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The way people find your content is changing dramatically—and your SEO strategy needs to change with it. AI-driven search tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are transforming search from static rankings into dynamic, personalized conversations. Unlike traditional Google searches, AI-generated results shift constantly and cite content in ways current SEO methods can’t effectively track, leaving brands uncertain about their visibility.
At the same time, AI itself has automated 44.1% of SEO tasks, from creating content to identifying keywords—showing just how critical AI is becoming in modern marketing. But despite this widespread automation, many businesses aren’t yet leveraging AI tools where they matter most: monitoring their brand visibility within AI-generated search.
This guide addresses that gap head-on. You’ll learn precisely why traditional SEO tools fall short, how to overcome the visibility challenges of AI-driven search, and the essential steps and solutions you need to ensure your brand stays visible and competitive in this rapidly evolving landscape.
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AI search dramatically transforms how users find information online. Unlike traditional search results—which neatly list websites from first to tenth—AI-generated searches synthesize dynamic responses from multiple sources, presenting concise summaries instead of clickable links.
In this new context, visibility isn’t about ranking first but about being relevant enough to be cited within an AI-generated response. Because AI results continuously shift based on user intent, query nuances, and model updates, maintaining consistent visibility presents a significant challenge.
For example, imagine a user asking ChatGPT about the best project management tools. One day, your brand might be prominently cited as a leading solution. The next day—without you having changed anything—it could vanish entirely from the AI-generated response simply because the AI updated its model or adjusted its perceived authority of other sources.
Traditional SEO tools, like Google Search Console and Ahrefs, were specifically built to track and analyze fixed rankings and direct user clicks. They excel at metrics designed around a static search environment—such as keyword positions, backlinks, and traffic analysis.
However, they aren’t equipped to monitor the fluid and dynamic mentions or citations within AI-generated content. Because AI-generated responses rarely appear as clickable listings, traditional tools fundamentally miss critical visibility signals, leaving businesses blind to this increasingly essential aspect of their online presence. As AI search reshapes how brands gain visibility, businesses must confront a new set of challenges that go beyond traditional SEO limitations.
AI search monitoring isn’t as straightforward as checking your ranking position or traffic graphs. The complexity lies in the constantly evolving and context-sensitive nature of AI-generated results. Here are the core challenges that businesses face:
AI-generated responses continuously change due to varying query intent, personalization settings, and ongoing model updates. Unlike traditional SEO, the same query rarely produces identical results consistently.
For instance, imagine a SaaS brand noticing ChatGPT mentions their competitor’s product prominently in one query session, while completely omitting their own product from another—even though both solutions solve the same problem. Without systematic tracking, it’s impossible to see or respond effectively to such shifts.
AI-generated search significantly reduces the need for users to visit websites directly because the AI-generated answers often provide sufficient information upfront. This means your traffic might quietly erode without clear signs in your conventional SEO metrics.
Consider a scenario where your marketing team notices stable keyword rankings, yet inexplicably declining website traffic. After deeper analysis, they find that Google’s AI Overviews or ChatGPT have been directly answering user questions without citing or linking to your brand, effectively bypassing your site entirely.
To fully understand AI search visibility, businesses must monitor multiple platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Manually searching across these AI-driven platforms is not only inefficient but also inconsistent and unscalable, particularly if your goal is comprehensive coverage.
Without automated monitoring solutions, your data remains fragmented. You might capture some instances of visibility but inevitably miss many others, leaving you with a partial, inaccurate view of your brand’s actual presence within AI-generated results.
Successfully tracking AI search requires more than traditional keyword rank checks—it requires understanding exactly how AI surfaces content in its dynamic responses. Here are practical strategies to effectively track and optimize your brand’s visibility:
AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews don’t rank your pages in a simple hierarchy. Instead, they rely on context, perceived authority, and relevance to synthesize conversational responses. Monitoring your AI search visibility, therefore, involves tracking detailed dimensions like:
For instance, a SaaS provider might notice AI frequently cites a competitor’s recent benchmark report rather than their own similar research content. Understanding why this occurs can help refine content strategies to boost relevance and visibility in future AI-generated answers.
AI-generated results don’t depend solely on static keywords. Instead, they are dynamically shaped by the intent, phrasing, and specificity of user queries. To understand your visibility, monitor a wide range of prompts and observe which queries consistently trigger mentions of your brand.
For example, rather than simply tracking “best accounting software,” test variations like “best invoicing solutions for small businesses,” “most user-friendly accounting software,” or even “alternatives to QuickBooks.” Tracking how your brand appears across these different query types will uncover gaps or strengths in your content strategy.
Structured, clearly organized, and factual content naturally performs better in AI-generated answers because these tools prioritize precise and reliable information. Additionally, content freshness and authoritative citations dramatically influence whether your brand makes it into AI responses.
To optimize your visibility, structure your content around conversational queries that your audience is actively using on AI search platforms. Regularly updating this content to maintain accuracy and relevance further increases its likelihood of citation. Incorporating question-answer formats, using FAQ schema, and clearly aligning your information with typical conversational prompts helps AI platforms better understand and confidently reference your content in their synthesized responses.
By aligning your content closely with how AI models retrieve and interpret information, your brand becomes more likely to be surfaced in these influential, direct-answer formats.
Manually tracking AI search visibility isn’t just inefficient—it’s practically impossible. AI-generated results constantly shift based on queries, context, and updates to AI models, meaning manual checks quickly become outdated. Manually searching across platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity consumes significant time and still only provides limited visibility into your actual brand presence.
Automated AI search monitoring solutions address these challenges by continuously and systematically capturing data across multiple platforms. They track brand mentions, analyze the context and relevance of citations, and monitor how search prompts influence AI responses. By automating this process, your brand gains consistent, scalable insights—allowing you to adapt proactively and maintain strong visibility in AI-driven search.
Given the complexity and dynamism of AI-driven search, manual tracking isn’t just inefficient—it’s practically impossible at scale. Otterly was built precisely to solve this problem, providing businesses with comprehensive, automated visibility into how their brands appear within AI-generated search results across platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
AI search engines frequently mention brands without providing clickable links, meaning you may never know how often and in what context your brand is referenced. Otterly automatically tracks these mentions across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.AI, clearly identifying when and how your brand appears.

Beyond simply tracking mentions, Otterly provides detailed sentiment analysis, helping you understand whether these AI-generated references frame your brand positively, negatively, or neutrally. Such insights allow you to proactively manage your brand’s reputation, adapting strategies before potential issues escalate.

This comprehensive, consolidated approach ensures that you have a clear view of your brand’s performance across all relevant AI search channels, providing actionable insights impossible with manual or fragmented approaches.
Unlike traditional search results, AI-generated responses do not consistently include direct links, and even when they do, they don’t adhere to familiar ranking principles. Otterly addresses this by capturing exactly which URLs—both yours and your competitors’—are cited most frequently by AI search engines.

You’ll clearly see which content AI prefers, enabling you to pinpoint areas where your content may be underperforming or missing entirely. With this data, you can strategically improve content and benchmark your performance against key competitors, ensuring that your most valuable pages consistently feature in AI-driven conversations.
AI-generated search visibility is heavily influenced by the specificity and intent behind user queries, rather than traditional static keywords alone. Otterly continuously tracks how various prompts and query formulations influence whether or not your brand appears in AI-generated responses.

This visibility helps you identify gaps where competitor content is dominating, and reveals opportunities to strategically create or enhance content to capture critical conversational real estate.
Moreover, Otterly supports detailed keyword research by identifying conversational keywords and prompts based on user-provided keywords, providing valuable guidance for content creation specifically tailored for AI-driven search.
Manually attempting to monitor evolving AI search results over time is both impractical and unreliable. Otterly solves this with fully automated reporting, delivering regular, comprehensive updates on your brand’s visibility across all monitored AI platforms.
These reports include detailed historical insights and actual snapshots of AI-generated responses, providing powerful context for understanding shifts in brand visibility. With actionable data at your fingertips, your SEO and content teams can rapidly adapt and refine strategies to maintain high visibility within evolving AI search landscapes.
AI-driven search is more than just a passing trend—it’s rapidly becoming the core of digital discovery. Ignoring this evolution isn’t just risky; it means actively losing ground to competitors who adapt more quickly.
Monitoring your brand’s AI search mentions has become just as essential as traditional SEO tracking. Now is the time to shift your mindset and move beyond conventional SEO practices, embracing a holistic, AI-aware approach to stay visible and competitive in this new search landscape.
AI search monitoring tracks how brands are cited or mentioned in AI-generated search responses. It matters because AI search visibility directly impacts brand awareness and traffic, often without direct website clicks.
Unlike traditional Google searches that display ranked links, AI search tools (such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity) dynamically synthesize personalized, conversational answers from multiple sources, making visibility unpredictable and context-dependent.
Tools specifically designed for AI search monitoring include Otterly.AI, which tracks brand mentions, sentiment, link citations, and query performance across major platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Businesses can effectively track their presence in AI-generated search results by using specialized automated monitoring tools like Otterly.AI, which capture brand mentions, citations, sentiment, and visibility across multiple AI platforms.
AI-generated search changes SEO by prioritizing conversational relevance, citations, and context rather than traditional keyword rankings. Digital marketers must adapt by creating authoritative, structured content designed explicitly for conversational AI responses.
Best practices include producing clear, structured, and factual content, regularly updating information to remain authoritative, using structured data, and ensuring content directly answers questions commonly posed in conversational AI searches.
AI search engines rank websites and content based on perceived authority, contextual relevance, factual accuracy, freshness, and alignment with user intent. Rankings are dynamic and personalized rather than static and universal.
Businesses should track brand mention frequency, sentiment analysis, frequency of URL citations, visibility for relevant queries, and competitor visibility comparisons across AI-generated search platforms.
Companies can ensure accurate and relevant results in AI searches by consistently producing clear, structured, and factual content aligned with common user queries, regularly updating information, and earning citations from authoritative sources.
AI search monitoring generally tracks publicly available information, minimizing privacy concerns. However, businesses should always ensure compliance with applicable privacy laws and ethical standards when monitoring online content.
AI search rankings cannot be directly manipulated like traditional rankings, but visibility can be optimized by creating authoritative, structured, and contextually targeted content that aligns closely with conversational user queries.
Google’s AI Overviews can significantly reduce organic traffic because they often answer user queries directly, removing the need for users to click through to individual websites, even if traditional keyword rankings remain unchanged.
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SEO is an evolving discipline. It’s constantly in a state of flux.
Case in point: Google has already rolled out four major algorithm updates in 2023 so far.
To stay ahead of the game and outrank your competitors in search results, you need to follow the SEO best practices and also follow the current trend to ensure your rankings don’t drop.
Here are the 15 most common SEO mistakes in 2023 and the actionable steps you can take to fix them.
Table of Contents
If you want to rank your pages on Google, you need to create content that aligns with search intent (aka user intent).
In fact, user intent is so important that the phrase is mentioned 333 times in Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines (QRG).
All the top-ranking pages pass Google’s litmus test of creating the exact type of content that searchers are looking for.
So, as a content creator, one of the most common SEO mistakes you can make is by creating content that doesn’t satisfy search intent.
Understanding the search intent of a query is the secret sauce that helps content creators rank their pages on top of Google SERPs.
For example, a user who searches for “buy iPhone 15 online” on Google is looking for sites where they can order iPhone 15 online. The intent here is to buy, not to learn about the features of iPhone 15.
Google understands the intent here. Hence the SERPs for this query are filled with eCommerce pages where people can buy the latest iPhone or listicles of websites where people can order the latest iPhone online.
A mistake that many content creators make is targeting the wrong keywords. And in most cases, these keywords are wrong because the interpretation of search intent for these keywords is wrong.
Which is why inferring the search intent of your target keywords is one of the primary things you should be doing before you start creating content.
Typically, there are four types of search intent:
Here are some examples for each type of search intent:
Semrush is one of the few keyword research tools that shows the search intent of the keywords you’re targeting. So, make sure you pay attention to this information when you’re researching keywords on Semrush.
(Side note: If you aren’t using Semrush, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial of Semrush Pro here — this will give you full access to 50+ tools and features within Semrush.)
Here’s how you can check search intent for keywords on Semrush:
To learn more about search intent and how to optimize your content for search intent, check out Search Intent and SEO: The Ultimate Guide.
One of the most common SEO mistakes marketers make is overlooking goal-setting.
When it comes to SEO, setting the right SEO goals is super important. Since SEO’s ROI is in the long run, content creators and SEO professionals often make the mistake of ignoring SEO goals.
Here’s the harsh truth: Without setting SEO goals, you’re unlikely to achieve concrete results.
By setting the right SEO goals, you can bring more clarity and focus to your SEO strategy.
To that end, Ahrefs recommends setting a pyramid-based SEO goal structure.
Here’s what the SEO goal pyramid looks like:
And here’s how you can use it:
Use a spreadsheet to clearly define your goals and to keep track of your progress.
To learn more about setting the right SEO goals, refer to this post on SEO goals by Ahrefs.
Internal links are links from one page that point to other pages on the same website. From an SEO perspective, internal links are one of the ways Google discovers new content on a website.
According to Databox, a blog post should have 2-5 internal links.
That number seems about right, but it’s important not to go overboard with internal linking. Make sure the internal links are relevant and provide better context for your posts.
Internal linking may not be the flashiest part of SEO, but it’s crucial. Overlooking your website’s internal link structure is one of the biggest SEO mistakes to avoid.
Luckily, optimizing your internal link structure is one of the easiest SEO hacks you can do to improve your site’s SEO.
Here are some internal linking best practices you should follow:
A quick and easy way to transfer link value to a newly-published post is to link to it from a top-performing post on your site.
Use a tool like Semrush’s Backlinks Analytics tool to identify a list of the most linked-to pages on your site. Add a link in one of these posts to your recently-published article. But make sure the post is relevant to the topic.
The more descriptive your anchor text, the easier it is for Google to understand the page you’re linking to and for users to navigate your site. Avoid using generic anchor text like “click here” and “check this out.”
Orphan pages are pages with no internal links. If orphan pages are not listed in your sitemap, they won’t show up in search results. Use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to identify orphan pages on your site.
Make sure none of the important pages on your site are orphan pages.
This is why your recently-published post should always get some internal link juice from one of your top-ranking posts.
With Google Search Console, you can examine how your internal links are set up. You can also identify unimportant pages that have too many internal links pointing to them. Reduce the number of internal links to these pages and point them to important pages on your site.
Recommended reading: Internal Links for SEO: The Definitive Guide
Site speed is a critical factor that influences your site’s rankings. A site that loads faster also contributes to a superior user experience. After all, you wouldn’t want visitors on your site waiting around for pages to load.
According to Backlinko, pages on sites that load quickly rank significantly higher than pages on sites that load slowly.
One way you can speed up your website is to install a caching plugin. With a caching plugin, you can significantly reduce your load time and improve your Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores.
If you use WordPress, there’s a variety of free and paid caching plugins available on the market.
The three most popular free caching plugins on WordPress are:
But if I were to offer my personal recommendation, it’d have to be WP Rocket. It costs $49/year, but makes a huge difference to your site speed.
So, if you can afford it, go for WP Rocket. If you’re just starting out, then go with any of the free caching plugins listed above.
Related: 19 Best SEO Plugins for WordPress
46% of all Google searches are local.
If your business operates out of a single location or if most of your customers are from just one location, then optimizing for local search is a must.
Yet there are several businesses that haven’t even claimed their Google My Business (GMB) listing.
Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing should be the starting step in optimizing your website for local search results.
Once you’ve done that, you can claim and optimize your Bing Places and Apple Maps listings.
Next, you can follow these local SEO best practices:
To help with the above recommendations, you can check out any of these local SEO tools to optimize your website for local search.
This may seem like an obvious point, but you’d be surprised to learn how many mainstream sites are not optimized for mobile.
Case in point: Here’s the mobile performance of The Washington Post:
You can have the best content in the world, but if your website is not mobile-friendly, you’re going to miss out on a large chunk of your target audience.
The importance of having a mobile-friendly website has only grown in recent years. Since Google’s “mobilegeddon” algorithm update, optimizing websites for mobile has become a priority for SEOs.
In 2019, Google announced mobile-first indexing, which means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
So in order to stay relevant and beat your competitors in SERPs, you need to ensure your website delivers a fast and mobile-friendly user experience.
Here are some steps you can take to make sure your site is mobile-friendly:
An XML sitemap informs search engines about all the pages that exist on your website. Without a sitemap, Google may find it difficult to crawl and index all the pages on your website.
Which is why it’s important to create and optimize your XML sitemap to ensure Google discovers pages on your site faster.
If you use WordPress, then you can use the Yoast SEO plugin to generate a sitemap for your site.
Side note: Yoast isn’t just useful for generating your sitemap, but it’s the best WordPress SEO plugin you can use to improve your meta tags and fix other critical on-page SEO mistakes.
To generate an XML sitemap through Yoast SEO, navigate to:
SEO > General > Features
Just turn the “XML sitemaps” toggle on to generate your sitemap.
You can view your sitemap at yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml.
Another advantage of using Yoast is that it will automatically ensure all of the noindexed pages remain excluded from indexing.
Once your sitemap is ready, you need to submit it to Google Search Console.
Follow these steps to successfully submit your sitemap to Google:
Once your sitemap is submitted, Google will periodically scan your sitemap to find new pages.
Recommended reading: How to Create an XML Sitemap for Your Website (and Submit it to Google)
Evergreen content is a collection of articles on your blog that stay relevant for a long period of time. A good example of an evergreen post in the SEO space would be this beginner’s guide to link building by Ahrefs:
Or, take this post on the list of best books for entrepreneurs from our own blog:
Here’s the 3-step process you need to follow to create evergreen content:
If you want to shield your articles from periodic drops in organic traffic, then you need to update your posts and relaunch them at regular intervals.
It’s a solid SEO strategy that can guarantee higher search rankings. And yet, it’s often overlooked by most bloggers and SEOs because it involves revisiting old posts and updating them with fresh, relevant information.
But updating and relaunching your old posts is one of the most effective tactics to generate even more traffic for posts that are already getting a decent amount of search traffic.
In fact, using this tactic, I was able to boost organic traffic to one of my old posts by 146% and move its organic ranking from position #5 to position #1. You can read more about it in this SEO case study here:
Here’s the 5-step content update process that I follow to generate more traffic for old posts:
Visit your Google Search Console account to identify posts that have witnessed decline in organic traffic. You can do this by visiting the Search results report and clicking on date and choosing the “Compare last 6 months to previous period” filter. Sort the results by “Clicks difference” from low to high. Pick a post that has seen the highest decline in value.
Alternatively, you can use a free tool like Animalz Revive to identify underperforming blog posts.
This tool analyzes your Google Analytics data and provides a list of posts that need to be refreshed.
The next step is to update your content with new and fresh information. Check out some of your competitors’ posts on the same topic that are outranking you in SERPs. See what your article is currently missing — add unique insights, provide examples, and address more pain points. Add an FAQs section to your post to have a greater chance of ranking in Google’s featured snippets.
Don’t repeat your target keywords too many times. Instead, use keyword variations like related keywords or question-based keywords. Use a tool like Semrush to identify long-tail keyword variations for your target keywords.
Use images, screenshots, and videos to supplement your content. Make sure your updated content has new and improved visuals to improve user engagement.
Make sure you change the “published” date of the article to the current date. This updated date will be highlighted in SERPs.
I follow this 5-step process for cornerstone content on my blog once every three months. You can do the same to revive some of your older posts and breathe new life into them.
Recommended reading: Content Upgrade Strategy: How to Optimize Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic
Here’s a simple question you need to ask yourself before you start working on a new blog post: Are you writing on a topic that your audience likes or something that you like? If the answer to this question is latter, then you shouldn’t be disappointed when the post doesn’t generate any organic traffic.
I’ve had several clients at my digital agency who were under the impression they had the best ideas for blog posts in their niche. But when I did a bit of research on the topic, I found that the search volume for these keywords was either non-existent or too small to justify a blog post.
You may have the best intentions, but assuming that your audience is ready and eager to read anything you publish is just not a good practice.
One of the biggest SEO mistakes you can make is try to create content without identifying the most popular topics and subtopics through keyword research first. I’ve noticed a lot of startups and small businesses falling prey to this fallacy and it’s amongst the most common SEO mistakes small businesses must avoid.
There’s no easy way to put this: In order to rank higher in search results, you need to master keyword research.
While you can get a ton of valuable insights from free Google tools like Google Trends and Google’s Keyword Planner, you’ll miss out on key insights if you don’t subscribe to premium SEO tools.
To that end, I’d recommend two SEO tools that are perfect for keyword research out of a plethora of premium SEO tools on the market: Semrush and Serpstat.
Semrush is, hands down, the best keyword research tool on the market.
Semrush’s ability to conjure up keywords and offer data on competitor and question-based keywords is second to none. With over 20 billion keywords and 142 geo databases, Semrush has the largest keyword database on the market.
Whether you’re looking for quick keyword data or deeper keyword research data like keyword variations and advanced keyword research, Semrush has you covered.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial of Semrush Pro (includes access to Semrush‘s Keyword Magic Tool)
There’s only one drawback: Since Semrush‘s basic plan is priced at $129.95/month, it’s not the ideal SEO tool if you’re on a shoestring budget or just starting out.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly SEO tool that’s best for keyword research and not too heavy on the pockets, then you should go for Serpstat. The basic plan of Serpstat is priced at $50/month.
Try Serpstat free for 7 days
If you’d like a deeper understanding of how to get the best out of both these tools, check out their in-depth reviews below:
You can’t expect to rank on top of SERPs for your target keywords without building high-quality backlinks. Especially if there is stiff competition for those keywords.
Link building remains one of the most challenging aspects of SEO. But there is a link building method that is relatively easy: link reclamation.
Link reclamation is the process of converting brand mentions into backlinks. Since it’s so easy to do, it’s also easy to ignore or procrastinate over. And failing to convert brand mentions into backlinks can make you miss out on some of the most authoritative backlinks your site can obtain.
Here’s how it works:
Need an example of how link reclamation works? Below is a link reclamation email I received from Canva:
Needless to say, I added a link back to Canva. In most cases, it’s as simple as that.
So don’t miss out on an opportunity to get easy backlinks.
You may be asking yourself: Are title tags and meta descriptions still considered important? The answer is yes.
Title tags remain the second most important on-page ranking factor, after content. On the other hand, while meta descriptions are not a direct ranking signal, they do impact your organic click-through-rate (aka organic CTR).
When it comes to title tags, it’s best to heed Google’s advice:
Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information people use to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality title text on your web pages.
Here are some title tag best practices to keep in mind:
Pro Tip: Use a free tool like Headline Analyzer to create compelling title tags for your blog posts.
Next, let’s examine meta descriptions.
Here’s what Google says about meta descriptions:
A meta description tag generally informs and interests users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about. They are like a pitch that convince the user that the page is exactly what they’re looking for.
Here are some meta description best practices you should follow:
Since both these meta tags influence organic CTR, it’s important that you spend some time crafting the best possible title tags and meta descriptions for your posts.
Recommended reading: Meta Tags for SEO: The Definitive Guide
Think back to the last few websites you visited. In all likelihood, in most cases you were greeted by an annoying popup as soon as you landed on their page. This intrusive practice is all too common on the web.
A lot of marketing blogs are guilty of using intrusive popups to capture email addresses and I confess I’ve been guilty of using them in the past as well.
This is a problematic trend that’s not just restricted to the online marketing industry anymore. Even reputed publications like The New Yorker and The Economist are guilty of this intrusive practice:
While it’s important to build your email list, it shouldn’t be done at the cost of user experience. Doing so will lead to pogo-sticking (a situation where a user quickly navigates back to the SERPs after landing on your page), which will ultimately derail your rankings.
So what’s the solution?
An easy solution would be to get rid of popups and email capture forms entirely. But that’s not practical advice. As marketers, building an email list is crucial.
Here’s the truth: It’s not the popups themselves that are annoying. It’s the timing of those popups.
For that reason, I’d recommend you use exit-intent popups.
This is how an exit-intent popup works:
GIF Credit: OptinMonster
As you can see above, these popups get activated when a user decides to leave your website. As a result, they are the least intrusive type of popups out there.
This is a controversial opinion, and I know a lot of marketers who would advocate getting rid of popups entirely. But building an email list is one of the most effective ways to promote your content and grow your audience. As such, I’d suggest you use exit-intent popups to build your list.
All the leading email capture tools allow you to enable this option with their popups. Here are some of the best email capture tools you can choose from.
The most effective way to ensure you’re on the right track is to track the progress of your content marketing and SEO efforts.
Once you’ve set your SEO goals (see #2), you need to keep a track of the most important SEO metrics.
To that end, data and insights generated via analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console are crucial to staying at the top of your game.
Yet there are some marketers who downplay the importance of analytics and disregard key data in their analytics reports.
Ignoring important SEO metrics can prove detrimental to your site’s rankings.
As such, it’s imperative that you keep a tab on your site’s performance.
In the context of SEO, here are the 10 most important performance metrics that are worth tracking:
To learn more about these metrics and the best ways to track them, check out our in-depth post on SEO metrics.
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It first became a part of the SEO lexicon when Google released its Search Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) in 2015.
In the document, Google specifically stated that E-A-T is one of the most important factors that it looks into while evaluating the overall quality of webpages.
In fact, E-A-T is so critical to Google that the term has been mentioned 186 times in the QRG document.
So how do you demonstrate E-A-T with your content? We have already discussed three ways you can do that: pay attention to search intent, content upgrade, and keyword research (refer to tips discussed in mistake #1, #mistake #9, and mistake #10 respectively.)
In addition to these tips, here are some more ways you can demonstrate E-A-T with your content and rank higher on Google:
Recommended reading: Google E-A-T: How to Create Content That Ranks Higher on Google
Avoid the aforementioned SEO mistakes like the plague and you should see drastic improvements in your search rankings.
To summarize, here’s a quick recap of all the mistakes in my “SEO: What Not to Do” list:
Have you been guilty of any of these common SEO mistakes? What other major SEO faux pas do you think should be added to this list? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on March 19, 2022 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance, freshness, and comprehensiveness.
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Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
I launched 99signals in 2016 as a side project to document all the strategies, tools, and tactics that I was using to grow my small agency. The goal was simple: to arm other entrepreneurs and bloggers with all the right information and tools they needed to launch a successful online business.
Since then, 99signals has grown significantly and generates over $10,000 in side income each month. Read More about “About Sandeep Mallya”…

Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
I launched 99signals in 2016 as a side project to document all the strategies, tools, and tactics that I was using to grow my small agency. The goal was simple: to arm other entrepreneurs and bloggers with all the right information and tools they needed to launch a successful online business.
Since then, 99signals has grown significantly and generates over $10,000 in side income each month. Read More about “About Sandeep Mallya”…
A few links on this blog are affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service through one of these affiliate links, I’ll receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
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You are here: Influencer Marketing Hub » Influencer Marketing » Top SEO Influencers for 2025
In a world where 81.8% of the global internet user population has used a search engine at least once in the past 30 days, it’s no surprise that search engine optimization (SEO) is such a talked-about subject in the digital marketing space. Marketers not only want to learn about SEO but also how they can implement new techniques to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Unless you’re specialized in the field or have been keeping up with the SEO industry for years, it can be hard to keep track of the latest trends and techniques. Recently, TikTok’s SEO Creator incentives program has made waves, offering monetization for content aligned with popular search terms, which is reshaping how influencers and agencies approach SEO strategies on the platform. But you know who always seems to be up-to-date with the dynamic landscape of SEO? SEO Influencers. 
These influencers may be SEO specialists, digital marketing experts, content creators, or even business owners. They are present across a range of platforms from X to LinkedIn. Some run their own blogs, where they share their SEO knowledge extensively. We’ve found some of the best SEO influencers that you can learn from, so let’s dive in.

Like any influencer, an SEO influencer is someone who influences your understanding of a particular field. They are the go-to people for tips, tricks, and insider knowledge about SEO.
These influencers not only provide education on best practices, but some are also well-connected with individuals who shape the algorithms that drive search engines, giving them an edge in predicting and understanding upcoming changes. 
Businesses or SEO specialists get the most benefit from SEO influencers since these individuals are walking and talking libraries of SEO knowledge. For example, a business owner can learn how to update their website in accordance with a recent Google update through an SEO influencer’s blog post or podcast. Similarly, SEO specialists can take insights and tips from these experts to incorporate into their clients’ strategies for the best results.
Usually, if you had to find an influencer, you’d use influencer marketplaces to identify the right fit based on their niche and audience demographics. With SEO influencers, the discovery process is a bit different. These influencers usually have their own websites or blogs where you can find them most active.
One of the first places to look for SEO influencers is LinkedIn. If you regularly engage with SEO-related content, LinkedIn will automatically suggest relevant profiles for you to connect with. You can also join related groups or follow hashtags like #SEO to find thought leaders in the space.
The same goes for X, which is another platform where SEO influencers have a presence. Again, search for relevant hashtags to find posts from experts or follow them directly to see their content on your timeline.
It was such a pleasure to have this little #SEO chat with @g33konaut and ask a lot of the questions about content that my clients have asked me over the years.
Thanks for having me, Martin and @googlewmc!
Hope you enjoy the video 😍 https://t.co/1jeWf5VVEa
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) September 9, 2020

However, if you’re looking for SEO influencers in a specific niche or for a particular audience group, Semrush’s Influencer Analytics tool is the perfect choice. With 30+ smart search filters and data breakdowns, the tool lets you search for influencers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok & Twitch.
Semrush Influencer Discovery
Let’s say you’ve developed a new SEO tool that you want an influencer to promote. You can get detailed analytics for the influencer’s audience, including follower demographics, to understand if they’re a good fit for your brand.
The Campaign Management feature helps you create a media plan for your influencer campaign. It also provides detailed campaign reports, helping you analyze the influencer’s content and performance in a centralized dashboard. 
With automated calculations and data visualization, you can easily spot the best-performing influencers and optimize your future campaigns accordingly.
The SEO influencers we discuss below are well-established in their fields and have created a plethora of resources and tools for SEO professionals and business owners alike. It’s important to note that this list is not exhaustive, and there are many other influential SEO experts out there.
However, we’ve selected these individuals based on their contributions to the SEO community and overall impact on the industry.
Platform/s: YouTube, X, Medium, Website
Brian Dean is an SEO expert known for being the founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics, two highly popular SEO resources now acquired by Semrush. Reaching over 5 million readers, Brian’s SEO insights have established him as an “SEO genius,” as Entrepreneur.com puts it.
His content is straightforward, engaging, and backed by data-driven research, making him an authoritative source in the SEO world. Over the years, his work has been featured in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report, Vox, Fox News, The Next Web, and Forbes. He also creates courses, such as Content-Led SEO with Brian Dean for the Semrush Academy.
Dean’s Backlinko blogs are an excellent source of information due to their data-backed nature. For example, the insights he revealed about the click-through rate (CTR) after analyzing 4 million Google search results helped marketers understand how to increase their CTR.
For bite-sized information, you can head over to his X account, where he shares informational videos. Here’s one in which he explains why people aren’t reading your content and what to do about it.
Wondering why people aren’t reading your content? 👀
Here’s a simple approach that might help solve that problem.#contentmarketing #SEO pic.twitter.com/HwHXuaatYv
— Brian Dean (@BrianEDean) December 22, 2023

Exploding Topics also has a Google Trends-like tool where you can see the latest trending subjects in a wide range of categories, from AI to sports, filtered by timeframe. Interestingly, it can also provide future trend forecasts for up to a year.
Exploding Topics trends tool
Platform/s: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Website
Neil Patel is a well-known digital marketing expert and entrepreneur who has founded multiple successful companies, including Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics. He also runs his global ad agency, NP Digital, which has made it to Inc’s 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies.
Here are some helpful resources Patel has created:
Patel also stays on top of industry news and shares insights on his social media channels. For example, when OpenAI announced their AI-based search experience called SearchGPT, he created a webinar to discuss what this means for SEO.

 He also has extensive video content on his YouTube channel, where he has created playlists to cover different topics in detail. For example, here’s one with over 200 videos explaining how to do SEO and marketing for small websites. 
So, his teachings are not just surface-level. You can learn all the tricks of the trade from him, and that too, for free.
Platform/s: Website, X, LinkedIn
Danny Sullivan is a former search journalist who now works for Google to educate people about the search experience and take their feedback to improve it. Back in 2006, Sullivan co-founded Third Door Media with a colleague. The company created an online publication called Search Engine Land, which focused on search engines and search engine marketing. Search Engine Land also had an accompanying conference series, SMX: Search Marketing Expo, in which Sullivan was actively involved.
He was approached by Google to work with them after stepping down from the role of chief content officer at his company. Today, you can find the news of pretty much every new thing happening at the largest search engine in the world posted on his X account.
Since he is Google’s Search Liaison, the main person who gives insights on how Google Search works, you can also find him active on the @searchliaison X account. For example, after Google launched the 2024 core update, he posted a series of X threads and LinkedIn posts to help people understand what to expect from the update and how it will affect their website’s rankings.
He also regularly co-creates content with other SEO influencers. For example, he discussed the impact of the new update on creators with Barry Schwartz, another influencer we’ll discuss below.
I talked with @rustybrick this week about our latest search update, especially about creators. Not everything from the interview made it into the story (it was a long interview!), so I wanted to share a bit more and highlight some things that I thought were especially important…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) September 6, 2024

Similarly, he hopped on to podcasts to talk about the impact of the new update in detail. Basically, he’s your go-to for all things Google-related.
I’m also happy if SEOs read our guidance and take advantage of it to rank better in Google Search. Because our guidance is meant to make search better for everyone. More in the podcast, which has a transcript: https://t.co/Lnhk7kV02D
And our guidance! https://t.co/NaRQqb1SQx pic.twitter.com/Z0TByX2hcU
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 23, 2023

Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, YouTube, X
Barry Schwartz, the CEO of RustyBrick, a web service firm, and a contributing editor to Search Engine Land, an online publication that focuses on search engines, is a huge name in the world of SEO. He has won several awards, such as the 2019 Outstanding Community Service Award from the Search Engine Land Awards and the 2018 US Search Personality Of The Year from the US Search Awards.
Plus, he is a member of several internet marketing organizations, such as SEMPO and SEO Consultants. He’s also on the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization’s Education Committee.
Schwartz’s content centers on SEO news, with a focus on Google. He is particularly active when it comes to covering Google algorithm updates and new features. For example, when Google tested the AI Overview, he talked about it on LinkedIn and wrote a detailed post on Search Engine Roundtable, an SEO-related website.
Barry Schwartz LinkedIn post
He also created a YouTube video recap to cover Google ranking volatility in the wake of the update and recent Google Ads news.
ICYMI: SEO Video recap covering ongoing Google ranking volatility, Apple Intelligence, Navboost lies, Google Ads news, Bing and local search https://t.co/hUcVy7kjaX
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 13, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, Website
Ann Smarty has been in the SEO space for over 20 years, and she has mentored thousands of professionals and spearheaded many successful SEO campaigns. She’s also a regular contributor to industry publications like Buzzsumo, BrightLocal, Moz, and Search Engine Journal.
One of her recent resources is Smarty’s Digest, a weekly newsletter that covers the latest marketing tools and AI news. She has also co-founded Smarty Marketing, a boutique marketing agency that offers SEO consulting as one of its services.
If you want to learn from her, we recommend checking her LinkedIn page for live streams, which she often hosts with other marketing experts to share their insights and advice. For example, with Google pushing “helpful content,” she went live to explain what it actually means for SEO and how you can satisfy this condition set by the search engine. 
Ann Smarty LinkedIn live
Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, X
Loren Baker, mainly known for being the founder of Search Engine Journal, a popular SEO website, also runs his own digital marketing agency, Foundation Digital. Like most other SEO influencers on this list, he shares tips, techniques, strategies, and tools you can use for SEO.
On his X account, he mainly reposts helpful resources from fellow influencers and industry news updates.
Excellent watch. https://t.co/swCyiLZlfC
— lorenbaker (@lorenbaker) July 23, 2024

His website, Search Engine Journal, covers a wide range of topics related to digital marketing and SEO, including content marketing, social media, PPC advertising, and more. Plus, he often appears on the podcast associated with the website Search Engine Journal Show.
Platform/s: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Website
The co-founder and former CEO of Moz, Rand Fishkin, is now known for starting SparkToro, an audience research tool. He is also the author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World, a guide for entrepreneurs and startups.
On his Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, he shares insights on digital marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership, and SEO. He also explains how to use SparkToro and creates 5-minute Whiteboards, which are essentially short videos of him explaining SEO concepts.
NEW 5-Minute Whiteboard: https://t.co/N0JnzoCo2X
Because content marketing should be more than just a pseudonym for keyword-targeted articles. pic.twitter.com/ndqPcEdtrm
— Rand Fishkin (follow @randderuiter on Threads) (@randfish) August 29, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, X, Growth Memo, YouTube
Kevin Indig is a well-respected growth strategist and SEO expert, known for his roles at companies like Shopify, G2, and Atlassian, where he led SEO and growth strategies. He now works as a Growth Advisor for fast-growing companies like Reddit, Toast, and Hims. Kevin also runs Growth Memo, a popular newsletter that provides in-depth analysis on SEO, growth marketing, and emerging tech trends.
His insights stand out due to his focus on the intersection of SEO, user experience, and AI. Kevin is particularly active on LinkedIn, where he frequently shares updates on SEO challenges, algorithm changes, and the impact of AI on organic search. For instance, his recent posts dive into how AI Overviews (AIOs) are reshaping search engine results and how businesses can adapt to these shifts.

On X, he’s known for thought-provoking commentary on industry developments, such as his analysis of Google’s monopoly ruling and its potential impact on the search landscape. 
3 possible futures for Google the monopoly ruling
Each future could reshape the search landscape.
Scenario 1: Google may need to end exclusivity deals, forcing Apple to let users choose default search engines.
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) August 14, 2024

His YouTube videos are packed with actionable advice on using AI and SEO frameworks for scaling organic traffic, making his content indispensable for SEO professionals looking to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving field.
For more in-depth growth strategies and trends, Kevin’s Growth Memo provides readers with a strategic lens on the latest in SEO and digital marketing.
Platform/s: Website, X, LinkedIn, Threads
Cyrus Shepard is the creator of Zyppy SEO, an SEO software and consulting service that helps companies monitor and improve their website’s Google ranking. He has previously led Moz and is an expert in technical SEO, analytics, mobile optimization, and local search results.
His expertise has led him to speak at multiple events, including but not limited to SMX – Search Marketing Expo, Marketing Festival, MozCon, and MnSearch Summit. He also writes for The Moz Blog, Above the Fold, and Marketing Pilgrim.
Head over to his LinkedIn page to get SEO tips from him. He shares everything from insights into Google rankings to tips on how to use new features.
Cyrus Shepard LinkedIn post
On X, you’ll find him reposting excellent content from industry experts and explaining complex concepts. For example, he simplified THCapper’s data on the impact of Google’s Helpful Content system on site rankings in an X thread.
Excellent data via @THCapper showing sites hit by Google’s Helpful Content system tend to have lower ratios of “Brand Authority” to “Domain Authority”
Over-simplified layman’s terms:
When your *brand* is weaker than your overall link profile, you may be at risk to Google’s HCU pic.twitter.com/mHjIqu2DFd
— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) September 5, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, Website, Instagram
Known for being an SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive (GSQi), Glenn Gabe has over 27 years of SEO experience, which he uses to create content for his blog,  Internet Marketing Driver. He covers a range of topics, from algorithm updates and case studies to new SERP features and technical SEO.
You can also find his recent writings on Search Engine Land and former ones on Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Watch. If you want to learn from him more closely, you can get SEO training through his boot camp course.
What we find really engaging about Gabe’s content is that he brings together insights from his extensive network. For example, when The Washington Post tweaked its homepage to adjust for new SEO guidelines, Gabe talked about it on LinkedIn to show other businesses that optimizing for search is more than just keywords and backlinks.

Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, X
Vanessa Fox gets her SEO credit from working at Google as an engineer, where she worked on Webmaster Central and Google Search. She played a central role in the sitemaps.org alliance of Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Her most recent venture is Keylime Toolbox, a software that provides online, user-focused SEO metrics.
Due to her vast experience, she has been a keynote speaker for many conferences. She has also been named as one of the “Top 100 Seattle Women in Seattle Tech.” Her book, Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, is a remarkable resource for businesses that want to improve their online presence.
Her website has a blog section where you can find articles on SEO and digital marketing. You can also find her work on the Google Search Central Blog. 
There’s a lot about SEO that you can’t simply learn with a Google search. SEO influencers provide these missing pieces of information through their own channels. Here’s why you should follow them.
It’s one thing to know of a concept and another to fully understand it. With their years of knowledge, SEO influencers can spell out the intricacies of SEO to their followers. This can range from advanced techniques to insider tips and tricks that only experts know about.
Even better, these experts conduct extensive research to unearth new insights that you wouldn’t be able to do yourself due to time and resource constraints. For example, Cyrus Shepard looked at thousands of data points across 50 websites to create a 50-Site Case Study, in which he revealed how Google’s Helpful Content update impacts good SEO.

 Similarly, Rand Fishkin’s Spark Toro conducted a study to see how Google searches correlate with clicks. He shared the 2024 Zero-Click Search Study on his X account, providing a hoard of statistics that can help SEO experts understand their search ranking better.
The 2024 Zero-Click Search Study is here.
Highlights:
• 59% of Google searches end without a click.
• Almost 30% of clicks go to a Google-owned property.
• Google is sending less traffic to the open web.
Read more:https://t.co/omrsg5Uy4i
— SparkToro (@sparktoro) July 3, 2024

Since SEO influencers are always in the thick of things, they’re usually the first to spot changes in SEO trends or algorithm updates. By following them, you can stay updated on these major shifts.
They don’t just inform about trends but also educate their followers on how to adapt to these changes and make the most of them. For example, when Google rolled out its 2024 update, Neil Patel took to X to explain the gist of the update and his predictions for what could happen next.
What Google’s new algorithm update tells us about the future of AI content.
So, Google just released a new algorithm update.
According to Elizabeth Tucker from Google, their goal was 2 fold…
1. Surface the most helpful content and reduce unoriginal content in search.
2. Keep… pic.twitter.com/H9ClQzZD5U
— Neil Patel (@neilpatel) March 5, 2024

Similarly, SEO influencers make appearances on podcasts and YouTube channels to share their expert knowledge. The Google Search Central channel channel is a good example, where SEO experts discuss and answer questions posed by SEO consultants, particularly regarding new algorithm updates or platform changes. They have also created playlists dedicated to different SEO topics, such as SEO mythbusting and SEO fairytales. 
SEO influencers are always experimenting and testing out new methods. When they see positive results, they’re usually quick to share their findings with their followers.
The best part is that they keep updating their techniques as trends and algorithms evolve. For example, Brian Dean has a comprehensive guide on advanced SEO techniques, which he updates every few months to include the latest insights.
SEO influencers also gather information from their network and combine it to form reports or guides that you can go through to see which advanced techniques other SEO professionals are using. For example, Loren Baker shared a free report, State of SEO 2024: Disruptions, AI & Content Strategies, on his LinkedIn, which includes insights from 3,890 SEO professionals. That’s not something you can curate on your own.

SEO tools, whether it’s a simple keyword planner or a comprehensive site audit tool, are vital for any SEO professional. But there are so many tools out there. How do you know which ones to use?
SEO professionals try out new tools all the time and are often the first to discover new ones. They then share their findings, giving you insight into which tools are worth investing in and how to use them effectively.
Some of them have created their own tools, which they teach their followers how to use. That’s what Neil Patel does with Ubersuggest and Rand Fishkin with Sparktoro. 
My favorite tool to generating more website sales.
From our Ubersuggest data, of the sites with conversion tracking in place, a website’s average conversion rate is .938%.
That’s less than 1%.
That means 99% of your traffic is just window shopping and not buying.
But if you… pic.twitter.com/EpLaLlKbb4
— Neil Patel (@neilpatel) July 28, 2024

As we’ve established, SEO influencers are gold mines for SEO-related knowledge and expertise. They are first to know about changes in the SEO space and can also introduce you to new concepts and strategies.
Many of them have also created SEO tools, written books, created reports, and given talks, all of which you can access to improve your SEO skills. The best way to learn from these influencers is to follow them on social media, read their blogs, attend conferences where they are speaking, and join online communities where they are active. You won’t miss a thing this way! 
An SEO influencer is someone who is an expert in search engine optimization and shares their knowledge with others through social media or their own website. These influencers keep their followers updated on search engine algorithm updates, SEO strategies, SEM trends, new tools, and more.
Some of the best SEO experts in the world are Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, and Brian Dean. However, they’re not the only ones. There are many talented and knowledgeable SEO experts out there who you can follow for SEO updates and tips.
An SEO influencer typically shares their insights, knowledge, and experience related to search engine optimization with their followers through social media platforms or blogs. They may also offer consulting services, workshops, courses, tools, and training sessions to help businesses improve their SEO strategies.
Following SEO influencers on social media and reading their blogs is an effective way to stay updated on SEO trends. You can also listen to SEO-related podcasts and sign up for newsletters from reliable sources to get the latest updates and insights.
Many SEO influencers, including Neil Patel, Barry Schwartz, and Brian Dean, have their own YouTube channels where you can learn SEO directly from them. You can also listen to the podcast Search Off the Record to get direct information from Google’s Search Relations Team. Some other helpful podcasts are The SEO Mindset, Search Engine Journal Show, and Ahrefs Podcast. 
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