday (December 1, 2025) are kicking off this year’s holiday shopping season. You can set up a lot of content for all occasions. In this post, we’ll review some things you can do to prepare!
Today, people are used to shopping online. It’s easy and convenient. You don’t have to travel only to find something out of stock. Plus, online stores often offer payment plans. Shopping online is so popular that online sales during the holiday season keep hitting record after record. And the numbers will only continue to rise. That’s why it’s safe to assume that people will buy many (if not most) holiday gifts online this year.
Staying on top of trends to prepare for the holiday season is good. E-commerce is still growing, and consumers expect more every year. Here are some actionable tips for the upcoming Black Friday and holiday season to improve your SEO:
Discount deals and alternative payment options (Buy now, pay later) should be part of your ecommerce strategy
Brands should provide a consistent purchasing experience across digital/online and physical stores
To minimize returns, brands should make their product pages as comprehensive as possible
Holiday season marketing campaigns should be tailored to each platform to ensure maximum effectiveness
Online is where it’s at
Of course, in-store or curbside pick-up will still prove popular. However, most people research their ecommerce purchases online – sometimes weeks in advance! So don’t be surprised when the holiday shopping season starts well before Black Friday and continues for weeks.
Extending Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other holiday season online deals for a few days or weeks can be a good idea. This is especially true if you want to prevent huge crowds from gathering at your store on a specific day. That won’t be a good shopping experience for anyone involved, so spreading these deals over an extended time is probably better.
Start preparing in time
Dive into the data you amassed during previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, and see if you can come up with improvements for your e-commerce holiday season SEO. Bear in mind that it takes a while for content to rank. So, to keep up with the competition, try to get your content in gear at least 45 days ahead. That’s often recommended. Of course, you can always start preparing earlier if that works better for you. Your schedule could look something like this:
45 Days in advance: Post your promotion to your website calendar and post a save-the-date post on social media and in your email newsletter.
7 Days in advance: Post upcoming events/promotions on social media and via email. Try to encourage other (small) businesses to share it with their followers.
1 Day in advance: Post an event reminder on social media.
It’s a good rule to remember these steps and time frames. However, you can do much more than set up new pages and renew old ones. Let’s look at a few practical tips.
1. Do holiday season keyword research
Keyword research is important all year, but especially during the season when your online store starts having big sales. You have probably worked on this research previously, but now is the time to dive in again. There are always things to learn, like developments in your industry, changes in consumer behavior, or new trends and topics to discuss.
Start early with your research to give yourself enough time to produce high-quality, helpful content that helps reach those new audiences. While using generative AI tools to generate holiday season SEO content for your e-commerce business is enticing, please be careful with that. Generative AI can help you do your job, but it can’t replace your valuable insights and opinions.
First, we must consider what category or particular landing pages make sense for the upcoming holidays. You can always set up pages like ‘Best gifts for parents/millennials/teens’, ‘Newest deals for your 6/10/12-year-old’, and ‘Best friend/grandparents/coworker discounts’. You could also think of ‘Top 10 gifts for outdoor/skiing/parasailing enthusiasts’ and ‘Top 3 deals for stay-at-home parents’, etcetera.
To increase the chances of your gift pages ranking, boost their internal linking structure. You can also link the previous all-year holiday season pages, such as specific Christmas landing pages (‘Top 7/10/25 gifts for under the Christmas tree’) to boost these when the time has come. That could be around the 45-day mark, but we would be okay with stretching that to 60 days. You’ll need to give Google and other search engines enough time to follow your links and find your specific holiday season SEO landing pages with deals.
3. Promote on social media and in your newsletter
Social media like X and Instagram can play a massive role in the success of your (online) Black Friday sale. Take Pinterest, for instance. Many people have a Pinterest Christmas wish list. As a merchant, it would be amazing to get your products on people’s wish lists, which can positively impact your reach and maybe even your sales.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to share your Black Friday gift pages on Facebook and other social media. Maybe even make short videos to post on TikTok. In the previous section, we mentioned the top ten lists. We all know these still work pretty well on social media. Yoast SEO can help you optimize your social media posts before you share them.
Email marketing
Last but not least, remember your email marketing! For many companies, newsletters provide a steady stream of income. Be sure to plan a good campaign for your newsletters.
For example, we recommend setting up holiday gift guides and sharing these. You can create an excellent overview of many gifts that many people will enjoy. ELLE and Target have pages like that, and so do more companies.
4. Introduce new products
The holiday season is an excellent time to pitch new products. If you know of potential bestsellers for the upcoming holiday season, start writing content about these products now. You can compare it to tech sites writing about concept iPhones, features that Apple might add, etc.
The more you write about new products upfront, the more likely the sales pages for these products will rank when it matters. You should link all pages you made in advance to that one main page you’ll set up when the product is released and available to buy. Treat that page like cornerstone content.
5. Add structured data to your product pages
When adding or changing your product pages to fit the holiday season, don’t forget to optimize them. Check, for instance, whether you’ve added structured data to your product pages. Rich results that show ratings and prices can give you an edge over your competitors. Our WooCommerce SEO plugin, Local SEO plugin (included in Yoast SEO Premium), or Yoast SEO for Shopify app can help you do this to improve your holiday season!
Example of a product appearing in the search results if you use structured data.
Don’t forget to optimize your e-commerce product feeds for Black Friday and holiday season SEO. This maximizes visibility and sales during this high-traffic online shopping period. Start by ensuring all product information, such as titles, descriptions, prices, and availability, is accurate and up-to-date. Check if the products that need them have relevant Black Friday keywords to enhance discoverability. Use high-quality, clear images to showcase your product.
Use the promotions feature in Google Merchant Center to prominently display special deals and discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This way, you’ll make your offers more attractive to potential buyers. Please update your feed regularly to reflect real-time inventory changes and fix errors to maintain product visibility.
7. Reuse content
There’s no shame in serving old wine in a new bottle. If you have a Black Friday or a Christmas gift guide for 2024, feel free to reuse it in 2025. Update the year and details like popular brands and products for that year. If the slug of your URL is /black-friday-guide-2024/, change it to /black-friday-guide-2025/ around August next year, and redirect the old URL to the new one. No need to create a new page. It would be a waste of nice inbound links not to reuse that old URL. Of course, this is even easier if you don’t include the year in the URL, so /black-friday-guide/ is also an excellent slug.
In the months before the holiday season, you could even simply repost popular posts from last year (a bit adjusted or updated if needed) on social media. Valentine’s Day might even become Secret Santa. Cyber Monday might match your child’s favorite gifts for Ramadan. These are probably small adjustments; perhaps just adding ‘this Ramadan’ to a meta description or title will do.
It’s a good idea to check and optimize your website for speed and mobile use. Trust us; you’ll get these recommendations from an SEO blog or consultant daily. And with good reason! Mobile, site speed, and user experience are essential to get people to spend money on your ecommerce business this Black Friday. When preparing your online store for the holiday sale season, this is as good a time as any to check your mobile website and site speed, and update or improve them if possible.
Investing in local SEO for Black Friday and Christmas shopping is essential for local businesses aiming to attract more customers. Begin by optimizing your Google Business Profile with accurate business information, including address, phone number, business hours, and any special Black Friday/Cyber Monday hours or promotions. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. Use local keywords in your content, focusing on terms your community will likely search for, such as “Black Friday deals in [Your City].” Additionally, engage with your local community on social media by promoting special deals to drive more foot traffic to your store.
10. Create a measurement plan
All set? Remember to make a measurement plan to analyze your success. Write down all your plans, then think about how to track all your actions. This is key to knowing what to focus on next year. For detailed instructions on analyzing your Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Cinco de Mayo shopping, read our post with five tips to measure your holiday sales success.
What should you do when the holiday season is over?
How do you handle the product pages of holiday gift sets after the holidays? Even if the gift set or product was a great success, and you want to offer it again next year, it’ll take a while for the page to be relevant again. What is the best way to deal with these pages in the meantime?
Our advice: Keep the pages up. However, you don’t necessarily want them visible to people browsing your site. So, have the page up without linking, then link to it again during the holiday season. This is better than deleting it and starting again.
Conclusion on holiday season SEO
In short, now’s the time to buckle down and start writing holiday gift pages and content for new products. Remember to plan your social media promotion and analytics. After all, you can never start too early when your online business depends on the holiday season. Be prepared; begin now with your SEO. Good luck with your holiday season sale!
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-21 11:00:362025-07-21 11:00:36Holiday season SEO: 10 tips to start preparing!
Off-page SEO is everything you do outside of your website to help it rank better in the SERPs. On-page SEO focuses on content, site structure, and technical improvements, but off-page SEO looks at building credibility from outside. There are many ways to get there, from link building to social media to earning those coveted brand mentions.
With off-page SEO, you try to gain trust and credibility for yourself or your business. A big part of this strategy concerns link building, which involves getting other websites to link back to yours. Doing this shows search engines that your content is helpful and worth looking at.
Remember that it’s about the quality of links, instead of the quantity. A few high-quality links from trusted websites will help more than lots of links from low-authority ones. But links aren’t the only signals that matter.
Mentions of your brand name or domain from other websites also help build authority. Even without direct links, consistent references in articles and forums show that people are engaging with your brand.
Social media builds on that exposure. Sharing content where your audience spends time can boost visibility, which in turn can lead to more mentions, traffic, and backlinks.
Local SEO is another area of off-page SEO. Using tools like Google Business Profile and getting reviews helps your business appear in location-based searches. It’s especially useful for service businesses or companies with physical locations.
You can also experiment with creating content for different audiences to naturally attract attention. Reusing content in different formats, like videos, blog posts, or infographics, keeps your reach wide. You can also work with experts or influencers, as these can introduce your brand to new audiences and help build visibility.
Why off-page SEO matters for your site
Search engines want searchers to see trustworthy content. With off-page SEO, you can prove your site is dependable, and the quickest way to do this is when others refer to or recommend it. Good links from strong websites act like references, building confidence in your content’s value.
Even unlinked brand mentions help. When your name keeps coming up across the web, algorithms pick up on it. A strong digital presence makes a difference, whether that’s engaging with others online, through media coverage, partnerships, or content sharing.
While not directly tied to rankings, increasing your online visibility can lead to more searches, shares, and links, which can lead to increased traffic.
All these efforts support the broader goal of demonstrating that your website is run by real people with knowledge and experience. They help search engines judge how much they can rely on your content.
Link building is a big part of off-page SEO
Links from other websites tell search engines that your content is worth showing. That’s why link building is one of the key parts of off-page SEO, but not every link is equal.
Search engines find links from high-authority, topic-relevant sites more important. Getting those kinds of links usually means creating content that people want to reference, such as guides, studies, or tools.
Outreach plays a role, too. You can connect with other websites, offer guest posts, or share original insights. Over time, this builds relationships and can lead to higher-quality backlinks.
PR and content marketing also help, whether you contribute expert opinions to news outlets or create something worth citing. It’s more effective than mass emailing or buying links, the latter of which you shouldn’t do anyway.
Part of your job should be managing your existing links. SEO tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush can monitor broken or lost links and help fix or replace them.
If you are successful, link building can be more than just a tactic. It can show that others recognize your site as trustworthy, and that recognition, measured through linking, can improve rankings and drive traffic.
Social media’s impact
Social media doesn’t directly affect ranking, but it helps people discover and share your content. That kind of exposure can lead to links, searches, and increased brand familiarity.
Platforms like LinkedIn, X, Reddit, and Instagram let you speak to your audience and encourage interaction. When people find value in what you publish, they tend to share it or come back to it.
In time, these interactions build brand recognition. While this might not have a clear SEO metric attached, it does support and improve your visibility. Collaborating with influencers expands your audience even more. If they share something you’ve created, it can get picked up and linked to by others.
Video is playing an increasingly important role in this. Research from BrightLocal shows that many U.S. consumers are drawn to video content directly from businesses discussing their products or services. Over a third of consumers prefer this type of video, even more than those shared by friends, influencers, or typical social media reviewers. Additionally, 31% of individuals find value in watching videos from regular social media users.
Use insights from these platforms to spot what your audience cares about. That helps shape better content, which can trigger organic shares and mentions.
Local SEO as an off-page SEO strategy
For locally oriented businesses, off-page SEO means being easy to find and well-reviewed locally. Start with accurate business info across online directories, so make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent. Search engines use this to match your business to search results.
Your Google Business Profile needs regular attention, so photos, updates, and timely responses to reviews all help. In that same BrightLocal research, 89% of respondents say they expect merchants and business owners to reply to all types of reviews.
Encourage satisfied customers to leave public reviews. New reviews show search engines and potential visitors that your business stays active and involved. A complete, active listing stands out to local customers and improves your chances of appearing in map results.
Try building links from other local businesses or organizations. These carry weight in local SEO. Sponsoring events or working with local publications can lead to mentions and coverage.
Being visible in your area is not just about what local content you have on your site, but also about how your local audience views your business online.
Carefully replying to your reviews manages your online reputation
Expertise and trust
With off-page SEO, you have many opportunities to show your expertise. Sharing your knowledge can build trust, which in itself can create useful input for search engines.
Guest posting on reputable websites reaches people already interested in what you have to say. If those sites link back, it’s a plus for SEO, except when shady things happen, of course.
You can also take part in forums and Q&A sites. Offering useful, relevant insights gets your name out and sometimes leads to mentions from others who find your content helpful.
Podcasts, webinars, and speaking events work the same way. Participating in discussions in your space helps establish expertise and can result in new traffic or backlinks from media coverage or event promotions.
Collaborating with other professionals through research or shared content introduces your work to their audience and can lead to more recognition and links over time.
You shouldn’t just focus on creating more content, but try to actively lead in your field. If your business is perceived as the go-to place, this builds trust with both your audience and search engines.
How off-page SEO impacts AI-driven search
Search is changing quicker than ever. Beyond the classic search results, people are now using AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and chat assistants like ChatGPT to find answers. These tools use large language models (LLMs) to pull information from across the web, and off-page SEO plays a role in how your content shows up.
When your brand or website appears on high-quality, trusted sites, it increases the chances that AI tools recognize your content as reliable. Structured citations, strong backlinks, and consistent brand mentions all help LLMs “see” your site as a good source. This can lead to your content influencing or being featured in AI-generated summaries and answers.
Authority, trust, and topic alignment are all important. The more your content is referenced or quoted by reputable sources, the more likely it is to appear in conversational search results or be used to answer common questions. Find out how to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools.
Off-page SEO now supports not just link-driven visibility, but also discoverability in AI search and chat tools. It helps improve your overall presence, so it doesn’t matter whether someone uses Google, social media, or an AI chatbot to find information about you.
Off-page SEO helps widen the scope
Off-page SEO works together with on-page work to strengthen your website’s reputation across the web. First, it helps your users, but it also helps search engines and AI tools recognize your content as trustworthy and relevant.
Whether you’re earning backlinks, encouraging brand mentions, engaging on social platforms, or building local visibility, each off-page signal adds to your authority. Collaborations, reviews, and expert participation show real experience behind your site.
These strategies now also influence how content surfaces in AI-generated results. That means off-page SEO doesn’t just support traditional rankings, but it also helps your brand stay discoverable in new, AI-powered ways.
The more consistent, trusted, and present your brand is across the web, the more likely it is to show up wherever people are searching, even if they’re not using a classic search engine. Build trust, stay visible, and let your off-page efforts work across search formats, now and into the future.
I asked ChatGPT: “What are the best resources to learn SEO in 2025?”
The response mentioned Backlinko twice.
Here’s the thing: We don’t rank #1 in Google for “best SEO resources.” (Ads, Reddit, and AI Overviews take up that real estate).
We haven’t even optimized for “best SEO resources,” but we got mentioned anyway.
That’s LLM seeding in action.
Organic traffic is dropping across the board. Large language models (LLMs) are now answering your audience’s questions directly, quietly hijacking the clicks you used to count on.
Maybe you’ve already seen the dip. Maybe you see the writing on the wall.
Either way, it’s time to fight back — with a new kind of visibility strategy.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
What to publish so LLMs actually cite you
Where to seed your content for maximum pickup
And how to track whether your brand is showing up
Get your brand into the conversation now — so you don’t get left behind.
What the Heck Is LLM Seeding?
LLM seeding is the practice of publishing content in the formats and places LLMs are most likely to scrape, summarize, and cite.
Here’s an example of a Backlinko article that encourages scraping with an LLM-friendly format:
In other words: You’re not just optimizing for Google.
You’re optimizing for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and any other LLMs or AI search engines your audience uses.
Here’s how it works:
You create AI-friendly content, such as comparison posts with tables and FAQ sections.
And publish it in places LLMs look for information. (More on this later.)
When people ask LLMs for information related to your industry, they mention your brand in the answer.
Often, they don’t include a link to your site.
Still, that mention sticks.
Users notice it, remember it, and later search for your brand directly.
Over time, these citations drive more branded searches, direct traffic, and trust in your name.
While LLM seeding is a new strategy, you’re not starting from scratch.
It builds on everything you already know about SEO, content marketing, and PR.
The difference? It requires a fundamental mindset shift.
You’re no longer optimizing for clicks. You’re optimizing for citations.
And instead of trying to rank #1, you’re influencing what AI tools say about your brand.
Adopting this new approach means rethinking how you show up online.
But it’s how you’ll stay visible and influential as search continues to evolve.
3 Big Benefits of LLM Seeding
Still chasing backlinks and rankings?
According to a Semrush study, AI search traffic will surpass traditional search by the end of 2027.
Shift your focus to LLM seeding now to stay competitive.
And prepare for a zero-click, LLM-driven world.
1. Brand Exposure Without Traffic Dependence
Here’s the problem:
Searchers no longer have to click search results to get the information they need.
Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode provide detailed answers to questions and step-by-step instructions.
LLMs allow searchers to bypass Google and other search engines entirely.
They provide product recommendations, summaries, answers … you name it.
For many site owners, this is resulting in a noticeable decline in traffic.
So, what’s the answer?
Becoming the answer.
When LLMs cite your brand, you become part of the conversation.
Which helps your brand stay top of mind, even without the click.
2. Authority by Association
One of the biggest wins of LLM seeding? Instant credibility.
When large language models mention your brand alongside industry leaders, it boosts your authority.
Case in point: I asked ChatGPT to recommend products for dogs with leaky gut.
It suggested Purina and Zesty Paws, two huge brands.
But it also recommended Adored Beast, a much lesser-known pet brand.
That’s the beauty of LLM seeding.
You don’t need a massive budget or a #1 ranking.
You just need to publish content that LLMs want to cite.
3. Leveled Playing Field
In traditional search, the highest-ranking content wins.
But LLMs work differently.
They prioritize the best answers, no matter what page they’re on.
In fact, almost 90% of ChatGPT citations come from positions 21+, according to Semrush’s study.
So, your comparison post on page 4 could get cited more than a competitor ranking in Google’s top 5 — if your content provides better answers.
Sounds good? Now, I’ll cover how to create LLM-friendly content.
What to Publish (So You Get Cited by LLMs)
LLMs are citation machines. But they need content from credible sources.
Here are the formats that consistently get picked up:
Structured “Best Of” Lists
Both readers and LLMs appreciate a “best of” list — especially ones with clear structure and useful comparisons.
For example, I asked Perplexity what the best mattresses are for back pain.
And review site Sleep Advisor was one of its sources.
This site publishes “best of” articles often and has a rigorous testing process, two important components of LLM citations.
But to get cited, your list needs to go beyond the basics.
Start by explaining how you selected the items on your list.
LLMs prioritize content that shows transparent, well-reasoned decision-making. (Just like your readers do.)
This added context also helps LLMs match your content to the questions people are asking.
Sleep Advisor includes details about its testing process upfront in articles so readers (and LLMs) can’t miss it.
Another AI-friendly component of a “best of” list?
Giving each item a “best” rating that matches search behavior:
Best for freelancers on a budget
Best for advanced analytics
Best all-in-one solution for remote teams
If you’ve used LLMs, you know they quote these phrases in responses.
But it also helps users self-identify, which can increase leads and conversions.
For instance, Sleep Advisor awards mattresses with targeted “best” ratings.
Like “best mattress for upper back pain” and “best mattress for stomach sleepers with back pain.”
Now, consider your content’s structure.
This is where semantic chunking comes in.
Semantic chunking means organizing your content into short, clearly labeled sections that focus on a single idea or answer.
Why does it matter?
Chunked content with natural language headers makes it easier for AI to parse, understand, and pull relevant snippets into responses.
Use the same layout for every entry. A repeatable structure signals credibility and makes your content easier to extract and cite.
For example:
Item name + best rating
Quick summary
Key features or standout capabilities
Pros and cons
Pricing
Take it even further by adding scoring systems or ratings.
Sleep Advisor awards a 1-to-5-star rating based on hands-on testing across categories like pressure relief, motion isolation, cooling, and responsiveness.
That kind of structured, criteria-based scoring makes your content more credible … and easier for LLMs to cite.
Overall, anything that makes your content easier to skim and read will also help make it LLM-friendly.
This includes bullet lists, tables, and summary boxes.
First-Person Product Reviews
Authentic, hands-on reviews are another format LLMs tend to favor.
Why?
Because real testing equals real credibility.
LLMs surface these types of reviews because they:
Include measurable outcomes
Follow repeatable testing processes
Use specific, quotable phrasing
Let’s look at Wirecutter’s electric standing desk review, for example.
They have a “Why you should trust us section” that states they’ve tested 40+ adjustable desks since 2013.
This is a clear, measurable signal of expertise.
So, get granular and provide all your testing details:
Explain how many items you tested
Describe who did the testing, what their credentials are, and when it was conducted
Outline your methodology or criteria
This shows LLMs and your audience that your review is authentic.
Short, declarative lines are also important to include because they’re extract-friendly.
Here’s an example from the Wirecutter article:
The Branch Duo Standing Desk is a good option if you have limited space or are over 5-foot-8. But it doesn’t offer nearly as many customizable features as the Uplift, and there’s no option to upgrade to an advanced keypad.
Did you notice it includes both positives and negatives?
Balanced statements show you’re giving a fair, experience-based evaluation, not a sales pitch.
That kind of transparency helps establish trust with users and LLMs.
Comparison Tables (Especially Brand vs. Brand)
Mid-funnel users use AI platforms to help make purchasing decisions.
This is why it’s crucial to create content that compares your product to alternatives.
The key?
Present it in a clean, structured format, such as a table or chart.
Like this Backlinko article that includes a table to help readers choose the best PPC tool for their needs.
To make your comparison tables citation-worthy, focus on three things:
Use-case verdicts: Don’t just compare features. Tell readers which option is better for freelancers, agencies, enterprise teams, and more.
Highlight tradeoffs: Include both strengths and weaknesses for each option to add credibility
Citation-ready phrasing: Make each recommendation easy to cite. Instead of “Tool A is more feature-packed,” write “Tool A is the best choice for teams on a budget that need features like multi-user logins and grammar checking.”
This kind of clarity makes it easy for LLMs to quote your content when users ask: “Which one is better for [my specific use case]?”
FAQ-Style Content
LLMs are trained on Q&A content from platforms like Quora, Reddit, and other public forums.
So, it’s no surprise that FAQ formats perform well. They match the structure LLMs were built to understand.
For this reason, you’ll want to add FAQ-style posts to your content rotation.
You can identify customer questions in the following ways:
Once you’ve chosen your questions, structure them as subheadings in your article.
And write concise responses that start with a direct answer.
Semrush’s SEO FAQ article is a good example of this LLM-friendly format.
It includes questions as clear subheadings, including:
What Is SEO?
How Long Does It Take to Rank on Google?
Why Has My Organic Traffic Dropped?
This is the type of post that probably wouldn’t rank super well in Google.
But is EXACTLY what LLMs use to train on.
Importantly, the content provides clear, direct answers to the questions.
Adding structured data is another smart way to help AI search engines and LLMs better parse and interpret your content.
WordPress plugins like RankMath and Yoast can automatically add FAQPage structured data to help increase your citations.
Opinion‑Led Pieces with Clear Takeaways
Want to increase LLM citations? Come up with a unique take on something in your industry.
This could be a contrarian industry opinion or a surprising prediction — anything works when it’s done well.
The caveat?
You’ll need industry authority, experience, and evidence to support your stance.
But remember — structure matters more than ever before.
Ensure it’s well-structured and easy to summarize.
Otherwise, it’s unlikely to stand out (or get cited).
For example, in a YouTube video (yes, LLMs can pull from video transcripts and descriptions), digital growth marketer Grace Leung challenges outdated content strategies.
She explains why they’re holding brands back and what to do instead.
Her format is viewer- and AI-friendly with defined sections and actionable takeaways.
And she shares a strong opinion throughout the piece that is backed up by her expertise.
Want to do the same?
Include details that help LLMs understand and trust your content:
Author credentials: Briefly explain who you are and why you’re qualified to cover the topic. This adds credibility for both readers and LLMs.
Content overview: State what the piece covers early on (in your blog post intro or video description) so it’s easy to parse and summarize
Internal links: Link to related posts or supporting content to signal depth and strengthen your topical coverage
In Grace’s case, her video’s description includes all of the above (and more): a video summary, quick author bio, newsletter link, and related content.
But it’s also another way to give LLMs more context about your content.
Make your visuals LLM-friendly with these tips:
Write full-sentence captions that explain what’s pictured and why it matters. Think: “Peach cobbler cookie from Good Cakes and Bakes, one of Detroit’s most beloved bakeries,” not just “Cookies on a plate.”
Reference visuals directly in your copy. Instead of skipping over an image, say, “As you can see in the photo, this bakery’s seasonal peach cobbler cookies are a local favorite.”
Add alt text that reflects both the subject and its importance. Try: “Peach cobbler cookie at Good Cakes and Bakes, a popular Detroit bakery known for seasonal desserts.”
Use descriptive file names, like detroit-good-cakes-peach-cookie.jpg, to reinforce meaning for AI crawlers.
Tools, Templates, and Frameworks
Offer valuable resources that solve real problems to get referenced in LLM conversations.
For instance, I asked Perplexity how I can check keyword rankings for free.
Depending on your industry, you might create free templates, frameworks, calculators, or interactive tools.
To make your resource citation-worthy, give it a clear, descriptive title that matches how users search.
Like “Budget Calculator for Freelancers” and “Free Grammar Checker.”
Include an intro that explains who it’s for, what it does, and how to use it.
Then, add supporting content (like examples, FAQs, or use cases) so LLMs understand its context and value.
The more useful and well-structured your resource is, the more likely it is to earn mentions from your target audience and AI platforms.
For example, our free rank checker lets users check rankings in seconds.
The tool’s design is clean and user-friendly.
And the description sums up the tool’s benefits well, which is important for scraping:
Discover who’s linking to you and your competitors to find the latest opportunities and enhance your backlink profile.
Since the tool is both easy to use and genuinely helpful, it’s recommended by third parties in blogs and forums.
These mentions are vital because LLMs pick up on them when deciding what to cite.
Where to Seed Your Content for Maximum LLM Pickup
Publishing great content is only half the battle.
The other half? Getting it in front of the right crawlers.
Publish in places that LLMs trust, crawl frequently, and find easy to parse.
Here’s where to focus your efforts:
Third-Party Platforms
Certain third-party platforms are LLM magnets.
Why?
Their clean layout, clear headings, and consistent quality make them easy for AI to read and cite.
This includes:
Medium: Repurpose your long-form blog content here. Medium’s minimalist layout and semantic structure make it ideal for LLMs. Include section headers, summaries, and internal links for added context.
Substack: A great home for newsletter-style content and thought leadership commentary. Its emphasis on editorial voice and topical depth adds authority and makes your content easier for AI to recognize as expert-driven.
LinkedIn articles: These articles are indexed well and often tied to real profiles (which gives your content a credibility bonus in LLMs)
Trusted Industry Publications
LLMs are more likely to trust and cite content that comes from respected industry sources.
So, create a strategy to share content and quotes in high-impact publications to boost your LLM visibility.
Here’s how:
Create Guest Posts
No, guest posting isn’t dead — it’s just not all about the links anymore.
It’s about visibility.
Choose topics that align with popular LLM prompts (like product comparisons, trends, or how-tos).
And format your content clearly with subheads, summaries, and data points.
Offer Expert Quotes
Reach out to journalists, editors, and bloggers in your niche.
Provide non-promotional, insight-driven quotes to increase your chances of being featured in articles that LLMs frequently reference.
Tools like HARO or Featured.com can help you find opportunities to share your expertise.
Get Featured in Roundups
As you’ve learned, LLMs love “best of,” “top tools,” and “expert tips” formats.
Pitch to writers creating these lists — whether newsletters, LinkedIn posts, videos, or blog posts.
And make it easy to include your brand by providing a concise, structured blurb with supporting context or proof points.
User-Generated Content Hubs
Why do LLMs and AI search engines love user-generated content hubs?
Because they’re full of real people asking real (often long-tail) questions. And subject matter experts providing highly specific, detailed answers.
Ones you often won’t find elsewhere.
That makes these platforms powerful spots to seed your expertise.
Here’s where to focus:
Reddit
LLMs cite Reddit more than any other source, according to Semrush.
So, if Reddit wasn’t on your radar before, it should be now.
Participate in relevant subreddits where you can highlight your expertise and add genuine value.
Answer questions and respond to comments.
And then do it all over again.
Make Reddit a part of your regular rotation to boost your chances of LLM citations.
Quora
Reddit may be the darling of LLMs, but Quora isn’t far behind.
For this reason, you’ll want to add this platform into the mix as well.
Side note: Quora is the most commonly cited website in Google’s AI Overviews, according to Semrush’s AI search study.
Provide comprehensive answers to industry questions.
Include specific examples, comparisons, or step-by-step explanations to increase your chances of LLM citations.
But don’t let formatting slide just because you’re on an informal platform.
Add clear headlines, subheads, and bullet points to increase your chances of LLM scraping.
GitHub Discussions
Have a technical brand?
Get involved in community discussions beyond your product.
Share helpful bug fixes, answer questions, and offer support.
Building credibility makes it easier to reference your tool or solution when it’s genuinely relevant.
Niche Forums and Public Facebook Groups
Don’t overlook specialized communities.
LLMs scan niche forums and public Facebook groups for in-depth, experience-based insights.
Look for active, topic-specific forums like:
ContractorTalk: Home improvement and construction professionals
Chronicle Forums: Equestrian and horse care advice
GardenWeb forum: Gardening and plant tips and advice
AVS Forum: Home theater and tech product discussions
Contribute regularly with meaningful, non-promotional input.
Answer niche questions, clarify common misconceptions, or share first-hand experience.
These authentic contributions increase your chances of getting cited in AI-generated responses where nuance and expertise matter most.
Editorial-Style Microsites
Want to boost your chances of getting cited by LLMs? Build an editorial-style microsite.
These standalone sites tend to carry more credibility than heavily branded company pages.
Why?
Because you can structure them like independent publications.
Like this microsite IKEA built to highlight original research:
The goal is to create a trusted, well-organized resource that covers your entire industry, not just your own product.
For example, IKEA’s microsite includes statistics on happiness and enjoyment at home, which ties into its core offering: home products.
To earn trust (from both readers and LLMs), focus on E-E-A-T signals.
Include author bios with credentials, cite reputable sources, and make your editorial policies easy to find.
Clearly state who’s behind the site and why it exists.
Comparison and Review Sites
Content from review platforms is often cited in LLMs, and for good reason.
Sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius follow a formula that attracts LLMs:
Pinterest: Ideal for visual brands — but only if your pins include rich descriptions and link to structured content
Instagram: As of July 2025, Instagram posts (if opted in) can be indexed by search engines and LLMs. Add captions, alt text, and hashtags to help shape how your brand appears in AI platforms.
How to Track LLM Seeding Success
Here’s where things get tricky.
Understanding LLM impact isn’t as straightforward as tracking clicks or traffic.
So, how do you measure this influence?
Here are a few smart ways to assess your brand’s visibility across LLMs.
Branded and Direct Traffic Growth
Noticed something weird going on in Google Search Console lately?
Your impressions are increasing … but clicks are decreasing.
LLMs might be to blame.
For example, at Backlinko, our impressions increased by 54% over the past three months, while our clicks decreased by 15%.
Here’s what’s happening:
Users see your brand mentioned in AI responses, make a mental note, then research you directly days or weeks later.
They’re not clicking through immediately. They’re bookmarking your name in their minds.
This creates declining organic clicks paired with stable or growing branded searches. And it’s the signature pattern of LLM influence.
Here’s how to spot it in your data.
Open Google Analytics (GA) and go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition.
Compare your direct traffic trends over the past three to six months.
If your direct traffic increased, this is a positive sign that LLMs are mentioning your brand.
Next, compare these patterns to your organic traffic changes in Google Search Console (GSC).
Go to Performance > Search results.
Declining clicks + growing direct traffic = LLM visibility.
If your data is pointing to LLM influence, this is a good thing.
But it’s important to verify your findings with manual prompt analysis.
Pro tip: Getting branded traffic? Great. Now, ensure your branded SERP is optimized so users searching for your name land on high-converting pages. Like product quizzes, comparison guides, or testimonials.
Brand Mentions in AI Tools
The clearest way to gauge your LLM visibility is to see if (and how) your brand shows up in AI-generated answers.
Run manual prompts across different tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Use a private or incognito browser to avoid skewed results from past queries or personalization.
Then, search the way your audience would … naturally and with clear search intent.
Try prompts like:
Best project management tools for remote teams
What is the best project management software for startups
Top budget-friendly productivity tools for small businesses
Document the sentiment and context of each mention.
Are you positioned as a budget option? A premium choice? The innovative newcomer?
Do certain LLMs recommend your product more or less?
Document these results monthly in a spreadsheet or tracking doc.
Include the tool used, the prompt, the exact language cited, and your position in the response.
This lets you identify shifts in brand positioning, message clarity, and which prompts consistently trigger mentions.
Not showing up yet?
You’ll still learn what LLMs are citing so you can reverse-engineer how to get included.
Pro tip: Make your LLM citations work harder. Add email capture opportunities to your top pages. (Especially ones on topics LLMs are likely to mention.) Use content upgrades, templates, and discounts to turn visitors into subscribers.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
Not every brand mention includes a link to your site, making this influence harder to track.
But since LLMs weigh authentic, third-party references heavily when determining what content (and brands) to trust and cite, these mentions are vital.
Set up alerts for your brand name, product names, and key team members.
As you get mentions, dig into the context.
Are you being cited as an expert?
Recommended as a tool?
Compared to a competitor?
If you’re not getting many mentions, look for opportunities to contribute.
Pitch newsletter authors or podcast hosts with useful, non-promotional content that fits their audience.
Join relevant discussions, offer expert insights, and speak at industry events.
Continue tracking mentions over time to measure whether your efforts result in increased LLM visibility.
LLM Visibility Across Platforms
We’re all used to tracking rankings and referral traffic.
But those signals no longer tell the full story.
Tracking your performance across AI platforms is now a core part of measuring your success.
But you’ll need specialized tools for this.
Semrush’s Enterprise AIO lets you track how your brand is perceived and cited in popular AI platforms.
Once you set it up with the AI models and prompts that you want to track, it’ll tell you how your LLM visibility compares to competitors.
That’s just scratching the surface. You can also track your brand’s overall market share, sentiment, and consumer engagement across AI platforms.
Semrush’s AI Toolkit also lets you track how your domain and overall brand are perceived by individual models. It’s not super customizable yet, but you can still gain a lot of insights.
From there, individual reports break those metrics down by platform.
This gives you a clear view of where you’re gaining traction. And where you may be falling behind.
For example, pet company Petlibro currently holds a much smaller market share in ChatGPT than its competitors.
But in Google’s AI Mode, Petlibro significantly outperforms those same brands.
This is important data because it shows that performance can vary widely by platform.
And tells you where to focus your efforts.
The toolkit also provides sentiment analysis reports so you know how AI platforms describe your brand.
Whether positively, neutrally, or negatively.
This gives you a clearer picture of how LLMs frame your brand in their responses.
Petlibro, for instance, has a 64% favorable overall sentiment score, indicating generally positive positioning.
But also room to strengthen how it’s perceived.
You can drill down further to see what’s behind your sentiment score.
Both the positives and the pain points.
For Petlibro, strengths like convenience, automation, and food freshness drive favorable mentions.
On the flip side, app connectivity issues and limited advanced features are flagged as recurring concerns.
This insight tells you what to highlight in content.
And identifies potential fixes to maintain or improve sentiment.
You’ll also learn the types of queries users ask about your brand. And the intent behind them.
For Petlibro, the majority are educational, followed by research-based queries.
This tells you exactly what types of content to prioritize in your LLM seeding strategy.
For Petlibro, the toolkit suggests creating comparison charts, highlighting smart features, and showcasing testimonials that reinforce brand strengths.
As you gather data, refine your seeding strategy.
Double down on what’s working, whether it’s a specific content format, platform, or message.
And use gaps in visibility or sentiment as signals for where to publish, what to say, and how to position your brand for maximum LLM impact.
Make LLMs Work for You, Not Against You
Moral of the story? Don’t fight the machine — work with it.
AI isn’t coming. It’s here.
And it’s already changing how your audience discovers, evaluates, and chooses brands.
The brands that get cited in AI answers will win mindshare — even if they never rank #1 or get a single click.
That’s what LLM seeding is about.
You’re not optimizing for traffic. You’re engineering trust.
You’re not chasing backlinks. You’re earning brand mentions.
So, if you want to stay relevant?
Get your brand into the conversation now so you don’t get left behind.
Then, use our Search Everywhere Optimization guide to expand that visibility across every surface your customers trust — from AI to Amazon and beyond.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-16 15:48:372025-07-16 15:48:37LLM Seeding: A New Strategy to Get Mentioned and Cited by LLMs
An ecommerce SEO audit is a 360-degree review of your website’s SEO performance in terms of technical setup, on-page optimization, site structure, backlink profile, and more.
Think of it like a routine check-up for your online store.
Instead of waiting for traffic to drop or sales to slow down, you can proactively find and fix problems before they spiral into revenue leaks.
Done right, an SEO audit helps you:
Identify ways to improve rankings and user experience
Detect issues affecting your organic performance
Protect and sustain long-term growth
More importantly, this audit creates an SEO strategy grounded in data, not guesswork.
In this guide, I’ll break down a 4-stage process for conducting an ecommerce SEO audit.
I’ve also prepared a free audit workbook to help you document findings, prioritize fixes, and drive measurable results.
Download our free ecommerce SEO audit workbook to follow along with our 4-stage approach and resolve issues effortlessly. You’ll also get a troubleshooting guide with fixes for the most common SEO issues.
Core Components of an Ecommerce SEO Audit
Unlike a traditional website audit, a well-rounded SEO audit for ecommerce focuses on five key components.
Key difference: A website audit focuses on improving website performance and user experience. On the flip side, an SEO audit targets issues and opportunities to level up your site’s organic visibility and traffic.
1. Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures search engines can find, crawl, and index your website.
Follow the steps in this guide to configure and customize your Site Audit project before running the crawl.
When you’re ready, hit “Start audit.”
Once the results are in, navigate to the “HTTPS” part of the audit overview.
Here, you’ll see any issues with HTTPS status codes and how to fix them.
You can also go to the “Crawled Pages” section in your report and filter data based on status codes.
For example, I applied the “Issue Status” filter to find pages with broken or blocked status codes.
Here are the filtered results showing all the pages meeting this criteria:
Review all the pages showing errors and plan ways to fix each type of error.
For example, if a page showing the 404 error is outdated and no longer needed, you can remove it from your sitemap.
Next steps: Check out our detailed guide on fixing broken links to improve your site’s SEO health.
Use Canonical Tags to Avoid Duplicate Content
Ecommerce sites often struggle with duplicate content due to multiple product variants or filtering options.
This can confuse search engines and affect your rankings.
That’s why canonical tags are important to tell search engines your
preferred version of a page.
For example, the athleisure brand Alo Yoga uses canonical tags for color variants, such as:
Steel grey: airlift-intrigue-bra-steel-grey
Anthracite: airlift-intrigue-bra-anthracite
To prevent search engines from seeing these pages as duplicate content, each product variant includes a canonical tag pointing to a single, main product URL.
Use free canonical checker tools like Detailed to check whether all product variants are canonicalized to the main URL.
Stage 2: Do People Discover and Visit My Pages?
Goal: Attract more clicks from organic search
Tools to use: Semrush Site Audit, Google’s Rich Results Test, Google Search Console
Your next step is optimizing your pages to rank well and appeal to searchers.
Focus on improving how your listings appear in search engine results pages (SERPs) and matching them to the right search intent.
This optimization can boost impressions, traffic, and, ultimately, revenue.
Here’s what to check in this stage:
Optimize Titles and Meta Descriptions for Clicks
Title tags and meta descriptions are often the first thing searchers see.
Are yours compelling enough to earn the click?
For example, when I search for “healthy soda,” I find this page by Zevia Soda.
The title tag emphasizes its main value proposition: Zero Sugar Natural Flavored Soda.
And the meta description doubles down on this, highlighting zero calories and the variety of flavors.
The bottom line: Write clear, convincing copy for these tags within the ideal word count. Write 60 characters for title tags and 100-120 for meta descriptions to ensure they display well on mobile.
Design plays a crucial role in instilling confidence among potential customers.
When you deliver a frictionless user experience with good design elements like CTAs, trust badges, and accessible navigation, users stick around for longer.
This sends powerful signals to search engines and improves SEO metrics like dwell time, page views, bounce rate, and more.
In fact, our ranking factors study reveals that pages with a higher “time on site” tend to rank higher in Google.
Get it right: Check out our best practices for SEO-friendly web design to create an intuitive user experience for your store.
Fix Pages Targeting the Same Keyword
Ecommerce sites often have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, like category filters or similar products.
As a result, many pages compete against each other for a keyword.
Since search engines can’t decide which page to rank higher, your rankings are diluted.
Refer to your Site Audit report to find errors pointing to duplicate content and identify:
Near-identical pages competing for the same keywords
Variants (color, size) are published as separate URLs
Pro tip: Use canonical tags, merge similar pages, or differentiate your content to fix cannibalization issues. Explore these solutions in our guide on keyword cannibalization.
Add Internal Links to Boost Relevance
Strategic internal links create logical paths between pages, keep users engaged longer, and distribute authority.
So, even if searchers land on one of your blog posts, they can find their way to a relevant product page and make a purchase.
Here’s how Tonal, a fitness equipment brand, does this in its articles:
Stage 4: Where Am I Behind My Competitors?
Goal: Identify and close SEO gaps to outperform competitors
Tools to use: Semrush SEO Toolkit, Moz Link Explorer, SimilarWeb
In the final stage of your ecommerce SEO site audit, broaden the scope and look at the competition.
If a competitor ranks above you for key terms or earns better backlinks, they’re claiming traffic that could be yours.
So, understand your competitive landscape to identify missed opportunities for your SEO efforts.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-10 14:42:332025-07-10 14:42:33Run An Ecommerce SEO Audit in 4 Stages [+ Free Workbook]
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is quickly becoming one of the most important new topics in search.
As large language models (LLMs) change how users discover brands and make decisions, GEO helps ensure your content and brand show up in AI-generated answers — not just in traditional search results.
But GEO is just one part of a bigger shift.
We’re entering the era of Search Everywhere (in fact, we’re already in it).
Discovery is no longer confined to Google search results pages.
It’s happening everywhere users seek trusted information and recommendations.
And new data shows just how fast this shift is accelerating.
New research from Semrush predicts that LLM traffic will overtake traditional Google search by the end of 2027.
And our own data suggests that’s likely to be true.
In just the past three months, we’ve seen an 800% year-over-year increase in referrals from LLMs.
We’re seeing tens of millions of additional impressions in Google Search Console as AI Overviews reshape how Google displays answers.
If your brand isn’t adapting, you could soon be invisible online.
In this guide, I’ll explain:
What GEO is and how it’s different from SEO
Why you shouldn’t throw away everything you’ve already learned
The top techniques that will help you optimize your content for generative engines (and drive results for your business in the process)
What Is GEO and Why Does It Matter?
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of creating and optimizing content so that it appears in AI-generated answers on platforms like Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
But GEO goes beyond content optimization. It’s a holistic approach that includes:
Publishing content in the right places where AI tools are most likely to discover it
Earning positive brand mentions across the web, even without direct links
Ensuring technical accessibility so AI crawlers can easily access and understand your content
Instead of focusing only on traditional rankings, you’re making sure your brand becomes part of what AI tools say when users ask questions.
These tools “generate” responses to queries in conversational language. While they can include links, the goal is to give the searcher what they need within the response.
So in GEO, your content needs to shape the conversation, not just try to win a click.
Why GEO Matters Now
Traditional Google search still dominates.
It’ll likely continue to drive most of your traffic in the near term.
But the way people discover information is changing — fast.
Success used to mean ranking at the top of the SERP.
Looking forward, there may not even be a “top spot.”
Instead, you need to become the top recommendation — the solution AI tools choose to recommend in their answers.
The data tells the story:
ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any app in history. And as of February 2025, it now has more than 400 million weekly users.
Google’s AI Overviews now appear on billions of searches every month — at least 13% of all SERPs.
And they appear for more than half of the keywords we track at Backlinko:
Generative engines are influencing YOUR audience too. So it makes sense to start optimizing for them now.
How GEO and SEO Work Together
Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight:
You might look at this guide and think,
“Isn’t this just SEO with a different name?”
And honestly?
In many ways, it is. But there’s a reason everyone’s talking about it.
Terms like GEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and AIO (AI Optimization) have exploded in interest — because they reflect a real shift.
And with all the acronyms flying around, it can be tough to know who to listen to.
We’re not saying GEO replaces SEO.
But it does help reframe your strategy for how discovery works now — across AI tools, social platforms, and new surfaces beyond traditional search.
From Traditional SEO to Search Everywhere
Evolving From
Evolving To
SEO = Google Search
SEO = multi-surface visibility (Search, AI/LLMs, social)
Success = ranking for keywords
Success = being found across Search + Chat
SEO is a siloed function
SEO is cross-functional + connected to product, brand, PR, and social
Keyword-first content planning
Intent and entity-driven topic planning with semantic structure
Backlinks to pass PageRank
Traditional backlinks plus more focus on brand mentions and co-citations
Traffic as a core KPI
Visibility, influence, and conversions across touchpoints as core KPIs
Technical SEO as the foundation
Technical SEO as the foundation (with additional focus on JavaScript compatibility)
That means there’s good news:
If you’ve invested in good SEO, you’re already a lot of the way there.
GEO builds on the foundation of great SEO:
Creating high-quality content for your specific audience
Making it easy for search engines to access and understand
Earning credible mentions across the web
These same elements help AI engines decide which brands to reference.
But here’s the difference:
AI engines don’t work exactly like Google.
That means some of your tactics (and what you track) need to evolve.
So let’s walk through how to do that.
7-Step GEO Action Plan
We’re still in the early days of understanding exactly how AI engines pull and prioritize content.
But one thing is clear:
You need to adapt or reprioritize some traditional SEO tactics for Generative Engine Optimization.
The first three steps below cover overarching best practices for GEO.
Steps 4-7 cover optimizing content for generative engines specifically (and how to track your results).
Step 1. Nail the Basics of SEO
As I said earlier, good GEO is also generally good SEO. But not everything you do as part of your wider SEO strategy is as important for generative engine optimization.
Let’s focus on what really matters for generative engines.
Make Your Site Easy to Read (for Bots)
Crawlable and indexable: If AI tools can’t access your pages, you won’t show up in answers
Fast and mobile-friendly: Slow, clunky sites hurt UX — and your chances of getting cited
Secure (HTTPS): This is now table stakes, and it builds trust with users and AI systems
Server-side rendering: Some AI crawlers still struggle with JavaScript, so use server-side rendering as opposed to client-side rendering where you can
Show You’re Worth Trusting (E-E-A-T)
AI wants trustworthy sources. That means showing E-E-A-T:
Experience: Share real results, personal use, or firsthand knowledge
Expertise: Stick to topics you truly know — and go deep
Authority: Get quoted, guest post, or contribute to well-known sites
Trust: Use real author bios, cite sources, and include reviews or testimonials
Note: We’re not suggesting these AI tools have any sort of “system” built into them that aligns with what we call E-E-A-T. But it makes sense that they’ll prefer to cite content from reputable sources with expertise. This provides a better user experience and makes the AI tools themselves more reliable. Also, download our Free Template: E-E-A-T Evaluation Guide: 46-Point Audit
Step 2. Build Mentions and Co-Citations
AI systems don’t just look at backlinks to understand your authority. They pay attention to every mention of your brand across the web, even when those mentions don’t include a clickable link.
Backlinks are still important. But this changes how you should think about building your wider online presence.
Audit Your Current Mentions
Start by auditing where you’re currently mentioned. Search for your brand name, product names, and key team members across Google, social media, and industry forums.
Take note of what people are saying and where those conversations are happening.
You’ll probably find mentions you didn’t know existed. Some will be positive, others neutral, and a few might need your attention.
Also run your brand name and related terms through the AI tools themselves.
Does Google’s AI Mode cite your brand as a source for relevant terms?
Does ChatGPT know who your team members are?
What kind of sentiment do the answers have when you just plainly ask the tools about your brand?
It’ll let you track your LLM visibility (a by-product of good GEO) in top tools compared to your rivals:
The tool compares your brand to your rivals in terms of AI visibility, market share, and sentiment:
And it’ll show you where your brand strengths are and where you can improve:
Want to track your brand’s AI visibility? Get a free interactive demo of Semrush’s AI Toolkit to see how you can compare to competitors across ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI platforms.
Keep Building Quality Backlinks
Just because mentions are more important than before with GEO, it doesn’t mean you should abandon traditional link building. Backlinks still matter for SEO, and they often lead to the kind of authoritative mentions that AI systems value.
There are a few different definitions out there of co-citation and co-occurence.
I’ll be honest: the definitions don’t matter as much as the implications. I’ve seen one source define co-citations as the exact thing another source calls co-occurence. So for this section, I’m just going to talk about what these are and why they matter, without getting bogged down in definitions.
The first important way to think of co-citations/co-occurences is simply the mention of one thing alongside another.
In the case of GEO, we’re usually talking about your brand or website being mentioned alongside a different website or topic/concept on another website.
For example, if your brand is Monday.com, you’ll pick up co-citations involving:
Your competitors (ClickUp, Asana etc.)
Key terms or categories associated with your business (like “project management software”)
Specific concepts or questions related to what you do (e.g., “kanban boards” and “how to automate workflows”)
In Monday’s case, there are hundreds of pages out there that mention it alongside ClickUp and Asana in the context of “project management tools”:
This suggests to Google and other generative AI tools that Monday and ClickUp are both related to the term “project management tools” and are both popular providers of this kind of software.
The other common way to think about co-citations is mentions of your brand across different, often unrelated websites. For example, Monday being mentioned on Forbes and Zapier would be a co-citation involving them.
To sum it up:
If two (or more) brands/websites are often mentioned alongside each other, AI tools will assume they are related (i.e., they’re competitors)
If a brand is often mentioned in the context of a particular topic, concept, or industry, AI tools will assume the brand is related to those things (i.e., what you offer)
If lots of different websites mention a particular brand, the AI tools will assume that brand is worth talking about (i.e., probably trustworthy)
Obviously, there’s a lot more to it, but this is a fairly basic overview of what’s going on.
How to Put This into Action
To build citations, co-citations, and co-occurences:
Look for opportunities to get mentioned alongside your competitors. When publications write comparison articles or industry roundups, you want your name in that list. These co-citations help AI systems understand where you fit in your market.
Participate in industry surveys and research studies. When analysts publish reports about your sector, being included gives you credibility (and any backlinks are a bonus).
Get involved in relevant online communities. Answer questions on Reddit, contribute to LinkedIn discussions, and join industry-specific forums. These interactions create mentions in places where AI systems often look for authentic, community-driven insights.
The goal is to become a recognized voice in your space. The more often your brand appears in relevant contexts across the web, the more likely AI systems are to include you in their responses.
Step 3. Go Multi-Platform
Going beyond Google is something top SEOs have been telling us to do for a long time. But AI has made this an absolute must.
Platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and other user-generated content sites appear frequently in AI outputs.
So, a strong brand presence on these platforms could help you show up more often.
The benefits here are (at least) three-fold:
Being active on multiple platforms lets you reach your audience where they are. This helps you boost engagement, brand awareness, and, of course, drive more conversions.
AI tools don’t just look at Google search results. They pull from forums, social media, YouTube, and lots of other places beyond traditional SERPs.
Being active on multiple platforms means you’re less exposed to one particular algorithm or audience. Diversification is just good practice for a business.
Brian Dean did an excellent job of this when he was running Backlinko. That’s why you’ll see his videos appear in Google SERPs for ultra-competitive keywords like “how to do SEO”:
We’re taking our own advice here. In fact, it’s a big part of why we launched the Backlinko YouTube channel:
Here’s some quick-fire guidance for putting this into practice:
People go to YouTube to learn how to do things, research products, and find solutions to their problems. This makes product reviews, tool comparisons, and in-depth tutorials great candidates for YouTube content.
Podcast content and transcripts are beginning to surface in AI results (especially in Gemini). Building a presence here is a great opportunity to grab some AI visibility.
TikTok and Instagram Reels reach younger audiences who increasingly use these apps for search. Short-form videos that answer common questions in your industry can drive discovery, and AI tools can also cite these in their responses to user questions.
AI tools LOVE to cite Reddit as a source of user-generated answers (especially Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode). To grow your presence on the platform, find subreddits where your target audience hangs out and share genuinely helpful advice when people ask questions related to your expertise. Don’t promote your business directly — focus on being useful first.
LinkedIn works similarly to Reddit for B2B topics. Publish thoughtful posts and engage in relevant discussions to help establish your voice in professional circles. These interactions can then get picked up by AI systems looking for expert perspectives.
Step 4. Find Out What AI Platforms Are Citing for Your Niche
What’s a powerful way to understand both what to create and what topics to target?
To simply learn what AI tools are likely to include in their responses to questions that are relevant to your business.
Start by directly testing whether/how your content appears in AI tools right now. Go to ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity and ask questions that your content should answer.
In the example below, Backlinko is mentioned (great), but there’s also a YouTube video front and center. And forums are appearing too. These are places we might want to consider creating content or engaging with conversations.
As you do this for your brand, pay attention to the sources they cite:
Are they commonly mentioning your competitors?
What platforms do they tend to cite? (Reddit, YouTube etc.)
What’s the sentiment of mentions of both your brand and your competitors?
As you do this, try different variations of the same question.
For example, you could ask “What’s the best email marketing software?”
Then try “Which email marketing tool should I use for my small business?”
Notice how the answers change and which sources get mentioned consistently.
In the example above, the first prompt mentioned MailerLite, which was absent in the list for small businesses. But the second prompt pushed Mailchimp to the top and mentioned three new options (Constant Contact, Brevo, and ActiveCampaign).
If you were MailerLite and trying to reach small businesses, you’d want to understand why you’re not being cited for that particular prompt.
Pro tip: Try it with different tools as well. They each have their own preferences when it comes to citing sources, so it’s a good idea to test a couple of them.
You can automate this process with tools like Profound or Peec AI. These platforms run prompts at scale, helping you understand how and where your brand appears. But they can be pricey.
That’s why I recommend you spend some time running these prompts manually at first.
By the way:
This isn’t just important for “big brands” or those selling products. You can (and should) do this if you run a blog, local business website, or even a personal portfolio.
For example, consultants and freelancers will find these tools often cite marketplaces like Upwork and Dribbble. If you don’t have a profile on there, you’ll likely struggle to get much AI visibility.
And if you’re a local business owner, you’ll often find specific service and location pages appear in AI responses:
This is useful for understanding the types of content you should be focusing on for GEO. Now it’s time to decide what topics to focus on in your content.
Step 5. Answer Your Audience’s Questions
The way people search with AI tools is fundamentally different from how we use traditional Google search. This changes how you should plan your content.
Traditional SEO taught you to target specific keywords. You’d create a page optimized for “healthy meal prep ideas” and try to rank for that phrase.
But what happens when people are instead searching for “what to cook for dinner when I’m trying to lose weight”?
The answer might involve healthy meal prep as a solution, but it’s a completely different prompt (not a search) that gets to that answer (not a SERP).
When you run these queries through Google’s AI Mode, you see two totally different sets of sources and content types.
For the “healthy meal prep ideas” query (which is a perfectly valid and searchable term), the focus is listicles, single recipes, and YouTube videos. And the format is categories (bowls, wraps, and sandwiches etc.) with specific recipes:
But for “what to cook for dinner when I’m trying to lose weight,” the sources are primarily lists, forum results, or articles specifically around weight loss.
In this case, the format of the answer is largely broad tips for cooking healthily and then some general cooking styles or meal types, rather than specific recipes:
As more users realize they can use conversational language to make their searches, longer queries will become more common. This makes this kind of intent analysis critical.
These longer, more specific queries represent huge opportunities. Most companies aren’t creating content that answers these detailed questions.
The more specific the question, the more likely you are to show up when AI systems look for authoritative answers. You want to own the long-tail queries that relate directly to your product or expertise.
But:
You obviously can’t reasonably expect to create content for every single long-tail query out there. So how do you approach this in an efficient way?
How to Choose the Questions to Answer
Start by listening to the actual questions your customers ask.
Check your customer support tickets, sales calls, and user feedback. These real questions from real people often make the best content topics — because they’re the same kinds of questions people will ask these AI tools.
Don’t have any customers? No problem.
Use community platforms to find these conversational queries. Reddit, Quora, and industry forums are goldmines for discovering how people actually talk about problems in your space.
Step 6. Structure Your Content for Generative Engines
AI systems process information differently than humans do. They break content into chunks and analyze how those pieces relate to each other.
Think of it like featured snippets but more granular, and for much more than just direct questions.
This means the way you structure your content directly impacts whether AI systems can understand and cite it effectively.
Note: A lot of what I say below is just good writing practice. So while this stuff isn’t necessarily “revolutionary,” these techniques are going to become more important as you focus on GEO.
One Idea per Paragraph
Keep your paragraphs short and focused on one main idea.
When you stuff multiple concepts into a single paragraph, you make it harder for AI systems to extract the specific information they need.
Also avoid burying important information in the middle of long sentences or paragraphs. Front-load your key points so they’re easy to find and extract.
And guess what?
It also makes it easier for your human readers to understand too. So it’s a win-win.
Use Clear Headings
Use clear headings and subheadings to organize your content logically.
Think of these as signposts that help both readers and LLMs navigate your information. And make sure your content immediately under the headings logically ties to the heading itself.
For example, look at the headings in this section. Then read the first sentence under each one.
Notice how they’re all clearly linked?
This is a common technique when trying to rank for featured snippets. You’d have an H2 with some content that immediately answers the question…
…and this would rank for the featured snippet for that query:
This is still a valid strategy for traditional search. But for GEO, you need to have this mindset throughout your content.
Don’t make every H2 be a question (this will quickly end up looking over-optimized). But do make sure the content that follows your (logical) headings is clearly linked to the heading itself.
Break Up Complex Topics into Digestible Sections
If you’re explaining a complex or multi-step process, use numbered steps and clear transitions between each part.
This makes it easier for AI systems to pull out individual steps when someone asks for specific instructions. And it’ll make it much easier for your readers to follow.
Also write clear, concise summaries for complex topics. AI systems often look for these kinds of digestible explanations when they need to quickly convey information to users.
Include Quotes and Clear Statements
Include direct quotes and clear statements that AI systems can easily extract.
Why is this worth your time?
Because pages with quotes or statistics have been shown to have 30-40% higher visibility in AI answers.
So instead of saying “Email marketing could be an effective channel for your business,” write “Email marketing generates an average ROI of $42 for every dollar spent.”
Note: Don’t just flood your content with quotes and stats. Only include them when they actually add value to your content and are useful for your readers.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup gives you another way to structure information for machines. This code helps systems understand what type of content you’re presenting.
For example, FAQ schema tells algorithms that you’re answering common questions. HowTo schema identifies step-by-step instructions.
You don’t need to be a developer to add schema markup. Many content management systems (like WordPress) have plugins that handle this automatically.
Make It Scannable
Use formatting like bold text to highlight important facts or conclusions and make it easier for readers to skim your content. This helps both human readers and AI systems identify the most important information quickly.
This has always been a big focus of content on Backlinko. We use lots of images to convey our most important points and add clarity through visualizations:
And we use clear headings to make our articles easy to follow:
The goal is to make your content as accessible as possible to both humans and machines. Well-structured content performs better across all types of search and discovery.
And if your content is enjoyable to engage with, it’s probably going to do a better job of converting users into customers as well.
Step 7. Track Your Visibility in LLMs
How often are tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini mentioning your brand?
If you’re not tracking this yet — you should be.
Tracking your visibility in AI-generated responses helps you understand what’s working and where you need to focus your efforts.
But where do you start? And what should you track?
Manual Testing as a Starting Point
Start with manual testing. This is the simplest way to see how you’re performing right now.
Ask the same questions across different AI platforms, like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google (both AI Mode and AI Overviews). Take screenshots of the responses and note which sources get cited.
Do this regularly, and you’ll start to see patterns in which types of content get mentioned and how your visibility changes over time.
Honestly though: you’re going to struggle to get a lot of meaningful data doing this manually. And it’s not scalable. Plus, so much of what an AI tool outputs to a user depends on the previous context, like:
Past conversations
Previous prompts within the same conversation
Project or chat settings
This makes it challenging to get truly accurate data by yourself. This is really more of a “feel” test that, in the absence of dedicated tools, can provide a very rough idea of how generative engines perceive your brand.
Use LLM Tracking Tools
For more comprehensive tracking, dedicated tools can automate this process.
Platforms like Semrush Enterprise AIO help you track your brand’s visibility across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews.
It shows you exactly where you stand against competitors and gives you actionable steps to improve.
Competitive Rankings is my favorite feature. Instead of guessing why competitors might rank better in AI responses, you get actual data showing mention frequency and context.
Another option is Ziptie.dev. It’s not the most polished tool yet, but they’re doing some really interesting work — especially around surfacing unlinked mentions across AI outputs.
If you already have Semrush, then the Organic Research report within the SEO Toolkit does provide some tracking for Google AI Overviews specifically.
You can track which keywords you (or your competitors) rank for that have an AI Overview on the SERP. If you don’t currently appear in the overview, that’s a keyword worth targeting.
Tracking the keywords you do rank for in these AIOs over time can help you gauge the performance of your GEO strategy.
Why Talk to Your Boss (or Clients) About GEO?
You’ve seen the steps. Now you need a story.
GEO isn’t just a tactical shift — it’s a way to explain what’s changing in search without resorting to hype.
GEO helps you frame those changes clearly:
Traditional SEO still works
Your past investments are still paying off
But the bar is higher now
Visibility means more than rankings
Your brand needs to be mentioned, cited, and trusted across every channel
GEO gives you the framework to explain what’s changing and how to stay ahead of it.
You Need to Start Now to Stay Visible
This space is evolving fast. New capabilities are rolling out monthly.
The key is to start tracking now so that you can benchmark where you are and spot new opportunities as AI search matures.
Grow your presence by adding a GEO approach on top of your SEO efforts:
Continue optimizing for strong rankings and authority (AI still leans on this)
But now, prioritize content and signals that AI engines are more likely to reference directly
Want to learn more about where the world of search is heading? Check out our video with Backlinko’s founder Brian Dean. We dive into how search habits are changing and how you can build a resilient, multi-channel brand.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-09 11:21:542025-07-09 11:21:54Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): How to Win in AI Search
In this article, you’ll find 15 marketing ideas for small businesses that drive real results.
Each one is broken down by effort, impact, and budget. So, you can choose the ones that fit your resources and goals.
Bonus: Many of the ideas are free or low-cost.
Helpful resource: Download our free Small Business Marketing Checklist to stay organized as you implement these strategies. It includes a notes section to help you plan next steps as you read.
Let’s start with one of the top tactics for small businesses — video.
1. Grab Attention with Short-Form Videos
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Free to low
Short-form video is hands down the best marketing idea for small business owners in 2025.
Especially if you want to increase brand awareness.
Why?
Because platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are specifically designed to push your content to people who don’t follow you.
This gives you a chance to get discovered even if you don’t have an existing audience.
For example, Toasted Mallow, a gourmet marshmallow shop, got over 1 million views on TikTok.
And they did it by sharing a no-frills look at how they make their treats:
You could do something similar, no matter what you sell.
Think quick tips, transformations, or behind-the-scenes peeks. The key is posting content that’s authentic and valuable.
Pro tip: Use trending audio from TikTok, Reels, or Shorts and targeted hashtags to show algorithms your content is timely and boost your reach.
Not sure which platform to start with? Go with the one your audience already uses the most.
And don’t worry about fancy equipment. Use your phone camera and film near natural lighting for the best results.
Add engaging captions, voiceovers, and sound effects with tools like CapCut.
It’s beginner-friendly and makes your videos look polished without pro editing skills.
2. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Free
If you have a local business, optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the easiest (and most important) ways to help customers find you.
This is because it can majorly boost your visibility in Google Maps and local search results.
Like when someone types “car wash in jacksonville” and sees prominent listings like this:
This kind of exposure can lead to more foot traffic, phone calls, and bookings.
But only if your profile is fully optimized.
Keep your info accurate and complete. Include business hours, address, website, and service areas.
Add high-quality photos that are helpful to customers and inspire confidence.
For example, post action photos and show the outside of your location so it’s easy to find.
And don’t forget reviews.
Signals like your average rating, number of reviews, and how recent they are all affect local SEO and buyer trust.
Make it a habit to ask for reviews after a positive experience, and respond to every one.
(Yes, even any negative comments you get, too.)
3. Create Helpful Website and Blog Content
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate to high
High
Free to high
Attract your ideal customer with content on your website and blog that answers users’ questions.
This improves your chances of ranking organically and capturing steady traffic.
Use tools like Google Autocomplete, Semrush, or AnswerThePublic to uncover what your audience is asking.
Then, create content that answers those questions.
(While subtly introducing your product or service as the fix.)
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other tools can generate briefs, outlines, and content of all kinds.
Here’s a sample prompt to get started (the more details, the better):
Write a [blog post/social media caption/email newsletter] about [your topic] for [target audience – include their biggest challenges or goals]. Keep the tone [professional/conversational/friendly] and focus on [key benefit/solution]. Include [relevant examples, statistics, or case studies]. Make it [word count/length] and end with [specific call-to-action].
Heavily edit the draft for accuracy, brand voice, and your expertise.
Done right, a single blog post can become your hardest-working salesperson.
For example, Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s head of Growth, uses content to promote his ecommerce brand, Underfit.
Using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Leigh identifies the search terms people type into Google to find products like his.
Like “what to wear under a dress shirt” and “types of undershirts.”
Then, he creates content that directly answers those queries.
Like this blog post on what to wear under a dress shirt, which includes comparison tables and fabric tips.
It also subtly directs readers to Underfit’s products with a banner that includes trust signals.
Language like “get your money back” gives prospects the confidence to buy.
4. Use SMS to Instantly Reach Customers
Effort
Impact
Budget
Low
Moderate
Low to moderate
Want to grab your customers’ attention fast? Text them.
With open rates as high as 98%, SMS is one of the most effective ways to promote offers or send reminders.
It works especially well for service-based businesses where timing matters.
Like salons, restaurants, clinics, fitness studios, and local shops.
The key is to keep it short, clear, and genuinely useful. SMS isn’t the place for long messages or hard sells.
Smart ways to use SMS include:
Flash sales or last-minute discounts
Appointment reminders or confirmations
Shipping updates or order status
VIP-only offers or restock alerts
Event reminders or holiday hours
Test what types of messages drive the most engagement.
And always ask for SMS opt-in at checkout and include an easy way to unsubscribe.
5. Encourage Customers to Share Their Experience on Social Media
Effort
Impact
Budget
Low
Moderate to high
Free
One of the easiest ways to build trust? Ask your customers to share their experience.
Called user-generated content (UGC), this is when customers organically share photos, videos, or reviews about your brand.
This creates authentic, unpaid social proof that builds trust and boosts visibility.
Many people will be happy to post about your products online — they may just need a little nudge.
Add a short, friendly request in your post-purchase email
Offer a small incentive, like a discount on their next order
Encourage customers to tag you on social with a branded hashtag
Include a review prompt on your thank-you or packaging insert
For example, let’s say you run a ceramic shop. When someone buys a handmade mug from your brand, include a thank you card that says:
“We’d love to see how you use your mug! Tag us @CozyClay and use #MyMorningMug to be featured.”
This simple prompt can inspire unboxing videos, photos, or short video reviews — all of which are great for reshares.
Once you start receiving tags, repost customer content, and comment on the posts. This helps you connect with your customers and further your reach.
For example, Sol, a beach beanie bag company, has a dedicated “You” Highlight on Instagram:
It features tagged Stories from real customers using their products at the beach.
This works as a social proof and a visual guide for new buyers.
6. Partner with UGC Creators
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Moderate
While UGC is created organically by customers, UGC creators are paid to make content for your brand.
The best part? They don’t come with the influencer price tag.
Pro tip: You’ll pay around $150 to $300 per video for UGC creator content (some creators accept free products as an incentive). In comparison, you’d pay $1,250 to $2,500 for a macro-influencer (100K to 500K followers) and $2,500+ for a mega-influencer (500K+ followers).
UGC creators produce content (like unboxings, demos, or testimonials) that you own and can use across your marketing channels.
This includes ads, social media posts, or landing pages.
The benefit? Content that feels genuine while giving you complete control over where and how it’s used.
Here’s how to get started:
Decide what kind of content you need — e.g., product demo, lifestyle use, review, testimonial
Find creators on platforms like Influee and Billo
Clarify deliverables and usage rights
Post on your socials or use in paid ads
For example, HiZoo, a massage device brand, partnered with a UGC creator who filmed herself trying their product for the first time.
In the video, she shares genuine reactions about how the product feels and works.
The content feels like a real customer review, not a polished ad. Which encourages likes and comments.
This gives the brand an opportunity to build trust and credibility (and sell more products).
Use a tool like Modash to find creators who’ve already posted about similar products to yours — they’re more likely to say yes and nail the tone you want.
7. Use AI Chatbots to Promote Your Business 24/7
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
Moderate to high
Free to low
Never miss a lead or lose a customer to long wait times.
AI chatbots help you deliver instant, personalized support 24/7.
And happier customers = more sales.
Whether on your website or social media channels, chatbots make sure you’re always available to answer questions, remove buying friction, and close sales.
Chatbots can:
Answer FAQs
Take orders
Book appointments
Recommend products
Escalate customer service issues
You can even build a bot that sounds just like you.
Upload your service descriptions, common responses, and FAQs to tools like Tidio or Manychat.
This allows you to create a chatbot that mimics your tone and expertise.
For example, Attendant, a UK coffee chain, is a great example of how businesses of all sizes can use chatbots to reduce customer service inquiries.
While improving customer service at the same time.
The chatbot offers instant answers to common customer questions.
Like “are your cafes dog friendly” and “when do you end serving breakfast.”
It’s like cloning your best customer service rep, minus the payroll.
8. Collect Prospect Info with Lead Magnets
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Low
A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for someone’s email. Like a discount, template, or ebook.
When done right, it attracts high-intent leads who are more likely to buy over time.
Here’s how to make it work:
Solve a specific problem. Think budgeting template, skincare quiz, or a free sample tied to your product
Make it a natural extension of your offer. Sell time-tracking software? A “Weekly Productivity Planner” is a perfect match. Run a meal prep business? Offer a “3-Day Healthy Eating Kickstart.”
Promote it everywhere. Homepage banners, blog posts, social captions, link in bio, and pop-ups. Mention your lead magnet in any social media videos you create — and don’t forget to add a link to it in the caption or comments.
For example, Budget With Mel, a personal finance blogger, offers a free budgeting template on her blog.
Users provide a first name and email address to access the template.
Since the template was pre-filled with formulas that auto-calculate totals, the value is instantly clear to the user.
All they have to do is plug in numbers to instantly see where their money’s going.
It’s frictionless, helpful, and directly tied to her paid offers.
9. Create an Email Newsletter
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
Moderate
Free to low
A monthly or weekly email newsletter is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to your audience.
Whether you have an ecommerce business or own a boutique, your newsletter can become a go-to resource that builds loyalty over time.
Share helpful tips, seasonal offerings, behind-the-scenes updates, and promote your products or services.
So, how do you get started?
Email marketing tools like Kit and Mailchimp offer customizable newsletter templates that make it easy to send professional newsletters.
(Without the need for design skills.)
Set a recurring send date (like every Tuesday) and stick to it.
This way, subscribers know what to expect.
Maintain your brand voice when writing your newsletter. And consider adding personalization to your strategy as you get more advanced.
Pet supplement brand Adored Beast Apothecary’s newsletter is a great example of how to mix education with subtle promotion.
For example, this issue opens with fun, educational content on dog behavior.
This keeps pet owners engaged and builds trust. Even if they’re not ready to buy something right away.
They also include links to additional content about common pet health issues.
By driving traffic back to their site, they extend the customer journey and increase the chances of a future sale.
And position themselves as a reliable expert.
The newsletter ends with a short product section recommending relevant supplements.
It’s a smooth transition from education to solution. (So it feels helpful rather than pushy.)
10. Turn Reviews and Testimonials into Visual Proof
Effort
Impact
Budget
Low to moderate
Moderate
Free to low
Got happy customers?
Turn their praise into visual content that does the selling for you.
Collect reviews from emails, DMs, social media comments, or your Google Business Profile.
Or ask a happy client to record a 30-second selfie-style video.
Then, share these testimonials on your social media accounts. Like the owner of popular TikTok account Destiny Media Marketing does.
To promote her business, she collects client reviews and turns them into persuasive carousel posts.
She also shares short testimonial videos.
Like this one from a satisfied client who left her a glowing review about her services.
Pro tip: Create a dedicated Instagram Story Highlight called “Happy Customers” or “Reviews” so new visitors can immediately see social proof when they visit your profile.
11. Share Visual Content on Pinterest
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
Moderate to high
Free to low
Pinterest is a hidden gem for generating sustained traffic to your small business website or online store.
A single, well-optimized Pin can continue driving clicks and conversions for months (or even years).
Take Budget With Mel as an example.
One of her top traffic sources is Pinterest.
So, how is she making this platform work for her?
By sharing simple yet valuable infographics that link to her blog.
This helps funnel targeted readers directly to her content.
Most importantly, her blog has a lead magnet that turns visitors into email subscribers.
This means she’s not just getting one-time visitors — she’s building a list of potential customers she can reach again and again.
Here’s how to replicate Mel’s success:
Create valuable Pins: Turn your best tips, products, or blog posts into eye-catching visuals using a template-friendly design tool like Canva
Organize strategically: Set up boards by category (like “Budgeting Tips” or “Gift Ideas”) to make your content easy to find
Optimize for search: Include relevant keywords in your Pin titles and descriptions — people search Pinterest like Google
Drive traffic: Link every Pin to a blog post, lead magnet, or product page to convert browsers into customers
12. Amplify Your Reach by Boosting Your Social Posts
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Flexible
If your social media post already gets a decent engagement — saves, likes, comments — that’s your cue to boost it.
You can do this on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest.
LinkedIn also supports boosting, but only from company pages, not personal profiles.
And even a small budget can help your top-performing posts reach more people without driving up costs.
This approach is more effective than boosting random posts.
Why? Because you already know the content resonates with your audience.
How to start:
Choose a social media post that’s performing well organically
Set a daily budget (even $5-$10 per day can work)
Target based on location, interest, and behavior
Let the ad run for a few days before making any tweaks
But don’t just boost ads.
Promote a mix of content, like blog posts, how-to videos, product highlights, and behind-the-scenes clips.
Prioritize posts that feel authentic and aligned with your brand voice.
Pro tip: Need a little help creating engaging social content? Tools like Semrush’s AI Video Marketing Automator and AI Social Content Generator turn your blog posts into short videos and social posts in seconds — no video editing or design experience required.
13. Create a Loyalty Program That Feels Personal
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Low
Small, thoughtful touches can turn one-time buyers into loyal fans.
Start with a simple reward system (digital or physical) that feels fun and easy to use.
Think stamps, punch cards, or online progress trackers.
After five or 10 purchases, offer a reward that feels like a win: a free drink, a low-cost product (under $5), a bonus add-on, or early access to something new.
The key? Make it feel personal and let customers see how close they are to earning their reward.
Bonus points if you personalize it with their name, preferences, or purchase history.
For example, a toy store owner explained on Reddit how they created “instant repeat customers” with a playful loyalty program.
Kids earn pirate coins and vinyl stickers with each purchase. After five coins, they trade them in for a free toy.
It’s low-cost, but it works because it feels personal, rewarding, and fun. (And the adults like it, too!)
14. Build Trust and Authority on LinkedIn
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
High
Free
LinkedIn is one of the best places to build credibility and attract clients.
Especially if you sell services, offer consulting, or work with other businesses.
Why?
Because it puts you in front of decision-makers actively looking for business solutions.
But success on LinkedIn isn’t all about pitching your services.
It’s about consistently sharing helpful, real-world insights that show you know your stuff.
Over time, this positions you as a go-to expert.
And turns your content into a client acquisition tool that works even when you’re not actively prospecting.
Here’s how to get started: Pick one to two topics you want to be known for.
And post at least once a week.
Share industry-relevant stories, lessons, business updates, or tips.
Still don’t know what to post?
Use ChatGPT or Claude to draft LinkedIn post ideas from your blog content.
Prompt it with the following:
Turn this blog post into a conversational first-person LinkedIn post with a story-driven hook.
But don’t just post your own content. Comment meaningfully on industry posts, too.
This showcases your expertise and gets you noticed by potential clients.
15. Co-Host Lives, Webinars, or Giveaways
Effort
Impact
Budget
Moderate
Moderate
Free to low
Want fast reach without paying for ads? Team up with a creator or business that shares your target audience.
Co-hosting a live, webinar, or giveaway helps you both get in front of new, relevant followers.
To make it work:
Choose a partner in your niche or local community (but not a direct competitor)
Bring something valuable: a quick tutorial, product demo, Q&A, or prize
Plan your next step: What should viewers do after? Follow you? Sign up? Claim an offer?
Promote it ahead of time on both profiles. During the event, keep it lively, helpful, and interactive. Answer questions and encourage participation for the best results.
For example, if you have a B2B audience, you could team up with an expert or company in your space to host a short, high-value webinar.
Like a 30-minute how-to or industry trends Q&A.
Have a B2C small business? Co-host a giveaway with a like-minded brand (or three).
To boost reach, ask participants to follow both accounts and tag a friend to enter.
Turn These Small Business Marketing Ideas into Results
You don’t need a big team or a big budget to make progress.
The most effective marketing plans start with a few smart tactics tailored to your audience and goals.
Pick three quick wins you can knock out this week:
Post a behind-the-scenes Reel with trending audio
Ask one happy customer for a review or photo
Boost a blog post or product on Facebook
Then, keep the momentum going.
Collect emails with a simple lead magnet or share helpful tips in a monthly newsletter.
Small, consistent actions like these build trust and drive real results over time.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-07-01 15:26:582025-07-01 15:26:5815 Marketing Ideas for Your Small Businesses (+ Free Checklist)
Or, worse — they get skimmed, misunderstood, and ignored.
But knowing how to create an SEO report that demands attention can change everything.
It’s not just a performance recap.
It’s a strategic tool that helps you build trust with decision-makers. Win bigger budgets. And keep your SEO efforts on track.
In this article, you’ll learn how to:
Create SEO reports that people actually read (and act on)
Tie SEO performance to business goals
Highlight wins and uncover growth opportunities
Free resource: Download our SEO Report Template. It has ready-made sections for tracking key metrics, visualizing performance, and presenting clear next steps.
What Is an SEO Report and Why Is It Important?
An SEO report is a tool for measuring performance and shaping strategy.
It tracks key metrics like traffic, rankings, and conversions.
Then, connects them to business outcomes, opportunities, and priorities.
A strong SEO report helps answer:
What changed?
Why did it happen?
What should we do next?
For example, let’s say you run SEO for a workplace furniture ecommerce company.
You notice a spike in traffic and rankings for your category page on ergonomic office chairs.
Here’s how a useful SEO report would break that down:
It’s a clear, focused snapshot that distills the data into what improved, why it happened, and why it matters.
How to Create an SEO Report That Drives Results
Too many SEO reports dump data without insight.
Traffic, rankings, and top pages might look impressive — but they don’t tell the full story.
And without context, stakeholders are left guessing.
The best SEO reports connect the dots. They tie performance to business goals, spotlight what’s working, and make the next move obvious.
Here’s how to build one that actually drives results:
Step 1: Determine the Stakeholders
Before pulling data or building charts, get clear on who you’re reporting to.
Knowing your audience should shape your whole report, from the SEO stats you’re using to how you communicate them.
Ask yourself:
Who will read this?
What do they know about SEO?
Who will be making the decisions?
What decision do I want them to make?
And here’s one more that’s just as important:
Have I asked what metrics actually matter to them?
A quick conversation can surface priorities that no dashboard will show you.
From there, tailor the format, metrics, and language accordingly.
(This is where many SEO reports go sideways — too much data, not enough direction.)
Here’s a quick breakdown of how to match your audience to your data and format:
Stakeholder
What They Care About
What to Show
Format Tips
CMO / Exec
Revenue, ROI, brand authority
Conversions, organic-assisted revenue
Keep it short, visual, and business-focused
Marketing Team / Managers
Channel performance, goal tracking
Traffic trends, keyword growth, top pages
Include takeaways and next steps
Product Team
Feature discovery, UX gaps
Search query trends, on-page feedback
Highlight qualitative insights and opportunities
Small Business Client
Clear wins, reviews, local visibility
Local rankings, top queries
Use plain language and short summaries
For example, if your primary audience is a CEO or CMO, you probably wouldn’t lead with details about unindexed pages or on-page engagement time.
Likewise, a report for a small business owner with zero SEO background shouldn’t be packed with complex metrics or jargon.
They need simple wins, clear summaries, and next steps they can act on.
Pro tip: When your SEO report serves multiple audiences, prioritize what matters most to decision-makers — like ROI, growth, and performance. Then, layer in tailored insights for other teams (product, content, dev, etc.) in separate sections or an appendix.
How to Report to Non-SEO Audiences
Working with clients who don’t speak SEO?
You can help them level up their knowledge by translating industry terms into easy-to-understand language.
Add simple explanations to your reports and introduce new concepts one at a time.
Here are three ways you can do this in your SEO reports:
1. Include key takeaways to clarify complex points.
2. Add links to educational resources on SEO concepts.
3. Add short videos with explanations of the client’s data or performance.
Step 2: Decide Which Metrics Matter Most
Start with the key SEO metrics every report needs, no matter the audience.
Metric
Why It Matters
Conversions
Connects SEO to real business results. Key for proving SEO ROI.
Organic traffic + engagement (including click-through rates and average position)
Shows how well your pages attract and keep search visitors — great for spotting what’s working.
Organic impressions
Highlights search visibility and signals growth or dips in core topics
Keyword trends (rankings, top non-branded keywords)
Shows what’s gaining traction and where to focus next. Helps spot cannibalization or decay.
Backlink profile health
Keeps tabs on link trust and growth. Important for authority.
Technical health
Identifies site issues that hurt SEO. Vital for maintaining crawlability and indexability.
SERP features
Tracks special placements that boost visibility (e.g., featured snippets, video results, or shopping carousels)
LLM visibility
Shows brand mentions and citations in AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — key for influence in AI-driven discovery.
You can find the majority of your must-have metrics in SEO tools like Google Search Console (GSC) or Semrush.
Add-On SEO Report Metrics
Once you’ve covered the essentials, you can layer in additional metrics depending on your team’s strategy and goals.
If you’re prioritizing:
Include metrics like:
User engagement
Scroll depth, bounce rates, dwell time, and GA4 engagement metrics
Topical authority
How well your content ranks for key themes
E-E-A-T signals
Mentions, expert authorship, branded searches, trust indicators (e.g., social shares)
Content library ranking efficiency
What % of your pages rank in the top 10 to guide pruning or reinvestment.
Further reading: Curious about some of these add-on metrics? Check out our guides on bounce rate and dwell time.
Step 3: Turn Raw Data Into Actionable Insights
Raw data doesn’t drive decisions — clear stories do.
Knowing how to create an SEO report means turning numbers into narratives.
It needs to clearly tell a story around these questions.
Is our SEO strategy working?
What changed?
Why did it change?
What should we do next?
One of the best ways to tell the story is through time-based comparisons.
Show how SEO performance has changed month-over-month (MoM), quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), or year-over-year (YoY).
Highlighting changes over time makes it easier for stakeholders to spot trends. And understand why they matter.
For most SEO teams, the challenge isn’t collecting data. It’s translating it into context stakeholders care about.
Raw numbers might make sense if you’re inside the tools every day.
But executives and cross-functional teams need more than charts. They need meaning.
The best reports go beyond what changed. They explain why —and connect the dots to business impact.
Like this:
Metric
Increase Might Mean
Decrease Might Mean
Organic traffic + engagement (CTR, avg. position)
Higher rankings or better-optimized content
Rankings drop or poor user experience (UX)
Organic impressions
More visibility in search
Lost rankings or SERP features
Keyword trends
New or improved keyword rankings
Declining rankings or outdated content
SERP features tracking
Gaining authority in SERPs
Dropped from features or lost relevance
Conversions
SEO traffic is converting better
Traffic mismatches or UX issues
Backlink profile health
More quality links or mentions
Lost links or declining authority
Translate percentages and numbers to what actually happened:
What new pages were published?
Did your development team ship technical fixes?
How many backlinks were earned?
Are algorithm changes or seasonal searches a factor?
Most importantly, link the SEO impact to business terms.
For example, let’s say your top product page jumped from position No. 9 to No. 3.
In the same month, inbound demo requests doubled.
That’s not just a ranking improvement. It’s a signal that higher visibility on the right terms is driving qualified traffic.
In this case, the takeaway isn’t just “rankings are up” — it’s that SEO is contributing directly to revenue growth.
Step 4: Showcase the Results
A great SEO report doesn’t overwhelm your reader — it guides them.
It frames wins. Flags issues. And makes the next move crystal clear.
Executive Summary
Start with a snapshot that shows where things stand.
The Executive Summary gives a high-level view of key metrics and overall performance trends.
So, stakeholders can get the big picture fast.
Keep it sharp and clear. Spotlight what’s working, what’s driving it, and where to go from here.
Performance Metrics
This section covers your core SEO performance data — like traffic, rankings, keywords, and backlinks.
Include context and key takeaways.
When showcasing trends, show the progress over time, not just one-off wins.
And use visuals as much as possible.
Charts, graphs, and annotated screenshots really can make your performance insights pop.
Next Steps
What needs to be tackled next?
Here’s your chance to include those thoughts for your stakeholders.
Include clear, actionable recommendations, like a fresh SEO audit or doubling down on high-performing content.
Appendix
This optional section includes deeper data for teams, stakeholders, and ongoing projects.
It helps keep the main report focused, while still delivering the context others may need.
Bonus move: Once your report is done, record a short walkthrough to present it. It’s a great way to highlight key takeaways, explain the big picture, and guide stakeholders through anything they might overlook.
Mistakes to Avoid in Your SEO Report
Even with the right data, your SEO report can still fall flat if it’s hard to interpret, misaligned with business goals, or missing a clear takeaway.
Here are some common mistakes to avoid — and how to fix them.
Reporting Data Without Context
Don’t just drop data into your report. Make it meaningful.
Show how it relates to business goals and your site’s overall SEO performance.
For every metric, briefly explain what it means, why it matters, and what action it might prompt your team or your client to take.
Surfacing Issues Without Providing Solutions
Reporting on every issue isn’t helpful unless it impacts your site’s SEO performance.
For example, say you note that a group of pages are experiencing index issues.
Include a hypothesis on why this is happening and how you might recommend fixing it.
Listing Every Keyword Ranking
A full list of keyword shifts (especially minor ones) can bury your most important wins.
Instead, spotlight high-impact keywords — non-branded terms driving traffic or tied to revenue pages.
Including Every. Single. Page.
Reporting on every page creates noise, not insight.
Focus on the top 10 pages for organic traffic, or spotlight the top page in each key topic cluster.
Ignoring Business Outcomes
Your report might show SEO progress. But, does it show business progress?
Tie your work to signups, revenue, pipeline, brand visibility — whatever matters to your decision-makers.
Telling, Not Showing
You shared the data. But did you explain the story?
Use visuals, comparisons (e.g., MoM or QoQ), and commentary to walk the reader through what changed, why, and what’s next.
Show the Impact. Earn the Buy-In.
SEO reporting isn’t just about checking a box.
It’s your opportunity to show impact, earn trust, and steer strategy.
Surface insights that get stakeholders aligned and excited about what’s possible.
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