Checking our clients' digital PR campaigns we did 6+ months ago, I am seeing them become the top cited sources for LLMs, even for pretty huge sites. There's, of course, a lot into that (apart from the fact that LLMs do love citing stats): ✅ Solid organic findability (direct correlation with citability. PR projects that didn't end up ranking well in Google are not cited that well) ✅ Strategic (and ethical) seeding on Reddit I've seen many studies that LLMs seem to "trust" sources that regularly publish authority-driving content (original research, whitepapers, etc). Whether it is because they are like people (original research makes people believe a site is kind of a big deal) or because of all other signals (mainly, organic search visibility), but it surely works! Bottom line: If you want to get cited by LLMs, invest in original research in your niche!

As I am reading the "Zero Click Marketing. How to Build Brands and Earn Customers on a Traffic-Starved Web" book by @amandanat and @randfish, I'll be making some notes (before I am ready to put together a review). First of all, definitely recommended. I've gone through about half of it, and it is an absolute must-read, especially for executives who are still very much willing to correlate any marketing tactic to a click. Now, here's something specific I'd like to discuss today: the book discusses the 4 groups of your target audience (the first image is taken from the book): 1️⃣ Your current customers (surprisingly, often forgotten segment of your audience, albeit I'd say the most important one, not because they can buy more, but also because this group can drive the most important aspects of your brand visibility: word of mouth, community building, social proof) 2️⃣ Your potential customers 3️⃣ Your potential "amplifiers" (people who can spread your word to reach group #2) 4️⃣ Broader community (many businesses may successfully exist without this group, to be sure. So I'd personally say this is the least important segment, in most cases) ➕ 5️⃣ I think that these days, I'd also add "AI agents" as #5 here (actually, it would fall in the first column, so here comes my modified image). AI Agents may not buy yet, but they may definitely visit your site (or find your brand elsewhere) and make a buying decision on behalf of your potential customers. In my opinion, reaching this segment is not much different than reaching your potential customers (you need to be visible in places where your potential customers are), but this segment does need a little more hand-holding; they won't do impulse shopping (which is a major income driver for many business models), they may do more research than your human customers, etc. So it is becoming a new segment requiring separate tracking and optimization strategies. ➕ Another important note here, which LOTS of businesses miss: ALL these groups require a separate approach. For example, your potential amplifiers won't fall for your customer-focused messaging. They usually require broader, more original, more exciting content to be reached. In most cases, that content may not even mention your products or selling points. Reaching your amplifiers may not drive direct sales. The goal is often authority-building signals (for SEO) and brand awareness (building brand recognizability). This effort is hard to measure and hard to sell to executives (the question is usually, "ok, what's the ROI??? and there's no answer here that would satisfy them). ***And yet, this is the most important segment for building a visibility strategy that doesn't depend on algorithm/model changes.*** What would you add?

Am I the only one not seeing this conversion rate from AI traffic? “Converts 8 times better”.. different people various impressive numbers and comparisons. For my clients the conversions are just *slightly* better… yours? @Marie_Haynes I know you shared some numbers, also I think @lilyraynyc may have shared her experience. Anyone else?

*Quick SEO/GEO/AEO tip you can practice right now* If you want to make sure that ChatGPT can access and retrieve your website's content, do what SEOs have been doing for ages: 1️⃣ Take a whole sentence from anywhere on your page (here I am using one that is hidden behind a JavaScript element just to make this test more useful) 2️⃣ Prompt ChatGPT to find this exact sentence and give you the URL. If it manages to do the task, you are mostly good. No fancy "audit" tools are needed ;) Now, you can also check your log files and/or analytics to find if this visit was captured (mine was in the Real Time section, from a well-known data center in Woodbury, Minnesota). **I plan to do these every Thursday, so please connect so you don't miss any. As you may know, I am a very practical SEO person, so I'll try to focus on quick, easy, and fun tricks you can play with!

Online reputation is no longer about “making a good impression” when consumers are searching for your brand name. Online reputation defines your visibility... medium.com/@seosmarty/the-ai…

No, I don't get overbooked at all 😅

Look who is hosting a Reddit AMA this week! @patrickstox 🔥 Seldom will you find that much SEO experience in one person. From SEO at IBM to years of looking at thousands of sites when working with @Ahrefs, Patrick has definitely seen it all! Come over and ask your questions about SEO and GEO/AEO here: reddit.com/r/SEO_for_AI/comm… (And make sure to subscribe to the subreddit too!) 🙏

Does a Business Still Need a Website in 2026 and Beyond (for SEO & GEO Visibility)? xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1mGPaZoVa…

It is sad that we are at a point where we start neglecting the fundamentals, i.e., developing marketing channels that we can fully control. The "cross-channel" concept is important, but it doesn't mean that the official site isn't the most important part of organic visibility, whether it is search or LLM visibility... linkedin.com/pulse/does-busi…

Just a kind note from my new subscriber ☺️ It is so heart-warming to receive feedback like this ❤️

Cross-channel visibility is definitely more important now than it was 2- 3 years ago, but can or should businesses survive and thrive without an official website? No! annsmarty.com/p/does-a-busin…

The rise and fall of Grokopedia... Interestingly, it is still generating some organic search traffic (and I cross-checked with Similarweb too)! One of the most ambitious programmatic SEO efforts

I just published Content Effort: One of Google’s Signals Your SEO Agency Doesn’t Want You to Know About medium.com/@seosmarty/conten…

Hot tip: Pay attention to the follow-up questions in various LLMs and try to find common trends there! These are GOLD for: 🔥 Product page optimization (use cases!!! "best for", etc.) 🔥 Website structure / hierarchy building 🔥 Supporting content brainstorming 🔥 Audience segmentation + You name it! I am surprised that none of the AI tracking tools I know are tracking these.... You can use Claude Code to collect and analyze these, though. Or you can do it manually for your key prompts; just make sure to try different models and versions. When prompting paid versions, make sure you turn the personalization off where you can... (ChatGPT, for example, makes it very easy)

The AI Reputation Trap: Why LLMs Are Skipping Your Brand (And How to Fix It) xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1NGaroNMR…

Hey GA pros, I have a question... This is what I am seeing for external links in ChatGPT: Both the UTM parameter AND the noreferrer attribute that erases referral data... So I am not quite sure how this click is going to be recorded lol. Which of these will GA4 prioritize?

New study shared in our sub: ➡️ AI Overviews make brand presence in search results harder to notice or remember. ➡️ Most memorable brands in search are Reddit and Youtube :) ➡️ Ads were more noticeable with AI Overviews present (I guess that may have been Google's goal!) reddit.com/r/SEO_for_AI/s/L8…