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The Complete SEO & AI SEO Course for 2026 (Full Beginner’s Guide) — Transcript

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0:00In the next 60 minutes or so, I'm going
0:02to teach you everything you need to know
0:04about getting your website ranking on
0:06Google and [music] showing up in AI
0:08search results, even if you're a
0:10complete beginner. [music]
0:12And at the end, I'll give you a 30-day
0:14action plan, so you know exactly what to
0:17do when this video ends. This video will
0:20be very comprehensive, so feel free to
0:23watch in multiple settings or go
0:25straight to the sections most relevant
0:27to you via the timestamps in the
0:29description. Okay, so first we have to
0:32address the elephant in the room. AI
0:34chatbots are answering questions, AI
0:36overviews are taking over Google, and
0:38everywhere you look, someone is claiming
0:41SEO is dead, for real this time. So, if
0:44you're wondering whether SEO is still
0:45worth your time, I mean, that's a fair
0:47question, but here are the facts. Google
0:50still processes billions of searches
0:53every single day. That number grew 20%
0:56last year, and Google sends 190 times
0:59more traffic to websites than ChatGPT.
1:02Google is not shrinking, but the way
1:04people find information is changing.
1:09There are now two places your business
1:11needs to show up, traditional search and
1:14AI-powered search. This video covers
1:17both. And here's something the folks
1:19selling expensive GEO services don't
1:21want you to know. Those AI assistants,
1:24they're built on top of traditional
1:26search infrastructure. ChatGPT uses
1:29Bing's index when it searches the web.
1:32Perplexity runs its own crawler, but
1:34still leans heavily on Bing's index
1:36underneath. Even the ones building their
1:38own indexes, like Perplexity, are
1:41crawling the same pages that already
1:43rank in traditional search. So, if your
1:46site doesn't show up in Google or Bing,
1:49there's a good chance it's invisible to
1:51AI assistants, too. SEO is not competing
1:54with AI search, it's the foundation AI
1:57search is built on. Learning SEO means
2:00learning to show up everywhere, and by
2:02the end of this video, you'll have
2:04everything you need to do just that.
2:07Chapter one, what SEO actually is. SEO
2:11has historically stood for search engine
2:13optimization, but as of late, I'm much
2:16more inclined to Ashley Laddell's
2:18definition, search everywhere
2:20optimization. In a sentence, SEO is
2:23getting your website to show up wherever
2:25people search for things related to your
2:27business or the solutions you provide.
2:30That's it. Everything else is details.
2:33Uh admittedly, there are a lot of
2:35details. Google search works in three
2:38steps. Crawl, index, and rank.
2:41Crawling is when Google sends automated
2:44bots to read every page on the internet,
2:46or at least the vast majority of them.
2:49They follow links from page to page,
2:51reading everything they find in code.
2:54Indexing is the process of Google
2:56storing what those bots find in a
2:58massive library, its index. If your page
3:01isn't in the index, it can't show up in
3:03search results, simple as that.
3:06And lastly, ranking. When someone
3:08searches, Google looks through its index
3:10and picks the results it thinks are the
3:12most relevant, most trustworthy, and
3:14most useful. The order that it puts them
3:17in, that's the ranking, and that is what
3:19we're trying to influence. Now, let me
3:21show you what a search results page
3:23actually looks like right now. At the
3:25top, you might see an AI overview. This
3:28is relatively new in Google's history,
3:31Google's AI summarizing an answer
3:33directly in the results. Below that,
3:36sponsored ads, then the organic results,
3:39the ones you can earn through SEO. Over
3:42here, people also ask boxes, sometimes
3:45you'll see video carousels, a local map
3:47pack if the search has a location angle,
3:50or knowledge panels. Basically, we've
3:53come a long way from 10 blue links,
3:56and our SEO strategy needs to reflect
3:59that. So, how does SEO directly impact
4:02your business? Well, I think it's
4:03important to clarify, you shouldn't
4:05ultimately have an SEO goal. You should
4:08have a business goal, more customers,
4:10more revenue, more leads. SEO is one of
4:13the most reliable ways to get there,
4:15because you're reaching people at the
4:16exact moment they're looking for what
4:19you sell. I mean, think about it, when
4:20you're on your phone, scrolling
4:22Instagram, and you see an ad, you're
4:24interrupted. You were in the middle of
4:26doing something, and someone showed you
4:27their ad. Someone who Googles "best
4:30proposal software for agencies" is
4:32actively looking for a solution. They
4:34have a problem, they want answers. Now,
4:37SEO puts your business in front of them
4:39at that moment. Hopefully.
4:42The difference is intent, and that's
4:44what makes SEO so valuable. Now, to make
4:47this real, I'm going to look at three
4:48different businesses throughout the
4:50course of this video, a SaaS company
4:52that sells proposal software, an
4:54e-commerce brand that sells specialty
4:55coffee, and a managed cybersecurity
4:58platform that protects small and
5:00mid-size businesses. Because, despite
5:02what you may have heard, SEO is not a
5:04one-size-fits-all strategy. The mindset,
5:07workflows, and principles are the same,
5:09but the decisions you make change
5:11completely depending on your business.
5:13I'll show you what I mean throughout the
5:14video. So, I've run dozens and dozens of
5:16SEO campaigns for clients, and before I
5:18make a single change on the website, I
5:20always ask one key question. What are
5:23people actually searching for, and what
5:25do they want when they search it? That
5:28second part is so important that it gets
5:30its own chapter.
5:32Chapter two, mastering search intent.
5:35Before we get into keyword research,
5:36tools, or any tactics, you need to
5:39understand the single most important
5:41concept in SEO, and it's called search
5:43intent. So, every time someone types
5:46something into Google, they're looking
5:48for something specific, and your job is
5:51to figure out what that is and give it
5:53to them.
5:54Broadly speaking, there are four types
5:57of intent. Let's look at a few example
5:59keywords.
6:00"How to train your puppy." This is
6:02informational. They want to learn
6:04something.
6:05"Best dog training classes." This is
6:08commercial. They're willing to spend
6:09money to solve their problem, but
6:11they're not quite sure what they want to
6:13buy. They're comparing options. Next,
6:16"dog training class near me sign up."
6:20This is transactional. They're willing
6:22to spend their money, they know the
6:23broad category of the thing they want to
6:25spend their money on, and they're ready
6:28to buy.
6:29Lastly, "PetSmart dog training." This is
6:32navigational or branded intent, either
6:35one works. The sale is as good as one.
6:38They're basically just using Google as a
6:39digital Uber driver to take them to the
6:42brand's website. So, how do you figure
6:44out search intent? It's actually super
6:46simple. You just Google your keyword,
6:49and you look at what's ranking. That's
6:50what Google thinks the intent is. Now,
6:53Google has already done the research for
6:55you. The top 10 results are Google
6:57telling you exactly what this searcher
6:59wants, and your job is to match that
7:02intent and do [music] it better than
7:04anyone else. By the way, SERP is just an
7:07acronym for search engine results page.
7:09Every keyword has their own, and due to
7:12a variety of factors, they change quite
7:14a bit.
7:15Now, quick rule of thumb. The shorter
7:17the keyword, usually the more
7:19competitive, higher volume, and less
7:22useful it is. For example, take the
7:24keyword coffee. Over 650,000 searches in
7:28a month in the US alone. It sounds
7:30awesome. But Google doesn't know what
7:33the heck you want. The SERP is a mess,
7:35shops, definitions, news, brands, every
7:39major site on the internet is competing
7:41for it.
7:42What do you want?
7:44What do you want? It's not that simple.
7:47>> What do you want? Now, try "best dark
7:51roast coffee beans for espresso."
7:52[music]
7:53It's a lower volume, maybe a few hundred
7:55searches a month, but man, look at that
7:57SERP. All comparison posts and buying
7:59guides, the intent is crystal clear. The
8:03competition, it's a fraction of what
8:05coffee attracts. Now, SEOs call these
8:07long-tail keywords, longer, more
8:10specific phrases. They've got lower
8:12volume individually, but the intent is
8:15focused. The competition is very
8:17manageable. And taken together, they can
8:19send your site a respectable amount of
8:21traffic. Now, if your site is newer,
8:23this is where you start. You build
8:25authority on the long-tail keywords, and
8:28then you work your way up to the big
8:30ones as the business requires. But, I'm
8:33getting ahead of myself, we're going to
8:34talk a lot about keyword research and
8:36prioritization later in the video. For
8:39now, I want you to do something. I want
8:41you to pause this video, or just open
8:43another tab while you're watching, and
8:45Google your main keyword, the thing that
8:47you want your customers to know you the
8:50most for, and look at the top results.
8:53What type of content is ranking? Blog
8:55posts, product pages, tools, YouTube
8:58videos? That's the intent. Now, remember
9:01that, it'll come in handy later in the
9:03video. Now, let's talk about intent in
9:05the AI era. So, AI overviews aren't just
9:08showing up for informational queries
9:10anymore. Google's AI now summarizes
9:13results across all types of searches,
9:15including commercial and transactional.
9:18That means even when someone is
9:19comparing products or ready to buy,
9:22Google might answer them before they
9:24click a single link. This is called
9:26zero-click marketing, and it's got
9:29consumers making entire buying decisions
9:31completely outside of your brand's
9:33ecosystem. So, your content needs to go
9:36deeper than whatever that summary covers
9:39to earn the click. Surface-level content
9:42will not cut it anymore, and we'll talk
9:44way more about how to create content
9:46like that in the chapter on content
9:49creation and on-page optimization. So,
9:51now that you understand intent, let's
9:53move on to the lifeblood of any SEO
9:56strategy, keywords.
9:59Chapter three, finding the right
10:02keywords. So, as we've covered, a
10:04keyword is the phrase someone types into
10:07Google. Doesn't matter how many words it
10:09is, by the way. Keyword can be one word,
10:11five words, 10 words, 20 words. In fact,
10:14I don't even really think there's a
10:15limit. I think you could probably paste
10:17a whole essay into Google.
10:18But, that's beside the point. Your job
10:20is to figure out which phrases matter
10:23for your business, and then build pages
10:26that rank for them. But, not all
10:28keywords are created equal. I use a
10:31framework I call the keyword sweet spot.
10:34Four attributes that make a keyword
10:37worth targeting. The first is demand.
10:40Are people actually searching for this?
10:42If nobody's Googling it, ranking number
10:44one has little benefit. See, I've worked
10:47with many clients who have ideas that
10:51they feel are important to their
10:53audience, which is certainly valuable
10:55from a thought leadership perspective.
10:57Just don't expect to get a ton of
10:59organic traffic to those topics. The
11:01second is fit. Where does the keyword
11:05sit in your funnel? Is it someone just
11:08learning about the topic or someone
11:10ready to buy? Is it relevant enough to
11:13the products or services you're offering
11:15or the audience you're reaching? Each of
11:17these can be valuable, but you need to
11:18know which one you're dealing with. The
11:20next attribute is intent. You already
11:23understand this from the last chapter.
11:26What does the searcher actually want,
11:28and can you satisfy that want? If that's
11:31a YouTube video, which are very common
11:33appearances in the modern SERP, well,
11:36you better get your Tarantino on because
11:38you're going to need to film a YouTube
11:39video if you want to rank. Lastly, we
11:41have keyword difficulty. Can you
11:44realistically rank for this given your
11:46site's current authority? A brand new
11:48website is not going to outrank Amazon
11:50for running shoes, but it might have a
11:53fighting chance for a less competitive
11:55keyword like best running shoes for flat
11:58feet in winter. You won't always find
12:01keywords that score highly on all four
12:03metrics. In fact, sometimes they can be
12:05unicorns, but if you do find those
12:07keywords, you should absolutely
12:09prioritize ranking for them. So, let me
12:11show you how this works in practice with
12:14two real companies.
12:16PandaDoc sells proposal software. The
12:19keyword contract template gets
12:21approximately 300,000 searches a month.
12:25Now, nobody who's searching that is
12:26buying proposal software today, at least
12:28not likely. Conventional wisdom would
12:30say, "Skip it." But, PandaDoc
12:32consistently ranks highly for contract
12:34template. Their template directory
12:36drives hundreds of thousands of visits
12:38every month, and here's the play. Watch
12:41this. Free template download, email
12:43capture, nurture sequence, product
12:46sign-up. That top of funnel keyword
12:48feeds their entire pipeline. Now,
12:51contract template is not a bad keyword.
12:54It's just a top of funnel keyword, and
12:55it's brilliant if you have a plan for
12:57what happens after someone lands on the
13:00page.
13:01And by the way, if you ever need a dog
13:04breeding contract template, apparently,
13:06PandaDoc's got you covered. Now, look at
13:08Counter Culture Coffee. The keyword pour
13:12over coffee has around 34,000 searches a
13:15month. Now, does Counter Culture get a
13:17lot of immediate purchases from that
13:20keyword?
13:21Maybe. Probably not, though.
13:23Those people could be looking for pour
13:25over coffee near them or trying to
13:27understand what it is or how to do it.
13:30Counter Culture gets this, and they
13:32don't try to target that keyword with a
13:34conversion focused page. Instead, they
13:37rank high for that keyword with a brew
13:39guide on their blog. They also rank
13:43highly for pour over coffee ratio at
13:4610,000 searches, as well as cold brew
13:49ratio at 6,800 and coffee brewing
13:52methods at 5,200.
13:55All educational content. They became an
13:58authority in specialty coffee through
14:00tutorials, thus building trust, and the
14:03product sales followed.
14:04>> [music]
14:06>> And the important thing to know is where
14:07each keyword sits in your funnel, and to
14:10have a strategy for that particular
14:12stage. A keyword without a conversion
14:14path is just wasted traffic. It's vanity
14:17metrics. A keyword with a conversion
14:19path could be an automated pipeline for
14:21your business. Okay, so how do we,
14:24number one, identify the terms our
14:26target customers are searching for, and
14:28number two, evaluate them against the
14:31keyword sweet spot framework? So, I like
14:34to break up the keyword research process
14:36into three separate disciplines to keep
14:38things nice and organized. Number one,
14:41keyword ideation. Number two, keyword
14:44validation. And number three, keyword
14:47clustering. Now, there are so many ways
14:49to find keyword ideas. If I explained
14:52all of them, this video would be three
14:53hours long. So, I'm going to rapid-fire
14:56through some techniques, and you should
14:57feel free to pause or rewind the video
14:59as you try them yourself. Now, if you
15:02already have it set up, Google Search
15:03Console is by far your single best
15:06source of keyword ideas. It shows you
15:08exactly what people are searching for to
15:11find your site straight from Google's
15:13own data. You simply cannot get more
15:16[clears throat] accurate than this.
15:17Start typing your topic into Google and
15:19watch what it suggests. Those are real
15:22searches real people are making right
15:25now. Every people also ask box on Google
15:28is a keyword goldmine. Click one, more
15:31appear, and you can mine a dozen content
15:34ideas in minutes.
15:36Scroll to the bottom of any Google
15:37results page, and you'll find a section
15:39called people also search for. This is
15:42Google literally telling you what else
15:44people search for around your topic. You
15:47can find the subreddits where your
15:48customers hang out and read how they
15:50describe their problems. That language
15:53is often the exact phrasing they type
15:55into Google. You can paste your sitemap
15:57URL into ChatGPT and ask it to identify
16:01content gaps. [music]
16:02It'll cross-reference your existing
16:04pages against what a site like yours
16:06should cover. You can also paste a
16:08competitor sitemap in and see what
16:10they're covering that you are not. You
16:12can ask an AI assistant, "Give me 30
16:14questions someone would ask before
16:16buying your [music] product category."
16:18You'll get a seed list in 15 seconds
16:20that would have taken 20 minutes to
16:22brainstorm alone. Now, Surfer also has a
16:24completely free Chrome extension called
16:27Keyword Surfer. Install it, and you'll
16:29see search volume, CPC, and related
16:32keyword ideas right inside Google every
16:35time you search. I don't leave home
16:36without it. Now, any of these methods
16:38will give you tons of ideas. But, ideas
16:42are cheap, and they may not even be a
16:44good fit for your business, which is
16:46where step two, keyword validation,
16:49comes into play. So, keyword validation
16:51is the process of taking all these
16:53keyword ideas that we've curated,
16:55assessing their search volume,
16:57difficulty, business fit, and intent,
17:00and figuring out which to target first
17:03to best benefit your business.
17:05If this is the first you're hearing
17:07about this process, I have very good
17:09news for you, dear reader. You have
17:10entered SEO at the perfect time. The
17:13same AI technology that people think is
17:15killing SEO has made keyword validation
17:18and clustering and research, for that
17:20matter, dramatically faster and easier.
17:24What used to take days now takes
17:26minutes.
17:27So, there are two ways to do this. The
17:29DIY route is to connect an SEO data API
17:33to an AI coding tool and have it pull
17:36search volumes, difficulty scores, and
17:39intent classifications for you. It takes
17:41some technical setup, but it's the
17:42cheapest option if you're comfortable
17:44tinkering. Now, if you'd rather skip the
17:47setup entirely, Surfer handles keyword
17:49validation in one screen. You simply
17:52paste your keywords in, you get search
17:54volume, difficulty, and intent without
17:57touching an API. Now, either way, once
17:59you've validated your keywords, the next
18:01step is organizing them. Because a giant
18:03spreadsheet of keywords, even validated
18:06keywords, really doesn't do you much
18:08good if they're not organized or
18:10prioritized. Now, keyword clustering,
18:13step three, is the process of taking
18:15keywords that naturally belong together,
18:18either because they're topically related
18:20or because Google regards them as
18:22meaning the same thing, and grouping
18:25them. Surfer's keyword research
18:27automates this for your entire website.
18:29You just enter a seed topic, and it maps
18:31out every cluster you should be covering
18:34with pre-grouped keywords you can start
18:36writing about straight in the content
18:39editor. While keyword targets for
18:41Counter Culture, PandaDoc, and Huntress
18:43will likely all have very different
18:45intent ratios, the next step is the
18:48same, no matter what kind of business
18:50you're in. Because honestly, this is
18:52where things can get very overwhelming.
18:59Speaking from experience, it's very easy
19:02to get paralyzed here. Even after
19:05clustering, we have an abundance of
19:07keyword ideas, but finite resources and
19:09finite time. So, where do we begin?
19:12Well, I've spent many a night banging my
19:14head against the keyboard asking myself
19:16this same question, and I've come out
19:18the other side with this dead simple,
19:21but proven framework. We start at the
19:23bottom of the funnel, and we work
19:25[music] our way upward. Here's the
19:27three-step prioritization plan.
19:30Step one, money pages
19:32>> [music]
19:32>> first. Now, these are the pages that
19:35directly convert. Think product pages,
19:37service pages, pricing pages, feature
19:39[music] pages. The keywords behind them
19:41are almost always transactional or
19:44commercial. Proposal software for
19:46agencies, buy espresso beans online,
19:49cybersecurity assessment services. Now,
19:52these pages are the foundation your
19:54entire [music] site is built on. They're
19:56what pay the bills. Without them, all
19:58the traffic in the world really doesn't
20:00matter.
20:00See, a lot of brands go wrong by
20:02starting with high-level blog posts
20:04because they see that they get a lot of
20:06search volume or maybe they're not very
20:08competitive, so they write 10
20:10informational articles and then they
20:11wonder why nobody's buying. It's because
20:14they neglected their money pages.
20:15There's nowhere compelling for the
20:17traffic to convert.
20:20Step two is to pick a topical cluster
20:22and to build it out. So, once your money
20:24pages exist, you don't scatter your
20:26content across 10 different topics. You
20:29pick one cluster that connects to a
20:31money page and you build the full funnel
20:33for it. So, let me be crystal clear
20:36here. In our money page stage, we go
20:39wide. Oops, I just hit my mic. We build
20:41a foundation across all topics, but now
20:45we're narrowing in on one funnel and
20:48building that up extensively. So, let me
20:51give you an example. If our money page
20:52is Counter Culture's subscription page,
20:55which already ranks for coffee
20:57subscription at 15,000 searches a month,
20:59we'd build the funnel from bottom to top
21:02like this. The money page is obviously
21:04the subscription page itself. That's
21:06transactional. That's what converts.
21:08Someone searching coffee subscription is
21:11ready to buy. One step up, we'd target
21:13commercial intent keywords like best
21:16coffee subscription or coffee
21:18subscription box. Comparison content
21:20where someone is weighing their options.
21:23Now, Counter Culture writes a piece
21:25showing why their subscription stands
21:27out and links it back to the
21:29subscription page. Then, at the top of
21:31the funnel, we go educational. Counter
21:34Culture already has a coffee basic
21:36series covering brewing ratios, brewing
21:39methods, grind size, tasting notes, and
21:42single origin coffee. Every piece feeds
21:45the one below it as well as internally
21:47links to [music] other related posts
21:49forming a traffic-generating web-like
21:52powerhouse [music] we call a topic
21:55cluster.
21:56Now step three is to repeat cluster by
21:59cluster. Finish one before starting the
22:03next. I know it's tempting. So, one of
22:05the early ways I learned to do SEO was
22:07to get all your keywords in one big
22:10list, sort them by lowest competition
22:12and highest search volume, and then plug
22:14away one by one down the list. So, for
22:18PandaDoc, for example, that might mean
22:20writing two blog posts on contract
22:22management, then a comparison page on
22:25e-signature tools, then you jump to an
22:27unrelated guide on sales forecasting.
22:29Now, that can work fine, but what you're
22:32essentially doing is spreading yourself
22:34thin across a bunch of topical clusters,
22:37which could really prolong your ability
22:40to see results in search. Here's the
22:42thing, Google doesn't evaluate your page
22:45in isolation. See, when someone searches
22:48how to prevent ransomware attacks,
22:50Google checks whether your site also
22:52covers things like what is ransomware,
22:54signs that your network has been
22:56compromised, ransomware incident
22:58response checklist. All of those live in
23:01the same funnel. They're the same person
23:04at different stages of the same problem.
23:07So, if your site covers that full
23:08journey, Google trusts you more on the
23:12whole subject. Now, this is what SEOs
23:14call topical authority. The more
23:17comprehensively you cover a topic
23:18cluster, the easier it becomes to rank
23:21for every keyword in that cluster,
23:24including the very competitive ones. So,
23:27to review, the money pages come first
23:29because they're the reason that the
23:30content exists. They're the reason that
23:32the whole business exists, really. Then,
23:34you build out one cluster at a time.
23:37Okay.
23:38Now you know what to create, let's talk
23:41about how to create it. Chapter four,
23:44creating content that ranks. You've got
23:47your keywords, your clusters, and a plan
23:50for which funnel to target first. Now
23:53you need to create content that actually
23:55ranks. But before we go pen to paper,
23:58or hands to keyboard, we need to do some
24:01groundwork. I usually tackle content
24:04creation in four phases. The first is
24:07research. What already exists? What's
24:10ranking for this keyword? And more
24:11importantly, what are the competitors
24:13missing that you could provide to make
24:15your content as valuable as possible?
24:18Next, structure. Build an outline that
24:21matches the intent and covers the topic
24:24thoroughly.
24:25Third, we write. We draft content that
24:28combines real expertise with
24:29optimization, and lastly, we optimize.
24:32We refine based on data, not guesswork.
24:36Let's start with research.
24:37Now before you write a single word, I
24:39want you to open the top five results
24:41for your target keyword. Read them.
24:43All of them. I know that sounds tedious,
24:46do it anyway.
24:47You're looking for four things. Number
24:50one is what topics do they cover? Those
24:53are the table stakes. You have to cover
24:55those, too.
24:56But secondly, you want to look for what
24:58they missed, cuz that's going to be your
25:00opportunity, the gap that nobody's
25:02filling.
25:03Thirdly, you want to look at the average
25:05length. This gives you a benchmark. You
25:07don't need to match it exactly, but if
25:10every top result for this keyword is
25:123,000 words, a big ultimate guide, and
25:15you're writing 500, you're probably not
25:18being comprehensive enough.
25:19Also, what unique angles does anyone
25:22take? This tells you where there's room
25:24to differentiate. Now, there are ways to
25:26automate this, but honestly, if I'm
25:28teaching someone SEO, I recommend you do
25:31this manually for your first few pieces
25:32of content just to understand what it is
25:35you're actually automating. After a
25:37couple times, you will see just how
25:39tedious this is, and
25:41honestly, this was our life doing SEO in
25:44the 2010s until Surfer came along. Now,
25:48Surfer's content editor completely
25:50automates this research. You enter your
25:52keyword and it analyzes the top ranking
25:55pages for you with topics they cover,
25:57which terms appear most often, how
26:00comprehensive the content needs to be.
26:02It does in 60 seconds what would
26:04manually take 20 minutes or more. Once
26:07your research is done, it's time to
26:09build an outline before you write. Do
26:12not skip this step. Trust me, you will
26:14save yourself so much grief. So, you can
26:17feed research notes into Claude or
26:19ChatGPT and ask it to draft an outline
26:21structure. It usually gives me a solid
26:24starting point, or you can create a
26:26search-optimized outline straight from
26:28Surfer with just a click, saving you
26:31even more time and effort. All right, so
26:34let's just get this out of the way now.
26:37AI can write, like actually write really
26:41well now. So, I found the most effective
26:44way to use AI in your content writing
26:46process is to let it handle the
26:49structure, the scaffolding, the basic
26:52definitions, research, and sentence flow
26:55when things start to feel a little
26:57clunky. Now, Surfer AI does this really,
27:00really well because it's already
27:02optimized against the top ranking pages
27:05for your keyword. So, you're not
27:06starting from a blank page. You're
27:08starting from a search-informed draft.
27:11But then you add what AI can't because
27:15in a sea of AI slop, that's what's going
27:17to stand out. I'm talking about things
27:19like your experience. [music]
27:21What actually happened when you try to
27:23think. Your opinion. What you think is
27:26overrated, underrated, or just plain
27:28wrong. Original data. Your results. Your
27:32experiments. Your case studies or your
27:34conversations with customers.
27:36Expert insights. This could be
27:38interviews, quotes, proprietary
27:40knowledge. And by the way, these don't
27:42need to be from you. Like there's
27:44nothing saying you can't source quotes
27:47from experts on podcasts or YouTube
27:50videos or books or scholarly journals.
27:53Next, specific examples. So, real
27:56businesses, real numbers, real case
27:58studies, and real outcomes. [music]
28:01Now, when it comes to making sure your
28:02writing is both valuable to humans and
28:05optimized for robots, the content editor
28:08gives you a real-time content score from
28:10zero to 100. It's tracking whether
28:13you've covered the right topics, used
28:15the right terms, and hit the right depth
28:18for your keyword. This includes topical
28:21coverage for both traditional search and
28:23AI search. Now, I always aim to beat the
28:26highest score on the dashboard. From
28:29what I've seen, and Surfer's own data
28:31backs this up, pages that clear that
28:33threshold tend to rank better than pages
28:36that don't. It turns the vague question
28:38of is this comprehensive enough into a
28:41number that you can actually chase. Now,
28:44I can't overemphasize the role of a
28:46thorough human touch in SEO content.
28:49According to Ahrefs study of 14 billion
28:52web pages, over 96%
28:55get zero traffic from Google. I'm like,
28:5896%?
29:00Where are all these pages living?
29:02The point is most content fails, not
29:05because it's terrible, but because it's
29:07the same as everything else. The bar
29:10isn't just good. The bar is at least
29:13five times better than what already
29:15exists for this specific search. The
29:18human-added layer looks different for
29:20every business. For PandaDoc, it's
29:23customer stories, workflow screenshots,
29:25and free downloadable assets. For
29:28Counter Culture, it's roasting
29:29expertise, likely a lot of video
29:32content, which is a great idea for
29:34differentiation, by the way. Every
29:35business has unique knowledge locked in
29:38the heads of their people. And if for
29:40some reason you don't, then find
29:43expertise. Interview subject matter
29:45experts. Find and comb through paper
29:47books and scholarly journals. Go places
29:50that AI spun content mills can't or
29:53won't go to truly differentiate
29:55yourself. That will be your SEO content
29:58moat.
30:00Now that your content exists, let's make
30:02sure Google can read it.
30:05Chapter five, on-page SEO.
30:08Now on-page SEO is the technical stuff
30:11that you do on each individual page to
30:13help Google understand what it's about.
30:16It's time to kind of shift from our
30:18creative content writing mindset to a
30:20detail-oriented
30:22checklist mindset. I'll demonstrate this
30:24with two real pages from Huntress, their
30:27ransomware recovery guide and their
30:29managed EDR product page. One's an
30:32educational page and the other's a money
30:35page. Same checklist, different
30:37execution. The first and most important
30:40element is your title tag. Include your
30:42target keyword, keep it under 60
30:44characters, and make it compelling
30:46enough to click.
30:48Huntress's recovery guide has the title
30:50ransomware recovery guide for
30:52businesses.
30:53>> [music]
30:53>> The keyword is front-loaded and it tells
30:55you exactly what you're getting. Their
30:57managed EDR page takes a different
30:59approach.
31:00>> [music]
31:00>> End point detection and response built
31:02for every business. It's still very
31:04keyword rich, but also benefit-driven
31:07because it's not just teaching, it's
31:09[music] selling.
31:10Next, your header tags. So, H1 is your
31:13page title. You should have one per page
31:15and I usually recommend it exactly
31:17mirrors the title tag. [music]
31:19H2s are your main sections and H3s are
31:22subsections. Use your keywords naturally
31:25in these. So, Huntress's ransomware
31:27guide uses H1 for the title, then H2s
31:30for each major section like what is
31:32ransomware, first steps after a
31:33ransomware attack, and building an
31:35effective ransomware recovery strategy.
31:38Now, under those H2s, they nest H3s like
31:41why a ransomware recovery plan is
31:42non-negotiable. Google and large
31:45language models for that matter read
31:46this hierarchy to understand the
31:48structure [music] and depth of the page.
31:50And not to mention, it also makes it a
31:52whole lot easier for human readers to
31:54skim the content and stay engaged. And I
31:56mean, that's kind of the whole point,
31:58right? I mean, at the end of the day, we
31:59are writing for other human beings.
32:02Right?
32:04Right? Next, your URL structure. This
32:07should be short, descriptive, and
32:09include the keyword. Huntress uses
32:12cybersecurity 101/topic/ransomware
32:18recovery guide for the guide. It's
32:20clean,
32:21categorized, keyword rich. For the
32:24product page, it's
32:26Short and descriptive, it's all you
32:27need. Compare either of those to a
32:29string of random letters and numbers
32:31that some CMSs have the bad habit of
32:33outputting when you publish a page,
32:35which tells Google and the searcher
32:37absolutely nothing.
32:38Next, your meta description. Now, this
32:41is the snippet that appears under your
32:43title in search results. 150 to 160
32:46characters. It's not a direct ranking
32:48factor, but it can affect whether or not
32:50people click. Huntress's recovery guide
32:53uses learn how to effectively recover
32:55from ransomware attacks with our
32:57comprehensive guide. Understand the
32:59importance of a ransomware recovery
33:00strategy and essential steps to minimize
33:03impact. It's action-oriented, includes
33:06the keyword, and tells the searcher
33:08exactly what they'll get. Write it like
33:10ad copy. Now, we get to one of the most
33:12important aspects of on-page SEO, and
33:15that is internal [music] linking. This
33:18involves adding contextual links inside
33:20the body copy of your content to other
33:23relevant pages.
33:25Remember those content clusters we
33:26talked about? Internal links are how you
33:28connect them. Huntress's ransomware
33:31guide links to their ransomware
33:32handbook, a blog post about Cowa Locker
33:35ransomware, their cybersecurity
33:37compliance solutions page, their managed
33:39EDR product page, and their security
33:42awareness training page. Every piece of
33:44content links back to related content
33:47and to the money pages. This is how
33:49Google discovers your content and
33:51understands how your pages relate to
33:53each other.
33:54Now, Surfer's content editor has an auto
33:56internal links feature that handles this
33:58for you. It scans your site and it
34:00inserts the right internal links
34:02automatically. I beg you, do not skip
34:05this step. It can be super tempting to
34:08just publish the page and get it out
34:10there and then move on to the next
34:12topic. But, internal linking has one of
34:15the best effort-to-value ratios of any
34:18SEO tactic.
34:20Finally, we have image optimization.
34:23Nothing crazy here. Descriptive file
34:25names, alt text that describes what the
34:27image shows, and compressed file sizes.
34:30I really like the WebP format for this.
34:32Huntress's managed EDR page uses alt
34:35text like malicious process behavior and
34:38ransomware canaries. Those are
34:41decent alt tags, but I'd be a bit more
34:43specific. Like you're describing the
34:45image to a person who can't see it
34:47because after all, people who use screen
34:49readers, they depend on these alt tags.
34:52Their ransomware guide, on the other
34:54hand, repeats glitch effect for most
34:56images. A missed opportunity. This goes
34:59to show that even well-optimized sites
35:01leave SEO on the table sometimes. Every
35:04image is an opportunity to tell Google
35:06what your page is about and to show up
35:09in image search. So far, everything
35:11we've covered is within your control.
35:14Your keywords, your content, your
35:16on-page optimization.
35:18The next part isn't. And that's what
35:20makes it hard.
35:22Chapter six,
35:23link building. Backlinks are links from
35:26other websites to yours. Think of them
35:28as votes of confidence. When a reputable
35:31site links to your content, Google sees
35:33that as a signal that your content is
35:35trustworthy and valuable.
35:38Now, not all links are created equal. A
35:40link from a major industry publication
35:42carries far more weight than a link from
35:44a random web directory. Now, link
35:46building is the hardest part of SEO,
35:48full stop. It's time-consuming, it often
35:51feels like cold outreach into the void,
35:54and there are really no shortcuts that
35:56don't eventually get you penalized. I
35:58know some people may clown me for this,
35:59but uh I'm a firm believer that if you
36:02create genuinely great content, content
36:04with original data, unique insights, or
36:06practical tools, links come more
36:08naturally than you'd think. Now, I'm not
36:10against outreach or anything like that.
36:12I'm actually a big fan of that. I'm just
36:14saying in my experience building
36:16websites and working with clients, the
36:17best links have come from simply
36:20creating something worth linking to.
36:22But, I'm not just going to leave you
36:24with that platitude. Here are some
36:26practical ways to build quality links to
36:28your site.
36:30Tactic one is to be the source. This
36:33means creating original data, original
36:35analysis, or original resources that
36:37journalists and bloggers will cite.
36:40Counter Culture's pour-over brew guide
36:42is linked to by WikiHow, Gear Patrol,
36:45Breville, and dozens of coffee blogs
36:48because, frankly, it's the most thorough
36:50guide on the topic. Huntress's blog
36:52posts on ransomware and data breaches
36:54get cited by Google Cloud's threat
36:56intelligence team and referenced on
36:59Wikipedia. Every business is sitting on
37:01knowledge that other people want to
37:03reference. Most people just never
37:05unearth it or publish it. Tactic two are
37:08journalist query platforms. So, here's
37:10what I want you to do. Sign up for
37:13Source of Sources. It's free. It's
37:16created by the original founder of HARO,
37:18Help A Reporter Out, if any SEOs
37:20remember that. Anyway, journalists post
37:22queries when they need experts sources
37:25for articles. You respond with quotes
37:27and insights, and when they publish, you
37:30get a link. This is the most accessible
37:33link building tactic for beginners.
37:35You're providing genuine expertise to
37:37journalists who need sources. Takes
37:39maybe 15 minutes a day to monitor. Now,
37:41I will say this, it is a numbers game.
37:44You might submit 100 inquiries or 100
37:47requests for a link or 100 quotes and
37:49only get one out of those. So,
37:52keep at it and eventually you will get a
37:55hit.
37:56Tactic number three is to create
37:58linkable assets.
37:59Free tools, calculators, templates,
38:02comprehensive guides, things that become
38:04reference material for your industry.
38:07Now, if your content is the definitive
38:09resource on a topic, people link to it
38:11because it makes their content better.
38:13And thanks to tools like Claude Code and
38:16Codex, it's never been easier for
38:17non-technical marketers like me to vibe
38:20code real, valuable browser-based tools.
38:24For a recent Surfer video, I created a
38:26fictional company called StockPath and
38:28vibe coded an inventory calculator using
38:31Claude Code. It took me 10 minutes and I
38:34have nearly zero coding experience. But,
38:37tools like these are massive backlink
38:40magnets. Look at Counter Culture. They
38:42already rank number one for pour-over
38:45coffee ratio and cold brew ratio with
38:48blog guides. But, coffee-to-water ratio
38:51calculator gets 500 searches a month at
38:55a keyword difficulty of eight. I mean, a
38:57simple interactive calculator could
38:59capture that traffic and earn links from
39:02every coffee blog that currently
39:04references their ratio guides. Counter
39:06Culture,
39:08you know where to find me. Actually, no.
39:10Don't find me. I'm busy enough. If
39:12you're just starting out, I don't want
39:14you to obsess over link building yet. I
39:17want you to focus on creating 10 to 15
39:20great pieces of content first, then
39:23start with tactic two, journalist
39:25queries, because um it's free and you
39:28can do it in 15 minutes a day.
39:30Now, links will compound over time. Your
39:33job right now is to build something
39:35worth linking to. Chapter seven,
39:38technical SEO. Now, technical SEO sounds
39:42intimidating and it can be in some
39:44cases. For large enterprise sites, it
39:47can genuinely become a mess. But, if
39:50you're running a small to medium
39:51business on Webflow or WordPress or
39:54Shopify or even a custom CMS, you're
39:57probably 90% of the way there already.
40:01Now, I could give you a long list of all
40:04the technical things that you need to
40:06do, but I'm just going to save both of
40:07us a lot of time. I want you to download
40:09Screaming Frog SEO Spider. It's free for
40:13up to 500 URLs. You point it at your
40:16site, it crawls every page, and it hands
40:18you a prioritized list of technical
40:21issues, broken links, missing title
40:23tags, duplicate content, redirect
40:26chains, images without alt text. Instead
40:29of manually checking each page,
40:30Screaming Frog does the audit for you in
40:32minutes, tells you what to fix, and how
40:35to fix it. One more thing, if you have a
40:37physical location, like a store and
40:40office, a restaurant, there's a whole
40:41extra dimension called local SEO.
40:45That's a huge topic that I can't get
40:47into in this video, but I will say this,
40:50if that's you, the most important thing
40:52that you can do is claim your Google
40:53Business Profile, fill out every field,
40:56and get as many reviews as possible, as
40:59well as respond to every review. That
41:01alone can put you in the map results
41:03when people search your category near
41:05me. Maybe an idea for a future video.
41:08The bottom line is if you're just
41:10getting started, you probably don't need
41:12to go down a technical SEO rabbit hole.
41:14The technical stuff definitely matters,
41:16but it's not what's holding most
41:19beginners back. What's holding them back
41:21is they simply haven't published
41:23anything yet. Okay, everything I've
41:25taught you so far, that's SEO as it's
41:27existed for 20 years. What I'm about to
41:30show you is what's changed.
41:33Chapter 6, AI search, the new frontier.
41:37Google alone processes over 5 trillion
41:40searches a year, but there's a second
41:42search engine now.
41:44And no, I'm sorry, Bing.
41:47It's not you.
41:49I'm sorry, man.
41:51I'm sorry, Bing.
41:53Actually, there are several new search
41:56engines,
41:57and none of them are Bing. ChatGPT,
42:00Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude,
42:02Grok, Google AI mode, and who knows
42:05whatever else is coming next. Maybe Bing
42:07will release an AI and then I'll eat my
42:09words. So, as I was editing, I
42:11remembered that technically Copilot is
42:13owned by Microsoft, which is also part
42:16of Bing. But the fact that I didn't even
42:19remember that tells you everything you
42:20need to know about Bing's position in
42:22the marketplace.
42:23Seriously, Bing, I'm sorry. I was
42:26rooting for you, man. People are asking
42:27AI assistants for recommendations, like
42:29what's the best CRM for small businesses
42:32or recommend a project management tool.
42:34What's the best way to learn SEO? And
42:37these AI assistants are answering.
42:39They're having a conversation. They're
42:40recommending specific brands and
42:42products and websites.
42:44>> [music]
42:44>> And if your business isn't showing up in
42:45those answers, you're invisible in an
42:48explosive new discovery channel. Watch
42:50this. I'll ask ChatGPT, what's the best
42:53proposal software for agencies? There's
42:56PandaDoc. Best specialty coffee beans?
42:59There's Counter Culture. What companies
43:01can help me protect my network from
43:02ransomware?
43:04>> [music]
43:04>> There's Huntress. Pause this video and
43:06try this yourself. Open a fresh ChatGPT
43:09window and ask a question your target
43:12audience might ask during their buying
43:14journey. Something that's likely to
43:15trigger a brand name, and make sure
43:17you're in an incognito browser, cuz
43:19ChatGPT can be a little sneaky about
43:22recognizing your preferences and feeding
43:24you what it thinks you want to hear.
43:25Now, whatever you see there, that is
43:27your AI competition. Now, as you've
43:29likely experienced in your personal
43:31life, AI assistants don't present
43:33information like Google, like a
43:35hierarchical buffet of choices. Just
43:38about all AI assistants are structured
43:40to be more conversational. They
43:43synthesize information from across the
43:44web, and they generate an answer. They
43:47cite sources, but they choose which
43:49sources to cite based on authority,
43:51>> [music]
43:51>> relevance, and how clearly your content
43:54answers the question. Now, here's the
43:56good news. The same things that make you
43:58rank well in Google, authoritative
44:00content, clear structure, schema markup,
44:03being cited by other sites, also help
44:06your AI visibility. Good SEO [music]
44:08is the foundation for both. Now, here's
44:11a problem most people don't realize they
44:13have. Google Search Console cannot see
44:15traffic from ChatGPT or [music]
44:18Perplexity. If someone finds your site
44:20through an AI assistant, Search Console
44:22doesn't register the visit. And frankly,
44:25right now, nobody [music] has access to
44:27what people are actually typing into AI
44:29assistants. That data lives inside
44:31OpenAI and Perplexity, and they're
44:33certainly not sharing it. So, you can't
44:36really track AI the same way you would
44:38track Google searches. What you can do
44:41is monitor whether your brand shows up
44:44when those AI assistants answer
44:46questions in your space. Surfer's AI
44:49tracker does this. It runs queries
44:52across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity,
44:55and tracks which brands get recommended,
44:57how that shifts over time, and where
45:00your competitors are showing up and
45:01you're not. It won't tell you how many
45:04people found you through AI, but it will
45:06tell you whether you're visible in those
45:08channels at all. So, what can you
45:10actually do to show up in AI search? If
45:14you've been paying attention, you might
45:15already see where this is going. First,
45:18create comprehensive authoritative
45:20content with clear subheadings and
45:23direct answers to specific questions.
45:25Large language models pull from content
45:27they can parse easily, and that's
45:29exactly what we built in chapter four.
45:32Well-structured content with real
45:34expertise isn't just good for Google,
45:36it's what AI assistants site. Surfer's
45:38Content Editor now includes an AI search
45:41score alongside your regular content
45:43score, so you can see whether your
45:45content has the depth and structure that
45:48AI assistants look for when deciding
45:50what to site. Next, build topical
45:52authority through clusters. When your
45:55site covers a topic from every angle,
45:58the definition, the how-to, the
45:59comparison, the deep dive, AI models are
46:02more likely to recognize your brand as
46:04an authority on the subject. That's the
46:07cluster strategy from chapter three.
46:09Third, earn citations from other
46:12authoritative sources. AI models weight
46:15sources that other trusted sites
46:17reference. Every backlink from a
46:19reputable site signals to AI systems
46:22that your content is worth citing. AI
46:25assistants especially favor best-of
46:27roundup articles, so getting your brand
46:30placed in those or better yet, writing
46:32them yourself, increases your chances of
46:34getting surfaced in AI queries. Here's
46:37how to find those opportunities. Surfer
46:39has a mention gap report that shows you
46:42which queries your competitors get cited
46:44in, but you don't. Sort by highest
46:46mentions, filter for the gaps, and
46:49there's your outreach list. The specific
46:51queries and articles where you need to
46:53earn visibility. Combine that with the
46:56outreach basics from chapter six, and
46:58you've got a prioritized list of
47:00citations to go earn. Check your AI
47:02visibility regularly, manually or with a
47:05tool like Surfer's AI tracker. AI
47:08recommendations shift dramatically over
47:10time. The brands that track it will
47:13adapt. The ones that don't will wonder
47:15why their competitors keep showing up
47:17and they don't. If you haven't caught on
47:19yet, all of these things are basically
47:22just doing good SEO. AI search
47:24optimization isn't a separate
47:26discipline. It's what happens when you
47:28do the fundamentals well and pay
47:30attention to where the channels are
47:32heading.
47:33Okay. So, you just sat through a lot of
47:37SEO strategy. That alone puts you ahead
47:40of the people who skimmed a blog post
47:42and called it a day. But knowing isn't
47:44the same as doing. So, let's turn this
47:47into action. This is going to be a
47:49rapid-fire 30-day plan. Here we go. Week
47:52one, foundation. Set up Google Search
47:55Console. It's free and it's essential.
47:57Set up Surfer or choose your tools and
47:59do some keyword research. Find 10 to 15
48:02target keywords using the keyword sweet
48:04spot framework. Analyze search intent
48:06for your top five keywords. Use the
48:0830-second intent test. Identify your
48:11money pages. Which pages on your site
48:13directly convert visitors into
48:15customers? Do they exist yet? Week two,
48:18your most important money page. Write
48:21and publish your single most important
48:23money page or optimize an existing one.
48:25Follow the content creation blueprint we
48:27talked about in this video. Research,
48:29structure, write, and optimize. Apply
48:32the on-page checklist. Title, meta,
48:35headers, internal links, and images.
48:37This is the page that converts.
48:39Everything else you build will link back
48:41to this page. Additional money pages are
48:44an ongoing priority, not a one-week
48:47sprint. Week three, your first funnel.
48:50Pick one topical cluster connected to
48:52your money page. Publish a mid-funnel or
48:55top-of-funnel piece that supports it.
48:57Internally link it to your money page
48:59and other related pages. If you already
49:01have content on your site, don't just
49:03create new pages. Sometimes updating a
49:05page that's already ranking on page two
49:07or three is faster than writing it from
49:09scratch. Now we're in week four, promote
49:13and monitor. Start responding to
49:15journalist queries on source-of-sources
49:17or featured.com, 15 minutes a day. Check
49:20your AI visibility, either manually or
49:23with Surfer's AI tracker. Review Google
49:25Search Console for early signals. Here's
49:28what you're looking for. Impressions
49:29rising, even if clicks aren't yet. New
49:32keywords appearing. Position trending
49:34from page five to page three, say. Next,
49:37plan your next cluster, not your next
49:41random topic. Remember, SEO is a long
49:44game. You probably won't see results in
49:4630 days, but after 30 days, you'll have
49:49the foundation, the right keywords,
49:51optimized content, and a system for
49:54creating more. That's further than 95%
49:57of businesses just spraying and praying
49:59with AI slop content ever get. So, that
50:02is SEO in the AI era.
50:05Find what people search for, create the
50:07best content for that search, earn
50:10trust.
50:11The fundamentals haven't changed in 20
50:13years. What's changed is how the same
50:16work now makes you visible in Google, in
50:19AI overviews, in ChatGPT, and in
50:21perplexity.
50:23I said it at the beginning, and I'll say
50:24it again. SEO is not competing with AI
50:27search. It's the foundation AI search is
50:30built on. If this was useful, subscribe.
50:33And if you want to try Surfer, the link
50:35is in the description. You can start
50:37with the free keyword Surfer extension
50:39and go from there.
50:41Thanks for watching, and happy ranking.

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