Welcome to another insightful week with The SEOs Diners Club newsletter. Leveraging over a decade of SEO expertise, I aim to distil the week's most critical developments into a concise read that will take less than seven minutes. Let's dive into the insights that matter.

How To Create A Winning SEO Strategy

Do you want to develop a creative and profitable SEO strategy? Understand your target audience, excel in niche areas, and stand out!

With the experience I have gained over the years, I can say that traditional SEO methods with intense competition are not always the most effective solution.

This is where the Blue Ocean SEO Strategy comes into play. This strategy means moving away from the fiercely competitive “red oceans” and focusing on undiscovered and less competitive niches. In other words, targeting keywords and content opportunities that most people ignore creates a new playing field for yourself.

This approach sets you apart in the marketing world, as well as in search engines. So, how can you create this winning SEO strategy? Here’s a roadmap based on my experience:

1. Analyze Your Current Situation

I’ve learned from experience that the foundation of creating a solid SEO strategy is to analyze the current situation correctly. Starting without thoroughly analyzing your website’s performance is like moving forward in the dark. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with a SWOT analysis. Over the years, many projects I’ve seen fail to reach their full potential due to this step being incomplete. Therefore, thoroughly evaluate your traffic, keyword rankings, and user experience. This will create a solid foundation on which to build your strategy.

2. Know Your Target Audience

In my experience, the key to SEO success is understanding your target audience deeply. When implementing a Blue Ocean Strategy, it is vital to discover niches that your competitors ignore and produce content that addresses the needs of your target audience in these areas. For example, reaching your target audience with long-tail keywords is often more productive than focusing on high-competition words. At this point, it is critical to understand what your target audience is looking for, what problems they want to solve, and what information they need.

3. Keyword Research and Strategy

When doing keyword research in SEO strategies, classic SEO approaches usually focus on highly competitive areas called “red oceans”. In my experience, this approach may not always yield the most efficient results. Instead, focusing on niche keywords that are less competitive but have high conversion potential provides more sustainable short-term and long-term success. The topical authority that Google has recently highlighted also supports this strategy.

4. Identify Opportunities with Competitor Analysis

Over the years, while providing SEO consulting to many brands, I have repeatedly seen how critical it is to conduct competitor analysis. By analyzing the keywords your competitors focus on and their content strategies, you can identify areas where they are lacking and create opportunities in these areas. Also, being aware of updates such as Google’s March 2024 core update and quickly adapting to these changes will put you one step ahead of the competition.

5. Develop a Creative and Innovative Content Strategy

In the SEO world, content is king, but it needs to be innovative and creative. To stand out from your competitors, you need to try unconventional content formats and strategies. For example, just like Cirque du Soleil took the traditional circus format and turned it into an artistic and innovative show, you can also differentiate your content and offer your target audience a unique experience.

6. Adapt to AI Briefs

Google’s AI Overviews are becoming more significant in the search experience. As an SEO expert, you must adapt to these innovations and shape your strategy accordingly. Strengthen your monitoring and analysis processes, and constantly evaluate your performance. Increase the credibility of your content by focusing on the principles of EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Including your content in Google’s AI summaries will strengthen your presence in search engines in the long run.

7. Technical SEO and User Experience

Optimizing your website speed, ensuring mobile compatibility, and providing a user-friendly experience have always been my top priorities. From what I’ve seen throughout my career, the better your technical SEO and user experience, the more successful you will be in search engines. Keeping up to date with developments in this area and keeping your site up-to-date will put you one step ahead.

8. Backlinks and Authority Building

Backlinks are one of the most essential elements of SEO. However, you should not forget that you should focus on quality rather than quantity. My experience has shown me that backlinks from quality and reliable sites are the most effective way to increase your site's authority. Within the Blue Ocean Strategy framework, you should specialize in previously unexplored niche areas and focus on gaining valuable backlinks from these areas. This way, you can avoid areas with intense competition and become a leader in your field.

9. Optimize for Non-Google Platforms

The SEO world is constantly evolving, and it’s no longer enough to focus solely on Google. It’s essential to have a presence on platforms other than Google to strengthen your strategy. As Danny Sullivan says, “One way to be successful on Google is to think beyond Google.”

Applying EEAT principles on platforms like Quora, Reddit, and TikTok will strengthen your brand authority. These platforms promote strong authoritative positions by highlighting expert opinions and providing an experience where real people are at the centre. By effectively using these platforms, your brand can build strong connections with users and increase awareness by moving this content to Google.

10. Continuous Monitoring and Optimization

Finally, it is essential to remember that SEO is a dynamic process that must be constantly monitored and optimized. From what I have seen over the years, strategies should be continuously reviewed and updated. This is a vital step to ensure long-term success. Keeping up with developments in the SEO world and quickly adapting to these developments will put you one step ahead.

Conclusion: Recommendations for a Winning SEO Strategy

A winning SEO strategy is not limited to competing with competitors. Instead, it is possible to create new opportunities by adopting creative and innovative approaches, such as the Blue Ocean Strategy. Understand your target audience in depth, analyze your competitors, and identify their weak points to stand out in niche areas. Produce creative content, pay attention to technical SEO, and constantly optimize your strategy. These steps will take your brand to the top of search engines and into the minds of your target audience.

Google August 2024 Core Update: First Impressions

Google released the August 2024 core update. Initial observations show that sites damaged by the September 2023 helpful content update are experiencing some improvements.

Google released its long-awaited August 2024 core update last week. This means that rankings in Google Search results are currently quite volatile. SEO experts and publishers have already started documenting the changes with the August core update.

We are seeing promising movements for the first time on some sites that were hit by the September 2023 Helpful Content update. However, these sites have not yet regained their former performance. There are only some increases in their rankings and visibility. As Stradiji, there has been a generally positive ranking increase on the sites we follow. However, we are still at the beginning of the update. This is a very comprehensive update that will last about one month.

Well-known SEO consultants, such as Glenn Gabe, are tracking hundreds of sites negatively impacted by the helpful content update. According to Gabe’s analysis, 47 out of more than 380 sites show minor signs of recovery. Some of these sites had low visibility but saw a spike after the update, while others have higher visibility and are making very positive progress.

John Mueller says that improving your site shouldn’t be delayed, but he also stresses the importance of waiting until the core update is finished. This goes with Google’s classic advice for core updates: Wait until the update is complete to see the changes.

John Mueller says that improving your site shouldn’t be delayed, but he also stresses the importance of waiting until the core update is finished. This goes with Google’s classic advice for core updates: Wait until the update is complete to see the changes.

Google AI Overviews Increase Organic Results Concordance to 99%

Google AI Overviews now show sources 99.5% aligned with the first ten pages of Google organic search results. What does this significant change mean?

Google’s next-generation search feature, which started as Search Generative Experience (SGE) and later became AI Overviews, initially included sources outside the top 10 organic results. However, a recent analysis revealed that AI Overviews now use sources that match the top 10 Google organic search results 99.5% of the time.

Mark Traphagen, VP of Product Marketing and Training at enterprise SEO platform seoClarity, shared this data on LinkedIn. Traphagen noted that this finding was based on an analysis of 36,000 keywords.

Why Is This Development So Important?

This development suggests that Google is significantly changing its AI Overviews. In the early days of SGE, sources outside of the top 10 of Google’s organic search results, and sometimes of questionable reliability, were included. However, after Google was criticized for providing inaccurate and dangerous answers, the visibility of AI Overviews was reduced, and improvements were promised. There has been a significant surge in AI Overviews over the last three months.

In January, 93.8% of the sources appearing in SGE came from sources outside the top 10 Google organic search results. This data comes from an analysis by Authoritas:

“93.8% of the generative links in the database came from sources other than the top organic ranking domains. Only 4.5% exactly matched an organic URL on page 1, while 1.6% pointed to a different URL from the same organic ranking domain.”

Google may now be using more traditional search ranking signals in its AI Summaries. As Traphagen puts it, “AI Overviews optimization is now just… Google optimization!” One of the best practices now appears to be to rank high on Google.

Google's Martin Splitt Explains Why Pages Aren't Being Indexed

Is Google not indexing your pages? Learn how to increase your chances of indexing by improving content quality and server performance.

Google’s Search Relationships Specialist, Martin Splitt, addressed a common problem that website owners encounter: the “Discovered — Not Yet Indexed” status. Splitt explained what this status means in Google Search Console, noting that when new pages are discovered, they are often not indexed immediately, and this is normal.

As Splitt explains, Google doesn’t index every page, which doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with your site. Googlebot first discovers a URL, then queues it to be crawled and potentially indexed. The page is retrieved from the server and analyzed during the crawling phase. In the final phase, it either goes to “Crawled — Not Yet Indexed” status or is added to the index.

There are three main reasons why your pages might be stuck in “Discovered — Not Yet Indexed” status:

• Crawl Priority: Googlebot may prioritize other URLs, which means a waiting period for newly found pages.

• Technical Challenges: Server performance issues can negatively impact crawling, especially on big sites. Slow responses or HTTP 500 errors can cause Googlebot to slow down its crawl rate.

• Content Quality: The most common reason is that the page does not have enough quality or depth of content. If Google detects insufficient content, it may choose not to index certain pages.

To remedy this situation, Splitt offers the following advice to website owners:

• Give it time; some pages may be just waiting to be crawled.

• Review the Crawl Statistics report in the Search Console to view server performance.

• Work with your hosting provider to resolve server-side issues.

• Improve content quality on relevant pages.

• Improve internal linking to better integrate new content with existing content.

“Discovered — Not Yet Indexed” status means that your pages are not appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs), resulting in reduced visibility and traffic. Fixing this status can help you better direct your SEO efforts and get ahead of your competitors.

To resolve this situation:

• Strengthen weak pages by performing a content audit.

• Improve server performance and make scanning easier.

• Prioritize homepages by focusing on high-value content.

• Improve internal links so Googlebot can better understand your site.

• Keep track of indexing issues by monitoring Google Search Console regularly.

Effective SEO takes time, but taking the proper steps will help you increase your online visibility. As Google’s recent video points out, these steps can strengthen your visibility in the SERPs and your online presence.

SEO Schema Visualizer 2.0: Schema Visualizer Tool

With SEO Schema Visualizer 2.0, turn your browser into a giant schema canvas! Easily explore complex schemas in full-screen mode.

If you want to examine schema visualizations more effectively in your SEO projects, try the SEO Schema Visualizer 2.0 Chrome extension!

With the new full-screen feature, you can examine your diagrams by turning them into a giant interactive graphic and explore your diagrams in detail from a wider area. This tool will make your job much easier, especially when working on complex diagram structures.

Recommended Tools & Services

• WhitePress: WhitePress is a content marketing platform that enables accessible article publishing across 90,571 websites in 30 languages, offering native copywriting and automated global publication services.

• Cannibalization Explorer Looker Studio Report is a tool for identifying keyword cannibalization and providing insights into how keywords perform across different pages.

• SurferSEO is a tool for creating and optimizing content for SEO. It analyzes the top-ranking pages for your target keywords and gives you suggestions on how to improve your content. Surfer AI also has a feature that can generate ready-to-rank articles in minutes.

• Copilot Pro: Copilot Pro is available for $20/month for cloud-based GenAI models and $27/month with Microsoft 365. It is integrated with Microsoft 365 applications and provides access to GPT-4 Turbo and advanced AI rendering tools.

• AlsoAsked is a helpful tool that can boost your visibility in the “People Also Ask” section of Google's search engine results page.”

• Semrush Map Rank Tracker is a Google-changing tool for local businesses looking to dominate their niche and attract more customers. I've been using the free version for a while now, and I'm impressed with its ease and effectiveness.

• ContentShake AI is an intelligent writing tool that combines AI with real-life competitor insights. It guides you from ideation to publishing directly to the blog, generates SEO-friendly articles, and helps you optimize them for organic traffic and engagement.

• Microsoft Clarity has recently introduced a feature called Copilot, which incorporates Generative AI through Large Language Models (LLMs) into the analytics tool. This integration aims to make data more accessible and understandable for users by leveraging the same technology created by OpenAI, which powers the new Bing or ChatGPT.

• InLinks is an SEO tool that uses a knowledge graph to optimize content for search engines. It automates internal linking and schema markup, simplifying SEO processes and content strategies.

Subscribe to my newsletter to stay informed about the latest in SEO and digital marketing. Next week, I'll continue to share the newest insights, tactics, and strategies for navigating the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape.

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Best,

Mert Erkal