6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

Introduction

SEO has changed, is changing, and will continue to change long into the future. But it’s not dead, dying, or going to die any time soon. So it’s still an important marketing channel for blogs, local businesses, and anyone else who wants to improve their visibility online. But to improve your visibility, you need to improve your SEO. We use the techniques I’m going to discuss below to boost our own site’s SEO.

And top-3 keyword rankings for more than 8K keywords:

If your traffic is stagnant or declining, or you’re not ranking for your important keywords, there are methods below to help you turn things around. Here’s a quick summary of what we’ll discuss:

1. Lean on Firsthand Experience

Effort: Very High
Area: Content Strategy
Summary: Hard to do, but major gains to make for user trust and experience (and E-E-A-T)

Building trust with your users is important for SEO and business in general. If your audience doesn’t trust you, they’ll stop:

• Reading your content
• Signing up to your email list
• Buying your products and services

In 2022, Google added an extra “E” to its E-A-T acronym for “experience.” Google summed it up with a question to ask yourself when creating content:

“Does [your] content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced?”

AI can generate generic content in seconds, but it can’t create genuine experiences.

Show, Don’t Tell

Your readers (and Google) can tell the difference between:

• “This SEO tool offers useful keyword research features.”
• “I use this tool to find keywords my competitors are targeting that I’m not. In fact, I’ve used it to identify keyword opportunities that now drive thousands of monthly visitors to my own website.”

Document Your Process

Take screenshots, photos, or videos as you use a product or implement a strategy. This visual proof demonstrates that you’ve actually used what you’re writing about.

2. Add Information Gain

Effort: Very High
Area: Content Strategy
Summary: Takes time to nail, but can set you apart from competitors and lead to better rankings

Information gain is about offering new perspectives, data, or insights not found in other pages targeting the same search query.

Leverage Proprietary Data

One way to add extra value is to share unique data that only you have access to:

• Customer surveys
• Internal case studies
• Platform usage statistics
• Original research findings

Create Visual Demonstrations

Another way to add information gain is to create custom visuals that explain concepts in new ways.

3. Optimize for Featured Snippets

Effort: Medium
Area: SERP Optimization
Summary: Fairly low effort as you can optimize your existing content, but can majorly boost your SERP visibility

Featured snippets are still your best chance to get extra visibility in front of searchers for a lot of keywords.

How to Optimize

1. Find a keyword that you already rank for.
2. Identify the type of featured snippet for that keyword.
3. Add a snippet of content to your page designed to fit inside that featured snippet box.

4. Create Linkable Assets

Effort: Very High
Area: Link Building
Summary: Effort-intensive but can pay dividends long into the future

Linkable assets or “link bait” are designed to attract backlinks due to their high value and shareability.

Try Creating Free Tools

Free tools can attract backlinks and let potential customers try out your tool to encourage them to convert.

5. Update Existing Content with GSC Query Data

Effort: Medium
Area: Content Optimization
Summary: Takes time to do at scale, but can help your existing content rank higher and drive more traffic

Updating your existing content is a great way to improve your SEO with less effort than creating completely new content.

6. Target New and Trending Keywords

Effort: High
Area: Keyword Strategy
Summary: Not always easy to scale, but can lead to great traffic and backlink opportunities

Targeting new terms helps you compete with fewer people and often rank higher.

7. Optimize for Key UX Signals

Effort: Medium
Area: Technical SEO/UX
Summary: Not an “official” ranking factor, but still worth optimizing for

Improving user experience leads to happier users, making them more likely to convert.

Answer User Questions Fast

Give users what they came to your content for, fast.

Structure Your Content for Scanning

Use clear headings and keep paragraphs short to improve readability.

8. Shift From ToFu to BoFu Keywords

Effort: High
Area: Keyword Strategy
Summary: Opportunity to drive more traffic and more sales

Targeting bottom-of-the-funnel keywords leads to higher conversion rates.

9. Use Broken Link Building

Effort: High
Area: Link Building
Summary: Simple but effective

Jump into Backlink Analytics to find broken pages your content can replace.

10. Speed Up Your Website

Effort: Medium
Area: Technical SEO
Summary: Important for rankings and user experience

A fast-loading website is essential for ranking and providing a good user experience.

11. Build Your Visibility Beyond Traditional Search Results

Effort: Very High
Area: Brand Authority
Summary: Long-term strategy to boost visibility

Expand your visibility across platforms beyond just SERPs to improve authority and brand recognition.

Conclusion

Improving your SEO is all about picking the tasks that are likely to have the highest impact on your website. The tips in this guide are some of the best ways to improve your SEO.

For comprehensive tips, check out our complete [SEO checklist](/content/seo-checklist "The Complete SEO Checklist"/index.html).