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Getting Cited in LLMs: A Guide to LLM Seeding

Have you recently noticed AI platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini pulling answers from websites but not always linking back?

Don’t think of it as an unfortunate glitch, but a big shift in how these tools present information.

Large language models (LLMs) change how users see your content. Instead of relying on Google’s ten blue links, people get their answers straight from AI tools in an easy-to-read summary that’s often been condensed and (unfortunately) without any clicks to your site.

If these tools don’t reference your content, you’re missing out on a growing share of visibility. That’s where LLM seeding comes in.

LLM seeding involves publishing content in places and formats that LLMs are more likely to crawl, understand, and cite. It’s not a traditional SEO strategy or “prompt engineering.” Instead, you’ll use this strategy to get your content to appear in AI-generated answers, even if no one clicks.

We’ll cover what LLM seeding is, how it works, and the steps you can take to start showing up in AI responses before your competitors get there first.

Key Takeaways

  • LLM seeding involves publishing content where large language models are most likely to access, summarize, and cite.
  • Unlike SEO, you’re not optimizing for clicks. Instead, you’re working toward citations and visibility in AI responses.
  • Formats like listicles, FAQs, comparison tables, and authentic reviews increase your chances of being cited.
  • Placement matters. Publish on third-party platforms, industry sites, forums, and review hubs. 
  • Track results and monitor brand mentions in AI tools, referral traffic from citations, and branded search growth from unlinked citations across the web.

What is LLM Seeding?

LLM seeding is publishing content in formats and locations that LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can access, understand, and cite.

Instead of trying to rank #1 in Google search results, you want to be the source behind AI-generated answers your audience sees. The goal is to show up in summaries, recommendations, or citations without needing a click. The fundamentals overlap with SEO best practices, but the platform you’re optimizing for has changed.

Let’s say you run a productivity software company. Your content marketing team writes a detailed comparison post about the “Best Project Management Tools for Remote Teams.” A month later, someone asks ChatGPT that exact question, and your brand name shows up in the response, even though you don’t rank on page one in Google.

How did the LLM find your information? Here’s what it looks like behind the scenes.

LLMs have been trained on massive datasets pulled from the public web, including blogs, forums, news sites, social platforms, and more. Some also use retrieval systems (like Bing or Google Search) to pull in fresh information.  When someone asks a question, the model generates a response based on what it has learned and in some cases, what it retrieves in real time. 

Well-structured content, clearly written, and hosted in the right places, is more likely to be referenced in the response: an LLM citation. It’s a huge shift because instead of optimizing almost exclusively for Google’s algorithm, you’re now engineering content for AI-visibility and citations.

A ChatGPT response.

Asking ChatGPT for a list of the best laptop backpacks provides several citations and options.

LLM Seeding vs. Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking high on Google to earn clicks. You optimize for keywords, build backlinks, and improve page speed to attract traffic to your site.

LLM seeding flips that on its head.

You don’t chase rankings. You build content for LLMs to reference, even if your page never breaks into the top 10. The focus shifts from traffic to trust signals: clear formatting, semantic structure, and authoritative insights. You provide unique insights and publish in places AI models scan frequently, like Reddit, Medium, or niche blogs, which increases your chances of being surfaced in AI results.

SEO asks, “How do I get more people to click to my website?”

LLM seeding asks, “How do I become the answer, even if there’s no click?”

The thing is, it’s not an either/or proposition. You still want to do both. But you’re invisible to a constantly growing audience if you’re not thinking about how AI tools interpret and cite your content.

Benefits of LLM Seeding

LLM seeding goes beyond vanity metrics to the visibility that actually sticks, even when clicks don’t happen. It can be a real game-changer because it lets you do the following:

  • Stay visible in AI search: As tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity replace traditional searches for quick answers, content needs to appear inside those responses, not just in the search results below them.
  • Earn brand mentions without needing the click: LLMs don’t always link back, but mentions can still be wins. They keep your brand top of mind and build familiarity, and they nudge users to search for you by name later.
  • Build authority at scale: When LLMs start citing your brand alongside major players, it’s like being quoted in the New York Times of AI. You earn topical authority and credibility by association.
  • Bypass the ranking fight: You don’t need to beat everyone to position one. You just need the best answer. From what we know right now, good focus areas are building around clarity, structure and trust signals. 
  • Get ahead while others sleep on it: LLM seeding is still an “under-the-radar” strategy. Right now, you’ve got a first-mover advantage. Don’t wait until your competitors are already showing up in AI responses.

Best Practices For LLM Seeding

If you want LLMs to surface and cite your content, you need to make it easy to find, read, and worth referencing. Here’s how to do that:

Create “Best of Listicles”

LLMs prioritize ranking-style articles and listicles, especially when they match user intent, such as “best tools for freelancers” or “top CRM platforms for startups.” Adding transparent criteria boosts trust.

The title of a "best of" style listicle.

Use Semantic Chunking

Semantic chunking breaks your content into clear, focused sections that use subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make it easier for people to read. This structure also helps LLMs understand and accurately extract details. If you’re having trouble thinking about where to start, think about FAQs, summary boxes, and consistent formatting throughout your content.

Write First-Hand Product Reviews

LLMs tend to favor authentic, detailed reviews that include pros, cons, and personal takeaways. Explain your testing process or experience to build credibility. Websites like Tom’s Guide and Wirecutter do an excellent job of this.

Wirecutter's table of content.

Wirecutter’s table of contents breaks down why they choose the items they choose and why you, the reader, should trust them.

Add Comparison Tables

Side-by-side product or service comparisons (especially Brand A vs. Brand B) are gold to LLMs. You’re more likely to be highlighted if you include verdicts like “Best for Enterprise” or “Best Budget Pick.” An example of a brand that does comparison tables particularly well is Nerdwallet.

A Nerdwallet comparison table.

Include FAQ Sections

Format your FAQs with the question as a subheading and a direct, short answer underneath. LLMs are trained on large amounts of Q&A-style text, so this structure makes it easier for them to parse and reuse your content. FAQ schema is also fundamental to placement in zero-click search elements like featured snippets. The structured format makes your content easier for AI systems to parse and reference. 

FAQs from the Neil Patel website.

Almost every article we publish on our site features FAQs that have been properly formatted.

Offer Original Opinions

Hot takes, predictions, or contrarian views can stand out in LLM answers, especially when they’re presented clearly and backed by credible expertise. Structure them clearly and provide obvious takeaways.

Demonstrate Authority

Use author bios, cite sources, and speak from experience. LLMs use the cues to gauge trust and credibility. If you’ve been focusing on meeting E-E-A-T guidelines, much of your content will already have this baked in.

Layer in Multimedia

While ChatGPT may not show users photos inside the chat window, screenshots, graphs, and visuals with descriptive captions and alt text help LLMs (and users who do click through) better understand context. It also breaks up walls of text.

Build Useful Tools

Free calculators, checklists, and templates are highly shareable and are easy for AI systems to parse and extract. Make sure the title and description explain each item’s value upfront.

It’s telling that many of the best practices for traditional SEO often work well for LLM seeding. At their core, both priorities involve giving people the best possible answers to their questions in a highly readable and simple way to digest. In fact, creating content that works well for all avenues is a cornerstone of search everywhere optimization.

Ideal Platforms for LLM Seeding Placement

Publishing on your site isn’t enough to excel with LLM seeding. AI models pull from a wide mix of sources across the web. The more places your content shows up, the more likely it is to influence or be cited in AI-generated answers. 

1. Third-Party Platforms

LLMs tend to surface structured, public content hubs. Medium, Substack, and LinkedIn articles get crawled often and carry extra weight because of their clean formatting and tied-to-real-author profiles. These sites publish large volumes of content and are widely trusted, so your content benefits from their visibility and is more likely to be surfaced in AI-generated answers. 

The Featured platform.

2. Industry Publications & Guest Posts

Contributing to trusted outlets, such as trade blogs, marketing publications, and niche news sites, offers your brand credibility and increases the odds of your content being surfaced or cited in AI-generated answers. 

3. Expert Quotations

Offering quotes to journalists or bloggers through services like HARO or Featured can land you in articles LLMs surface and cite repeatedly.

4. Product Roundups and Comparison Sites

Sites like G2, Capterra, or niche review sites are LLM goldmines. Get your customers to leave detailed reviews and provide quotable explanations about why your product or service stands out.

5. Forums and Communities

Reddit and Quora are two of the most frequently surfaced sources in AI answers. Niche forums and communities (such as AVS Forum or Contractor Talk) also carry weight because they’re packed with authentic, experience-driven insights. Consider creating a public-facing profile to answer questions about your product or service. In addition, they’re excellent spaces to source user-generated content (UGC) that can provide additional context and support.

6. Editorial Microsites

Small, research-driven microsites can carry more authority than heavily branded pages. Because they are often well-structured, focused, and treated as independent resources, they are more likely to be picked up by LLMs when generating answers. 

7. Social Media

Platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Reddit threads can double as searchable databases for LLMs. Use structured language, captions, and context in every post. 

An example of a Reddit post.

Here’s the bottom line: LLM seeding works best when your content is everywhere AI looks, not just on your blog.

How To Track LLM Seeding

Tracking LLM seeding is different from tracking SEO performance. You won’t always see clicks or referral traffic, but you can measure impact if you know where to look. These KPIs matter the most:

1. Brand Mentions in AI Tools

Manual testing: Try running audience-style prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity in incognito mode so past queries don’t bias results. As a note here, results can vary from instance to instance, so test multiple times to see consistent patterns.

Neil Patel's blog mentioned in an AI-response.

We’re in pretty good company among the top five resources.

Tracking tools: Perplexity Pro lets you see citation sources, while ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis can sometimes surface cited domains. Even enterprise tools like Semrush AIO have started to track brand mentions across AI models. There are also dedicated tools like Profound that specifically focus on AI visibility.

2.  Referral Traffic Growth

Using tools like GA4 can help you determine LLM seeding’s effectiveness, but not via traditional metrics.

Referral traffic in GA4.

With GA4, you’ll want to navigate through Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and then filter for your chosen form of traffic. Be sure to review the source/medium dimension for more details about specific LLM platforms. Referral traffic may come from LLMs if they include a clickable link to your website. By contrast, brand mentions without links are more likely to drive users to search for you after using an LLM, which GA4 usually classifies under organic search. 

 This isn’t super-likely by comparison.  Since this is less common, it’s best to look at referral traffic alongside LLM visibility metrics for the full picture of performance. 

3. Unlinked Mentions

You have several options for seeking out unlinked mentions. Set up Google Alerts for brand name or product mentions; that can help you surface when your brand is mentioned in the news or other platforms. For example, Semrush’s Brand Monitoring tool lets you look for citations without backlinks.

Semrush's brand mentioning tool.

Semrush touts its brand monitoring tool as one of the best in the business.

4. Overall LLM Visibility

No matter which tools you use, building a log to track your monthly tests across AI platforms can provide insights. Document the tool(s) used, prompt asked, and the exact phrasing of the mention. You’ll also want to track your brand sentiment; is your brand being talked about in a positive, neutral, or negative light?

Companies like Serpstat, Similarweb, and Profound have begun to offer AI visibility reporting, and those options will mature fast.

There’s currently no silver bullet to track LLM seeding comprehensively. It’s partly manual work, partly analytics, and partly new tools still in beta. You can create an AI Visibility Dashboard that combines GA4, brand monitoring, and a spreadsheet of monthly AI prompts to get a head start.

FAQs

What is LLM seeding?

LLM seeding is publishing content in formats and locations that large language models (LLMs) are more likely to surface and cite. Instead of optimizing only for search rankings, you’re optimizing for visibility in AI-generated answers.

What are LLM citations?

An LLM citation happens when an AI platform like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity references your content with a source link in its response. 

What is an LLM mention?

An LLM mention is when an AI platform references your content but doesn’t provide a clickable source link.  

How do I know if my brand is being cited?

Run audience-style prompts in AI tools (like “best project management software for startups”) and see if your brand shows up. Also, track referral traffic trends in GA4.

Conclusion

Search looks different today because users no longer rely exclusively on Google. Your audience asks questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools. They’re now the ones who decide which brands get mentioned.

LLM seeding matters. You can stay visible even when clicks don’t come and earn credibility by showing up in AI responses. This futureproofs your marketing against zero-click trends and keeps you agile and top of mind.

To win this new landscape, start small: publish in formats LLMs love like listicles, FAQs, and comparisons), seed content across third-party platforms, and track whether your brand shows up in AI outputs.

The companies that adapt today will own the conversation tomorrow.

Read more at Read More

Large Language Model SEO (LLM SEO)

Google is no longer the only place people search. Millions now bypass search engines entirely and turn to large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for answers. 

ChatGPT alone fields over 2.5 billion prompts a day and serves more than 120 million users daily.

This creates a massive opportunity. LLM SEO is how you get your content in front of those systems. The idea is to make your content so clear and credible that a model has no choice but to pull from it.

That means writing in a way machines can process, and people still want to read. Do it right, and you’ll show up where the traffic is already shifting.

This isn’t a future concern. It’s happening now. If you don’t adapt, readers will still get answers—just not from you. You’ll lose the click before you even get the chance to earn it.

Key Takeaways

  • LLM SEO makes your content visible to large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
  • Unlike traditional SEO, visibility in LLMs means being cited in AI-generated answers vs. just ranking in search results.
  • Clarity, structure, and credibility are important factors that increase the likelihood LLMs will surface your content.
  • LLM SEO builds on traditional SEO. You still need a strong technical and content foundation.
  • Embracing LLM SEO now gives you a leg up on the competition. Most marketers aren’t yet focused on how LLMs deliver answers.
  • Citations, mentions, and brand visibility inside AI tools are emerging markers of success with SEO for LLMs. You can’t measure performance just by clicks or keyword rankings.

What Is LLM SEO?

LLM SEO is the process of optimizing your content so that large language models can understand, interpret and surface is in their responses. Think of it as preparing your content for systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity just as you prepare content for Google.

Instead of focusing only on rankings, LLM SEO targets being recognized as a credible source. That means:

  • Writing in a clear, direct style that reflects how people naturally ask questions.
  • Structuring content with headings, FAQs, and lists so models can easily pull useful snippets.
  • Building authority through transparent sourcing, strong E-E-A-T signals, and unique insights.
  • Publishing content in multiple formats, like text, video, and visuals, which increases the chances that models can understand and incorporate your content.

LLM and traditional SEO share the same goal: to connect your expertise with what people are looking for. What’s changing is where and how those answers show up.

LLM SEO vs LLMO

LLM SEO and large language model optimization (LLMO) overlap, but they’re not the same. Think of LLM SEO as a slice of the broader LLMO pie.

LLM SEO specifically targets making your content easy for large language models to parse and cite, often in search engine-related contexts. This includes optimizing for Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) and ensuring your content is structured so it’s more likely to be surfaced by AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini.

LLMO goes further. It’s about increasing your brand’s overall visibility in AI-generated answers across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. That reach isn’t limited to search. It also means:

  • Ensuring your content is easy to find in sources LLMs actively use, like crawlable websites and public databases.
  • Using structured data, schema, and multi-format content so LLMs can interpret your information cleanly.
  • Building authority and mentions across the web to build trust in your brand so it’s cited and not just ranked.

In short, LLM SEO helps you show up in AI answers connected to search. LLMO ensures your brand is present across any context where large language models generate responses.

LLM SEO vs. Traditional SEO

LLM SEO builds on the foundation of traditional SEO but shifts the focus to how large language models process and deliver information.

Traditional SEO is about rankings. You optimize for Google or Bing so your content climbs the results page. Success is measured in keyword positions, clicks, and traffic.

LLM SEO is about citations. Instead of fighting for position one, you make your content easy for LLMs to read, trust, and include in their responses. Success is measured in mentions and visibility inside tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, even if the user doesn’t click through.

The overlap is important. Both require:

  • High-quality, well-structured content.
  • Strong signals of expertise, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T).
  • Technical performance, like fast load times and mobile readiness.

The differences matter. Traditional SEO leans on backlinks and click-through optimization. LLM SEO rewards clear language, structured formats like FAQs and lists, and transparent sourcing. Whereas SEO optimizes for crawlers, LLM SEO optimizes for language models.

Marketers who stop at traditional SEO risk losing visibility as more searches end inside AI answers. 

A table comparing LLM and traditional SEO.

Why is LLM SEO Important?

Large language models are quickly becoming the go-to source for answers. In fact, 27 percent of people in the U.S. now use AI tools over traditional search engines. 

Instead of clicking through search results, people ask AI tools like ChatGPT direct questions and get immediate answers. That shift is changing brand discovery.

You can already see this shift playing out, with some industries showing up in AI Overviews far more often than others.

A look at the distribution of AI overviews across industries.

For businesses, the risk is obvious. If your content isn’t structured for LLMs, your expertise may never surface, even if you rank well in Google. That means losing visibility to competitors optimizing for both.

There’s also the matter of trust. LLMs lean heavily on authoritative, clearly written content with well-cited sources. If your brand is not putting out content that signals credibility, you’re less likely to be included in the answers users see.

Finally, this shift is accelerating. More platforms are rolling out AI-driven responses, and users are adopting them quickly because they save time. 

Additional platforms creating AI-driven responses.

Every month you wait is a month of lost visibility. LLM SEO puts your brand where attention is headed, not where it’s fading.

Best Practices for LLM SEO

Visibility in large language models isn’t about hacks. It comes down to making your content easier for these systems to understand, trust, and reuse. The following practices build on what already works in SEO but adapt it for how LLMs process and deliver information.

Write Conversational and Contextual Content

Large language models are built to handle natural conversation. Content that reads conversationally and adapts to context is more likely to be included in generated answers. Drop the keyword stuffing and rigid phrasing. Instead, write the way people actually ask (and follow up on) questions.

Implement FAQs and Key Takeaways

LLMs thrive on clarity. Adding FAQ sections and concise takeaways gives them ready-made snippets they can use to build answers. It helps readers, too, breaking content into scannable, useful chunks while giving AI systems obvious entry points into your page.

An example of key takeaways.

Use Semantic and Natural Language Keywords

Traditional SEO often leaned on exact-match keywords. LLM SEO works better with semantic and contextual phrasing, language that reflects how people naturally ask questions. Build around related terms and long-tail queries so models can recognize intent and surface your content more often.

Maintain Brand Presence and Consistency

LLMs look for signals of authority and consistency across multiple platforms. A brand that regularly publishes on its own blog, contributes to third-party sites, and maintains a strong profile across social channels is more likely to be trusted. Consistency reinforces your credibility.

Share Original Data, Insights, and Expertise

Original insights stand out. Publishing unique research, case studies, or proprietary data makes your content more valuable to LLMs. These models are designed to identify and prioritize information not easily found elsewhere. For example, graphics like the piece below showcase data points that my team sourced on its own.

An example of original data from Neil Patel.

Monitor and Query LLM Outputs

Optimization does not stop at publishing. Regularly test how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. Query these platforms with the same questions your audience might ask. Monitoring performance helps you identify where your content is being cited and where you need to adjust. In the example below, you can see how a brand can be portrayed in AI tools based on different sources. We’ll cover later on how you can go about doing this.

An example of LLM output.

Keep Content Fresh and Updated

Stale content gets overlooked. Updating old posts with new statistics, recent examples, or revised insights signals that your brand is current. 

Practice Search Everywhere Optimization

LLMs draw from a variety of different sources, and this is where Search Everywhere Optimization comes in. LLMs pull from forums, video transcripts, and social media. The more places your brand shows up, the more likely it is to be discovered and cited by AI. 

This is the essence of search everywhere optimization: making sure your expertise is visible wherever people (and AI models) go looking for answers.

Measuring LLM SEO Results

Measuring success in LLM SEO is not as straightforward as checking keyword rankings, but there are now tools and methods that make it possible.

Specialized platforms like Profound are built to track how often brands and websites appear in AI-generated answers across platforms. See below for a look at the Profound interface and how it helps showcase AI visibility.

The Profound interface.

Established SEO platforms, including Semrush, have also rolled out features that measure AI visibility alongside traditional search metrics. In the screenshot below, you can see how Semrush showcases AIO presence for a given page.

SEMrush's AI visibility capabilities.

These tools give you a clearer picture of whether your content is surfacing where people are asking questions.

In addition to platforms, hands-on monitoring still matters. Query the models directly using the same questions your audience would ask. Document when your content is cited and watch for changes over time. This kind of manual testing tracks progress beyond what analytics alone can show.

You should also monitor referral traffic. Some AI tools now include links to sources, and those clicks show up in analytics as traffic. Another thing to keep an eye out for is brand mentions. Even if an AI result doesn’t give a link, brand mentions inside AI outputs are valuable, as they reinforce awareness and authority.

Finally, fold LLM SEO tracking into your broader SEO reporting. Look at engagement signals like time on page, repeat visits, and social shares for optimized content. If people find your content more useful, LLMs are more likely to treat it as a trusted source.

The bottom line is that measurement is evolving. You now have tools, data, and direct testing methods that show whether your LLM SEO efforts are paying off.

FAQs

What is LLM SEO?

LLM SEO is the process of optimizing content so large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can understand, interpret, and surface it in their responses.

How is LLM SEO different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in search engine results. LLM SEO focuses on being cited inside AI-generated answers. Both rely on quality content, authority, and structure, but the measurement of success is different.

Is LLM SEO the same as LLMO?

No. LLM SEO is a subset of LLM optimization (LLMO). LLM SEO focuses on search-related visibility in LLM outputs, while LLMO covers the broader goal of increasing brand presence across all AI-generated answers.

How do you measure LLM SEO results?

Tracking visibility in LLMs involves querying the models directly, monitoring referral traffic from AI tools in places like GA4, and using platforms such as Profound or Semrush that offer AI visibility tracking.

Why does LLM SEO matter now?

Adoption of LLMs is growing rapidly. Users are increasingly asking questions on these platforms instead of traditional search engines. Brands that optimize early gain visibility where attention is shifting, while others risk losing ground.

Conclusion

Large language models are already changing how people search and discover brands. More users are asking questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity instead of clicking through a list of Google results. That shift is real, and it’s growing.

LLM SEO is how to meet that change head-on. The same fundamentals still matter: quality content, structure, and authority. But they need to be applied in ways LLMs can understand and reuse. That means writing conversationally, answering questions directly, and keeping your content current and credible.

This shift also fits into the bigger picture of search. The rise of zero-click searches shows how often users get the information they need without visiting a website at all. At the same time, semantic search highlights how engines and now LLMs look at meaning and context instead of just exact keywords.

If you want a practical first step, update one or two of your top-performing pages. Add FAQs, refresh the data, and shape answers around the questions your audience is actually asking. Then watch how often those pages begin showing up in both search engines and AI outputs.

Read more at Read More

Google’s Danny Sullivan: ‘Good SEO is good GEO’

Google's Danny Sullivan keynoting at WordCamp US

“Good SEO is good GEO.” That’s according to Google’s Danny Sullivan, a director within Google Search, and former search liaison

  • Generative engine optimization (or whatever the new acronym is for optimizing for AI search experiences) is the same core work SEOs have always done: creating unique, valuable content for people and providing a great page experience, he said.
  • This echoes Google’s Gary Illyes advice from July – that all you need to do is normal SEO.

Why we care. You can believe Google if you want. But we’ve tried to consistently say that we believe GEO is an emerging practice. That doesn’t mean it replaces SEO today or tomorrow – because SEO fundamentals matter and SEO is still not dead. But I also agree with Michael King’s assessment that SEO is deprecated. The future of Google and conversational AI search will be answers, not ranking, regardless of what Googlers say publicly today.

What he’s saying. Here’s some of what Sullivan said about SEO/GEO during his keynote at WordCamp US on Aug. 28:

  • “…If you don’t know what GEO is, it’s like the latest acronym, but like I can’t keep track each day. There’s a different one. But SEO, search engine optimization; GEO, generative engine optimization.
  • By the way, if you could dig it out when I was like in 2010, back when people were panicking then, I was like, you know, SEO doesn’t mean you get into the blue links on Google. SEO means you understand how people search for content and then you understand how to have your content there. And it could be everything from people asking a question to a voice device to people just opening up something on their phone or whatever.
  • So, the basic things have not changed. Good SEO is good GEO, or AEO, AIO, LLM SEO, or LMNOPO. So, they’re all fine. What I’m trying to say is don’t panic. What you’ve been doing for search engines generally, and you may have thought of as SEO, is still perfectly fine and is still the things that you should be doing. … Good SEO is really having good content for people.
  • … Are you saying write things in a clear way that people can understand? Cool. Like that’s just for people. All right.
  • Are you saying write about things that are unique or interesting? Cool. That’s good for people. And all we [Google] try to do is understand how our signals can align with things that are good for people.”

CTR question. During the audience Q&A, blogger Angie Drake said her organic search click-through rate has plummeted since AI Overviews launched, even though impressions are up (known as the great decouoling of search). She asked Sullivan what Google will do to compensate publishers who are losing clicks. Sullivan’s response:

  • Google has been unapologetic about zero-click factual answers (e.g., “What time is the Super Bowl?”) because users expect direct facts.
  • Google is committed to rewarding unique, valuable content and supporting the open web.
  • He said there will be “bumps along the way,” that feedback is heard within Google, and “it’s still part of what we’re going to be figuring out.”

Other takeaways. Some other data Sullivan shared:

  • Google AI Overviews have led to a 10% increase in searches in the U.S. and India.
  • Google does “up to 5,000 launches” (a.k.a., updates) per year. The last figure we had was 4,725, so not much has changed since 2022.

The keynote. Here is the full video. I’ve linked to the takeaways portion of Sullivan’s presentation, where he discusses GEO. Drake asks her CTR question starting at 45:06.

Read more at Read More

GEO and SEO: How to invest your time and efforts wisely

GEO and SEO- How to invest your time and efforts wisely

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the new kid on the block, the hot topic. 

SEO professionals and stakeholders want to know: How much should I invest in it in a world where the people writing the checks are a bit skeptical? 

In the world of large language models (LLMs) in 2025, that’s a complicated question. 

This article breaks down why by covering:

  • How LLMs like OpenAI and Gemini currently use search engines.
  • What search marketers should assume about where AI is heading.
  • The types of executional work that align with GEO.
  • What all of this means for prioritization and investment.

How LLMs stay current: Grounding and RAG

One of the fundamental challenges for the creators of LLMs (LLMs) like OpenAI or Claude is timeliness.

Their training data is static, locked to a specific cutoff date. 

For example, the GPT-5 model’s knowledge cutoff is Sept. 30, 2024.

It’s more recent than GPT-4o’s cutoff of Oct. 1, 2023, but still not up to the present day.

Updating that training data is extremely costly, and it’s increasingly under public scrutiny – both for the resource-intensive nature of the process and the potential copyright issues it raises. 

In my view, these large-scale training updates are becoming less and less likely over time.

GPT-5 knowledge cutoff

So how do OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini keep their answers current? 

They use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), where the model enriches its responses by effectively “browsing” the web. ChatGPT relies on Bing, while Gemini draws from Google. 

(There are signs Gemini doesn’t always use live results, but rather cached ones – that’s a whole other article, and one Dan Petrovic has already written smartly about.)

Grounding is a similar concept here, so for this article, we’ll treat it as the same “timely” method, even though there are important nuances in implementation.

What does this mean for SEOs and digital marketers deciding how much to invest in GEO?

Quite simply: we still need to prioritize traditional SEO first. RAG is a limited resource, and research shows: 

It’s also important to note: when ChatGPT cites your brand, it doesn’t just pull from your website. It pulls from sources across the web.

The bottom line: you still need to master traditional SEO fundamentals to rank in LLM-driven search. 

If you don’t have the authority to break into the Top 20 results, plus a diversified outreach strategy for press mentions and brand visibility, it will be much harder to surface in generative search.

Dig deeper: SEO vs. GEO: What’s different? What’s the same?

Thinking long term

As a low-risk, forward-looking, brand-focused SEO, you must plan for a future where generative search dominates, driving most traffic and revenue.

At that point, we must assume our websites and digital properties function primarily as enriched data feeds for LLMs. 

It’s also critical to clearly define our brand for both Google and Bing, as strong, unambiguous entity signals will only grow in importance.

Optimizing your data infrastructure and strengthening brand signals – through consistent press mentions, directory listings, and owned media – are essential but resource-intensive tasks. 

They demand coordination across departments that rarely collaborate and often require dismantling entrenched processes.

Because many businesses hesitate to make these foundational changes, you’ll need to account for the time required to execute the work and the time required to gain stakeholder alignment.

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.


Execution: Technical and brand

The work required to make your website as LLM-friendly as possible falls into two main buckets: technical and brand.

Technical tasks

Implementing thorough schema markup

This is a contentious topic. 

LLMs don’t directly use schema markup in their training data (it’s stripped), and in their RAG process, everything is tokenized and likely broken into n-grams. 

I’m not suggesting schema markup is a direct way to influence visibility in LLMs.

It’s a vehicle for helping Google and Bing understand:

  • Your website.
  • Its relationships.
  • Its products. 

This builds your brand and search engines’ recognition of it, which should improve your visibility in results.

Technical copywriting

On navigational pages – like product collection pages or company listing pages if you’re a marketplace – create technical copy (done via AI with smart prompting if you’re working at scale) that summarizes the available resources.

For example: 

  • “Our stationery includes 5 A5 dotted journals, 2 N1 blank journals, 25 stickers featuring animals, 4 stickers with curse words (all vinyl for weatherproofing and waterproofing), and 1 lapel pin.”

Notice how direct and technical this is. The clear formatting ties back to dependency hops in natural language processing.

XML sitemaps

A spring cleaning task. 

Your XML feeds should be 100% to spec:

  • No 404s.
  • No 301s.
  • No more than 5,000 URLs per sitemap.
  • All recommended fields in place. 

I’m calling it out specifically because it’s one of the most direct ways for search engines and other bots to see and navigate the full scope of your website.

JavaScript fallbacks

This has always been important but has fallen by the wayside in recent years. 

Training data for LLMs is static HTML. For the most part, they don’t render JavaScript. 

Make sure to have functional JavaScript fallbacks.

Address technical debt

This will depend on your organization. It could mean:

  • Having a clear product sunsetting process.
  • Updating the codebase.
  • Removing the ghost codebase still sitting on your site from eight years ago that everyone built on top of rather than deleting. 
  • Migrating from an SPA to a more search-friendly framework.
  • Removing deprecated scripts.
  • Auditing third-party tags to ensure they’re up to date and still in use. 

All of these impact performance.

The technical strength and response time of your website will only grow more important.

Every piece of tech debt is an opportunity to improve.

Dig deeper: A technical SEO blueprint for GEO: Optimize for AI-powered search

Brand tasks

Brand tasks would include things like: 

  • Creating consistent brand descriptions and implementing them across all platforms.
  • Updating your About page to have as much relevant information as possible, such as:
    • Founding timeline.
    • Founders and leadership profiles.
    • Corporate social responsibility initiatives.
    • Partners.
    • Supply chain.
    • Your unique selling proposition.
    • Press mentions.
    • Awards and other social proof.
    • Testimonials.
    • A contact form. 
  • Claiming your Google Knowledge Panel (or monitoring it until it becomes available, then claiming it).
  • Planning regular press mentions, doing outreach yourself, or working with a PR company to make it happen.
  • Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile if you’re a local business.
  • Submitting your company for a Wikipedia page once you’ve built enough notability.

Dig deeper: In GEO, brand mentions do what links alone can’t

Making smart investments in SEO and GEO

If there’s only one takeaway, it’s this: keep investing the majority of your time and budget in traditional SEO, while dedicating a smaller portion to technical and brand tasks like those outlined above.

Look closely at the 1-5% improvements you’ve been putting off – things like:

  • Correcting the HTML heading hierarchy to match the site’s visual hierarchy.
  • Fixing internal links so they point directly to final URLs instead of redirect chains.
  • Cleaning up your XML sitemap.
  • Removing deprecated libraries and unused WOFF files. 

This “spring cleaning” and tech debt cleanup should be a priority. 

Add in the brand work as well, since it strengthens traditional search today and also lays the groundwork for an LLM-led search future.

If you don’t already have regular reporting in place for stakeholders and leadership, create it now. 

There’s a perception that large language models are evolving rapidly and changing everything at once. 

That isn’t entirely true – but we do need to plan. 

Establishing a cadence of reporting and education means that when real shifts do happen, your stakeholders will already be aligned and ready to support the work.

Finally, treat GEO/AI optimization as roughly 20% work

This means building systemic schema layers across your organization and creating structured connections in the machine’s native language – code. 

Start with:

  • Conversations.
  • Proofs of concept.
  • Pilot implementations. 

Done properly, this work should have no negative impact on your business metrics, and it builds support for more holistic optimization over time.

Going all in on LLM-specific tactics isn’t the best use of your resources today. 

Instead, treat it as complementary work – something that strengthens your technical and brand foundation while preparing you for a future where generative search plays a central role.

Read more at Read More

Looking beyond AI: 9 marketing principles that will always matter

Concept of timeless principles

AI has fundamentally changed how people search and engage with information online. 

Features like AI Overviews may boost visibility, but they’ve also reduced clicks, leaving many websites with less traffic despite stronger rankings. 

Discovery no longer happens in just one place. 

It’s fragmented across search engines, social platforms, paid ads, and AI tools, creating a complex user journey that’s harder than ever to track.

As behavior shifts with these new technologies, search marketing is evolving in response. 

Yet while the platforms, tools, and touchpoints keep changing, the core principles of effective marketing remain the same. 

Marketers who stay grounded in these fundamentals will be best equipped to adapt and grow.

Here are nine timeless marketing principles that will hold steady – no matter how search evolves.

1. Focusing on search intent: Why people search 

Where people search and find information will continue to change over time as preferences for LLMs, social media, or video content shape where people go for answers. 

However, what remains constant is search intent

Users are always looking to:

  • Learn about something.
  • Navigate to brands they know.
  • Compare and evaluate different options.
  • Purchase or convert. 

Focus on the why behind a search – the intent driving it. 

The key question is whether your content aligns with that intent. 

If it doesn’t, you’re overlooking a critical driver of user behavior. 

When content matches search intent, users immediately recognize its value and engage, which is why intent should remain central to your marketing strategy.

2. The lasting value of brand recognition and loyalty

Even as AI continues to drive change in how companies reach their audiences, brand recognition and loyalty remain important pillars of long-term engagement and growth.

Discovery channels are shifting as people find brands through social media, search engines, paid ads, email, and more.

That’s why it’s important to continually reassess the customer journey and understand where your audience is finding you.

After discovery, your job is to highlight your unique value – what sets you apart from competitors and how you provide real value to your audience. 

Keep asking yourself:

  • Why should someone choose my brand?
  • What makes us stand out?

The clearer and more consistently you communicate this in the spaces that matter, the more you’ll earn trust, recognition, and reliability – all of which shape how people respond to your brand.

Brand loyalty isn’t automatic. It’s something you earn by building real relationships with your customers and consistently providing value. 

Loyalty creates long-term stability and growth, even as platforms and algorithms continue to shift. 

While search intent and brand recognition can attract new visitors, loyalty turns impressions into conversions and builds lasting customer lifetime value.

3. Knowing and understanding your audience

Beyond search intent and branding, truly knowing your audience is essential for long-term marketing success. 

Without that insight, you risk falling into “spray and pray” campaigns that waste resources and fail to connect.

Building clear audience personas helps you decide not just what campaigns and content to create, but how to present them in ways that resonate. 

That means understanding who your audience is, what motivates them, their pain points, their values, and where they spend their time. 

These insights form the foundation of a strategy built to genuinely connect with your audience.

Dig deeper: SEO personas for AI search: How to go beyond static profiles

4. Trustworthiness is currency

Even if your content matches search intent and your brand is well recognized, audiences won’t engage without credibility. 

This matters even more today, as AI tools summarize information and highlight only the most trustworthy sources. 

Both search engines and AI prioritize trust signals. But for users, those signals are everything.

Expertise, consistency, transparency, and reliability are what build that trust. 

People want to feel confident that your brand will deliver on its promises and provide lasting value. 

When they believe you’re dependable, they’re more likely to engage, return, and recommend your brand to others.

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.


5. Customer service and experience drive perception

Today, customer service is inseparable from brand experience. 

Every interaction – whether answering a support ticket or replying to a social media comment – shapes how people perceive your credibility and value.

Testimonials and reviews create a powerful feedback loop: one story sparks another, influencing how others view your brand. 

Campaigns can drive visibility, but audiences still turn to peer reviews on platforms like Reddit to validate those impressions and decide whether to trust you.

Audience sentiment has become its own form of publicity. 

With user-generated content (UGC) shaping perception and AI systems relying on reviews and sentiment signals to recommend brands, customer experience is now a direct driver of both reputation and visibility.

Dig deeper: How to use SEO and CX for better organic performance

6. Good user experience supports conversions

A core principle that hasn’t changed is the need for an optimized user experience. 

When someone lands on your site, the page should minimize friction in the buying journey. 

Whether visitors arrive through ads or organic search, they need clear conversion paths that guide them smoothly forward.

Audiences expect ease and clarity when looking for information or taking action. 

Slow load times, unnecessary clicks, or confusing layouts increase drop-offs, abandoned forms, and carts – leaving users frustrated.

A good user experience makes the journey to conversion as effortless as possible. 

Done well, it not only boosts conversions but also builds satisfaction and trust.

7. Mobile-first experiences: Meeting users where they are 

AI may be transforming how people search, but mobile devices remain the primary way users access and engage with brands. 

For many, the first interaction with your brand happens on a phone.

That’s why user experience must extend beyond conversion paths.

It also has to be fully optimized for mobile. Otherwise, you risk frustration, lost trust, and missed conversions.

Mobile users abandon sites that load slowly, require pinching and zooming, use hard-to-tap buttons, or rely on clunky forms.

Even a few seconds of delay or disruptive layout shifts can cause drop-offs.

And because search engines prioritize mobile-friendliness, optimizing for mobile isn’t just about usability. It also directly impacts rankings and visibility.

8. Accessibility is essential

Accessibility is a core part of creating inclusive experiences for your entire audience.

In the U.S., it’s also a legal responsibility. 

Making your site accessible means adding features like:

  • Screen reader compatibility.
  • Alt text for images.
  • Strong color contrast.
  • Keyboard navigation.

If accessibility is overlooked, you risk excluding parts of your audience and facing ADA lawsuits.

But when you design with accessibility in mind, you reach more people, strengthen trust, and ensure everyone can engage with your brand.

9. Quality content and authority still define success

No matter how search evolves, quality content and authority remain the foundation of visibility and trust. 

Algorithms may shift and discovery channels may change, but users will always value content that is accurate, relevant, and genuinely helpful.

Authority is earned over time by:

  • Consistently publishing original, reliable content.
  • Being cited by other trusted sources. 

The more credibility your brand builds, the more likely users (and search engines) are to consider you a worthwhile recommendation.

Dig deeper: Mastering content quality: The ultimate guide

Marketing that lasts beyond AI

AI is transforming how people search and how brands reach them, but the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed. 

What still matters is:

  • Understanding intent.
  • Knowing your audience.
  • Meeting them where they are.
  • Building trust and loyalty.
  • Delivering real value.

Technology and platforms will keep evolving. 

But the brands that stay grounded in these timeless principles will be the ones that adapt, grow, and thrive in the future.

Read more at Read More

The Zero-Click Future: Winning In A World Where Google Doesn’t Send Traffic

Take a few minutes to think about your website. Have you noticed your traffic dropping even though rankings haven’t really changed?

You’re not alone.

The rise of zero-click searches on Google and other search engines is upending what we consider SEO success and changing the game. AI Overviews, featured snippets, answer boxes…these give users what they need without clicking through to your website.  And for the most part, users have been somewhat satisfied. Almost 44 percent of marketers have seen decreased web traffic since AIOs launched, while 48 percent have seen revenue boosts from ads and affiliate links.

So, how do you stay relevant when Google keeps more traffic for itself? That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out for a while now, and it’s what we’ll share with you here. We’ll break down the zero-click future and give you real, actionable ways to grow your visibility and prove your value to build a thriving brand, even when clicks are scarce.

Key Takeaways

  • Zero-click searches are reshaping SEO success metrics. Traditional traffic-focused strategies need updating as Google and AI tools answer queries directly in search results, reducing site visits even when rankings remain stable. 
  • Multi-platform visibility beats single-channel dependence. Success requires optimizing for AI citations, featured snippets, and expanding presence across TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and other search destinations where your audience seeks answers. 
  • Authority and original content drive AI citations. Brands that invest in proprietary research, expert commentary, and structured data are more likely to be quoted by AI tools and featured in zero-click results. 
  • First-party data becomes your competitive advantage. Building direct relationships through email lists, CDPs, and owned media channels protects against algorithm changes and platform dependency. 
  • New success metrics matter more than clicks. Track impressions, brand mentions, AI visibility, and social engagement rather than relying solely on last-click attribution to measure zero-click performance.

What Are Zero-Click Searches?

A zero-click search gives users the answer directly in the search results. Featured snippets, AI Overviews, local packs, and “People Also Ask” boxes are all examples of zero-click search results.

An AI overview example.

These features are (mostly) great for users because they meet their needs immediately. That improves user satisfaction. Marketers can benefit, too; a zero-click result has the upside of brand visibility in prime real estate. The downside is fewer site visits and opportunities to convert visitors.

People Also Ask results in Google.

If you’re a marketer, understanding this shift is critical. Knowing how zero-click search features work can help you shape your content for inclusion and maintain your relevance, even if traffic declines.

Why Zero-Click Is Taking Over

Platforms like Google, Bing, and AI-driven tools want to keep users within their ecosystem. By providing instant answers, they reduce the need for users to click through. Social media platforms have also become search destinations; TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube answer queries in-app.

Social media variants of search.
Searches on Google.
Searches on YouTube.

Why are these companies doing this? To serve ads, mainly. Meta and Google can continuously serve you ads based on your search history and behavior by keeping you on their platforms. The longer you’re there, the better the chance that you’ll click an ad and give them revenue.

The downside of the trend is that it pushes brands to compete for attention across multiple discovery channels. You can no longer rely on just paid search or earned media alone. Adapting to this new reality isn’t optional, either. You have to understand where your audience searches and tailor content for those environments.

The Cost of Ignoring Zero-Click

Ignoring zero-click can quietly erode your digital presence until the impacts become impossible to reverse. The most obvious loss is website traffic, but there are other consequences:

  • Reduced brand visibility: When your content fails to appear in AI overviews, knowledge panels, or other SERP features, someone has to fill that space: your competitors. That can shift user perception and recognition, leaving you wondering where everyone went.
  • Lower engagement throughout the funnel: Without TOFU (top of funnel) visibility, your middle- and bottom-of-funnel efforts can struggle. Fewer people enter your ecosystem, which makes it harder to build relationships or drive conversions.
  • Weakened authority signals: AI models and search algorithms favor content that’s already been featured or cited. You risk being left out of future citations if you’re not part of that pool. That can start a spiral that reduces your credibility in the eyes of both machines and users.
  • Missed data and audience insights: When users find answers elsewhere, you lose the behavioral data from on-site engagement. That limits your ability to refine messaging, test offers, and personalize experiences.
  • Potential revenue decline: Reduced visibility and engagement inevitably lead to fewer leads, sales, or ad impressions. The financial impact compounds over time.

Failure to adapt to zero-click realities means you give up control over how and where your brand appears in the search experience.

How to Actually Win in a Zero-Click World

We know you should ignore zero-click searches at your own peril. But how do you actually win in this environment? You can succeed by shifting focus from chasing clicks to ownership of the answers that matter to your audience.

Optimize For AI & Snippets

Marketers benefit from higher visibility, and users benefit from faster, clearer answers. Structured content makes it easier for AI and search engines to feature you.

For example, a travel website creates a “Top 10 Things to Do in Milwaukee, WI” guide with schema markup for attractions, ensuring Google can pull quick answers for users who ask for “things to do in Milwaukee.” That gives the user an instant list while showing your brand as a trusted source. In practice, that looks like:

  • Applying schema markup for FAQs, how-tos, and reviews.
  • Creating content hubs with strong internal linking.
  • Adding concise summaries to the start of articles.
  • Using descriptive headers for each section.

Be Worth Quoting

AI summaries and featured snippets favor credible, unique content that adds value. Marketers gain authority while users get richer information they can trust.

Let’s say a leading SaaS company publishes a report with proprietary industry data. AI pulls statistics from the report to answer users’ questions, associating your brand with expertise. To get started, consider:

  • Conducting original research and sharing the results.
  • Adding expert commentary from internal or external subject matter experts.
  • Including case studies with measurable results.
  • Using side-by-side comparisons to simplify decision-making.

Double Down On Brand Authority

Being a recognized authority helps you get cited by AI tools and SERPs. Marketers benefit from constant exposure, and users gain confidence in your answers. Pitch newsworthy stories to journalists at reputable top-tier or hyper-relevant industry publications to reap the best benefits. If your brand strategy isn’t taking advantage of considerable outreach, you’re leaving money (and recognition) on the table.

For example, a health clinic might contribute expert articles to high-profile medical sites. As AI tools look for health-related information, your clinic’s name is seen as a trusted source. But how do you act on this? Take steps to:

  • Build digital PR efforts to secure mentions on authoritative websites.
  • Get Wikipedia references where appropriate.
  • Encourage positive user reviews.
  • Earn high-quality backlinks.
  • Maintain consistent branding across all content.

Create Click-Worthy Content

Even in a zero-click environment, some users want more detail. Marketers benefit by attracting those motivated visitors, while users gain access to in-depth resources. The trick? Thinking outside the traditional “blog” mindset. Imagine a marketing blog that offers an interactive ROI calculator in an article about ad spend. The snippet could show basic tips, but the tool requires visiting the site. That encourages deeper engagement. To help build said engagement, start by:

  • Offering exclusive tools, downloads, or templates.
  • Create comprehensive guides beyond snippet length.
  • Write meta descriptions that spark curiosity.
  • Add visuals, charts, and examples that don’t appear in SERPs.

Think Beyond Google To New Search Frontiers

Search is everywhere. Your audience is looking for answers in places like TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, and AI assistants. Expanding your reach to touch those places involves being proactive. Repurpose existing blog content into short videos. Answer niche questions in online communities or forums. Optimize for video search on YouTube. Format all content for AI readability.

Diversifying your search presence ensures you don’t depend on a single platform’s algorithm. Users benefit from getting answers in the format and channel they prefer. Think of cooking brands that post recipe videos on TikTok for quick inspiration but provide detailed video instructions on YouTube and long-form written directions on their blog for those who want step-by-step guidance.

Need platform-specific tips? Try implementing the following:

  • TikTok: 3-second hook + trending hashtag + text overlays with key terms 
  • Reddit: Target 10K+ member subreddits, provide 150+ word helpful responses 
  • YouTube: Add timestamps, chapter markers, and upload transcript files

How To Track And Measure Zero-Click Success

Measuring success in a zero-click world requires a shift from last-click attribution to metrics reflecting visibility and influence.

Start with impressions in Google Search Console to see how often your content appears in SERPs. Monitor AI visibility with tools like RankScale or BrightEdge to identify when your content is cited in AI Overviews or snippets. You can also use social listening tools to track brand mentions across the web and social platforms. Pay attention to referral traffic from AI tools as a sign of indirect engagement.

The HubSpot Interface.

Adding social engagement to reporting helps measure how often others share or discuss your answers. For NP Digital clients, we often combine these data points into a custom dashboard to track both traditional and emerging search performance. This helps identify which tactics keep your brand visible, even when others aren’t clicking through.

Looking for a place to start? Set up the following:

  • GSC alerts for 20 percent impression drops on top keywords 
  • Monthly scorecard: 1 point per featured snippet, 2 points per AI citation 
  • Baseline metrics: Track impressions, average position, brand mentions

First-Party Data: Your Secret Lifeline

First-party data is one of the most valuable assets you can own, especially in the zero-click era. When platforms control visibility, having a direct line to your audience lets you reach them without depending on changing algorithms or SERP features.

Building this database often starts with gated content like whitepapers, templates, or exclusive tools to encourage email and SMS opt-ins. Every sign-up gives you an owned channel to nurture.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) can unify insights across those touchpoints (email, purchase history, webinar attendance) into one profile. This makes it easier to segment audiences and send targeted, relevant content.

Microsoft's Customer Data Platform.

Microsoft’s Customer Data Platform allows companies to deliver a personalized B2B experience.

Interactive content like quizzes and surveys can help boost sign-ups while providing valuable insights into user preferences and intent. Pair this with regular, high-value email communication that delivers tips or updates to hit what your audience actually cares about. Of course, none of that matters if you’re not tracking what works. As you implement, consider the following implementation checklist:

  • Exit-intent popups on your top 10 pages with topic-specific lead magnets
  • A/B test opt-in placement: sidebar vs. mid-content vs. bottom
  • Progressive profiling: Collect 2-3 data points per interaction
  • Target: 2-3 percent email signup rate from organic traffic

Why does all this matter?

Marketers reduce vulnerability to external platform changes while users get more personalized, useful content based on their real interests and behaviors. Over time, this will strengthen loyalty, improve conversions, and create a direct relationship that no search update can ever take away.

FAQs

What are zero-click searches?

They are searches where users get their answers directly in the results without visiting a website. They can include structured snippets, AI Overviews, FAQs, and more.

Is zero-click traffic increasing?

Yes. Search engines and AI features are designed to give answers faster, reducing the need for clicks. In addition, companies are prioritizing search results that keep users on their platforms instead of going off-site for answers.

How do I get value from zero-click searches?

Prioritize visibility, authority, and multi-channel presence. Structured data and unique, authoritative content can help provide this kind of value to your audience.

Conclusion

Thriving in a zero-click future means focusing on being seen and trusted wherever the answers are delivered. Publish content that earns citations and create experiences worth engaging with. Developing a content strategy that meets your customers everywhere they search is only half the battle. To create lasting impacts, you’ll need to track the metrics that reflect real visibility and do everything you can to capitalize on those numbers.

Read more at Read More

How much does it cost to build a website?

Table of contents

Thinking about building a website? Whether you are a small business owner, a freelancer, or launching a side project, one of the first questions you will want answered is: how much does it cost to build a website? This is not just about curiosity, understanding your website costs early on can help you budget effectively and avoid any unpleasant surprises.

The truth is that the answer is rarely simple. Ask ten business owners about their website building costs and you will probably get ten completely different answers. That is because website costs can range from almost nothing to tens of thousands of euros. The variation comes down to what you need your website to do. A small brochure site with a few pages can be built on a modest budget, whereas an ecommerce store with thousands of products and secure payment facilities will always cost more. The good news is that once you understand where the costs lie, you can make better decisions. And while Yoast SEO will not directly reduce your build costs, it will help you avoid expensive SEO mistakes, improve site performance, and keep your long-term marketing budget under control.

What are you actually paying for when building a website?

Design and user experience: This sets the tone for how visitors feel about your site. Good design is more than colors and fonts, it is about navigation, site structure, and encouraging visitors to stay and explore. Read more about user experience

Development: Turns your designs into a working website. A simple build will cost less, but advanced features or integrations push the price up. 

Domain and hosting: These two are essential and unavoidable. Your domain name generally costs between €10 and €50 per year and hosting keeps your site live. Shared hosting is cheapest, but dedicated hosting provides better performance and enhanced security. As a recommendation, Bluehost is a great choice for both domain registration and hosting. On top of that, it also works extremely well with WordPress. 

Read more: Yoast SEO

Content: A blank page isn’t going to keep visitors on your site for very long, so you’re going to need to have something to show them. You can of course do your own content, but professional content creators can be useful in getting more conversions. 

Read more: writing great website copy.

SEO: This ensures your site gets found. You can do it yourself, but Yoast SEO helps simplify the process and can reduce costs by guiding you on how to optimize pages as you write. 

Read more: how to use the Yoast SEO plugin.

Here’s a chart to explain the above in a quick-check guide: 

Area  Description 
Design  Custom visuals, layout, user interface (UI), mobile responsiveness 
User experience (UX)   Navigation logic, site structure, call-to-action placement 
Development   Code, content management system (CMS), plug-ins or features 
Domain and hosting   Your website’s address and where it lives online 
Content and SEO   Written pages, blog posts, metadata, and optimizations 
Ongoing maintenance  Plugin updates, security, backups, fixes 

Upfront costs:

Of course, none of this comes for free, unless there are some things you can do yourself like copywriting or photography. This will still cost you in terms of time though, so it may be worth considering hiring a professional if there are other areas of your business that you would rather focus on. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at some upfront costs that you will only have to pay for once at the very start.

Type of cost Low estimate High estimate
Domain name €10/year €50/year
Design & UX €0 (DIY template) €10,000+
Development (CMS setup, features, integrations) €0 (DIY) €40,000+
Initial content (copywriting, images, product setup) €200 €5,000+

Ongoing and variable costs:

Obviously, once your website is up and running, that’s not the end of the story. You are presumably here for the long-term and that means there are going to be recurring costs. These cover things like hosting, so your site can stay live, maintenance, to keep everything secure and updated, and you’ll need to continually post new content to engage with your site’s visitors.

Ongoing costs (billed monthly or yearly):

Type of cost Low estimate High estimate
Hosting €50/year €300+/year
Maintenance & security (updates, backups, SSL, fixes) €100/month €500+/month
Ongoing content & SEO €200/year €5,000+/year

Variable costs:

Most people spend their time focusing on the look and feel of their site and while that is important, it’s not the only thing to consider. It’s understandable that things like legal technicalities and CDNs are not front-of-mind when you’re excited about growing your business but it is necessary. That means you’ll need to complete these, often overlooked, tasks to make sure that you remain on track for growth and stay compliant.

Type of cost Low estimate High estimate
Marketing & ads €100/month €10,000+/month
Accessibility & legal compliance €200 €5,000+
Scaling & performance upgrades (plugins, CDN, extra development work) €100 €10,000+

Website building options 

There are three main ways to build a site, and your choice here will have an impact on the final cost.  

1. DIY builders (like Wix or Squarespace)  

These platforms, as well as some others, will let you build a site from scratch without the need for any technical skills. They’re affordable, quick to set up and ideal for portfolio sites, hobby sites, or small businesses. If you are using these site builders for business, you might find them limiting when you need to scale or want more advanced SEO.   

2. WordPress + Yoast  

For most successful small and medium sized businesses, WordPress is an excellent solution as it’s flexible, scalable, and widely supported. What’s more, when you pair it with Yoast SEO for WooCommerce you can start publishing optimized content from day one, making your online store more visible instantly. This makes it more affordable in the long run as there’s no need for an agency, and you can add features as you grow rather than having to rebuild every time.  

3. Custom-built website via an agency 

For complex businesses like advanced ecommerce or security services, a custom-built site is their best option. It’s the most expensive option but gives you complete control, giving you everything you want without having to compromise on anything. However, you may find that tailored code and features will cost a lot more.     

Watch out for these hidden costs 

One common misconception is that the costs end when your site goes live. That’s just not true, in fact, some of the most expensive problems show up after launch. These can include:  

Non-converting content: You can have the most beautiful website in the world but if it’s not pulling in paying customers, there’s a problem. Try investing in professional copywriting and SEO-friendly content that will ensure visitors take action.   

Dropped traffic: Starting off with bad SEO can really hamper your traffic. Without help, it’s easy to make errors that could take months to fix. This is very much a case of prevention is better than cure.  

Technical debt: Sites built on outdated technology or poorly coded templates may work at first but become costly to maintain or upgrade after a while.   

Accessibility cost: It’s important that you make sure your site caters to all, especially those who may have visual or audio impairments. 

Legal costs: There are certain legal requirements to take care of. These aren’t just there to protect the customer; they protect you too. So, don’t forget that you’ll need things like a cookie consent tool and a term of service policy. 

How Yoast saves you money (over time) 

Yoast isn’t about saving you money on upfront costs; what it does is prevent expensive mistakes. It will save you money over time though as you’ll benefit from reduced costs of ongoing SEO and content marketing. 

To get more specific though, Yoast’s real-time SEO guidance helps you write better, optimized content without needing to hire a writer. In addition, the Readability analysis and Internal linking suggestions are two features that help to reduce bounce rates by making your content perform better, which literally translates into more conversions. On top of this, adding structured data manually is time consuming and costly. Yoast automates much of this, giving you rich search results without developer costs. And if that’s not enough to whet your appetite, there are free and premium options.  

Feature  How it saves you money  
Real-time SEO guidance   Write better content, faster, without hiring an SEO expert  
Readability analysis  Engaged readers means more conversions 
Schema & structured data   Get results without coding knowledge 
Internal linking suggestions   Boost traffic to key pages without external help 

Budgeting tips for small business owners 

By spending smart, you can get big results for less. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

  1. Start with clarity, not complexity
    Fancy animations might look nice, but if they confuse your visitors, they’re not worth the price. 
  1. Spend more on content than code
    Great content = better SEO = better ROI.   
  1. Invest in tools that scale with you
    WordPress and Yoast both grow with your business. 
  1. Plan for the long game
    Don’t treat launch as the finish line. Content updates and SEO tweaks are ongoing.

Read more: How to optimize your crawl budget

Ecommerce vs. general website: does it change the cost? 

Yes, dramatically. Ecommerce sites need: 

  • Payment gateways. 
  • Product listings. 
  • Inventory management. 
  • Legal disclaimers. 
  • Stronger performance and security. 

Expect to pay more, sometimes a lot more, for development, plugins, and maintenance. But again, tools like Yoast SEO help make your product pages more visible and your content more persuasive.   

Platforms like WooCommerce give you a practical and flexible way to run your online store without having to reinvent the wheel. But the real key to success is visibility, after all, if people can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. And this is what Yoast SEO for WooCommerce does best.  

Read more: See how Yoast helps ecommerce sites

Final thoughts 

Ultimately, what matters about your site most is what it does for your business. With WordPress and Yoast, you can create a professional site that looks great, enhances your online visibility, and grows with your business, without breaking the bank. One of the best things you can do to really set the wheels in motion now though is to go to this guide WordPress for beginners training course and learn how to put yourself and your company first.

Good SEO isn’t a luxury; it’s a smart investment, so start today. Good luck!

The post How much does it cost to build a website? appeared first on Yoast.

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10 free and paid SEO reporting tools for 2025

Table of Contents

If you’re investing time and budget into SEO, you’ll want to know if it’s actually delivering results. That’s where SEO reporting tools come in. They take the guesswork out of your strategy by showing you what’s working, what isn’t, and where you should focus your efforts next. Without them, you’re left with assumptions, anecdotes, and gut feeling. That might work for a while, but it’s no way to grow a business.

Whether you need a free SEO report, a quick SEO report generator, or a professional-level dashboard for clients, the right tool will help you measure progress and make smarter business decisions. A solo blogger might just want to know which posts are attracting clicks, while a global agency might need to present polished reports to dozens of clients each month. The scale is different, but the principle is the same: reporting keeps you honest about what’s happening.

Read more: Beginner’s guide to SEO reporting

What is an SEO reporting tool?

An SEO reporting tool collects data about your site’s search engine visibility and turns it into insights. Think of it as your SEO dashboard. At its simplest, it might show which keywords your pages are ranking for. At its most advanced, it can track backlinks, crawl your entire site for errors, and pull together complex competitor benchmarks.

These tools save time by pulling in data automatically, but they don’t replace critical thinking. You still need to interpret what the numbers mean and decide what action to take. A sudden dip in traffic, for instance, could be caused by a technical error, a Google algorithm update, or even seasonality in your industry. The tool will show you the dip; it’s your job to work out why.

Some tools focus on one particular task, like crawling your website, while others are built as all-in-one suites. Below, we’ll look at 10 of the best SEO reporting tools available today, covering free and paid options for every kind of user.


Summary: best SEO reporting tools at a glance

Tool  Best for   Pricing 
Google Search Console  Beginners & site owners  Free 
Yoast SEO Dashboard  WordPress users  Free
Google Analytics  Behavior & conversion tracking  Free 
AgencyAnalytics  Agencies managing multiple clients  From $12/month per client 
Semrush  All-in-one professional SEO  From $139.95/month 
Ahrefs  Link building & competitive research  From $27/month 
Moz Pro  Beginners & SMBs  From $49/month (30-day free trial) 
Screaming Frog  Technical SEO & crawling  Free (500 URLs) or unlimited for £199/year 
Mangools  Solo marketers & freelancers  From €19.90/month when billed annually
BrightLocal  Local SEO & GBP management  From $29/month 

10 SEO reporting tools to choose from

1: Google Search Console (free)

Best for: Website owners who want a free, reliable way to track search performance and identify technical issues directly from Google.

Google Search Console is one of the most essential SEO reporting tools available, and it has the distinct advantage of being completely free. It tells you how your website performs in Google Search, showing impressions, clicks, and rankings for the queries that bring visitors to your site. It also alerts you to crawl errors, indexing problems, and mobile usability issues, so you can catch technical problems before they affect your rankings.

The data here is particularly valuable because it comes straight from Google. You’ll see which search terms trigger impressions, how often users click your site, and which pages are performing well. This makes it an excellent starting point for beginners, but it’s also a must-have for seasoned professionals. The drawback is that historical data is limited, and it doesn’t show you how competitors are performing. But for pure insight into your own search presence, it’s unmatched. 

Key features: Direct performance data, coverage and indexing reports, Core Web Vitals. 

Pros: Free, trusted first-party data, essential insights. 

Cons: Limited history, no competitor data. 

Price: Free. 

Read more: How to use Google Search Console: a beginner’s guide

2: Yoast SEO Dashboard (free)

Best for: WordPress users who want in-editor SEO guidance and ongoing optimization tracking.

Of course, we need to mention our own tool. And, yes, it’s right up at the top of the list but hey, we’re very proud of it. The Yoast SEO Dashboard sits right inside WordPress and gives you feedback as you write. It tracks readability, internal linking, and keyword optimization, helping you improve your content before you hit publish.

With the new Site Kit by Google integration, the dashboard becomes even more powerful. You can pull in data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics, meaning you don’t need to keep switching tabs to see how your content is performing. Instead, you get real-time feedback in the editor and clear reporting inside your WordPress dashboard.

This makes it especially useful for content teams who want SEO baked into their publishing process from the start. Rather than writing first and optimizing later, the Yoast SEO Dashboard guides you as you go, making it easier to publish content that performs.

Here’s why you’ll love this:

  • One view of GSC and GA metrics alongside Yoast SEO Dashboard and readability results.
  • Quickly spot content that needs work and act in context.
  • Lightweight workflow for both editors and SEO professionals alike.

Key features: Real-time SEO analysis, Google Site Kit integration, internal linking tools. 

Pros: Easy to use, directly in WordPress, improves content before publishing. 

Cons: Limited to WordPress. 

Price: Free.

Read more: Site Kit by Google integration in Yoast SEO

3: Google Analytics (free)

Best for: Marketers and site owners who want to understand on-site user behavior and measure the impact of SEO on conversion.

Where Google Search Console shows how users arrive at your site, Google Analytics shows what they do once they’re there. It’s a natural partner to GSC and together they provide a complete picture of SEO performance. Analytics lets you track user behaviour, see how long visitors spend on your site, and measure conversions.

One of its biggest strengths is the ability to segment traffic. You can look specifically at organic users and see how they behave differently from paid or social visitors. You can also set up goals to track the actions that matter most, such as filling out a contact form or completing a purchase. This makes Google Analytics invaluable if you want to connect SEO efforts to business results.

The learning curve is steeper than with some other tools, particularly since the rollout of GA4, but once you master it, the insights are worth it. And of course, the price is unbeatable: it’s completely free.

Key features: GA4 event tracking, segmentation, funnel reporting. 

Pros: Free, deep insights, connects SEO with results. 

Cons: Steep learning curve. 

Price: Free. 

4: AgencyAnalytics (paid)

Best for: Agencies looking for automated, white-label reporting solutions for multiple clients.

AgencyAnalytics is designed with agencies in mind. If you manage SEO for multiple clients, you’ll know how much time is spent building and delivering reports. AgencyAnalytics takes away much of that pain by automating the process. You can integrate it with platforms like Google Search Console, Analytics, and even social media channels, then deliver white-label reports directly to clients.

The main appeal is the ability to customize dashboards and reports with your own branding. For agencies, that’s a big deal because it saves hours of manual work while still giving clients a polished experience. Reports can be scheduled to go out automatically, meaning your team can focus on strategy instead of spreadsheet wrangling.

This isn’t a tool for solo bloggers or small business owners, it would be overkill, but for agencies with a portfolio of clients, it can be transformative. The pricing is based on the number of clients, starting from around $12 per client per month, which makes it scalable as you grow.

Key features: White-label reports, multi-platform integrations, scheduled delivery. 

Pros: Saves agencies time, professional client-ready reports, scalable. 

Cons: Overkill for solo bloggers or small businesses. 

Price: From $12 per client/month. 

5: Semrush (free & paid)

Best for: Agencies and SEO professionals who need a comprehensive suite of tools for competitive analysis and reporting.

Semrush is one of the most widely used SEO platforms in the industry. It’s not just a reporting tool, it’s a full suite covering keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink audits, and site crawls. The reporting features are particularly strong, allowing you to track visibility trends, rankings, and content performance over time.

For agencies and professional SEOs, Semrush is a powerhouse. It provides granular detail about competitors, making it easier to benchmark your performance and identify gaps. Content audits help you spot underperforming pages, while backlink reports show you where your link-building strategy needs work. Semrush even integrates with Yoast SEO, offering a seamless workflow for WordPress users.

The free version is limited, so most businesses will need a paid plan to get full value. At $129.95 per month, it’s not cheap, but the breadth of functionality makes it a worthwhile investment for those serious about SEO.

Key features: Competitor benchmarking, keyword and backlink reports, site audits. 

Pros: Huge dataset, strong competitor analysis, integrates with Yoast.

Cons: Expensive, limited free tier. 

Price: From $139.95/month. 

Read more: Keyword data via Semrush in Yoast SEO

6: Ahrefs (paid)

Best for: Businesses focused on link-building strategies and competitive research.

Ahrefs has built its reputation on having one of the largest and most accurate backlink indexes available. If link-building is part of your strategy, this is often the tool of choice. But Ahrefs does more than just backlinks. It also provides keyword research, site audits, and rank tracking, making it a comprehensive SEO platform.

The reports are particularly well-designed, making complex data easy to understand. This is useful when you need to share results with stakeholders who might not be familiar with SEO jargon. It’s also popular for competitor analysis, giving you a clear view of how others in your space are performing and where you might gain an advantage.

The main downside is cost. With plans starting at $99 per month and no free tier, it’s not the most accessible option for beginners. But for businesses that prioritize link-building and want robust competitive insights, it’s one of the best.

Key features: Backlink index, Keyword Explorer, Content Explorer. 

Pros: Accurate, user-friendly reports, powerful for link-building. 

Cons: Costly, free tier is limited. 

Price: Limited free tools, Starter plan $27/month. 

7: Moz Pro (free trial & paid)

Best for: Beginners and small businesses who want straightforward reporting and keyword tracking.

Moz Pro offers a balance between beginner-friendly usability and professional-level features. It provides keyword tracking, site audits, and link analysis in an interface that’s easier to navigate than some of the heavier platforms. For small businesses and those new to SEO, this can be a big advantage.

One feature that stands out is the Keyword Explorer, which helps you understand not just search volume but also difficulty and potential click-through rates. This makes it easier to prioritize which keywords are worth targeting. Moz Pro also provides link metrics, though its index is smaller than Ahrefs or Semrush.

The company offers a 30-day free trial, which is generous compared to most competitors. After that, pricing starts at $99 per month. For many small to medium businesses, it hits the sweet spot of offering enough depth without overwhelming complexity.

Key features: Keyword Explorer, site audits, link metrics. 

Pros: Beginner-friendly, generous free trial, clean design. 

Cons: Smaller index than Ahrefs or Semrush. 

Price: From $49/month. 

8: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free & paid)

Best for: SEOs and developers who need to quickly identify technical issues and improve site structure.

Screaming Frog is a different kind of SEO reporting tool. Instead of dashboards and trend lines, it’s a desktop crawler that scans your site much like a search engine does. The result is a detailed breakdown of every URL, title tag, meta description, heading, and link.

For technical SEO audits, this tool is hard to beat. The free version lets you crawl up to 500 URLs, which is enough for many small sites. The paid version adds advanced features like JavaScript rendering, scheduled crawls, and integrations with Google Analytics and Search Console.

It’s not the most user-friendly option for beginners, but for SEO specialists and developers, it provides unparalleled insight into the technical health of a site. At £259 per year, it’s also one of the more affordable professional tools.

Key features: 500 free URL crawl, GA & GSC integration, advanced features in paid version. 

Pros: Extremely detailed, industry standard for technical SEO. 

Cons: Steep learning curve, desktop-only. 

Price: Free up to 500 URLs, Paid £199/year. 

Read more: How to perform an SEO audit (with checklist)

9: Mangools (paid)

Best for: Freelancers and small teams who want a low-learning-curve SEO toolset.

Mangools is aimed at marketers and freelancers who want powerful SEO tools without the steep learning curve. The suite includes keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking, and backlink monitoring, all presented in a clean, simple interface.

Reporting is straightforward, focusing on clarity rather than overwhelming detail. For solo marketers or small teams, this simplicity is a feature rather than a limitation. You don’t need to spend weeks learning the tool, you can start getting useful insights almost immediately.

While it doesn’t have the breadth of Semrush or Ahrefs, Mangools is much more affordable, starting at just under €30 per month. That makes it an attractive option for those who need solid SEO data without enterprise-level complexity.

Key features: KWFinder, SERPChecker, LinkMiner. 

Pros: Affordable, quick learning curve, simple reporting. 

Cons: Not as deep as Semrush or Ahrefs. 

Price: From €19.90/month when billed annually. 

10: BrightLocal (paid)

Best for: Local businesses and agencies managing multiple Google Business Profiles.

BrightLocal is built specifically for local SEO. If your business relies on being found in a particular town, city, or neighborhood, this tool is tailor-made for you. It tracks local rankings, monitors reviews, checks citations, and even audits Google Business Profiles.

The reports are practical and easy to share, making them ideal for agencies managing multiple local clients. BrightLocal also provides tools for managing online reputation, which can be just as important as rankings in driving local business.

For businesses competing on a local level, it’s hard to find a better option. Prices start from $29 per month, making it relatively affordable compared to the big all-in-one suites.

Key features: Local rank tracking, citation checks, review monitoring. 

Pros: Affordable, perfect for local businesses, practical reporting. 

Cons: Narrow scope, not for global SEO. 

Price: From $29/month. 

Read more: Guide to local SEO

Choose wisely: what to consider

Before deciding on a tool, it’s worth asking yourself what you really need. If you’re a solo blogger, Google Search Console and Yoast SEO might be all you need to keep track of performance. If you’re running an agency, automation and client reporting might make AgencyAnalytics or Semrush a better fit.

Think about your budget too. Free tools go a long way, but paid tools offer depth and convenience that free tools often can’t match. Also consider how comfortable you are with data. Some platforms are designed to be beginner-friendly, while others assume a level of expertise.

The good news is that most paid platforms offer free trials. That gives you a chance to experiment and see which tool feels right before committing long-term.

Turn insights into action

SEO reporting tools do more than track performance, they shape your strategy. They tell you what’s working and highlight the areas that need attention. But tools don’t make the decisions, the real value comes from how you interpret the data and act on it. So whether you’re just getting started with Google Search Console, refining your content with Yoast SEO, or managing enterprise-scale campaigns in Semrush, the goal is the same: turn insights into action. 

The post 10 free and paid SEO reporting tools for 2025 appeared first on Yoast.

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Yoast SEO free vs Premium: why upgrading is worth it

Do you want to take your site’s SEO to the next level? Yoast SEO Premium can help you out! But there is also a free version of Yoast SEO. So, what exactly is the difference between the free version of Yoast SEO and Yoast SEO Premium? How do these two compare? And is Yoast SEO Premium worth it? Let’s uncover the ten reasons why you should buy Yoast SEO Premium today!

Yoast SEO free vs premium: what is the difference?

Do you want to compare the main differences between Yoast SEO Free and Premium? This table will give you quick insights:

Yoast SEO Free
Find other ways to optimize your website for SEO
No comprehensive SEO solution. You’d need to find other ways to optimize your website, especially if you have a local business, a news website, or if you have a lot of videos.

No AI
You have to manually optimize all your content yourself.

No AI
You have to manually write and optimize all your SEO titles and meta descriptions yourself.

Only 1 keyword per page
Optimize for one keyword per post or page.

No redirect manager
Forgetting to set up a redirect results in visitors hitting a 404 page, which displeases both them and Google.

You need to guess which links would work best
Identify which pages to link to for improved rankings, for both new and existing pages on your site.

No preview of your page on social media
Without a preview of social snippets, you’re left guessing and hoping for the best.

No support
No support
You can help yourself with our extensive knowledge database.

Manually edit robots.txt file
Manually edit your robots.txt file to block AI bots, at the risk of making mistakes.

No free access to the Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on
Transferring draft content from Google Docs to your website for SEO optimization slows your workflow and makes collaboration with internal and external teams more time-consuming.

Yoast SEO Premium vs Yoast SEO Free
Includes Local SEO, Video SEO, and News SEO plugins
Yoast SEO Premium provides everything you need to improve your website’s visibility, whether you’re a business owner, publisher, agency, or content creator.

Find other ways to optimize your website for SEO
No comprehensive SEO solution. You’d need to find other ways to optimize your website, especially if you have a local business, a news website, or if you have a lot of videos.

(Beta) Get AI-powered suggestions to optimize your content
Get optimization suggestions and apply changes instantly with Yoast’s AI features, saving you time and ensuring your content is search engine-friendly. This feature is currently in beta.

No AI
You have to manually optimize all your content yourself.

(Beta) Get high-quality titles and meta descriptions with Yoast AI
Yoast’s AI helps you craft optimized SEO titles and meta descriptions for search and social, boosting your CTR while saving you time.

No AI
You have to manually write and optimize all your SEO titles and meta descriptions yourself.

Optimize for up to five keyword synonyms by adding variants
Include up to four keyword synonyms for a broader reach, and receive a complete SEO analysis for each one.

Only 1 keyword per page
Optimize for one keyword per post or page.

Automatic redirects: so no more dead links or 404 errors
Effortlessly redirect old or renamed pages to maintain satisfaction for both your visitors and Google.

No redirect manager
Forgetting to set up a redirect results in visitors hitting a 404 page, which displeases both them and Google.

Get real-time suggestions for internal links
As you write, you’ll receive suggestions for internal links to other pages, which Google favors and can boost your ranking.

You need to guess which links would work best
Identify which pages to link to for improved rankings, for both new and existing pages on your site.

Preview your page on Facebook and Twitter/X
You have complete control over your page’s social media appearance, ensuring it entices users to click.

No preview of your page on social media
Without a preview of social snippets, you’re left guessing and hoping for the best.

24/7 support
Our helpful and expert support team is ready to assist you with any questions via email or live chat.

No support
No support
You can help yourself with our extensive knowledge database.

Safeguard your content from being used to train AI bots
Easily protect your intellectual property and data privacy by blocking AI bots from scraping your content with a simple toggle.

Manually edit robots.txt file
Manually edit your robots.txt file to block AI bots, at the risk of making mistakes.

Includes 1 free seat to the Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on
Create and optimize your SEO content in Google Docs with Yoast’s guidance, ideal for teamwork with internal and external partners. Enjoy 1 free seat, valued at $5/month.

No free access to the Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on
Transferring draft content from Google Docs to your website for SEO optimization slows your workflow and makes collaboration with internal and external teams more time-consuming.

What are the benefits of Yoast SEO Premium?

For over fifteen years, Yoast SEO has provided small businesses, bloggers, marketers, and online and offline stores with almost everything they need to compete in the search results. Over the years, we made the plugin better and better — following feedback from users, through thorough research and insights from insiders at the search engines. Today, Yoast SEO is run by a team of passionate SEO experts and built by very talented developers.

While the free version of Yoast SEO gives you a lot of tools to help you do well in the search results, Yoast SEO Premium makes many tasks much easier. It saves precious time that you can invest in other ways. Yoast SEO Premium also gives you additional tools, like, for instance, Local SEO, AI features, internal linking suggestions, and the redirect manager. You can use all of these tools to build an impressive site structure. All of this helps make your site a great fit for users and search engines alike. As such, Yoast SEO Premium is a wise investment.

Buy Yoast SEO Premium now!

Unlock powerful features and much more for your WordPress site with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!

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

1: Yoast SEO Premium comes with amazing AI features

Yoast SEO Premium now offers AI-powered features that streamline your SEO tasks. With Yoast AI Generate, you can create engaging titles and meta descriptions effortlessly. Choose from multiple options or generate more until you find the perfect fit. Meanwhile, Yoast AI Optimize provides smart suggestions to enhance your existing content, ensuring SEO best practices are met with just a click. These tools integrate smoothly into your workflow, saving you time and effort while keeping your content search-engine friendly. Available for WordPress and Shopify, these features help you maintain control over your content’s final look and feel.

2: Yoast SEO Premium comes with all add-ons

Yoast SEO Premium now includes various separate add-ons, such as News, Video, and Local SEO, in one convenient package. This comprehensive suite enhances your optimization capabilities without needing additional purchases. However, the WooCommerce SEO add-on is not included and is available separately. Enjoy a streamlined experience to boost your site’s performance across different content types and media.

3: Yoast SEO Premium is a time-saver

One of the most important things you need to remember about SEO is that it is never done. There’s always more to do, better content to write, or fixes to make. Luckily, there’s a WordPress SEO plugin that’s glad to be of assistance. As you might know, Yoast SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of tool. You need to work with it, whether it’s improving your content or building your site structure. In the free version, you still need to do much of the work yourself. Yoast SEO Premium comes with a number of AI tools that can save you lots of time.

4: Use Yoast SEO in Google Docs

The Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on allows you to draft and optimize your SEO content directly within Google Docs. This tool is ideal for seamless collaboration with both internal teams and external partners. You can work on content, refine it, and ensure it aligns with SEO best practices, all without leaving your document. This efficiency streamlines your workflow and enhances team cooperation. Plus, Yoast SEO Premium includes one user seat for this add-on, typically valued at $5 per seat.

Readability Analysis in Google Docs Yoast SEO add-on
You can enjoy the same Yoast SEO analyses in Google Docs

5: Makes doing site maintenance easier

If working on your site is turning into a day job, you might need some help! Premium makes site maintenance easier. For one, Premium comes with a stale cornerstone content finder that reminds you to update your most important content.

Another tool that helps you work on your pages is the redirect manager. Whenever you make changes to pages or URLs, this tool makes sure to add a redirect for you. All you have to do is say where the new URL needs to lead. With the redirect manager, you can also fix your 404 errors in no time. No developer necessary. It’s so helpful that 58% of Premium users praise the redirect manager as the best feature in Yoast SEO Premium!

6: Helpful tools to build a great site structure

Building a solid site structure is one of the quickest routes to success. Making your content easily accessible to users and search engines helps them both make sense of your site. Yoast SEO Premium comes with a number of tools that help you build relevant links that can build a solid foundation for your site structure. Our plugin comes with internal linking blocks, an orphaned content finder and a targeted internal linking suggestion tool.

With the internal linking suggestions, relevant content will automatically be suggested while you’re writing your new content. There’s no need to remember that all those posts are pages!

But don’t just take our word for it, here’s what Andrew Evans from Intellifluence says about the internal linking tool:

While the free Yoast SEO plugin offers many great features, the Premium version takes things to the next level. The internal linking suggestions feature ensures our blog is organized in a cohesive manner. It also ensures that link equity passes to other posts. This feature alone saves a tremendous amount of time as the plugin suggests links as we write. As the site grows, this feature only becomes more valuable! If you’ve ever tried to develop an interlinking strategy for an established blog, you’ll know exactly what I mean…

Andrew Evans

7: An advanced language analysis that makes writing more natural

Yoast SEO is famous for its SEO and readability analyses — a.k.a. the colored traffic lights. The feedback these analyses give you helps you produce a great piece of content that adheres to a range of SEO best practices. This works splendidly, but Premium makes this process a lot more natural and flexible.

Premium has a very smart feature called word forms support. This innovative language analysis looks not only at the exact match of the focus keyphrase you enter but also at all the grammatical forms of that word. If you use, for instance, “decoration”, we will find word forms like “decorated” and “decorates” in your text as well, just like Google does. The words don’t even have to be in the same order when your focus keyphrase consists of more than one word.

8: Use synonyms and related keyphrases in your text to make it richer

Search engines get smarter every day, and context is key in SEO. They use the context in which a keyword appears to determine what a text is about. Synonyms and related terms, therefore, are more important than ever. In the free version of Yoast SEO, you can only add a single focus keyphrase. The plugin uses this to help you optimize your post. Yoast SEO Premium has more tricks up its sleeve, making it a much smarter solution. What is that?

Well, you can add a number of synonyms and related keyphrases to your post. By using these, you can make your content come alive. The Premium analysis makes sure that you use these synonyms and related keyphrases correctly in your post. Awesome, right? You can even use the Semrush integration to gather data and trends about your related keyphrases. Premium users can add the related keyphrases Semrush uncovers for you to their post with a single mouse click.

9: Boost AI visibility while maintaining control

Yoast SEO introduces AI-focused features such as llms.txt and AI bot blockers to protect your site’s content and maintain data privacy. The llms.txt file helps AI tools understand your site’s structure and important content. Meanwhile, the AI bot blocker feature lets you safeguard your intellectual property with a simple toggle, preventing AI bots from scraping your content for training purposes. This ensures that your valuable information remains secure and under your control.

10: 24/7 access to our world-class support team

What if you run into issues with the plugin? It would be good if you could contact a real person to help you figure out what the problem is. Luckily, if you sign up for Yoast SEO Premium, you get just that: Premium support. Our helpful support staff is available around the clock to get you up and running in no time.

An incredible bonus: free access to Yoast SEO Academy

Every Yoast SEO Premium subscription comes with complimentary access to Yoast SEO Academy. This is a big deal. We don’t just provide you with the number one WordPress SEO plugin to help you do well in search engines — we also supply many hours of instructional material. We offer several of our courses free of charge to get you started with the basics. But when you sign up for Yoast SEO Premium, you get access to all our SEO courses! Learn about Yoast SEO, SEO copywriting, keyword research, structured data, ecommerce SEO, and many other topics related to SEO!

Invest in Yoast SEO Premium: it pays off!

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

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

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

How AI perceives your brand

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

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

Knowledge graphs

Image source: TechTarget

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

Entity linking

Image source: Ontotext

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

Relationship mapping

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

Sentiment and perception analysis

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

Personalization and content alignment

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

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

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

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

The new gatekeepers: LLMs & generative search

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

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

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

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

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

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

From traditional search to AI-driven discovery

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

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

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

Search engines’ evolution into generative platforms

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

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

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

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

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

The branding challenges of AI mediation

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

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

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

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

What shapes your brand’s AI profile

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

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

  • Structured data and schema usage provide machines with a clear blueprint of who you are, what you offer, and why it matters. Without this scaffolding, your content risks being flattened into something indistinguishable.
  • Citations in authoritative sources act like trust anchors. When established publications, industry bodies, or credible researchers reference your brand, AI models absorb those signals and treat them as validation.
  • Consistency of context, making sure your brand name, description, and expertise align across platforms, ensures that fragmented or contradictory mentions don’t dilute your identity in AI summaries.
  • Depth and authority of content matter more than sheer volume. AI is tuned to favor content that demonstrates expertise and perspective, not just keyword density.
  • Geographical and personalization cues influence how your brand is profiled in specific markets or for specific user types. For instance, a brand may appear as a local leader in one geography and an emerging player in another.
  • Reputation signals like reviews, press coverage, and forum discussions shape how AI remembers your brand. Unlike a campaign you can sunset, these signals persist in training data.A software tool that fixed its early bugs, for example, might still be labelled unreliable in AI-generated summaries because forum complaints from years ago remain part of the record.

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

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

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

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

Here’s how to start:

Audit how AI describes your brand

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

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

Keep ‘anchor’ content fresh

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

Infuse brand storytelling into content

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

Experiment beyond traditional blog posts

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

Work on visibility across multiple touchpoints

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

Always think about intent and context

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

Invest in tools that guide AI to your brand

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

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

The future of brand perception

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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