Essential SEO Changes for CEOs

If your CEO doesn't "get" SEO, read this. Most CEOs don’t care about backlinks, keyword density, or technical audits. They care about outcomes. Will this make us money? Will this give us a long-term advantage? Will this scale sustainably? When I took a client from 0 to 1.5M organic visitors in 18 months, I realized something: SEO isn’t a marketing tactic. It’s a business strategy. And most marketers pitch it wrong. Here’s how to get your CEO to say “yes” to SEO: → Don't sell SEO as "traffic"; sell it as a competitive moat ↳ Every day your competitors rank for high-intent keywords is another day they're stealing your customers. ↳ CEOs understand competitive advantage. They don't understand "domain authority." → Frame SEO as a financial investment, not a marketing expense ↳ Bad pitch: "We need $10K/month for SEO to improve our rankings." ↳ Good pitch: "For every $1 we invest in SEO now, we'll generate $5 in perpetual revenue. Paid ads stop working when you stop paying." → Use real numbers, not vague promises ↳ Instead of: "SEO takes time, but we'll see results eventually" ↳ Say: "With our current conversion rate, ranking for these 5 keywords would generate approximately 32 qualified leads per month, worth $480K in pipeline." → Connect SEO to business goals your CEO already cares about ↳ Want to reduce CAC? SEO delivers customers at 1/3 the cost of paid. ↳ Want predictable growth? SEO compounds month over month. ↳ Want defensibility? Once you rank, competitors have to spend more to catch up. When I explain SEO this way to founders, their entire posture shifts. Because now we’re not talking about H1 tags or crawl budgets. We’re talking about leverage. And ROI. The marketers who win bigger SEO budgets aren’t the ones who know every Google update. They’re the ones who know how to translate rankings into revenue. Is your CEO skeptical about SEO? Maybe you're speaking the wrong language.

Dear CEOs, link-building won't help you, if 1. Your technical SEO is broken → Site isn't even indexable (robots.txt blocking Google) → Pages load in 6+ seconds → Mobile site is a disaster → 301 redirect chains everywhere 2. You're ignoring on-page basics → Thin content (200-word pages) → No keyword targeting → Duplicate or missing title tags → Zero internal linking structure 3. Your content doesn't match search intent → Blog posts for commercial keywords → Product pages for informational queries → Complete mismatch between what users want and what you offer 4. Your UX is terrible → 80%+ bounce rate → Aggressive popups blocking content → Broken checkout process → Users immediately returning to search results And this is the very small part I mentioned. Fix the foundation before building the roof. Links amplify what's already there. If what's there is broken, you're amplifying nothing. So before you invest in link building, check what's going on in the fundamentals of your website. If everything is fixed, we have something to talk about : ) 🎄

Most CEOs and agencies are stuck in Level 1 SEO — “publish more blogs” — and they’re missing how search actually works now. This slide shows one thing VERY clearly: 🛑 Content volume ≠ visibility anymore. 🛑 Long-form blogging ≠ modern SEO strategy. 🟢 Search in 2026 is about being retrieved, cited, and trusted by AI systems — not just ranking pages. If your SEO strategy is still: “Write more blogs… more long form… more keywords…” 👉 You are playing Level 1 SEO. 👉 Your competitors who move into Levels 4–9 are going to dominate you. What this slide Actually Shows (Plain English) It is telling you this: Traditional SEO (Level 1) is only the BASE of the pyramid. MOST marketers stop here. But modern SEO is nine levels, and the ones that now drive real visibility, retrieval, and revenue are: Level 4: LLM Answer SEO Create content that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini can retrieve and cite. Level 5: Brand Authority SEO Earn mentions, citations, and trust signals — because AI models trust what others say about you more than what you say. Level 6: Community SEO Visibility in Reddit, Quora, Discord, Slack groups — where REAL questions are asked and indexed. Level 7–8: Parasite + Platform SEO Ranking content on platforms you don’t own: LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, Amazon, app stores. Level 9: Topic Domination Owning the conversation across the ENTIRE digital ecosystem. 🧨 The Big Mistake CEOs Are Making They still think writing more 2,000-word blogs = SEO. This Slide proves: 👉 Keywords + long-form blogs = Level 1 👉 AI search, LLM retrieval, citations, platforms, community, authority = Levels 4–9 CEOs are pouring money into the least impactful layer. They ignore the layers where visibility actually happens now. 🧠 Why “Write More Blogs” Is Outdated Long-form blog content ONLY works now if it is: Structured for retrieval Optimized for AI chunks Aligned with semantic entities Supported by authority signals Cited by other platforms Reinforced by community discussions Otherwise, it’s just digital dust. This Slide shows: AI Search Optimization, LLM Answer SEO, and Brand Authority SEO are the new power zones. 🚀 What CEOs Should Do Instead If you're a CEO, CMO, Head of Marketing, or Agency Owner, your single takeaway should be: Stop measuring SEO by “how many blogs we publish.” Start measuring SEO by: “How many AI systems retrieve, cite, and trust our content? You need: 1. Structured content 2. LLM-optimized pages 3. Schema and entity definitions 4. Authority-building across platforms 5. Community visibility 6. AI search visibility (SGE/ChatGPT/Perplexity) 7. Semantic depth, not content volume This is 🏆 The REAL Goal Now The real goal in 2025–2026 is: Retrieval → Citation → Conversion (Visibility + Trust + Action) Blogs don’t get you there alone.

From Google Rankings to AI Answers: The Rules Have Changed The old “Page-1 on Google” logic is losing its power. Why? Because systems like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Perplexity now deliver answers directly, without users clicking through. 👉 Visibility today is about being chosen and cited. The New Disciplines of Discoverability: 1. AI SEO The umbrella. Beyond rankings → prepare content so AI actively finds & integrates it. 2. AEO: Answers, not links. Precise content that lands in AI Overviews, assistants, or snippets. 3. GEO: Visibility in generative answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity). Can boost brand visibility by 40%. 4. LMO: Ensure models understand your brand accurately, consistently, with authority. How AI Models Find Content: AI increasingly uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), pulling from live indexes. 1. Fanout Queries: Complex prompts are split into micro-questions. Cover these to get cited. 2. Model preferences: → ChatGPT: draws heavily from Wikipedia, Reddit, Forbes. → Google AI Overviews: >86% of queries; Reddit, YouTube, Quora. → Perplexity: brand-rich, video-heavy; Reddit, YouTube, Gartner. → Copilot Bing-based, skewed toward few brands. → Gemini: tied to Google Search. 3. Multi-engine optimization: Only ~14% of sources overlap across ChatGPT, Gemini & Perplexity. Optimizing one alone = invisible elsewhere. What Founders & CEOs Must Focus On: 1. Authoritative Content (biggest lever): → Apply E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust. → Answer questions directly. → Keep content scannable. → Build topic clusters, not single keywords. 2. Structured Data (foundation): → Use Schema Markup (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Review). → Add Speakable for voice & thumbnails. → Focus on proven standards 3. Brand Authority (trust factor): → Keep data consistent (Wikidata, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2). → Earn off-site mentions (Reddit, Quora, YouTube, press). → Close entity gaps with targeted content. → Wikipedia & YouTube: often cited by AI. 4. Sustainable, not manipulative: → Skip black-hat tricks. → Quality > Quantity: fewer, deeper, updated pieces. → Transparency & ethics: AI rewards trustworthy brands. 5. Measure & Adapt: → Track KPIs: Share of Answer, Mention Quality, Zero-Click, Freshness. → Ask leads how they found you – add “ChatGPT/AI Assistant.” → Use tools to help you → Monitor AI crawlers in logs → Keep iterating, rules change monthly. The future will reward those that are trusted, cited, and recommended by AI. For founders & CEO, this means laying the foundation now: content, structure, reputation. ...and it’s no longer a marketing detail, but a strategic growth asset. In our portfolio we have Solutions, AI strategists, developers & visibility experts helping you build presence in AI search & generative systems. Want solutions to keep your brand visible in the AI era? My DMs are open 😊 ••• Valuable? Share • Save • Follow Sara Kukovec 🌍🌱🏗️

Dear CEOs and Founders, Seeing Google Search Console impressions up but clicks down? It's a common SEO puzzle! This often means your content is visible, but not compelling enough to click, or Search Engine Results Page (SERP) changes are at play. Key Reasons for this trend: 1. SERP Feature Changes: Google frequently updates the SERP layout with features like video carousels, image packs, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and ads. These can push your organic listing down, reducing visibility and clicks. 2. Featured Snippets and AI Overviews: A featured snippet (position zero) or AI Overview can answer a user's query directly on the SERP, eliminating the need to click through to your site. This leads to higher impressions but fewer clicks. 3. Google Ads: More paid ads above organic results decrease visibility and lower your Click-Through Rate (CTR). 4. Irrelevant Keywords and Content Mismatch: Ranking for irrelevant keywords or having a search snippet that doesn't accurately reflect user intent can deter clicks. 5. Low Ranking Position: While impressions may increase from ranking for more keywords, appearing in lower positions (e.g., on the second page) significantly reduces clicks. 6. Unappealing Titles and Meta Descriptions: Poorly crafted or truncated titles and meta descriptions fail to attract users. 7. Competition: Stronger or more compelling search results from competitors can draw clicks away. 8. Structured Data Issues: Errors can remove rich snippets, reducing visual appeal and CTR. What you can do to improve clicks on your website? 1. Analyze your data: Use Google Search Console's Performance report to identify specific queries and pages with high impressions but low clicks. 2. Optimize titles and descriptions: Craft engaging, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions that accurately reflect your content and encourage clicks. Consider using numbers or emotional triggers. 3. Improve ranking position: Focus on SEO strategies to achieve higher rankings for relevant keywords, as higher positions generally yield higher CTRs. 4. Use schema markup: Implement schema markup to enable rich snippets, making your search results more visually appealing and informative. 5. Match search intent: Ensure your content aligns with the intent behind your target keywords. Provide comprehensive answers for informational queries or strong product pages for commercial ones. 6. Monitor and adapt: Continuously observe your CTR and other key metrics in Search Console. A/B test different titles, descriptions, and content formats to see what resonates best with your audience. By carefully analyzing your data and implementing strategic changes, you can improve your CTR and drive more qualified traffic to your website! Drop a comment below if you're doing something different to improve clicks on your website from search engines. Thank you!

“I've been losing sleep. Things are changing so fast when it comes to SEO and all these talks about GEO, AI changing everything.” - Head of Marketing And I'm right there with her. When your tried-and-true playbook starts to fall apart and your board still expects leads… you’re stuck between the algorithm and the axe. I’ve had this same conversation 5 times in the last 3 weeks. Here’s what’s really going on: - SEO isn't broken. But the old way of doing it is. Some teams are still publishing for volume, not intent. - AI overviews and LLMs have eaten up a ton of traditional CTR. - And even when traffic does grow, your CEO and board still want to know what you’re doing about ChatGPT. This is what I call Checkbox SEO: - Publish 4 blog posts a month - Chase TOFU keywords - Watch traffic go up - Wonder why pipeline doesn’t Here’s how I’m helping Growth Sprints clients fix it (step by step): Step 1: Redefine what SEO is for Most teams see SEO as their “discovery” channel. And it is! But only if you target buyers with a problem, not just curiosity. That’s why I help some clients break keywords into three buckets: 1. Symptoms - Why does our close rate drop at proposal stage? 2. Solutions - Sales enablement content examples 3. Switching - [Competitor] alternative” and “[Tool] vs [Tool] If you’re not ranking for bottom-of-funnel moments, you’re not in the deal cycle (unless your the incumbent). Step 2: Content experience matters Real talk: Your best blog posts should not (only) live on the blog. They should live in sales follow-ups, nurture emails, and LinkedIn DMs — because that’s where buying happens. The blog is just one distribution channel Every topic ties back to what I call the “Content IP”: a named, ownable version of the problem you solve Step 3: Consider a "waterfall strategy" This is where most teams get it wrong. They treat SEO as its own silo'ed goal... disconnected from what’s working on LinkedIn, email, sales calls, etc. I teach teams how to build what I call a “Waterfall Strategy”: Take one high-performing asset and repurpose it across 5–10 channels with intentional sequencing. - Turn a blog post into a carousel → drive traffic back to the article - Use that same piece in an outbound sequence → personalize it by persona - Film a 60s talking-head video about the pain it solves → post on LinkedIn - Repackage the whole thing into a mini-guide for newsletter leads Most teams write once and publish once. The ones who win? Write once, distribute 10x. REMEMBER: If your content isn’t driving pipeline, SEO isn’t the problem. The system is. I don't care how many articles you publish. This quarter, focus on creating 5 great ones tied to real buying behavior — and a repeatable engine to put them to work. We're all seeing more impressions and less clicks. So the clicks you do get matter more than ever.

“Website traffic has taken a huge hit” is a phrase most board members will hear from their CEO this year with little to no context or actionable changes. What follows that phrase is dependent on the CEO’s understanding of the impact a mass change in information-seeking consumer behavior will have on their business, and their confidence in adapting to it. The question isn’t if your business can adapt, it’s how well you can communicate the impact of this shift and the plan to adapt to your stakeholders—good CEOs know this. Being in Q3, and having sat through countless board meetings this year, it’s clear that the majority of CEOs are struggling to do this effectively. Here’s how to change that: 1. Outline the Shift Clearly Traffic declines in 2025 are not random—they’re structural. Consumer behavior is moving away from discovery via search and traditional digital “top of funnel” toward AI-driven answers, closed communities, and trust-based networks. Google updates, AI assistants, and content saturation are re-routing how and where buyers find information. Boards need to hear you articulate this shift with confidence. 2. Explain Why It’s Happening Attention is fragmenting. AI is compressing the journey from “question” to “answer.” Buyers trust peers, micro-influencers, and curated sources more than corporate content. Search traffic is declining not because your marketing team failed—but because the playing field itself has changed. Positioning this as a market evolution (not a company failure) resets the board’s expectations. 3. Show Your Adaptation Strategy Every board will ask: So what are we doing about it? Strong CEOs come prepared with a roadmap: - Diversify discovery: Lean into paid channels, partnerships, and distribution in the ecosystems where buyers now live (AI, mirco-influincers, etc.) - Build owned audiences: Email, communities, and first-party data must become strategic assets. - Shift measurement: Elevate KPIs beyond raw traffic. Boards should see pipeline quality, customer lifetime value, and efficiency metrics front and center. - Invest in resilience: Proactively reallocate budget and talent to areas less exposed to search volatility. 4. Set Board Expectations Early Your board does not expect you to stop the shift. They expect you to show that you anticipated it, are reallocating resources accordingly, and can still deliver growth. The narrative you want to land is: “We’re seeing a structural change in consumer behavior, and here’s how we’ve already begun to adapt our strategy.” The CEOs who win in 2025 will not be those who explain traffic declines away. They’ll be the ones who reframe them as inevitable market evolution—and use them as proof of their ability to adapt and lead.

Stealth drop. The conversation around KPIs for SEO needs to change at the executive level. SEO teams are being held to standards that don't align with the way people discover brands in Organic Search. We're not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but over the next six months, executive teams need to reposition their Organic Search teams around the metrics that will help report on AI Search. Traditional SEO strategies and tactics have a place. ⮕ We still need content. ⮕ We need that content to be indexed. ⮕ We need that content to be optimized for relevance. ⮕ We need authority through links and mentions. But we need our KPIs to be reframed around what we can control and what we don't. I spoke with Michael last Friday, and we dropped a quick banger. If you're an executive, you need to start thinking about these things. And if you're part of an SEO team with an executive team that's not immersed in the details of what's changing, you need to stay ahead of this with education. You need to put your leadership in a position to focus on the right motions for your Organic Search marketing. We discussed: ‣ The importance of "Input Metrics" such as Passage Relevance Scores and indexing status. ‣ Tracking "Channel Metrics" like visibility, share-of-voice, citations, and sentiment analysis. ‣ The challenge of accurate attribution and ROI measurement due to a lack of platform-specific analytics tools. ‣ How to effectively communicate AI search visibility and traffic results to CMOs and executives. ‣ Rethinking the conversational journey and the need for a new search intent taxonomy. ‣ Why clickstream data (e.g., Similarweb, Datos, A Semrush Company) will become increasingly critical. ‣ The continued role of traditional rankings as an input metric informing visibility. ‣ Practical strategies for monitoring AI-driven search performance and communicating its business value (Profound). Keep your eyes on this space, because Mike has even more up his sleeve.