Chiperoni ku Basel

Category: marketing

  • Search Is Changing — Is Your Website Ready?

    Search Is Changing — Is Your Website Ready?

    A few years ago, I wondered what could ever replace Google Search.
    It felt dominant.

    Fast-forward to 2025.
    We’re already searching differently.

    Bing / Copilot.
    Perplexity.
    Claude.
    ChatGPT.

    Looking at my own behaviour: I often start with one of these instead of Google Search. The change is real.

    Google is still well-positioned. Gemini is strong.
    Google has added AI Overviews to the top of many SERPs.

    If you’re in Europe, take this seriously:
    Prepare your website for Google’s AI Overview rollout.

    Direct traffic will drop. There will be a rise in zero click search results, which means a fall in visits; CTR (click thru rate) will fall. This also entails a change in how you measure: You’ll need to measure success differently. Again, not a surprise to many of us who’ve seen Google Search evolve.

    Here’s what you need to focus on:

    1. Your site must be machine-readable

    Avoid hiding content behind JavaScript.
    Make sure navigation and core content are accessible to bots.

    2. Build clean, fast sites

    Simple structure. Fast load times. Optimized media.

    3. Use good structured data

    This was always a best practice — now it’s essential.
    AI bots use structured data to understand your content and its relationships.

    • Revisit your current schema — what more can you add?

    4. Review your robots.txt

    Who do you want to access your content?
    Search engines? LLMs? Agents?

    You can now fine-tune this. Think about how your content is used and who benefits.

    5. For documentation-heavy sites: add llms.txt

    This file helps LLMs find and understand the content you want them to read.
    It’s also useful for feeding structured content to tools like Claude.

    We’ve entered the answer engine era.

    Make sure AI understands your content — better than your competitors’.
    Make sure your website answers real questions your users have.

    Create strong, useful content:

    • In-language
    • In-region
    • With local relevance
    • That adds real value

    Search has changed.
    Let’s make sure our websites keep up.

  • Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer

    Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer

    I received this question recently:

    If I create content for our company (articles for magazines, social media posts, etc), do I need to try to use KEYWORDS within the text as much as possible? And if yes, is there an online tool / website to check how well I did my job before I publish it?

    Here’s my answer:

    • Brainstorm and research as much as you can about your topic.
    • Ask your sales managers how they describe the service when they talk to people on the phone; write down all the phrases they mention.
    • Jot down all the phrases and questions you think people will enter into a search engine for your topic.
    • Check the monthly search volume of your phrases using a tool such as SEMRush or Searchmetrics or Ahrefs. Or use free SEO research tools.
    • Check search intent by entering the keyphrase into Google. Analyze the results you see:
      • Are you seeing some of your competitors? That’s good. You are in the right space.
      • Are you seeing dictionary or encyclopedia or university links? That’s not good, if you are a commercial company.
      • Look at the Google results and try to understand the search intent.
    • Map out the structure and SEO elements of your article.
      • Outline the topic you want to target.
      • Write a draft meta page title and meta description.
      • Write a draft Heading 1 (H1).
      • List out the questions you want to answer in your article.
        • Questions are typically Heading 2s (H2).
        • Answers are a paragraph or a bullet list.
      • List out the keyphrases you want to target in the body text.
      • List articles that you want to use as inspiration for your SEO writing process.
        • Avoid copy and paste. Google is not dumb and can find out if you copy and pasted from another site.
      • Review SEO research before starting to write.
      • Start SEO copywriting process and include all SEO elements.
        • Include main keyphrase in your meta title tag, meta description, H1, add complementary keyphrases in H2s and body of the text, add alt texts for your images.
    • There are several tools that you can use to check the keyword distribution and density in your article. I’ve used Ryte.com, Moz, and there’s a new AI tool called MarketMuse that I am testing.
    • Important: Write for humans. Make the article useful. Think about the phrases people will use to find this article.
    • Track traffic and keyphrases in a tool like SEMRush or SearchMetrics or Ahrefs or Ryte.com or similar. There’s quite a choice.

    Hope you find this list useful.

    think make check
    Continuous Improvement

  • Content distribution strategies on my mind

    Brian Dean’s recent study confirmed what many Digital Marketing folks know intuitively.

    (…) Brian Dean recently found that 94% of all content generates zero backlinks. And just 1.3% of articles gobble up 75% of all social shares.

    Source: Brafton

    It’s 2020 and we’ve have been pumping out content for many years.

    Algorithms influence distribution.

    How do you earn backlinks for your content?

    As shown in the above article, the cost of content creation is increasing.

    Distribution strategies matter.

    schienen
    Train tracks

    I liked this tweet:

    Well, maybe not Medium… Their technical SEO is broken. I personally think WordPress is still a good option.

    The tweet conveys the importance. You need to increase visibility. You must find ways to connect.

    Where's the zoo?
    Bus and tram network

    Consider distribution strategies early, ideally when you are planning and creating the content:

    • What keyphrases and questions will help this article to rank well in the SERPs?
    • Did you look closely at the search intent?
    • Always share the link on your social media properties (Organic Social).
    • Can you spend some money on Paid Search and Paid Social to promote the content to your target audience?
    • Can you add a podcast on the topic?
    • Are you planning a video?
    • Maybe, you could offer a webinar and share the slides and the recording?
    • Brainstorm for ideas: How can you earn backlinks on high-quality sites?
    • Build a simple newsletter and share new content with subscribers at regular intervals.
    • Consider contacting journalists and getting relevant publications to write about you.
    • Inform your sales team of new content. Encourage them to send out direct links to relevant content.
    sbb train station
    Velo courier at Basel’s main train station

  • Collaborating

    For future reference:
    Creating Collaboration in a Room Full of Opinions