COLLINSEO

How to find competitors that you didn't even know existed..

I've noticed that a lot of people assume they already know who their competitors are. They track the biggest brands in their niche and stop there. But that's exactly how you miss the businesses that are actually taking your customers.

Go to SimilarWeb, open the Audience section, add your website, then click on Audience Interests. If you scroll down, you'll see the exact websites your audience has been visiting over the last 24 hours. You'll recognize some obvious competitors, but pay attention to the ones you've never really looked at before.

If one of those sites stands out, just hover over it to see more data, then open the full analysis. This is where it becomes useful. Instead of sorting by relevance score, switch the filter to Cross Visitation.

Now you're not just seeing your biggest competitors. You're seeing where your visitors are actually going. That tells you a lot about their behavior. Maybe they're spending time on YouTube, Facebook, or Reddit. If that's where your audience already is, those are great places to reach them with ads or content.

With two simple filters, you can uncover competitors you didn't even know existed and learn where your customers are spending their time. That insight alone can be worth thousands for your business.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/myl3N8KvUQ...

1 hour ago | [YT] | 3

COLLINSEO

What Google has just told us is so crazy..

And if you do what they said, your site will show in AI answers!

They suggested adding something inside an article about ranking in AI, and suddenly the whole industry is treating it like a ranking hack. It looks like a simple setup, almost too simple, but people are acting like it is some hidden signal for showing up in AI answers.

If you go into WordPress SEO settings, you might already have it there under site features. You literally turn it on, and that is it. No complex setup, no coding. Once it is active, it creates something like a structured page or file that helps machines understand your site better.

The idea behind it is simple. Think of it like a sitemap, but designed more for AI systems instead of just search engines. It lists the important pages you want discovered, so crawlers do not have to dig around your site to figure out what matters.

The hype comes from the belief that without it, AI systems might take longer to understand your site, which people assume could hurt visibility. But then Google itself came out with another piece saying a lot of these assumptions are exaggerated, and even added more context that complicates the whole story.

So now it feels a bit mixed. One message makes it sound like a must-have, the next one downplays it. And in the middle of that, SEO people are trying to figure out what actually matters and what is just noise.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/Nh-YV96OIS...

1 day ago | [YT] | 6

COLLINSEO

No one is doing this! You can now see what your customers want when they're using AI.. And it will explode your conversions

Just go to the AI Research section of the tool and enter one of your competitors. I tried Nike, and within seconds I could see the semantic topics it's showing up for in AI answers. If you want the tool, the link is in the video.

But this is where it becomes useful. Scroll down and you'll find every topic broken down with its level of interest across AI platforms, along with how that interest changes over time. Instead of guessing what people want, you can see what AI is already connecting with that brand.

Now comes the part that most people skip. Find a topic that's relevant to your business and click into it. You'll be able to see the exact URLs that are appearing in AI answers for prompts related to that topic.

Open those pages and study what they've created. If you build content that covers the same intent, you have a much better chance of showing up in AI answers too.

I was doing this for a client that sells apparel. Nike isn't even a direct competitor, but browsing these topics gave me an idea we hadn't considered before.

I found character costumes as a growing topic, which means we can create dedicated pages around that category and potentially rank in Google while also appearing in AI answers.

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/wqcIqyxdGu...

2 days ago | [YT] | 8

COLLINSEO

If you had to do only one thing in your website to rank in AI. It's this..

And I can assure you you've never heard of it!

Every time you publish a new SEO page or blog, it needs to be internally linked from other parts of your site. Not just buried somewhere, but actually connected in a way that Google can easily crawl and understand. Most people underestimate how much this alone affects visibility.

What we usually do is create a central place like a /blogs or /guides page where every new post automatically appears. Then that page gets linked in the navbar so it is always accessible. In some setups, we even go a step further and make sure blog lists are dynamically updated so nothing gets left behind.

But here is what most people miss. Adding a list on one page is not enough. You also want a blog carousel or similar section inside each post that links to other posts. And then the same thing again on the homepage. At that point, everything starts pointing to everything else in a structured way, and that is what helps Google understand importance.

And it is not just for blogs. The same logic applies to your most important money pages. Service pages, location pages, product pages, whatever matters for conversions. Those should also be linked in the navbar and supported with internal link blocks across the site.

It is not really about fancy SEO tricks. It is just making sure nothing important is isolated. If every key page is reachable through multiple paths, you are basically guiding both users and Google through what matters most on your site.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/zvb0snUfZC...

4 days ago | [YT] | 2

COLLINSEO

I can not believe they did this..

This new type of ad it's going to explode your conversions!

There are now ads showing up inside Google AI overview answers, and this is going to change how people interact with search in a big way. As a user, it feels a bit off, but it is already starting to roll out in some places.

What is happening is that someone searches something informational, but Google is starting to pick up when that question has a commercial angle behind it. So instead of only giving an answer, it can immediately surface ads inside that AI response. For example, you might be asking something general and still get product suggestions like pool vacuum cleaners directly inside the explanation.

This is where it gets controversial. Because if ads can appear inside the actual answer, then the line between information and promotion starts to blur. People are already questioning how neutral these answers really are. But if you are on the marketing side, you can probably see why this matters. It opens a new placement that sits right where attention is highest.

And here is the part most people will not like. You cannot actually target ads specifically for AI overviews right now. There is no setting for it, no direct control. Google is deciding when and where these ads appear based on the query and intent signals.

What that means in practice is simple. If you are already running ads, they might start showing up inside AI overviews without you actively doing anything for that placement. It is being handled automatically, and that alone changes how people will think about search ads going forward.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/MPrBpMTcPh...

6 days ago | [YT] | 4

COLLINSEO

Everyone has been asking for this, and it's now out..

I'm telling you, it's going to literally save you hours of work!

We keep talking about AI traffic, AI search, AI assistants, but when you opened Google Analytics there was no way to actually see any of it. If we're being honest, how has this not existed already?

Well, Google is finally rolling it out. It's called AI Assistants, and it will show you how much traffic AI tools are sending to your website. A little late, sure, but it's going to save a lot of people time.

If you want to check whether you have it already, go to Google Analytics, open User Acquisition, and scroll through your traffic sources. I checked and it wasn't there yesterday. Then suddenly it was. There it is. That's pretty crazy.

But here's the interesting part. Even if you don't have the new report yet, you don't need to wait for Google. There's already a way to see your AI traffic.

I've been tracking it for one of my clients, and you can clearly see traffic coming from tools like ChatGPT. In fact, it's been steadily going up.

So if you're curious about how much traffic AI is already sending to your site, there are ways to track it right now. I put together a quick video showing exactly how I do it.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/6iEW40s6SF...

1 week ago | [YT] | 3

COLLINSEO

This is wrong in your site and you don't even know it..

And it could stop Google and AIs from actually ranking it!

First, go to your website and add /robots.txt at the end of the URL. The page looks like complete nonsense at first, but that's normal. What you want to check is whether any AI crawlers are being blocked. If you see entries that specifically disallow Google's AI systems, that could be a problem. If that section is empty, even better.

Then check your sitemap by adding /sitemap.xml to your domain. Depending on your setup, it might look a little different, but you should see a sitemap with links to your pages. That's how you tell Google what content exists on your site and what should be crawled.

But here's what a lot of people miss. They create a sitemap and never actually submit it. Just open Google Search Console, go to the Sitemap section, and submit the URL. It's a one-time task, and Google can keep discovering new pages you publish afterward.

There's one final check that catches people out. Open your homepage, use an SEO browser extension, and look for the index, follow directive. If you see index, follow, you're good. If not, you might be accidentally telling search engines not to process your pages the way you expect.

None of these checks are complicated. That's exactly why they're so easy to overlook.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/gFaVkl4PLt...

1 week ago | [YT] | 3

COLLINSEO

You've been using this tool wrong this whole time..

It's meant to help with website speed, but it has a secret section that tells you how to improve your SEO

The clue is right there in the name. It's built to help you improve performance, and it does that really well. But hidden inside is an SEO section that can uncover issues many people never think to check.

What surprised me is how advanced some of the findings are. It's not just pointing out basic SEO mistakes. In one case, it flagged a link that wasn't considered credible. That's the kind of issue most website owners would never notice on their own. The best part is how visual it is. Instead of giving you a vague warning, it takes a screenshot of the exact area where the problem appears. You can immediately see what's wrong and where it's happening.

I found an issue on my own website where Google wasn't properly discovering links hidden inside a toggle section. Those links were important, but search engines weren't seeing them the way I expected. Without the tool, I probably wouldn't have spotted it. The downside is that you have to check pages one by one. You enter a URL, it analyzes the page, and then you repeat the process for the next one.

If you want to find issues across your entire website, you'll need a separate site audit tool that crawls everything automatically. What's interesting is that some of the better options are still completely free. You sign up, add your website, and they'll scan the whole site for you. Just make sure you set them up correctly. A lot of people run an audit, look at the report, and assume they're done. But if the setup isn't right, you can end up missing some of the most valuable issues.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/_BMQv6i248...

1 week ago | [YT] | 10

COLLINSEO

Breaking news! Google has just straight up told us how to rank in AI Overviews..

And literally takes 1 minute to apply it to your site!

The funny part is that this wasn't presented as an SEO feature. It was tucked away in documentation aimed at developers. But if you read what Google is actually saying, the implication is pretty clear. The feature everyone is talking about is a new file that helps AI agents understand your website. The name is a bit technical, but the concept is simple.

Google specifically mentions that without this file, AI agents may spend more time crawling and discovering your content. And that's where things get interesting. AI systems want information fast. If you make your content easier to find and understand, you're removing friction. The good news is that setting it up is incredibly easy. If you're using Yoast SEO on WordPress, you might already have access to it. Just go into the site architecture settings and you'll see the option there. What surprised me is that it's turned off by default, so a lot of websites probably haven't enabled it yet.

Once you switch it on, the file is automatically generated. Think of it like a sitemap, but specifically designed to help AI systems discover the important content on your website. It gives them a structured way to understand what pages exist and where to find them. I've already enabled this for one of my clients, a realtor focused on the investor-friendly market in Texas.

Will this single change magically make you rank in every AI answer? Probably not. But when Google directly tells us that AI agents can discover content more efficiently with it, that's not something I'm going to ignore. Sometimes the easiest wins are the ones hiding in plain sight.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/GvNy7kItJm...

1 week ago | [YT] | 18

COLLINSEO

Breaking news! Google's AI ranking factors might have been leaked..

So if you don't wanna stay behind, I'm gonna tell you have to do in your website!

A researcher analyzed more than 1.2 billion data points to figure out what websites are doing to appear in AI Overviews. I honestly don't know how someone even processes that much data, but the interesting part is the report that came out of it. When you get to the ranking factors section, you can see the patterns shared by websites that consistently show up in AI answers. But what makes the research even more useful is that it's broken down by industry.

So instead of looking at broad recommendations, you can check what is working specifically for your niche. If you're in beauty, retail, finance, or another industry, the factors can look different. That's important because what helps one type of business appear in AI answers might not have the same impact in another.

And this is where things get interesting. Some of the findings are what you'd expect. Strong SEO fundamentals still matter. Rankings, authority, and backlinks are still doing a lot of the heavy lifting. But there were also a few surprises. For example, Wikipedia citations showed up as a common pattern. Brand mentions in Reddit discussions also appeared to correlate with stronger visibility in AI answers.

It makes sense when you think about it. If AI systems are looking across the web for trusted signals, then discussions, citations, and third-party references become part of the picture. My favorite reaction to the research was a comment that basically said: "So the secret to ranking in AI is... doing SEO."

And honestly, that's not far from the truth. I've been applying a lot of these ideas with clients already. At first there was almost no AI traffic coming through. Then it started growing. There have been ups and downs along the way, but we're now seeing hundreds of visits coming directly from ChatGPT and other AI sources. The platforms are changing. The fundamentals are not.

#SEO #DigitalMarketing

I broke it down in this video. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/w2AdH58Ryz...

1 week ago | [YT] | 6