Whitespark SEO newsletter

Read online Hi, Lots of SEO tips in this email, but first, a quick reminder 👇️ Tomorrow at 11am ET, Claire Carlile and I are hosting a free webinar where we’ll show you how to get the most out of your local SEO efforts using Whitespark’s Local Ranking Grids. We’ll explain how to: find out why competitors outrank you at every point on the map catch competitor moves as they happen, from name changes to review spikes overlay demographic data to discover which neighbourhoods have the biggest opportunities for your business prove your SEO results with side-by-side, before-and-after ranking comparisons create gorgeous, white-label reports that'll impress your clients connect your grid data into Claude or ChatGPT with our MCP for advanced analysis Feeling ready to take your local SEO work to the next level? Sign up here. Okay, now on to the SEO tips 👇️ 1. One of the best tools for AI SEO I’ve seen Fan-Out Mapper helps you figure out what content you need on your pages to show up in AI search. Here's how it works: Go to brandleap.ai/tools/fan-out-mapper Enter a search query you want to rank for in AI search. Click "Fan Out” The tool shows you the additional queries AI might use to build its answer. The thing I love most about this tool is that it doesn't just show you the fan-out queries. It also shows you exactly how you need to construct your page. You can even paste in your own webpage, and it'll identify what content you're missing and suggest where to add it. And there's a "Battle Mode" feature that lets you compare your page against a competitor's to see how well each one covers the topics AI search might be looking for. It's a really useful way to find content gaps, discover new opportunities, and figure out how to improve your pages for AI search. 2. Your AI slop flyers are embarrassing And you’re losing customers because of them. And don’t you dare say “but I run a small business and I don’t have money to pay creatives” because that’s a bad excuse. Here are 3 ways to have authentic, human marketing on a budget: 1. Run a contest with your own staff. Your employees might have a better marketing idea than any agency, and I’m sure they’d love a creative task to break up their usual work. 2. Call your local art school or community college. Students NEED real world experience, so they’d welcome the opportunity. Plus, they are talented and affordable! 3. Paint a sign yourself. Even if it’s ugly. Even if you can’t draw a straight line. I promise it is going to set your business apart and show your personality better than ChatGPT ever could. Last week, Miriam Ellis published a blog post with more strategies to combat AI slop in your marketing, plus a bunch of real examples for your inspiration. Read it here before you hit “generate” again. 3. This Black Friday SEO strategy is so simple, but you need to act fast if you want to take advantage of it Edward Sturm shared a brilliant template for targeting Black Friday searches: “Black Friday [Your Category] Deals” The idea is to target highly specific Black Friday searches with strong buying intent. Instead of trying to rank for something super competitive like "Black Friday Deals", you target more specific searches like "Black Friday Marketing Software Deals" or "Black Friday Teeth Whitening Deals”. These longer searches often have much less competition, and the people searching are already looking to buy something. I explain how to take advantage of this strategy in this video 👇️ 4. Catch up on the pod Everyone is tracking their AI visibility wrong. Most businesses sign up for an AI tracking tool, accept the suggested prompts, and start monitoring their visibility. But here's the problem: Those generic prompts often have nothing to do with what your actual customers are asking. So, what you want to do is gather information about your actual customers by: Interviewing the business owner Looking through customer reviews, Reddit, forums, and su