Keyword data hasn’t been actionable for a long time and is not reflective of how SEO works anymore. To adapt, we have to optimize for search with aggregate data, which also translates better to LLM optimization.
My challenge with your points is that the SERPs have so many elements and change so often that trying to take action based on changes / trends is really hard. I'm not saying you should stop rank tracking completely, but I advocate for not interpreting too much into the data because it's not representative of organic traffic and therefore, revenue.
We are testing LinkedIn articles with clients right now as an additional way to gain visibility in the SERP.
What my biggest roadblock is right now is YouTube. It’s such low-hanging fruit for a lot of my clients, but very difficult to sell them on or have them take action/commit resources to.
Have you found an efficient way to pitch this? Would love to get your thoughts.
It's a new dawn. And we need to adjust or perish.
And adjusting is going to be painful at best.
We still need rank trackers so much, because:
- you have to analyze how SERPs change through time (this is the most important one)
- rank trackers help you to see whether you rank in top-100 by keywords you planned
- rank trackers help you to see when the wrong URL is ranked by the keyword.
Yes, your page can rank by 1000s keywords, but in most cases, it's enough to track one of the most important keywords per page.
My challenge with your points is that the SERPs have so many elements and change so often that trying to take action based on changes / trends is really hard. I'm not saying you should stop rank tracking completely, but I advocate for not interpreting too much into the data because it's not representative of organic traffic and therefore, revenue.
Great post Kevin. Lots of informative nuggets.
We are testing LinkedIn articles with clients right now as an additional way to gain visibility in the SERP.
What my biggest roadblock is right now is YouTube. It’s such low-hanging fruit for a lot of my clients, but very difficult to sell them on or have them take action/commit resources to.
Have you found an efficient way to pitch this? Would love to get your thoughts.
yep, here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EVULcXmAsI&t=195s
Has death of a the keyword given way to birth of the prompt?
ha, I like that analogy! I'd say... yes