Posts

AI Optimization: How to Rank in AI Search (+ Checklist)

October 22, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News/by

When a potential user asks ChatGPT, Google AI, or Perplexity for recommendations, does your brand appear in the answer?

Not just cited — actually mentioned in the response?

That’s a crucial distinction.

Brands that AI systems mention with context and positive sentiment attract the most intent-driven traffic.

Semrush research shows that visitors who find a brand in an AI answer are 4.4 times more valuable than those from traditional search.

They’re pre-qualified. They’ve seen AI endorse your solution.

And unlike SEO, AI doesn’t care about website authority.

Most sources cited in AI responses don’t even rank in Google’s top 20.

Ranking positions of LLM – Cited search results

So if you follow best practices, your startup can earn favorable mentions over more established competitors.

Meritocracy.

How do you make that happen?

Read on to learn:

How AI search works
How the Backlinko team approaches AI SEO
Best practices to make your site AI-ready

Let’s start with the basics of AI optimization.

Grab our free AI Search Optimization Checklist and follow the exact steps we use to get cited across ChatGPT, Google, and more.

What Is AI Optimization (And Why You Should Care)?

AI optimization is the process of making your website accessible and understandable to AI-powered search tools. Like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Bing Copilot.

Some call it “AI search optimization.” Others “AI content optimization.”

Terminologies vary, but they’re all about the same thing:

Make your site easy for large language models (LLMs) to find, understand, and reference in their answers.

It’s not a brand-new strategy. It’s built on the core SEO principles.

Only now, you’re optimizing for tools that pull, summarize, and use your information — not just rank.

But why is AI optimization so important now?

AI tools are expected to drive more traffic than traditional search engines by 2028.

Google and LLM Unique Visitor Growth Projection (Moderate Case)

And here’s the kicker:

This traffic pool is only getting bigger.

Over 700 million people use ChatGPT every week. Millions more use Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI platforms.

Google’s AI Mode already has more than 100 million monthly active users. And that’s just in the US and India.

As it rolls out globally, adoption will only grow.

AI search optimization helps you be visible to these users.

It ensures your site appears in AI-powered search results, increasing your chances of getting referral traffic and finding new customers.

How AI Search Works

LLMs find relevant content across the web based on users’ prompts, then combines it into one comprehensive answer with source links.

There are three broad steps:

1. Understanding Your Prompt

First, AI interprets what you’re asking.

Some platforms (and specific models) may even expand or tweak your query for better results.

For instance, if I search “best sneakers,” ChatGPT’s o3 model searches for more specific phrases like “best running shoes 2025.”

2. Retrieval

Next, the AI platform searches for information in real time.

Different platforms use different sources (Google’s index, Bing, curated databases, etc.). But they all work the same way.

They gather relevant content from across the web for your expanded query.

3. Synthesis

Finally, AI decides which sources to include.

How?

The exact criteria aren’t public. But these factors seem to matter the most:

Authority: Recognized brands (entities it knows) and established experts
Structure: Clear, scannable content with direct answers
Context: Content that covers topics semantically (related concepts, not just keyword matches)

The most relevant sources get cited. The rest get ignored.

Which means ranking well isn’t enough. Your content also needs to be properly structured for AI systems.

I Analyzed 10 Queries Across Multiple AI Search Platforms: Here’s What I Found

Before we move forward to discuss how to optimize for AI search, I wanted to understand three things:

Do different AI platforms cite different types of content?
Which domains consistently appear across platforms?
Does multi-platform presence actually matter for AI visibility?

So I ran a simple experiment.

I searched 10 queries across ChatGPT 5, Claude Sonnet 4, Perplexity (Sonar model), Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Google’s AI Mode — a mix of commercial, informational, local, and trending topics.

And I found some interesting insights.

How Each Platform Chooses Sources


Platforms	Citation Behavior
ChatGPT	Acts like a community aggregator. Mixes Reddit discussions with Wikipedia and review sites.
Claude	Prefers recent, authoritative sources. Zero Reddit citations. Focuses on 2024-2025 content
Perplexity	Most diverse. Balances buying guides, YouTube reviews, and some Reddit.
Gemini	Relies mostly on training data. And since there’s no option to turn on web search, you can’t get it to cite sources for most of your queries.
Google AI Mode	Pulls from beyond top search results. 50% of citations weren’t on page one of Google.

The “Citation Core” Effect

Certain domains have achieved what we call the “citation core” status.

Citation core (n.): A small group of sites and brands that every major AI search tool trusts, cites, and uses as default sources.

Wikipedia showed up 16 times. Mayo Clinic owned health queries. RTINGS controlled electronics reviews.

These sites have become AI’s default sources.

What This Means for Brand Sites

One pattern jumped out: Official brand websites were underrepresented.

In my test, they made up around ~10% of all citations.

But that doesn’t mean your site doesn’t matter for informational or educational queries.

It means most sites aren’t yet AI-friendly. And that’s the opportunity.

When your site is structured, detailed, and optimized, it becomes one of the few brand-owned sources AI can actually cite for product specs, features, case studies, and stats. Information third-party sites can’t provide.

Think of it like this: Your website gives you the authoritative base layer. Off-site presence just amplifies it.

These findings aren’t surprising. But they reinforce what we’ve suspected all along.

In fact, a lot of what we do here at Backlinko aligns with these patterns:

Creating citable content
Doing A/B tests to optimize our site
Earning third-party validation.
Building authority across platforms (Did you check our YouTube channel?)

How to Optimize Your Website for AI Search

Google’s guideline says good SEO is good AI optimization.

Their official guidelines mostly rehash standard SEO practices, with a few AI-specific points. Like using preview controls and ensuring structured data matches visible content.

But there’s much more to it than that.

Getting cited in AI answers is a team sport.

PR, product, support, and customer success all play a role. (Check out AI Search Strategy: The Seen & Trusted Brand Framework where we discuss this.)

But the foundation to make your site AI search-ready starts with three teams working in sync:

Developers: They make your site technically accessible to AI crawlers
SEOs: They structure content so AI can extract and understand it
Content teams: They create information worth extracting

How to optimize your website for AI search

Most companies treat these as separate projects.

That’s a mistake.

Leigh McKenzie, Head of SEO at Backlinko, explains why:

“Ranking in Google doesn’t guarantee you’ll show up in AI tools. SEO is still table stakes. But generative engines don’t just lift the top results. They scan at a semantic level, fan queries out into dozens of variants, and stitch together answers from multiple sources.”

You’ll need a coordinated effort to execute.

Let’s look at exactly what each team needs to do for effective AI search optimization.

Note: Most traditional SEO practices work for AI optimization too.

I’m not covering the basics here, like using sitemaps and including metadata. You should already be doing those.

Instead, I’m focusing on factors that specifically impact AI search visibility. These are insights based on my own experience, analyzing what’s working across different sites, and comparing notes with other SEOs.

Want the complete list?

I’ve created an AI Search Engine Optimization Checklist that covers everything — the well-known tactics, the experimental ones, and the “can’t hurt to try” optimizations that might give you an edge.

Developer Tasks

Understanding how to optimize for AI search starts with your developers. Because they control whether AI can actually access and understand your content.

No access means no citations.

Here’s what they need to check:

1. Make Your Site Accessible to AI Crawlers

AI crawlers need permission to access your site through your robots.txt file.

If you block them, your content won’t appear in AI search results.

Here are the main AI crawlers:

GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT)
Google-Extended (Google’s AI Overview)
Claude-Web (Anthropic/Claude)
PerplexityBot (Perplexity)

To check if you’re blocking them, go to yoursite.com/robots.txt.

Look for any lines that say “Disallow” next to these crawler names.

If you find them blocked (or want to make sure they’re allowed), add these lines to your robots.txt:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-Web
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

This tells AI crawlers they can access your entire site.

2. Whitelist AI Bots in Your Firewall

Cloudflare, Sucuri, and other web application firewalls (WAFs) sometimes block legitimate AI crawlers as “suspicious bots.”

For instance, Cloudflare now blocks AI bots from accessing its clients’ websites by default.

You have to turn off this security feature to ensure AI bots can crawl your site.

Check your firewalls and security tools.

See if they’re blocking requests from AI user agents or giving 403 errors. And address that issue.

Remember: no access, no citations.

3. Use Semantic HTML So AI Knows What’s Important

AI needs to understand what’s important on your page.

Clean HTML helps. Messy code doesn’t.

Use proper HTML tags for your content:

<h1> for your main title
<h2> and <h3> for subheadings
<article> for blog posts
<main> for primary content
<aside> for sidebars

Don’t dump everything in generic <div> tags.

Also, avoid hiding important content behind JavaScript.

AI crawlers can’t execute JavaScript.

If your main content only appears after JavaScript runs, AI will miss it entirely.

Like in this example of Airbnb:

4. Add Visible Dates for Freshness Signals

AI systems need to know when your content was published or last updated.

This is especially important for time-sensitive topics like news, prices, or trends.

Without visible dates, AI might assume your content is outdated and skip it entirely.

So, display your dates prominently on every page.

Use a consistent format like “Published: June 15, 2024” or “Last Updated: August 15, 2025.”

Also, add schema markup for dates in your code:

json"datePublished": "2024-01-15",
"dateModified": "2024-12-15"

This gives AI a machine-readable version it can’t misinterpret.

5. Remove Barriers to Content Access

Pop-ups and overlays can prevent AI from reading your content.

For instance, the crawler might grab your newsletter signup text instead of your actual article.

So you want to avoid:

Full-screen pop-ups on page load
Content that requires clicking “Read More” to expand
Infinite scroll that hides content

If you must use popups, delay them by at least 30 seconds.

Or better, use exit-intent popups, which appear when the visitors are about to leave.

Make sure your main content is immediately visible in the HTML.

Think of it this way: AI crawlers are impatient visitors who won’t interact with your page.

Give them what they came for immediately, or they’ll leave empty-handed.

6. Optimize Your Server Response Time

Your server response time is how long it takes your server to start sending data after receiving a request.

If it’s slow, your pages take longer to load.

And AI crawlers may move on before they ever see your content.

You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your server response time.

PageSpeed Insights – Server responded slowly

It also shows your page’s overall performance and speed.

PageSpeed Insights – Pages overall performance & speed

If you score below 50, your site likely has serious speed issues.

How to improve it?

Enable caching. This stores copies of your pages so your server doesn’t rebuild them for every visitor.
Compress your images before uploading them. Large images are the most common cause of slow pages.
Use a content delivery network (CDN). This serves your content from servers physically closer to your visitors, reducing load time.

The faster your server responds, the more likely AI crawlers are to reach and index your content.

Further reading: Page Speed and SEO: Best Practices

SEO Tasks

Your developers handled the technical requirements. AI can now access your site.

But access doesn’t guarantee visibility in AI results.

Your SEO team controls how AI discovers, understands, and prioritizes your content.

Here’s what they need to control in your AI SEO strategy:

7. Structure Pages for Fragment-Friendly Indexing

AI pulls specific fragments from your pages — sentences and paragraphs it can use in responses.

Your page structure affects how easily AI can extract these fragments.

Start with a clean heading hierarchy.

Proper H2s and H3s help AI (and your readers) understand where one idea ends and another begins.

Go a step further by breaking big topics into unique subsections.

Instead of one giant guide to “healthy recipes,” create separate sections for “healthy breakfast recipes,” “healthy lunch recipes,” and “healthy dinner recipes.”

That way, you match the variations people actually search for.

Pro tip: Don’t bury your best insights in long paragraphs.

Use callouts (like this one)

Add short lists and bullets

Drop quick tables for comparisons

That’s how you turn raw text into structured fragments AI can actually use.

When your content is structured this way, every section becomes a potential answer.

8. Build Topic Clusters That Signal Full Coverage

Internal linking creates topical connections across your site.

When you link related pages together, you’re building topic clusters that show comprehensive coverage.

This is standard SEO practice that also helps AI discovery.

Create pillar pages for your main topics. These are comprehensive guides that link out to all related content.

For “project management,” your pillar would link to:

Task automation guide
Team collaboration tools
Workflow optimization
Resource planning

Each supporting page links back to the pillar and to other relevant pages in the cluster.

Use descriptive anchor text throughout.

“Project management automation guide” provides context. “Click here” doesn’t.

This helps both users and AI understand page relationships.

The cluster structure accomplishes two things:

First, it improves crawl efficiency. AI finds your hub and immediately discovers all related content through the links.
Second, it demonstrates topical depth. Organized clusters show comprehensive coverage better than scattered pages.

This structural approach helps organize your site architecture to showcase expertise through strategic internal linking.

9. Add Schema Markup to Label Your Content

When AI crawls your page, it sees text.

But it doesn’t know (without natural language processing) if that text is a recipe, a review, or a how-to guide.

Schema explicitly labels each element of the page.

It makes data more structured and easier to understand.

There are several types of schema markups.

I’ve found the FAQ schema particularly effective for AI search visibility.

Here’s how it looks:

json{
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is churn rate?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Churn rate is the percentage of customers who cancel during a specific period."
}
}]
}

This markup tells AI exactly where to find questions and answers on your page.

The Q&A format matches how AI structures many of its responses, making your content easy to process.

Depending on the content management system (CMS) you’re using, you can add schema using plugins, add-ons, or manually.

For instance, WordPress has several good plugins.

After implementation, you can test it at validator.schema.org to ensure it’s working properly.

Schema Markup Validator – Testing WordPress plugins

Note: Schema is just one type of metadata. Others include title tags, meta descriptions, and Open Graph tags.

Keeping them accurate and consistent may help AI platforms interpret your content correctly.

You can check your metadata using browser dev tools or SEO extensions, like SEO META in 1 CLICK.

10. Add Detailed Content to Category and Product Pages

Most category pages are just product grids. That’s a missed opportunity for AI search optimization.

The same goes for individual product pages with just specs and a buy button.

These pages get tons of commercial searches.

But they lack substantial content.

So, AI has limited information to work with when answering product queries.

You want to add buyer-focused information directly on these pages, like this:

They can cover:

Feature comparison tables
Common questions with clear answers
Use cases and industry applications
Technical specifications that matter

For product pages, go beyond basic descriptions.

Include materials, dimensions, compatibility, warranties, reviews — whatever matters to your buyers.

For example, GlassesUSA.com has several details on its product pages than just product specifications.

They include information that AI can use when answering specific questions.

GlassesUSA – Information that AI can use

Similarly, for category pages, add content that helps buyers choose.

What’s the difference between options? What should they consider? Which product fits which need?

Eyewear retailer Frames Direct does this well.

It has detailed content at the end of its category pages.

Frames Direct – Detailed content at the end of category

The key is putting this information directly on the page. Not hiding it behind tabs or “read more” buttons.

When someone asks AI about products in your category, you want substance it can quote. Not just a grid of images it can’t interpret.

11. Track Where AI Mentions Your Brand (and Where It Doesn’t)

You need to know where AI is mentioning your brand and where it isn’t.

Because if competitors appear in AI results and you don’t, they’re capturing the traffic you should be getting.

You can try checking this manually.

Run your target queries (e.g., “nutrition tracking app 2025”) across different AI platforms.

Scan the answers. And see if your brand shows up.

But that’s slow. And you’ll only catch a small slice of what’s happening.

Alternatively, you can use Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit.

It tracks how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers across various platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overview. (In the “Visibility Overview” report.)

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Visibility Overview

You can see exactly which topics and prompts your brand appears for.

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Your Performing Topics – Prompts

And which prompts your competitors appear for, but you don’t. (In the “Competitor Research” report.)

Competitor Research – Petlibro – Missing Topics

For instance, if you find that AI cites competitors for “Cats and Feline Care” but skips your brand, that’s a clear signal to create or optimize a page targeting that exact query.

You also get strategic recommendations. So you can spot gaps, fix weak content, and double down where you’re already winning. (In the “Brand Performance” reports.)

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – AI Strategic Opportunities

With a tool like AI SEO Toolkit, you’re not guessing about your AI search visibility.

You’re improving based on real AI visibility data.

12. Optimize for Natural Language Prompts, Not Just Keywords

Your keyword strategy needs to evolve for AI search.

People still search Google for “winter jacket.”

But they ask AI, “What’s the warmest jacket for Chicago winters under $300?”

Your content needs to match these natural language patterns.

Start by identifying how people actually phrase questions in your industry.

Use the AI SEO Toolkit to find high-value prompts in your industry.

Go to the “Narrative Drivers” report.

And scroll down to the “All Questions” section to see which prompts mention your brand and where competitors appear instead.

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Breakdown by Question

Document these prompt patterns.

Share them with your content team to create pages that answer these specific questions — not just target the base keyword.

The goal isn’t abandoning keywords.

It’s expanding from “winter jacket” pages to content that answers “warmest jacket for Chicago winters under $300.”

Content Tasks

Your site is technically ready. Your SEO is taken care of.

Now your content team needs to create valuable information and build presence across the web.

Here’s how to optimize content for AI search:

13. Publish Original Content with Data, Examples, and Insights

Generic blog posts restating common knowledge rarely perform well in AI search results.

But content with fresh angles and concrete examples does.

At Backlinko, we focus on publishing content that provides unique value through examples, original research, and exclusive insights.

Like this article:

And even if we’re talking about a common topic (e.g., organic traffic), we add fresh examples.

Backlinko – Organic Traffic – Builds Authotity

So how do you make your content stand out?

Run small studies or polls to produce original data. Even simple numbers can set your content apart.
Use screenshots, case studies, and workflows from real projects.
Back up your points with stats and cite credible sources.
Add expert quotes to strengthen authority.
Test tools or strategies yourself, and share the actual results.

AI systems look for concrete details they can pull into answers.

The more unique evidence, examples, and voices you add, the better.

14. Embed Your Brand Name in Context-Inclusive Copy

Context-inclusive copy means writing sentences that make sense on their own.

Each line should carry enough detail that an AI system understands it without needing the surrounding text.

But take that a step further.

Don’t just make your sentences self-contained.

Embed your brand name inside them so when AI reuses a fragment, your company is part of the answer.

Instead of: “Our tool helped increase conversions by 25%”

Write: “[Product] helped [client] increase checkout completions by 25%”

The second version keeps your brand attached to the insight when AI extracts it.

So how do you do this in practice?

With data: Tie your brand name directly to research findings or surveys you publish
With comparisons: Mention your brand alongside alternatives, so it’s always part of the conversation
With tutorials: Show steps using your product or service in real workflows
With results: Attach your brand name to case studies and examples

Here’s an example from Semrush, using their brand name vs. “we”:

The goal is simple:

Every quotable fragment should carry both context and your brand name.

That way, when AI pulls it into an answer, your company is mentioned too.

15. Create Pages for Every Use Case, Feature, and Integration

Specific pages are more likely to appear in AI responses than generic ones.

So, don’t bundle all features on one page.

Create dedicated pages for each major feature, use case, and integration.

Here’s an example of JustCall doing it right with unique pages for each of its main features and use cases:

The strategy is simple: match how people actually search.

For instance, someone looking for “Slack integration” wants a page about that specific integration. Not a features page where Slack is item #12 in a list.

Structure these pages to answer real questions, like:

What problem does this solve?
Who typically uses it?
How does it actually work?
What specific outcomes can they expect?

Get granular with your targeting. Instead of broad topics, focus on specific scenarios.

For example:

→ Ecommerce sites can create pages for each product application

→ Service businesses can detail each service variation

→ Publishers can target specific reader scenarios

The depth of coverage signals expertise while giving AI exact matches for detailed queries.

This specificity is what makes AI content optimization work. You’re creating exactly what AI systems need to cite

16. Expand Your Reach Through Non-Owned Channels

AI engines lean heavily on third-party sources. Which means your brand needs to show up in places you don’t fully control.

This goes beyond your on-site efforts.

But it’s still part of the bigger AI visibility play. And your content team can drive it by publishing externally and fueling PR.

Take this example: when I search “best duffel bags for men 2025” in Claude, it references an Outdoor Gear Lab roundup of top bags.

If you sell duffels, you’d want to be in that article.

There are two ways to expand your presence on non-owned channels.

One is publishing on other sites yourself — guest posts, bylined articles, or original research placed on authority blogs and industry outlets.

These extend your reach, position you as an expert, and increase your AI search visibility.

You’ll find guest post opportunities in several well-known sites. Like Fast Company here, which has an authority score of 67.

The other way to build visibility is getting featured by others.

Think reviews, roundups, and product comparisons that highlight your solution.

This usually involves working closely with your PR team.

But the content team fuels those opportunities with the data, case studies, and assets that make the pitch worth covering.

Either way, the goal of this AI content strategy is the same: substantive coverage.

A one-line mention usually isn’t enough. You need full features, detailed reviews, or exclusive insights that stand out.

Because the more credible coverage you earn (whether you wrote it or someone else did), the more evidence AI has to pull into its answers.

Further reading: Journalist Outreach: 9 Steps to Earn High-Authority Links

Don’t Overlook Community Platforms

AI systems also pull information from community platforms.

In fact, Reddit and Quora are two of the most referenced sources in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.

Semrush – AI Visibility Index – Top 10 sources

This is where your content team should collaborate with social media or community teams to control conversations. How?

Answer questions thoroughly. Share genuine insights. Mention your product only when it’s genuinely relevant to the discussion.

Over time, these contributions will become part of the dataset AI references.

When someone asks about solutions in your space, your helpful answers may influence AI’s response.

Your Next Move in AI Search Optimization

Don’t try to tackle everything at once. Start simple.

First, run your site through Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit.

It shows where your brand already appears in AI search results and where you’re missing opportunities.

Those missing prompts are your biggest opportunities.

Then, grab our free AI Search Optimization Checklist.

It breaks down the technical, SEO, and content steps you need to follow, so you’re not guessing your AI search optimization.

Next up, check out the 6 AI SEO tools we love using.

The post AI Optimization: How to Rank in AI Search (+ Checklist) appeared first on Backlinko.

Read more at Read More

A recap of the October 2025 SEO Update by Yoast

October 22, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News, Yoast SEO/by

The message from this month’s SEO Update is clear: AI and data accuracy are reshaping how we plan, optimize, and measure SEO. This is not just a slate of updates, but a signal to rethink impressions, content creation, and tooling so you stay effective. Chris Scott, Yoast’s Senior Marketing Manager, hosted the session. Alex Moss and Carolyn Shelby shared deep dives on AI trends, Google updates, and Yoast product news.

Data and rankings in flux

A key shift centers on data. Google removed the num=100 parameter, which changed how much ranking data shows up per page in Google Search Console. The result isn’t a sudden performance drop; it’s a correction. Impressions can look lower because the data is being cleaned up, and that matters more than the raw numbers. Paid search data stays solid, since ads rely on precise counting for financial reasons.

AI content and media: use it, don’t rely on it

Sora 2 can generate short videos from text prompts, providing handy visuals to accompany blog posts. Use AI visuals to complement your core messaging, not to replace it. In e-commerce, Walmart, WooCommerce, and Shopify are testing AI-enabled shopping features. Don’t rush a full switch before major buying events.

Local SEO and engines beyond Google

Bing’s Business Manager now has a refreshed UI focused on local listings, signaling a push into local search. Diversifying beyond Google can reveal new AI-powered opportunities. It’s about testing where AI-driven search and shopping perform best, not moving budgets blindly.

AI mode and how people behave

Research into AI-dominant sessions shows a distinct pattern: users linger 50 to 80 seconds on AI-generated text, and clicks tend to be transactional. Intent patterns shift, too. Now, comparisons lead to review sites, decisive purchases land on product pages, and local tasks point to maps and assets.

Meta descriptions and AI generation

Google tested AI-generated descriptions for threads lacking meta content, but meta descriptions aren’t obsolete. Best practice is to lean on Yoast’s default meta templates (like %excerpt%) as a reliable fallback. Write with an inverted pyramid in mind, which puts key information first, so AI can extract it cleanly. Keep a fallback description in Yoast SEO so automation stays under your control.

AI in everyday workflows

ChatGPT updates push toward more human-to-human interactions, and tools like Slack can summarize threads and search discussions by meaning, not just keywords. Growth in AI usage feels steadier now; some younger users opt for other AI tools.

Insights from Microsoft and Google

The core rules haven’t changed: concise, unique, value-packed content wins. Shorter, focused writing works best for AI synthesis; trim fluff and sharpen clarity. The message is simple because clarity beats complexity, especially as AI becomes more central to how content is consumed.

Yoast product updates to watch

The Yoast SEO AI+ bundle adds AI Brand Insights to track mentions and citations in AI outputs, and pronoun support has been added to schema markup for inclusivity. If you’re tracking AI relevance beyond traditional signals, this bundle can be a smart addition.

Next actions and a quick invitation

For more news, you can join the next SEO Update by Yoast on November 24. The transcript, video, and news items are all available on the SEO Update by Yoast October Edition webinar page. For more information and options to watch future webinars, you can also visit the main Yoast webinars listings.

The post A recap of the October 2025 SEO Update by Yoast appeared first on Yoast.

Read more at Read More

Top AI Visibility Tools in 2026

October 21, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design/by

Noticed your traffic dropping even though your rankings look stable? You’re not alone.

AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are now answering the same questions that used to send people to your site.

If your brand isn’t showing up in those AI-generated responses, you may be losing visibility. And the tough part? You won’t be able to measure that lost visibility with traditional analytics tools.

That’s where AI visibility tools come in. They tell you when your brand shows up in AI answers, which platforms mention you, and how often your content gets cited. In short, they track your presence across large language models (LLMs) and AI search engines so you know if your LLM seeding efforts are paying off.

The good news is a handful of tools are already helping brands track their AI visibility. Some existing platforms have added AI tracking to their SEO suites. Others focus exclusively on LLM citations.

Each gives a different way to see (and improve) your AI presence. Let’s look at some of the best AI visibility tools available right now.

Key Takeaways

AI visibility tools track brand mentions and content citations across LLM platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews.
Think of these tools as the AI-era version of SEO tools. They give you hard data on whether your optimization tactics are actually working.
Most platforms are still adapting alongside AI search behavior, so look for tools that update often.
The right tool for you depends on your budget, whether you want standalone tracking or built-in SEO features, and how technical your team is.
Combining AI visibility metrics with traditional analytics gives you the complete picture of content performance across all channels.

Why Are AI Visibility Tools Important?

The way people search is fundamentally changing. Gartner predicts traditional search engine volume will drop 25 percent by 2026 due to AI platform and virtual agent usage.

This is the zero-click phenomenon at work.

People are getting answers directly from AI platforms instead of clicking through to websites. That makes knowing where your brand appears in AI responses as vital as tracking your Google rankings.

AI visibility tools solve a measurement problem. They monitor which LLM platforms cite your content and your brand mentions in AI Overviews. They measure changes over time so you can evaluate whether your LLM SEO efforts are actually working.

Think of these tools as Google Analytics for AI search. Without this data, you’re guessing about what resonates with AI platforms. With it, you see exactly what content drives citations and what gets ignored. These tools reveal patterns in what content formats, topics, and structures earn the most AI citations.

Traditional SEO metrics like page views, rankings, and backlinks still matter. But they tell only part of the story.

Don’t ignore the growing segment of your audience interacting with your content through AI platforms. They might not visit your site, but their interactions still influence visibility and authority.

Combining standard analytics with AI visibility data shows the complete picture of your content’s reach and what’s actually driving results across channels.

Top 5 AI Visibility Tools on The Market

The LLM visibility tool market is growing fast. New platforms launch regularly with different features, tracking methods, and pricing structures.

After comparing what’s out there, these five AI visibility tools stand out. They range from budget-friendly all-in-one platforms to enterprise-focused citation intelligence.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest has added new AI Visibility features to its SEO toolkit. The big win? You can now monitor AI citations and see how they connect to your traditional search performance, all from one dashboard.

Ubersuggest AI Visibility makes it easy to add AI visibility tracking into your marketing program. Key metrics the tool tracks include:

Brand Visibility: How often your brand gets mentioned across AI-generated answers in a given period.
Industry Rank: Your average position compared to other brands in your space.
Top Prompts: The main questions people are asking in AI platforms relevant to your industry, and how your brand appears in those answers.
Competitor Visibility: How your brand’s presence in AI visibility trends compared to competitors over time.

Along with the easy-to-navigate interface, Ubersuggest’s pricing is a major advantage. Most enterprise tools charge per project or lock you into long-term contracts. Ubersuggest takes a different route with flat monthly pricing and unlimited project tracking. That means an agency managing 20 clients pays the same as someone tracking just two sites.

You also get full access to all the traditional SEO features Ubersuggest is known for, so you don’t have to pay for two separate platforms to see the full picture.

Because Ubersuggest is built on years of SEO infrastructure, its data is consistent and reliable. And some teams might not be comfortable with other new visibility tools, many of which launched in the past year and are still working out bugs in their tracking.

Profound

(Image Source)

Profound is a new platform specifically designed for enterprise brands that need detailed intelligence about how AI platforms discuss them. This goes beyond counting citations.

The system analyzes the context around every brand mention, including:

Sentiment: Whether AI platforms position you positively or negatively.
Competitive mentions: Which competitors get mentioned alongside your brand.
Authority: Topic clusters where you’re seen as an authority versus areas where others dominate.

Profound is built for customization. Its team builds dashboards tailored to your industry, integrates with your existing systems, and creates reporting formats that match your organization’s workflow.

Need specialized tracking for regulated industries? They configure it. Competitive intelligence can also be scaled across hundreds of queries, and alert systems can let you know if your brand suddenly drops from an AI response.

The tradeoff? Price. Annual contract costs typically start high and scale based on how many brands you track, query volume, and customization needs. This isn’t built for small businesses.

With that said, Profound’s depth and customization justify the cost for brands where AI visibility directly impacts market position and revenue.

Semrush

(Image Source)

Semrush added AI visibility tracking to its existing SEO suite. Already using the platform? The new features integrate smoothly into your workflow.

The tool monitors citations across major AI platforms and provides visibility scoring that works like domain authority, providing a single number showing how your AI presence compares to competitors over time.

The real benefit of Semrush’s functionality is that it connects AI visibility data with everything else it already tracks. You can see which pages earn both backlinks and AI citations. You can see whether content that ranks in traditional search also appears in AI responses. That integrated view helps you understand what’s working across all your marketing channels.

For teams trying to consolidate tools, this setup is efficient. You get traditional SEO and AI visibility data in one report, no platform-switching required.

The tradeoff is its agency pricing. Semrush limits how many projects you can track per account tier. Adding clients means upgrading plans or buying additional accounts. Managing 30-plus brands? Costs climb fast compared to platforms with unlimited project tracking.

Overall, this may be a smart add-on if you are already onboarded onto Semrush. But it might not be the most affordable option for smaller teams or tighter budgets.

Ahrefs

(Image Source)

Ahrefs made its name with backlink analysis and competitive research before becoming one of the most popular SEO tools around. Its move into AI visibility adds another layer to an already powerful platform.

This new functionality tracks citations across AI platforms and lets you filter by specific engines, monitor changes over time, and compare your visibility to competitors. Standard stuff.

Ahrefs stands out by connecting link data with AI citations. Its backlink index is one of the largest available and updates frequently. The platform shows correlations between your link profile and AI visibility, revealing which linked pages get cited most often in AI responses.

That connection offers real insight. Content earning quality backlinks tends to appear more in AI citations. Understanding that relationship helps you identify what makes content citation-worthy and apply those patterns to other pieces. Combine that with Ahrefs’ broader SEO features, and you get a well-rounded picture of your brand visibility online.

The major caveat, though, is the pricing, which follows a similar structure as Semrush. Plans limit tracked projects, so costs increase as you scale. Five clients work fine. Fifty clients get expensive.

For teams that prioritize link building alongside AI visibility, Ahrefs handles both well. Just know you’ll pay premium prices.

ScrunchAI

(Image Source)

ScrunchAI is a newer offering that focuses exclusively on AI visibility. Already using other tools for standard optimization and just need LLM citation tracking? Scrunch’s specialized approach might fit.

The platform monitors brand appearances across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, Bing AI, and emerging AI search engines. Real-time tracking alerts you to citation frequency changes, new platforms surfacing your content, or sudden visibility drops.

Where ScrunchAI stands out is that it tracks both citation quality and frequency. It can tell whether AI platforms position your brand as a primary resource, secondary resource, and if any misinformation shows up alongside your name.

ScrunchAI also provides recommendations based on your data. Certain content structures get cited more often? It suggests creating similar pieces. Missing from responses where competitors appear? It flags those gaps with specific topic ideas.

Another interesting feature is query simulation. You can run industry-specific prompts to see if your brand appears and compare results across different AI engines. That gives you a clear picture of where you’re strong and where to focus your next optimization push.

In terms of pricing, Scrunch lands in the middle of our list. Monthly plans scale based on query volume and update frequency rather than limiting projects. That makes costs predictable for agencies.

The tradeoff is betting on a newer company. Established platforms have proven track records. ScrunchAI is still building its reputation, though early users report solid performance and responsive support.

Choosing the Right AI Visibility Tool for You

Selecting an AI visibility tool requires matching capabilities with your specific constraints and goals.

Start with three core questions: What’s your budget? How technical is your team? Do you need standalone AI tracking or an integrated SEO platform? Here are some key focus areas:

Budget determines realistic options. Tools like Ubersuggest provide AI visibility alongside comprehensive SEO features at accessible prices for small businesses and agencies. Enterprise platforms like Profound deliver granular intelligence but require substantial financial commitment that only makes sense at scale.
Technical capabilities matter. Some platforms assume comfort with data analysis and provide extensive export, API, and customization options. Others prioritize simplicity with clear dashboards and straightforward recommendations. Match the tool’s complexity to your team’s skills and bandwidth.
Consider your existing technology stack. Already investing in Ubersuggest, Semrush, or Ahrefs for SEO? Their AI visibility features extend current workflows. You avoid learning new interfaces and keep data centralized. If you’re starting from scratch or want laser focus on AI tracking, a specialized platform like ScrunchAI might be the better fit.
Consider your scaling needs. Requirements differ dramatically between tracking five websites versus managing 50 client accounts. Some tools charge per project or impose account limits, creating expensive scaling challenges. Others offer unlimited projects under single subscriptions, simplifying budgeting as you grow.
Data reliability should influence decisions. Newer tools might offer attractive features but lack infrastructure for consistent metrics. Established platforms benefit from years of data collection and algorithm refinement. Request demos, compare results across tools, and check user reviews before committing.

Finally, assess how tools adapt to AI search changes. AI search is changing at lightning speed, and the tools that don’t update will quickly fall behind. The best platforms have active roadmaps, regular feature updates, and expanding coverage across emerging AI engines.

FAQs

What is the best AI tool for increasing visibility?

The best AI visibility tool depends on your budget and needs. Ubersuggest offers strong value for small businesses and agencies, combining AI citation tracking with full SEO capabilities at accessible pricing. Enterprise brands might prefer Profound’s deeper analytics. Test several options to find which interface and features match your workflow best.

Are AI visibility tools better than traditional marketing methods?

AI visibility tools complement traditional marketing rather than replacing it. You still need solid content strategy, SEO fundamentals, and audience understanding. Think of them as an extension of your analytics, not a replacement. Use them alongside traditional metrics for a complete view of performance across all channels where audiences find information.

How do AI visibility tools integrate with existing SEO strategies?

AI visibility tools track LLM citations the same way traditional tools monitor search rankings. Platforms like Ubersuggest, Semrush, and Ahrefs combine both metrics in unified dashboards. This lets you optimize content for standard search results and AI citations simultaneously, creating strategies that cover all the ways people discover information today.

Conclusion

AI search isn’t slowing down. Platforms that answer questions before users ever click a link are expanding fast. Tracking your presence in AI-generated responses is essential now.

The tools covered here provide visibility into how AI platforms cite your content and mention your brand. Some integrate AI tracking into broader SEO platforms. Others focus exclusively on LLM citations. Your choice depends on budget, needs, and existing systems.

Start measuring your AI visibility now. The brands paying attention today will outperform the ones waiting to catch up later.

The tools exist. The data is available. Use it.

Read more at Read More

How to avoid marketing mix modeling mistakes that derail results

October 21, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is having a moment in marketing measurement.

As privacy regulations limit user-level tracking, marketers are turning to it for reliable, cross-channel measurement. (We love it at my agency – MMM analyses often lead to smarter budget allocation with significant downstream impact.)

But as adoption grows, so do execution errors and misconceptions about what MMM can and can’t do.

Despite its strategic potential, it’s often misused, misinterpreted, or oversold – leading to costly mistakes and credibility loss from unrealistic expectations.

MMM isn’t a black box. To produce meaningful insights, it demands context, strategy, iteration, and strong data.

Context is especially critical. Without it, MMM becomes what I call a mathematical echo chamber – no external inputs and little connection to reality.

This article breaks down how to approach MMM correctly, avoid common pitfalls, and turn your analysis into real business value.

Execution errors

Too often, teams fixate on the modeling technique and overlook the broader system – data quality, assumptions, and stakeholder context.

There are plenty of possible mistakes, but the ones I see most often are:

Using inconsistent, incomplete, or unvalidated spend and performance data.
Assuming immediate or linear responses to media spend, which oversimplifies reality.
Interpreting statistical relationships as proof of impact without experimentation.
Using MMM for daily campaign decisions despite its strategic design and lagging granularity.
Building models that are over-optimized in-sample but fail in the real world.

If you make any of these, your MMM efforts will be muddled and ineffective, and you will not get much buy-in for the initiative going forward.

Faulty expectations vs. reality

When run properly, MMM can offer highly valuable insights, but only within its appropriate use case.

With good modeling and inputs, you can:

Reallocate budgets based on marginal ROI and saturation.
Forecast sales impact from various budget scenarios.
Set spending caps to avoid diminishing returns.
Show long-term contributions of brand versus performance channels.
Track media effectiveness over time and support cross-functional alignment.

What you cannot expect MMM to do:

Optimize daily media buying decisions.
Attribute at the user or creative level.
Replace lift tests or experimentation (which are a necessary complement to MMM).

In other words, treat MMM as a strategic GPS that needs other inputs to work well, not a tactical turn-by-turn navigation tool.

Misreadings of output

You can give three marketers the same MMM output, and they might have three very different interpretations of what it means and what to do next.

We’ve got a handy chart of the ways people misread the data (and how to fix those mistakes):

The misinterpretation I’d like to spend a bit of time on here is the correlation/causation dynamic.

Marketers need to understand that MMM is essentially a fancy correlation analysis that needs to be supplemented by incrementality testing, such as geo lift testing, to establish causation.

Dig deeper: Why incrementality is the only metric that proves marketing’s real impact

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

See terms.

What you need for effective MMM analysis

MMM does involve coding, but it’s a lot more than that.

It’s a cross-functional discipline involving data science, marketing, finance, and strategy.

To get it right, you need:

1. Clean, longitudinal data

One note before I dive into the data elements you need to run MMM: data density is critical.

For businesses without a huge pool of revenue-generating events (think of big SaaS platforms or car dealerships advertising online), use strategic proxy metrics that happen earlier in the purchase journey and provide strong predictors of revenue generation.

With that in mind, here’s the data needed (or recommended) for your model:

Weekly data across 2–3 years.
Media spend by channel and campaign. (Region is recommended.)
Control variables (all recommended): Promos, pricing, and competitors.
- Note: seasonality is baked into the model for Meta’s Robyn, one of my favorite MMM options.

2. Advanced modeling techniques

Adstock/lag functions to reflect delayed impact.
Saturation models (e.g., Hill curves) for diminishing returns.
Regularization or Bayesian priors to stabilize estimates.

3. Validation and iteration

Running an MMM analysis once and taking the results at face value is never going to get you the best possible insights.

If you’re serious about adopting MMM, prepare to include the following in your process:

Cross-validation, holdout tests, geo-lift experiments.
Regular re-runs (quarterly or biannually) to stay aligned with the market.
Incorporation of other tools (e.g., MTA, A/B testing) for a full picture.

Dig deeper: MTA vs. MMM: Which marketing attribution model is right for you?

I highly recommend running analyses more than once and using different methods/platforms to identify commonalities and differences.

In the visual comparing Robyn and Meridian’s output from a recent client analysis, both models attributed similar influence across most channels – a good sign that helps validate the model.

But there’s a wrinkle: for channel 0, Meridian showed much higher organic influence and a slight bump in paid.

That suggests we need additional testing before moving to action items.

4. Stakeholder engagement

Even with top-tier MMM analyses, how you communicate the findings – and what they enable – is critical to getting buy-in from clients or management.

Before you start, align with stakeholders on KPIs, ROI definitions, and model assumptions to prevent surprises or misunderstandings later.

When you share results, include uncertainty ranges and clear action items that flow directly from your data.

If you can’t answer the inevitable “So what?” question, you’re not ready to present your findings.

Better MMM becomes a competitive edge

Overall, the shift away from user-based tracking is healthy for the marketing industry.

Initiatives like incrementality testing and MMM are finally getting their due as core parts of campaign analysis.

As major platforms level the optimization playing field with automation, running these analyses more effectively than your competitors is one way to drive differentiated growth.

Dig deeper: How to evolve your PPC measurement strategy for a privacy-first future

Read more at Read More

How to execute a multi-location website redesign without losing traffic by Ignite Visibility

October 21, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

A website redesign is essential for remaining competitive, but for multi-location businesses, the risks are much higher. Stripping away the local relevance that drives traffic to location pages can cause rankings and online visibility to plummet.

Using localized content on location pages resulted in a 107% rankings lift, something businesses risk losing if a redesign hurts these pages.

To mitigate the risk of fallen local rankings and to get the most from your website redesign, you need to maintain good multi-location local SEO and take key steps for a successful redesign.

Prioritizing SEO during a location page redesign helps multi-location businesses stay competitive.

Technical SEO pre-redesign audit checklist

Before launching a new website redesign, it’s essential to perform a comprehensive audit to ensure that your SEO foundation is retained. Thorough auditing before launch can help prevent common mistakes and preserve your rankings.

Manage inventory: Document all business locations, Google Business Profile IDs, current URLs, organic rankings, and highest-converting queries.
Identify issues: Use a site crawler to uncover duplicate/thin content, poor Core Web Vitals, slow loading, mobile responsiveness, or accessibility gaps.
Conduct a technical crawl audit: Confirm crawl budget, indexing, updated sitemaps, and hreflang configuration on multinational sites.
Audit and enhance structured data: Ensure LocalBusiness schema is present and NAP is perfectly consistent. Validate canonical tags for duplicate prevention.
Expand structured data: Consider implementing review, FAQ, and service schema types for additional SEO coverage.
Set up robust tracking: Implement UTM tagging, conversion tracking, and phone call analytics to precisely measure local and national SEO performance

*PageSpeed Insights can let you know how fast your website loads and indicate potential performance issues.*

How to optimize site architecture and your URL strate

Once your pre-redesign audit is complete and you’ve identified areas for improvement, it’s time to shift focus to your site architecture for SEO. A solid foundation in site architecture ensures both search engines and users can navigate your website with ease.

Common structures include:

Subfolders (/locations/city)
Subdomains (city.brand.com)
Multisite frameworks
Dedicated microsites

Subfolders generally work best for centralizing authority and scalability, with a primary website that branches out into many pages, including one for each location.

Note that it’s crucial to maintain consistency with your URL structure. If the existing site already has a URL for each location within a subfolder structure, do not change it! Ensuring that the URL structure remains identical between the existing and new website design is essential for retaining your SEO value and preventing any loss in rankings.

Here are some other key considerations:

Canonical URLs: Identify canonical URLs that help mitigate the risk of duplicate content.
Sitemap strategy: Determine whether your site should implement an XML sitemap or an HTML sitemap, with XML sitemaps being more explicitly effective for site crawlers and SEO, while HTML sitemaps could help with user navigation.
URL templates: Use static URLs, they’re cleaner and more optimization-friendly design (e.g., example.com/services/dentistry/location/).

Location page content considerations

Technical SEO components are important, but so is content. When redesigning your website, it’s crucial to prioritize the content elements that impact the SEO performance of your location pages.

A successful redesign should seamlessly integrate these elements to preserve and boost your SEO efforts.

Unique H1 on each location page with city intent that targets a relevant keyword, such as “housekeeping services in [city]”
Full name, address, and phone number that’s consistent across all directory listings
Link to each location’s corresponding GBP page.
Business hours that are up-to-date and unique to each location, further aligning with directory information
Local phone number, preferably static to maintain consistency with NAP data
Service-specific content, including details about each of your offerings, with locally optimized keywords for each
Staff and team photos showing the people behind your business, potentially at each location
Local testimonials from satisfied customers, including review and schema markup for aggregate ratings

*h1 optimized for location and main keyword with custom text and clear CTAs.*
*Source*

As you incorporate these essential content elements into your location page redesign, it’s critical to ensure each page is unique and tailored to its specific location.

Each location page should include a designated content block section where you can add customized details about that individual location. This will additionally help reduce duplicate content across your location pages.

*Location page with h1 and copy optimization*
Source

Top design elements to consider for a multi-location website

Redesigning location pages can be challenging because it requires balancing brand consistency with the unique identity of each location. Achieving this balance involves the strategic use of design elements that appeal to both local audiences and the overarching brand.

Top design elements include:

Location-specific imagery: For brick-and-mortar locations, use high-quality images of the storefronts. For service-based locations, showcase custom visuals that reflect the areas they serve.
Interactive maps or location finders: Adding Google Maps or a custom location finder helps users easily find the nearest store or service center. This feature not only enhances usability but also provides a tailored experience for visitors.

*Interactive map on location page*
Source

Social media feed integration: Integrating a live social media feed on location pages adds dynamic content and more localized imagery. It also provides a space to showcase promotions, events, and local engagement, keeping the page fresh and relevant.
Team photos: Featuring photos of local team members helps humanize the brand and create a personal connection with your audience. It’s a great way to reinforce the idea that your business is part of the local community, building trust and authenticity.

*Example of an optimized H1 with custom images on the team page.*
*Source*

Complete multi-location redesign audit checklist

Website redesigns often require several months of planning and execution. However, before you push the new site live, it’s essential to ensure it passes the following key tests if you want to retain your traffic:

Brand consistency: Ensure that branding elements, such as colors, typography, logos, and tone, are consistent across all pages and location-specific content.
URL mapping: Double-check that all important URLs are correctly mapped to the new design and are still functional, preserving the SEO value of your existing pages.
No URL structure changes: If you’re maintaining a subfolder structure, confirm that no URL structures are altered to prevent any loss of SEO rankings or broken links.
Site performance: Test the website’s speed to ensure it meets performance standards, passes Core Web Vitals, is mobile-responsive, and is free of any accessibility issues.
Clear CTAs: Ensure that each page features clear, concise calls to action (CTAs) above the fold to encourage user engagement and conversions from the moment visitors land on the page.
Analytics setup: Verify that all necessary analytics and tracking codes (e.g., Google Analytics, conversion goals, UTM parameters) are properly implemented to monitor site performance and user behavior across all locations.
Mobile optimization: Check that the site is fully optimized for mobile users, with responsive design elements that scale and display well on all devices.
SEO-friendly content: Review content for SEO optimization, ensuring that each location page is targeted with local keywords, meta descriptions, and proper header tag hierarchy.
Structured data implementation: Verify that all relevant schema markup (e.g., LocalBusiness, Service, Review) is correctly applied to each location page to support search engines in indexing your content.
Internal linking: Ensure that all location pages have strong internal linking, guiding users through the site, and boosting SEO by connecting related content.
User testing and feedback: Conduct user testing or gather feedback from stakeholders to ensure the new design is intuitive, user-friendly, and aligns with business goals.
Content uniqueness: Confirm that all location pages have unique, location-specific content to avoid any potential issues with duplicate content.
Legal and compliance checks: Ensure that the website complies with any industry-specific regulations (e.g., ADA compliance, GDPR, HIPAA) before launch.
Cross-browser compatibility: Test the website across various browsers to ensure it functions smoothly for all users, regardless of their preferred browser.
Backup and contingency plans: Create a backup of the current website before launching the redesign, and have a contingency plan in place in case issues arise post-launch.

By ensuring that these elements are in place, you can launch a multi-location website redesign that performs well across all locations and provides a seamless, user-friendly experience for your visitors.

*Example of before website redesign and after a website redesign*

The business case: search and revenue impact at scale

Partnering with a web design and development agency that truly understands the complexities of multi-location businesses, technical SEO, and CRO is essential.

Ignite Visibility is a prime example of this expertise. We implemented a performance-driven SEO strategy to help a home services franchise with over 60 locations across the U.S.

The team optimized city-specific landing pages, standardized keyword-rich updates across Google Business Profiles, and strategically matched high-intent keywords to local markets to maximize visibility.

The results speak for themselves. The Ignite Visibility approach doesn’t just maintain rankings – it creates massive growth opportunities.

If you’re ready to maximize the impact of your next website redesign and achieve measurable, scalable growth, reach out to Ignite Visibility. With our proven track record, we’ll help you stay ahead of the competition and deliver results that matter.

Read more at Read More

The psychology of scannable content and bullet points

October 17, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News, Yoast SEO/by

Your content has 15 seconds. That’s it. In those precious moments, your reader’s brain makes a critical decision: scan or abandon. The statistics are sobering. Users read only 20-28% of webpage content, spending an average of 15 seconds on a page before deciding whether to stay or leave. Yet many content creators still write as if their audience will consume every carefully crafted sentence from start to finish.

Key takeaways

Readers scan content in 15 seconds, favoring scannable formats like bullet points for quick comprehension.
Research shows that effective scannable content enhances cognitive processing and engages readers better.
Key factors like motivation, task type, and focus determine how deeply someone will read your content.
Mobile usage has reshaped reading habits, increasing demand for short, structured, and scannable content.
To create scannable content, writers should respect cognitive patterns and optimize content structure with clear visuals.

The reality? Your readers aren’t reading; they are scanning, which is why scannable content becomes important. This isn’t a failure of modern attention spans or a sign that people don’t value quality content. It’s neuroscience in action. The human brain has evolved sophisticated pattern recognition systems that help us quickly identify relevant information while filtering out the noise. And do you know what the most potent triggers for this system are? The humble bullet point.

When readers encounter well-structured bullet points in your blog piece, their brains release small hits of dopamine, the same neurotransmitter associated with completing tasks and achieving goals. This is a biological reward system that makes scannable content easier to process and pleasurable to consume.

Understanding the cognitive psychology behind how people process information isn’t just academic curiosity. It’s also the key to creating content that converts, engages, and serves your audience’s actual reading behaviors. Tools like Yoast’s AI Summarize feature recognize this reality, helping content creators quickly identify and restructure their essential points into the scannable formats readers crave.

The scanning habits of our brain

The myth of linear reading

If you believe your readers start at the top of your content and methodically work their way through each paragraph, you’re operating under a dangerous misconception. Eye-tracking research from the Nielsen Norman Group reveals that people don’t read online content, they scan it in predictable patterns.

F-shape scanning pattern: It is one of the most common reading patterns, where readers scan horizontally across the top, make a second horizontal scan partway down, then scan vertically down the left side.

Layer cake pattern: This includes scanning headings and subheadings.
Spotted pattern: Jumping to specific words or phrases that catch attention.

This isn’t laziness, it’s cognitive efficiency at its best. Our brains are wired to seek the path of least resistance when processing information. In a world where we’re bombarded with more content than we could ever consume, scanning helps us quickly identify what deserves our full attention.

Cognitive load theory explains why this happens. Our working memory can only hold about 5 to 9 pieces of information at once. When content is presented in dense paragraphs, our brains work harder to extract meaning, creating mental fatigue that leads to abandonment.

Factors that determine reading depth

Not all scanning is created equal. Four key factors determine whether someone will scan briefly or dive deeper into your content:

Level of motivation: When readers desperately need specific information, like troubleshooting a technical problem, they’ll invest more cognitive resources in careful reading. But for general browsing, they’ll skim for signals of value.

Type of task: Fact-finding missions (like researching product features) create different reading behaviors than exploratory browsing. Task-oriented readers scan for specific data points, while browsers scan for interesting concepts.

Level of focus: A reader juggling multiple browser tabs while checking their phone will scan differently than someone in a quiet environment dedicated to learning. Multitasking reduces the cognitive resources available for deep processing.

Personal characteristics: Some people are naturally deep readers who prefer narrative content, while others are chronic scanners who gravitate toward lists and summaries. Age, education, and cultural background all influence these preferences.

The impact of mobile evolution on content consumption

Smartphone usage hasn’t just changed where we consume content, it’s rewired how we process information. The average smartphone user checks their device 96 times daily, creating a constant state of partial attention that makes scanning the dominant reading mode.

Mobile screens compress information into narrow columns, overwhelming traditional paragraph structures. This physical constraint has trained our brains to prefer “thumb-friendly” content architecture: short paragraphs, frequent subheadings, and plenty of white space.

The impact transcends mobile devices. Desktop readers now expect the same scannable formats they’ve grown accustomed to on their phones. Content that doesn’t accommodate these evolved reading behaviors feels dated and inaccessible.

The psychology behind bullet points

Understanding why bullet points work so effectively requires a quick look at how your brain processes information. When you encounter a wall of text, your mind has to work overtime to extract the key points, organize the information, and remember what matters. Bullet points do this heavy lifting for you, turning complex information into digestible chunks that your brain can process with minimal effort.

1. The mental burden relief of cognitive load reduction

Bullet points aren’t just visually appealing, but also easy to scan. They’re cognitive performance enhancers. When information is presented in bullet format, our working memory can process it more efficiently because each point operates as a discrete unit.

Research in cognitive psychology shows that structured information reduces the mental effort required for comprehension. This creates what researchers call “cognitive ease”, a state where information feels more trustworthy and credible simply because it’s easier to process.

The famous 7±2 rule (also known as Miller’s Law) explains why bullet points work so well. Our working memory can comfortably hold 5-9 items at once. Well-crafted bullet lists respect this limitation by chunking information into digestible pieces that our brains can easily manipulate and remember.

When content flows smoothly through our mental processing systems, we unconsciously associate that ease with quality and authority. This is why bullet points improve comprehension and credibility.

2. Pattern recognition and predictability

Human brains are pattern-recognition machines, constantly seeking familiar structures that help us predict what will happen next. Bullet points, through their predictable format, provide precisely this kind of psychological comfort.

Visual hierarchy serves as a roadmap for our attention. When readers see a bullet list, they instantly understand the structure: each point will present a discrete piece of information, all points are roughly equivalent in importance, and the data can be consumed in any order.

Gestalt principles explain why this works so well. Our brains use proximity (related items grouped), similarity (consistent formatting signals related content), and continuation (visual flow guides attention) to organize information efficiently. Bullet points leverage all three principles simultaneously.

This predictability reduces cognitive anxiety. Readers don’t need to invest mental energy figuring out how information is organized, they can focus entirely on processing the content.

3. The psychology of completion

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of bullet point psychology is how it triggers our brain’s reward system. Each bullet point creates a micro-task that can be “completed” simply by reading. This completion triggers a small dopamine release; the same neurotransmitter associated with crossing items off a to-do list.

The Zeigarnik effect demonstrates why this matters. Our brains create psychological tension around incomplete tasks, making them more memorable than completed ones. Bullet points cleverly exploit this by creating multiple small completion opportunities within a single piece of content.

This neurological reward system explains why people find lists inherently satisfying. We’re not just consuming information; we’re experiencing a series of small accomplishments that make reading feel productive and rewarding.

4. Visual breathing room

White space isn’t space; it’s cognitive breathing room. Dense paragraphs create visual clutter that triggers stress responses in our brains, making content feel overwhelming before we even begin reading.

Bullet points introduce strategic white space that gives our visual processing system room to operate. This breathing room prevents cognitive overload and makes content more approachable and manageable.

Eye movement research shows that readers’ gaze patterns follow predictable paths through well-spaced content. White space guides attention naturally, creating a visual rhythm that supports comprehension rather than fighting against it.

The science of information processing

Working memory and executive function

Working memory is the temporary storage system where we manipulate information while processing it. Unlike long-term memory, which has virtually unlimited capacity, working memory can only handle a few items simultaneously.

Bullet points support working memory by presenting information in pre-chunked units. Instead of extracting key points from dense paragraphs, a task that requires executive function resources, readers can directly process the distilled information.

Research comparing narrative versus expository text comprehension shows structured formats consistently outperform traditional paragraphs for information retention and comprehension speed. The brain’s executive functions can focus on understanding content rather than organizing it.

This is particularly important for complex or technical information. When cognitive resources are allocated efficiently, readers can engage with more sophisticated concepts without experiencing mental fatigue.

The discrete thought advantage

Each bullet point functions as a self-contained information unit, allowing for what cognitive scientists call “discrete processing.” Unlike paragraphs, where ideas build upon each other sequentially, bullet points can be processed independently.

This creates a “mental reset” opportunity between points. Readers can fully process one concept before moving to the next, preventing cognitive overload when multiple ideas compete for working memory space.

The difference is like comparing building a tower (paragraphs) versus collecting individual blocks (bullet points). Building requires awareness of the entire structure, while collecting allows focus on each piece.

Speed vs. comprehension

Critics often argue that scannable content sacrifices depth for speed, but research suggests a more nuanced reality. Studies show that bullet formats can improve comprehension for certain types of information while dramatically increasing processing speed.

The key matches the format of the content type. Bullet points excel for factual information, feature lists, and step-by-step processes. They’re less effective for narrative content, complex arguments, and emotional storytelling.

In research studies, retention rates for structured information consistently outperform unstructured text. The sweet spot appears to be content that balances scanning speed with information density, exactly what effective bullet points achieve.

This is where AI-powered tools like Yoast’s AI Summarize feature become invaluable. They can analyze dense content and identify the key points that would benefit from bullet formatting, helping writers optimize speed and comprehension without sacrificing essential nuances.

Transform long content into scannable takeaways

Instantly highlight your core insights with AI Summarize, in Yoast SEO Premium. Generate editable summaries in seconds.

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

The hierarchy of scannable elements

The content ecosystem

Bullet points are not isolated components; they’re part of a broader ecosystem of scannable elements that work together to create user-friendly content. An effective scannable design incorporates multiple layers of visual hierarchy.

Headings and subheadings serve as navigation anchors, allowing readers to identify relevant sections quickly. They’re the highway signs of content, helping people find their destination without reading every word.

Numbers and statistics act as attention magnets, drawing the eye with their specificity and authority. Our brains are wired to notice numerical information, making stats powerful tools for engagement.

Bold text and formatting provide visual cues that guide attention to key concepts. Strategic emphasis helps readers identify the most important information without overwhelming the overall design.

White space ties everything together, preventing visual overcrowding and giving each element room to breathe. The silence between notes makes music coherent.

Choosing from Lists and other formats

Different content types call for different scannable formats. Understanding when to use each format prevents the monotony of bullet point overuse while optimizing for specific communication goals.

Bullet points: They excel for features, benefits, and key takeaways where order doesn’t matter. They’re perfect for highlighting multiple advantages or listing unranked options.

Numbered lists: These lists work best for processes, rankings, and sequential information. They provide clear progression and help readers track their position within the content.

Tables: Ideal for comparisons and data-heavy content. They allow readers to scan vertically and horizontally, facilitating quick comparisons across multiple variables.

Paragraphs: An essential storytelling instrument, context-building, and complex arguments requiring narrative development. The key is using them strategically rather than defaulting to them automatically.

The mobile-first psychology

Mobile usage hasn’t just changed screen sizes, it’s fundamentally altered how we consume content. Thumb-scrolling creates different engagement patterns than mouse-based navigation, favoring content that works with natural thumb movements.

The “thumb-friendly” hierarchy prioritizes easily tappable elements and accommodates one-handed usage. This means shorter sections, more frequent headings, and content designed for vertical scrolling rather than horizontal scanning.

Responsive design psychology goes beyond technical implementation. It requires understanding how reading behaviors change across devices and optimizing content structure for each context.

Implementing psychology-driven content

Knowing the science behind scannable content is one thing—putting it into practice is another. The good news? You don’t need a psychology degree to create content that respects how your readers’ brains work. With a few strategic adjustments to your writing process, you can transform dense, intimidating content into clear, engaging material that people actually read and act on. Here’s how to make the psychology work for you.

The content creator’s checklist

Pre-writing considerations: Analyze your audience’s attention constraints and reading context. Are they researching solutions under pressure, browsing casually, or seeking deep understanding? This determines your optimal scannable structure.

During writing: Identify natural breaking points during writing where concepts shift or new ideas emerge. These transition moments are perfect for bullet points, subheadings, or formatting changes supporting scanning behaviors.

Post-writing optimization: Simulate scanning behavior by reading only headings, first sentences, and formatted elements. Does the content still make sense and provide value? If not, restructure to serve better scanning readers.

Tools and techniques

Readability analyzers: They provide objective metrics for content accessibility, but understanding their psychological basis helps interpret results more meaningfully. High readability scores often correlate with scannable structure.

Heat mapping tools: One of the most potent tools for revealing reader attention patterns, showing where scannable elements succeed or fail. This data helps optimize formatting for real usage rather than theoretical best practices.

User testing methodologies: A one of the kind testing methods that is used for content structures and can also include card sorting exercises, first impression tests, and task-based evaluations. They reveal how well your formatting serves actual reader goals.

Respecting your reader’s brain

Understanding the psychology of scannable content isn’t about manipulating readers, but about respecting how their brains process information. Everyone wins when we create content that works with cognitive patterns rather than against them.

Readers get information they can consume efficiently without sacrificing comprehension. Content creators build trust and engagement by serving their audience’s genuine needs rather than forcing outdated consumption models.

The competitive advantage goes to those recognizing that effective content serves the reader’s brain, not the creator’s ego. Attention is the scarcest resource, so content that respects cognitive limitations while delivering genuine value will consistently outperform material that ignores psychological realities.

Ready to implement these insights with Yoast SEO? Start by auditing your existing content through a psychological lens. Look for opportunities to break up dense paragraphs, add scannable elements, and create the visual breathing room that modern readers crave. Your audience’s brains and content performance will thank you.

Give your readers instant clarity, every time!

Make every post easier to read, scan, and share. Use AI Summarize to create key takeaways and boost engagement.

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

The post The psychology of scannable content and bullet points appeared first on Yoast.

Read more at Read More

How Tag Sequencing Is Affecting Website Data Quality When Utilizing Consent Management

October 16, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design/by

Have you noticed that your site analytics feel a little, well, off lately? It’s not just your imagination. We’ve found a subtle growing issue popping up across multiple clients, and it might be hitting your site, too.

It comes down to GTM tag priority and how these tags fire in relation to consent management. If tags load out of order or before the user gives proper consent, your tracking can break. This means lost sessions, broken attribution, and inaccurate conversion data.

We’ve seen this firsthand, but we’ve taken steps to fix it. Let’s break down what tag sequencing is and why it matters. In addition, we’ll give you some tips to help make sure your data stays clean and compliant without sacrificing its usefulness.

Key Takeaways

Poor tag sequencing can lead to missing data, inflated conversion rates, and inaccurate attribution.
Tag priority matters, especially when consent management platforms are in play.
We’ve seen clients lose up to 20% of reported traffic due to sequencing issues.
Fixes include loading the consent script first, mapping tags to categories, and blocking tags until consent is confirmed.
Regular audits are non-negotiable. One misstep in your CMP or tag manager setup can break your entire funnel.

What is Tag Sequencing And Why Is It Important?

Tag sequencing is the order in which tracking tags, like analytics, advertising, or personalization, fire on your website. While it sounds simple, it plays a big role in the accuracy of your data.

When you use a consent management platform (CMP), sequencing these tags becomes even more important. Some tags aren’t allowed to fire if users don’t give specific consent. Others rely on earlier tags to work correctly. If the order’s off or a critical tag doesn’t fire, your tracking capabilities break down, and so does your reporting. CMP triggers or blocks tags in the right sequence so only authorized data collection occurs. This preserves regulatory compliance and performance accuracy.

Done right, sequencing ensures:

Only approved tags fire (keeping you compliant)
Tags load in the right area (keeping your data clean)
Your campaigns see proper attribution (keeping your ROI real)

If you ignore tag sequencing, you risk bad data. Even worse, you can lose conversions and break your customer insights.

An infographic on how cookie consent works.

The Impact of Tag Sequencing on Data Quality (and the bottom line)

When you fail to set your GTM tag priority correctly, it can distort your data (sometimes massively). We’ve seen this across major brands in finance, hospitality, and automotive industries. In each case, the same issue kept popping up: the first page of a user’s visit wasn’t being tracked.

That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. That one misstep led to a massive ripple effect:

Traffic was underreported by as much as 10 to 20 percent.
Site-wide conversation rates looked artificially inflated.
Channel attribution didn’t match reality.
Content performance data became unreliable.

Here’s why that’s a problem: broken data could also lead to broken strategies. You could be pulling budget from channels that are working or double down on content that doesn’t actually convert. Either way, your decisions are off base.

The scary part is that this isn’t always obvious unless someone digs into the tags and sequencing logic; if you’re not actively spending time in the sequence, you may not notice an issue.

The Causes Behind Tag Sequencing Issues We’ve Found

Most tag sequencing issues come down to one of five things, which are often more common than you’d expect. If you’ve noticed attribution issues, you might have the following issues:

Consent misconfiguration. Tags aren’t properly mapped to categories like analytics, marketing, or performance. Even if a user opts in, the right tags may not fire.
Network latency. If your consent platform loads too slowly, it could delay or block tags entirely.
Script placement. Tags placed above the consent script in the site header will run before user choices are processed.
Direct-to-page scripts. It’s important to note that not all scripts necessarily sit in GTM, for a variety of reasons. If the consent banner configuration on the site doesn’t fire before these scripts and the GTM tags, it will cause issues. This applies whether you implement tags directly in GTM or the site itself.

When these problems stack up, you can often get missing data or broken attribution. This skews performance and could impact your decisions surrounding future resource allocation.

Source

How To Fix Your Tag Sequencing Before It Impacts Data Quality

Fixing tag sequencing isn’t complicated, but it is important. We’ve helped our clients clean up their setup and reclaim accurate tracking with the following best practices:

Load your consent script first. This should be the very first script in your header. Put it before any analytics, marketing, or tracker tags.
Use your CMP to block everything else until the user’s choice is known. See below for an example of how to use OneTrust CMP to create active group triggers.
Assign consent categories to every tag. These categories ensure your platform knows what to load and when.
Audit your tags regularly. Site updates, script changes, and even CMP updates can reset sequencing logic without any warning. These screenshots are from our partner, ObservePoint, that we utilize for scaled audits. This tool can help scale up consent audits and can help us validate user consent selections. The below example shows what categories of tags fire when a user opts in vs. opts out and can be a quick way to determine whether further investigation is needed – for example, if we expect zero analytics tags to fire when consent is not given, and we see analytics tags firing on 4% of pages scanned that are opt out, that would flag to us that there is an issue with configuration.

How does this work in action? Take a look at the below examples to show how we utilize OneTrust CMP and create groupings based on cookie types: ( Performance, Marketing, Analytics, etc.). Mapping cookie types to their corresponding cookie groups and then assigning them to appropriate tags within GTM so the users cookie choices map with what tags fire once consent is given.

Creating group types based on cookie types in OneTrust CMP.

Below, by assigning that active group trigger as an And statement to an existing tag, this ensures both values are present before the tag fires, avoiding the issue we’ve been seeing.

Failure to fix tag sequencing means you break your compliance and your data, which will inevitably trickle into every marketing decision you make.

FAQs

What is tag sequencing in GTM?

<h3></h3>

It’s the order in which tags are triggered on your site. When using consent management, this sequence determines which tags fire—and when—based on user permissions.

How can bad tag sequencing affect my data?

If tags fire too early (or not at all), you’ll miss sessions, inflate conversion rates, and get unreliable channel attribution.

Can I manage tag sequencing without a developer?

Yes—tools like Google Tag Manager and modern CMPs make it easy to handle sequencing logic without code, as long as they’re set up properly.

How often should I check my tag sequencing setup?

Audit it quarterly, or anytime you update your website, CMP, or launch a new campaign. One misplaced script can throw off everything.

Conclusion

Tag sequencing may seem like a simple technical skill, but it’s so much more than that. It creates a backbone for reliable data that underpins many of your marketing decisions. Tags that fire out of order can break tracking, skew analytics, and cause you to miss valuable opportunities.

But it’s a fixable issue, and a few key adjustments to your GTM setup and consent platform can get things back on track and keep them there.

If you want to dive deeper into clean data, consider performing a technical SEO audit and explore how your site’s structure can impact your results. But if you’re still unsure whether your tag setup costs you conversions, let’s talk. Fixing it now can save you wasted spend (and effort) down the line.

Read more at Read More

Semrush AI SEO: How to Audit Your AI Search Visibility

October 15, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News/by

AI answers are taking over search. More people are turning to Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity for recommendations.

And if your brand isn’t showing up in those AI answers? You’re missing out on a huge (and growing) slice of your market.

That’s why Semrush built the AI SEO Toolkit. It’s a major unlock for marketers trying to understand how AI is impacting their
business.

Today, I’m going to show you how to use it — step by step — with a real example.

TL;DR: Measure Your AI Search Visibility

Here’s what you need to know about Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit:

What it does:

Tracks how your brand appears across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity — showing which prompts include you and where you’re missing
Provides prompt tracking, content audits, and competitor comparisons

What it costs:

$99/month per domain (no trial)

Step 0: Start With a Brand

Before we analyze anything, let’s pick a brand to make this walkthrough concrete.

I went to Exploding Topics, browsed the ecommerce category, and picked Petlibro — a trending startup that sells smart pet feeders and water fountains.

I have zero affiliation with Petlibro. This isn’t sponsored. I just wanted a brand that’s growing fast and has enough search demand to make this example interesting.

Exploding Topics – Petlibro – Trending Startups

Step 1: Get Your Search Baseline

Before we look at AI, we want to know how Petlibro is doing in traditional search. It’s super valuable context that will help us understand how they’re performing in LLMs.

To understand their current search baseline, head to Semrush’s Domain Overview.

Enter the brand’s domain name and look at the last 18 months. Looking at petlibro.com, they’ve been growing a TON.

They get most of their traffic from the U.S., rank for more than 25,000 keywords, and have a domain Authority Score of 43 with backlinks from 2.8K referring domains.

And they rank well in traditional SERPs for a bunch of highly relevant category and product keywords.

So they’re a real brand that’s already doing a good job with SEO. And good search engine optimization often correlates with good AI optimization.

If your brand has so far neglected SEO, now is the ideal time to tackle that with a solid AI SEO strategy (which this audit will help you form).

Step 2: Check Your AI Visibility

Now for the fun part.

Back in the Semrush dashboard, look for AI SEO in the sidebar.

Enter petlibro.com, and a few minutes later, your Brand Performance dashboard will be ready for review.

On the right side, you can see the Share of Voice versus Sentiment Score.

The most interesting thing I noticed right away is that Petlibro has relatively low Share of Voice (6%) in regular ChatGPT, without Search.

That’s because ChatGPT 5 without search enabled has a training data cutoff of September 30, 2024.

And as we saw in traditional search, Petlibro has been growing a LOT in the last year.

Domain Overview – Petlibro – Organic Traffic

Fortunately, they’re performing much better in SearchGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. All three of which use live search to generate their answers. For example, Petlibro’s Share of Voice in Google AI Mode is 27.8%:

Semrush AI SEO – Petlibro – Share of Voice – Google AI Mode

Pro tip: Keep this in mind when analyzing your own brand too. These tools might not have your newest content in their training data. This can affect your apparent visibility, so be sure to check your visibility when search is enabled (as search-powered experiences are becoming more common).

This tab gives you a broad overview of your brand’s visibility. The next step will help you get more granular.

Step 3. Gauge Visibility at the Prompt Level

You can get prompt-level details by heading to the Visibility Overview tab.

Note: Things are evolving fast in the AI SEO space. This tool is brand new at the time of writing, so there isn’t much in the way of historical data right now. But tracking your visibility here over time will help you understand how well optimized your site is for an increasingly AI-based search landscape.

Scroll down and you’ll be able to quickly understand:

Your top-performing topics
Opportunities to improve your brand’s visibility
Popular sources for prompts relevant to your industry
Where your competitors are being cited that you’re not
Where you are being cited as a source

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Topics & Sources

Click on any of the topics (or select Prompts) to see exact prompts and the AI response that you appear as part of.

To get more data on the prompts your rivals are appearing for that you’re not, head to the Narrative Drivers tab. First, you’ll see your brand’s Share of Voice by platform.

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Share of Voice by Platform

This gives you an overview of where your rivals are winning on each AI platform. But we want to scroll down to Share of Voice and switch to the Average Position view.

Semrush AI SEO – Petlibro – Average Position – Google AI Mode

You can then toggle each competitor individually to get a better idea of how you perform against key rivals over time.

This view essentially gives you a snapshot of your brand’s visibility for key prompts.

To understand which prompts you are and are not appearing for compared to your rivals, you want to scroll down to the Breakdown by Question section.

You’ll see your position, which is where you show up in the answer snippet compared to your competitors.

You can see which ones your rivals appear for that you don’t by using the filters:

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Breakdown by Question – Filters

For example, Petlibro isn’t appearing for a few prompts that multiple competitors are mentioned in:

Semrush – AI SEO – Petlibro – Breakdown by Question – Not present filter

Identify the most relevant queries you want to start appearing for, and do this for each AI tool (using the toggle at the top left).

Note these down somewhere, as these will help frame your AI optimization strategy. Think of this part like the keyword research stage in a traditional SEO campaign.

Step 4. Review Your Brand’s Trust Factors

Next, you want to understand where your brand is doing a good job of appearing trustworthy to both your users and the LLMs themselves.

To do this, head back to the Brand Performance tab and scroll down to Key Business Drivers.

This essentially shows where your brand is strong compared to your competitors in various areas that help convey trust to users.

It might look overwhelming at first.

But basically:

The numbers illustrate how often key business drivers (i.e., trust factors) appear in answers where your brand is also mentioned. The bigger the number, the better.

(Look for the trophy icon to see where you’re currently ahead of your competitors.)

For example:

Searchers may value smart home integration when selecting a smart pet feeder.

When AI tools mention PetSafe, they also sometimes mention the fact it has these features.

This makes the brand more likely to appear in AI search responses when a user is looking for smart pet feeders with features like smart home integrations.

If Petlibro offers this, the brand needs to do a better job of conveying that in their content, or they’re going to struggle to appear in AI responses for relevant prompts.

Meanwhile, PetSafe is being mentioned for this kind of user prompt:

Semrush – AI SEO – Narrative Drivers – Petlibro

Go through this tab and identify trust factors you want to appear for.

If you spot areas competitors are strong but you’re not being picked up, make sure you:

Include trust factors and unique selling points on your website homepage
Add mentions of relevant features to product pages
Write helpful FAQ questions on product pages and blog posts that cater to these trust factors

Step 5. Audit Brand Sentiment in AI Tools

The next step involves diving deeper into how AI tools (and by proxy your users) perceive your brand.

To do this, we’ll head to the Perception report and scroll to the Key Sentiment Drivers section.

This will show you Brand Strength Factors and Areas for Improvement.

This is a great snapshot to see where you’re already doing well. And where you might need to focus new efforts on improving your brand’s perception in AI responses.

Semrush – AI SEO – Perception – Key Sentiment Drivers

Brand strength factors are essentially areas where the AI tools talk positively about your brand.

In Petlibro’s case, these are factors like app connectivity, mechanical jams, and customer support.

Pro tip: Look for anything that’s not accurate here. You don’t want AI tools to be recommending your brand for things you don’t offer — this will just lead to disappointed customers.

The areas for improvement are areas where you might want to:

Create optimized content to make it clear to customers what you offer
Optimize your existing product pages to better reflect their strengths
Improve your products or services to better meet your customers’ needs

That final point is worth emphasizing. Semrush’s AI SEO tools don’t just give you content ideas.

You can use the insights you gain here and the prompts real users are inputting into AI tools to understand where you can improve and expand your products/services.

The future of marketing is truly collaborative across departments. And these kinds of insights can help align both your SEO/content teams and your product and marketing divisions.

This can lead to a better user experience on your site, a better product for your customers, and increased business growth.

Pro tip: At the bottom of most of these tabs, you’ll also find “AI Strategic Insights.” These are AI-powered suggestions you can use immediately to boost your AI visibility.

Step 6. Identify More Content Ideas

Step 6 is to find more ideas for creating new content and optimizing your existing pages.

First, head to the Questions tab and scroll down to the Query Topics section.

Answer these questions with new content or in your existing content.

For example, Petlibro could create a blog post titled “How to Stop Your Cat Shaking Food Out of Its Feeder.”

They could also update their product pages to highlight that their feeders support different portion sizes for morning and evening meals, and add an FAQ section answering common branded questions.

To understand what content you might want to create (and which prompts are actually worth optimizing for), enter the relevant ones into tools like ChatGPT. (Make sure you enable web search.)

The example below returns a lot of scientific papers, so it would likely be a tough one for Petlibro to appear for.

But there is a Reddit thread in there too. Which means a Reddit marketing strategy could be worth exploring to boost visibility for these kinds of prompts.

This next one is a more likely candidate, and we can see PetSafe (a competitor) gets cited as a source. (And Reddit appears again too.)

There is also a product carousel with links further down — none of which are from Petlibro.

So this would definitely be worth digging into to see why PetSafe (and the other products) are being recommended:

Do the product pages do a better job of conveying trust signals?
Are they more descriptive?
Do they have FAQ sections that answer the prompt’s question?

Bottom line:

You need to look closer than simply the prompts themselves to understand why other brands are being recommended ahead of yours.

But once again, if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll find AI-powered insights that can give you a head start.

Turn Your AI SEO Audit Insights Into Action

An AI SEO audit is a vital first step to make your brand AI ready. And Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit gives you everything you need to get started.

But the audit is just the first step. Use these resources to turn what you learn from the tool into action for your brand:

The post Semrush AI SEO: How to Audit Your AI Search Visibility appeared first on Backlinko.

Read more at Read More

Still not ready for Black Friday 2025? Here is your last minute rescue plan

October 15, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News, Yoast SEO/by

Heads up! Black Friday is almost here, and if you still haven’t prepared, it’s time to act fast. The clock is ticking, but you can still make meaningful updates that count. This article covers practical and straightforward last minute Black Friday tips to help you make quick, effective changes to your eCommerce store. Even with just a few days left, there’s still room to attract customers and make the most of the biggest shopping event of the year.

Key takeaways

Act quickly to implement last minute Black Friday tips for maximizing eCommerce sales
Focus on essentials such as clear offers, optimized checkout processes, and engaging email campaigns to boost conversions
Leverage social media to build anticipation, share customer stories, and create urgency with time-sensitive posts
Consider quick SEO fixes to enhance visibility, like updating meta titles and refreshing content for Black Friday
Utilize tools like Yoast SEO for enhanced performance and structured data to ensure your deals stand out in search results

Did you know?

Numbers show that Black Friday 2024 broke all records, as U.S. shoppers spent a staggering $ 10.8 billion online, representing a 10.2 percent increase from 2023. These numbers prove one thing: it is never too late to take action and grab your share of the Black Friday rush.

The must-dos (essentials you can’t miss)

The fastest way to put your Black Friday campaign on pilot mode is by focusing on a few essentials that make an immediate difference. These must-do, last minute Black Friday tips are your quick wins, helping you cover the basics, build momentum, and set up the foundation for a successful marketing campaign.

Make your offers crystal clear

When shoppers land on your website, your Black Friday deals should be impossible to miss. Highlight your best offers right on the homepage or add a static banner so visitors see them immediately. The clearer your offers are, the easier it is for customers to take action.

One of the most innovative ways to increase engagement is by using countdown timers. They build urgency, encourage faster decisions, and make shoppers feel like they’re part of something time-sensitive. The Diamond Store saw this in action when they added a live countdown clock to their 24-hour Black Friday email campaign. The result? A 400% higher conversion rate compared to their previous emails.

Forever 21 shows all the offers clearly on the homepage

For WordPress users, OptinMonster is a quick way to get started. It lets you create dynamic floating bars and banners with countdowns, all through a simple drag-and-drop builder.

If you’re using Shopify, the Essential Countdown Timer Bar app works perfectly for creating announcement bars or cart countdowns to drive urgency and prevent cart abandonment.

Check your checkout

Did you know a long or confusing checkout process is one of the biggest reasons shoppers abandon their carts, especially during high-traffic days like Black Friday? That’s the last thing you want when every second counts.

Before the rush begins, take a few minutes to go through your own checkout process on both desktop and mobile. Place a test order just like a customer would. Verify that your discount codes are applied correctly, your payment options load smoothly, and the overall flow feels quick and effortless.

Ask a few friends, family members, or even teammates to try it too. Fresh eyes often spot friction points you might miss, such as unclear buttons, confusing forms, or slow-loading pages.

Trust also plays a huge role. Ensure your checkout page displays secure payment badges and recognizable gateways, such as PayPal, Apple Pay, or Stripe. When shoppers feel confident their payment is safe, they’re far more likely to hit “Buy now.”

And one last tip: keep it simple. The fewer distractions and clicks, the smoother the path to purchase. That’s precisely what drives conversions during a last minute Black Friday rush.

Send a simple email to your list

Black Friday emails have been shown to generate 33 percent higher conversion rates than regular marketing messages. That alone makes it one of the smartest last minute Black Friday tips to focus on. When time is short, your existing customer base is your best asset. They already trust your brand and are far more likely to act quickly on your offers.

Keep your email focused and straightforward. Start with a subject line that clearly highlights your best deal or most significant discount. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see how the key offer or discount is prominently displayed in the subject line, while the body reinforces the offer with a clear call to action.

Inside the email, make your main offer impossible to miss. Emphasize the key benefits of your product or service, and include a direct call to action that takes users straight to your Black Friday sale page. Make it visually engaging by adding a countdown timer or a short GIF that brings energy and urgency to the message.

Remember, this isn’t about crafting a perfect campaign. It’s about getting the right message to the right people at the right time. A simple, well-timed email can make a real difference in your Black Friday sales.

Promote on social media channels

Social media continues to play a significant role in Black Friday success. It has seen a 7 percent year-over-year increase in traffic, now driving around 10 percent of all global mobile traffic referrals during the holiday season. Your audience is already scrolling, searching, and shopping, so this is your opportunity to be where they are.

In these last few days, your social media strategy should focus on building anticipation and trust. If you have customer review videos, testimonials, or any user-generated content, start sharing them now. Boosting these posts or running quick ad campaigns featuring real customer stories can help you build credibility fast. People are far more likely to buy when they see genuine experiences from others.

You can also collaborate with a micro-influencer or a brand advocate who already has a connection with your target audience. Even a brief post, story, or reel from them can draw attention to your sale and help you gain visibility.

If you are short on time, focus only on your most active platform, whether that is Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn. Post your best offer as a pinned post or a story highlight and use countdown stickers or short video snippets to create a sense of urgency.

Lastly, remember to engage. Reply to comments, answer questions, and reshare posts from happy customers. Small interactions can make your brand feel more approachable and help you stand out during the Black Friday rush.

Must read: How to handle comments on your blog

Quick SEO fixes for better Black Friday reach

If you haven’t touched your SEO yet, don’t worry. There’s still time to make a few quick updates that can help your store appear in the search results. These last minute Black Friday SEO tweaks can enhance visibility, attract the right audience, and might give your deals a competitive edge.

Start with your meta titles and meta descriptions. Add words like Black Friday 2025, sale, or deal to your titles so searchers know what to expect. For example, instead of ‘Women’s handbags – Classic collection,’ you can try ‘Black Friday 2025 deals on women’s handbags.’ Keep it relevant, natural, and clear.

Next, check your product and landing pages. Make sure they’re up to date with current pricing, stock status, and offers. Highlight the discounts in your product descriptions, and, if possible, include keywords that shoppers might search for, such as ‘best Black Friday deals’ or ‘holiday gift offers.’

Another smart move is to reuse your existing content. If you already have an older Black Friday or holiday gift guide, simply refresh it for 2025 by updating the year, offers, and internal links. It’s a fast way to keep your content relevant without having to start from scratch.

Lastly, take a minute to review your page experience. A fast, mobile-friendly site can make or break your Black Friday sales. Run a quick check using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and fix anything that’s slowing your pages down. Even minor improvements can help increase conversions.

These quick wins may not replace a comprehensive Black Friday SEO strategy. However, they can still make your website more discoverable and help you capture traffic from shoppers actively seeking deals.

The nice-to-dos (if you have a little more time)

Okay, so the must-dos can help you frame a solid last minute marketing campaign. But if you’ve managed to check those off quickly and still have a little time on your hands, don’t stop there. The following few ideas may seem optional, but they can give your campaign the extra boost it needs to capture more attention, convert hesitant shoppers, and capitalize on the Black Friday rush.

Run simple retargeting ads

Don’t let potential buyers slip away after visiting your store. Retargeting ads help remind them of products they viewed or added to their carts, increasing the chances of conversion. Even a short, time-bound campaign with strong visuals and clear CTAs can make a difference during the Black Friday rush.

Bundle products or create quick gift sets

Shoppers love convenience, especially during the holidays. Bundling complementary products or creating quick gift sets can simplify decision-making and increase your average order value. Highlight these as limited-time deals to develop a sense of urgency and drive faster sales.

Add live chat or quick support options

Many customers abandon their carts when questions go unanswered. Adding a live chat feature helps resolve last minute queries instantly and keeps buyers engaged throughout the checkout process. Tools like Tidio and LiveChat integrate seamlessly with both WordPress and Shopify, making setup quick and easy.

Make your Black Friday deals shine with Yoast SEO for free!

Getting your offers in front of the right people starts with how your website appears and performs in search results. That’s where Yoast SEO can be a real game-changer during the Black Friday rush.

Here’s how:

Write SEO-friendly content

With Yoast SEO, you can create content that both readers and search engines understand. With Yoast SEO’s real-time feedback:

Get instant insights on keyword use, density, and placement
Optimize your product titles and descriptions to highlight key offers
Ensure your content maintains the right balance between keywords and readability

Improve readability

Shoppers move fast during Black Friday. Keep them engaged with content that is easy to read and skim. Yoast helps you:

Simplify long sentences and paragraphs
Use better transitions for a smoother flow
Maintain a consistent tone and structure throughout your content

Help search engines crawl your site efficiently

Visibility depends on how easily search engines can crawl and index your site. With Yoast SEO, you can:

Automatically generate XML sitemaps to guide crawlers
Use SEO-friendly breadcrumbs to create a clear site structure
Ensure your most important Black Friday pages are indexed correctly

Prepare your website for the future of search

AI-powered search is transforming the way people discover brands and deals online. The llms.txt feature in Yoast SEO helps you:

Communicate directly with AI systems, such as ChatGPT
Control how your content is accessed and cited by large language models
Enhance the likelihood of your offers being accurately represented in AI-driven summaries and recommendations

Install Yoast SEO now

Bonus: Automate structured data for rich results

Want your Black Friday products to stand out in search with details like price, stock status, and ratings? That’s where structured data comes in. It helps search engines understand your products better and display them as rich results.

With the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin, this process becomes effortless. It automatically adds product-specific structured data to your pages, so your deals are clearer and more clickable in search results. This gives your listings the best chance to shine when shoppers are scanning for quick, trustworthy deals during the Black Friday rush.

Buy WooCommerce SEO now!

Unlock powerful features and much more for your online store with Yoast WooCommerce SEO!

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

Final thoughts: simple moves, big impact

As the countdown begins, remember that success isn’t about doing more but doing what matters most. It’s easy to get caught up in ambitious plans, such as redesigning your website, launching new products, or building influencer partnerships, but those time-intensive ideas rarely deliver quick results when the clock is ticking.

Instead, focus on achievable actions that create immediate impact. Refresh your existing content, refine your offers, and utilize tools like Yoast SEO to optimize your pages efficiently. A few smart tweaks to your product descriptions, meta titles, or site speed can often drive better conversions than a full-scale overhaul.

The key to winning Black Friday isn’t scale, it’s strategy. Work with what you already have, double down on proven tactics, and use every minute wisely. That’s how you turn last minute prep into lasting results.

The post Still not ready for Black Friday 2025? Here is your last minute rescue plan appeared first on Yoast.

Read more at Read More

Google Performance Max adds support for vertical 9:16 image ads

October 14, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

5 ways to get the most from Performance Max in 2025

Google’s Performance Max (PMax) campaigns now support vertical 9:16 image ads, bringing the popular mobile-friendly format to the platform’s most automated campaign type.

What’s new. Google Ads specialist Thomas Eccel spotted the update, noting that vertical “Story Image Ads” – first seen in Demand Gen campaigns earlier this year – are now available in PMax.

Specs at a glance:

Minimum size: 600×1067 (recommended: 1080×1920)
Maximum file size: 5MB
Google hasn’t officially confirmed where these will serve, though in Demand Gen, they appear in YouTube Shorts Image placements.

Why we care. Vertical 9:16 images let PMax campaigns fit naturally into mobile-first environments like YouTube Shorts, where user attention is highest. Experts say this update goes beyond creative specs. As Phil Byrne, founder of Positive Sparks Marketing LTD, noted, it’s about “meeting users where they naturally consume content.”

With Shorts, Reels, and TikTok dominating mobile engagement, vertical formats are key to maintaining attention and relevance.

The bigger picture. Mike Ryan, head of ecommerce insights at Smarter Ecommerce, added that PMax is already monetizing YouTube Shorts through “GMC Image Shorts,” which display multiple product images for remarketing and personalization – a sign that Google is leaning deeper into short-form, shoppable media.

Read more at Read More

Posts

What Is AI Optimization (And Why You Should Care)?

How AI Search Works

1. Understanding Your Prompt

2. Retrieval

3. Synthesis

I Analyzed 10 Queries Across Multiple AI Search Platforms: Here’s What I Found

How Each Platform Chooses Sources

The “Citation Core” Effect

What This Means for Brand Sites

How to Optimize Your Website for AI Search

Developer Tasks

1. Make Your Site Accessible to AI Crawlers

2. Whitelist AI Bots in Your Firewall

3. Use Semantic HTML So AI Knows What’s Important

4. Add Visible Dates for Freshness Signals

5. Remove Barriers to Content Access

6. Optimize Your Server Response Time

SEO Tasks

7. Structure Pages for Fragment-Friendly Indexing

8. Build Topic Clusters That Signal Full Coverage

9. Add Schema Markup to Label Your Content

10. Add Detailed Content to Category and Product Pages

11. Track Where AI Mentions Your Brand (and Where It Doesn’t)

12. Optimize for Natural Language Prompts, Not Just Keywords

Content Tasks

13. Publish Original Content with Data, Examples, and Insights

14. Embed Your Brand Name in Context-Inclusive Copy

15. Create Pages for Every Use Case, Feature, and Integration

16. Expand Your Reach Through Non-Owned Channels

Don’t Overlook Community Platforms

Your Next Move in AI Search Optimization

Data and rankings in flux

AI content and media: use it, don’t rely on it

Local SEO and engines beyond Google

AI mode and how people behave

Meta descriptions and AI generation

AI in everyday workflows

Insights from Microsoft and Google

Yoast product updates to watch

Next actions and a quick invitation

Key Takeaways

Why Are AI Visibility Tools Important?

Top 5 AI Visibility Tools on The Market

Ubersuggest

Profound

Semrush

Ahrefs

ScrunchAI

Choosing the Right AI Visibility Tool for You

FAQs

What is the best AI tool for increasing visibility?

Are AI visibility tools better than traditional marketing methods?

How do AI visibility tools integrate with existing SEO strategies?

Conclusion

Execution errors

Faulty expectations vs. reality

Misreadings of output

What you need for effective MMM analysis

1. Clean, longitudinal data

2. Advanced modeling techniques

3. Validation and iteration

4. Stakeholder engagement

Better MMM becomes a competitive edge

Technical SEO pre-redesign audit checklist

How to optimize site architecture and your URL strate

Location page content considerations

Top design elements to consider for a multi-location website

Complete multi-location redesign audit checklist

The business case: search and revenue impact at scale

Table of contents

Key takeaways

The scanning habits of our brain

The myth of linear reading

Factors that determine reading depth

The impact of mobile evolution on content consumption

The psychology behind bullet points

1. The mental burden relief of cognitive load reduction

2. Pattern recognition and predictability

3. The psychology of completion