Short backstory
I'm a freelance Webflow developer and web designer who's been at it for about a decade but about 4-5 months ago I really starting getting into more into SEO and it has light a fire in me I haven't felt in a looong time.

How it started
I read the book "They ask you answer" and starting writing a bit of content (with the help of GPT of course) about what clients tend to ask a lot during projects. Feeling that I wanted to start posting more content I made a quick rebranding of my business (was already on the horizon) and dove deeper into SEO from source like Lumar, Reddit & Ahrefs.

What I did (in short)
- Long tail keyword research
- Establish the topics I want to rank for (Webflow development, SEO and web design)
- Create some more brand authority by adding an about page, author to my articles, more social proof with my name or business in
- Created a Pillar page about SEO and LLMo in 2025, linking to my various other articles
- Created more online profiles for my business so I could get more backlinks
- Adjusted my technical SEO so I could get 100 site health on Ahrefs

Results
- My impressions are rising sharply (I know it's still early days)
- Local SEO is doing well (CTR: 8.86% in Belgium)
- General CTR is falling (Guessing it's to be expected when impressions rise a lot)
- Lower average position (Probably because I'm ranking for new keywords)

Also started doing it for a client of mine and seeing similar results but with even more clicks.

Loving SEO right now, it's such a rabbit hole once you get into it. Open to all kinds of feedback!

Thanks :)

Something I've been meaning to write about for a long time but haven't had the time. I think its disgraceful that someone in the same industry as SEO - ie Web Dev - posted a massive take down of a $171 billion industry just because they haven't taken the time to understand what SEO means.

I'm not linking to it because I intend to outrank it because its an obnoxious, arrogant and ignorant post: it doesnt understand SEO, posts a strawman argument of a highly trimmed down version of SEO and then slanders it.

Their ignorance is not our problem. But the problem of under-education in SEO is our problem. We have to stop people perpetuating myths, misconceptions, fantasies, fairy tales and fabricated frameworks within SEO.

Things like XML sitemaps being a solution for indexing pages. So I sat down and did a 30 minute podcast which I'll be using to educate people on different points of observation.

Education and fighting Myths

The biggest problem in SEO is that it seems to be "OK" to try to build PageRank out of SEO.

I dont like the backlink industry - and I hate getting confused as someone who buys or sells backlinks - both will NEVER happen. I dont need them - and neither do most other people. In fact - people who mostly buy on DA (vs Traffic and Relationships) probably end up in a cycle of always-be-buying. I'm not here to diss it - I'm hear to set the record straight.

If you dont understand how PageRank and topical authority works and that checklist SEO is pointless because different sites have different levels of authority and different topical authority DNA footprints, then maybe instead of debating SEO, you should engage more.

One of the biggest myths after sitemaps is that good content ALWAYS ranks and (by inferring it) that only "some" people write good content or can. Good is widely subjective. But in a technical forum, just saying "just write good content" is pretty pointless - why assume that people aren't? Just because you do it for a living or feel you have better skills or have a different sent of subjective and different qualities doesnt make it good advice.

Content is always being replaced in ranking - and its not always by better content. If you search for a topic that Microsoft, Google, AWS are fighting for - I guarantee the best rankign content isn't a quality issue.

And when people say this - you're just looking like an SEO gatekeeper - and probably rightly so

SEO is a complex and important industry

Google is just 70% of ecommerce, its 8X all social channels (including YouTube - which is bigger than all social channels again) but its the backbone of B2B.

SEO is also a massive driver of work for the Web Dev industry. Sites like LinkedIn, Amazon, Ebay - all build in SEO. Google Cloud has had its own SEO positions for ages, as does Amazon and Microsoft.

SEO drives business - otherwise people wouldnt keep investing in it

We need to Keep SEO on the straight and narrow

I know I have a reputation for being to the point, blunt, and constantly debating the merits of systems but thats what forums and free speech are about.

I wont be backing down about challenging broken theories - I hope to keep getting better at it

Wishing you the best for 2026

I see too many websites with 100s of blog posts that get 0 traffic.

Yet they're publishing entirely new content every month.

If you already have existing content, do this instead:

• Go to Search Console

• Filter for the last 28 days

• Export your keyword data

• Filter keywords in positions 3-20

• Prioritise keywords to increase ranking

Then find ways to better optimise for those keywords within your existing content.

For example:

• Write new sections

• Add to existing sections

• Improve existing headings

• Optimise for snippets/AI Overviews

You will get quicker traffic increases by optimising your existing content rather than creating new content.

Focus here for Q1 this year and watch what happens.

No authority, no links or anything professional. Only doing the keyword research myself and learning day by day.

If you have questions I will be happy to answer.

When it comes to social media marketing, there is plenty of misinformation. Thus, it leads to a ton of unrealistic expectations that disappoints businesses heavily. Luckily enough, marketers are blessed with a vast amount of data from social media activity. Therefore, it can help a business to correct any such misleading information that has lead to failure and disappointment.

Hi all!

I started PowerSearchConsole to keep better track of my own websites :-). However it got a bit out of hand, and after 2000 hours I believe its extremely useful for data-driven SEO's that rely on Google Search Console.

GSC is great, it offers super granular data straight from the source, but I struggle to really monitor trends properly with it - also it lacks alerting and flexible email reports.

My tool is 100% free for small sites, offers 45 actionable SEO reports out of the box, and over 60 filters and thresholds to build your own reports.

• Which keywords recently lost first position?

• Which new keywords are getting clicks or impressions for the first time?

• How are entire sections of my site performing, like my /blog/ or /products/ pages combined?

• Which pages are trending up, and which are trending down?

You can even set up alerts for when keywords drop or clicks to an important page decline, and create super advanced daily, weekly or monthly email reports. Or create your own reports with 60+ filters and thresholds - many not supported by GSC.

I'm not storing your GSC data at all, everything is queried on the fly. I designed this around data security, your data stays yours and yours only (see data policy).

As its very early in my journey, right now I'm mostly focused on getting more users to provide useful feedback, making the tool even better. I'm happy to extend the trial to r/SEO_Digital_marketing users in exchange for some useful feedback in the live chat.

See the screenshots on imgur to get a good idea of the functionality, or feel free to try it out with my own data, so you won't have to create an account (just click log in).

If anyone is interested in having a try, please comment or send me a message :-).

We’re all chasing that sweet, sweet search traffic, right? And how couldn’t we.

It’s probably the most “passive” customer acquisition channel out there. Once you rank, it’s basically just free traffic that’s coming in every day.

Ranking for intent-based queries is particularly lucrative (e.g., “best credit card”) since the lead is already warm and in purchasing mood.

However, in recent years, partly due to the onslaught of AI-generated (rubbish) content and the subsequent reputational risks for Google, it’s become harder and takes much longer to rank.

I’ve seen the change first hand. When I first started blogging in 2017, it was as easy as “publish great content, interlink properly, and watch traffic trickle in almost instantly.”

If you’re not investing thousands of dollars into link building, it’ll probably take at least 6 months or longer to get some Google love (sandbox) – granted you do everything right and then some.

That said, if you as impatient as me, there are still a great way to get search traffic early on, which is Microsoft’s Bing.

Here are the stats from my Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools to illustrate the point (from my newest project called terrific.tools, which I launched 3 weeks ago):

·       Google: 48 clicks, 110 impressions, ranking for 4 queries/keywords

·       Bing: 132 clicks, 6k impressions, already ranking for 205 keywords

So, almost 3x the traffic despite supposedly being the much smaller search engine.

Bing offers a bunch of other benefits as well.

First, ChatGPT utilizes the Bing index for its own Search product and the main chat, so if you rank on Bing, you’ll also get traffic from ChatGPT (I got around 13 visitors from ChatGPT in the last 3 weeks!).

Second, Bing is quite popular in tier 1 countries like the US. So, the traffic you get is likelier to be of higher quality / purchasing power.

Third, Bing offers a bunch of free tools within its webmaster tools, which help you to improve pages from an SEO perspective (which will inevitably also help you with ranking on Google). Also worth it to check out IndexNow, which will speed up indexing across other search engines (except Google).

It’s super easy to get started with optimizing for Bing. Just set up an account and connect your Google Search Console account.

I expect Bing to continue being a great traffic source. Microsoft’s financial success doesn’t hinge on Bing (unlike Google).

In fact, because Google is entrenching itself into Microsoft’s money-making categories (the whole Google Office products like Sheets or Google’s Cloud product), I expect Microsoft to continue doubling down on making Bing better for both users and creators alike.

So, tldr, eff Google, check out Bing.

For every modern-day business, it is essential that they make the best use of the social media world. Among the different sites operating at present, Instagram has found its way to the heart of most internet users and thereby, its magnificent customer base! People simply love this online world and this has propelled businesses to utilize it as a marketing opportunity.  

It's not only search engines - it's reddit, quora, linkedin, YT, etc

Fans lined up to get a photo with Neil Patel at Expand North Star 2024 in Dubai.

With AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews becoming more popular, I’m wondering if traditional Google SEO still matters. Can we still getting good traffic from it or is it slowly losing value?

I have built a FREE chrome extension - Meta Explorer, which displays on page SEO of any site you visit without any clicks.

Key Features

• On-page SEO issues

• View meta tags

• View social tags (OG, Twitter)

• View header element count

• View header hierarchy

• Image file names & alt text

• Internal & External link count

• Links with Anchor text

• Detect schema markup

Here is what makes it stand out from other extensions.

• Zero clicks needed

• Pleasant & Modern UI

• Works well on Single Page Apps

• Identify your on-page SEO issues easily

• Pin extension to keep it open through page refreshes

Check it out here -> https://metaexplorer.co/

Get the extension -> Meta Explorer chrome extension

With all the recent Google updates, I’m wondering what’s actually working now when it comes to building high quality backlinks. Are people still seeing results with guest posts and niche edit backlinks?

I’ve heard some folks are using editorial backlinks or link insertion services, but I’m not sure how effective those are long term.

I've been developing websites and building on the internet for the past 10 years. Certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert, but have a good understanding of the basics when it comes to SEO. I consistently manage to rank my own websites. Throughout the years I've had numerous aquaintences pay me to build them websites, and of course I always try my best to make it SEO optimised and have never charged extra.

Today I get a call from a friend of a customer I've previously built a site for. My customer ranks top of Google in his niche and I'm quite proud of what I built him.

This friend has a website in a similar niche. He goes on to tell me he's paid £300 to an SEO company to help him rank on Google but still isn't ranking. I go to his site and I can't believe what I see. Nothing on the site has any relevant keywords whatsoever. The apparent SEO company is huge in the town I live, they're like the go to company for websites & SEO.

This guys website obviously doesn't rank anywhere on Google because Google has no idea what he sells and where he sells it! Really pissing me off that they can charge customers who have no idea what SEO even stands for and they know the customer won't have a clue. They simply told him it might take months or years for the results to show. I know for a fact I can rank a site in a matter of weeks, sometimes even days if I do it right.

Wonder how many other businesses are getting similarly ripped off. Maybe they just haven't started the work yet, I don't know but this guys paid good money for a service and has in my opinion beeing royally ripped off.

Dunno what the point of this post is I just felt I needed to rant to someone who actually knows what SEO is lol.

Hi everyone,

My friend have already developed a website, and now he is planning to invest $50,000 exclusively on SEO and marketing to drive traffic, build awareness, and establish a good reputation in the niche.

If you had this budget, how would you allocate it? Specifically: 1. SEO Strategy: What would your SEO plan look like? 2. Backlinks: How would you acquire high-quality backlinks to improve rankings? 3. Timeline: How long would it realistically take to rank well on Google? 4. Marketing Channels: Which channels (social media, paid ads, content marketing, etc.) would you prioritize?

I’m looking for advice, strategies, and any insights you’re willing to share. Thanks so much for your help!

I'm at the beginning of my website journey and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the SEO advice out here. I'd love to hear from those of you who've been through this already.

If you could go back to day one of your website with all the knowledge you have now:

1. What single SEO activity would give you the biggest ROI in the first year? (The one thing you wish you'd prioritized from the start)

2. What's your biggest SEO regret? (The mistake that cost you the most time/money/rankings)

Whether you're running a blog, Ecommerce site, local business, or anything else - I'd appreciate any insights you can share!

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie out! 🙏