Jake Ward

Rank #1 in ChatGPT and AI Search: My next LIVE SEO session on 8th April. Co-Founder at Contact (and 3x SaaS companies).

I've spent 10 years in SEO and 8 years working with SaaS companies, from high-growth startups like beehiiv to billion-dollar platforms like Kajabi. Launched multiple SEO products like Byword.ai (2 weeks before ChatGPT) to scale SEO programmatically, and Mentions.so to win AI visibility. Ran high-profile experiments like the world's largest AI SEO case study, SEO speedruns, and the infamous SEO heist.

I'm leading product and SEO innovation at Contact.so across 25+ active clients and a 20-person SEO and content team. And building and growing Kleo.so to help entrepreneurs scale their personal brand and turn LinkedIn into a lead generation machine (like I have).

Most of my work today focuses on one question:

"How can SaaS companies win marketing (and SEO) in this AI era?"

Founder

We help software companies get more qualified traffic, sales and revenue through conversion-focused SEO and content marketing. Turn your blog into a 6 figure sales channel.

"I don't know how to do SEO in 2026"

Start from level 1 in The New SEO Game:

SEO isn't just Google rankings anymore.

It's now "Search Everywhere Optimisation".

Reframe your “New SEO” project as a game, and you'll become addicted to levelling up.

Level 1: Traditional SEO

- Fix technical problems killing your rankings
- Research keywords and target quick wins
- Optimise on-page elements (titles, content)
- Earn quality backlinks through outreach and PR

Level 2: AI Search Optimisation

- Format content so AI can parse it easily
- Build pages that AI platforms want to cite
- Structure information for machine consumption
- Test how your brand appears in AI search results

Level 3: Paid Search Visibility

- Run Google Ads for high-intent keywords
- Target competitor terms with YouTube Search Ads
- Capture Bing traffic through Microsoft Ads
- Measure paid performance across every platform

Level 4: LLM Answer SEO

- Produce authoritative content LLMs trust
- Build a knowledge base for AI training data
- Position your brand as the definitive source
- Monitor brand mentions in LLMs with Mentions

Level 5: Brand Authority SEO

- Get unlinked brand mentions across the web
- Feature in industry roundups and expert lists
- Build brand recognition without traditional backlinks
- Track brand mention volume and sentiment

Level 6: Community SEO

- Provide value in relevant Reddit threads
- Share expertise on Quora in your space
- Engage in Slack communities and Discord servers
- Build reputation in industry forums and groups

Level 7: Parasite SEO

- Repurpose content on Medium and LinkedIn Pulse
- Publish beehiiv newsletters to rank in Google
- Guest post on high-authority platforms/websites
- Leverage existing domain authority for quick rankings

Level 8: Platform-Specific SEO

- Optimise for Amazon search if selling products
- Focus on YouTube SEO for video content
- Master TikTok's algorithm for short-form content
- Optimise App Store listings for apps/extensions

Level 9: Topic Domination

- Own conversations across ALL channels
- Create content ecosystems to reinforce each platform
- Become the go-to expert mentioned everywhere
- Monitor and maintain authority across all channels

Completed all levels?

SEO is constantly evolving in 2026.

Stay ahead or get left behind.

PS. Need help levelling up? We'll help build and execute your “New SEO” domination strategy.

Book a call: https://www.contact.so/

SEO has been dying since 1997.

Some notable "deaths" include:

- Web 3.0
- Google Ads
- Social media
- TikTok search
- Voice assistants
- Featured snippets
- Zero-click searches
- Every Google update
- AI Overviews in Google
- GEO/AEO as the new SEO
- ChatGPT replacing Google

And now... AI agents?

Here’s the reality:

- SEO will always evolve
- People will always use search
- Search habits take time to change
- Google handles 14B+ daily searches
- Sends 190x more traffic than ChatGPT
- SEO is a $100B+ industry (growing ~12% YoY)

Even the newest "SEO killer" (GEO/AEO) is literally built on SEO fundamentals.

Richard Hoy said this in 1997:

"I’m beginning to believe that search engines are a dead-end technology and fretting over where your site comes up is a big waste of time."

Don’t be him in 2026.

SEO is very much alive.

I can’t stop thinking about this Tweet.

ChatGPT now handles over 2.5 billion queries per day and Google is eventually defaulting to "AI Mode."

This is the future of SEO.

6 tips you need to rank in AI platforms:

1. Win brand mentions

- Get your brand mentioned on high-authority websites
- Contribute to industry publications
- Be featured in news outlets
- Engage in forums and community discussions
- Encourage authentic UGC and word-of-mouth mentions

2. Build brand equity

- Monitor online reviews and brand sentiment
- Respond to feedback and address complaints
- Build a consistent, trustworthy public image
- Use tools like Mentions.so to track visibility, sentiment, and competitors

3. Be the source

- Publish authoritative, reference-style content
- Use neutral, factual, data-backed tone
- Avoid excessive personal takes or fluff
- Regularly update key content for accuracy
- Include credible citations and external data sources

4. Embrace passage-level SEO

- Structure content into short, focused paragraphs
- Use clear subheadings for logical segmentation
- Include concise, standalone answers
- Avoid burying insights in long text block
- Add structured data (e.g. schema markup)
- Make each paragraph extractable and cite-ready

5. Cover the conversation

- Use tools like Semrush for question research
- Monitor forums/socials for emerging questions
- Identify and answer sub-questions users ask
- Add relevant FAQs and support content
- Internally link related topic clusters

6. Optimise for crawlability

- Ensure AI crawlers are allowed in robots.txt
- Verify CDN settings aren't blocking crawlers
- Submit up-to-date XML sitemaps in GSC
- Optimise for fast page speed and clean HTML
- Review server logs for GPTBot, BingBot, etc. behaviour

But first, start with an audit:

- Your current visibility across all LLMs
- Prompt and content gaps vs your competitors
- Technical issues preventing AI from citing your site

Use a tool like Mentions.so to find this information.

Don’t regret not starting AI SEO sooner.

SaaS SEO in 2026: Join my (free) LIVE session on 4th March. Co-Founder and Head of Strategy & Innovation at Contact (and 3x SaaS companies).

A single "Competitor Alternatives" blog post made $1M+ in revenue for my SaaS client over 3 years.

They are ALWAYS the highest converting articles.

Alternative articles help users discover a better alternative (i.e. your product) to what they're currently using or considering buying.

For example:

You might target the following keywords if you're a team communication platform.

- Microsoft Teams Alternatives
- Discord Alternatives
- Slack Alternatives

= 16.5K/mo Google searches

These searchers are the most ready-to-buy AND they’re highly cited by LLMs once ranking in Google.

Here’s how to write your own:

PS. I’m hosting my very first SaaS SEO in 2026 LIVE session on March 4th. Register for free: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

I built 13,000+ pages with AI in 3 hours and grew my SEO traffic by +466% 60 days later.

- No template spam
- No city-name swaps
- No thin AI content

Instead, I built a system where content isn’t written page by page...

It’s built like software.

13,000+ useful pages generated in under 3 hours.

Weekly organic clicks went from 971 to 5,500 (~50% of pages aren't even indexed yet).

And the curve is still going up.

Read my LinkedIn article below:

60 days ago, the pages driving most of our SEO traffic didn't exist. Today: 13,000+ programmatic pages live Weekly organic clicks went from 971 to 5,5

Open article: Programmatic SEO in 2026: How I built 13,000+ pages in 3 hours and grew SEO traffic +466% in 60 days by Jake Ward • 9 min read

Programmatic SEO in 2026: How I built 13,000+ pages in 3 hours and grew SEO traffic +466% in 60 days

I just built SEO strategies for beehiiv and Kleo.

A ~$300M newsletter platform and my own 7-figure SaaS we launched 43 days ago.

(Sadly I didn't make this pic with Tyler Denk)

Completely different products, audiences, and business stages. But I'm using the same playbook.

SaaS SEO in 2026 isn't what it was 2-3 years ago.

The old playbook:

- Target high volume keywords
- Build comparison pages
- Rank in Google and get clicks

But in 2026:

1. Search is as fragmented as ever across Google, LLMs, socials, and other platforms.

2. Even if you rank, SERPs are busy with AI Overviews and ads making position 1 less valuable.

3. Zero-click searches mean AI is answering queries before any clicks to your website.

4. AI has commoditised average content and the quality bar is much higher.

I'm breaking down how I built the strategies for beehiiv and Kleo in a live session tomorrow at 12PM EST.

You'll see:

- What 20% of SEO to focus on in 2026
- How to rank across Google AND AI platforms
- The exact playbook for turning SEO into revenue

Register for free: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

PS. The next 20 SaaS companies that register and comment below get a free AI visibility report from my team (normally only for our clients like beehiiv).

I've been doing SEO for 10 years and AI search is making me rethink everything I know, here are 10 changes I’m seeing:

PS. Join my (free) SaaS SEO in 2026 live session on Wednesday, March 4th @ 12pm EST.

Add it to your calendar: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

SEO vs AI SEO/AEO/GEO...

The Vye experience delivers Uncommon Creativity—a fresh alternative to traditional marketing, that joins technology, data, and creativity. Vye, along with our clients, are united around our mission to redefine marketing as a measurable, growth investment. 

Our expertise in inbound marketing has earned us Diamond HubSpot Partner status, and the trust and partnership of dozens of B2B clients across the Midwest. Our curious, analytical, and adaptive team members work their magic from offices in downtown St. Cloud, Minn., and in the Railyard District of Green Bay, Wis. Vye, launched in August 2020, is formerly Leighton Interactive (founded in 2009). Vye rhymes with why.

Director of Digital Marketing

Parallax

As digital services and software companies grow, fractured data and disconnected tools keep teams from seeing performance across the business. Parallax delivers a technologically integrated and analytically-driven perspective and enables best practices to optimize operations, improve margins, and fuel business growth.

Marketing + Community + Events Manager | B2B Digital Marketing, Community Development, Partnerships

Lone Fir Creative

Director Of Operations/Senior Marketing Consultant | Marketing Strategy + Agency Operations

Lone Fir Creative is a team of business-minded creatives that understand marketing as a means to an end — hitting ambitious revenue targets and growing brands. We use a systematic approach to identify where you’re losing leads and implement a strategy to improve your customer journey so you can convert more customers. Simultaneously, as a HubSpot Partner Agency, we can help you dig deeper into what this powerful tool can do for your marketing, sales and customer service teams.

Marketing Consultant | Marketing Strategy, Account Management, Multi-Channel Strategy

Good Joo Joo

Marketing Automation Specialist | Email Marketing, PPC and Paid Social Strategy + Management

Skillcrush

Marketing Operations Assistant | HubSpot Email Marketing and Automation, B2C Marketing

Remote Year

* Laid off due to company financial hardship along with 30+ team members

Brand Ambassador Coordinator | Affiliate Marketing and Strategy Implementation, Event Management

ZLINE Kitchen and Bath

Project Manager | Paid and Organic Social Strategy + Budget Management

Tesla

Recruiting Coordinator

West Texas A&M University

Administrative Assistant

Overlake Hospital

Patient Unit Access Coordinator

Marketing, Community, and Events @ Parallax

Hey there 👋 thanks for stopping by!

You won't find a lengthy about me, just a short list of the things that keep my world running:

🔹 Operations (finance, operational efficiency and process improvement, and then some)
🔹 Marketing (crafting unique stories for brands, developing campaigns that kickass, and keeping up with the latest in AI)
🔹 A hot cup of coffee (that may or may not be consumed slowly throughout the day)
🔹 My husband and dogs (bless their hearts for being the steady support system they are)
🔹 Long walks (not always on beaches but usually with dogs in tow)
🔹 A good book (2024 goal is to read 2 books/per month)

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The Battle

Jake Ward

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Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

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