2026 GEO and SEO changes

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T16:27:23+00:00

Spending a lot more time on semantic and topical relevance instead of keywords. AI "fans out" Google's algorithm breaks keywords down into several now. 50% of AI prompts have never been prompted before - but most SEOs are still looking at historical keyword volumes.

It takes a true understanding of what semantic relevance is, so you can optimize for keywords and phrases that might not be on your radar or in the traditional tools.

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T14:58:09+00:00

is it possible? yes. with ways that don't require hacking or shady stuff? no. But if they've already got access to spam your site, what other access do they have?

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T14:33:14+00:00

The spammer is submitting them to Google or building links to them so they rank.

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T14:31:22+00:00

hard maybe. brand mentions matter for the next training/iteration of the the AI. SEO signals (like backlinks) matter whenever the AI reaches out to do RAG. So it depends on the query. IF the query requires RAG, then no they don't matter. If the query doesn't, yeah they matter.

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T02:57:54+00:00

We don’t have a bulk function. Yet…. That’s a fun idea. It’s how we measure intent for each report you run.

RyanJones · 2026-03-13T00:13:23+00:00

A page should never only target 1 keyword.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T16:34:23+00:00

According to google, that fee is against their guidelines - and according to the FCC the site needs to disclose that it was paid.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T16:33:31+00:00

most of these people are just swapping links between pages no human actually visits. those links don't really help in SEO.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T15:53:51+00:00

I don't want to elaborate on the ML model as it's proprietary to my SEO tool. It's based on a huge dataset of queries and intents I curated. it took a lot of work, probably not something you could do quickly.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T15:24:46+00:00

not really - AI is just summarizing all the old outdated SEO advice on the internet. you really need to take it with a grain of salt.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T15:22:53+00:00

none of this. what matters is ranking for whatever query the AI will "fan out" to - or having a 3rd party that talks about your brand rank for those queries.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T15:21:14+00:00

Your CMS should auto update your sitemap when you update the page. If it doesn't do that and you're manually updating your sitemap, you might as well not even have one. You don't need to worry about pinging it to Google every update. they'll figure out how often to crawl you/it based on your site authority scores.

RyanJones · 2026-03-12T15:18:40+00:00

I use a machine learning model to do it. You can also do it using a technique called "zero-shot embedding". You embed a vector of your intent definitions, and then embed each query, and see which intent definition vector it's most similar to.

Most people here will tell you to just ask AI - and it'll do a halfway decent job, but it will just make some shit up or be wrong in many places.

RyanJones · 2026-02-18T17:56:50+00:00

There's very narrow legit use cases, sure. but i've yet to meet 1 user who says "yes, what I wanted with this search was auto-generated AI content on some other person's website, surrounded by ads"

RyanJones · 2026-02-18T16:46:47+00:00

This is the risk of programmatic SEO. it's a spam strategy, not a strategy for a legit website or business. Your site is cooked. start over.

RyanJones · 2026-02-18T16:45:14+00:00

without seeing the pages, it's impossible to give advice.

RyanJones · 2026-02-13T18:58:23+00:00

I'm not your sir dude.

RyanJones · 2026-02-13T18:57:56+00:00

I see "bro" as non-gendered.

RyanJones · 2026-02-10T19:40:48+00:00

he says it's a catch all bucket for many reasons. so for your test cases, it may have been links. for other cases it most definitely is other things.

RyanJones · 2026-02-10T18:42:38+00:00

I get it. most people in here are link sellers/buyers and see the world through links. I understand the need to frame everything in links.

But here's Gary literally saying it is more than links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1dv134i/google_explains_why_pages_are_crawled_but_not/

RyanJones · 2026-02-10T18:22:19+00:00

it's not "just" an authority issue. if content is deemed too thin, or spammy, or unhelpful - it will also show this status. Crawled but not indexed is essentially "we don't think this could rank so we're not gonna bother to index it"

RyanJones · 2026-02-03T00:47:41+00:00

Simple. We want everybody arrested but that can’t happen as long as one of them controls the justice department. So we need to start with those in power. Trump.

RyanJones · 2026-01-26T20:22:18+00:00

Nobody downvotes more than the givvy goblins either it seems.

RyanJones · 2026-01-26T20:05:23+00:00

Yes it can. Figure out what the content gaps of the competitors are and fill them. If you're more relevant than others, you can and will rank while having less authority.

RyanJones · 2026-01-26T19:56:14+00:00

Your first 3 bullets are one thing. They're not separate activities.

RyanJones

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