brightonSEO April 25 - Metehan Yesilyurt - Generative AI & GEO: the new SEO race and how to win

This talk is for SEO experts, consultants, leads, managers, founders and growth marketers

SEO has evolved significantly over the years; when the user first entered the field, tactics like meta keywords and backlink packages were commonplace. With the rapid advancements in AI, their approach to SEO has transformed, necessitating constant adaptation and refinement of techniques.

As tools like Perplexity, SearchGPT emerge, the landscape will shift further with new algorithms, rankings, and optimization strategies, pushing the boundaries of SEO expertise even further.

Metehan is a seasoned Growth Lead with extensive experience in SEO, recognized for driving impactful growth through AI-driven solutions. Known for his unique expertise, he consistently delivers data-backed, effective organic growth strategies.

Transcript

1. metehan.ai x.com/metehan777
2. Proud dad living in Türkiye and working as a Growth Marketing Manager. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
3. Milestones: Mid–Late 2000s Meta keywords, directories(DMOZ), keyword stuffings, no competition, all good Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
4. 2014 - 2015 “Mobilin yılı olacak, hazır mıyız?” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
5. 2014 - 2015 “Mobilin yılı olacak, hazır mıyız?” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
6. 2014 - 2015 “Mobilin yılı olacak, hazır mıyız?” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
7. “Mobilin yılı olacak, hazır mıyız?” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
8. A new blog post appeared on your RSS feed in every month SEO is dead in 2020 SEO is dead in 2021 SEO is dead in 2022 SEO is dead in 2023 SEO is dead in 2024 SEO is dead in 2025 SEO is dead in 2041 Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
9. And leaks! Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
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15. And now… What we have? We have now SearchGPT, DeepSeek, Perplexity, AI Overview Cards and others. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
16. How to win this race? Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
17. Well… It depends Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
18. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO Let’s have a look
19. So where to start? Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO Crawlability, Check server & GSC logs Crystal-clear website architecture Clear context Use advanced schema.org tags Within AI help, develop mini SEO tools Use embedding models
20. Hundreds of schema.org types/tags Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
21. Embedding models are great. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
22. Start using Google Cloud Console Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
23. A mini case study for AI Overviews Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
24. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” • Find “Search for your website” and click “Create” • In the next page make sure “Enterprise edition features” and “Advanced LLM features” selected • Fill the app and company name with your brand name • Then move forward Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
25. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
26. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP”
27. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
28. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
29. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
30. Google Cloud Discovery Engine • Go to the https://console.cloud.google.com/gen-app-builder/engines • Click to the “CREATE APP” Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
31. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
32. And here is AIO the result. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
33. Now you can • Switch Google GenAI models for discovery engine module. • See which pages are triggering the answers • See which paragraphs are triggering the answers • Compare similar pages for search queries • Start optimizing for AIO Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
34. In the 8 months; Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
35. What’s next • Google Cloud Console is a great playground for Google’s “enterprise search products” like hybrid search, vector search, discovery engine, ecommerce GenAI solutions. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
36. Do you know there is a Knowledge Graph API solution? Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
37. You can also use Cloud Natural Language API Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
38. You can also use Cloud Natural Language API Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
39. So; • Google is really great when it comes to analyze your website, content, context, extracting entities and ranking. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
40. And… Ads with cards Maps with ads Bookmarks without ads Authoritative websites Ads 6 to 8 organic results AND MORE AI OVERVIEWS ARE COMING? Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
41. FIRST X Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
42. So let’s continue with SearchGPT, Perplexity and beyond The game is changing: • Backlinks are evolving into "citations." • Context-driven content will dominate. • Programmatic SEO and bulk AI-generated content could provide significant short-term boosts. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
43. Things to consider to AI Search Engines • Prioritize AI search engine crawling bots. ◦ OAI-SearchBot: SearchGPT bot, not for training the models ◦ ChatGPT-User: Custom GPT bots, visits your website, not for training the models ◦ GPTBot: Visits your website, for training the models ◦ PerplexityBot: Visits your website, not for training the models • Check server logs • Check robots.txt, allow or disallow the bots • You can use content licence meta tags in your head tags.(Creative Commons, etc) Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
44. Log analysis matters Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
45. NLP-Friendly Writing matters Natural Language: Write in a clear, concise, and natural style. Avoid keyword stuffing or unnatural language. • Sentence Length and Structure: Vary your sentence length and structure to make your content more engaging and easier to understand. • Question-Answering: Anticipate user questions and provide clear and concise answers within your content. This aligns with how search engines are increasingly presenting information. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
46. NLP-Friendly Writing matters Example: Let's say you're writing about "increasing app engagement." • Poor: "App engagement is important. Increase app engagement. Use push notifications for app engagement." (Repetitive, lacks relationships) • Better: "To enhance app engagement (central entity), developers can leverage various strategies. Push notifications, when used thoughtfully, can remind users of the app's value and encourage interaction. Furthermore, in-app messaging can provide personalized guidance and support, fostering a stronger connection with users." (Shows relationships, uses synonyms, natural flow) Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
47. Academic citations matters • Remember *.edu links? • Try to be visible for academic citations, you can look for Facebook, X, ask your close friends • Platforms like Arxiv, Academia, and other scholar resources are important for trustworthy citations. • You can download the Common Crawl public dataset for your website. (or check at Google Console) Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
48. Press Releases and YouTube work • For the context, use your most important keywords close to your brand name in press releases • YouTube videos can work better for Google AIO and Perplexity. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
49. Press Releases and YouTube work • For the context, use your most important keywords close to your brand name in press releases • YouTube videos will work better for Google AIO and Perplexity. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
50. Hugging Face, Kaggle matters • Research platforms and groups that develop open-source LLM datasets. • Aim to get featured in these open datasets to appear in future training sets of models like OpenAI, Claude, Llama, or Ollama. • Identify leading open-source dataset communities and actively engage with them. • Contribute relevant data or expertise to these groups to increase your visibility. • Participate proactively to position your content prominently in future AI model training datasets through sponsorships or partnerships. Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO
51. THANK YOU! X: @metehan777 Bluesky: @metehan777.bsky.social LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/metehanyesilyurt GitHub: github.com/metehan777 Personal Blog: metehan.ai Metehan Yesilyurt #BrightonSEO