SEO and Blogging Strategies for 2024

Everyone's freaking out about GEO, LLMO, and AEO. After 7 months of running tests across tons of sites… I can tell you this: It's all built on SEO fundamentals. The same principles that rank you on Google also get you cited in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. So before you buy into shiny new tactics that promise “AI visibility”…here's what actually moves the needle: 1. Trust Signals AI tools pull from review platforms to assess business credibility and expertise. Build trust signals in the right places: - Local businesses: prioritize Google Business Profile reviews and responses - SaaS companies: maintain strong G2 and Capterra profiles  - Ecommerce: focus on Trustpilot or industry-specific review platforms - Respond to reviews professionally and keep profiles updated 2. Document Structure LLMs love well-structured documents. Instead of optimizing just for human readers, structure content for AI platforms too: - Add company context throughout documents. Instead of "our latest update," write "Acme Corp's Q4 2024 update" - Use clear headings and comprehensive sections that can stand alone - Include key facts in multiple formats (inline text, bulleted lists, data tables) 3. Link Building for Relevance Quality and topical relevance matter more than quantity for AI visibility. Focus your link building efforts: - Target industry-relevant sites where your brand mention makes logical sense - Pursue guest posts and collaborations within your industry - Don't ignore nofollow links from high-authority sites in your niche - Seek brand mentions even without direct links. (the mention itself carries weight) Avoid completely unrelated sites. 4. Topical Authority Still Rules LLMs are trained on the same web content that Google indexes. The more deep, high-quality content you publish around your niche, the more AI systems recognize you as the go-to source, the more you get mentioned. Take out the trash. Delete random blog posts about topics unrelated to your business. They're actually hurting your AI visibility. 5. Be everywhere LLMs crawl Repurpose your content across Reddit, Medium, LinkedIn, and YouTube. These platforms get crawled heavily by AI, and showing up on them regularly builds brand visibility. LLMs love patterns. The more places they see you, the more they assume you’re an authority. 6. Technical setup - Use HTML-driven pages - Add schema markup - Clean site architecture (no page more than 3 clicks from homepage) - Ensure your critical content loads server-side (most AI crawlers don't render JavaScript) 7. Traditional Search Feeds AI Most AI tools use Bing or Google's index for real-time data. Better search rankings directly improve AI visibility.

Still doing SEO like it’s 2017? Let me guess. Your strategy: ✅ Open keyword tool ✅ Sort by search volume ✅ Pick “best credit card for travel” ✅ Write 1,500 words of fluff ✅ Pray for backlinks Congrats. You’ve just built a blog post that no one asked for. Because here’s the truth: Nobody searches like that anymore. Not your users. Not even your mom. Welcome to 2025. Where users don’t type “best.” They explain their entire damn life. - “Which credit card works if I earn ₹20k, order Swiggy 3x a week, and shop online every Saturday night?” - “Need a laptop that doesn’t crash when I edit reels and play Valorant after class.” That’s not SEO. That’s life context. Search volume? Not the game anymore. The game is: do you understand the person behind the query? And if your SEO still lives in spreadsheets… If your agency still sends you a 300-keyword plan… You’re not doing SEO. You’re doing nostalgia. So what’s the 2025 play? 👉 Watch how people talk, not type. Reddit, Quora, WhatsApp, YouTube comments - these are your new keyword tools. – Nobody searches “best protein powder.” They ask: “Which one doesn’t make me feel bloated?” – Not “home loan tips.” It’s: “Can I get a loan with ₹28k salary and no co-applicant?” – Not “CRM tools.” It’s: “What’s a CRM that won’t confuse my 3-member sales team?” These are not keywords. They are real-life DMs. 👉 Use ChatGPT like a research partner. Prompt it with: “I run a D2C brand doing ₹5L/month. What’s the best logistics option with low return rates?” Then reverse-engineer content from that scenario. 👉 Add a chatbot or WhatsApp extension to your site. Because people now “search” on your site, not just Google. They’ll type: “Which of your products works best for oily skin in humid weather?” If you can’t answer that in-chat, you’ve already lost them. 👉 Write for micro-intent, not mass keywords. Not “students.” But: a broke college kid who edits reels, games at night, and needs a ₹30k laptop that doesn’t overheat. This isn’t just a content shift. It’s a psychology shift. In 2025, SEO isn’t about ranking. It’s about relevance in conversation. And the brands that understand intent - not just traffic - Will be the ones that actually grow.

Everyone's saying SEO is dead in 2024... meanwhile, we went from 25K/mo to 220K/mo organic visits in last 6 months. Here's what's actually working: In January this year, I was ready to give up on SEO. For years, SEO was the first growth lever I'd pull at any company I joined. My guaranteed win. That was my plan when I joined Storylane too. Until 2024 hit. 🎯 Suddenly, my tried-and-tested SEO playbook felt... obsolete. AI content flooding the internet. Rankings becoming unpredictable. Results getting harder to achieve. I started questioning if SEO was even worth the effort anymore. Then in April, we ran an experiment: Instead of creating traditional blog posts with big walls of text, we created a bunch of pages with just interactive demos (created using Storylane). ❌ No long step-by-step instructions ❌ No "comprehensive" articles ✅ Just interactive demos that let users learn by following the interactive demo. The results stunned all of us: • 25K → 220K monthly clicks (March to now) • Outranking giants like Slack, Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot • 1 in 5 pages ranking #1 • Scaled to 2,500 pages • No external backlinks • Signups doubled consistently, PLG revenue doubled, closing many $10k+ enterprise deals And after many conversations with marketers, it turns out SEO isn't dying. It's evolving. The playbook is changing. The new SEO playbook is: SEO + Brand + Page Experience Why? 1. Page Experience is king: While others make users read for 10 minutes with long paragraphs of text, we deliver value in 1/10th the time with demos. 2. Brand Impact matters more than ever: In an AI-flooded internet, users click on names they trust 3. Time-to-value is the new SEO currency AI can write a guide about anything. But it can't "show" you how to do it. Nor can it build brand trust. I'm insanely bullish about SEO again now and adapting to the new SEO playbook. PS: We built Storylane so prospects can try your product before they buy - using interactive demos. 4,000+ teams use it. First demo’s free: https://lnkd.in/eDnE_DUz

I’ve been doing SEO since 1997. My approach today has evolved radically (and continues to adapt with each new Google or AI update). Here are 14 things you should focus on in 2025: 👇 1. 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗘𝗢 Make sure your brand has a clear, consistent entity description across the web. LLMs and Google both build their understanding from semantic consistency. 2. 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Backlinks still matter—but citations in ChatGPT and AI Overviews are the new trust signals. If you’re not being mentioned, you’re invisible. 3. 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 LLMs weigh what’s said about you just as much as what you publish. Secure positive mentions across press, partners, and affiliates. 4. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 Mine support logs, reviews, and interviews. Real customer language is fuel for FAQs, FUQs, and product positioning. 5. 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Think subject → object → predicate. Write so both humans and machines clearly understand relationships between entities. 6. 𝗙𝗨𝗤𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗔𝗤𝘀 Frequently Unasked Questions are the goldmine. Fill content gaps others ignore and LLMs will reward you with visibility. 7. 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗟𝗠 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Track where your brand is showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. It’s the new rank tracking. 8. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Mention competitors on your own pages. Counterintuitive, but it lets you frame the narrative when AI scrapes comparisons. 9. 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗧𝗢𝗙𝗨, 𝗠𝗢𝗙𝗨, 𝗕𝗢𝗙𝗨 Don’t just optimize for conversions. Make sure your brand shows up across the whole buyer journey—from awareness to decision. Add value at each step. 10. 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts. AI pulls from all of it. If you’re not present, you don’t exist in the results. 11. 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 Stop chasing clicks. Focus on impressions, citations, and sentiment. They’re leading indicators of future growth. 12. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 From Wikidata to affiliates, make sure partners, profiles, and press use the same language to describe your brand. 13. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 Don’t just chase head terms. Optimize for the 10–15 word “prompt-like” queries; these drive AI citations and conversions. 14. 𝗪𝗮𝘀𝗵, 𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲, 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 Audit, identify gaps, optimize, and measure every 90 days. The fundamentals haven’t changed, only the platforms. SEO is evolving. So should your strategy. __ #LLMOptimization #SEO #growthmarketing

Search hasn’t disappeared. It’s multiplied. It’s not just about Google rankings anymore. Your content also needs to be retrieved, quoted, and cited by AI tools. If your blog only works in one environment, you’re leaving visibility on the table. That’s why blogging matters in 2025. Strong content should win in both: 👉 Google → indexed, ranked, and surfaced in snippets 👉 AI → clear, concise, and quotable for answers in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini How to do it right: ✔ Add clear, concise summaries that can be quoted directly ✔ Include FAQ sections to win snippets and AI responses ✔ Use schema markup to give Google extra context ✔ Keep your tone clear and conversational Example: Lead with the answer in the first 1–2 sentences, then expand with details. That one change can help you win in: ✅ Google snippets ✅ AI chat responses This is Part 6 of my Why Blog in 2025? series → Optimize for Search Engines & AI Retrieval 📖 Missed earlier parts? Part 1 → Appear in LLMs Part 2 → Capture Buyers Before They Buy Part 3 → Use Blogs to Power Internal Linking Part 4 → Build Topical Authority in Your Niche Part 5 → Keep Content Fresh for Indexation & Visibility Stay tuned for Part 7: Treat Every Blog Post as a Step in the Customer Journey #ContentMarketing #Blogging #SEO

Most people I speak with still think SEO in 2025 is about chasing hacks. Add a few keywords, publish some blogs, maybe buy a backlink or two. ❌ But the reality is very different. What’s actually driving visibility today, both in Google and the new wave of AI search comes down to ranking factors far more about clarity, trust, and brand presence than old-school tricks. When I run an SEO audit for a client, I always come back to the same checklist. It’s simple, but it works. 1. First, the technical foundation. If your site loads slowly, is clunky on mobile, or crawlers can’t get through to your content, nothing else you do will move the needle. I’ve seen startups spend thousands $$$ on content and PR, only to discover their site wasn’t even being indexed properly. 2. 🎯 Then comes intent. Search engines no longer reward keyword stuffing. They reward content that answers the question behind the query. If someone searches “best accounting software for startups,” they don’t want a 2,000-word essay stuffed with the phrase “best accounting software.” They want a clear, structured answer they can scan in under two minutes. 3. Authority and trust are next. Google looks at who is writing, not just what’s written. A faceless blog doesn’t carry the same weight as a named author with credentials, case studies, and references to credible sources. An author bio or showing real-world expertise is no longer optional. 4. 📌 Entities are overtaking keywords. Search engines understand concepts now. Instead of obsessing over individual phrases, think in topic clusters. If you’re writing about local SEO, you should also cover citations, reviews, maps, optimisation – everything tied to that theme. That’s how you build relevance at scale. 5. Mentions and citations are critical too. Backlinks aren’t dead, but they’re no longer the whole story. If your brand is named across respected sites, industry reports, podcasts, and local news, those mentions boost your chances of being surfaced in both Google results and AI-driven summaries. 6. User experience matters. A click isn’t the finish line. If visitors bounce, struggle to navigate, or can’t find what they need, it hurts you.  Search engines watch how people engage with your site and those signals matter more than most realise. 7. Finally, freshness. Content ages quickly. Updating an old article with new stats, examples, or a stronger intro can bring it back to life in search.  Think of your content as something to maintain, not just publish and forget. When you put it all together, the picture is clear: SEO in 2025 isn’t about loopholes. It’s about making your site easy to crawl, your content easy to trust, and your brand impossible to ignore. That’s the checklist I follow. 👉 Which of these factors do you see most businesses overlooking right now?

SEOs: “SEO takes time” My client: 275,000 new SEO traffic in 8 months. 88,585 new traffic last month alone. Growing 30% month-over-month. 6,255 leads and 2,227 paid signups total. Here are the 5 things we did: 1. Technical Fixes We ran an audit and fixed standard issues like: - Canonical tags - Broken internal links - Missing titles/descriptions But crucially: Their traffic was about to tank and they had no idea. They switched URL versions from www. to non-www. and didn’t update any internal links or add redirects. I've seen -90% traffic drops with this issue in the past. Thankfully, we were able to fix it early. 2. Programmatic We published over 240+ new pages that funnel traffic into their software's core features. (You can use a tool like Byword for this) - We asked the client where they wanted to focus - We found keyword frameworks with 100s of variables - We created a list of all possible variables to target - We used AI to create content at scale (e.g. Byword) - We published 240+ new pages over 4 months 3. Lower-Funnel Blogs We published 50+ lower-funnel pages over 5 months, specifically targeting ready-to-buy searchers. Title framework examples: - [Competitor] Alternatives - [Competitor] vs [Client] - How to [Solve Problem] - Best [Product] in 2024 4. Free Tools We created free tools to funnel traffic into their email list and software's core features. For example: [Relevant Metric] Calculator These keywords typically get 1,000s of daily searches. 5. Optimising existing content We audited keywords to find pages ranking in position 3-20 and optimised the "quickest wins". - Writing new sections - Adding to existing sections - Optimising existing headings - Targeting featured snippets and AI Overviews The client came to us with: - Declining organic traffic - Increased competition in the market - Bottlenecks in content production (small team) - Insufficient resources to handle large-scale SEO 8 months later, they’ve seen: - 300+ new pages - 3,146 first-page rankings - 275,000 total SEO traffic - Growing +30% monthly - 6,255 leads and 2,227 paid signups Do you want to turn SEO into a 7-figure sales channel? Let's talk: https://hubs.ly/Q02xzlLL0

50% of Google searches now result in AI summaries. Businesses must optimise content accordingly.  Ranking first in Google is no longer the only goal. AI engines are quickly gaining in popularity for discovery.  (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) If you want your brand to be visible across the board,  You need to put energy into optimising for AI-driven search (AEO/GEO). Google rankings can still bring traffic.  But AI-driven rankings are shaping recommendations and buyer intent. This is what businesses need to dominate search in 2025 👇 ➡️ Step 1: Be Found (SEO)  ↳ Search engines still matter, but they’ve changed. You need to: ✅ Nail the fundamentals: fast site, schema, structured data. ✅ Build clusters around full topics, not just keywords. ✅ Own authority with consistent on-page optimisation and backlinks. This is a prerequisite to entering the conversation. ➡️ Step 2: Be Chosen (AEO)  ↳ AI Overviews are now the front door of discovery. To win, you must: ✅ Optimise for voice queries, FAQs, and instant answers. ✅ Structure content so LLMs can “lift” your answers directly. ✅ Prioritise clarity, short snippets, and schema-rich responses. If you aren’t AI’s first choice, you will be invisible. ➡️ Step 3: Be Cited (GEO)  ↳ Generative engines reward those they can reference. To earn citations: ✅ Create high-trust, insight-led content. ✅ Publish data, original thinking, and frameworks AI can reference. ✅ Use prompt-led publishing to match how people query LLMs. If the machines don’t cite you, humans won’t find you. ➡️ Step 4: Be Scaled (AIO) ↳ AI has changed the economics of content. Scale comes from: ✅ Automating content production without losing voice. ✅ Repurposing into multiple formats (text, video, carousel). ✅ Using AI for editorial planning, clustering, and coverage. This is how you compete on volume without burning resources. ➡️ Step 5: Be Dominant (SXO) ↳ Winning in 2025 isn’t about ranking. It’s about owning the ecosystem: ✅ Stack SEO + AEO + GEO + AIO into one system. ✅ Dominate a niche with topic-layering across search, AI, and platforms. ✅ Push traffic off platforms into owned channels (newsletter, community). Search in 2025 is no longer a single-channel game. SEO is the foundation. But... → AEO earns you visibility in AI overviews.  → GEO secures citations inside generative engines.  → AIO and SXO let you scale and own the ecosystem. The businesses that start adapting now will catch this rising tide.   The ones that don't risk losing traffic and customers. That's exactly why I'm building Searchable.  It's an Autonomous SEO & AEO Growth Engineer. Join the waitlist here 👇  https://lnkd.in/epgXyFmi Have you started optimising for AI search?  Share your experience in the comments. - - - - 📌 If you want a high-res PDF of this sheet: 1. Follow Chris Donnelly. 2. Like the post. 3. Repost to your network. 4. Subscribe to: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

2024 has been a monumental year for SEO - in both a good and bad way. Here's my thoughts for the change of direction for the industry: 1. Conventional SEO is dying quickly - traditional SEO was before search engines could compute the way they do now - they won't need mundane inputs - title tag too long? missing alt images? 2. Ranking for "keywords" isn't the same anymore. Focusing on topical authority is more likely to drive traffic of value. 3. AI is changing informational searches - research, comparisons, questions are all being impacted by AIOS, UGC and shifts in search to AI search engines - CTR drop off will continue to increase - so whilst organic IS and will remain viable for information searches, getting your share of traffic will require MORE work 4. Brand authority weighting will increase - Google has to battle against the onslaught of AI generated copy (now even at UGC level) - filtering out noise will bring more weighting back to BRAND AUTHORITY - can a brand be trusted more than a younger site that may just be pumping out AI content at scale 5. Engagement & retention will grow in importance - with Google's own processing power increasing, more modalities, more "real time" adjustments to search may introduce a more dynamic landscape based on user interaction, behaviour and predictive element uptake - YOU need to make people want to click your result, you need to work your hardest to create sessions of value so that your result can remain relevant and less prone to wipeouts 6. Informational content will need to become MORE with LESS - we aren't in an era where life is easy, people are TIME POOR, that means longer form content is likely to continue to become less popular - people consume SHORTER content - you only need to look at Youtube, Insta - all pushed hard on shorts - people want to get what they want without giving up an afternoon for it - SHORTER, to the point content with media embeddings, things that support the outcome 7. Building a community from wider channels including UGC, social and referral - people should broaden their marketing strategies to capture more non search engine based traffic - > UGC Communities > Video channels (Yt/VIMEO) > Social groups > Build referral with site partnerships, content sharing, thought leadership > Media platforms i.e. pinterest 8. SEO Innovation with AI agents to automate more remedial tasks 9. Traditional content writing will continue to be important - rather than AI slop, people want to engage with something that's fresh, correct, written with soul - not robotic slop 10. Programmatic SEO likely to remain viable but less so 11. Innovation in content to become more important - look at creating content of unique value, unique presentation, in page effects & things that bring people to something DIFFERENT 12. UX to remain crucial but to become even more important - SEO isn't just about content, it's about presentation too #soe #seopredictions #seo2025

It is November 18th. There are 43 days left in 2024. You can still add $50,000 to your revenue before the year wraps using SEO. But you have to get to work today. Here is an exact step-by-step breakdown: After testing hundreds of approaches, I've cracked the code on scaling SEO revenue. Most people start with: Technical audits Content calendars Random keywords Mass link building There's logic to this. The idea is that you need perfect optimization to rank. The problem? It delays results and wastes resources. Here's what actually works: Level 1: High-Intent Keywords Find your quick wins first: Pages ranking 11-20 Bottom of page 1 positions High impression, low CTR terms Commercial intent keywords Example: Instead of "marketing tips" (impossible) Target: "email marketing software pricing comparison" Level 2: Use Case Pages For every major solution: Create dedicated landing pages Target specific user needs Address pain points Optimize for conversions Structure: /solution-for-[industry] /[problem]-solution /compare-[solution]-options Level 3: Long-Form Content Create comprehensive resources: 2000+ word guides Data-backed research Core topic coverage Semantic optimization This builds topical authority fast. Level 4: Thought Leadership Establish authority through: Industry whitepapers Original research studies Quality backlink building Publication outreach Process that works: Research → Data → Outreach → Links → Authority Level 5: Schema Implementation Self-explanatory. Level 6: Keyword Optimization Target strategically: Commercial terms Non-branded keywords Pricing-related terms Comparison phrases Formula: [Intent] + [Keyword] + [Modifier] Level 7: Competitor Analysis For each competitor: Study top pages List key benefits Show unique value Build trust signals Structure: [Option A] vs [Option B] Feature comparison Price analysis Use cases Real results Level 8: Video Integration Create these types: How-to guides Best practices Problem-solving Quick wins Add to key pages to boost engagement. Level 9: Content Clusters Build topic authority: Create hub pages Develop clusters Internal linking Show expertise Example: "Email Marketing" Clusters: Automation Deliverability Analytics Integration Best practices Level 10: Retargeting Strategy For organic visitors: Run targeted ads Focus on high intent Show case studies Drive conversions Common mistakes that kill results: Wrong keyword focus Thin content Poor structure Missing schema Weak authority No video strategy Start today. The SEO opportunity is still massive. Close the year strong. Dropping case studies this week. Follow for more.