The Good News: Keyword Strategy is Still Important. The Bad News: It’s Not Enough.
If your go-to SEO strategy is still basically centered around picking a handful of priority keywords and crossing your fingers the Google overlords will pick your content… it’s time to upgrade.
You’ve been doing all the right things – internal linking, keyword-centered copy, correctly structured data…. But search is changing and AI wants more.
Not All Maps are Created Equal
Remember back in the day when people would use a certain unnamed default map service, and they kept ending up driving into lakes? Or if you’re really ancient… PRINTED MAPQUEST directions? Whoa, that’s too real. Dial it in.
Your website is the map. Some might say… a sitemap. AI is the annoying voice telling you to TURN LEFT IN 100 FEET (directly into a lake) because you didn’t add enough detail and context for it to know that the road is… not there anymore.
And assuming AI is just as confused by a vague sitemap as I am when my husband says “just turn west,” we need to help it out.
The Basics:
- Hierarchy is important: Category > Subcategory > Resource
- Sometimes it’s okay to be shallow: Don’t hide important information 4 layers deep under a vague “resources” heading.
- Breadcrumbs are bad for ducks, but good for humans AND bots: No further explanation.
- The elevator pitch: Can you explain what’s going on with your site in a concise, persuasive way?
If your answer sounds like, “There are blogs, some important features, all of these things in the dropdowns but I’m not sure where they go,” it’s time to tidy things up.
Connect the Dots (Red Yarn and Cork Board Optional)
If something isn’t linked, AI assumes it’s probably cool to ignore it. Internal linking tells search engines what’s related, what can or definitely should NOT be ignored, and the breadth of the content you have on a specific topic.
The Basics:
- Up, down, left, right: contextual links should follow hierarchy (Category > Subcategory) and laterally (related resources, further reading, relevant FAQs).
- No one, and I repeat, no one, is clicking “click here” – tell the users what they’re clicking on.
Content connections may seem obvious to you – of course, a blog post detailing someone’s excellent experience working at a company and a Company Culture page are both good reading for job prospects, but if they aren’t linked, how would bots (or even humans landing on your site) know?
Semantic SEO: What do you mean?
AI goes beyond just plucking out a keyword (or set of keywords) that identically match your search query; it factors in the searcher’s intent.
The Basics:
- Thesaurus.com is your friend. Use your keywords’ synonyms, related terms, and similar phrases with contextual relevance.
- Write like a human – basically, the exact opposite of every recipe page, ever.
- Diverse, contemporary, and credible social proof and contemporary – see above. Don’t write for bots from 2002.
Hint: Structured Data is important too.
We’re All Just Trying to Ask Jeeves
Everybody just wants to ask a question and get an answer, even AI. Enter: FAQs.
Why should I use FAQs on my site? (see what I did there?)
- Easily crawlable, easily scannable
- Correctly structured for regular and voice search
- Filled to the brim with sweet, sweet schema markup (ideally)
So… just an FAQ page, then? Nope – scatter those bad boys like confetti:
- On solutions pages to answer real customer questions
- On posts to provide snappy, TL;DR answers
- On landing pages to grab the user’s attention
Long-tail Keywords and the Carefully Crafted Ramble
- Traditional SEO: concise, high-volume, high-value keywords.
- AI SEO (or GEO, if ya fancy): Those keywords still matter, but they should be presented as specific answers for intent-focused questions.
You may still be dropping “best desk” into a search engine, and that’s cool… but savvy users are asking “best desk for remote worker with horrible posture and chronic lower back pain because of horrible posture that doesn’t cost more than $200”.
What can I do?
- Create curated, intentional, reorganized resource hubs – not one-off posts.
- Find out what users are asking – what questions are salespeople answering every day?
- Fill in the gaps – what are your competitors missing? Answer the questions they aren’t addressing.
What should I do first?
Audit, audit, audit. Start with the basics. Is your site:
- Utilizing internal links (and if so, enough of them?)
- Structured correctly and marked up with appropriate schema?
- Presenting content written by humans, for humans?
- Answering the questions your users are asking?
Or better yet, just download our handy dandy AI Checklist; it’s coming out with my next post.
