Dive deep into the world of AI-enhanced SEO strategies. This blog post explores how agencies can use AI to understand client needs, automate processes, and drive better results.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, SEO agencies are constantly seeking new ways to enhance their strategies and deliver more value to clients. Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI). This isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a game-changer in understanding and catering to user intent, automating mundane tasks, and crunching data to inform smarter strategies. So, buckle up as we explore how your agency can leverage AI to drive unparalleled client results.

Understanding the AI Revolution in SEO

Before we dive into the tools and tactics, let’s get a lay of the land. AI in SEO is all about smarter, not harder, strategies. It involves using machine learning, natural language processing, and other sophisticated tech to improve every aspect of SEO from keyword research to content optimization and technical audits.

AI Tools to Revolutionize Your SEO Game

1. MarketMuse: This content optimization tool uses AI to analyze your content and compare it to the leaders in your topic area. It provides insights on how to improve your content to rank better for your desired keywords.
2. BrightEdge: Armed with AI, BrightEdge transforms online content into tangible business results, such as traffic, engagement, and revenue. It offers real-time measurement of content performance and insights into how to optimize it.
3. SEMrush: While primarily known as a complete SEO toolkit, SEMrush also offers AI-driven features like traffic analytics, market explorer, and content recommendations, making it a powerful ally for any SEO agency.
4. Ahrefs: Known for its robust backlink analysis tool, Ahrefs also incorporates AI in predicting site rankings and understanding keyword difficulty, helping you prioritize your SEO efforts effectively.

Leveraging AI for Enhanced Keyword Research and Content Strategies

AI isn’t just for analyzing data; it’s for creating it too. Tools like Clearscope and Frase use AI to assist with keyword research and to understand what kind of content ranks well for those keywords. They can even help you create content briefs that align with search intent, making your content more likely to rank and resonate with users.

Automating SEO Tasks with AI

Let’s face it; SEO can be repetitive. AI comes to the rescue by automating tasks like site audits, backlink monitoring, and even some aspects of reporting. Tools like DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog offer AI-enhanced capabilities to automate and enhance these tasks, freeing up your team’s time to focus on strategy and creative problem-solving.

Navigating the Challenges and Ethical Considerations

With great power comes great responsibility. While leveraging AI can significantly enhance your SEO strategies, it’s crucial to stay informed about the ethical considerations, such as data privacy and the potential for AI to create misleading or low-quality content. Always aim for a balance between AI-powered efficiency and human creativity and oversight.

Enhancing SEO Blogging with AI Tools

SEO blogging is all about creating content that is not only valuable and engaging to readers but also optimized for search engines. The aim is to rank higher in search results, drive traffic, and establish authority in your niche. Here’s how AI tools come into play:

Surfer SEO: Optimizing Content for Higher Rankings

Surfer SEO is a tool designed to help you understand exactly what Google considers important within your niche. How does it do this?

Content Editor: Surfer provides a real-time content editor that grades your content against what’s currently ranking, suggesting the optimal number of words, headings, images, and even the frequency of specific words and phrases.

SERP Analyzer: This feature allows you to dissect the top pages in your target keywords’ search results, understanding what helps them rank where they do. You can then replicate successful structures and strategies in your own content.

Keyword Research: Surfer SEO helps identify not just primary keywords but also questions and related terms that can enhance your content’s relevance and breadth.

Jasper: Revolutionizing Content Creation

Jasper (formerly Jarvis) is an AI writing assistant that aids in creating compelling content. Here are some ways Jasper shakes things up:

Template-Based Writing: Jasper offers numerous templates for blog posts, social media updates, and more. You can generate high-quality drafts based on these structures and then personalize them.

Long-Form Assistant: For more extensive content pieces, Jasper’s Long-Form Assistant can help you break down the writing process into more manageable chunks, ensuring your content stays coherent and engaging.

Creativity on Demand: Stuck on a headline or looking for a catchy introduction? Jasper can generate multiple options, giving you a creative boost when you need it.

Getting the Most Out of ChatGPT for Blogging

When it comes to blogging, ChatGPT can be a secret weapon. Here’s how you can leverage it:

Idea Generation: Struggling with writer’s block? Ask ChatGPT to suggest blog topics, titles, or even outlines.

Drafting Posts: Provide a brief, and ChatGPT can create a draft for your blog post, which you can then refine and personalize.

Interactive Content: Consider using ChatGPT to create interactive content like quizzes or FAQs that can engage your readers more deeply.

Accelerating SEO Link Building with AI

Link building is crucial for SEO but can be incredibly time-consuming. Here’s how AI is changing the game:

Prospect Identification: AI tools can quickly analyze large datasets to identify potential link-building opportunities, such as sites that have linked to similar content or that rank well for related keywords.

Automated Outreach: Tools like Buzzstream or NinjaOutreach can automate much of the outreach process, from finding contact information to sending personalized emails.

Monitoring and Analysis: AI can help monitor your backlink profile, alerting you to any changes and helping analyze the effectiveness of your link-building efforts.

Conclusion: Embracing AI in SEO Strategies

Incorporating AI into your SEO and blogging strategies isn’t just about staying ahead of the curve; it’s about making the most of your time and resources.

Tools like Surfer SEO and Jasper can significantly enhance content creation, while ChatGPT can assist with everything from drafting posts to generating ideas.

Meanwhile, AI’s role in streamlining link building allows you to focus on strategy and relationships rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae. By leveraging these tools and techniques, agencies and bloggers can drive better results, more efficiently and effectively.

AI is not just a futuristic concept; it’s a present-day tool that can significantly enhance your SEO strategies. By understanding and integrating AI tools and techniques, agencies can offer smarter, more effective, and efficient SEO services. Whether it’s through enhanced content strategies, smarter keyword research, or automation of mundane tasks, AI is ready to help you drive better client results.

Embrace the change, invest in learning and integrating these AI tools, and watch as you set new benchmarks in your SEO success!

• Research keyword phrases for topics using free tools like:
  • Ubersuggest
  • Also Asked
  • Answer the Public
  • Check out other videos that currently show up for this topic to get a feel for what’s out there and what unique take you can add
• Include your main keyword phrase or question at the beginning of your video title.
  • Probably don’t include dates in titles unless you plan to update them later (but you cannot update YouTube videos themselves much once uploaded)
  • Have the person say the title of the video in the first sentence or two, if possible.
• Plan out your video content around the topics you plan to cover in the video
  • Try to include free tips alongside product recommendations)
  • Consider making longer educational videos in the 5-14 minute range, too.
• Include a Call to Action (CTA) in the video for people to click the link in the description to check out X product on our site
• Create a custom thumbnail that jumps out, ideally using
  • someone’s face
  • simple words recapping the title and topic (clickbait style is not necessarily a bad thing to intrigue people to click)
  • nice, bright colors (like green) that stand out on YouTube (see Brian Dean from Backlinko, Neil Patel and Ahrefs for examples)
• Add (or update the auto-generated) caption files
  • This gives Google a transcript to index for search
• Add links and recaps in the description.
  • I also recommend adding timestamps starting with 0:00 because Google is going to start jumping people directly to relevant parts of YouTube videos in their search results.
• Add related keywords in your tags for the video
  • BONUS: Use TubeBuddy or VidIQ to find tag ideas (from competitors) that can help you appear in video recommendations
• Periodically check your YouTube analytics to see which videos are doing well, how people are finding them, when they’re dropping off, etc.
  • You may also need to clean up or engage with comments you receive.

Attractor theme is extremely customizable, fully responsive and HiDPI ready WordPress theme based on a well structured framework which allows you […]

In this Zoom interview, Jared Markiewicz from Functional Integrated Training discussed how he and his team pivoted their brick and mortar gym to online offerings and retained an incredible 85% of their clients.

Guest blogging is a great way to build backlinks to your website, build relationships with people in your industry, grow your referral traffic, and improve your website’s SEO. Check out this guest blog case study about how we successfully landed a guest post for our client Reynolds Transfer & Storage.

Finding the guest blog post opportunity

One of the best tools to find guest blog posting opportunities is free and easy to use – Google! To find blogs and websites that accept guest submissions in our client’s industry, we used Google Search Operators combined with keywords and common phrases related to guest posting.

• Keyword + “guest post”
• Keyword + “guest blog”
• Keyword + “guest post guidelines”
• Keyword + “guest blog guidelines”
• Keyword + “submit a post”
• Keyword + “write for us”
• Keyword + “contribute”

To find guest blog opportunities in the residential moving industry for Reynolds Transfer & Storage, we searched multiple combinations of target keywords and guest post phrases. Through this process, we found a number of relevant blogs that accepted guest post submissions, including Apartminty. Apartminty, an apartment search resource with a blog about apartment living, has a page dedicated to Guest Post Guidelines that appeared in our Google searches. 

Guest Post Outreach

Once we identified Apartminty as a potential guest blogging opportunity, the next step was research and preparation for outreach. The Apartminty Guest Blog Guidelines includes what they’re looking for in a guest post, an application to be considered for a guest blog post, and contact information for the blog. Working with the team at Reynolds Transfer & Storage, we brainstormed potential blog post ideas tailored to Apartminty’s audience and submitted the application to the contact information listed on the page.

Along with the application, we focused on keeping the email containing the attachment short and to the point, with a clear subject line: 

Guest Blogger Inquiry for Apartminty

Hello,

I am reaching out on behalf of Reynolds Transfer & Storage, a Madison, Wisconsin-based moving company specializing in residential moves with a commitment to environmentally sustainable business practices. We are interested in contributing guest blog posts for the Apartminty blog. I have attached the completed questionnaire for your consideration. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Hannah Biggs

The Results

Once we submitted the application, we heard back from the Apartminty team with a preferred topic. We wrote the blog post, submitted it for review, and received a publication date. Finally, our guest blog post for Reynolds Transfer & Storage was live on the Apartminty blog. 

The post includes a bio with a link back to the Reynolds Transfer & Storage website. Below is the estimated domain authority for the backlink from Apartminty. 

For more about improving your website’s SEO through guest blog posts, check out our post How to Write High-Quality Guest Posts.

Researching the competition is one of the most important elements of business success in the modern business world. In fact, keeping tabs on the most successful actors in your field has always been an excellent way to bring prospects to your doorstep and surpass the competition in the long run.

Needless to say, backlink analysis falls right into this category and remains a crucial part of the discovery process. How else are you going to find out who’s linking back to their websites and how many outlets are there that are supporting their growth, brand reach, and boosting their rankings?

You need to research your competitors’ backlink portfolio and strategy in order to gain a competitive advantage and increase your own websites’ traffic and conversions. Here’s what you need to do to achieve this goal.

It all starts with keyword research

In order to improve your online authority in the eyes of the public and reach the top spot on Google’s result pages, you need to rank high for keywords relevant to your brand, services, and niche. With that in mind, your first order of business should be to conduct in-depth keyword research that will tell you what people are searching for. With these keywords in your hands, you can find out how your competitors are ranking for the same phrases.

What you might be surprised to find out is that there are smaller actors in your niche you never heard about that are ranking higher than you for specific phrases, so that you can broaden your search and discover even more opportunities for your own content. Once you have the list of keywords, you can go ahead and Google them.

Identify your competitors

The sheer number of keywords related to your business and niche makes it very difficult for your competitors to achieve monopoly over them. This means that not all keywords relevant to your business are dominated by the biggest competitors in the field.

This creates an opportunity to rank your website higher for select keywords, but it also hints at the possibility that smaller, yet equally important, competitors might be lurking in the shadows.

By Googling the keywords you’re most interested in, you can zero in on the competition in its entirety.

More importantly, this type of research will let you find out if their content is actually delivering and solving their audience’s problems. If not, they might get penalized for going after irrelevant keywords, which is something you should watch out for as well.

Now that you have them in your sights, it’s time to check out their backlink portfolios.

Examine the competitors’ backlinks

Here comes the good part. Find the list of all the links on the web that lead back to your website. Building this network of backlinks efficiently and effectively means positioning organic KWs on these target pages by finding and reaching out to authoritative influencers in your specific industry and niche. Keep in mind, though, you’re not the only one doing this, which is why discovering your competitors’ backlink profiles becomes imperative.

You can use a number of tools to monitor your competitors’ backlinks and discover the blogs that are linking back to their websites. One of these tools is Ahrefs. You can start by finding your domain-level competitors by using Ahrefs Competing Domains option. Results can be sorted by common keywords, keywords unique to competitor or keywords unique to target.

Once you do this, seek for page-level competitors. These don’t necessarily need to be your direct competitors but websites that rank well for a topic/keyword of your interest, thus competing with you. This can be done by using Keywords Explorer option – just add a keyword you’re trying to rank for (in this example I’ve used keyword Onsite SEO)

Then, scroll down for results in the SERP Overview section.

Finally, once you determined your main competitors, use the Backlink Profile option to directly find their backlinks. You can simply do this by adding their website in the Ahrefs search. These backlinks can be sorted by anchor text, date, domain rating, traffic, referring page… (In the example below you can see how Moz backlink portfolio looks like, since it is one of Ahrefs’ main competitors).

With all this Ahrefs data in your hands, you can analyze the top-performing content, the blog they’re featured on, and use it to discover new bloggers and opportunities for your own content and backlink strategy.

Monitor backlinks regularly to discover lucrative opportunities

It’s not just about discovering your competitors or checking out their backlink portfolios one time – it’s about continuous research and diligent backlink monitoring that will allow you to find new backlink opportunities for your website. After all, if a blogger was willing to publish a link to your competitors’ websites, then there is a distinct possibility they will be willing to do the same for you.

This is all provided that you have mastered the fine art of guest blogging, that is. Keeping tabs on their backlinks will also allow you to discover broken links and lost backlinks, which presents the ideal opportunity for you to step in with your own content and fill the gap, effectively replacing your competitor’s link with your own.

Improve on the best practices

If the competition is fierce, you need to be fiercer. There is no way around it, your content needs to have higher quality content, better storytelling, offer a simpler solution, and of course, take a more in-depth approach to every topic. Using the time-tested skyscraper method, you can offer higher quality content to bloggers and thus boost your brand authority while enhancing the authority of the blogger at the same time.

Complementing stellar content with careful social listening will further allow you to keep tabs on your competition and react effectively to their every move in the future.

In closing

Building backlinks is an essential part of a winning SEO strategy, as every link that leads back to your website has the potential to improve your traffic, conversions, and ranking in the online world. Use these techniques to analyze your competition’s backlink strategies and capitalize on their success.

Note: Looking for an actionable Local SEO Checklist? Check out this video and blog post and our Google Sheet template linked at the bottom. 

“I know I need to work on SEO for my business’s website, but there’s so much to do and learn and I don’t know where to start.”

If that’s something you’ve said (or found yourself thinking), then this blog post is for you!

We want to de-mystify this arcane art of search engine optimization. We’re doing that by giving you a checklist-style guide to the main things you should be concerned about when it comes to SEO for your local business.

First off, here’s the big picture as a series of straightforward bullet points:

The Local SEO Checklist

1. Find the keywords you want to target and rank for.
2. Use your keywords for effective onsite optimization.
3. Update your site to use SSL.
4. Proactively work on link building.
5. Get your Google My Business page up to date and ask for Google reviews.
6. Create, post, and promote unique, high-quality, original content.
7. Use website analytics to measure your results.
8. Have a snappy and responsive mobile site that loads quickly.

Now we’ll take a look at each of these items, and explain how you can take practical steps to improve your business’s SEO.

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Don’t neglect search engine optimization in the flurry of excitement around the launch of a redesigned website. Everything on the new site is fresh and up-to-date, and it looks slick as hell – but is that good or bad for your SEO?

It doesn’t have to be bad at all! We’ll explain how to maintain strong SEO and stay in Google’s good favor when you migrate to a newly updated website. It starts with knowing your old site and making sure nothing is lost or forgotten. Then we’ll tell you how to create redirects to avoid errors and confusion. Lastly, we’ll explain how you can make sure Google knows what you’re doing, so that the search engine will be friendly to your new site.

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Note: Here’s a video covering the same material as this article, in case reading detailed posts isn’t your cup of tea.

Take a moment to think about why your business has a website in the first place. Your site is not a static brochure that you tell people to go look at; it is a lead-generation machine. Your business’s site should be working for you, bringing in leads, and making your job easier (certainly not harder!). So how do you make your website into an effective tool for churning out valuable leads?

That’s where website analytics tools enter the picture. Website analytics can help you make sure that the site is doing its job — bringing in more clients/customers (or donations/volunteers if you are running a nonprofit). Secondly, analytics can help you identify ways to fine-tune your website so that it can do an even better job. Here are some of the questions that analytics can answer for you:

• Is my website working for me and generating leads?
• Where are people falling out of my funnel?
• What can I do to bring them back?
• Which channels are bringing in the most traffic and leads?
• How can I make my website even better?

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Your local business should have a blog; it demonstrates expertise, builds trust with potential customers, and helps you rank higher on search engines.

Maybe you added a “Blog” section to your WordPress site, but there’s nothing living there except the default “Hello World” post. Maybe you started out writing a post every week, but it’s fizzled out because you couldn’t maintain that posting schedule. After all, when you’re running a local business, you’ve got much higher priorities than writing articles, right?

Maybe you never even bothered with the whole blog thing, and you haven’t touched your website since your nephew set it up for you last year. Whatever your situation, we want you to understand that blogging is actually crucial for your business.

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Huge thanks to Wegner CPAs for hosting us at their Wake Up With Wegner event at the Sheraton on John Nolan Drive. We spoke on “How to Measurably Grow Your Business Through Online Search,” touching on pro tips, strategy and tactics for SEO, Google AdWords campaigns and Google Analytics set up and tracking.

Here’s a video re-recording in case you missed or would like to brush up.

Top Google AdWords tips for Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns

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What does it take for a hair salon in Madison, WI to appear on the first page of Google?

We analyzed the top known local search engine optimization (SEO) factors to let the businesses currently ranking lower what it would take to earn a spot higher up on the first page.

Here’s an indication of the kind of monthly search volume a phrase like this gets according to Google’s keyword planner: 1300 per month! That’s real money every single month of the year for those who go after it.

Why page 1 matters and what it takes to get there in general

Here’s an overview video in which we discuss how ranking higher for popular search engine queries can grow your business. We also describe the top ranking factors SEO companies target to make gains.

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Here’s the SlideShare presentation about local SEO we gave on Dec. 14 to SCORE in Madison.

It’s worth questioning whether manual search engine submission is still worth doing. Here’s some information that calls into question the need to manually submit your site to Google and Bing:

“You don’t need to submit your website to search engines because search engines have evolved beyond the point of needing to be directly notified when a new website, or page on a website, is created.”

Source: http://www.seomark.co.uk/submit-website-to-search-engines/#ixzz4T0imBPfD

“Since 2001, not only has search engine submission not been required, but has become virtually useless.”

Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/myths-and-misconceptions-about-search-engines

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Onsite optimization makes a big difference to your SEO because search engines crawl your site and glean keyword information directly from it. Keyword research is step 1 in a local SEO campaign, and onsite optimization is step 2.

Once you know what keywords to target, you can evaluate your website to see if they are included in strategic places in your website’s HTML.

Sometimes this means re-vamping your existing web pages and sometimes this means changing your website structure by creating new pages on your site to target specific keywords. 

Your website is one of the few places on the web where you have absolute control over your content online, so we want to take advantage on your home turf!

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UPDATE: Never ever ever buy Yelp ads!

ORIGINAL POST: We are constantly amazed at the animosity Yelp inspires among business owners we talk to. They frequently bring it up to us unprompted or fly into a mini-rage when we mention the “Y” word. Terms like “shakedown,” “scam” and “the devil” arise commonly enough that the company might want to take notice. (From the conversations we’ve had with Yelp, they don’t plan on changing anything.)

Once the curses have mostly passed, it’s then our unfortunate job as a Madison SEO company to tell businesses they should capitalize on Yelp anyway, however bad the blood. This doesn’t always go over well, and we’ve actually been told this is a non-starter: that the business has been burned so badly they don’t even want to deal with Yelp.

So what’s going on that business owners resent this top online business directory that is almost a search engine in its own right?

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Business owners often ask us what SEO entails. Despite the still-common belief, good SEO doesn’t consist of “manipulating” Google’s algorithm. To the contrary, ranking on the first page for your services is more a matter of following online marketing best practices and adhering to search engine guidelines and capitalizing on what we actually know about how Google works.

To rank well, you need:

1. Keyword Research to anticipate how people search for your services
2. Onsite Optimization built onto your website so Google and Bing start to associate those keywords with you
3. Speed and Mobility so your website loads fast and works well on mobile devices
4. Accurate business listing citations on the web’s top directories and data aggregators
5. Lots of great reviews on your Google My Business listing
6. Great, keyword-rich content posted regularly on your site
7. Links from other sites showing you are trusted, authoritative, and valuable

Easy, right? Well, not exactly, but it at least helps to know what we’re up against when we want to be in the “modern phonebook” on page 1 of Google and Bing. The following describes how we break this all down in our recommended 6-month SEO projects.

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Why ask for Google reviews and how many should I have?

Five (UPDATE: Three) is the magic number when it comes to reviews on your Google Local or Google My Business (GMB) page. That’s because once you have 5 reviews, Google shows your star rating visually to potential customers on Google Maps and in the result page 3-pack. Something about seeing stars just makes a person want to click and check out that business.

Not having those stars when other businesses do just makes it look like you’re lacking somehow. And you are, really, because you should regularly be using social proof (like testimonials and reviews) to sell to your future customers. Anybody can say their own company is great, but new customers are more likely to believe your past customers.

How do I get more reviews on Google?

So how do you encourage your customers to leave you reviews on Google? There’s no obvious link URL like there is for your main website.

Fortunately, someone has made it easy by creating a tool. Check out how it works in our YouTube video here.

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