Joshua Jarvis

SEO Tip: Convert Your GSC Keyword Data Into the Topics Google's Algorithm Has Identified You as a Trusted Source. As we transition from keyword-focused to topic-focused SEO, we need to better understand the topics our site is viewed as an authority on. Sometimes it's not the topics most important to your business. Here's how I transformed 25k individual keywords into strategic topic clusters that revealed where Google actually trusts my content: The Process: 1 - Exported 25k keywords from Google Search Console (6-month period) 2 - Used Google's Vertex AI text-embedding model to convert keywords into high-dimensional vectors 3 - Applied HDBSCAN clustering with PCA dimensionality reduction to group semantically similar keywords 4 - Used GPT-4.1-nano to automatically label each cluster with descriptive topic names The Results: Instead of 25,000 individual keywords, I now have 318 strategic topic clusters. Interestingly enough, over 200 of those topics drive 0 clicks. Why this matters for SEOs: 1 - Authority Mapping - Discover which topics Google's algorithm actually views you as trusted for 2 - Business Alignment - Identify gaps between your core business topics and where you have search authority 3 - Content Strategy - Double down on topics where you already have algorithmic trust The game-changer: Connecting impressions and clicks data to each topic cluster reveals which topics drive actual traffic vs. just visibility. Want to replicate this analysis? - Export your GSC keywords with impressions/clicks data - Use vector embeddings to cluster semantically similar terms - Apply AI Powered labeling to turn keyword groups into Topics - Visualize your data to better understand what topics drive your search efforts. - Compare the results to business goals. Is the search traffic aligned with your ICP and product or service offering? Visualize topic performance with treemaps and scatter plots Stop managing keywords. Start managing topics.

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Publishers are seeing significant declines in traditional top-of-funnel channels like Google search. “Ten blue links” – long associated with driving traffic – is becoming an anachronism as AI Overviews and AI mode outcompete outbound links to content producers. We can’t influence search’s evolution or its impact on our visibility. That doesn’t mean abandoning user acquisition. It means prioritising what we can control: strategically engaging and retaining existing audiences. According to Sarah Marshall, VP, Audience Strategy at Condé Nast, who spoke at The Audiencers’ Festival this June thanks to an invitation from WordPress VIP, the focus should be on cultivating the “happy middle”. We should turn the audience funnel from an inverted triangle (wide top, narrow bottom) into an inverted trapezoid (wider middle). Khalil A. Cassimally summarises how she’s implementing this at Condé Nast on The Audiencers: https://lnkd.in/diJ3vTca

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SEO Tip: Chrome DevTools MCP now integrates directly with Cursor, letting AI assistants control live local browser instances for automated SEO research. This combination of tools can allow you to truly have an AI assistant doing many of the tasks you may also be doing manually. But helping you work while you complete other tasks. Here's what just became possible: - Automated SERP analysis: AI can now navigate Google, capture screenshots, and extract competitor data from search results. - Real competitive intelligence: Instead of manually reviewing dozens of page, You can setup a local assistant to navigate to different pages across the web and look at things most important to your SEO efforts. - Need someone to test if those changes were deployed across hundreds of pages, Cursor + Chrome DevTools MCP is there to help you check each one. - Want to look at pages with and without javascript? This tool combination has you covered too. - Need someone to analyze page performance and network calls. Done! Why this matters for SEO teams: The bottleneck in SEO has always been gathering the information needed to provide sound recommendations. You know what to analyze, but gathering the data can take hours. Now AI can help with the more tedious extraction while you focus on strategy and insights. Doubtful it gathered the right information? Ask it to take and store screenshots to quickly verify its findings. Working with an AI Assistant become a bit more real.

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SEO, AIO, GEO, AEO, SXO. If you're confused by all the acronyms, you're not alone. So, how is AI actually impacting SEO? The entire SEO world has gone full alphabet soup. And most of it is consultants trying to rebrand old tactics with shiny new names. But behind the jargon, something real is changing about how people find and trust information online. Traditional SEO was all about gaming Google’s algorithm. Stuff some keywords. Build some links. Optimize your meta tags. Hope the crawler gods smile on you. Now you’re optimizing for bots that remember. Instead of trying to rank #3 for “best CRM software,” you need to be the tool ChatGPT recommends when someone asks “What’s the best CRM for a remote team?” That’s not page rank. That’s answer rank. And it’s a whole different game. Google’s not just crawling your site; they’re watching how people use it. If visitors bounce right away? You lose ground. If they stay, scroll, engage, click, share? You rise. The shift isn’t from SEO to some acronym like SXO or AIO. The shift is from gaming algorithms to being useful. Keyword-stuffed blog posts won’t cut it anymore. AI engines don’t care about keyword density. They care whether your content answers the question. Clearly and authentically. Backlinks still matter, but “build links and pray” isn’t a growth strategy now. With over 60% of Google searches ending in zero clicks, ranking #1 is less valuable than showing up in AI summaries, product roundups, and trusted recommendations. User experience IS SEO now. Not just site speed and mobile-friendliness, but relevance, clarity, helpfulness. If your content feels shallow or salesy, it won’t survive the next generation of search. You used to optimize for an algorithm you could "trick". Now you’re optimizing for AI systems that understand context and meaning. You can’t fake quality anymore. You have to BE quality. But most teams are still chasing keyword charts while their competitors are earning trust signals that will dominate the next decade. If your traffic is dropping even while your rankings hold steady? That's why. Forget the acronyms. Focus on content that helps people. If it’s good, the AI will figure it out. -- Want growth hacks like this that can catapult your business forward?    Sign up to my weekly growth hacks newsletter for easy to implement hacks every Sunday:  <https://lnkd.in/eGMgpwUA>

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“I think AEO/GEO is a load of crap,” spouted a CMO from a $250mm SaaS company, adding, “if you follow SEO best practices, you’ll be fine.” After I picked up my jaw from the floor, I pondered this purposeful provocation and asked myself, could she be right? Stick with me as I share what I think I know about AEO. Showing up in LLMs has significant business value. Members of the CMO Huddles community report that LLM-generated site traffic converts at 4-6x the rate of traditional Google traffic. These visitors are not your proverbial tire kickers. They’re ready to put you on their short list. So if you haven’t figured out how to track + respond to these visitors appropriately, stop reading this and get on that!  Brands that ranked high in Google searches are more likely to show up in LLMs This makes sense, since these brands tend to have broader digital footprints. But I’ve also read that this only applies to about 50% of LLM searches. So that means that in the other 50% of searches, lesser-ranked brands are finding a way into LLM synopses. And if that is the case, then they must be doing something other than SEO-like activities. [If this logic is faulty, don’t blame an LLM, I’m on my own here.] Yext research agrees with our provocateur CMO This brilliantly timed bombshell dropped into my email this week: “Yext just analyzed 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity and found that 86% actually come from sources brands already control, like websites and listings. Reddit and forums? Just 2% once location and query intent are factored in.” I’ll give you a second to re-read this. Is Yext’s research relevant to AEO + B2B brands? Not sure. Perhaps their CEO, Michael Walrath, will weigh in here. If Yext's research includes B2B brands and complex queries, those of you investing heavily in AEO may want to reconsider. Another reason to hedge on AEO is that it is so damn hard to measure cause and effect right now. Every LLM search delivers unique results. The game is to measure the percentage of times you show up in an LLM query of 23 words on average. Now imagine one word is different each time. My head hurts thinking about the mathematical permutations. Hedging your AEO bet Many of the AEO “best practices” are things you should be doing anyway. Having extensive Q&As on your website is simply being user-friendly. Taking it a step further and having an answer bot like Webless that pulls from your website content is also being customer-centric. Another example is having competitive information (including pricing) on your website. Prospects need that info, and if you don’t provide it, the LLM will source it from somewhere else.  Like most humans, I hate gated content. Turns out, so do LLMs. So that's another example of doing the right thing that also may help with AEO. There's more to cover, but I'm out of space + am counting on my AEO-expert friends to fill in the vast gaps, including the technical stuff (like schema).

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Most businesses are still approaching AI search the same way they approached SEO five years ago and that’s where the disconnect starts. Traditional SEO is focused on rankings. Keywords, backlinks, page speed, and technical structure designed to help your site appear in search results. It’s still important, but it’s no longer the whole picture. GEO is different. Generative engine optimization isn’t about where you rank. It’s about whether your content is understood, trusted, and reused by AI systems that summarize answers for users before they ever click a link. If your content isn’t structured clearly or doesn’t provide real substance, AI skips it entirely. AEO sits between the two. It helps your content become the direct answer for specific questions through featured snippets, voice search, and People also Ask results. SEO gets you found. AEO helps you get selected. GEO helps you get cited. Going into 2026, businesses need all three working together, not competing with each other. Pages built only for rankings often fail in AI experiences. Content written only for AI summaries often fails to convert real people. The brands pulling ahead understand the difference and build content with intent. They know when to optimize for search visibility, when to optimize for direct answers, and when to structure content so AI can confidently reference it. At Clark & Co, we help businesses move beyond outdated SEO playbooks and build search strategies designed for how discovery actually works today. If you want your content to rank, answer, and show up inside AI experiences, let’s talk.

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𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐬 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭) How SaaS companies turn content into traffic, trust, and customers using guest posting Let’s simplify something most people overcomplicate. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠? Guest posting means publishing your content on other relevant, authoritative websites — with a contextual link back to your site. Not spam. Not PBNs. Not random blogs. Real websites. Real audiences. Real editorial content. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 & 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Because SaaS growth depends on trust + visibility. And trust online works like this: Google trusts you → when trusted sites talk about you People trust you → when they see you featured elsewhere Guest posting solves both. For SaaS companies: • Faster keyword rankings • Stronger domain authority • Brand visibility outside their own site • Traffic from audiences already searching for solutions For agencies & content teams: • Their content finally ranks • Campaigns show measurable ROI • Clients see movement (not excuses) • Less pressure to publish endless blogs 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬? Link insertions place your link inside existing, already-ranking content. That means: • Instant authority • Faster impact • No waiting months for new posts to rank Perfect for: • SaaS landing pages • Feature pages • Comparison pages • Money keywords 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐭 Guest posting & link insertions give you: ✓ Higher rankings ✓ Referral traffic ✓ Brand mentions ✓ Industry credibility ✓ Better conversion trust ✓ Stronger backlink profile 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭? Your content stops being invisible. Impact on traffic, audience & sales Here’s what actually happens when it’s done right: • Traffic compounds month over month • New audiences discover your product • Sales pages convert better (social proof works) • Demos increase without paid ads • SEO becomes predictable You don’t just get clicks. You get qualified users who already trust you. The mistake most teams make They invest in: • Content ❌ • Tools ❌ • Audits ❌ But ignore distribution. Content without backlinks is a library with no visitors. Guest posting is how you invite people in. P.S. If you’re a SaaS brand or agency and want real guest posts or link insertions on niche-relevant sites. DM me “SaaS LINKS” and tell me your niche.

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Wait a dang minute. You want to invest in brand marketing initiatives as a priority this quarter, but you’re concerned about the weekly CPL trend? Cool, cool. But you see, this won’t work. CPL (cost-per-less) is fine if you’re running performance campaigns. When you’re optimizing for volume or short-term conversions, it makes sense. But it’s the wrong lens to evaluate brand. Brand plays a different game. It builds familiarity before someone is in-market. It makes your message stick even when they’re not ready to buy. It earns trust that you can’t see in a spreadsheet. And when it’s working, you see more inbound. Higher intent. Shorter stage durations. More referrals. Less discounting. None of that shows up in a weekly CPL volume report. So if we’re trying to hold brand accountable to lead gen KPIs, we’re setting it (and marketing) up to fail. Then we wonder why demand for our brand is flat. If you’re serious about brand, you need to measure different things. Think about direct and organic traffic trends, self-reported attribution, better sales velocity, and more high-intent form fills. If we skip that and just slap content on a calendar, we’re not doing brand. We’re just spending money and calling it strategy.

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I highly doubt CRO will work for your brand. Why? Because your site is already “optimized.” • Product photos? Check. • Features and benefits? Check. • Outcomes your customers want? Clear as day. • Add to Cart button? Standard Shopify checkout? Both there. What else could you possibly need? Just keep pouring more into SEO, paid, newsletters, affiliates, backlinks. That’s the game, right? Unless… you actually want more of that traffic you’re paying for to become buyers. Then CRO suddenly looks less like “nice-to-have” and more like the highest-leverage move you can make.

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At WordCamp US Portland 2025, Danny Sullivan reminded the industry: “Good SEO is good GEO. Or AEO. Or AI SEO. Or LLM SEO. They’re all just SEO.” It was a humorous way of saying: don’t get distracted by new acronyms. The fundamentals haven’t changed. But here’s what I think SEOs should take from this: 1. Old wine, new bottle. These acronyms highlight shifts in where SEO shows up (AI Overviews, vector-driven answers, entity-based retrieval). Execution evolves, but the foundation, relevance, crawlability, intent satisfaction remains. 2. Two lenses for SEO. Timeless SEO: site health, technical hygiene, structured data, and clear content. Adaptive SEO: optimizing so your content is summarized in AI-driven results, not just ranked in blue links. 3. User intent is still the anchor. Whether through keywords, snippets, or LLMs, the ultimate filter hasn’t changed: does your content answer the user’s intent better than alternatives? 4. Why Google repeats this. Because the industry is buzzing with anxiety around GEO/AI SEO. Their message is: don’t chase the acronym. Stay grounded in fundamentals, adapt execution when needed. For me, this reinforces how important it is to: Audit content for answer quality (would this be surfaced in an AI Overview?). Keep investing in structured data to help machines interpret context. Educate stakeholders that the acronym may change, but the principles remain. Question for you: Do you see these new acronyms as valuable distinctions, or just noise that distracts teams from core SEO?

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Local SEO PSA for all you biz owners freaking out this weekend because the local map rank tracker is showing you losing ground as you checked it for the millionth time this month. All of these grid rank tools will almost always show different Local Pack rankings, even when you use two different tools for the same query at exactly the same time. There are so many factors influencing these rankings at any given time (ip address of the searcher, query, personalization, time of day, etc.) that they are almost always going to be "wrong", or at least often won't match up with what you are seeing, regardless of how you search. Search Darren Shaw's feed for when he answers questions about rank tracking accuracy. He's like a broken record, but his tune is spot on.

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CMOs have no shortage of pitches - what you need is a filter. In this video, I share the three filters I use: measure quality beyond CPL, scale with brand-safe compliance, and align incentives so you only pay for outcomes that matter. If a partner can’t show their playbook on those three, keep looking. What’s your must-ask question before you sign?

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Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) isn’t replacing SEO—it’s evolving alongside it. After 18ish years in this field, I’ve seen SEO shift dramatically: 📱 From desktop-only to mobile-first 🔍 From one-word queries (try typing a phrase into T9 word) to questions and semantic phrases 🧠 From ranking for clicks to optimizing for answers So here’s the real takeaway: It’s not AEO vs. SEO—it’s AEO and SEO. SEO still matters. You need in-depth, well-structured content that proves your expertise (EEAT), with real value for readers and search engines. But AEO brings a new lens: ➤ Can you say the same thing in fewer words? ➤ Can your key points live in a snippet, summary, or AI-generated overview? Because today, not everyone’s even clicking (we've all seen the dips in search traffic). They’re skimming, scanning, or letting AI summarize. As a business, especially in the B2B space when we're all multitasking, you need both the gravitas and the digestibility. The long and the short of it. This isn’t about abandoning what’s worked. It’s about recognizing that what works… always changes. Stay open. Stay agile. Say it smart—and say it simply.

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⚡ I challenged Gemini to explain why Google is suing SerpApi... but leaves Ahrefs and Semrush alone. I was confused and if I am being honest, concerned as SEO teams depend on third party platform data for insights beyond what Google may offer. Here is basically what Gemini said (which makes sense, but not sure how this will actually playout in court yet): -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the platforms scrape Google. But legally, the difference is massive. It comes down to The Lock vs. The Library. ⚖️ The "Broken Lock" Theory (DMCA 1201): Google isn't suing because SerpApi scraped public data. They are suing because SerpApi allegedly reverse-engineered "SearchGuard", a specific security protocol. ▪️Ahrefs/Semrush visit the library (public web) and write down notes (analytics). ▪️SerpApi allegedly picked the lock to get in. 📊 Raw Data vs. Analytics: ▪️SerpApi resells the raw Google experience. You pay them to see what Google sees right now. ▪️SEO Tools sell "transformative" work. They take raw data and turn it into new value (keywords, volume, backlink graphs). This lawsuit draws a sharp line in the sand: Scraping public data is likely still safe. "Hacking" a security token to do it is not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If Ahrefs or Semrush were also bypassing SearchGuard, they would also be at risk. But they much more cautious, using human-mimicking click farms and other methods that don't involve reverse-engineering Google's cryptographic code, keeping them just on the side of "scraping" rather than "hacking." ➡️ Summary The bottom line? Courts have generally protected the right to read a book you find on a park bench (public scraping). But this lawsuit draws a line at picking the lock to get into the library. One is open access, the other is breaking and entering and as such, I think SerpApi might be in trouble.... 🧐

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Grey Hat SEO: The Side No One Wants to Talk About 👀 People love talking about White Hat SEO. AI-driven SEO. Ethical strategies. But never the part they're actually using Grey Hat SEO. Here’s the truth: 95% of publishers, website owners, and SEOs use grey-hat techniques. (They won't admit it.) They call it “ethical.” They call it “AI-powered.” They call it “best practice.” But behind the scenes: ✔️ Optimized aggressively ✔️ Scaled strategically ✔️ Executed fast And yes, some even lean into black-hat shortcuts (Which I’m completely against.) So what is Grey Hat? It’s White Hat that has aggressively pushed harder for quicker results. Not unethical, but it bends boundaries to outpace competition. Why talk about it? Because someone has to. Not to promote risks but to bring clarity and help implement SEO ethically. How Grey Hat evolves from White Hat practices: ➡️ Quality content → smarter optimization ↳ Stronger internal links + AI polishing Result: Faster rankings, stronger topical authority Risk: Medium ➡️ Guest posting → strategic post exchange ↳ Mass guest posts or paid placements Result: Backlinks at scale ➡️ Digital PR → value-driven outreach ↳ Free tools/trials in exchange for coverage Result: Faster link velocity ➡️ Schema markup → aggressive usage ↳ FAQ or product schema without actual items Result: Higher CTR ➡️ E-E-A-T → expert content collaboration ↳ Hire skilled writers for authority-level output Result: Stronger trust signals ➡️ Internal linking → strategic direction ↳ Push links to revenue-driving pages Result: SEO impact where it matters ➡️ Keyword content → trend optimization ↳ Create around trending or high-demand topics Result: Quick traffic spikes ➡️ Technical SEO → personalization ↳ Tailored content by device/location Result: Better UX ➡️ UX improvements → engagement-focused ↳ Sticky CTAs, interactive elements Result: Higher time-on-page ➡️ Local SEO → multi-location strategy ↳ Flexible listings for multiple regions Result: Wider visibility ➡️ Content updates → fast refresh cycles ↳ Republish updates to keep signals fresh Result: Easy ranking boosts ➡️ Influencer marketing → strategic collabs ↳ Reviews & mentions from influencers Result: Authority + quality backlinks SEO isn’t black or white; it’s grey. And it must be executed with skill and precision. One wrong move can cause: → Ranking collapse → Traffic loss → Domain-level penalties If you’re pushing boundaries, do it smartly. Understand the risks. Understand the outcomes. 💬 Ever used Grey Hat without realizing it? ♻️ Repost if this opened your eyes.

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"The old B2B marketing playbook isn't working any more...pipeline goals have gone up and budgets have gone down." Can you relate? For the newest episode of the #BeyondB2B Marketing podcast, I connected with B2B marketing and martech legend, Jon Miller, to talk about the current and future state of B2B marketing (including the role of AI), what's not working and where things are headed. Navigating the major challenges we're facing today might be tough, but as Jon says, the old playbook isn't working any more. For businesses to survive and thrive there needs to be a change in perspective and Jon's recommendations go beyond specific tactical adaptations to more of a strategic shift, a reimagining of how B2B marketing is done. His recommendations included: ✅ Shift from Linear Funnels to Lifecycle Thinking Jon advocates moving away from the old lead-focused, MQL-driven model to a full customer lifecycle approach which includes post-sale engagement, adoption, renewals, and advocacy. ✅ Embrace Brand as a Performance Driver Jon emphasizes the need for intentional brand building to emotionally connect with buyers before they enter the funnel. This is critical because buyers are researching anonymously and making decisions before they ever engage with a vendor directly. ✅ Invest in Experiences, Relationships, and Craftsmanship As AI floods the market with generic content, Jon highlights the importance of creating human-centered experiences and trustworthy, high-quality content as the new currency of differentiation. We covered a lot of ground in this interview and it's a great watch, listen or read on the latest TopRank Marketing blog post. (link in comments) HUGE thanks to all of the #BeyondB2B Marketing podcast guests so far for sharing their advice on how marketers can break free of status quo B2B and go beyond! Tyrona (Ty) Heath, Christiana Marouchos, Amber Naslund, Kathleen Booth, Steve Kearns, & Ann Handley.

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