Welcome to another edition of The SEOs Diner's Club! Each week, I bring you a digest of the latest SEO updates and AI-driven insights, all crafted to fit into just a few minutes of your time. With over a decade of experience in SEO, my goal is to break down the week’s most important developments into a quick, insightful read. This way, you stay ahead of the curve in less than seven minutes. Let's jump into what matters this week!

Brand Strategies in the Age of Large Language Models: SEO & Beyond

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) is disrupting established practices in the digital world and forcing us to rethink brand strategies. As traditional search engines gradually give way to AI-powered assistants, brands face important questions about how to manage their online visibility and user interactions. We'll deeply examine the effects of LLMs, how to adapt to this new era, and what we need to do for our brands' success.

The Rise of LLMs: A New Era in Digital Marketing

LLMs are evolving beyond mere technological tools to become new "gateways" that fundamentally change how users access information and discover brands. Platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google Gemini not only answer questions but also provide direct and personalized experiences.

Transition from Search Engines to AI

Users are increasingly turning to LLM-based tools instead of traditional search engines for information. This trend may lead to decreased search traffic to websites and increase "zero-click" results as LLMs provide direct answers.

Referral Traffic from LLMs

While "zero-click" results are increasing, there's also a notable rise in referral traffic from LLMs. For instance, Searchengineland.com experienced an 800% increase in referral traffic from LLMs between Q3 and Q4 of 2024. This demonstrates that LLMs are becoming an important channel for brand visibility.

Interface Changes

Examples like Apple Intelligence's integration with Siri and ChatGPT, Meta's use of Llama in its applications, and Google Chrome's integration with Gemini prove that LLMs are now part of every aspect of our lives. Therefore, brands must be visible not only on websites but across different platforms.

Evolution in SEO Strategies: From Clicks to Value

Traditional SEO strategies are undergoing significant changes with the rise of LLMs. It's now necessary to shift from a click and ranking-focused approach to one that understands user needs, creates value, and strengthens brand awareness.

From Click-Focused SEO to Value-Focused SEO

While the primary goal used to be click counts and top rankings, now it's crucial to focus on the value desired from websites. The awareness that SEO is not just a traffic channel but also a marketing tool is gaining importance.

Importance of Technical SEO

Technical SEO remains critical for LLMs to crawl websites and understand content. Methods like Server Side Rendering help AI crawlers perceive content more clearly.

Redefining Content Strategies

Creating conversational content that answers users' natural language questions is now vital. Including data and statistics in content provides significant advantages in terms of accuracy and relevance.

Ways to Integrate LLMs into SEO Workflow

Integrating LLMs into your SEO workflow makes your strategies more efficient and helps you stand out in competition. Here are three fundamental ways to do this:

1. Prompt Creation

Asking the Right Questions: Your requests to LLMs need to be clear and focused. The 5W1H framework (What, Where, Who, When, Why, How) is particularly useful here.

Example Request: Instead of "Give me some title tag ideas," use a more detailed approach like "Create five SEO-friendly title tags for a white jeans category page. Target audience is potential jean buyers, tone should be engaging and descriptive. Each title should be under 50 characters and optimized for search results."

2. Creating Prompt Libraries

Library for Recurring Tasks: Creating a request library for routine tasks saves time and ensures consistency in results.

Organize and Standardize: Categorize your requests by task type. Store them in tools like Google Sheets or Notion, tag them, and share with your team. This helps maintain consistent outputs.

3. Connecting SEO Tools to OpenAI

Integrated Work: Integrating LLM functions like ChatGPT into SEO tools allows you to generate insights and recommendations without abandoning your existing workflow.

Notable Tools:

• Horseman SEO crawler: Assists with meta data optimization and keyword extraction.

• Numerous.ai: Provides OpenAI integration with Google Sheets to accelerate bulk operations.

• Screaming Frog: Utilize its OpenAI integration for creating meta components while crawling the site.

LLM Optimization (LLMO) and Generative AI Optimization (GEO)

The need for brands to position themselves and their products in AI assistants has given rise to new optimization areas like LLMO and GEO.

Key Components

Visibility in AI Assistants: It's now necessary to be present not only in search results but also in AI assistant responses.

Brand Monitoring Tools: Tools like Otterly, Peec.AI, and Profound help you track how your brand is reflected across various AI platforms. This allows you to monitor brand visibility for specific keywords and requests, and conduct competitor analyses.

Prompt Management: These tools offer the ability to manage and analyze prompts used across different AI platforms.

Understanding AI Systems: Training, Search, and Hybrid Approaches

Understanding AI systems is crucial for the success of your optimization strategy. These systems generally fall into three main categories:

System Types

Training-First Systems: Models like Claude and Llama generate their responses solely from training data. In such systems, a long-term strategy is essential to increase brand awareness. Focus on strengthening your digital presence, producing regular content, and conducting PR activities.

Search-First Systems: Systems like AI Overviews and Perplexity base their responses on real-time indexing of web pages. They offer faster results, but effectively using SEO techniques and optimizing your content remains critical.

Hybrid Systems: Systems like Gemini and ChatGPT draw their responses from both training data and live web data. For such systems, it's necessary to have a solid foundational content strategy and keep track of current information.

Strategies for Brand Adaptation to the LLM Era

Nevertheless, brands can take various proactive steps to adapt to the LLM-focused search landscape:

Conversational Content Style: Use a friendly and explanatory tone that can respond to natural language questions. Content should flow naturally and address user queries in a conversational manner that aligns with how people interact with LLMs.

Utilization of Data and Statistics: Enhance credibility by supporting your content with concrete data. When you back up your claims with reliable statistics and research, you strengthen your content's authority and make it more likely to be referenced by LLMs.

Accuracy and Relevance: Ensure your brand information is accurate, complete, and aligned with LLM queries across all platforms. This consistency helps establish your brand as a reliable source of information that LLMs can confidently reference.

Strengthening Brand Presence: Reinforcing your brand reputation and presence across all digital channels brings long-term success. A strong digital footprint increases the likelihood of your brand being recognized and referenced by LLMs.

Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation: Regularly monitor LLM responses and update your strategies based on new trends and insights. This proactive approach helps you stay ahead of changes in how LLMs interpret and present information.

Human Oversight: Ensure that LLM-generated content aligns with your ethical standards and brand principles. Human review remains crucial in maintaining brand integrity and authenticity.

Cross-Team Collaboration: Having experts from different departments such as marketing, software development, and product working together ensures consistent representation of your brand messages in AI-based responses.

Preparing for the Future: Continuous Learning and Adaptation

LLMs are fundamentally transforming the digital world and brand strategies. To be ready for this new era:

• Continuous Learning: Consistently train your team to keep pace with rapid developments in web technologies. Understanding how LLMs evolve helps you adapt your strategies effectively.

• AI's Content Understanding Capability: As artificial intelligence's capacity to comprehend content increases, developers should regularly review presentation formats to ensure optimal interaction with LLMs.

• Diversification: Anticipating potential decreases in search engine traffic, invest in different marketing channels and adopt an AI-focused approach. This diversification helps protect your brand's visibility across multiple platforms.

• Be Prepared: According to research firms like Gartner, brands might lose 50% of their organic traffic in the next 3 years. I believe this loss could be even more significant. Therefore, don't neglect to explore different marketing channels. For instance, one of our clients noticed YouTube videos appearing in many Google search results, and through our YouTube SEO strategy, they successfully created an alternative channel.

Large language models present both challenges and opportunities for brands. To adapt to this new era, you should review your traditional SEO strategies, focusing on integrating LLMs into your workflow and reshaping your brand strategies accordingly. Remember, the brands of the future will be those that understand user needs and generate high value through an AI-focused perspective.  

The HubSpot Case Study: SEO Decline and Future Implications

This week, HubSpot became a highly discussed topic in the B2B marketing world due to organic traffic loss. Everything started with Ryan Law's LinkedIn post showing the declining organic performance of the HubSpot blog.

Causes and Discussions

1. Google Algorithm Changes: Google's core and SPAM algorithm updates in December 2024 may have reduced the effectiveness of some of HubSpot's strategies by targeting SEO-prioritized content. These algorithms aimed to penalize non-functional content that doesn't focus on user benefit.

2. Lack of Topic Authority and Depth: HubSpot faces criticism for producing "thin content." They may have lost depth in their expertise area by focusing on irrelevant topics. Topics like "cover letter examples" aren't a priority for the brand's core target audience.

3. Unnecessary Traffic: Content covering topics outside the company's core expertise, like "how to use Instagram," may have generated irrelevant traffic.

Personal Commentary: AI and Brand Strategy

When analyzing HubSpot's SEO fluctuations, it's insufficient to explain the picture solely with Google algorithms. The impact of AI technologies on the industry and the long-term effect of brand strategies should also be carefully examined.

Google's New Quality Rater Guidelines Focus on SPAM

Google has updated its Quality Rater Guidelines with a focus on SPAM. SEO experts can update their strategies by understanding how these changes affect content.

Key Highlights

• New Additions: The guide expanded examples and definitions related to low-quality pages

• Clarity and Detail: Guidance for "Needs Met" evaluations has been updated

• Minor Fixes: Small adjustments like browser requirements and updating old examples

Mobile Search Breadcrumbs Removed: What It Means for SEO

Google has removed breadcrumbs in mobile search results and now only shows domain names. SEO experts should review this change.

Key Points

• Google will only show the domain name instead of breadcrumbs on mobile

• Breadcrumbs will continue to be used for desktop searches

• No changes to SEO structure are anticipated

This Week in AI: Tools, Services, and Insights

AI is reshaping digital marketing. Let’s dive into the latest developments and practical applications driving industry innovation.

OpenAI's New "Operator"

OpenAI has released an exciting research preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers. Their AI agent called "Operator" can perform tasks on the web on your behalf. The exciting part is that the Operator can view web pages through its browser and interact with them through actions like writing, clicking, and scrolling.

Currently, Operator is only available to ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the US. The monthly fee for ChatGPT Pro is around $200. Frankly, I'm not sure if it's worth this price. Anthropic's Computer Use feature might offer a more reasonable budget. We can consider this the beginning of a new era in web interaction automation and AI-powered task management.

ChatGPT Canvas Updates

ChatGPT's Canvas feature is now more functional. With the new update, Canvas can work with o1 model support and render React/HTML code. Additionally, its integration with the ChatGPT desktop application for macOS has been completed.

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Mert Erkal