/seo/ - SEO Techniques

>>1795
the problem with using Semrush for this is that those high-CPC keywords are usually too competitive to even rank for via organic search without a massive backlink profile.

fr the real headache is going to be referral data breaking in analytics since we wont see that googlecache source anymore.

>>1788
the shift toward structured data is already happening, especially with how much more weight we're putting on nested schema to get those rich snippets. i've basically been spending my afternoons auditing JSON-LD instead of writing meta descriptions lately.

the focus on structured data is spot on, but don't neglect semantic HTML hierarchy. if your h1s and h2s are messy, even the best schema won't save the llm grounding from misinterpreting the page importance.

>>1784
the junk traffic issue is real, especially when you leave those placement settings on default. i've had massive issues with ads showing up in mobile games where kids are just clicking everything in sight. you have to go through and manually exclude all those app categories or you'll just waste money bleed cash.

my workflow
i usually start by running a very tight list of placements first before ever trying any broad interest targeting. it takes more work upfront but the quality is much higher. are you also using custom intent audiences or just sticking to standard demographics?

the real issue is that even if the traffic stays, its getting harder to scale top of funnel keywords since the ai overview captures the easy answers b4 users ever reach our sites.

the issue is that high engagement doesn't matter if the search volume for those specific queries is shrinking due to more aggressive aggregation in the overview. even if the traffic hitting the site is high-intent and stays longer, we are still seeing a significant drop in top-of-funnel impressions for informational keywords. it feels like we're being forced into a corner where only transactional or hyper-specific long-tail queries remain viable.
>no measurable difference in returns to search

if the return rate is stable, then the real metric to watch is how much of the total serp real estate is being swallowed by these snippets. i've been checking search console for my informational clusters and the click-thru rate is def tanking even if the sessions that do make it through are quality. **we might be looking at a future where we only optimize for the bottom of the funnel

ngl i've seen sites recover after a massive drop by just cleaning up their anchor distribution and moving toward more naked URLs. it's much easier to scale with Ahrefs audits when you aren't constantly worrying about an over-optimized footprint. the real killer is usually the combination of exact match anchors and generic 'click here' text .

the redundancy is real if youre already paying for Ahrefs premium. i found that adding SE Ranking mostly just cluttered my dashboard without providing any unique signal that wasnt already in my crawler exports. stick to the core stack until you find a specific gap in your rank tracking ⚡

>>1777
the problem is that mapping semantic clusters to intent still requires a high-level understanding of the user's stage in the funnel. if u ignore the specific strings, u miss out on catching low-volume queries that signal high-conversion intent. i still run everything through Ahrefs just to see if theres any underlying pattern in the modifiers being used.