The SEOptimist

Is Blogging Still Worth It For SEO In 2026?

Brian Watkins — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:42:24 +0000

Blogging has been a staple of content marketing for long enough that some businesses have formed and grown within that era, never knowing a state of being without it as a strategy. But with how much has been changing with Google and content consumption in general in recent years, it makes sense to ask whether […]

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Should Businesses Bother With Local Listings in 2026?

Brian Watkins — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:29:21 +0000

Even though I’ve never been a big directories guy, I’ve always recommended some degree of local push with my ongoing clients. If for nothing else, to say that we’ve checked all the foundational boxes. There are two major things I’ve noticed in the last few months, however, that are making me doubt the viability or […]

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Interpreting Google’s Shift (May Core Algorithm)

Brian Watkins — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:28:07 +0000

Another wave forward for the pressure of novel, useful content. I guess it was inevitable with the last couple years of nonstop AI tactics for churning out content. My own experience of local networking and webinars have shown the prevalence of leaning on the LLM of the week to do everything from sourcing ideas to […]

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How Do I Build Authority On A New Website?

Brian Watkins — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:37:49 +0000

Traditionally people would often think authority = backlinks + time. What’s emerging now, though, is more like authority = trust signals that stack and reinforce each other. That absolutely can still mean backlinks and how long your website has been around. But what search engines and LLMs are also looking for is: Clearly demonstrated experience […]

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Why .com Still Wins (Even When It Shouldn’t Matter)

Brian Watkins — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:41:06 +0000

Over the years, a ton of new domain suffixes have cropped up. In some scenarios, that’s allowed for creative names like visual.ly. But I think unless you’re going to do something deliberate, something that makes specific use of the suffix itself as a part of the name, the preference for .com domains remains for a […]

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SEO Writing Isn’t Simply A Deliverable

Brian Watkins — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:05:31 +0000

“Blogging for SEO” has been a thing for a long time. While it’s still part of the strategy I run with clients, it needs to be done deliberately and not as what amounts to busy work. At one point in my career I started offering consulting services alongside the hands-on campaigns I’d been doing. That […]

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