The SERP landscape underwent radical changes, AI-generated content swept across the web like a plague, and Google’s updates were some of the most volatile in history. 

Google also announced and released SGE (in its testing phase, anyway) – which turned the SEO world upside down. 

What’s that?

It stands for Search Generative Experience, and it’s Google’s plan to incorporate generative AI into its search results. 

While the full rollout isn’t set to take place until 2024, digital marketers everywhere spent the majority of 2023 experimenting with SGE to determine how much it’ll change the SEO game. 

In short, it’s predicted that nearly every website will experience a 25% dropoff in organic traffic in 2024, so SEOs have been scrambling to find ways to mitigate impending losses. 

Google also made numerous changes to its SERP layout and ranking systems, adding an additional layer of challenge. 

To make matters worse, Google’s algorithm updates were incredibly volatile, with websites seeing drastic fluctuations in their SERP rankings. 

For example, the core update that took place in October contained a bug that negatively affected traffic on Google Discover. While they were able to fix this bug as of October 31st, lots of websites experienced drops in their traffic coming from Google Discover. 

There were a myriad of other changes, such as the introduction of the Hidden Gems feature and the Perspectives tab, but we’ll talk more about those in a bit. 

Stick around for our recap of everything important that happened to SEO in 2023. 

2023’s Google Updates: The Good, the Bad, and the Volatile 

There were a grand total of 9 algorithm updates in 2023, which is one less than in 2021 and 2022. 

It’s crucial to note that there were only 9 officially announced updates, as Google is constantly tweaking and altering its algorithm behind the scenes. 

Mostly, they only announce an update when they feel the changes are significant enough to affect the rankings of search results. 

So, there may have been more updates that we didn’t know about.

The 9 official updates were:

• February 21st: Reviews update
• March 15th: Core update
• April 12th: Reviews update
• August 22nd: Core update
• September 14th: Helpful content update 
• October 4th: Spam update
• October 5th: Core update
• November 2nd: Core update
• November 8th: Reviews update

A few interesting things to note here are the number of review updates and the lack of spam updates. 

Why so many review updates?

A possible reason is to better compete with Amazon, which is Google’s #1 competitor in the e-commerce space. 

Google received heavy criticism this year for the diminishing quality of their search results, which could be why they went so hard on their updates. 

2023 only saw a single spam update that took place in October, which is a tad surprising, as these types of updates are usually more frequent. 

It could be that the team at Google was so focused on improving their product reviews and overall search results that they didn’t have enough time to cut down on spam. 

That’s unfortunate, as they were recently hit with a massive spam attack where spammy sites suddenly ranked for hundreds of thousands of keywords. 

The Hidden Gems Feature and Perspectives Tab 

2023 saw the release of two new additions to the SERPs, Hidden Gems and the Perspectives Tab. 

Let’s start by taking a look at Hidden Gems, which isn’t a SERP feature but is part of Google’s core ranking system. 

Ever since E-A-T became E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness), Google has placed more emphasis on authentic content. 

This is especially important in the age of AI, as Google wants to provide users with first-hand experiences from real people around the world. 

Therefore, the Hidden Gems feature prioritizes ‘authentic’ experiences people share through blog posts, social media posts, forums, and other areas online. As long as the content relays first-hand experiences, it can qualify as a hidden gem. 

The Perspectives Tab operates in a similar vein, but it’s a SERP feature similar to a featured snippet. 

It pops up whenever a search query yields lots of results from social sites like Quora, Reddit, Medium, and others. The tab contains experiences and advice from real people around the web, which is another way Google hopes to combat AI-generated content. 

Making Sense of the Madness: Top SEO Lessons from 2023 

Now that your hindsight is 20/20, it’s time to pause for reflection to see what we can learn from this crazy year. 

First, it’s clear that the search landscape is only going to continue to change in big ways in 2024. 

SGE will see widespread adoption, zero-click searches will continue to rise in popularity, and AI-powered tools will further strengthen their stranglehold on the industry. 

How can you hope to compete in this highly volatile and uncertain time?

There are a few measures you can take to ensure you always come out on top. 

If you haven’t already, investing in premium link-building services is one of the best ways to ensure SERP dominance. 

At The HOTH, we boast one of the largest link networks online today. It took us years to build all these connections, and we’re able to build premium links for websites in virtually every industry and niche. 

With a robust link profile, Google will trust your content, greatly increasing your chances of better SERP rankings and appearing in SGE’s AI Snapshot.

For content creation, displaying first-hand experience is an absolute must. 

As we’ve already gone over, Google now values authentic content written by humans – so you’ll need lots of it to capitalize on the new Hidden Gems and Perspectives Tab features. 

Also, avoid AI-generated content that feels spammy. 

While it’s certainly tempting to let AI take the wheel and generate everything for you (after all, who doesn’t love free content?) – this tactic will backfire. 

Online users aren’t interested in generic content that states nothing new. 

So, if you are going to use AI for content creation – use it as a supplementary tool for your human writers and editors. 

Kickstart 2024 with Better Rankings and More Traffic 

Now that 2023 is in the rearview mirror, it’s best to learn from it and move on (leave those painful memories behind). 

After all, there’s no reason why you can’t continue to thrive with SEO in 2024; you just need to adapt to some new changes. 

At The HOTH, we’ve prepared a proprietary solution to ensure that our clients aren’t affected by the impending 25% traffic drop from SGE (hint: we’ve tweaked it so that it only affects low-grade traffic that wasn’t going to convert anyway). 

If you’re ready to start the new year off right, don’t wait to sign up for HOTH X, our managed SEO service, where we set you up with elite-level SEO experts to handcraft a strategy specific to your website.    

The post SEO & Google Updates in 2023: A Walk Down Memory Lane appeared first on The HOTH.

If so, you need to perform an SEO competitor analysis to understand why they always seem to be on top. 

Otherwise, you’ll be shooting in the dark with your SEO efforts, making it highly unlikely that you’ll ever crack the code. 

Even if you somehow manage to outrank them through random tactics, you won’t know why – making it incredibly difficult to maintain the edge. 

With an in-depth SEO competitor analysis, you’ll learn precisely why other sites are outranking you, such as a considerable gap in the number of backlinks you have compared to sites ranking in the top 5. 

When it comes to analyzing your SEO competitors, there’s no better platform to use than Semrush. 

Why is that?

It’s because Semrush provides a whole host of tools perfect for sizing up the competition. 

These tools allow you to do the following:

• Identify top competitors in your field 
• Analyze competitors’ backlink profiles and authority scores
• View keywords competitors are ranking for that you aren’t 
• Discover lost keyword rankings 
• Learn your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses 
• Compare your SEO performance to other sites

As you can see, you can use Semrush to uncover invaluable SEO insights that’ll supercharge your campaigns. 

We’ve only scratched the surface so far, so stay tuned to learn how to perform a complete SEO competitor analysis with Semrush. 

What’s a SEO Competitor Analysis, and Why Does it Matter?

The search engine landscape is fiercely competitive, with websites from every industry and niche duking it out to rank as high as possible on the SERPs for their most important keywords. 

Google’s ranking algorithm is kept under lock and key, so SEOs are constantly experimenting with new ways to boost their online visibility and position rankings. 

These tactics have varying degrees of effectiveness, and while there are certain SEO best practices that most sites follow, SERP rankings can be mysterious at times. 

That’s why taking a peek behind the scenes with a competitor analysis is so helpful. 

For example, if a website is beating you in the rankings for your most important keyword, there could be a million reasons why. 

They could have higher quality content, better keyword optimization, more backlinks, tighter technical SEO factors (like faster loading speed), and the list goes on and on. 

Only when you sit down to do a competitor analysis will you finally learn why another site is getting the best of you on the SERPs. 

Once you know why you’re getting left in the dust, you’ll be able to make the necessary modifications to your site to start closing the gap and eventually outrank them. 

Knowledge is power, and Semrush will equip you with the tools you need to learn your competitors’ secrets. 

If you’re ready to take your SEO game to the next level, don’t wait to try out Semrush Pro today.      

How to Use Semrushto Conduct an SEO Competitor Analysis Step-by-Step 

Semrush has an entire suite of tools dedicated to competitive research on its SEO dashboard, which includes the following:

• Domain Overview
• Traffic Analytics
• Organic Research 
• Keyword Gap 
• Backlink Gap 

Each tool contains ways to garner valuable insights from competitors, so let’s dive in for a closer look. 

Step #1: Square up competitors with the Organic Research tool 

First things first: You need to learn who your top competitors are, and Semrush’s Organic Research tool is the easiest way to find them. 

The tool is extremely easy to use, as you just need to enter your domain, select your country, and hit the Search button. 

From there, you’ll be greeted with a ton of widgets breaking down things like your top keywords, position changes, and keyword trends. 

However, what we’re interested in is the Main Organic Competitors widget near the bottom of the page. Here, you’ll find a list of your top 5 organic competitors. You can also view the entire list of your competitors (ours contains 7.5k sites, so we’ll stick with the top 5). 

Step #2: Use the Keyword Gap tool to peek at their keywords 

Next, the true analysis begins. The Keyword Gap tool will let you know about all the keywords your competitors are ranking for that you aren’t.

This is super helpful for two reasons: A) you get to uncover valuable keyword opportunities you wouldn’t have known about otherwise, and B) you’ll be able to tell if competitors are outranking you due to their use of keywords. 

You can enter up to four competitors to compare keyword profiles. 

The Missing filter will let you know which keywords they rank for you, but you don’t, while the Weak filter lets you know which keywords they’re better optimized for than you. 

Step #3: Use the Backlink Gap tool to size up their link profile 

Backlinks are a huge ranking factor for Google Search, so if a competitor has stronger backlinks than you, they’ll likely outrank you. 

To find out if links are the culprit, navigate to SEMrush’s Backlink Gap tool from the SEO Dashboard. 

It works exactly like the Keyword Gap tool, where you can enter up to 4 competitors to compare link profiles. 

This tool is amazing for uncovering valuable backlink opportunities from your competitors, such as syndication networks and sites that accept guest posts. 

Step #4: Analyze their traffic and metrics 

Lastly, don’t forget to take a look at your competitor’s traffic and site metrics using the Traffic Analytics and Domain Overview tools. 

The Traffic Analytics tool provides metrics like bounce rate, dwell time, unique visitors, device trends, and top traffic channels. 

These will help you better understand your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, which you can use to your advantage. 

The Domain Overview tool is where you’ll find competitors’ authority scores (which represent how likely they are to appear in the SERPs), total backlinks, and organic search traffic. You can also view their traffic distribution by country to understand where most of their traffic comes from. 

Using Semrush to Crush the Competition 

Performing an SEO competitor analysis is made simple with Semrush, and the platform contains other tools to help bolster your SEO strategy. 

Once you understand why your competitors are beating you on the SERPs, you’ll know the exact steps you need to take to leave them in the dust (instead of the other way around). 

If you’re ready to take your SEO game to the next level, don’t wait to try out Semrush Pro today.      

The post I See What You Did There: Analyzing Competitors with Semrush appeared first on The HOTH.

This is the #1 question we get from new clients at The HOTH. 

The only problem is it’s essentially an impossible question, as there’s no magic number of backlinks that every site needs. 

In fact, asking this question is on par with other impossible questions like, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” and, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”

When most SEOs get this question, they all say the same thing:

“It depends.”

We think that’s pretty lame, and we’re sick of hearing it. 

That’s why we’re going to do the impossible and attempt to answer this borderline rhetorical question. 

Along the way, you’ll learn more about the current state of backlinks as a ranking factor, as well as some up-to-date techniques for generating high-quality links that point to your homepage and content. 

Do Links Still Matter? Addressing Google’s Recent Comments

In September 2023, Gary Illyes, an Analyst on Google’s Search Team, claimed during an AMA that ‘links were no longer a top 3 ranking factor, and haven’t been for some time.’

This caused some to think that backlinks no longer mattered at all, which isn’t true. 

Here’s his quote: “I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

Illyes didn’t say that backlinks had no ranking power, as he still said they’re important. 

Beyond that, there’s good reason to take Illyes’ words with a grain of salt. 

Why is that?

It’s because Google is always a bit cagey when disclosing information about their search algorithms. It’s not that they outright lie per se, just that they have a habit of bending the truth and omitting key pieces of information. 

It’s the same reason why they don’t make their PageRank algorithm public, as they feel too many businesses would game the system for better SERP rankings. 

Google’s ultimate goal is to provide the best search experience for its users, which means matching their queries with the highest quality results that come from trusted, authoritative sources. 

Therefore, Google has a bit of a love/hate relationship with SEO. 

They know that it’s necessary for businesses to improve their visibility on their engine, but their SEO advice seldom goes beyond ‘make better content.’

Proof backlinks are still the real deal 

Take it from us: backlinks still matter in a very big way. 

Perfect technical SEO and flawless on-page factors will only get you so far. 

Whenever we have a client that can’t outrank its competitors, links are almost always the reason why.

Since the websites occupying the top-ranking spots have more high-quality links than our clients’ sites, outranking them with basic SEO tactics is next to impossible. 

As a result, we spend the most time ‘closing the competitive gap’ by building enough links for our clients to level the playing field with their top competitors. 

The fact remains that more links equal better SERP rankings AND more organic traffic, which is why high-value links are so powerful (they’re literally working double duty for you).

To put our money where our mouth is, here’s hard evidence from one of our clients that backlinks and traffic go hand-in-hand:

As you can see by the line graphs, as the client’s backlinks started to increase, their organic traffic followed suit. 

The lesson?

You should always believe the hard data you collect from your own experiments and campaigns over comments from Google’s team regarding SEO.

Other Crucial Ranking Factors 

While links are still extremely important for Google SEO, they’re by no means the only ranking factor. 

As we said before, building more links is what bridges the competitive gap for our clients most of the time. However, if their technical and on-page factors aren’t also in perfect order, it won’t be possible to reach the top of the SERPs. 

To summarize, for backlinks to show their true power, other crucial ranking factors like site speed need to be up to par; otherwise, you may not even rank. 

Let’s be clear: the #1 most important ranking factor is the quality and relevance of your content. 

If you aren’t producing high-quality content that satisfies user’s search intent, your hopes of becoming the SEO GOAT will never come to fruition. 

Moreover, the quality and relevance of your content are also extremely important to your target audience, and you should always produce content for them first and search engines second. 

Here’s a look at the top SERP ranking factors besides backlinks and content:

• SSL certificate (HTTPS for a secure web browsing experience) 
• Adequate site speed to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals test 
• Content length (Google views pages with less than approximately 1,000 words as thin content) 
• Keyword usage (first 100 words, title tag, headers) 
• URL and site architecture (logical, flat design with lots of internal links) 
• Content must load properly on mobile devices (Google uses mobile-first indexing) 
• External links (content should link out to reputable sources) 
• Content quality via E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) 

These factors are all imperative for SEO success, so you shouldn’t neglect any of them during your search campaign. 

The Classic Debate: Quantity vs. Quality 

SEOs are always fiercely debating whether backlink quality or quantity matters most. 

Some swear that only the most reputable, highest-quality backlinks are worth pursuing, while others claim to find success by building as many links as possible. 

Which side of the issue is true?

We hate to be boring, but the truth of the matter is both quantity and quality are of equal importance to your link profile. 

Let’s clarify that a bit further. 

In terms of quantity, it’s NEVER worth pursuing low-grade backlinks from garbage websites that provide no value to users. 

These links scream spam to Google, and they’ll only hurt your SERP rankings. 

However, when you’re trying to bridge a significant link gap between you and a competitor (where you have dozens of links and they have hundreds or thousands), sometimes links with average domain authority (scores 40 to 50) are exactly what you need. 

These average links are still from real websites that provide services to users, so there’s no worry about them getting flagged as spam. 

Moreover, they’ll provide you with the volume of links you need to catch up to the competition. 

In other words, beggars can’t be choosers when you’re far behind in the backlink race. 

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t shoot for the stars and target high-value backlinks (DA scores 60 and above) at the same time, as you definitely should. 

Conversely, if you’re practically on par with the number of links a competitor has, then going for high-quality links is the name of the game. 

Ultimately, it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re far behind, quantity can beat quality – but if you’re neck-and-neck, quality reigns supreme. 

How Many Backlinks Do New Websites Need?

If you’ve got a brand-spanking-new website, you’re starting from square one in terms of backlinks. 

The same is also true for all SEO ranking factors. 

Before you start pursuing backlinks full-time, you should get your technical SEO and on-page SEO in order. 

That means doing things like planning out your URL structure and site architecture, doing keyword research to inform your content strategy, and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly and has an SSL certificate (it’s remarkably easy to get an SSL certificate for free). 

Also, you need to start populating your new site with lots of stellar content based on queries that your target audience searches for the most (you can use our free keyword planner tool for this). 

Don’t forget to include content for each stage of your sales funnel based on the intent behind the keywords you find. 

Once that’s all set, you can start building links for your site, but how many do you need?

On average, you should shoot for 50 links pointing to your homepage and around 100 for each web page that you want to rank. 

Drop anchor! Achieving the proper anchor text ratio 

Besides the links themselves, the anchor text you choose for each link is also incredibly important. 

Anchor text refers to the words that you use to display a hyperlink, and there are a few ways you can go about it:

• Exact match anchors consist entirely of the target keyword for the page in question. You should use these anchors sparingly, as Google views too many as spam. 
• Partial match anchors contain your target keyword as well as a few other phrases to add context. It’s a safer bet to use partial match keyword anchors instead of an exact match. 
• Branded anchors use your brand name as a link. 
• Natural anchors don’t use any keywords or brand names, just natural words in the sentence containing the link. 
• Naked URLs don’t use any anchor text in favor of using a bare URL. 

For your backlink profile to achieve its maximum impact, it needs to feature a favorable anchor text ratio. 

For the most part, you should use exact match anchors sparingly while opting for partial match, branded, and natural anchors most of the time. 

How Do You Get Backlinks?

By now, you should have a specific number of backlinks you need to build. 

To reiterate what we’ve covered so far:

• Analyze your competitor’s links to see how large of a gap there is between their link profile and yours. If it’s large, going for quantity over quality can work until you start to catch up. If it’s small, your goal should be to obtain as many high-value links as possible. 
• If you’re working with a brand-new website, aim for 50 links to your homepage, with around 100 links for your most important web pages. 

Now that we’ve answered the titular question of this article, another one remains. 

How do you build links that point back to your content?

Here’s a look at some of the most effective ways to acquire backlinks. 

Reach out and touch someone: targeted link outreach 

Conducting outreach is necessary for just about any backlink technique, and it’s become more nuanced in recent years. 

In the past, SEOs found success using generic outreach templates that contained simple requests for guest articles, link insertions, and fixing broken links. 

The only problem is this technique worked a little too well. 

Once it caught on, it became the norm (and still is) for website owners to receive hundreds of generic outreach emails every day. 

Currently, the link outreach game is about standing out from the crowd while developing long-lasting relationships that lead to multiple links down the line. 

It’s crucial to shift your mindset from targeting one link at a time to forging long-term link partnerships with related websites in your field. 

Also, divorce the link outreach process from one particular tactic, such as guest posting. 

When done properly, your outreach can lead to a lot more than guest blogs (although those are pretty sweet, too). 

As an example scenario, let’s say that your website sells fitness products. 

In that case, you’d benefit from forming link partnerships with noncompetitors in your field – meaning you share a target audience but don’t compete for the same business. 

Examples include fitness news websites, fitness forums, and nutrition blogs – just to name a few. 

Instead of sending one-and-done outreach emails, you start interacting with these sites in a far more personal way. Your goal is to form a relationship instead of securing one measly link placement, so you should interact with their social media, ask interesting questions, and share their content. 

If you play your cards right, you’ll form a partnership that leads to guest posts, link insertions, and article syndications. 

Press releases and article syndication 

Speaking of syndication, you can start publishing your articles on other websites to gain more exposure and accrue links. 

Relationship building is a key component here, too, as you’ll need an existing network of relevant websites to publish your articles. 

If you don’t have any connections yet, try searching on Google for things like:

• “Originally published on” (niche keyword)
• “Syndicated from” (niche keyword)
• “Originally appeared on” (niche keyword)

These search operators will help you find websites in your field that syndicate posts and it’s worth trying to build relationships with them. 

You can also use our free backlink checker tool to analyze your competitor’s links to see if they’re syndicated anywhere that you aren’t. 

Press releases (as long as they don’t mention time-sensitive events) are another great way to get the word out about your brand and obtain links. 

This is where it pays off to have relationships with news outlets in your niche, as you’ll be able to circulate your press releases to them for some easy links. 

To further your education, here are some more reliable ways to build backlinks from relevant websites. 

Start Building the Right Number of Links Today 

Well, wasn’t that a much better answer than simply saying, “It depends?”

Now, you have an accurate approximation of how many links you need to build to achieve your ranking goals, and you know the best ways to build them. 

This is only the first step in your journey to becoming the SERP GOAT, so stay tuned to our blog for more practical advice. 

If you need help building the right number of links for your website, don’t wait to check out our Link Outreach and Link Insertion services.     

The post How Many Backlinks Does it Take to Rule Your Niche’s SERPs? appeared first on The HOTH.

Our SEO predictions for 2024 include some groundbreaking (and downright futuristic) new ways users can interact with search engines. 

Most notably, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) will go live sometime in early 2024, and it’ll likely change the search engine landscape as we know it. 

In particular, SGE provides AI-powered Snapshots for some queries, which will directly answer user’s questions and provide detailed information for queries – alongside 3 relevant online sources. 

Besides Google, Microsoft’s Bing has already brought AI into the mix with its chatbot Copilot (formerly called Bing Chat). 

While users can still use the traditional version of Bing, its AI-powered chatbot Copilot is capable of answering user’s questions, writing original text, and generating new images from scratch. 

All these advancements are transforming the online search experience in a big way, which will present some real challenges for digital marketers. 

For example, zero-click searches are becoming more and more popular, which is where a user receives all the information they need from a SERP (search engine results page) without clicking on any results. 

This trend will likely continue in 2024 with the advent of SGE and other AI-generated search features, and you’ll need to know how to adapt to it if you want to continue to thrive online. 

The good news is we’ve concocted ways to deal with all of 2024’s challenges, so stay tuned to learn more. 

Prediction #1: Google’s Search Generative Experience Will Cause a 25% Drop in Traffic for All Websites 

December brought an end to SGE’s testing phase in Google Search Labs, and the technology is ready to go live in early 2024. 

Currently, a select few in the US can enable SGE while browsing (although it’s technically still in experimental mode). It’s only available in English and on Android mobile devices that contain the latest version of the Google app. 

Here are the official criteria and steps you need to take to enable SGE’s AI Snapshot on your phone. 

As soon as SGE became available in Search Labs earlier this year, SEOs everywhere (including us) didn’t sleep on it. 

We spent months rigorously testing and experimenting with SGE, which led us to our first prediction for 2024. 

According to our research, every website currently ranking on Google Search will experience an approximate 25% drop in their organic traffic when SGE goes live. 

Why is that?

It’s due to the effectiveness of the AI-powered Snapshot. It provides detailed answers and information to user queries, and we predict that a large portion of users will get the information they need here and click away from the SERPs. 

Also, the AI Snapshot appears at the very top of the SERPs, and it pushes the top-ranked organic results farther down the page – which will undoubtedly play a role in the 25% traffic drop. 

Gearing up for SGE: Top ways to prepare your site

It’s hard to jump for joy when you know your site will experience a drop in traffic, and the organic rankings you worked so hard for will matter a lot less. 

Still, that doesn’t mean you have to hang up your SEO hat for good. 

Instead, our experiments also revealed a bright light at the end of the tunnel. 

If you optimize your site for SGE correctly, the 25% traffic loss will only affect low-quality visitors that weren’t going to convert anyway. 

Here are some quick tips for making your content SGE-friendly (which is a term you’ll likely start to hear everywhere):

• Google’s GAI (generative AI) will only draw from trusted sites with strong reputations, so building a reputable backlink profile is more important than ever. 
• Your content should focus on longer, more conversational queries instead of short-tail keywords to capitalize on SGE traffic.
• Elicit Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) guidelines in your content, as that’s how the GAI will gauge the quality of your content. 

These are the best ways to get your site ready for SGE without drastically rethinking your current SEO strategy. 

More good news is that if you’re already ranking in the #1 or #2 spot for certain keywords, Google’s GAI is more likely to feature you in the AI Snapshot. 

Classic technical and on-page SEO factors will still apply, so don’t forget to keep those in working order. 

For example, if your web pages aren’t able to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals test, or if you didn’t properly optimize each page for your keywords, you won’t stand a chance at appearing in the SGE Snapshot. 

That’s why it’s still crucial to hit your site with regular on-page and technical SEO audits. 

Prediction #2: Zero-Click Searches Will Rise in Popularity 

We’re entering the era of zero-click searches, which is something SEOs would tell each other scary stories about before bed. 

Alt tag: Harry from Dumb and Dumber freaking out over zero-click searches. 

Frighteningly, zero-click searches have been around for a while, as a study by SEMrush discovered that 57% of mobile searches and a quarter of desktop searches end without clicking on any results. 

Why is this happening?

It’s because users are getting the information they need from SERP features like featured snippets, knowledge bars, and the local pack. 

Quick calculations, like asking Google, “What time is it in Australia?” also provide immediate answers via SERP features – negating the need for users to click on any organic results. 

This realization makes the statistic above from SEMrush far less intimidating. 

That’s because searchers looking for simple things like a time conversion or business hours from a local restaurant aren’t going to visit your site and become a customer anyway (kind of like the 25% of traffic lost from SGE). 

The scary part occurs when things like SGE and other AI-powered search features enter the mix. 

With SGE’s AI Snapshot, users can find answers to questions that they normally would find in your content, which is alarming. 

These are the types of zero-click searches you need to prepare for (and maybe write a scary story about for good measure). 

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em: Taking the sting out of zero-click search 

How can you prepare your website for the zero-click search era?

As of right now, the best way is to get those pesky AI Snapshots and SERP features to work for you instead of against you. 

If you’re able to snag ‘position zero’ with a Snapshot or SERP feature, you’ll see a significant boost to your organic traffic and brand recognition. 

This will help establish your brand as a thought leader in your field, heightening the chances that users will click through to your website to learn more than what the Snapshot/SERP feature provides. 

The challenge is figuring out which keywords will trigger a SERP feature like a featured snippet. 

There are a few ways to find out, one of which is SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. 

To use it, enter a keyword related to your niche into the search bar and hit the ‘Search’ button. 

Next, click on Advanced Filters and select Featured Snippet from the SERP Features drop-down menu (you can filter for other SERP features as well). 

Now, all the keywords listed will trigger a featured snippet on Google. 

To make doubly sure your content will trigger SERP features, you should use Google’s Rich Results Test (it’s free). Simply enter a URL you want to check, and the tool will let you know all the SERP features it qualifies for – which is a huge help. 

Prediction #3: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Will Become Essential 

The AI craze has caused platforms like Bing, ChatGPT, and Google’s SGE to become ‘answer engines’ more than traditional search engines. 

That’s because they provide direct answers to user’s questions in a conversational tone, thanks to their advanced LLMs (large language models). 

This goes hand-in-hand with zero-click search, as users are getting the answers they need from AI-generated answers instead of clicking through to web results. 

SEO has always been about adapting to changes, and AEO is no different. 

As such, SEOs need to incorporate AEO into their repertoire – mainly by catering to the question/answer format of AI-powered search engines. 

The best way to do this is to create concise content based on questions and conversational-style keywords. Be sure to answer the titular question as clearly as possible to make it easy for AI algorithms to cite in their generated responses. 

Including commonly asked questions in each article is a must, but you should also take things a step further by creating long-form content based on single FAQs. 

You can start using our free keyword planner tool to begin researching question-based keywords to get ahead of the competition, which is definitely something we recommend.

Prediction #4: E-E-A-T Signals Will Reign Supreme for Content

Google unveiled its updated E-E-A-T acronym for its Quality Rater Guidelines back in December of 2022. 

It’s been imperative to include E-E-A-T signals in SEO content ever since, but it’s about to matter even more in a big way. 

Google’s GAI for SGE will prioritize websites that demonstrate topical authority for its AI Snapshots – and E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) signals are how you gain it. 

That means your content needs to fully embody every letter of the acronym, especially experience, the newly added extra E. 

Wherever possible, include real-life examples where you dealt with the topic you’re covering first-hand. This will tell Google that you have real-world experience with the topic and aren’t just reiterating content from somewhere else.  

If you haven’t already, work on building a rich library of content covering the most important topics and subtopics for your industry/niche. 

Equally as important is to ensure your site architecture follows a logical and simple layout to make it easy for crawler bots and humans to navigate your website.

Prediction #5: Backlinks Will Be Bigger Than Ever

Backlinks remain a cornerstone of a website’s perceived legitimacy in the digital age. Considered akin to votes of confidence, these links from external websites signal that your content is valuable and your brand is reputable, which significantly influences your search engine rankings.

Originally, Google’s algorithm, aptly named “Backrub,” was primarily based on backlinks, highlighting their importance. Moreover, when reputable sites link to your content, it not only drives traffic but also boosts your domain authority, prompting search engines to rank your site higher in relevant searches.

However, as AI-driven tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI systems proliferate, producing abundant content, search engines might increasingly depend on backlinks to discern and rank content quality.

It’s crucial to note that not every backlink is of equal value. In the realm of backlinks, quality trumps quantity. To draw an analogy, consider a political campaign: an endorsement from a renowned, ideologically aligned politician is far more impactful than several endorsements from unknown individuals.

In an era where content creation and user experience enhancements are readily accessible through various tools, it’s essential to focus on elements that remain less automated, like acquiring high-quality backlinks. These recommendations, which AI tools currently cannot replicate, are your key to gaining a competitive edge in an increasingly level playing field. By capitalizing on the unique opportunity to secure more high-quality backlinks, you can stay ahead in the digital landscape.

Stay on Top of SEO During the Coming Year 

2024 stands to shake things up in the SEO world in many ways. 

AI-powered search engines are here to stay, so you’ll need to adapt to things like ChatGPT and Google SGE if you want your site’s content to remain relevant. 

Instead of mourning the way things used to be, the smart move is to start preparing for these new search experiences now while you still have time. 

If you want expert help navigating the new search landscape in 2024, don’t wait to try out HOTH X, our managed SEO service.     

The post Zero Click Search, SGE, and AI: Top SEO Predictions for 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

It’s Google’s largest, most powerful, and most capable AI model as of yet – and it boasts extremely impressive multimodal capabilities. 

The AI-powered LLM (large language model) is Google’s answer to OpenAI’s line of GPT models, the most recent being GPT-4. 

In particular, the release of ChatGPT caught Google with its metaphorical pants down, as the company was taken completely by surprise by the chatbot’s advanced capabilities. 

They’ve been in ‘code red’ mode ever since, crunching long hours to release an AI language model that’s superior to OpenAI’s offerings. 

Now that Gemini is finally here, they may have done just that – as Google’s model can do just about anything – and you can use a combination of audio, text, image, and video prompts to communicate with it. 

Check out this jaw-dropping video demo to see what we mean. 

As you can see, Gemini is extremely smart, and it’s set to change the way users interact with AI bots. 

From crisp image generation based on audio prompts to learning how to pronounce words in Mandarin correctly, Gemini’s uses are virtually endless.

Read on to learn more about Gemini’s exciting capabilities, as well as how you can use it to enhance your SEO and content creation. 

What’s So Special About Google Gemini?

Gemini was built from the ground up to be natively multimodal, as it can flawlessly understand text, images, video, and audio prompts (and a mix of them all together). 

Other so-called ‘multimodal’ AI tools use separate models that they train to understand images, audio, and video. 

For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 can only understand text prompts. For visuals and audio, they developed and trained separate models (DALL-E and Whisper, respectively). 

Gemini is different, as Google’s team developed a singular multisensory model from day one – enabling proper multimodal understanding. 

It’s the brainchild of Google and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Google subsidiary DeepMind, an AI-based research lab, also contributed heavily to Gemini’s development. 

The model isn’t short on smarts, as it can complete complex math and physics equations. It’s also a master programmer, as it can generate high-quality code in various programming languages, and it can identify and fix coding errors. 

Gemini is multilingual, and its multimodal nature makes it particularly effective in this area. 

You can ask Gemini to translate other languages, confirm how to pronounce specific words, and make sense of international media (one of Gemini’s demos shows it summarizing a podcast spoken in another language). 

In other words, Gemini is a leap forward in AI technology, and Google is certainly excited about it. They’ve even dubbed the current age as ‘The Gemini Era,’ which certainly shows their supreme confidence in their new large language model. 

It’s Google’s hope that the world uses Gemini to enhance human knowledge, creativity, and productivity, but only time will tell if this turns out to be true. 

How Does Gemini Stack Up to GPT-4?

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 kicked off the AI Wars, and they’ve been waging fiercely ever since. 

OpenAI shocked the world and admittedly caught Google off guard with the release of its flagship chatbot. 

In the months following its release, every tech company – from Amazon to Microsoft – was eager to throw their hat into the ring. 

Here we are only a year later, and the AI landscape looks drastically different.  

Microsoft partnered with OpenAI, using GPT-4 to power the ‘new’ Bing, which features the AI-powered chatbot Copilot. It’s capable of answering user’s questions, generating images, creating original content, and more. 

Amazon hit the ground running with Lex, their AI chatbot, and they’re also planning to use generative AI to enhance their online shopping and Alexa, their virtual assistant. 

Even social media companies couldn’t resist the AI craze, as Snapchat released its My AI chatbot to its users in February 2023. 

While these developments were happening, Google was biding its time in the background, putting the final touches and tweaks on Gemini, their secret weapon for taking over the tech world again. 

Now that it’s finally here, how does it stack up? Does Google Gemini make GPT-4 look like Microsoft Sam, or does OpenAI’s LLM still hold up?

The report cards are in, and Google Gemini officially outperformed GPT-4 (and other language models) in 30 of the 32 academic benchmarks most commonly used to test an AI’s smarts, so to speak. 

Previewing Gemini’s multimodal capabilities: What can they do for you?

Besides outperforming other language models in academic benchmarks, reasoning, and understanding – its multimodal capabilities can’t be understated. 

Why is that?

It’s because Gemini’s multimodality holds so much potential for how you can interact with and use AI tools at your business. 

As an example, let’s say you’re drawing a blank on how to write a description for one of your newest products. 

Trying to explain what your product looks like as well as describe its functions in a text prompt would be exhausting and likely ineffective. 

With Google Gemini, you can simply upload an image of your product and then ask, “How would you write a product description for this?”

The AI will process your question and then analyze the image provided to understand what you want. From there, it will write an original product description based on what it sees. Next, you can tweak the description by further prompting the AI until it’s picture-perfect. 

Gemini can also understand and work with video prompts. 

Imagine that you have a popular video on your site that you want to convert into a blog post (without repeating the script verbatim). 

All you have to do is upload the video to Gemini and then ask it to summarize the video in its own words. 

Presto! You’ve got an original piece of content that covers the same topic as your video, albeit in a different way. 

You can repeat the same process for your competitor’s content, too. 

For instance, imagine if the video you showed Gemini was from a competing website. In that case, you’d be able to create a similar piece of content without risking plagiarism. 

The Different Versions of Google Gemini

Google didn’t create Gemini as a single AI language model. Instead, there are currently three versions of Gemini – with even more on the horizon. 

The model we have now, Gemini 1.0 as it’s called, contains three separate versions. 

Why did they make so many versions?

The reason for multiple Gemini’s is that each one is customized for specific tasks. 

For example, Gemini’s lighter version, Nano, is built specifically for on-device tasks (smartphones, tablets, and other devices powered by Android). 

The beefier versions are reserved for powering Google services like Bard and SGE (Search Generative Experience). 

Here’s a look at the three distinct versions of Gemini that we know about so far:

• Gemini Nano. The lightest version of Gemini, Nano, was built to run on smartphones like the Google Pixel 8. It’s designed to handle on-device tasks that require efficient AI processing without the need to connect to external servers. That means you’ll be able to perform AI-powered tasks like summarizing text without having to connect to the internet. 
• Gemini Pro. This is the most powerful version of Gemini that’s been released thus far, and it’s now powering Bard, Google’s AI chatbot. Pro is able to understand complex queries and features speedy response times (it runs on Google’s data centers). Google claims Gemini Pro is the best version of the model for scaling the AI across a wide range of tasks. 
• Gemini Ultra. The penultimate version of Gemini, Ultra, has yet to see a public release. It should be complete after the initial phase of testing with the Pro and Nano models. This is the version of Gemini that outscored other language models on 30 of 32 academic factors. Google designed Ultra to handle extremely complex tasks, such as complicated mathematical calculations and physics equations. 

The Future of Generative AI in SEO and Content Creation 

How will Google Gemini affect the digital marketing space?

That’s the million-dollar question right now, and it has some excited while others are about ready to head underground. 

Google Gemini’s advanced features are like any other tool; it’s up to the user whether it’s used for good or bad. 

Here’s a look at a poll that asked digital marketers what they think of AI-generated content’s impact on the internet:

The leading opinion? 

AI content has risks and benefits, depending on the use. 

It harkens back to the classic white hat/black hat dichotomy that the SEO world has long used. 

White-hat SEOs can use Google Gemini to generate high-quality original images and brainstorm ideas for content. 

Black-hat SEOs will likely use Gemini-powered tools for nefarious reasons, such as generating spammy content and attempting to find ways to access sensitive information without the user’s permission. 

At The HOTH, we deliver the best of both worlds by always using human writers and editors, even for our AI services like AI Content Plus. 

To us, AI is an extremely helpful supplemental tool for our team of experienced writers, editors, link builders, and graphic designers. 

Much like the classic motto ‘create content for humans first, search engines second,’ we believe in creating content with humans first, AI tools second. 

Thriving in the Age of Gemini, SGE, and Generative AI 

Google Gemini is officially here, and it’s capable of some mind-blowing things. 

At this point, there’s not much use in avoiding AI-powered tools because they’re clearly not going anywhere. 

Instead of trying to pretend that AI doesn’t matter, why not put it to work for you by strengthening your existing processes?

SGE will soon see widespread adoption, and it’s only a matter of time until Gemini Ultra is unveiled to the public – so it’s best to get prepared sooner rather than later. 

If you need help with your SEO in the age of AI, don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our managed SEO service that includes strategies to adapt and thrive with SGE.      

The post Google Unleashes Gemini: The LLM That Aims to Dethrone GPT-4 appeared first on The HOTH.

Or maybe you’re an independent site owner who doesn’t have a marketing team, meaning you’re spread even thinner (and are likely approaching burnout). 

Between social media marketing, managing paid ads, and engaging in email marketing campaigns – there’s not much time for anything else. 

The problem?

You’re forgetting about SEO, one of the most critical marketing channels. 

The good news is outsourcing SEO services is easier than ever, as there’s no shortage of freelancers and SEO agencies out there ready and willing to help you. 

However, finding the right SEO partner for your specific needs is where things get challenging. 

For example, suppose you need help building high-authority links. 

In that case, you’re better off going with an experienced SEO agency equipped to handle the challenge instead of hiring a lone freelancer for $5 who makes grand promises they can’t back up.   

That’s because effective link-building takes a vast network of link partners, media outlets, and news sites – which is something SEO newbies with ultra-cheap rates on freelancer marketplaces likely won’t have. 

You also need to define your goals beforehand to pinpoint exactly what your SEO strategy needs the most. 

For instance, if you’ve already got a robust backlink profile, outsourcing link-building would be a waste of your resources. 

There’s a lot to consider when outsourcing SEO services, so stick around to learn everything you need to know to do it correctly. 

Why is Outsourcing SEO Worth Your Time and Money?

If you aren’t implementing any SEO tactics on your website, you’re leaving a TON of money on the table. 

Paid ads and social media marketing can only generate so much traffic to your site, as the vast majority of your potential customers will use search engines to find products and services in your industry. 

For instance, a whopping 89% of internet users begin their buying process on search engines like Google and Bing. 

So, if your website isn’t optimized to rank high on search engines, you’re missing out on all that potential traffic. 

Besides capitalizing on users ready to make a purchase, SEO content works at every level of your sales funnel. 

Even if users aren’t ready to buy anything yet – informative blog content that answers their questions will establish you as a thought leader, which is an extremely valuable position to hold. 

Planting a seed: Outsourcing SEO will help your business grow 

At The HOTH, we’ve helped countless websites significantly grow their online presence, reputation, and customer base with our SEO prowess, so we can attest to its power first-hand. 

Here’s a look at the referring domains and organic traffic growth of one of our clients:

As you can see, shortly after we started working with them, the results started rolling in, and they haven’t let up yet. 

If we hadn’t taken the wheel for their SEO strategy, they’d still be virtually unknown online. 

Instead, they’re ranking for thousands of keywords (63 of which are in the top 3), and they’re consistently generating $1.3k worth of organic traffic. 

Besides expanding your online reach and earning more money, let’s take a look at the other benefits involved with outsourcing SEO services. 

More money in the bank: It’s extremely cost-effective 

Building an in-house team of SEO professionals is EXTREMELY costly, especially for smaller websites that don’t have large marketing budgets. 

Hiring and recruiting top SEO specialists isn’t cheap, and that’s not to mention other expenses like onboarding, salary, benefits, and training. 

It will also take some time to assemble the right team for your needs, as you may have to go through a few professionals before you find what you need – which will cost even more money. 

Instead of spending six months to a year trying to make your in-house SEO team get along, you can start outsourcing SEO services in a few days or less, depending on how long it takes you to find a suitable provider. 

With an SEO agency, you won’t have to waste any money on recruiting, benefits, or salary – which is a huge benefit. 

You’ll also see results faster, as a professional SEO agency will know how to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. 

Your personal Einstein: SEO knowledge, expertise, and skills 

You may think you can save some money by hiring inexperienced SEO interns, but this is a terrible idea. 

Proper SEO requires a lot of expertise that goes far beyond the basics. 

Also, experienced SEOs are extremely familiar with all the latest Google algorithm changes, as well as how to handle the upcoming shift to SGE – which is something every website on the planet needs to prepare for, by the way. 

You’ll want to trust your SEO campaign with a highly experienced agency that’s been around the block a few times. 

The last thing you should do is trust your search campaign to a newbie that nosedives straight into a beginner pitfall, like paying for low-quality backlinks. 

Trust us, you’ll likely wind up spending more money trying to undo problems inexperienced SEOs cause, so your best bet is to stick with the pros. 

Outsourcing is the best option here, as you gain access to knowledge and expertise from seasoned professionals who have been in the game for a long time. 

Gear up: Access powerful SEO tools and resources  

Decorated SEO agencies (like yours truly) have many tricks up their sleeves, so to speak. 

In our case, we’re home to experienced SEO gurus who know search engine algorithms inside and out, and we also have a Batman-style utility belt packed with advanced SEO tools and resources. 

These include tools for:

• Analyzing crucial metrics like SERP position rankings, organic traffic, conversion rates, and more 
• Viewing competitor backlink profiles
• Segmenting audiences into different groups 
• Auditing the ranking power of other websites
• Generating high-quality copy and blog ideas (AI-powered tools)

Besides our impressive arsenal of gadgets and gizmos, we’ve also built large networks of link partners, news sites, and media outlets. 

These networks are what make our impressive link-building services possible, and they took many years to build. 

That’s why it’s so beneficial to outsource SEO services to an agency like ours, as we’ve already built the infrastructure necessary to build lots of high-quality links for our clients. 

If you’re building an in-house SEO team from scratch, you’re starting at square one in terms of access to tools and link networks, which is a disadvantage. 

Therefore, you have a choice. You can outsource your SEO and hit the ground running on day one, or you can try to build everything in-house – which will feel like rubbing two sticks together to make fire. 

How to Select the Right SEO Outsourcing Partner for You 

You should be pretty picky when looking for an SEO agency to outsource with, especially if you want to see amazing results. 

There are quite a few factors to consider, including your needs, budget, and goals, so let’s take a look at each. 

Set your goals first

Before you start looking up SEO agencies online, you need to clearly define your goals to understand which services you need and the types of results you want to see. 

This will help you avoid A) ordering the wrong services and B) not having a benchmark to hold the agency accountable for achieving. 

Ask yourself what you ultimately hope to achieve by engaging in an SEO campaign. 

Do you want to boost your online visibility and influence, or are you more concerned with generating more leads and sales? Are there any technical issues holding your site back?

Answering these questions will let you know which services to outsource. 

For example, if you want to boost your online visibility, content creation, and link-building are the services you need. 

If your site loads slowly and has a lot of broken links, a technical SEO audit is the way to go. 

You should also be as specific (and realistic) as possible with the goals that you set. 

Here’s a good example:

Our goal is to boost our organic traffic by 50% in 12 months. 

This is a specific, realistic goal that any reputable SEO agency should be able to meet for you. 

Research providers online (case studies, reviews, etc.) 

Now that you know what you want, it’s time to start doing your homework by researching SEO agencies. 

First things first, ensure the agencies you look into actually offer the SEO services that you need, as every agency differs in what they offer. 

It’s usually best (and more affordable) to find agencies that offer packages instead of selecting multiple services from different providers. 

Don’t stop there, though. 

You need to look up case studies, independent reviews, and testimonials from each agency to verify they’re the real deal. 

Try to find reviews on third-party websites, as those tend to be more neutral than the ones found on agency sites. 

If you’re a marketing agency yourself, you’ll benefit the most from working with agencies that offer white-label services. 

What are those?

A white-label SEO agency allows other marketing agencies to repackage their SEO services as their own for a fee. 

That means you’ll be able to advertise that you now offer SEO services to your clients, even though you’re outsourcing them to a white-label agency. 

The white-label provider will work hand-in-hand with you and your clients to ensure optimal results, and your brand gets to take credit for everything.

White labeling is an excellent way for marketing agencies to expand their service offerings without having to hire more staff. 

Agree on services, budget, and a timeline 

Once you have a preferred provider, it’s time to hash out the nitty-gritty details. 

During your initial consultation, work with the provider to agree on the specific services you’re ordering, how much it’ll cost, and how long it’ll take to see results. 

For pricing, decide whether you want to do one-time, monthly, or performance-based pay. 

If content creation is involved, ensure that the agency will create and use a content calendar that they keep you in the loop on. 

Each deliverable should have a deadline, so don’t forget to set those up, too. 

Once you’ve worked everything out, you’re ready to sign on the dotted line and start working with your new SEO partner. 

Which SEO Services Can You Outsource?

Here’s a look at the types of SEO services you can outsource to an agency. 

Once again, you should double-check that each agency you look into offers the services you want, as not every agency will offer every service on this list (except us). 

Link-building 

If you want to dominate the SERPs on Google, then you need a lot of high-authority websites vouching for your content via backlinks. 

This is one of the most challenging aspects of SEO, which is why so many businesses and websites choose to outsource it. 

At The HOTH, we offer targeted Link Outreach, Link Insertions, Press Releases, and Content Syndication services that leverage our network of 300+ media outlets and news sites. 

Keyword research and content creation 

You must publish a staggering amount of content to achieve thought-leader status in your field. 

Outsourcing your content creation is a great way to keep up with the Joneses without having to work around the clock. 

Our Blog Content and Website Content Writing services ensure our clients’ content remains remarkably consistent in both quality and publishing frequency. 

Currently, lots of businesses are using AI to keep up with their content demands, but AI content creation is a subtle art that few have mastered. 

We offer AI Content Plus, which is our AI-plus-human-powered content creation service that achieves the best of both worlds (speed plus creativity). 

Technical SEO 

There are loads of factors going on behind the scenes that affect your performance on search engines. 

If your site runs slow or if you have lots of duplicate content, you could all but disappear from the SERPs entirely. 

If you’ve been having problems with these types of issues, a technical SEO audit will restore your website to optimal health.

Local SEO 

Local businesses face a whole host of unique SEO challenges, which is why local SEO is its own subgenre (sort of like acid jazz). 

Google My Business plays a massive role in local SEO, as it’s integral for getting featured in local map packs. 

Local keyword research is also unique, as you’ll want to target keywords that include cities, towns, and states. 

Start Outsourcing Your SEO Today 

Working with a trusted SEO agency to boost your online visibility while you focus on more important things is a tried-and-true formula for success. 

You won’t have to worry about things like Google algorithm updates, yet you’ll enjoy higher SERP rankings anyway. 

If you want to enjoy a winning SEO campaign for your business, don’t wait to sign up for HOTH X, our coveted managed SEO service.       

The post Outsourcing SEO Services: Having Your Cake and Eating It, Too appeared first on The HOTH.

After that, widespread adoption should take place sometime in early 2024. 

The good news?

After rigorous testing and experimentation by SEOs far and wide, SGE isn’t nearly as mysterious or scary as it was just a few months ago. 

Digital marketers have begun to emerge from their underground bunkers, so to speak, as they’re starting to realize SGE won’t mean the end of SEO as we know it (Y2K, anyone?). 

Yet, implementing SGE will mark one of the most significant changes in Google’s history, so you shouldn’t sleep on it. 

The best thing you can do now is to get all your ducks in a row before the official rollout begins. 

You still have a few precious months to optimize the heck out of your website and content before SGE lands in 2024, so you should make the most out of it. 

Choose our preparation techniques, and the impending traffic loss will only affect low-quality visitors who weren’t going to convert anyway. You’ll likely start appearing in SGE’s AI snapshot, and you’ll not only survive in the new search environment but also begin to thrive. 

If you choose poor optimization tactics, this guy will be your only organic visitor:

All kidding aside, stay tuned to learn how to prepare your website for Google’s SGE. 

An Overview of Google SGE 

Google’s Search Generative Experience is their attempt to use generative AI (GAI) to enhance and personalize the Google Search experience. 

In particular, SGE uses an advanced language model that uses NLP (natural language processing) to understand natural conversation better. 

This enables users to ask the AI questions just as they would another person, eliminating the need to use brief search queries. 

The AI also responds to the user conversationally, directly answering their question while listing three sources (the web results where it found the answer to the user’s question). 

This is SGE’s AI snapshot, and it’s going to appear at the very top of the SERPs, even above paid ads. 

SGE also introduces the Perspectives section, which Google included as a way to hear opinions, experiences, and voices from others. The section includes short-form videos, blog posts, Q&A sections, and more from noteworthy voices from around the web. 

The AI snapshot is a tad similar to the ‘featured snippet’ SERP feature, although SGE goes far more in-depth. 

Whereas featured snippets only draw from one source online (and quotes from it directly), the AI writes an original answer based on three online sources, and it only paraphrases them instead of using direct quotes. 

You can also follow up with Google’s AI if you have additional questions or want to learn more about a particular subject. 

In other words, the Google Search experience will resemble a conversation with a chatbot more than a traditional search engine. 

What happens to our precious organic results?

The organic SERP results have long been the bread-and-butter of SEO specialists, which is why SGE’s announcement caused so much concern. 

After all, the organic rankings have already been losing page real estate for a while now due to things like SERP features and sponsored ads. 

With SGE’s AI snapshot, the organic results are pushed even further down the page into no-man’s land. 

Remember the classic joke about hiding a dead body on page 2 of Google’s search results?

Well, that joke may soon apply to nearly all organic results that feature an AI snapshot. 

The hard truth is that most searchers will get what they need from SGE’s AI snapshot and won’t scroll down to peep at ANY of the organic results (including any hidden dead bodies). 

While we know that the search landscape is changing and that GAI is here to stay, the diminishing role of organic SERPs is still a sad fact for veteran SEOs. 

Join us in a moment of silence. 

Enough doom and gloom; now let’s take a look at some good news. 

The light at the end of the tunnel 

It’s important to note that not every search will feature an AI snapshot. They only appear whenever Google thinks GAI would be more useful than the traditional results – so all isn’t lost for organic SEO by any means. 

At The HOTH, we’ve been hard at work running tests and experiments with SGE, and we’ve developed a proprietary solution that’ll help our clients avoid any negative effects of its implementation. 

Besides that, we’ve landed upon the best ways to optimize your site for SGE, and the good news is you won’t have to radically change your approach. 

According to research, if you’re already ranking in positions 1 or 2, Google is far more likely to feature you as a source in the SGE AI snapshot. 

That means finding success in the era of SGE won’t look too dissimilar to what SEO success looks like now. 

Researching queries, creating content based on E-E-A-T, and building a reputable link profile will all still matter for SGE, so you shouldn’t throw out your current SEO playbooks just yet. 

Start Your Engines! Preparing for the Shift to Google SGE 

The best way to get ready for SGE is to continue your organic SEO strategies – albeit with a few key tweaks. 

If you’re already ranking in the number 1 or 2 spots for your most important keywords, you’re clearly doing something right, so keep it up. 

If you’ve still got some room to grow, you shouldn’t abandon your efforts to rank up, even with SGE fast approaching on its pale horse.

Here’s a look at the best ways to make your current SEO strategy SGE-friendly. 

‘The Long Query Home’: focusing on long-tail keywords

The era of targeting high-volume search keywords is about to be dethroned by focusing on longer queries to cater to GAI snapshots. 

This is due to the nature of how users will interact with Google’s AI, as they’ll ask longer, conversational-style questions instead of using brief keywords that only hint at what they want. 

For example, using SGE, a user may ask Google, “Where can I buy some fresh fruit?”

The AI will provide a direct answer by listing up to 5 highly rated local fruit vendors, as well as 3 relevant sources. 

Accordingly, SEOs should research question-based long-tail keywords to prepare for SGE. 

In the near future, it’s highly likely that the majority of your content efforts will focus on informational, commercial, and transactional long-tail queries. 

When creating content for these queries, clearly answer the question and cover the topic in great detail. That will heighten the chances that Google’s AI will turn to your content when looking for an answer to the user’s question. 

What’s ironic is that if GAI does alter the way people use Google, short-tail keywords will no longer occupy the ‘short-tail’ of the search demand curve as they continue to lose popularity. 

Will long-tail become the new short-tail? It’s an interesting (and slightly confusing) thought. 

Besides optimizing for SGE, targeting long-tail keywords provides other benefits. For instance, long-tail keywords have higher conversion rates than their short-tail counterparts. 

Create content good enough to E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) signals will matter even more in the age of SGE. 

Why is that?

It’s because the popular acronym represents what Google’s algorithm considers to be high-quality content. 

As such, you can be sure that the web pages Google’s AI includes in its snapshot will be from websites that exhibit strong E-E-A-T signals. 

Showcasing your first-hand experience is vast in the age of AI-generated content, as unique human perspectives that AI can’t duplicate will matter more than ever. 

To establish authoritativeness and trustworthiness, you need a strong link profile, which is proof that links still matter (and will continue to when SGE drops). 

Link-182: Building authoritative links 

If your website isn’t considered a trustworthy and authoritative source, Google’s AI responses will stay far away from your content. 

So, if you want to appear in AI snapshots, a high-quality link-building strategy is an absolute necessity. 

That doesn’t mean buying a boatload of cheap links and calling it a day, as that’s the last thing you want to do. 

Instead, modern link-building is all about building a flawless reputation online by building strong relationships with trusted websites. 

You do that by engaging in tactics like creating valuable content that generates links like infographics, videos, and long-form posts. Link insertions, article syndication, and press releases are other enormously effective link-building techniques. 

Become a schema scholar 

Schema, also called structured data markup, has long been a part of SEO. In particular, it’s how you qualify for rich snippets, which are Google’s SERP features. 

Structured data plays an even bigger role in SGE carousels, as it’ll help Google’s AI better understand your content, especially in terms of what you want to rank for on the SERPs. 

For example, schema helps Google distinguish between things like FAQs, Q&As, recipes, and how-to tutorials. 

Becoming an SGE Mastermind

SGE is not the end of the world for digital marketing, especially if you take the time to prepare now. 

Building content for question-based long-tail keywords, creating E-E-A-T content, using schema, and building high-quality links are all fantastic ways to ensure a buttery smooth transition to Google SGE. 

If you need help getting ready for SGE and want to generate more traffic, don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our managed SEO service.     

The post Preparing for Google SGE: Surviving SEO’s Next Wild West  appeared first on The HOTH.

In addition to ranking content based on relevancy, they also wanted to rank pages based on how many other websites linked to them. The idea was that the most high-quality, sought-after content on the internet would have a large number of links pointing to it due to its helpful, accurate information. 

They would go on to develop the PageRank system, an algorithm that ranks pages based on how many high-quality backlinks they have – and it would power their new search engine, Google. 

The PageRank system is still in place today, which is why link-building is a core aspect of SEO. 

High-authority backlinks are inarguably one of the most critical ranking factors on Google and other search engines. 

In fact, many SEO gurus assert that backlinks from high-authority sites are the #1 ranking factor that matters most, bar none. 

What proof do they have that this is the case?

The #1 result on Google will have an average of 3.8x more high-authority backlinks than positions 2 – 10, according to an in-depth study by Backlinko. 

So if your SEO strategy doesn’t include going after high-quality backlinks, you’re missing out on higher rankings and more traffic. 

Read on to discover proven-effective ways to target and acquire backlinks from the most relevant and authoritative websites in your niche. 

What Are High-Authority Backlinks?

If you’re a newcomer to the SEO space or have only focused on blogging and keyword research – you may be a bit lost on the concept of backlinks. 

After all, what is a ‘backlink,’ anyway?

It’s simply a link from another website that ‘points back’ to yours. So if a guest post you write on another blog includes a link to your website, that’s considered a backlink. The same is true of any link on an external website that directs to one of your web pages. 

When Page and Brin were at Stanford brainstorming ideas for Google, they thought of backlinks as the internet’s equivalent of citing sources for a written paper. 

The medical and scientific journals that have high-quality citations and sources are seen as more authoritative than ones that do not – and the PageRank algorithm views backlinks for websites in the same light. 

So if your website has many backlinks from high-authority websites (think government and educational institutions, trusted companies, etc.), your content will be seen as more authoritative and trustworthy as a result. 

You can think of it as a positive twist on the ‘guilt by association’ troupe, except you gain authority and trust instead of guilt. 

Since it was clear backlinks mattered so much to Google, search engine optimization experts began trying to find ways to acquire authoritative backlinks to gain higher rankings. 

Yet, first, they had to figure out something very important – what makes a website authoritative or not?

What’s Domain Authority?

Determining the level of authority a website has is crucial before pursuing a backlink. 

Why is that?

It’s because there are high-quality and low-quality backlinks, and low-quality backlinks will actually harm your SEO profile. 

As such, you’ll want to avoid acquiring backlinks from sites that aren’t seen as authoritative or trustworthy, but how can you tell the difference?

Enter domain authority (DA), a metric coined by Moz used to convey a website’s authority and trust level. Websites receive a score ranging from 1 – 100, with 1 being very poor and 100 being perfect. 

While it’s not an officially recognized ranking factor by Google, checking a website’s domain authority score is the most reliable way to gauge whether it’s worth pursuing a link from them. 

You can use our free domain authority checker tool to check the DA score for any website. Enter a URL, check the CAPTCHA, and hit the button to see a site’s DA score (even your own). 

As a rule of thumb, you should check the DA score for every site you intend to pursue backlinks from to ensure they won’t hurt your rankings. 

Typically, sites with high domain authority are along the lines of industry thought leaders, enterprise-level companies, universities, nonprofits, and government agencies. 

The 15 Types of Backlinks 

Link-building has evolved substantially since its beginnings in the late 90s, as there are now 15 distinct types of backlinks that SEOs target. 

Understanding each type will help you determine which will work best for your needs, so let’s take a brief look at them all. 

#1: Editorial backlinks 

An editorial backlink refers to when a high-authority website links to one of your content pieces to support its own work. 

An example would be a website linking or embedding an infographic you created that has helpful statistics or industry information. Other ways you can obtain editorial backlinks include:

• Another website cites your content as a source for one of their posts 
• Someone vouches for the quality of your website and provides a link 
• A website chooses to include your website in a link roundup 
• Someone interviews an employee from your website and includes a link 

The best way to acquire these links is to create high-quality, data-driven content that’s valuable to your target audience. If you do that, other websites will start to notice and link to your web pages, essentially letting your content sell itself. That’ll make outreach a breeze; if the post is relevant enough, you won’t have to work too hard to promote it. 

#2: Relationship-based backlinks 

This type of link is an evolution of editorial backlinks, as it occurs whenever you establish a relationship with another website, journalist, or content creator. 

Once they begin to link to your content more than once, it’s considered a relationship-based backlink. 

These are extremely valuable because they aren’t a one-off thing. If another content creator views you as an authoritative thought leader in your field, they’ll likely link to your content more than once, maybe even dozens of times – which is great news for your backlink profile. 

How can you establish these types of relationships?

You can by paying close attention to the editorial backlinks that you pick up. Whenever you notice that another website has linked to one of your pages, do some outreach via email or social media. 

Formally introduce yourself, and thank them for linking back to your website. From there, you can provide some additional links to your high-quality content for further reading. 

Not only that, but you should praise their blog content and offer to include a backlink on your website to their content, which is an excellent way to kickstart a mutually beneficial relationship where you both link to each other’s pages. 

#3: Guest blogging backlinks 

Another age-old tactic for acquiring backlinks is to write guest posts for other blogs in exchange for a link. 

While guest blogging can be a reliable way to generate high-authority backlinks, you need to know how to do it properly. 

Otherwise, Google could think you’re trying to game the system with spammy links. 

Most important is that your guest posts must be relevant to your website and provide valuable content for the website you’re posting on. 

Why is that?

It has to do with Google’s rigorous quality standards for its search rankings. Google only wants to display the highest quality, most relevant results for search queries. 

If the top results suddenly become irrelevant, spam-heavy articles without any valuable information, Google will lose business, as searchers will go elsewhere. 

That’s why your guest posts must be of the utmost quality and relevancy for your target audience if you want to rise through the rankings. 

To find the most success, only establish guest post relationships with other high-quality, trustworthy websites in your niche (be sure to check their DA score with our free tool first). As long as you do that, your guest post relationships will yield many high-authority backlinks. 

There’s also HARO (help a reporter out), where journalists seek advice from experts and include backlinks in their pieces. 

#4: General website directories 

There are plenty of website directories out there, and getting listed on them will score a backlink for you. 

In fact, backlinks from general directories are among the easiest to get. For the most part, they accept links from any type of website, regardless of the topic, industry, or even its quality. 

But how valuable are they?

It probably won’t come as a surprise to learn that Google doesn’t consider most backlinks from general directories to be valuable. Once again, it has to do with Google’s obsession with quality and relevance, which these directories largely ignore. 

That doesn’t mean that you should entirely ignore general directories, quite the opposite. It’s just that you shouldn’t go hog wild getting your website listed on every general directory online, as that won’t amount to much. 

Instead, focus only on the largest, most trusted website directories, such as Yelp, Yellowpages, and Local.com, as Google does value their links. 

#5: Niche website directories 

Instead of getting listed on tons of general directories, you’ll find more success focusing on a handful of niche directories. 

What are those?

A niche directory contains a highly specific theme that’s tied to a certain industry, topic, type of business, etc.

They tend to be more selective and more challenging to get listed on than general directories and have a specific focus. For instance, if you sell fitness equipment, you could search for niche directories that list fitness equipment providers. 

Google values niche directories far more than general directories for two reasons. 

First, they have a clear focus and target audience instead of being geared toward everyone/everything. Next, they don’t accept anyone that applies. Instead, they have higher quality standards than general directories, which is what Google wants. 

While it may be harder to find niche directories, getting listed on them will positively affect your SEO profile. 

Also, as long as the directory is relevant to your niche, you don’t have to stop at just one link to your website. If you have the content for it, you can get more pages from your website listed in the directory, which will help your SEO efforts even more. 

#6: Footer, header, and sidebar links 

You should know that where your link shows up on a page affects its value. 

In particular, links that show up in the header, footer, and sidebar of a page are NOT considered valuable by Google. 

Why is that?

It’s because these are ‘sitewide links’ that appear on every website page. 

Google’s algorithm has learned to assess the relevance and value of a link based on where it appears on the page.

Which spot on the page has the most value?

Links embedded in the middle of the body content of a page will always carry the most value. Backlinks in this area serve a purpose for readers and have a use and a context (supporting the blog content with additional relevant information). 

If one of your backlinks appears in the header, footer, or sidebar of a page, Google will largely ignore them, as it views them in the same context as navigational links (Home, About Us, etc.). 

So whenever you do outreach to acquire backlinks, ensure that your clients place them in the body of their articles and not in the header, footer, or sidebar. 

#7: Paid Links 

While you can pay companies, websites, and publishers for backlinks, it’s usually a bad idea. 

Google views paid backlinks as a ‘black hat SEO’ tactic that aims to trick the algorithm into ranking content higher that didn’t legitimately deserve it. Paid links are a big no-no as a result, as using them can lead to Google penalizing your site.

Does that mean you should NEVER pay for backlinks?

It actually doesn’t, as there are ways to pay for backlinks while avoiding scrutiny from Google. In a nutshell, the way to do it is to make the links look as natural as possible. 

That means if you do pay for links, you need to make sure that the links are from high-quality, relevant websites. Moreover, ensure the content you’re getting links for is some of your absolute best work. 

If you pay for guest posts and follow the two rules above, your paid links will likely pass as quality links – remember to make them appear as natural as possible. 

Despite all the risks because of Google’s staunch stand against paid links, paying for backlinks is a practice that’s still very much alive, and it’s not only dastardly black hat SEOs that are doing it. 

How to make paid links work 

Some white-hat SEO gurus still pay for links; they just know how to make them appear natural. The risk is akin to speeding on the highway. Sure, you could get pulled over for a ticket, but there’s no denying that driving faster will get you to your destination quicker. 

In the same vein, paid links can increase your search engine rankings; otherwise, nobody would still do it. 

Pro tip: You never want to pay a website owner directly for a backlink (i.e., offering $500 in exchange or a link pointing to your site), as that’s a blatant link scheme and a surefire way to get caught. Instead, there are ways to buy high-authority links without directly violating Google’s policies. 

A popular method is to outsource your link-building strategy to a trusted agency that can earn you desirable backlinks. 

While you’re technically paying for backlinks, using this method is not against Google’s rules. 

That’s because you’re paying someone to create resources, perform outreach, and build relationships on your behalf, which isn’t a link scheme. 

There are some links that you can buy directly without getting in trouble, but they’re nofollow links. 

What are those?

A nofollow link means that it will not affect search engine rankings, as Google’s PageRank algorithm will ignore it. Conversely, dofollow links do affect search engine rankings, which are the types of backlinks you want to target. 

For this reason, you should ensure every link you acquire is a dofollow backlink; otherwise, you won’t gain any visibility on search engines. 

#8: Business profile links

Another type of backlink is a business profile link, which exists on social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), industry directories, and local citation profiles. 

These types of backlinks are especially important for local SEO strategies, as these business profiles are where consumers go to discover local products and services. 

The theory here is simple, as you create accounts for your business on different platforms, look where you can include a backlink to your website. Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YellowPages are all examples of platforms that allow you to link back to your site, so don’t forget to create an account for your business on each one. 

Business profile links are among the easiest to acquire, so make sure someone at your company is in charge of including a backlink whenever you create a new profile on a platform or directory. 

#9: Webinar links 

It’s a fact that a link will get more clicks when it provides a valuable resource for your audience. 

The principle is the same as a squeeze page for generating email leads – you provide a freebie in exchange for something valuable. In the case of a squeeze page, it’s a customer’s email address. 

In our case, the prize we’re after is a backlink that generates a lot of organic traffic. 

How do you do that?

You can by providing a link to a webinar (or podcasts) providing valuable insights, techniques, and information for your audience. 

In the case of a webinar, you’ll gain more value from the links if you record it and archive it on your own website so viewers can always access it. 

A recorded webinar is a powerful tool you can use to not only score backlinks but also generate a ton of organic traffic. That’s especially true if your webinar contains valuable information your audience can use to better their lives. 

Podcasting is another way to get backlinks. 

If your podcast has a high-profile guest or contains something unique (such as proven-effective digital marketing techniques), the chances are high that other content creators will link to your episodes, generating backlinks for you in a very natural way. 

You can also use your podcasts and webinars for future guest post outreach opportunities, so make sure to hold onto them in your archives. 

#10: Backlinks from free tools 

There’s an SEO-specific reason why we have so many free tools that anyone can use on the HOTH website.  

Besides wanting to help as many people as we can, free tools are a fantastic way to acquire high-authority backlinks naturally. 

For instance, how many website owners need to conduct keyword research and check competitor backlink profiles each day?

The answer is in the thousands, and many of them flock to our free SEO tools (our keyword planner tool and our backlink tool) to meet their needs. Beyond that, they also share our tools on their websites, blog posts, and social media profiles, generating loads of backlinks. 

The good news?

You can incorporate this strategy on your website, either by providing free tools or another valuable free resource. 

To come up with a helpful tool, do some research on your audience to uncover their problems and pain points. After that, see if you can come up with a tool (or scale down a paid tool) that solves those problems. 

Next, do some outreach to some high-authority websites in your field to see if they’ll link to the tool in their content (or do a review on it). 

#11: Sponsorship links

Another option is to mimic sports athletes and go for sponsorships. Yet, rather than trying to score your photo on the Wheaties box, you’ll want to form sponsorships with high-authority websites in your field. 

Besides SEO, sponsorships are just a solid marketing tactic in general. 

To form sponsorships, you’ll need to do one of link building‘s most essential (and repetitive) tasks, outreach. 

Also, look for the best sponsorship opportunities in your niche. Ensure that the website has a high DA score and, if possible, an existing acknowledgments page. 

Why is that important?

It is because acknowledgment pages are where websites place their sponsorship backlinks, which is what you want. Not only that, but remember to avoid ‘sitewide’ links like the plague, as they will nullify your hard work. 

As long as you wind up on a dedicated sponsor acknowledgment page on a high-authority website, you’ll be as good as gold. 

#12: Award badge backlinks 

Here’s a type of backlink that most SEOs overlook, the branded award badge. 

Create an award or special ranking for other websites in your field. It’s important not to skimp here; make it a legitimate award that’s worth winning – complete with a sleek branded badge that they can place on their website (which is actually a backlink to your site). 

It’s crucial to note that it can take some time to establish your badge as something valuable and sought-after in your field, so this is a bit of a long-term strategy. 

Once you do, however, websites in your niche will start to line up to receive your awards, which will translate into high-authority backlinks for you. 

#13: Press release backlinks 

Press releases are a classic marketing tactic, and they also work wonders for acquiring backlinks. 

If you’re rolling out a press release containing big news from your company, bloggers in your niche will likely create posts about it and link to it. 

Even better, high-authority media outlets are likely to report on and link to your press release, which is excellent news for your SEO profile. 

Here are a few news topics that are worthy of creating a press release for:

• Launching a new product line 
• Opening a new location 
• Announcing a new partnership or sponsorship with another company
• Rebranding your business with a new name or logo 

These are all subjects that are bound to generate a buzz online, so don’t hesitate to create product releases about them. 

#14: Backlinks from comments 

Many websites, such as Forbes, Medium, and user forums, allow you to include links in your comments. 

You should be able to guess where this is going. 

By commenting on these websites, you can include links pointing back to your content, which can help you accumulate backlinks. 

Yet, this is a strategy you should use in moderation. 

If you go commenting and linking back to your site on every website you find, Google will likely flag them as spam. 

Not only that, but the last thing you want to do is include a backlink on a low-authority website. Instead, stick to websites that have a high DA score and already rank high on search engines, like Forbes and Medium. You should also target websites that are within your niche. 

#15: Backlinks from forums

Much like including backlinks in comments, you can also include backlinks in forum posts that you make around the web. 

This is another strategy that you should use sparingly, although it can be an effective tactic when done correctly. 

Only include backlinks on relevant forums to your audience, and don’t go for the hard sell. For instance, you wouldn’t want to handle a forum link like this:

• CLICK HERE to check out our amazing products and services now! 

This feels like nothing more than an advertisement, and Google won’t view it favorably. Forum users also won’t pay it any mind, so don’t expect to see many clicks from it. 

Here’s a much better example of a forum backlink:

• Hey (forum poster), I noticed that you’re drawing a blank on how to write a compelling call-to-action at the end of your blog posts. My company recently wrote an extensive post on the 10 essential types of CTAs that I think will help you. 

This is much better because it directly responds to a user and helps them solve a problem with a relevant piece of content. As a result, users are far more likely to click on it, and you won’t trigger any red flags from Google. 

Backlink Building Strategies

Now that you know more about the 15 types of backlinks, let’s learn some proven techniques for acquiring them. 

Replacing broken links 

A great way to acquire links and do a public service for the internet is to replace broken links online with your content. 

Link rot is a real thing, and there are thousands of broken links online as a result. 

To find them, you can use Ahrefs broken link checker. The goal is to find broken links for content that you can easily replace. For instance, if you find a broken link for a blog on a topic you’ve already written about, you can simply replace it with your existing blog. 

You’ll need to reach out to the website owner to replace the link. Explain that you found a broken link but have an adequate replacement. As long as there are no conflicting interests, they’ll likely agree to it. 

The skyscraper technique 

A fantastic link-building strategy involves outdoing competitor content to poach their high-authority backlinks. 

It works like this:

1. First, check Google search for top-ranking pieces of content in your niche that have desirable backlinks (you can use our backlink checker tool to check out their link profile). 
2. Brainstorm ways to create a similar piece of content that’s 10x better. (i.e., go into more detail, provide new insights, and include a video or an infographic)
3. Publish your content and reach out to the original post’s backlinks. 
4. Link to your piece and let them know you’d like them to link to your content instead. If it is 10x better than the original, they’re more likely to link to your content instead. 

This is a highly effective technique that you can use to penetrate the top results on the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

Creating infographics 

Infographics are arguably the most effective of all the types of content you can create to acquire backlinks. 

Infographics are outstanding because they convey complex information in a visual way that’s easy to comprehend. In fact, posts with images contain a 650% higher engagement rate. 

An infographic can contain eye-opening statistics, crucial facts, and other forms of relevant information. 

Moreover, bloggers love linking to infographics due to how effectively they convey information. As such, if you create a detailed, visually pleasing infographic containing relevant facts, lots of other bloggers will link to it – generating natural backlinks for you. 

Final Takeaways: High-Authority Backlinks 

Obtaining high-authority backlinks is crucial if you want to crack the top 10 results on Google, as it will be nearly impossible without them. 

Ever since Google’s inception, the PageRank algorithm has existed, which is why link-building exists. By building up a robust backlink profile, you’ll significantly increase your chances of snagging a top spot in the rankings, as well as holding onto it. 

Do you still need to put a link-building strategy in place at your company?

If so, don’t wait to check out our elite-level link-building services at The HOTH today.     

The post How to Get High-Authority Backlinks from Relevant Websites appeared first on The HOTH.

The most exciting and controversial feature users get to test drive is Google SGE (Search Generative Experience), which adds the power of generative AI to Google Search. 

With it, users can ask questions conversationally instead of using brief search queries. 

Google’s AI will then directly answer users’ questions, saving them the trouble of browsing countless search results to find the same answer. 

Users also have the option to ask follow-up questions, and the SGE feature provides a carousel containing the top three links on the subject for further reading. 

As of now, SGE is still in its testing phase, but it will leave Search Labs in December of 2023, with plans for widespread adoption in 2024. 

It’s got SEOs everywhere scrambling to prepare, as the feature will significantly alter the search landscape.  par

How’s that?

For starters, it’s predicted that every website will see a 25% drop in overall web traffic. 

Wait, what?!

Maybe now you can see why some SEOs are panicking (and probably stocking their survival bunkers). 

Much like a featured snippet, the SGE feature will hog all the search real estate at the top of the page, pushing the organic SERP results further beneath the fold. 

So, will SGE spell the end of the SEO world as we know it, or are there ways you can prepare and still thrive?

Read on to find out. 

What is SGE, and Why Will it Steal My Traffic?

Google announced SGE in May 2023 at their annual I/O Developer Conference and presented it as a way for users to ‘get more out of a single search.’

It involves adding AI-enhanced overview at the top of the SERPs, even appearing above organic SERP features (which were long considered position ‘zero’). 

With SGE, if users want to view the #1-ranked organic result, they’ll have to scroll past:

• The AI Overview containing three source links 
• SERP features like featured snippets and knowledge bars
• Paid ads 

That’s a whole lot of scrolling to do just to reach one organically ranked result! 

This is a big reason why SEOs predict a 25% drop-off in traffic, as most users will find what they need in the AI Overview, SERP features, or paid ads.

It also means that websites won’t be rewarded as heavily for cracking the traditional SEO code – hence the need to quickly adapt to SGE. 

A new way to search 

Besides where it appears on the page, SGE is also set to revolutionize how people search for information online. 

It’s also expanding to over 120 countries and territories, plus four new languages. 

Why is that?

As Google continued to refine SGE since its initial Search Labs launch in May, they also expanded internationally to include Japan and India. 

So far, they’ve received very positive feedback from all three countries (including the US), which is why they’re expanding SGE’s reach even further. 

In particular, users are enjoying that they can ask questions as they would in a conversation instead of trying to ‘speak search engine.’ 

For example, let’s say you want to find a restaurant on your street that stays open past 9:00 PM. 

Traditionally, you’d search for something like ‘restaurant hours Bourbon Street.’ From there, a local SERP feature would list some restaurants in your area, and you’d have to check the business hours for each location. 

With SGE, you can skip all that crap and just ask, “Which restaurants on Bourbon Street stay open past 9:00 PM?”

Thanks to the AI’s natural language processing, it’ll understand your question and provide a direct answer – along with links to the top three restaurants that stay open past 9:00 PM. 

The new Perspectives feature 

Google is also rolling out Perspectives, a new SERP feature that works hand-in-hand with SGE. 

Besides hearing what Google’s AI has to say on a topic, the team at Google wanted users to have a way to listen to what others online are saying about it. 

Enter the Perspectives carousel, which compiles videos, images, and posts from forums, blogs, and social media platforms. 

This allows users to consider more opinions than what the generative AI spits out. 

SEOs are actually optimistic about this feature, as it’s a way for their blog posts and infographics to reach the top of the SERPs alongside the AI Overview. 

How SGE Stands to Reshape SEO 

First, let’s deliver some good news. 

Thanks to the proprietary solution we’ve prepared for SGE at The HOTH, the 25% of organic traffic that each site is set to lose will only affect low-quality traffic that wasn’t going to convert anyway. 

We’ll cover our solution for SGE more in a bit (trust us, you don’t want to skip it). 

For now, let’s focus on how SGE will change your approach to SEM (search engine marketing). 

So far, SEOs are predicting that SGE will affect the search landscape in the following ways:

• SERP real estate
• Images and CTR (click-through rates) 
• Paid ads 
• Higher volatility 

Let’s take a closer look at each one. 

Altering SERP real estate in a big way

As stated previously, SGE will become the new position zero, appearing above organic SERP features like knowledge bars and featured snippets. 

This is concerning to digital marketers, as it pushes organic results farther down the page, lessening the chances of users even seeing the top 5 ranked results. 

To put this in perspective, it’s the real estate equivalent of moving from a picturesque, bustling suburb to the middle of freaking nowhere. 

If your website doesn’t appear in the AI Overview but is organically ranked #1, you’re bound to see a drop in traffic and a lower CTR. 

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This means there will be fierce competition to appear in the AI Overview and Perspectives tab. 

Businesses everywhere must swiftly adapt to this change to survive in the evolving search landscape. 

In other words, this is not the time to bury your head in the sand and pretend that SGE isn’t coming. 

The end of the year is right around the corner, and by then, Google will have enough test data to fully implement SGE sometime in early 2024. 

Even if you have flawless SEO at the moment and are ranking #1 for all your most important keywords, the looming traffic drop-off will have dire effects if you don’t prepare for SGE properly. 

Not to worry, though, as you still have time to prepare by optimizing your content to appeal to SGE’s AI Overview and Perspectives carousel. 

The relationship between images and CTR 

In SGE’s AI Overview, the three cited sources for each query contain featured images. 

As history has told us time and time again, users will click on the most relevant, visually appealing images. 

If you want to secure as many clicks as possible from the AI Overview, you should ensure your images are top-notch, as that may make the difference between getting a click and getting the cold shoulder. Schema mark-up and alt-text will be key here.

It’s similar to how YouTube thumbnails work, which serve as visual aids to help users determine which video they want to watch. 

That’s why it’s unsurprising to learn that 90% of the top-performing videos on YouTube use customized, visually appealing thumbnails. 

So, if you want to replicate their success on the AI Overview, copy their technique and treat the quality of your featured images as your ticket to generating more traffic2. 

What role will paid ads play in SGE?

Marketers have speculated how SGE will affect paid ads since its announcement in May. 

After all, the organic SERP results aren’t the only ones getting pushed further down the fold thanks to SGE. 

When running tests, SEOs noticed fewer paid ads appeared on the Search Labs version of SGE, which raised some eyebrows. 

The ads that did show up appeared beneath the AI Overview, dethroning paid ads from the very top of the page. 

However, it’s important to note that these tests were conducted not long after Search Labs rolled out and that more paid ads have begun to appear over time. 

Google hasn’t remained silent about the issue, as they have an entire blog dedicated to it. 

According to Vidhya Srinivasan, the VP & GM of Google Ads, “Ads will continue to play an important role in helping people connect with useful information and allowing businesses to be discovered online.”

She adds, “With SGE, search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page.”

This makes it clear that Google has no intention of abandoning paid ads, and they plan to do rigorous testing for the new ad experience. 

While it is a shame that paid ads are set to lose their prime SERP real estate, the new dedicated ad slots may offer lucrative new opportunities for targeting potential customers, so we’ll just have to wait and see. 

Currently, SGE is highly volatile 

During the Search Labs phase, SGE has proven to be extremely volatile, as it’s difficult to replicate the same search results twice, even using the exact same query. 

Sometimes, AI Overviews won’t appear for queries that they did in the past, and vice versa. 

eCommerce category keywords (i.e., apparel, books, movies, electronics, etc.) don’t automatically generate an AI Overview, either. 

The AI Overview’s size has also been inconsistent, as it tends to change shape pretty randomly. 

For some queries, the overview is HUGE, measuring in at 780px high. Other times, it’s far more reserved and is only about 230px high. 

SEOs can only hope that the norm will be the smaller size, as that will likely have a lighter impact on their organic traffic since it doesn’t take up as much of the page. 

It’s important to note that the generative AI behind SGE is very dynamic, so no two AI Overviews appear exactly the same. 

Conversely, it’s unclear how volatile SGE will be when it’s fully implemented, as only time will tell. 

What Can You Do to Prepare for SGE? 

At The HOTH, we’ve been hard at work preparing a proprietary solution for SGE to ensure our clients don’t see adverse effects from its implementation. 

The good news is that we found a way to both negate SGE’s potential drawbacks and thrive at the same time. 

Marketers are referring to the onset of SGE as the zero-click era, and we’ve been preparing for it ever since generative AI burst onto the scene. 

Our strategy ensures that the 25% drop in traffic will only affect low-quality visitors who had no intention of converting anyway. 

Besides that, we’ve developed ways to appeal to Google’s AI. 

Here’s a peek at the solution we developed. 

Rethinking the way you approach content 

With SGE, organic results are becoming more personalized and tailored to the user, so your content needs to follow suit. 

That means creating content for longer, more specific queries than before. 

In other words, the days of targeting popular short-tail keywords may be all but over. 

Since users will speak to Google more conversationally, brief search phrases that used to dominate the engine will become far less common. 

For example, currently, if someone wants to find a pink dress within their budget, they’ll search for something like ‘affordable pink dresses.’

The query is short and sweet, and it’s a given that countless eCommerce stores have targeted it to capitalize on the traffic. 

Yet, with SGE, the user can get far more specific and ask something like, “Where can I find a pink prom dress for under $200?” 

As a result, SEOs will need to target longer keywords and phrases that are relevant and intent-driven. 

We also started implementing a dual focus with our content, meaning we now optimize everything for both Google and Bing. This ensures that you capitalize on as much traffic as possible from the two most popular search engines. 

A fine-tuned link-building strategy 

The quality of your link profile will still matter in a big way for SGE, especially if you want your web pages to appear in AI Overviews. 

It’s more crucial than ever to have a robust backlink profile featuring links from trusted websites AND a diverse anchor text ratio. 

At The HOTH, our backlink plan for SGE is two-fold:

1. Our quality link network contains hundreds of websites with rigorous publishing standards. 
2. We meticulously track the performance of every link we create, ensuring that our inventory is as fresh as possible. 

By targeting more personalized long-tail keywords and bolstering your backlink profile, you can safeguard high-value traffic while ensuring you continue to grow in the new search landscape. 

Successfully Navigating the Change to SGE 

We’ve gone over a lot so far, but here’s the bottom line. 

The widespread implementation of SGE will undoubtedly change the search landscape forever, and virtually every website in Google’s index will see some sort of impact. 

However, with proper planning and optimization, you can offset any negative impacts and safeguard your high-value traffic. 

Moreover, the quicker you adapt to SGE, the easier it’ll be to start mastering it – so don’t be afraid to embrace the new technology instead of fearing it. 

If you want expert help navigating the change to SGE, don’t wait to sign up for HOTH X, our renowned managed SEO service.       

The post Google SGE is On the Horizon: Will it Trigger the SEO Apocalypse? appeared first on The HOTH.

Why is the search engine behemoth in hot water?

The DOJ claims Google engaged in illegal business dealings to secure its search engine as the default on many popular devices and web browsers.

Giant companies like Apple, Mozilla, and Samsung all have exclusive deals with Google – and the company holds a staggering 90% of the market share. 

According to the DOJ, Google has an unfair stranglehold on the market due to these deals, making it next to impossible for other search engine providers to compete. 

Google’s defense is that they provide a superior product to their competitors, which is why they’re so dominant. 

Regardless of the outcome of this trial, the DOJ recently released internal Google presentations, emails, and documents that provide never-before-seen insights into their ranking process. 

This is a goldmine for SEOs, as we now have access to some insider secrets that we were never meant to see. 

If you weren’t aware, Google is famously tight-lipped about how their search algorithm works; as if everyone knew, it would become very easy to manipulate the search rankings, which Google doesn’t want. 

To briefly quote one of the leaked documents, “Keep talk about how search works to a minimum. Everything we leak will get used against us by SEOs, patent trolls, competitors, etc.”

Stick around to learn the things Google doesn’t want you to know. 

The Tech Trial of the Century 

The Google trial is the government’s first major monopoly case in decades, and it’s the first case of its kind to affect the modern internet. 

The last time the government took an antitrust case to trial, it was against Microsoft in 1998, and the circumstances were quite similar. 

Just like Google, Microsoft was accused of using its massive market power to derail competitors. 

While the 1998 trial was a major media sensation that consumed journalists for months, the Google trial isn’t generating as much suspense. 

However, that doesn’t mean that the results of this trial won’t potentially change the search landscape as we know it forever. 

Should the US government win the case, it could mark an end to Google being the default search engine on most devices, which would give other engines like Yahoo and Microsoft a chance to realistically compete. 

For now, the most breaking development for SEOs is the internal Google documents that the DOJ released as trial exhibits. 

They’re a collection of previously unreleased PowerPoint slides, emails, and other documents related to Google’s ranking process. 

Here’s a peek at the juiciest tidbits that you can use in your SEO strategy. 

You Can’t Handle the Truth! Google’s Leaked Documents 

Ever since Google made PageRank’s data private, digital marketers everywhere have been working around the clock to figure out how it works. 

That’s why we have third-party metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority, as we have no public data from Google to go on. 

There’s also fierce debate over which ranking factors matter most to Google, such as links, quality content, and page speed. 

While the released documents don’t provide all the answers by any means, they do shed light on areas that were previously shrouded in darkness. 

‘Life of a click’ PowerPoint presentation 

In a PowerPoint slide from 2017 entitled ‘Life of a Click,’ we get to see Google’s 3 Pillars of Ranking:

In it, we learn that the three pillars are content, links, and user interactions. 

The body, or content, is ‘what the document says about itself,’ according to Google. 

Anchors are what the web says about a document, which refers to trustworthy backlinks. 

The last pillar is user interactions, or what ‘users say about the document.’ By that, they mean they look at things like clicks, scrolls, and hovers to determine how users view each search result. 

Most interesting is the caveat at the bottom, which says they may use clicks as a stand-in for user interactions in some places. 

This is a bit concerning, as clicks tend to be a very noisy and complicated ranking signal. However, Google claims they only use clicks as a substitution for experiments, training, and personalization. 

Google doesn’t understand documents 

Another PowerPoint slide from 2016 confesses that Google doesn’t directly understand web pages. Instead, they look to reactions from users to gain an understanding of web content. 

Grossly simplified, Google doesn’t look at documents, they look at people’s reactions. So if a search result gets a positive result, Google assumes that it’s a good piece of content. 

Strangely enough, this is also the source of Google’s ‘magic.’ 

What do we mean by that?

Google engages in a hidden ‘dialogue’ of sorts with its users to learn more about their preferences and the type of content they want to see. 

Let’s look at a few more documents to better understand this concept. 

Oh, oh, oh, it’s magic 

Google works by creating a compounding effect from the data it generates from its users. 

That means every user benefits from the actions of past users, and future users will benefit from their actions. 

Here are a few slides from the leaked PowerPoint ‘Google is Magical’ to demonstrate what we mean.

This simplistic slide shows how most people think search engines work, but it’s missing the magic. 

This slide reveals the secret, which is another flow of information in the opposite direction. This represents how Google learns from its users with every search they make. 

Deciphering Google’s hidden language

Since Google views search as a two-way dialogue, there’s a ‘conversation’ of sorts happening on every SERP. 

On each results page, Google is implicitly asking the user a question, and they also provide the tools for the user to answer. 

For example, the question posed by a basic SERP is, “Which search result is best?” The user then provides an answer by clicking on the result they feel best matches their search intent. 

The same is true for image results, carousels, and every other feature found on Google Search. 

So, no matter what you’re doing on Google, you’re always engaging in this type of dialogue. 

Using This Knowledge to Your Advantage 

The more we understand about Google’s ranking process, the easier it is to align your SEO efforts accordingly. 

These leaked documents reinforced some things we knew and opened our eyes to others. 

We’re still in the middle of the court battle, as it’s set to go on until just before Christmas, so stay tuned to our blog for the latest updates. 

If you want to implement a winning SEO strategy at your business, look into HOTH X, our five-star managed SEO service.    

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