What Is AI Eligibility?

AI eligibility refers to your content’s readiness to be selected, summarized, or cited by AI‑powered search features. Classic SEO focuses on ranking; AI eligibility focuses on being a trusted source that these models pull from. Google’s documentation on AI Overviews says there are no special technical requirements beyond being indexed and eligible for a normal snippet. That sounds simple, but real‑world data tells a different story:

• SE Ranking’s AI Mode research found that only 14% of cited URLs match the top ten organic results.
• The same study reported that 18% of queries had no overlap with organic results at all.
• Surfer’s AI Overviews study reports that AI Overviews display around eight sources per response, and about 70% of those sources come from the top ten organic results for the original or related queries.
• Niumatrix’s analysis of citation probabilities shows that pages ranking first in Google have roughly a 53% chance of being cited in AI Overviews, while pages in position 10 have about a 37% chance.

High rankings help, but they don’t guarantee inclusion. AI systems expand your query, look at related subtopics, and then choose supporting links. Bing’s Deep Search blog explains that it rewrites queries using GPT‑4 and re‑ranks pages based on relevance, freshness, and trust. Research from MADX on Perplexity notes that Perplexity uses its own ranking signals — authoritative list mentions, awards, and online reviews — and still overlaps with only about 60% of Google’s top ten results.

Traits of AI‑Eligible Content

AI systems need trustworthy, clearly structured information they can digest and summarize quickly. Based on guidance from Google and Microsoft and independent studies, AI‑eligible content shares these traits.

Editorial Traits

• Answer‑first structure: Lead with a concise answer before elaborating. How‑to guides, FAQ pages, and list‑style comparisons work well because they mirror user intent and allow models to quote directly. Perplexity’s ranking guidance advises grouping related ideas into short paragraphs and bullet lists.
• Question‑oriented headings: Use H2/H3 tags framed as questions (for example, “How does X work?”) and follow with a direct answer. Google’s fan‑out process issues multiple related queries; capturing those variations increases your chances of being cited.
• Depth and recency: Provide comprehensive coverage, cite primary sources, and update regularly. Microsoft’s guidelines recommend auditing content for accuracy, removing outdated pages, and maintaining freshness.
• Authority and experience: Demonstrate expertise through case studies, first‑hand insights, and reputable references. Entrepreneur’s analysis notes that AI systems favor domains with strong authority and community signals, including mentions in high‑profile media and engagement on platforms like Reddit.
• Conversational readability: Write in clear, declarative sentences with minimal fluff. Avoid jargon and use active voice.

Technical Traits

• Structured data markup (SDM): Use schema.org types (FAQPage, HowTo, Article, Product) to map your content to machine‑readable entities. Surfer’s analysis of semantic alignment found that core sources in AI Overviews align their titles and slugs closely with the query.
• Header tags and lists: Break content into logical sections with descriptive headings and bullet lists. Microsoft explicitly recommends FAQs, numbered lists, and proper HTML semantics to improve AI understanding.
• Internal linking and hub structure: Connect related pages and build topic clusters. This helps AI navigate and signals topical authority.
• Crawlability and index status: Verify that robots.txt and meta tags allow indexing. Google’s docs emphasise that pages must be indexable and eligible for a snippet.
• Site health and speed: Remove broken pages, fix redirects, and optimize load times. Perplexity values fast‑loading, up‑to‑date pages.

To‑Do List

• Build question‑answer sections with clear heading levels (H2 for questions, H3 for sub‑questions) and appropriate schema markup.
• Validate your schema with Google’s Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator.
• Update stale content quarterly: add new data points, update screenshots, and remove outdated references.
• Earn authoritative mentions through interviews, guest posts, and citations in respected media. Community engagement on forums and niche sites helps too.
• Monitor citations across AI platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) to see where your brand appears and adjust accordingly.

Structured Data Example

To help AI systems understand your articles, include JSON‑LD schema. Here’s a basic example you can adapt. Replace the headline, date, author, and publisher details with your own:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "YOUR_ARTICLE_TITLE",
  "datePublished": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "AUTHOR_NAME"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "PUBLISHER_NAME"
  }
}

Tip: Don’t let structured data scare you. Schema markup is just a few lines of JSON describing your page’s title, date and author. Once you understand the pattern, you can adapt it for articles, products, FAQs and more in minutes.

How to Audit for AI Eligibility

Auditing for AI visibility combines classic SEO checks with new signals. Here’s a practical workflow:

Audit Workflow

• Index and snippet eligibility: Fire up Screaming Frog — the crawler I rely on — to confirm that important pages return 200 status codes, contain indexable canonical tags, and aren’t excluded by robots.txt. In Google Search Console (GSC), use the Coverage report to identify “Excluded” URLs and fix noindex tags and soft 404s.
• Structural integrity: Ensure every page uses proper headings (H1, H2) and that lists are marked up with <ul> and <ol>. Use a structured data extractor to confirm schema is present.
• Content freshness: Export top‑performing URLs from GSC. Sort by click difference and click‑through rate. Pages with stable impressions and declining CTR may be cited in AI panels but not clicked. Review and update them.
• Query‑type analysis: Use GSC’s regex filters to isolate AI‑prone queries (for example, ^(how|what|why|best|can|does)). Compare performance before and after AI Overviews rolled out. If impressions rise but clicks fall, your page is eligible but unappealing — rewrite the opening answer and strengthen your call to action.
• Citation testing: Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity questions that match your target queries. Note which sources are cited and compare with your rankings. This helps identify gaps and competitor strategies.
• Content audit: Following Microsoft’s guidance, perform monthly updates on evergreen FAQs, quarterly reviews for high‑performing blog posts and annual overhauls of cornerstone content. Remove or redirect low‑quality pages to improve overall site health.
• Monitor IndexNow submissions: For Bing and other IndexNow‑enabled engines, submit updated URLs to ensure rapid re‑indexing.

Audit Tools

• Screaming Frog: Crawl your site for index status, headings, and schema. This is my go‑to crawler because it surfaces indexability issues, duplicate headings, and missing schema in minutes.
• Google Search Console: Analyze performance, index coverage, and regex query filters.
• SE Ranking / Surfer AI Mode monitors: Track AI Mode visibility and volatility. Start with the basic tiers if you’re new to these tools; even simple reports can reveal which pages get cited.
• ChatGPT / Gemini / Perplexity: Use them as testing environments. Ask them to summarize your topic and see if your page appears; this is a direct indicator of eligibility.

Tip: If you’re just beginning with AI visibility trackers, keep it simple. Start by querying ChatGPT or Gemini with your target keyword and see which sources they cite. This quick test will show whether your content is on their radar and highlight competitors you might not have considered.

Future‑Proofing Your Content

Traditional SEO isn’t dead — it’s evolving. Here’s how to prepare your content for a future dominated by AI‑powered search:

• Lean into structured data and entities: Niumatrix’s discussion of the Knowledge Graph explains that Google’s Knowledge Graph forms the backbone of AI Overviews. Use schema to define entities (Person, Organization, Product) and relationships. Align page titles and slugs with the target query to improve semantic similarity.
• Build topical hubs and clusters: Create comprehensive hub pages that link to detailed subpages. This improves internal linking, helps models understand context, and signals depth.
• Maintain freshness at scale: Schedule monthly refreshes for FAQs, quarterly reviews for blogs, and annual rewrites for cornerstone pages. Use IndexNow to signal updates to Bing and other engines.
• Optimize for different AI engines: Perplexity’s ranking research shows it favors authoritative list mentions, awards, reviews, and strong domain authority. ChatGPT and Gemini cite more trusted media and community sources. Diversify your off‑site presence accordingly: secure placements in recognized publications, earn industry awards, and cultivate genuine reviews.
• Enhance semantic clarity: Use natural language and synonyms. Group related ideas into short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and tables. Remove redundancy. Perplexity values clean structure and direct answers.
• Invest in community engagement: Participate authentically in Reddit, Stack Exchange, and niche forums; these community signals are now part of LLM training data. Provide real examples and answer questions with expertise.
• Track AI referrals: Use analytics to segment traffic from AI features (for example, by referrer string) and measure conversions. Google notes that clicks from AI Overviews tend to be higher quality.
• Watch emerging standards like llm.txt: Some early adopters have begun hosting /llm.txt files to declare permissions and preferences for large language model crawlers — a cousin to robots.txt. This isn’t formalised yet, but tools are already requesting it. Keep an eye on discussions around this spec and be ready to implement it when it matures.

Reality check: Yes, that means doing the work. Google loves Reddit results in today’s SERPs because they’re authentic. This isn’t so different from classic link building — find topically relevant, authoritative communities where your audience actually spends time and contribute value.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Chasing only top ten rankings. AI eligibility often pulls from beyond the first page; focusing solely on rank ignores other selection criteria.
• Neglecting structured data. Schema isn’t optional. Without it, AI models may misinterpret your content or skip it entirely.
• Publishing thin, AI‑generated content. Models favor depth, originality, and authoritative references.
• Ignoring community channels. Reddit and niche forums are now major citation engines.
• Letting pages age without updates. Outdated information poisons trust signals and can cause LLMs to misrepresent your brand.
• Relying on domain authority alone. Large sites get cited, but AI systems still evaluate page‑level relevance, freshness and answer quality.

Remember: Eligibility is the new ranking. Focus on making your content citeable and trustworthy rather than obsessing over position alone.

Parting Thoughts…

While we can’t control how AI models build their answers, we can influence the signals they see. Treat your content like a set of structured, trusted signals rather than static pages. Align your work with how these models operate: answer questions directly, support claims with evidence, mark up your data, keep it current, and build authority across the web.

Classic rankings still matter — Surfer’s study found that about 70% of AI Overview sources come from the top ten results, and Niumatrix’s research shows first‑position pages have the highest inclusion rate. But rankings are no longer the only path to visibility. In a world where only 14% overlap is the norm, eligibility is the new ranking.

Use this guide to perform your audits, update your content and start testing your visibility in AI panels. The sooner you adapt, the sooner your expertise can be cited — not just ranked!

The post The Practical SEO Guide to Creating AI-Eligible Content appeared first on Eric Lander.

But here’s the truth: this isn’t the full story. Not for everyone. And maybe not for you.

Warning: If you’re only reading industry headlines, you’re missing the nuance. These reports are real, but they often come from massive publishers or sites with edge-case visibility. That’s rarely an apples-to-apples comparison for your site.

This article is for anyone looking to calmly investigate what’s really happening with their traffic, without falling victim to panic or generalizations. Whether you’re a solo publisher, content marketer, or in-house SEO, here are quick, practical checks and investigations you can run — using your own data — to make smarter decisions.

Don’t Panic — But Do Get Curious

AI Overviews (AIO) have been live for some time in the U.S. and continue to impact a growing number of queries. The fear? That users never click through anymore. But let’s back up.

Tip: Google Search Console does count impressions and clicks from AI Overviews — but only when your link is visible or scrolled into view. They’re not just tallied because your site is technically referenced.

This insight was confirmed thanks to ongoing testing and documentation by Brodie Clark.

• When your site is cited in an AI Overview block, it shares the same position (usually Position 1) with other links in that block.
• Impressions are only counted if your citation is visible to the user — if it’s hidden or below the fold, it won’t count.
• Clicks behave like any other result: if clicked or tapped, they count normally in GSC.

This means a rise in impressions with low or no clicks with very low average ranking positions — may indicate AIO visibility — but not engagement.

That’s something to investigate, not fear.

7 Quick Checks You Can Do Right Now

1. Review High-Impression, Low-CTR Queries

   GSC → Performance → Queries
   Sort by Impressions. Add CTR. Look for informational queries with falling CTRs over time — especially if your average position remains strong.

2. Compare by Page

   GSC → Pages → Add Query
   Check whether core evergreen content has lost clicks, but still earns impressions. This could point to your link being cited in AIOs, but not clicked – especially as AIOs push your historically strong rankings down the visual SERP.

3. Look for Flatline Clicks on High-Ranking Content

   Content that holds top 3 positions but sees declining or stagnant clicks might be replaced (or again, pushed down) by AI summaries. Compare the time window before and after AIO rollouts.

4. Check Query Types That Trigger AI

   Run test queries (incognito, U.S. IP) like “how to,” “best way to,” or “can I…” to see if they trigger AI results. Then see how your content performs for those searches. Study the current SERPs for insights into how you can improve your content.

5. Use Regex Filters to Track Trendable Patterns

   GSC → Queries → Filter → Custom (Regex)
   Try: ^(how|what|when|why|can|does)\s
   This helps isolate AI-prone queries and shows you performance at scale.

6. Compare Intent Match

   Look at the actual queries sending impressions to your pages. Do the page titles and content reflect that intent? If not, AIOs may be winning that click with better alignment.

7. Track Click & CTR Delta Over Time

   Export GSC data and plot impressions, clicks, CTR weekly. AIO influence usually shows as stable impressions + falling CTR, with some volatility post-rollout.

Remember: The best way to fight fear is with familiarity. The more you learn to interpret your GSC data through the AI lens, the better you’ll understand where your strengths — and risks — really are.

Who’s Surfaced the Signal Amidst the Noise?

Much of this thinking is made possible by those doing deep public work on AI + SEO. If you’re ready to go further, start here:

• Brodie Clark’s tracking of AI Overviews in GSC – the definitive technical overview (July 2025)
• iPullRank’s breakdown on AIO visibility – complete with UI behavior analysis
• Rand Fishkin on Zero-Click Content – larger philosophical look at what this trend means for creators

Bookmark those. Then dig into your own site’s data. And remember: you’re not trying to predict the future of search — just understand your role in it.

The post Is AI Really Stealing Your Clicks? How to Investigate Without Panic appeared first on Eric Lander.

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at an unfamiliar site and wondering where to start, this triage guide is for you.

It doesn’t matter if the project came through a Flippa acquisition or a Slack message from your boss — the key is knowing how to quickly size up a site’s condition, identify its greatest vulnerabilities and opportunities, and determine what needs immediate attention — and what can wait.

This isn’t a checklist or a tutorial. It’s a flexible framework that adapts to different scenarios and supports your own self-discovery into related areas of interest — whether it’s for M&A due diligence, client onboarding, or internal diagnostics. My approach blends fast, reliable tactics with enough depth to reveal what’s broken under the surface.

Where I Always Start: GA4 & GSC Access

Before I fire up Screaming Frog or look at rankings in any SEO tool, I’m on the hunt for access to the two most valuable assets:

• Google Analytics (GA4): Which should be filled with usage patterns, key conversion flows, content engagement trends, and page speed insights.
• Google Search Console (GSC): Provides critical, first-party data on search performance, indexation health, top queries, indexing errors, and crawl activity.

“Without GA4 and GSC, you’re guessing — not diagnosing.”

If you don’t have access to either or both, that becomes priority #1 — even if it means setting them up from scratch. Sure, you won’t get historical data — but once verified, you’re capturing first-party insights and building the baseline for every future improvement.

Next, head on over to Google and search for the domain.

site:example.com

This gives you a real-time sense of indexation: what’s appearing, what shouldn’t be, and what may be outdated or duplicative.

Look for clues visible in the SERP:

• Title and meta alignment: Are titles readable, accurate, and unique? Do they reflect current branding?
• Breadcrumbs vs. raw URLs: Breadcrumbs usually signal structured data and clean taxonomy. If you only see full URLs, you may be missing schema support.
• Date snippets: If dates appear on content that shouldn’t be time-sensitive (like service pages), Google may be pulling from errant timestamps — or misinterpreting your layout.
• Image thumbnails: These can sometimes show when Google detects valuable visual media. If they’re missing from key pages, check your og:image, structured data, and image placement. But know, many SERP features fail to show on a simple site: search.
• Tag/category archive spam: Seeing dozens of near-identical blog index pages? That’s a taxonomy control problem — and a potential source of cannibalization or bloat.

“Google’s SERPs reveal what it thinks your site is. The site: command gives you the unfiltered version of that story.”

Hidden in Plain Sight: The GSC Settings Tab

Despite its importance, GSC’s Settings tab is still one of the most overlooked sections — and often the first place real issues show up.

I always check:

• Crawl Stats: traffic drops, crawl delays, or server response issues
• Indexing Crawler Type: desktop vs. mobile parity
• Verification + Access: confirm full rights and shared access across teams

Tip: GSC hides core insights where no one expects them. The Settings tab is your early warning system.

Surface Level Symptoms: Indexation & Cannibalization

This is where I start matching content to performance. I’m looking for:

• Pages with high impressions but low CTR
• Multiple pages ranking for similar queries
• Orphaned content with zero internal links

Inside GSC → Performance report, I:

• Filter by high impressions & low CTR
• Add Page and Query dimensions
• Sort and scan for overlap and missed intent

site:example.com inurl:blog intitle:tag

Use this to find tag and category pages that shouldn’t be indexable — often a hidden source of cannibalization or crawl waste.

Warning: Cannibalization doesn’t always look like two identical posts. Sometimes it’s duplicate intent scattered across weakly supported taxonomy pages.

Need more? Get more guidance straight from the source? → Google’s Guide to Duplicate Content

Performance Matters: CWV + Page Experience Signals

Instead of digging through lab-based data tools like Sitebulb, I use:

• CrUX Dashboard: for real-world performance data
• PageSpeed Insights: for current lab test metrics anf optimization recommendations
• GA4: for pages with drop-offs in engagement, load times or sluggish navigation

“CrUX is your historical truth. It’s available for any URL — even competitors — and it’s where you’ll find an important, historical run of health.”

Never Used CrUX Before? Google’s template literally takes 2 minutes to set up → Google Chrome UX Report Data Studio Template

Did You Know? You can use CrUX to test competitor URLs when suspecting mobile SERP gaps. It’s particularly revealing when comparing template-level DOM sizes, rendering time, or interactivity issues.

---

Templates + Taxonomies: Structural Intelligence

Pages don’t rank in isolation — structures do. Once I’ve identified problematic pages, I zoom out and ask:

• Are Services and Blog templates bloated with unnecessary fields or duplicate headings?
• Are Projects or Portfolios grouped logically in the URL and nav?
• Are templated pages (like Staff Bios or Events) pulling in smart internal links?

DevTools trick:

Chrome → DevTools → Lighthouse → View Treemap

This shows you DOM size across pages — a fast, visual way to flag bloated templates or overengineered experiences. What you find here can often show why section-specific performance may vary from the balance of the site.

New to DOM? Start with Google’s take on tackling DOM issues → Web.dev on Optimizing DOM Size

---

Intent ≠ Content: Closing the Gap

I export GSC queries and crosswalk them to site structure:

• Group keywords by ranking page
• Scan for unrelated queries (wrong intent)
• Compare page title/meta vs. actual user search behavior

Tip: If your About page ranks for “[service] pricing” — fix your internal linking, adjust meta, or create the page users actually want.

This is one of the biggest trust leaks in SEO. If Google sends someone to a page and they bounce? You’ve just proven you weren’t the answer.

Authority + Relevance: Backlinks and Mentions

Whether I’m doing due diligence or mapping brand equity, I look at:

• Referring Domains: from Ahrefs or Majestic
• Anchor Text Mix: to catch over-optimization or thin coverage
• Unlinked Mentions: easy wins for outreach

“If Google trusts you, your page doesn’t have to be perfect. If it doesn’t, your page has to overdeliver.”

Final Word

Inherited sites aren’t blank slates — they’re loaded questions. Your job isn’t to answer all of them. It’s to identify the ones that matter and fix them in the right order.

Need fast answers? My Micro SEO Audit distills this triage process and produces actionable insights, a video recording – and prioritized recommendations that are focused, tactical, and tailored to your site and situational needs.

The post SEO Triage: What I Look at First When Taking Over a Website appeared first on Eric Lander.

Here are some effective ways that I have learned throughout the years to help win others over and help you to see your project through:

Establish Vision & Strategies for Success
Motivating others to support your efforts is much easier when they can visualize how they play a role, how they can benefit – and why you should work together. This is a great method for turning key decision makers and executives into advocates for your cause.

Show your lead developers how their sites will run more efficiently. Show your designers how their user interface design solves for Googleâ€s new mobile algorithm updates. Show business leaders how a more comprehensive SERP will generate more sales and leads… But always remember to show them examples. Visualization is a powerful tool.

Benchmark Your Beginnings
The moment you get started, you need to record where you are in terms of key analytics and project KPIs. From traffic sources and levels to site efficiency and conversation rates – record as much as you can. A Stellar SEO initiative will deliver results across the board – and showing these gains over time to different teams who may become involved in your project can be a great way to acquire more support and momentum down the line. It also helps you to up sell yourself after the fact and earn more freedom to launch new projects when you have a solid track record.

Be Aware of the SEO lifecycle
When you (or your ideas) are new, thereâ€s a lot of excitement and support. As the honeymoon period fades though, others will become jaded and turn their attention to other (seemingly) more pressing matters.

Keep your collaborators actively engaged with the project by maintaining a plan, sharing insights with them – and keeping their interests in mind. Great SEO takes time to mature, so be sure to stockpile and share the incremental gains along the way if you expect to have a steady supply of resources available.

Empower & Educate Others
It is rare that an SEO project can be completed by SEOs in a vacuum. If you need to rely on the support of others from a creative, technical or development background – be very clear about the rewards they can expect. Will they be learning new skills? Acquire a deeper understanding for search or facets of online marketing and management software application?

Marketability in todayâ€s economy is a powerful chip to bring to the table – and your colleagues will latch on to opportunities if you can show them solid gains.

Practice Your Pitch
Realize that youâ€re selling search. You need to own your ideas, present them well and make sure your audience of colleagues have a clear understanding of why they need to support you.

One of the easiest ways to derail a project is to talk over the heads of critical stakeholders or fail to present your ideas and objectives in a meaningful way. You cannot have the same conversation with your executive team as you can a PHP developer, so be very aware of your audience at all times.

Plan for Growing Pains
Assuming you are working towards a significant project resulting in long term change – be ready. Growing pains can and will happen often. To help move you from a one hit wonder to a headline act, you will need to help your organization scale for success. This means that you will need to have practice guides, case studies and guidelines available for your organization to learn and live from. To accomplish this, be sure to establish an accessible reference center, add to it often – and eliminate your own distractions. Itâ€s tough to get things done when youâ€re spending a majority of your time keeping everyone on-board.

Institutionalize Success
One successful project can alter an entire organization. From improved bottom lines to more efficient workflows – ending a project confidently is key to setting yourself up for the next project. Once you have seen your first project through to completion, show others how your project can be directly tied to organizational success. By keeping your completed projects top of mind, company leaders will be more ready to support your next internal project pitch.

The post 7 Ways to Win Organizational Buy-In for SEO Projects appeared first on Eric Lander.

For the first time in years, Google was forthcoming with details on an algorithmic update.

The search marketing industry knew exactly when to expect the update to be released. We knew what Google was looking to emphasize, demote and encourage. We also knew that we should expect significant changes in how mobile traffic and impression level data would be shared.

Leading up to late April, major industry publications showcased the algorithm update with mushroom clouds, explosions and implied carnage alongside careful dissections of how thousands of websites would suffer immediate and significant losses of traffic because of their inability to fully cater to mobile audiences.

And yet here we are – some 105 days later… And itâ€s almost impossible to find fresh news on the Mobilegeddon update.

What happened?

Iâ€d argue that the marketing industry and site owners have simply moved on from Mobilegeddon as a topic, because like most other items we hear about from Google in advance — it was riddled with rhetoric and simply compounded a number of obvious responsibilities that website designers, marketers and administrators needed to account for.

The search industry Internet is increasingly mobile.

More searches are conducted through mobile technology. The nature of information consumption has had to change as a result. And, despite the best efforts from Samsung and Apple, handheld deviceâ€s screen real estate is still at a premium.

Combine that with the fact that bandwidth, accessibility and content clarity are all critical in a mobile environment… And you have the basis for “MOBILEGEDDON!”

Meh.

Google hasnâ€t exactly gone out of their way to emphasize the update since it was introduced, either.

Since April 21st, Google has done a number of arguably more significant things, including:

• Introducing the Search Analytics API
• Revoked Access to the Autocomplete API
• Rebranded Google Webmaster Tools as Search Console
• Introduced New Handling of TLDs in Search
• Opened Up Deep Linking in Apps with goo.gl
• Opened Up Search Console Resources for Mobile Apps
• Released Google Panda 4.2
• Released the “Quality Update” Algorithm Changes (Phantom 2)

Given all of that, and the many changes others like Facebook have made in that same timeframe – should we have expected anything different?

A number of industry peers have gone to great lengths to dissect the Mobilegeddon update and advise on how to handle itâ€s related changes – but the point Iâ€m here to make today is that we knew this was coming. It wasnâ€t significant, and, itâ€s served as a significant distraction at times.

Have you found or experienced anything different? Weigh in on the comments section below and continue the conversation!

The post 105 Days Later,  Google’s “Mobilegeddon” Has Been Forgotten appeared first on Eric Lander.

The theories, centered around observations in online discussions, are that the algorithm was most noticeable by site owners and marketers previously affected by Penguin updates in the past.

In the past 10 days or so, Iâ€ve observed a number of significant changes in highly competitive (often littered with spam) keyword spaces.

These changes include a major reshuffling of rankings across the top three pages – and in one instance – I have seen a 35% increase in organic traffic. While the destination URLs for those searches seem to coincide with the most altered keywords and related SERPs, itâ€s impossible to prove out thanks to our old friend, (not provided).

The sites winning though have clearly demonstrated a commitment to ongoing content publishing and natural outreach across social, PR and offline media. The sites losing out are those that are not as active in any of those spaces.

In other words, Panda appears to be continuing on with a rolling update as expected.

The question though is whether or not this is a significant and noticeable update tied to a specific timeframe, or, coincidentally obvious updates that are part of that rolling algorithm we have all seen and heard about.

While I happened to see positive movement in a site I closely analyze, others were not as lucky. Martin Ice Web from Webmaster World made the following comment nearly two weeks ago – discussing changes to a German ecommerce website he began observing on July 18th:

Since saturday we are seeing a 40% drop in traffic. And this traffic is fully unrelated. Conversions droped about 80%.

I wonder why every time a “quality algo” ends in killing sites that had been good traffic / low bounce / good conversions.

You can read more from Martin and many others commenting on Netmegâ€s thread, Google Panda 4.2 Rolling Out, published back on Jul 22nd.

What have you observed in the past month or so of reviewing your analytics and SERPs? Leave a comment below and share your experiences!

For more information on Google Panda 4.2, please see the following links:

• Google Panda 4.2 Is Here; Slowly Rolling Out After Waiting Almost 10 Months
• Google Panda Update: Everything We Know About Panda 4.2
• Whats going on Google SERP
• Google Update 8/2?
• Google Panda 4.2 Rolling Out

The post Google Panda 4.2: “New” Spam Algorithm or Just an Update? appeared first on Eric Lander.

The value of the table is simple; It shows you in clear and concise ways how all of the general areas of ranking factors involved in SEO can be used (or not) help shape your rankings and traffic earning potenitial. If you’re carefully addressing all of the items in green and avoiding the red items consistently – you’re likely to be successful.

The greatest aspect about the Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors to me though is that it’s a crowd-sourced collaboration. And since the current version was last updated back in July, 2013 – it’s time to give this amazing resource an overhaul.

If you’d like to provide some input and direction on the current state of SEO, I’d strongly encourage you to spend 15-20 minutes to take the Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors Survey.

The post Help Shape Search Engine Land’s New Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors appeared first on Eric Lander.

In that time I have seen agency marketers, web designers and standalone webmasters all scramble to solve for a variety of challenges, including:

• Reliably displaying content to support full topical comprehension on smaller screens
• Capture and utilize device level analytics for improved content marketing initiatives
• Prioritize technical aspects of on-page and on-site optimization for improved organic search performance
• Utilize responsive design capabilities to promote mobile-specific calls to action and conversions

On Thursday, Twitter’s #SEOChat community got together at 1PM ET, rallied behind the host of the week’s forum, BloomReach Inc. (@bloomreachinc) – and jumped head first into the topics of mobile search engine optimization.

The following highlights are straight from the #SEOChat Twitter activity – and I’ve peppered in my own commentary along the way.

Q1: What does "mobile SEO" mean to you? #seochat

— Bloomreach Inc. (@bloomreach_inc) February 12, 2015

Pretty simple topic to get us started, but I was surprised by the number and variance of results provided during the chat.  Scanning the hashtag in TweetDeck, a few of the #SEOChat leaders really jumped out at me:

@bloomreachinc A1: serving the user at the right time with the right message formatted for a telephone! #seochat

— Jason White (@Sonray) February 12, 2015

A1: It means attention to load time #less than1sec, optimizing for local and creating design that makes sense on small screens. #seochat

— Kristi Kellogg (@KristiKellogg) February 12, 2015

https://twitter.com/lisabuyer/status/565936037642637312

And for me – right out of the gate – these responses proved that there are a number of unique perspectives on mobile search engine optimization.

I highlighted the above responses for a few reasons:

1. As Jason White (@Sonray, Dragon Search) points out, mobile SEO’s objective is capture and serve the user irregardless of device. At d50 Media, our creative director preaches “right audience, right time, right screen…” and it’s stuck. I’m simply an advocate of this because I have seen first hand how incredibly important this is.
2. Connecting the right person with the right content through requires what Kristi Kellogg (@KristiKellogg, Bruce Clay, Inc.) introduces: the science of technical optimization.  With mobile devices criss-crossing from 3G to WiFi to 4G and public hotspots, connectivity is the only guarantee. When data speeds slow down, it’s up to you to deliver clean and efficient code in order to serve your audience before they tune out. If you can  you need to have a website that loads fast, works with mobile services and leverages device location and content intent to truly serve folks at a hyperlocal level… you win.
3. Tying the previous reasons together, Lisa Buyer (@lisabuyer, Social PR Secrets) suggests that this is a PR thing. If we’re to look at PR as true and simple public relations, know that I could not agree more. Lisa’s assertion is spot on and really wraps up the “right audience, right time…” argument succinctly. Success means that you’re actively engaged in mobile. If you’re not, you’re flirting with a PR disaster.

Q2: What does "mobile SEO" fall in your customer's priority list? #seochat

— Bloomreach Inc. (@bloomreach_inc) February 12, 2015

The second question of the afternoon really required the audience to focus in on the agency/vendor relationship. I would have liked to see more activity on this particular question, but fear that as it was asked – it may have been a turn off for those working in-house or even on their own websites.

Regardless, the quality responses continued…

https://twitter.com/lisabuyer/status/565939299418640385

And again, Lisa is on her game. Brands and organizations do not have a choice when it comes to mobile presence. They’re either there, or they’re not. There is no fence to ride on or middle ground to occupy.

While Lisa boiled it down for everyone, Jason and I both provided a response more aligned with Google’s technical initiatives:

@bloomreachinc a2: For a few of my clients it's becoming important/ The messages that Goog is sending has motivated a few #seochat

— Jason White (@Sonray) February 12, 2015

https://twitter.com/EricLanderSEO/status/565937841155604480

While I cannot speak for Jason – I get the impression that he and I were really trying to reinforce the importance of what Google has done over the past year.

That is, innovate – and invest – in mobile search.

From Webmaster Tools inclusion of more search query details to Google Analytics shedding more light on the device use of your content, it’s clear – Google is treating “mobile” as a leading actor in it’s primetime show.

Making more and more appearances, webmasters and marketers are encountering this “mobile” character in many different places. I tend to see Webmaster Tools as being the de facto home for all things mobile SEO these days and have found the Mobile-Friendly Test and the ability to track mobile usability in Webmaster Tools as being jumping off points for many mobile SEO initiatives.

As the #SEOChat continued, the host then asked for a little more details around technical optimization efforts. The responses were mixed in with those from the previous answer, but I found the following exchange to be deserving of a callout:

Q4: What are the main things you're doing to address mobile SEO? Page speed is fast? No popups? Others? #seochat

— Bloomreach Inc. (@bloomreach_inc) February 12, 2015

@bloomreachinc A4: Speed & responding to how searchers search via mobile differently than desktop #seochat

— Jason White (@Sonray) February 12, 2015

Now, the embed feature doesn’t do Jason’s Tweet any justice. Click on through to the full details and just look at the replies Jason received on his initial response.

While there were all sorts of tangents, my absolute favorite was this:

@KG7MAJ When Siri started to understand my toddler, I got serious about voice. #seochat @bloomreachinc

— Jason White (@Sonray) February 12, 2015

…and it’s pretty clear that when you mash up Google’s Hummingbird, Siri, desktop voice search and all of these technical devices leveraging active listening technologies… well, that’s where we are going. Major kudos to Jason for not only being aware of the movement, but advocating for it too in this group setting. In years’ past, many SEOs would simply skirt the topic altogether with an inclination of using it as a competitive advantage.

Q5: What are the challenges you see in mobile SEO? #seochat

— Bloomreach Inc. (@bloomreach_inc) February 12, 2015

Question five was a little light for me both in substance an response, but Jason’s agency – DragonSearch provided the following which I did think could be used for more conversations down the line:

A5.2: Also, just because a site passes Google's mobile-friendly test, does not guarantee it is mobile-friendly. #seochat

— Dragon360 (@dragon360_) February 12, 2015

We do in fact need to be careful to note that being “mobile friendly” is not strictly limited to appeasing a search engine’s criteria or recommendations. It’s about the user. It’s always about the user.

Thankfully, the next question latch onto those user needs.

Q6: Are you changing content strategy for mobile SEO? Shortening title tags? Making more short-form content? #seochat

— Bloomreach Inc. (@bloomreach_inc) February 12, 2015

I really loved watching the responses to this one come in. On one hand, I could spend hours talking about how content is consumed and how conversion requirements change on mobile devices. On the other hand, I really liked how the following users focused on the comprehensive experience of viewing mobile search results and using that as their basis for mobile SEO work:

https://twitter.com/Samantha_Kafka/status/565946267319414784

A6: Don't forget, mobile refers to device, not necessarily context. Many are comfortably reading long-form on tablet on the couch #seochat

— Paul Thompson (@thompsonpaul) February 12, 2015

….And all in all, this week’s #SEOChat ranks up there amongst my all time favorites. Thanks to everyone involved this week – it was great to see so many folks participating and providing their take!

The post Mobile SEO Tips from #SEOChat Community appeared first on Eric Lander.

Amazingly, many of the mistakes or issues I come across are consistent across the board – regardless of who’s responsible or how large the site is.

Three of the most common issues I’ve found so far in 2013 include:

robots.txt Typos

The robots.txt file is an incredibly powerful resource for site owners. For SEO purposes, it also serves as the instruction set (well behaved) bots and crawlers should follow. With the ability to open up or close down entire sections of your site, you really need to be careful about what directives you place in there.

One client was having tremendous difficulty with having their content spidered regularly. When I took a glance at their robots.txt file, I found that they had implemented a crawl delay and layered on a value of 3000. When I uncovered this and brought it up for discussion, they told me that they wanted to delay crawling of more than 3,000 URLs on their site per day.

Unfortunately, what they had done was told GoogleBot and other spiders listening that they could only make one request every 3,000 seconds. If you do the math, that meant that crawlers could get one page every 50 minutes… or about 29 pages a day. That’s a far cry from the 3,000 they were looking to have grabbed.

Another time, a robots.txt file introduced wildcards against all pages with a .html extension as the CMS being used was rewriting those pages with vanity URLs. Unfortunately, those vanity URLs also dropped canonical URLs that pointed to the .html pages.

You can probably imagine the difficulties that created both for SEO as well as for tracking link values.

Lack of Webmaster Tools Integration

For some reason, people love visitor analytics… But don’t care much about domain analytics. Webmaster Tools (both for Google and for Bing) are incredibly useful. From diagnosing crawler or indexing issues to controlling key display characteristics of your content in the SERPs, Webmaster Tools is your friend.

When it comes to integration though, no one takes is seriously – and if they do, it’s because they’ve adopted the Ron Popeil approach to SEO… “Set it and forget it.”

WMT interfaces are real time statistical centers of information you need to use to ensure your site is performing as it should. More recently, too, we’ve seen Google improve the messaging features in the wake of Penguin 2.0 to help police unethical link profile development.

Building Exclusively for Engines

At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, we should all be clear that content needs to be created (and attributed) by someone… And it should be created for a real reader – not a robot or algorithm. Blog writing form Stellar SEO helps a lot.

The number of sites I’ve seen over-engineered for SEO is almost ridiculous. Some recent examples include:

• Learning of a CMS that whips together Mad Libs style page titling and heading creation. Best of all? You can’t change those variables… You can only toggle them on and off. Need a real H1 with actual content? Sorry. Not possible. Need one that jams in your targeted keyword phrase, physical location and nearest DMA? Sure, that’s just a toggle away.
• A “Search Engine Friendly Redirects” module in a homegrown CMS. The module was fantastic if you ever had to edit your content’s URL. It would allow the old URL to exist, apply a 302 to the new page once, then 302 back to a “node/xyz” style URL, and then drop a 301 back to the new URL with a canonicalization reference against the old, changed URL. I’m glad you were trying to get a 301 in place from the old to the new, but you can’t really just make this stuff up as you go. It’s got to work, kids.
• Automatic internal link dropping… Listen, internal links are great. Necessary, even. But having a tool that scans your content and drops internal links across every single instance of “keyword 1” and points to “URL” with link titles matching the content title is a little excessive… Particularly when you’ve managed to identify keywords like “technology” and magically end up with some 300+ internal links (some of which are looping from current pages to themselves) with zero diversity.

At the end of the day though, I love audit work. It keeps me on my toes. Helps me understand things that don’t initially make sense, and when you make the connection with someone who’s really limited by their existing web presence – it’s very rewarding.

The post 3 Common Issues Found in Recent SEO Audits appeared first on Eric Lander.

I never know what to write about next.

As tends to be the case with blogs lacking new content for years at a time, my regular audience has waned a bit. When these times hit, I tap  social networks and look for suggestions from friends and colleagues who I know will (hopefully) take the time to read what I have to offer.

Earlier tonight night I posed a simple question to my Facebook friends: What would you want for me to write about next?

Despite some interesting responses from Chris Hooley (a fellow veteran SEO) and Tom Carr (aka: Tommy AK, from the Las Vegas punk band The Quitters), a third friend chimed in with something I knew I could write about.

The question was asked by Dan Murray, Account Director at Corporate [IT] Solutions as follows:

Hindsight is 20/20 knowing what you know now would you go back in time and tell the young an impressionable Eric to follow the same path in SEO or choose another?

I’ve known Dan for about 25 years now and while we’re both professionally absorbed in technology, our personal paths have been quite different… Which is probably one of the many reasons he might have asked this.

The short answer? Yes.

The long answer? Well, here goes…

As I wrapped up my senior year in high school I had a series of incredible opportunities laid out in front of me to pursue my passion for computer art and animation. I could have attended the Georgia Tech, University of Indianapolis, Marist College or Emerson College. I know a couple of those schools still have a little bit of my money, but I never attended a single class at any of them.

In hindsight… that sucks.

Instead of heading off to college I worked full time as the production manager for a graphic design and print shop. I did all of that while earning an Associate of Science Degree from New England Institute for Technology. In other words, I became addicted to caffeine while dropping about $30k on a piece of paper and the chance to “graduate” from 13th grade.

Suffice it to say, I lacked the “traditional” college experience by leaving for work before 7AM while being “lucky” to be home from classes by about 11PM.

By age 20, though, I had accumulated a degree (that meant nothing) and debt that I was personally responsible for… And that is pretty damned motivating.

So I did the same thing any aspiring artist did in 2000 with some computer experience… I took a job as a web designer.

Just to make sure I had a solid challenge to motivate me, the job I had required that I design web sites for artisans and gallery owners attempting to sell $20,000 works of art from a 300 pixel wide images on said websites.

It all failed miserably… That is, until we spun our little Providence-based startup into an SEO shop riding the coattails of a Johnson & Wales intern, Andrew Gerhart, who helped Brett Tabke maintain the Search Engine Promotion forum on WebmasterWorld.

Over a period of about five years we turned entrepreneur clients into millionaires, jobs into careers and colleagues into lifelong friends.

In hindsight? That kicked serious ass.

Like all good things, that era came to an end. I’ve since gone on to help run SEO within Fortune 500 organizations. I’ve left all that and jumped back into agency life (twice) where the challenges come fast and furiously. In the midst of it all, I spent a few years and hit “the circuit”, speaking at conferences, authored about 800 articles for the SEO industry and bought into the delusion that I could grow a personal brand and cash in on it all simply because I was well connected.

In other words, I’ve learned many, many lessons along the way.

And those lessons are ones I don’t just throw out there all the time. Some are rhetorical. Others are closely guarded. But all of them have helped me to define who I am, how I approach each day, and why it is I wouldn’t have changed a single thing along the way.

Today, I don’t see myself as an SEO. Defined purely by my title at d50 Media, I’m an Associate Director of Digital Content. The reality of being responsible for content strategy is that I’m maintaining SEO, public relations and social media in a developing acquisition marketing agency. That’s a really exciting, frustrating, stressful, energizing, engrossing position.

None of that would have been possible though if I hadn’t taken a few punches throughout my career.

So, yes, Dan. If I had to do it all over again… I’d let it play out precisely as it has. It’s been an organic path, and at times the path hasn’t been all that visible. But for where I am today, with where I’m headed and looking to get to – it’s the only place I’d ever want to call home.

The post Q&A: If you could do it all over again in SEO, would you? appeared first on Eric Lander.