SEO is a fast-moving, marketing-centric industry that will always keep you on your toes. If you’re just getting started, it can be overwhelming without a guide. There are many facets and specializations in SEO that come later in a career – local , technical, content , digital PR , UX, ecommerce, media – the list goes on. However, that level of specialization isn’t something a junior professional needs to focus on right away. Much like a liberal arts degree or an apprenticeship, a newcomer to SEO should first develop a broad understanding of the entire discipline before choosing a specialty. This article covers several ways to build that foundational knowledge of search engine optimization. 1. Start with the business Whether you’re in-house or at an agency , resist the urge to jump straight into “solution mode” when beginning an SEO project. Instead of immediately focusing on meta tags, keywords, backlinks, or URL structur...
Organic and paid click-through rates (CTRs) are down – and Google AI Overviews are partially to blame. However, paid CTR declined regardless of whether AI Overviews were present.☝ The new analysis of ~10,000 informational intent keywords ranking in the top 20 positions was conducted by digital marketing agency Seer Interactive. Organic CTR drop. For queries where AI Overviews appeared, organic CTR fell sharply – from 1.41% to 0.64% – year over year. But when AI Overviews were not present, organic CTR actually increased: Paid CTR drop. Paid CTR was down year over year regardless of whether AI Overviews were present: But. Paid and organic CTR actually increased when a brand appeared in AI Overviews: Paid: 7.89% to 11% Organic: 0.74% to 1.02% Why we care. Google’s AI Overviews are clearly impacting visibility, engagement, and traffic – as we knew would be the case when Google launched its precursor, Search Generative Experience (SGE). Though Google...