The short answer in how to build your AI SEO roadmap is add in an updated website copy strategy and up your off page SEO game. We’ll cover this by bringing it into two buckets (I love bucketing things), on page and off page tactics. And then what goes into each one of those. At the end I share where to start and a webinar with more information.
Enjoy the episode!
🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is a network for people who want to build AI systems for their business call Her AI Club.
I love the founders, in particular, Kinsey Soderberg. Been following her content for years. She’s a genuine human being. The club resources are uncomparable. It’s how I learned to automate out my Blog Page Power-Up Plan™. Instead of copy/pasting about a thousand times and rethinking the format every time I opened it up, I automated it up to the point of delivery. It generates the document, drafts the email, sends me an email notification with some of the back end checks I’d do before building out the plan, it’s saved me about an hour’s worth of work for every plan delivered. Anyway, I’m getting off track. Her AI Club is a great resource. Affordable. Definite ROI for your business.
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is Harnessing Behavioral Science to Boost Marketing Success with Nancy Harhut.
Behavior science is fascinating. And sometimes I think Marketing gets a bad rap. When really, it’s in the spirit of getting our businesses in front of those who would appreciate it. In particular there was a good part about giving consumers a choice.
If you listen to the episode, let me know how you like it!
Find other recommended episodes here.
Other Resource Links
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tbdLet’s start with being clear this assumes you’ve already done proper keyword research (not guessing or using ChatGPT to tell you the keywords) and that you know your audience.
In the two previous episodes, I shared why we can’t ignore our to-do list anymore around AI search optimization and how to see where you stand in AI search.
So let’s build you a roadmap!
Traditional SEO has been primarily a checklist of things to do… fix the broken link, write a blog, share it. Many of us didn’t go the step further to get intentional about our off page SEO, mentions, links from other websites, reviews, etc.
So we have these two buckets, on page and off page.
So here’s waypoint #1 on our roadmap, on page, things that you can do or influence that are on your website.
The first stop in our on page waypoint is write like people talk. I know people have been saying this for years, or at least I hear it a lot and you might be surprised how we just don’t see it sometimes.
Here’s an example… let’s say you have a heading or sub heading… that says “Understanding the Investment”. No. Instead say, “How much does such-and-such cost”
Being direct works best because our brains are built to save mental power and making them think about what something means, just makes it harder for your audience.
And while doing it the former way makes a lot of us feel all warm and fuzzy, we’re really just coddling the searcher. We aren’t writing fiction here. Give it to them straight. Becauuuse, this leads us to our second stop in our on page waypoint which is answer first, story second. The copy has to be written for the tool looking for the answer so the tool can choose the page. And the tool reads from top to bottom. Give it the answer because it might not make it all the way through to the end of the page.
The third stop in our on page waypoint is keep your site healthy. This one is taken from traditional SEO and it hasn’t changed. Websites need to load fast and forms need to work and links can’t be broken.
The fourth stop in our on page waypoint is add basic structured markup where it fits. You don’t have to know code for this one. It’s a language that the web crawlers understand vs having to interpret what’s on the page. It’s kind of like explaining “clean your room” to a 5 year old… it must be done explicitly.
The last stop in our on page waypoint is get super specific and find unique angles. I am so guilty of this. It’s hard to state numbers or definitives where there are so many variables involved in every scenario. But! the more specific you can be, the more it benefits your AI search strategy. The unique angles might be to include a quote from an industry expert to support a statement, or a soundbite, something that might not be said anywhere else.
Another example of this, which has twisted an old thinking I had, is to create a testimonials page. I used to think they were stupid because they don’t get traffic, so why create them, people just don’t visit them on a site. Instead, I leaned into using them spattered in strategic spots throughout a website. Now, I think of it as like handing part of a table of contents to the AI tools. It gives them a specific place to look for them.
Waypoint #2 on our roadmap is off page, things that you can do or influence that are not on your website.
The first stop in our off page waypoint is keep your info consistent everywhere. Inconsistency can look a little questionable to the tools searching your brand.
The second stop in our off page waypoint is show up where your audience listens. This means guest posting in the publications they read or guesting on podcasts or answering questions in local and topic specific online groups.
The third stop in our off page waypoint is continue the work you’ve been doing, or start it, around PR, backlinks, your google business profile, all the things that can get a link back to your website.
So how does all this fold in to the work you’re already doing?
The biggest change in AI search optimization is the way we put words on the pages and pages that are created. Sure it might be to get listed on all those top 10 listacles but how do you think they find you? By the copy and pages on your website! Anytime anyone has hit you up to be a part of a list or buy their thing to get on said list is primarily because of a search they did.
The only thing you can control is the copy and the pages of your website. You can get listed on all those top 10 lists, maybe, but what happens when the algorithm gods decides, nope, we no longer trust those lists because people bought their way in or the authors were bias.
(psssttt… there was an update in March where this happened. The top search engines (AI and traditional) value first party information and results already in Google’s top rankings) That’s your website!
Ok, now where do you go from here?
The easiest place to start… If your last blog post is over a year old, refresh your blog posts. Do the on page stuff.
If you’ve been keeping to date on blog posts, start with off page. Find one place your audience hangs out and get a mention there or guest post.
If you’re not sure, bring up an incognito window, or ask your dentist, to pull up ChatGPT and ask a question your audience might ask. See who gets mentioned and cited. If it doesn’t mention or cite your website, aks ChatGPT, why did you mention and cite what you did? Or even ask it about a specific website.
Now, I will say this is sort of hit and miss and takes some gut discerning. For one of my clients, we didn’t come up when they asked a question about us. I had them ask why? I had to have them do the typing to stay in the thread, right? So then ChatGPT rattled off a bunch of stuff. I said, “tell it, we have that too. So again, why, do you recommend the competitor over us.” And it changed its tune. It finally admitted it had no concrete evidence of why it chose them over us. But now what do we believe the first part or the part where it’s admits it’s wrong.
Anywhoooo, are you interested in learning more about how to roll AI strategy into your SEO strategy? Join me in this month’s webinar called Updating Your SEO Strategy for AI Search.
In this webinar, you’ll get a plan for showing up in AI search while keeping your eye on the reason you wanted visibility in the first place: the conversion.
- An understanding of how online search has evolved and why
- Ways to check your AI visibility and how it lines up with the SEO numbers you’re tracking
- A tactical list of on-page and off-page moves to show up in AI searches
You’ll leave with next steps to fold in AI search optimization with your traditional search strategy.
Link in the show notes! Be there or be square.
Here’s The Takeaway
You don’t need a brand new start-over strategy. Keep the traditional SEO foundation and restructure it to include the elements the new searchers (new searchers being the ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI agents, etc), include the elements they are looking for.
About This Show
The Get More Website Traffic Podcast covers the strategies, tools, and tactics that help small business owners get more people to their website and turn that traffic into leads. Host Barb Davids breaks it down in plain language every week, with bonus episodes featuring other business owners sharing their expertise on topics that matter to running a small business. Produced by Compass Digital Strategies.
