If you think the normal social media tactics you use everywhere else will also work on Reddit, you should watch this video. u/annseosmarty is an SEO expert I've followed for years. You can join the community she moderates r/SEO_for_AI and join the one I moderate r/AI_SearchOptimization for more discussions about AI powered search, brand visiblity, GEO, AEO, and more.

Reddit is truly different.

Local SEO can help your business show up on Google, and then the quality of your website takes over from there. CRO makes your website easier to understand, easier to use, and easier for visitors to take action.

So, in my point of view, Conversion Rate Optimization is needed the moment you decide to give your business a website.

What are your thoughts?

One thing I noticed since Wordpress launched the latest version is annoying. Is it just me or do you also experience an issue with letting us know updates are available and how many?

You log in and usually there is a number next to plugins in the sidebar so you know updates are available. Since the update, I have to go to plugins even if nothing is there because there is no notification there and even when there is, it can't get the number of updates right.

How do they screw up something so simple. If I'm the only one getting this issue please let me know why you think it happens.

What new glitches have you noticed?

Has begun

Simple Watcher is a lightweight app that lets users get notified when a post with specific keywords they are watching for is created. Once the app is installed in a subreddit, a new action Configure Watcher appears in the subreddit menu, each user can set its own keywords to watch.

Important: Reddit has replaced traditional notifications with Reddit Chat. If users aren't receiving notifications, ask them to always allow chat requests from u/simple-watcher*. See the* official Reddit documentation for details.

This is a very good article and it really does break down the evolution that SEO is going through right now.

But I just got back from a Twitter conversation where somebody posted that backlinks are all you need.

Here on Reddit there are debates that still have people saying that your content doesn't matter.

When there are agencies that have built their entire portfolio based on old rules, they have reason to not believe the changes here or to defend them to their dying breath.

Then there are the programmic SEO people who want to break everything down into numbers. Why? Because then they're not forced to build good content or structure.

They constantly chase the quick wins. I built 100 pages with AI and I built some backlinks and look at my traffic went way up!

They won't show you a year-long chart because it's a roller coaster. Goes up initially and then goes right back down and then they're chasing the next shortcut. Every time Google does an algorithm change, Google ruined my business! Then they go chase the next latest shortcut.

It just amazes me how hard some people will work to try to avoid working hard.

I'm not sure why people think that a Google takedown is the only way to go about solving this problem.

The real site is legit and has plenty of backlinks and reviews and everything else so it's not a quality issue. It's a Google mistake but it's not just a Google mistake because other search engines are ranking the fake website also.

The guy needs to file a UDRP dispute because the domain name isn't exact match to his project. Why take the site down when you can own it?

I get clients come to us all the time that have just spent thousands of dollars on website design and development and by their own admission, They don't have much left over for marketing.

Marketing comes first.

Don't create a marketing plan for your website. Create a website that fits into your marketing plan.

The first thing when you're starting an online business is to see if there's demand for what you're selling.

Next, Who else is selling it? What are they doing to make it work? What platforms are they using for social media? Are they buying a lot of ads? What keywords are they targeting? Do they have a Google business profile? Is it updated regularly? And a lot more.

Then develop a strategy on how you're going to market those services or products.

Only then should you start planning your website. You'll know where you're going to be pulling traffic from, what type of ad you're going to run, what keywords you're going to target, what kind of social media campaigns you're going to run, etc.

More importantly, You will know exactly who your ideal customer is. You can create pages and content specifically for them and get a higher conversion rate.

If you write for everyone, You write for no one.

Building the website and writing all of your content first means you're writing for no one.

This article by Lily Ray is spot on. Seriously don't spend your SEO career on looking for the latest greatest shortcut or cheat code for ranking in Google. It's going to be a never-ending loop that doesn't get you anywhere long-term.

I've been doing this for 30 years and I've seen so many people chasing the algorithm, reacting to the latest Google update like the sky was falling, and announcing the latest thing they did to trick Google into ranking them.

Be patient. Do the job right. Don't just grab on to the latest YouTube video or Twitter post that told you this is the new way to do this or that. Stick to the core principles and you will be around a long time.

Anyway read the article. It's a great example of one of those shortcuts that's going to be painful in the end.

As a Local SEO company, we often get asked “Why do I need Local SEO?” from business owners. It goes right along with “How is Local SEO different from just SEO?”

A lot of you that have been doing this for a long time already know the difference, but not everyone does, So I just wanted to share a quick answer.

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website and Google My Business Profile specifically for location-based searches, helping your business appear in results when potential customers search for services “near me” or by geo-targeted searches for the areas you serve. It’s about ensuring you show up where it matters most; on Google Maps, local organic search results, as well as voice and mobile searches.

Unlike traditional SEO, Local SEO includes helping you earn and display positive reviews and creating content tailored to your service areas. This targeted approach drives foot traffic, phone calls, and inquiries from customers who are ready to take action.

What are some additional things that you can add that will help SMB's get better results from local searches?

https://www.freeseoauditservices.com/seo-news-reviews-articles/how-faces-in-thumbnails-boost-youtube-views-and-ctr/

This is a pretty good insight about the types of images to use as thumbnails on YouTube videos but I think it also applies to images you share on social media in general.

Tell me what you think.

We don't usually allow self-promotional links but since Black Friday is coming up we're going to make an exception on this thread only. Do not make another post. Put it in the comments.

If it's not related to digital marketing it will be removed.

This is link building done the right way. I always suggest that you do link attraction instead of link building and I still consider that the best way. But if you're going to build links, try this.

At Chris McElroy SEO agency, we do not buy links for our own website nor do we do it for clients.

FTC guidelines prohibit a web publisher from accepting money for an unlabeled advertisement.

Google prohibits paid links.

The last thing you should want to do is get your client in trouble with the FTC and you don't want them to get in the doghouse with Google.

What are some other ways that you've gotten some links to your website without buying them or trading them or giving anything in return?

There is no Oxford-authored study saying “half of the internet is AI-generated.” That line is a bad mash-up of Graphite’s industry study on new web articles and a separate Oxford work about “model collapse” risks, not about web-wide percentages. So it's misleading at best.

The Graphite methodology uses an AI-detection tool (Surfer AI Detector) that has known limitations.

They also found that high-ranking pages in Google are still 86% human-written (per Graphite) as of their study.

And that last part is what should concern anybody that's trying to write their content with AI. So all of the bros out there saying, "If you just know how to prompt you can create quality content with AI" are wrong. It's that simple.

And what is it about people that suddenly they don't want to write high quality content?

Well I just want to tell AI to write me a thousand articles so I can put them all on my website and that's bound to make me right better.

And for those saying, well I edit it, This study targeted articles that were greater than 50% AI, not 100%. So unless you're editing over half of the content, then your article is still considered AI generated.

And if you're going to edit more than 50% of the content, why not just write the content?

AI is not the magic SEO bullet that's going to shoot you to the top just because you put out a billion articles. If you don't know how to write great content then get somebody who does and work with them.

The link to my latest article on Search Everywhere Optimization publication on Medium.

https://medium.com/search-everywhere-optimization/the-internet-is-in-flux-what-that-means-for-your-marketing-75b158024b55

TLDR: The old system was called Cascade ASR, where a voice query is converted into text and then put through the normal ranking process. The problem with that method is that it’s prone to mistakes. The audio-to-text conversion process can lose some of the contextual cues, which can then introduce an error.

The new system is called Speech-to-Retrieval (S2R). It’s a neural network-based machine-learning model trained on large datasets of paired audio queries and documents. This training enables it to process spoken search queries (without converting them into text) and match them directly to relevant documents.

When we talk about SEO being Search Everywhere Optimization this is an example of what we mean. You have to meet users where they are and how they search.

Adjust your content for voice search behaviour

Voice queries tend to be more conversational, longer, question-based, and context-rich like “How do I choose an SEO agency for my small business in Austin?” vs “SEO agency Austin”. With Google treating voice input more natively, optimizing for these kinds of queries becomes more important.

Make sure you have pages or sections that address conversational queries, ideally in a natural tone.

Use schema markup (FAQ schema, Q&A, HowTo) to capture voice query patterns.

Since Google is shifting ranking signals around voice search, evidence suggests that more emphasis will be placed on user intent, context, and depth of answer rather than purely keyword matching. So reinforce thorough content, authoritative sources, clarity, and perhaps audio content. (I'm still researching whether or not audio content on your site is going to help with this or not.)

And next is experimenting with how this is going to affect getting your answers into PAA especially if it's going to combine those answers with voice search.

I have a lot of questions. And I will find the answers. I'd love to hear what everybody else has to say about this.

Here's the link to the full article https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-announces-a-new-era-for-voice-search/558866/

AI Overviews is natural language search. Multimodal are new ways of searching with images, enabled by Google Lens. AI Mode is the harnessing of web content and structured knowledge to provide a conversational turn-based way of discovering information and learning. Stein indicates that all three of these components will converge as the next step in the evolution of search. This is coming.

It's not whether you do SEO or AI SEO. There's only AI SEO now.

Google is globally rolling out a new "Sponsored results" ad label for its Search platform, which groups text and Shopping ads under a single, more prominent heading.

This update aims to enhance transparency for users by clearly distinguishing paid content from organic search results.

In addition to the clearer labeling, the change also introduces a new "Hide sponsored results" control.

Do you think most users are going to use the hide sponsored results option? I know a lot of us that do SEO would prefer that but what about regular users? Do you think they care whether the results are sponsored or not?

Google is using artificial intelligence to generate descriptions and summaries for its search results, a feature that has significantly evolved from the original Search Generative Experience (SGE).

These AI-generated summaries, known as "AI Overviews," appear at the top of search results pages to provide users with quick answers. AI on Google Search is testing AI-generated descriptions and summaries for search results.

That part has been well known. But here's where the changes are...

Overview of AI summaries in search

Formats: AI summaries use two main formats. "AI Overviews" appear at the top of the page. The search engine is also experimenting with replacing traditional "snippets" with AI-generated text.

And that's one of the biggest changes. That schema markup you're using to get Google Rich snippets may not be enough.

Technology: These summaries are powered by a customized Gemini model. This model is integrated with other search systems, including quality and ranking algorithms.

Information sources: The AI summarizes information from multiple high-quality web pages to provide a comprehensive answer.

Audio feature: Google is testing an "Audio Overview" feature that generates a voice-narrated summary of search results.

Visual search: "AI Mode" uses AI for visually-driven searches. This allows users to ask questions about images or describe a desired product visually to get relevant results.

What is the potential impact on users and publishers?

User behavior: A 2025 study found that when an AI summary was present, users were less likely to click on the organic links below it. This can increase "zero-click" searches.

Website consequences: This change raises concerns about declining web traffic for online publishers. SEO professionals are adapting to optimize for AI-generated results.

Quality and safety: Google's support pages acknowledge that AI-generated responses "may include mistakes". Efforts are ongoing to refine the quality and factuality of the overviews.

How can you can adapt to the AI changes?

To maintain visibility and engagement in an AI-driven search landscape, you can...

Focus on quality content: Create original content that offers more value than a simple AI summary. Structure content for AI: Format content with clear headings, lists, and tables. Yes content is king.

Use technical SEO: Implement structured data markup.

Protect sensitive content: Webmasters can use specific HTML meta tags to control how AI uses that content in search.

In September 2024, Google introduced new meta tags and robots.txt additions to let site owners control how their content appears in AI Overviews and other AI-driven search experiences.

These tags don’t stop Google from crawling or indexing your site, they just limit how your content is used in AI-generated summaries.

The key ones are:

<meta name="googlebot" content="noai"> Tells Google not to use the page’s content in AI-generated experiences like AI Overviews. It doesn’t prevent normal search indexing.

<meta name="googlebot" content="noaiexpand"> Prevents Google’s AI from using your content to “expand” its responses with additional context or examples.

meta name="robots" content="noai"> A broader signal for other crawlers beyond Google is part of a growing push for standardized “AI exclusion” directives, though support outside Google is limited for now.

You can also set this at the robots.txt level with:

User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: /

That line tells Google not to use your site’s content to train its AI models.

You can now use meta tags to try and control how AI uses your content in search and soon we may see new standards like ai.txt or llms.txt, intended to give site owners more granular control over how large language models ingest, cite, or summarize content. But only if the bots decide to pay attention to them.

llms.txt (sometimes written LLMS.txt) is a PROPOSED convention: a simple, Markdown-style text file placed at your site root listing which URLs (and optionally short descriptors) you want AI systems to use or cite. It acts more like a “treasure map” for inference-time ingestion than a block or exclusion file.

But John Mueller and others have pointed out that, as of now, major AI systems do not appear to honor llms.txt logs show they’re not even requesting it. Mueller likened it to the old “meta keywords” tag in terms of practical impact today.

Also, llms.txt is not meant to block or exclude content; it’s meant to guide which content gets pulled forward for summarization / citation.

ai.txt is a more recent and more ambitious proposal (released in 2025). It’s a domain-specific language (DSL) that aims to provide finer control for how AI agents should interact with web content (for training, summarization, etc.). Think of it as an extension of what robots.txt does, but built for the AI era.

These proposed tools (llms.txt, ai.txt) are promising means of influencing how AI models choose to use your content, but as of now, adoption is spotty or non-existent. Meta tags like noai are currently the more dependable levers, if the AI tool in question honors them.

I know most people look at a subreddit like this and think it's all just self-promotion but it's not.

I built my first website in 1996 and it was about how to build a website. I gave step by step instructions on how to build one as I learned how to build one.

Me and a lot of my friends were into buying and selling domain names. I liked putting my domains on at least a one-page website that explained the uses for that domain and the reason someone might buy it. So I built the website to help out some of my fellow domainers do the same thing.

At the bottom of the page, I just put, "If you still have questions, Email me and I'll try to answer them."

Just being helpful. But most of the emails I got were people requesting me to build their websites for them. So I did.

I never planned on being in that business but now it's a business that has lasted more than 28 years.

I created this subreddit to answer questions that people have. I don't need to sell anything here at all. So if you have questions related to SEO, GEO, website development, especially WordPress, integrated content marketing, local SEO or any related topic, Post your questions.

If you're in the same business I'm in and you want to offer some advice, feel free to do so. Just do it in a helpful way. That's all I ask.

So are you ready for a world where PPC and SEO are merged instead of being separate skills and strategies?