SEO Best Practices for 2025: Integrating Traditional and AI-Powered Strategies
SEO Best Practices for 2025: Integrating Traditional and AI-Powered Strategies
Search engine optimization has come a long way in recent years, and artificial intelligence is completely changing how we think about content visibility and search rankings. The good news is that traditional SEO fundamentals are still important, but now we have exciting new opportunities thanks to generative AI. If you want to succeed in 2025 and beyond, you'll need to learn how to combine the tried-and-true practices with these new AI-powered strategies.
Traditional SEO Best Practices: The Foundation That Endures
Technical SEO: Building a Solid Infrastructure
Think of your website's technical foundation as the backbone of everything else you do with SEO. Search engines need to easily crawl, understand, and index your content before any other optimization work can make a difference. This means making sure your website loads quickly on all devices, has proper security in place, and works great on mobile.
You'll want to tackle technical issues first. Things like crawl errors, broken links, and indexing problems create roadblocks between your content and search engines. Running regular technical audits helps you catch and fix these problems before they hurt your rankings. Also, don't overlook structured data through schema markup. It gives search engines clear context about your content, making it much easier for them to understand and properly categorize your pages.
Content Quality: People-First Approach
High-quality content is still the heart of good SEO. When you create useful, original content that genuinely helps your audience, it will always beat content that's written mainly for search engines. This people-first approach means really understanding what your audience needs and giving them comprehensive, well-researched information that actually answers their questions and solves their problems.
Natural, conversational writing has become more important as search algorithms get smarter. Keyword stuffing and overly optimized content actually hurt you now instead of helping. Instead, focus on building topical authority by covering subjects thoroughly across multiple related articles. This shows your expertise and helps establish your website as a go-to resource in your field.
Link Building: Earning Credible Connections
Quality backlinks from authoritative websites are still important signals of trust and relevance to search engines. But the game has changed from quantity to quality, with search engines getting much better at spotting and penalizing sketchy link schemes. Today's successful link building means creating genuinely valuable resources that other websites naturally want to link to.
Try developing link-worthy assets like original research, helpful tools, and comprehensive expert guides. These resources attract organic backlinks because they offer real value to both the website that's linking and their readers. Yes, this approach takes more work upfront, but it creates lasting SEO benefits that you just can't get from manipulative tactics.
On-Page Optimization: Clear Structure and Relevance
Good on-page optimization combines clear structure with smart keyword placement. Using descriptive headings that include relevant keywords helps both users and search engines understand how your content is organized. Just remember that these headings need to feel natural and serve your readers first.
Your meta titles, descriptions, and URLs should clearly tell users what they'll find on each page. These elements are your content's first impression in search results, so clarity and relevance matter more than cramming in keywords. Don't forget about internal linking strategy either. It guides users through related content while showing search engines how your topics connect.
Generative AI SEO Best Practices: Adapting to the AI Era
Schema Markup for AI Visibility
Now that AI systems are becoming part of search experiences, structured data is more important than ever. FAQ, How-To, Q&A, and Author schema markup help AI systems like Google's AI Overviews and various language models interpret and cite your content more effectively. This structured approach makes your information more accessible to AI agents that users are increasingly turning to for quick answers.
The trick is implementing schema markup that accurately reflects what your content is actually about and how it's structured. This transparency helps AI systems understand when and how to reference your content, which could boost your visibility in AI-generated responses and featured snippets.
AI-Powered Keyword Research
Artificial intelligence has really shaken up keyword research by letting us dig deeper into user intent and behavior patterns. AI tools can find long-tail keywords and intent-driven phrases that traditional research methods might completely miss. These tools are also great at predicting emerging keyword trends by analyzing behavioral and historical data patterns.
This improved capability lets you plan content more strategically by anticipating what users need instead of just reacting to current search volumes. When you understand the intent behind searches, you can create content that addresses user questions at different stages of their journey.
AI-Enhanced Content Creation
Generative AI can really speed up your content creation process, but you need to find the right balance. Using AI tools to help with drafting, research, and brainstorming can make you more efficient, but human editing and oversight are still crucial. The best approach combines AI's speed and analytical power with human creativity, expertise, and quality control.
Content that shows real-world experience and expertise still performs best, no matter how you create it. AI should enhance your subject matter knowledge rather than replace it, helping you explain complex ideas more clearly or explore topics from new angles.
Conversational and Voice Search Optimization
With more people using AI assistants and voice search, your content needs to mirror natural speech patterns. Users are increasingly asking complete questions instead of typing short keyword phrases, making conversational content structure more important than ever.
Give clear, direct answers to common questions, and your content will perform well in both traditional search results and AI-generated responses. This means thinking about the specific questions your audience asks and structuring your content to provide immediate, helpful answers.
AI Agent Optimization
Major AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity have become significant information sources for many users. To optimize content for these systems, focus on authority, clarity, and usefulness. AI agents tend to prefer content that provides comprehensive comparisons, clear summaries, and practical resources.
When you create content that AI systems can easily cite and reference, you increase your visibility across multiple platforms. This means organizing information logically, providing clear attribution, and maintaining high standards for accuracy and relevance.
Strategic Shifts in 2025
The line between traditional SEO and AI optimization has pretty much disappeared. Optimizing for AI agents and search engines is now one unified strategy instead of separate efforts. This makes sense because search experiences increasingly include AI elements, from featured snippets to direct AI responses.
Google's continued focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) works perfectly with AI systems' preference for credible, well-researched content. These quality signals help both traditional search algorithms and AI agents identify trustworthy sources worth citing and recommending.
AI systems especially like content that solves specific problems, particularly for users who are in the middle to lower funnel stages of their journey. This focus on practical, actionable information rewards websites that put user value first instead of trying to game search engines.
Moving Forward with Integrated SEO
Success in 2025 means embracing both traditional SEO fundamentals and AI-powered innovations. The websites that will thrive are those that combine technical excellence with high-quality, authoritative content optimized for both human readers and AI systems. This integrated approach ensures you'll be visible across all the ways users discover and consume information in our increasingly AI-enhanced digital world.
SEO and GEO: New Opportunities Despite Search Ranking Volatility
Website owners have seen it all, but the volatility in the search rankings over the past six weeks is some of the most significant changes we’ve seen - ever. Following the June 2025 Google Core Update rollout, many sites plunged in the SERPs, while others regained traffic (my sites regained traffic, and I’ve explained why in this week’s Monday Marketing Motivation).
Here’s the thing: the SEO strategies you relied on for the past decade or more are gone. Gone. Forget them. Filling your site with top of funnel (TOFU) content aligned with high traffic keywords, answering simple questions, or building glossaries in the hopes of ranking for a term are gone. Smart SEO strategies are now focused on middle of funnel (MOFU) and bottom of funnel (BOFU) traffic, clustering long tail keywords naturally in articles, and GEO - GenAI engine optimization.
The AI Revolution in Search Results: SEO and GEO
At the heart of this volatility lies a transformative force: the rapid expansion of AI-powered search features. It’s been dubbed “GEO” for “generative AI search engine optimization”. Watch that buzzword. As buzzwords go, it’s not bad. Others are calling it zero-click search, which simply means that people are getting the answers they seek on search engines without having to click through to web pages.
GenAI Search Results: GEO Is The New Norm
We're witnessing a fundamental shift in how search engines present information to users. AI-generated summaries, conversational search interfaces, and intelligent answer boxes are no longer experimental features. Like it or not, they are now the focus of the search experience.
This change is profoundly changing user behavior patterns. Where users once clicked through to the top-ranking pages to find answers, they're increasingly satisfied with the information presented directly within the search interface. This is moving traffic away from websites, hence the declining organic search traffic on many sites.
The End of Set-and-Forget SEO
Ah, the good old days of SEO. When I began writing search engine optimized copy years ago, I was handed keywords with numbers next to them to calculate how many times to use them in the copy of the article. That shifted a few years later into the current pattern of finding 1-3 keyword phrases that are high traffic generators and use them in certain places in the copy. Once the articles are published, allow 6-8 weeks to see how they rank, then tweak as needed.
Ah, but today…today, AI search is changing everything. It’s constantly shifting the algorithms, making it difficult to predict keyword volume. It’s making it even harder to simply publish articles and rank well. There’s so much going on under the hood, some things known, some unknown, and some only partially known.
This has created a lot of uncertainty among marketers, which is leading them to put the brakes on new content creation. (I have not; I keep creating content. AI search engines like my copy. It ranks in GEO. I’m still analyzing why.)
It's no longer enough to target traditional ranking factors. Everyone needs to consider how our content will perform in AI-generated summaries and conversational search contexts.
Strategies for Success in an AI-Driven Search World
To maintain visibility in this rapidly changing landscape, marketing professionals need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how AI is reshaping user search behavior. This involves recognizing that users increasingly expect immediate, contextual answers rather than links to explore. Content strategies must evolve to provide the kind of comprehensive, well-structured information that AI systems can easily parse and present to users.
The most successful organizations will be those that view this disruption not as a threat, but as an opportunity to build more meaningful connections with their audiences. By focusing on creating genuinely helpful content that serves user intent, regardless of how it's delivered, marketers can position themselves to thrive in whatever search landscape emerges next.
I told a friend that instead of looking at pure numbers, we have to get inside our target customer’s heads. We have to think about their questions, the weird, the offbeat, the unusual. Because, frankly, that’s the only thing AI can’t answer easily. She asked a logical question: Yes, but how do you know what they want to know? I can’t answer that easily. I do research - a lot of it. I look at Reddit, Quora, forums, and my own website and social media comments. I people-watch and eavesdrop. I even watch commercials on television to pick up on trends. I continue to do keyword research, but I pay more attention to the questions people are asking than the simple phrases used. It’s a combination of all of these things that enable me to develop content that continues to rank in this SEO/GEO-powered world.
Looking Ahead: A Whole New World Awaits!
I’m actually excited by these changes. I see them as a competitive advantage. Marketers and writers like myself who always enjoyed the quirky, unusual, offbeat articles can now produce them without worrying about slotting in specific awkward keyword phrases. AI is good at understanding context, so you don’t have to worry as much about direct keyword matches. You can write more from the heart, and especially, from personal experience, which I love.
While the recent volatility may feel unsettling, it's also creating opportunities for forward-thinking marketers to differentiate themselves. Those who can successfully navigate this transition, by understanding AI's impact on search behavior and adapting their strategies, will survive for the next Google Core Update to shake things up again!
Navigating the Digital Advertising Landscape: A Guide for Modern Marketers
Do you use digital advertising? In this week’s Monday Marketing Motivation, I touch upon the topic of digital advertising. It’s such a broad topic that I couldn’t cover everything in the 5-7 minute video, so I decided to dig in more deeply in this article.
What Is Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising consists of online ads. These may appear in search engines such as Google and Bing or on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on.
Why Use Online Ads?
Like organic search, digital ads reach customers at the point in their buying journey when they are actively seeking information about products or services. This is why they are so powerful in the marketing mix. It’s like getting an instant appointment with a prospect who is knocking at your virtual door!
Core Features of Digital Advertising
Digital advertising is both precise and measurable. Targeted reach allows businesses to focus their efforts based on specific demographics, interests, and behaviors of their ideal customers. This ensures that marketing messages reach the most relevant audiences rather than being broadcast broadly to uninterested viewers.
Think about it this way: television, radio, and print (newspaper, magazine) ads reach a broad audience. This audience may, or may not, be interested in the product or service displayed. Yesterday, I saw three ads in a row for prepared, frozen meals. I don’t eat or serve prepared, frozen meals, but many people do. The company advertising frozen chicken dinners has to assume that the majority of people watching TV want fast and easy food, so they use broadcast ads.
However, many businesses, especially those that market to other businesses (called “B2B” or business-to-business marketing), need precise targeting. They can’t use “spray and pray” methods of advertising because it is unlikely that they will reach their target market using mass media. Many consumer-focused brands need precise targeting, too, and that’s where digital advertising shines.
Performance tracking is another aspect of digital ads. It provides detailed and quantifiable metrics such as clicks, impressions, and conversions. This data-driven approach enables marketers to see exactly how their campaigns are performing and make informed decisions about future investments. The ability to track return on investment in real time sets digital advertising apart from traditional methods, where results can be difficult to measure.
Broadcast ads are priced on a fixed basis, often referencing viewers and cost per thousand of viewers reached. Digital ads are budgeted like a checkbook. You set up an ‘account’ and ‘bid’ on a price per click, with the amount deducted from your account. This makes them more affordable for smaller businesses who may not have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on ads each month. It also enables easier and more affordable testing, so you can test new concepts, measure the results, and invest in what works.
Search Advertising: Capturing User Intent
Search advertising places your brand at the top of search engine results when users enter relevant keywords. These ads typically operate on a pay-per-click model, meaning you only pay when someone actually clicks on your advertisement.
Google Ads: The Market Leader
Google Ads dominates the search advertising landscape, processing billions of daily searches and offering outstanding targeting and reach. You can set your ad to appear only for specific keyword terms and phrases related to your products and services. Location filters enable local businesses to focus their advertising on specific geographic areas, while audience segmentation helps refine targeting based on user behavior and interests. This means that a restaurant in Farmville, Virginia, can show ads only to central Virginia residents. Let’s face it; if you’re in the Dakotas, you’re not going to drive to Farmville for dinner!
Google Ads reaches high-intent users who are actively seeking solutions to their problems. When someone searches for a specific product or service, they're often ready to make a purchase decision, making search ads particularly effective for driving conversions. The platform's extensive reach ensures that businesses can connect with potential customers at the exact moment they're looking for relevant solutions.
Bing Ads: The Overlooked Opportunity
Bing Ads are like the forgotten stepchild of the search engine advertising world, and that’s a shame because, for certain companies, they are an excellent choice. The platform tends to attract older and more professional audiences, making it particularly effective for B2B companies and businesses targeting mature demographics. I’ve seen it generate better results for B2B companies time and time again, so it’s worth testing if you sell services or goods to other businesses. Lower competition on Bing often results in cheaper cost-per-click rates, allowing businesses to stretch their advertising budgets further.
Integration with Microsoft products expands Bing's reach beyond just search results. The platform connects with various Microsoft services, providing additional touchpoints for reaching potential customers. This ecosystem approach can be particularly valuable for businesses targeting professional audiences who rely heavily on Microsoft's suite of business tools.
The Power of Search Advertising
Search advertising offers immediate visibility for relevant queries, putting your business in front of potential customers exactly when they're looking for what you offer. The high conversion potential stems from user intent - people clicking on search ads have already demonstrated interest by searching for related terms. This qualified traffic often leads to better conversion rates compared to other advertising methods.
Detailed analytics provide ongoing optimization opportunities, allowing marketers to refine their keyword strategies, adjust bids, and improve ad copy based on performance data. This continuous improvement process helps maximize return on investment over time.
Social Media Advertising: Building Relationships and Driving Action
Social media platforms provide rich environments for brand storytelling, engagement, and direct response advertising. Unlike search ads that capture existing demand, social media advertising can create demand by introducing products and services to users who might not have been actively searching for them.
Facebook and Instagram: Visual Storytelling Platforms
Facebook and Instagram offer access to a massive user base with sophisticated targeting options that go far beyond basic demographics. The platforms' advanced targeting capabilities allow businesses to reach users based on interests, behaviors, life events, and even connections to existing customers. This precision targeting helps ensure that advertising messages reach the most receptive audiences.
These platforms support various ad formats, including single images, videos, carousels, and stories, providing creative flexibility to match different marketing objectives. Visual storytelling opportunities make Facebook and Instagram particularly effective for B2C campaigns where emotional connection and brand personality play important roles in purchasing decisions.
LinkedIn: The B2B Marketing Powerhouse
LinkedIn serves as the premier platform for business-to-business advertising, offering unique targeting options that reflect its professional user base. Advertisers can target prospects by job title, industry, company size, seniority level, and many other professional characteristics. This granular targeting makes LinkedIn ideal for reaching decision-makers and influencers within specific industries or organizations.
The platform excels at promoting professional services, educational content like webinars, and thought leadership materials such as whitepapers. LinkedIn's professional context lends credibility to business-focused content and creates an environment where users expect to encounter industry-relevant information and solutions.
Emerging and Specialized Platforms
Twitter, now known as X, remains useful for real-time engagement and capitalizing on trending topics. The platform's fast-paced nature makes it ideal for timely campaigns and brands that want to participate in current conversations.
Pinterest represents a powerful platform for lifestyle, fashion, home decor, and DIY brands. Users often come to Pinterest with purchase intent, researching products and ideas they plan to implement, making it valuable for driving qualified traffic to e-commerce sites.
Benefits of Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising enables deep audience engagement through comments, shares, and direct interactions that can build a community around brands. This engagement creates opportunities for relationship building that extend beyond the initial ad impression.
Creative flexibility allows brands to experiment with different formats, messaging approaches, and visual styles to find what resonates best with their audiences. The informal nature of social media also permits more personality and creativity in advertising approaches.
Retargeting is also possible on social media. Retargeting means that the platform re-engages, or shows your ad again, to customers who may have visited your website or seen your ads before. This helps encourage buyers to revisit your site with the goal of more leads or sales.
Strategic Budget Planning for Digital Advertising
Budgeting digital advertising is both an art and a science. Most companies start with their best estimate and refine their budget based on demographics, targeting, and campaign results. A/B testing, or testing each new ad against the control or previous ‘winner,’ helps refine budgets and increase response rates over time. It builds on what works to maximize ROI.
How to Budget for Digital Ads
The first step is essential - define your goals. What do you want to accomplish? Brand awareness, lead generation, direct sales, customer retention, or something else? Identifying specific goals will help you focus and refine the entire campaign, including establishing the budget.
Next, choose the platform for your ads. Base your choice not on your favorite platform but on the demographics of the platform’s users. In other words, your ads should appear on platforms where your target audience likes to hang out. B2B ads may wish to test Bing, Google, and LinkedIn, while consumer-focused ads may wish to try Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
I like to start with small ad budgets to test different approaches. Think about your first few campaigns as reconnaissance; you want to gather as much information as you can, learn from it, and move on to bigger and better things. Based on the metrics from the initial campaigns, you can then increase successful ones and sunset unsuccessful ones.
An important, but often overlooked aspect of digital advertising budgets is budget management. Keep an eye on your bank account, so to speak. Look at the metrics, including cost per click, conversion rates, and return on ad spend. Are you getting the most bang for your buck?.
Platform-Specific Budget Considerations
Google Ads typically requires higher minimum budgets due to competitive keyword costs, with most businesses starting their ad budgets around $500 monthly. However, highly competitive industries may require higher investments to achieve visibility and meaningful traffic volumes. This is why many companies prefer working with consultants and marketing agencies that specialize in Google Ads. (Note: Seven Oaks Consulting does have a partner ad agency that does this work for us, so let us know if it’s of interest!)
Facebook and Instagram advertising can be effective with smaller budgets, often starting around $300 monthly. The platforms' advanced targeting and optimization algorithms can work effectively even with limited spend, making them accessible to smaller businesses.
LinkedIn advertising generally requires higher budgets, typically starting around $1,000 monthly, due to the platform's premium audience and higher cost per click rates. However, the qualified nature of LinkedIn traffic often justifies the higher investment for B2B companies.
The Strategic Importance of Extended Campaign Duration
Don’t shortchange your ad campaigns by running them for a week and declaring victory (or losses). I recommend a minimum of three to six months of investment in an ad campaign to test, measure, and deliver information that can be used to improve future campaigns. If you can’t invest consistently in a digital ad campaign, now is not the time to run it.
Learning from Your Online Ads
All digital advertising platforms today use sophisticated algorithms that require time and data to optimize how, when, where, and to whom they show your ads. That’s why you need several weeks, if not months, to allow the ads to settle down (as I like to say) and start producing results. During the first few weeks of a campaign, the algorithms learn about your audience. They test different delivery strategies and identify the most responsive users. Cutting campaigns short disrupts this learning process and doesn’t provide a good return on investment.
Ads Build Recognition and Trust
There’s a reason why you see the same ads over and over again. Advertising success relies on repetition to build recognition and trust. Brand exposure, or seeing your company name, logo, and products repeatedly, imprints them in the viewers’ subconscious, helping them return to your company and products. Multiple touchpoints and multiple times seeing your ad improve brand recognition.
Accounting for Seasonal and Market Fluctuations
Here’s another often overlooked factor: seasonality.
All businesses experience natural seasonal shifts. Even technology and manufacturing companies see ups and downs in interest from customers. Consumer companies face even greater seasonal peaks and valleys. The Christmas rush, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, summertime…depending on what you sell, one season or month may be busy or slow. Longer campaigns offer more data, which smooths out potential biases from seasonal peaks and valleys.
Recommended Campaign Approach
So, how should you start a campaign? Focus first on strategy: where you should run your ads based on your customers’ platform or search preference. Then, establish your budget for at least three to six months of testing.
Next, conduct keyword research to develop your creative approach. Launch your ads.
The first month of digital advertising gives the algorithm time to adjust. During this time, watch carefully to ensure you’re reaching the desired target audience.
Months two and three represent the optimization phase, where insights from initial testing are applied to improve campaign performance. This might involve refining audience targeting, adjusting ad creative, or reallocating budget toward the highest-performing elements.
Months four through six focus on scaling successful strategies and maximizing return on investment. By this point, campaigns have sufficient data and optimization to support increased budgets and expanded targeting while maintaining efficiency.
Maximizing Digital Advertising Success
Digital advertising represents a powerful tool for reaching and engaging target audiences in today's connected marketplace. Success depends on understanding the unique strengths of different platforms, from search ads that capture existing intent to social media advertising that builds relationships and creates demand.
Strategic budget planning ensures that advertising investments generate meaningful returns while supporting long-term business growth. The commitment to extended campaign durations allows for proper optimization and relationship building that short-term approaches cannot achieve.
Whether focusing on immediate conversions through search advertising or building brand awareness through social media campaigns, digital advertising offers measurable, scalable solutions for businesses of all sizes. With thoughtful strategy, appropriate budgeting, and patience for optimization, digital advertising can drive significant growth and create lasting competitive advantages in the digital marketplace.
Achieve Better Results Through A/B Testing
Let's be honest—marketing can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall sometimes. You have this brilliant idea for a new headline or button color, but will it actually work? Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, there's a better way: A/B testing.
What Is A/B Testing?
Think of A/B testing as a friendly competition between two versions of your marketing content. You create version A (usually your current version) and version B (your new idea), then show each one to different groups of people. Maybe you're testing whether "Get Started Now" works better than "Start Your Free Trial" as a button label. Or perhaps you're curious if that bright orange header will outperform your current blue one.
The beauty is in the simplicity—you let your audience tell you what they prefer through their actions, not their opinions.
Why Testing In Marketing Matters To Your Business
Here's the thing: we're all terrible at predicting what other people will do. I mean, really terrible. That "obvious" improvement you're sure will boost conversions? It might actually hurt them. That design change you think looks awful? Your customers might love it.
A/B testing takes the guesswork out of the equation. Instead of making decisions based on what you think will work, you're making them based on what actually works. This means less risk, better ROI, and those "aha!" moments when the data surprises you.
Picture this: you change a "Buy Now" button from blue to red. Seems minor, right? But what if that simple change increases your conversion rate by 15%? Without testing, you'd never know you were leaving money on the table.
Where You Can Use A/B Testing
The great news is that you can test almost anything in your marketing toolkit:
Email campaigns are perfect testing grounds. Try different subject lines (does "50% Off Everything" beat "Your Exclusive Sale Starts Now"?), experiment with sender names, or test whether your audience prefers short, punchy emails or longer, detailed ones.
Landing pages offer endless possibilities. Test headlines, swap out hero images, move your signup form from the bottom to the top, or try different call-to-action buttons. Even small changes in form length can make a big difference.
Digital ads are another goldmine for testing. Does that lifestyle photo perform better than a product shot? Which headline grabs more attention? Test different ad copy, visuals, or even audience targeting approaches.
E-commerce product pages can benefit from testing product descriptions, customer reviews placement, promotional banners, or even the number of product images you show.
Website navigation and layout elements like menu structures, sidebar content, or footer information can all impact user behavior in ways you might not expect.
The golden rule? Test one thing at a time. If you change both the headline and the button color simultaneously, you won't know which change drove your results.
Getting It Right: Best Practices That Actually Work
Sample Size and Statistical Significance
This is where things get a bit technical, but stick with me. You need enough people to see each version for your results to be meaningful. If only 50 people see version A and 47 see version B, a small difference could just be random chance. Most testing tools will calculate statistical significance for you, but aim for at least 95% confidence before declaring a winner.
Timing and Test Duration
Don't rush this part. Running a test for just a day or two rarely gives you reliable data. You want to capture different user behaviors throughout the week—people browse differently on Mondays than Fridays, and weekend traffic often behaves uniquely. Aim for at least one full business cycle, and consider seasonal factors if relevant.
Setting Clear Goals
Before you start, decide exactly what success looks like. Are you trying to increase email signups? Boost product purchases? Reduce bounce rate? Having a clear primary metric keeps you focused and prevents you from cherry-picking results later.
Avoiding the "Early Winner" Trap
This one's tough because we all want quick results. But declaring a winner after just a few hours or when you see early positive trends can lead you astray. Let the test run its full course—patience pays off in accuracy.
Proper Randomization
Make sure your testing tool randomly assigns visitors to each version. You don't want all your mobile users seeing version A while desktop users see version B, as that would skew your results.
Advanced Considerations for Better Testing
Sequential Testing Strategy
Once you find a winner, don't stop there. Use that winning version as your new baseline and test another improvement. This compound approach can lead to dramatic improvements over time.
Monitoring Secondary Metrics
While focusing on your primary goal, keep an eye on other important metrics. A version that increases click-through rates might decrease average order value or customer satisfaction. You want the full picture.
External Factors and Timing
Be mindful of outside influences. Running tests during Black Friday, major news events, or seasonal peaks can introduce variables that won't be present year-round. Sometimes it's worth pausing tests during unusual periods.
Multivariate Testing
Once you're comfortable with basic A/B testing, you might explore testing multiple elements simultaneously. This is more complex but can reveal how different elements interact with each other.
Building a Testing Culture
The biggest challenge often isn't technical—it's getting your team comfortable with being wrong sometimes. Create an environment where "failed" tests are celebrated as valuable learning experiences. Document everything, share insights broadly, and make data-driven decision-making the norm.
Making A/B Testing Work for Your Business
Start small if you're new to this. Pick one element that you suspect could be improved—maybe an email subject line or a single button on your website. Run that test properly, learn from the results, then gradually expand your testing program.
Remember, not every test will give you a clear winner, and that's okay. Sometimes the biggest insight is learning that your current approach is already pretty good. Other times, you'll discover game-changing improvements hiding in the smallest details.
The Bottom Line
A/B testing transforms marketing from educated guessing into strategic optimization. It respects the complexity of human behavior instead of trying to predict it, and it gives you the confidence to make changes based on evidence rather than opinions.
Whether you're optimizing your first email campaign or running sophisticated tests across multiple channels, the principle remains the same: let your audience show you what works. They're the ones making the decisions that matter, so why not listen to what they're telling you?
The best part? You don't need to be a data scientist or have a massive budget to get started. Many email platforms, website builders, and ad platforms have A/B testing built right in. The hardest part is often just getting started—but once you see how powerful data-driven optimization can be, you'll wonder how you ever marketed without it.
Creating Mobile-Friendly Websites: Easy Tips
In today's digital landscape, mobile devices account for more than half of all web traffic worldwide. This shift has made mobile-friendly design not just a nice-to-have feature, but an absolute necessity for any website looking to succeed online. Understanding what makes a website mobile-friendly and implementing these principles can dramatically improve user experience and search engine rankings.
What Is a Mobile-Friendly Website?
A mobile-friendly website is specifically designed to look great and function smoothly on smartphones and tablets, not just traditional desktop computers or laptops. Think of it as a chameleon that adjusts itself—like magic—to fit smaller screens without making users zoom in or squint to read content. This adaptability ensures that visitors can easily navigate, read, and interact with your website regardless of the device they're using.
The importance of mobile-friendly design cannot be overstated. When users encounter a website that doesn't work well on their phone, they typically abandon it within seconds, leading to higher bounce rates and lost opportunities for engagement or conversion.
Essential Elements of Mobile-Friendly Design
Several key components work together to create an exceptional mobile experience. Responsive design forms the foundation, automatically adapting the layout to suit different screen sizes. This means your website will look proportional and organized whether viewed on a massive desktop monitor or a compact smartphone screen.
Touch-friendly navigation represents another crucial element. Buttons, menus, and interactive elements must be large enough and properly spaced to accommodate finger taps rather than precise mouse clicks. This includes ensuring adequate spacing between clickable elements to prevent accidental taps on the wrong buttons.
Fast loading times are particularly critical for mobile users, who often rely on cellular networks that may be slower than broadband connections. Optimized images and streamlined code contribute significantly to quicker load speeds, keeping users engaged rather than waiting for content to appear.
Readable text ensures that fonts scale properly across devices, eliminating the need for users to zoom in to read content. Text should be large enough to read comfortably on small screens while maintaining proper contrast against background colors.
Minimal pop-ups help create a smoother mobile experience by avoiding disruptive overlays that can be difficult to close on touchscreens. When pop-ups are necessary, they should be easily dismissible and not cover the entire screen.
Finally, vertical scrolling only ensures users don't need to scroll horizontally to access content, which can be frustrating and disorienting on mobile devices.
Optimizing Images for Mobile Performance
One of the most impactful ways to improve mobile performance is through image optimization. Large, uncompressed images are often the primary culprit behind slow-loading mobile pages. Tools like ShortPixel can automatically compress and optimize images without sacrificing visual quality, significantly improving load times for mobile devices. This image optimizer website specializes in reducing file sizes while maintaining crisp, clear images that look professional across all screen sizes.
Proper image optimization not only enhances user experience but also positively impacts search engine rankings, as page speed is a known ranking factor for mobile searches.
Testing Your Mobile-Friendly Design
Creating a mobile-friendly website is only half the battle—you also need to verify that it actually works well on mobile devices. Fortunately, there are excellent tools available to help assess your site's mobile performance.
Google's Mobile-Friendly Test is one of the most reliable and widely-used tools for this purpose. Simply enter your website URL, and the tool will analyze your pages and provide specific feedback about mobile usability issues. This free resource can identify problems you might not notice during manual testing and offers actionable recommendations for improvement.
Mobile Friendly Is a Must!
Mobile-friendly design is no longer optional in today's digital environment. By implementing responsive design, optimizing images, ensuring fast loading times, and regularly testing your site's mobile performance, you create an experience that serves users effectively regardless of their device. The investment in mobile-friendly design pays dividends through improved user satisfaction, better search engine rankings, and ultimately, greater success for your online presence.
Quick Website Updates Small Business Owners Often Forget
Your website is more than just a digital business card—it's your 24/7 storefront, your first impression, and often the deciding factor in whether a potential customer chooses you or your competitor. Yet so many of us get caught up in the day-to-day hustle that we forget to give our websites the attention they deserve.
Here's the thing: you don't need a complete overhaul or a hefty budget to make a meaningful impact. Sometimes the smallest tweaks can breathe new life into your online presence and help you connect more effectively with your audience. Let's explore some simple yet powerful website updates that busy entrepreneurs often overlook—and the best part? Most of these can be tackled during your lunch break.
Monday Marketing Motivation
- Watch the YouTube Video on this topic.
- Download our free Website Update checklist.
I know it sounds almost too simple, but outdated contact information is one of the most common website blunders I see. Think about it—if someone's excited about your services but can't reach you because your phone number changed six months ago, you've lost that connection forever.
Take a few minutes to verify that your contact details are current and consistent across every page. Check your header, footer, contact page, and don't forget your Google Business listing. While you're at it, make sure your business hours reflect your actual availability. These small details matter more than you might think.
Refresh Your Visual Story
Those homepage images from 2018? They might be telling a story that's no longer yours. Your visuals should reflect who you are today, what you offer now, and the customers you serve. Fresh, authentic imagery—especially photos of your actual team or products—creates an immediate connection with visitors.
You don't need professional photography for every update. Sometimes a genuine behind-the-scenes shot or a current product photo taken with your smartphone can be more engaging than stock imagery that feels disconnected from your brand.
Clean House: Remove What No Longer Serves
Nothing says "this website isn't maintained" quite like a prominent announcement about last year's holiday sale or an event that happened months ago. Set a monthly reminder to scan your site for outdated promotions, expired offers, and past event information.
While you're spring cleaning, tackle those broken links too. They're not just frustrating for visitors—they actually hurt your search engine rankings. There are free tools available to help you identify broken links, and fixing them is usually as simple as updating a URL or removing a reference.
Strengthen Your Calls to Action
Every page on your website should guide visitors toward a next step, whether that's making a purchase, scheduling a consultation, or signing up for your newsletter. But here's what I often see: calls to action that are either too timid or too buried to be effective.
Review your key pages and ask yourself: if someone landed here right now, would they know exactly what to do next? Make your calls to action clear, compelling, and impossible to miss. Instead of "Learn More," try "Schedule Your Free Strategy Session" or "Get Your Custom Quote Today."
Let Your Customers Do the Talking
Those glowing reviews and testimonials sitting in your email inbox? They're marketing gold, but only if they're visible on your website. Social proof is one of the most powerful tools for building trust with potential customers, yet many business owners forget to showcase it prominently.
Create a dedicated space on your homepage or service pages to highlight recent customer feedback. Even a simple rotating testimonial section can make a significant impact on visitor confidence.
Think Mobile First
Here's a reality check: more than half of your website visitors are probably viewing your site on their phones. If your website looks perfect on your desktop but feels clunky on mobile, you're potentially losing half your audience.
Pull up your site on your phone right now. Can you easily read the text? Do images load properly? Is navigation intuitive? If the experience feels frustrating, it's time to prioritize mobile optimization.
The Power of Consistency
These updates don't have to happen all at once. In fact, they're more effective when approached consistently over time. Consider dedicating 15 minutes each week to one small improvement. Maybe Monday is for checking contact information, Wednesday is for reviewing calls to action, and Friday is for adding new testimonials.
Your website is often the first handshake between you and your potential customers. Make it warm, make it current, and make it unmistakably you. When you take care of these details, you're not just maintaining a website—you're nurturing the relationships that fuel your business growth.
Remember, every small improvement you make is an investment in your business's future. Your website visitors—and your bottom line—will thank you for it.
Let's Talk About SEO - What Is SEO?
Let's Talk About SEO (Without the Jargon!)
You know that feeling when you're trying to get your business noticed online, and it feels like you're screaming into the wind? Yeah, I've been there. The good news? SEO doesn't have to be this mysterious, complicated thing that only tech wizards understand. Let's break it down together.
So What Exactly IS SEO?
Think of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as your way of raising your hand when someone asks, "Hey, does anyone know where I can find...?" When people search for what you offer, you want to be the business that pops up first - not buried on page 47 of Google results.
Here's the thing - it's like having the best storefront in town. If it's hidden down a back alley where nobody walks, you're not going to get customers. But if you're right there on Main Street where everyone can see you? That's SEO working for you.
The best part? Unlike those expensive ads that eat up your budget, once you get your SEO right, people keep finding you without you having to pay for each click. Pretty sweet deal, right?
Let's Break Down the Two Main Types
On-Page SEO is everything you can control on your own website. Think of it as organizing your store so customers can easily find what they need. You're creating helpful content, using the right keywords naturally (not stuffing them in everywhere - that's just annoying), and making sure your website is easy to navigate. It's also about those behind-the-scenes details like page titles and descriptions that tell search engines what your page is about.
Off-Page SEO is about building your reputation in the neighborhood. When other websites link to yours, it's like getting a recommendation from a trusted friend. The more quality websites that vouch for you, the more search engines think, "Hey, this business must be legit!" Social media engagement, online reviews, and local business listings all play into this too.
The Technical Stuff (Don't Worry, We'll Keep It Simple!)
I know "technical SEO" sounds scary, but think of it as basic maintenance for your digital storefront. You want your website to load quickly (nobody likes waiting around), work on mobile phones (because let's be honest, that's how most people browse), and be secure (that little padlock in the browser bar).
You also want to make it easy for search engines to understand what your business is about. It's like putting up clear signs in your store - "Shoes This Way," "Electronics Over Here." The clearer you make it, the better search engines can direct the right customers to you.
Another important aspect of SEO is ensuring that everything works properly. Links to external websites can change over time, and broken links are like a road to nowhere - they don't work, and Google doesn't like it. Ditto to images no longer rendering properly, videos that don't load, and so on.
A tool to monitor problems with SEO, such as SEMRush, is invaluable. It provides reports to help you quickly figure out what's broken, not working, or needs to be fixed.
How Does SEO Stack Up Against Other Marketing Tactics?
Paid ads are like renting a billboard - great visibility while you're paying, but the moment you stop, you're invisible again. SEO is like owning prime real estate. It takes time to build, but once you're there, you're there.
Social media is fantastic for building relationships and brand awareness, but it's more like hosting a party - you need to keep the energy up constantly. Email marketing is like having a direct line to your best customers, but you need their permission first.
The beauty of SEO? People are already looking for what you offer. You're not interrupting their day with an ad - you're being helpful by showing up exactly when they need you. And here's the kicker - people trust organic search results more than ads. It's like the difference between a friend's recommendation and a sales pitch.
Combining Strategies: What Works
Here's what I've learned working with small businesses: SEO works best when it's part of a bigger picture. Maybe you use some paid ads to get quick wins while your SEO is building up steam. Or you share your great content on social media to get more eyes on it. Your email newsletter can drive people back to your website, boosting those SEO signals.
It's not about choosing one thing - it's about making them all work together. Like a good recipe, the right combination of ingredients makes something way better than any single component alone.
I would say that SEO is the cornerstone of any business marketing program. That's because your website is the central location or hub for your business online. In order for people to visit, they must find it, and SEO makes it easier to find.
The Bottom Line
SEO isn't just for the big guys with huge budgets and big marketing teams. It's for every business owner who wants to be found by the people who need what they offer. Sure, it takes some time and effort, but so does everything worthwhile in business.
Your customers are out there right now, typing questions into Google. Wouldn't it be nice if they found you first?
Want to chat about how to make this work for your specific business? I'm here to help you figure out a strategy that actually makes sense for where you're at right now.
Crushing AI Search: Is SEO Still Worth It? What You Need To Know Now
Is SEO still worth it in the age of AI search? The answer is a resounding yes, but doing SEO the same old way will get you nowhere. Here, I share with you the latest in AI search based on what marketers have learned to date.
A quick note: I’m writing this article in late June 2025. The experts I work with at technology companies all tell me that AI is changing so rapidly that it is hard even for them to keep up with the latest advances. I’ll try to update this article over time, but keep the date in mind when you read it just in case some of the advice turns stale (like tomorrow!)
AI search is a type of search driven by artificial intelligence (AI). It uses natural language processing to develop a more comprehensive response than traditional keyword-based search. The goal is to understand user intent and create responses based on perceived user intent.
How Does AI Search Differ from Traditional Search Engine Optimization?
If that definition sounds similar to the traditional definition of search engine optimization (SEO) that’s because for years Google has been telling us that the purpose of search engines is to match user queries with content that answers those queries. Traditional keyword search was based on the phrases people typed in and how page content was optimized for such phrases. Now, however, AI search promises to take it a step further and look beyond keyword phrases.
AI search uses what is called a fan technique or fanning technique. It takes the starting question and fans it out based on what it has learned from its large language model about the query. Then, its response is based not just on a simple keyword phrase but on multiple possible related queries.
Is SEO Still Relevant in the Age of AI?
Search engines still need a starting point to scan and index your content. That starting point is your words on screen, infused with keywords in the traditional manner.
However, your job as a modern SEO specialist is to expand beyond that and think like an AI search engine.
Consider the keyword phrases you’ve chosen not as the single phrase to optimize in your content, but as the starting point. Next, think about all the other things related to the original phrase that people may need to know.
Let’s take as an example a company that sells bridal gowns. Perhaps they are writing an article about attractive styles for the plus-size bride. Starting with that topic, what else might their customer want to know? Perhaps shoes and veils that match the gown, or tailoring and styling tips to help the bride look beautiful on her special day.
A simple keyword search tool reveals multiple branching queries from the phrase “plus size bridal gown” including terms like tea-length plus size bridal gowns, short sleeve plus size bridal gowns, and dozens more. I would work these phrases in naturally into the article to attract the AI engines to it.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to be as literal with this kind of search as with traditional search. As far as I can tell, the platforms are smart enough to recognize similar phrases without having to hit the exact phrase a certain number of times, as in the past.
My Personal Exploration of This Topic
I am actively exploring and testing these ideas in my gardening blog, Home Garden Joy. It’s more than a blog. It’s my sandbox for SEO. Follow it if you want to grow and preserve your own food (I teach you how to grow fruit, vegetables, and herbs, my hobby). And I’ll share here what my SEO experiments yield.
Keep Up to Date: Who To Follow on Modern SEO Practices
Well, yes, follow me on LinkedIn and follow Seven Oaks Consulting. That’s a given.
But here are some of the top minds who I follow to learn all I can about modern search engine optimization:
Google’s Blog: Need I say more?
Ann Smarty, who writes a brilliant weekly Substack on AI and search.
Jeannie Hill, who taught me a lot about retail shopping search.
Help! AI Is Eating My Website Traffic!
Did you notice a dip in your organic search traffic starting, oh, around early January 2024?
The dip probably became a freefall, resembling a black diamond ski slope.
What you’re seeing is AI diverting organic search traffic. For bloggers and site owners who relied heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) tools, seeing the dreaded ‘my traffic fell off a cliff’ graph can make them want to throw away their keyboard and give up on SEO.
Fear not. There are ways to combat the voracious beast known as AI-driven search.
Organic Search Isn’t Dead - It’s Just Changing
First, know that organic search isn’t dead. It’s just changing. Evolving. Remember 2011? And other updates? The 2011 Panda Google update upended the applecart for many site hosts, shrinking site traffic and ad revenues.
Hey, Google makes no promises about SEO. It provides guidelines, not laws, about creating content and structuring websites for good organic traffic.
I view the new AI search snippets as just another evolution in Google’s quest to dominate search. And, just as I did for the Panda, Hummingbird, and other Google updates that shook up my predictable flow of organic search visitors, I am taking steps to update my blogs and websites so that they thrive in the new age of AI.
Let’s take a look at optimizing content for AI in this new world of AI search.
Write for People First
Look, do I have to say it again? I guess I do, because far too often, I read blog posts and website copy that’s a jumble of jargon. Write for people first, and not just any people - write for your target persona.
What’s a persona? It’s an imaginary person who represents your ideal customer, the decision maker, and audience whom you’d like to get in front of to sell your ideas, products, or services.
If you write for this “person,” you are writing for a person, and your content will sound natural and fun.
Have you noticed how stilted AI content can be? Sometimes it’s good, but most of the time it peppers its output with words like unleash, unlock, and elevate. It likes long sentence structures oh-so-perfectly. It doesn’t have anything new to say - no stories, case studies, or personal reflections. And it can’t make a good analogy for beans! (That phrase alone will probably pop a diode somewhere in the AI platform scanning this page.)
Takeaways:
- Write for people first, AI and search second
- Write in your natural, conversational voice
- Use plenty of firsthand stories, anecdotes, and case studies - things an AI can’t add to the conversation.
Personal Branding and Authoritative Content
Developing your online personal brand is an ongoing strategy. Part of that strategy is developing your online presence as an authority in a topic or topics.
What do you want to be known and remembered for? It should be something of keen importance to your persona and your target market. It should dovetail perfectly with your services and strengths. And, it should focus on a niche; something you can do better and differently than anyone else.
If you identify this niche, and create content across multiple channels, you can develop your online reputation as an authority in the topic. This technique does take considerable time and effort but it can serve as a buffer against the vicissitudes of Google’s ever-shifting algorithm.
Takeaways:
- Focus on your persona and niche
- Create original content for your persona
- Rinse and repeat, focusing on a consistent theme or message
Add Branded Content to Your Site
Branded content is content that mentions your company, product, or service by name. AI models need such content to understand who your company is and what it does. When the AI search bot encounters your site, serve it plenty of branded content to build your own footprint within its little robotic brain.
Takeaways:
- Add branded content to your website - beef up your about page, bios, FAQs, and more.
Final Thoughts
AI search is but an evolution of Google, Bing, and other search engines’ never-ending quest to improve search results. If it’s eating your website traffic, fight back by feeding it what YOU want it to eat: branded content, original stories, and ideas only a person can create. By being yourself and working with AI models instead of against them, you have a chance to build your traffic back.
Content Marketing and AI: What's Changing
Content Marketing and AI: What Is Changing?
What works? What doesn’t?
A few preliminary thoughts as I begin to explore this brave new world of AI search engine results.
Content marketing and AI are changing the face of search engine optimized writing.
Blogging and SEO article writing used to be my bread-and-butter work. I contributed to many top websites over the years. In the early days of the internet, driving traffic to articles was more science than art. I remember one client handing me a mathematical formula to determine how many times to use keyword phrases in his articles.
Then, over time, there was a shift away from 500 to 1,000-word keyword-based articles. I learned that the market was saturated with all that good how-to content and overview pieces. The web had its encyclopedia; now what readers wanted was “expert opinions.” Suddenly, websites that published articles from freelancers slapped colorful “expert” badges on them. Everyone talked about Google’s E-A-T formula.
The E-A-T formula stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a concept used by search engines like Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of online content, particularly for pages that impact people's health, finances, or safety.
This formula seemed to work – for a while. Then, in late 2023, AI was launched, and AI search became a ‘thing’ throughout 2024. I watched as website after website – sites I owned, sites I managed or contributed to for clients – began losing ranking. Many good articles stopped receiving click throughs from search engines because AI could answer the same question in a short, top of the search page box.
I’m seeing this on my gardening blog, I’m seeing this on client blogs, and everyone wants to know the same thing: should they keep blogging? Or are blogs a thing of the past, like free Yahoo! GeoCities websites and AOL startup CDs? (Now I really am aging myself.)
Blogging Isn’t Dead, But It Is Evolving
Blogging isn’t dead, but it is certainly evolving. Gone are the days when you can slap up enough TOFU (top of funnel) and BOFU (bottom of funnel) content and get plenty of search traffic. Quantity cannot win over AI these days.
What is winning is unique content. How unique? Go as unique as you can. My best performing article on my gardening blog these days is a how-to article for which I took original images of my husband working out in the fruit tree orchard. I documented every step with photos, including our rusty old wheelbarrow and pruners. Search engines seem to like authenticity. I am seeing content for which I took similar realistic images also ranking well, and content for which I licensed stock images not doing as well. I am gradually replacing stock images with original photos to see if that helps.
Authenticity and expertise still seem to win, as does long form content. Original topics – thought leadership pieces and anything that AI cannot readily answer – also does well.
Contrary opinions continue to rank well, too, especially if you can support them with the previously mentioned expertise and authority.
Branded Content for the Age of AI Search
Ann Smarty, a marketer who frequently writes about AI search, wrote about the need for branded content in one of her recent Substack articles. In her piece Build Your Brand Knowledge, she posits that brand-driven content will be at the core of SEO content marketing moving forward. Brand knowledge helps not only with search engines but also helps AI know and share your brand. The more branded content you have online, the better. She gives plenty of examples of how to add brand content to your website. Adding frequently asked questions, using traditional media like press releases and journalist outreach, even creating short, branded videos all helps raise your company or product visibility with search engines and AI algorithms that generate results.
Evolving Information – Follow Us
This world of AI-driven search continues to evolve. Follow Seven Oaks Consulting on LinkedIn and YouTube for the latest and bookmark our blog. We are learning as we go – and growing as we learn. We’re testing what we learn, too, and will share what works with you.