Founder of StrategyBreakdowns.com

TLDR: Worked in strategy consulting → Joined strategy team at Atlassian → Started writing strategy case studies → People liked them, so I left my job and went full-timeCheck it out → StrategyBreakdowns.comWe partner with companies like Atlassian, Notion, Intercom, Hubspot, Miro, Vanta, Clay, Mixpanel, and Ahrefs to reach 110k+ tech decision-makers. Click here to explore sponsorships → passionfroot.me/strategybreakdowns

Tom Alder

Apple makes $1 billion+ per year selling adaptors:

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👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

The average enterprise employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings.

That's almost a full work week. 
Every single month. 
Gone.

And yet - meetings aren't the problem. BAD meetings are the problem.

The best hybrid teams i've seen don't have fewer meetings. 
→ They have better workflows that make every interaction count.

I genuinely think something's shifted in how teams think about productivity.

It used to be about individual output - more hours, more tasks, more hustle.

Now it's about connection quality and output. How seamlessly can 50 people across 12 timezones actually collaborate without losing their minds?

The companies figuring this out are pulling ahead. The ones still optimising for "busy" are falling behind.

--

Zoom is running a free summit on exactly this: how to make collaboration seamless across teams, locations, and timezones.

Feb 24 (EMEA) / Feb 25 (APAC)

If you're leading digital transformation, IT, or workplace strategy at a large org - worth grabbing a spot.

Register here: → https://zm.me/49SCY8r

#ad in partnership with the legends Zoom

Jamming with Rob Hoffman, Lara Acosta, and Tyler Denk 🐝 about our plans for 2026:

A few topics we discussed -

1. The reality of building while traveling the world.
2. Why vlogging is coming back for founders.
3. The timeless psychology of waitlists.
4. The bootstrapped AI SaaS paradigm.
5. Solopreneurship vs small vs big teams.

Honestly so refreshing to get new perspectives on things I’m actively wrestling with.
Also funny to see how the same decisions / problems / strategies resurface in peculiar ways, in such different contexts.

Would highly recommend following what these folks are up to if you haven’t already!

Rob and Lara are building Kleo.
Tyler is building beehiiv.

Incredible businesses powering many of the world's top creators and founders.

Feeling inspired. Let's build.

Every company spent the last 20 years building customer support processes that make people want to hang up.

Press 1 for billing. 
Press 2 for support. 
Press 3 to scream into the void.

Then came the "AI upgrade" - which mostly just replaced the robotic menu with a robotic voice.

Same frustration, different wrapper.

Here's what's actually changing now:
ElevenLabs just shipped Expressive Mode in their Agents platform.

The demo is WILD (video below). 

The agents don't just listen to what you say. 
They detect HOW you say it.

Tone.
Pitch. 
Pacing. 
Humour.
Feelings.

And they respond with the right delivery - using cue cards like [reassuring], [apologetic], and [enthusiastic] to match the moment.

Frustrated caller? The agent shifts to calm de-escalation.
Excited prospect? It matches the energy.
Confused customer? It slows down.

Previously, agent emotion was shaped entirely through voice selection and system prompts. Static. One-size-fits-all.
Now it's dynamic and contextual. Across 70+ languages (up from 32).
The turn-taking is different too. Their new transcription model captures intent and emotional cues so the agent times responses more like a human would.
The result: customers feel helped, not processed.
That's the gap most people miss about voice AI. The technology was never the bottleneck.

The emotional intelligence was.

Link to try below 👇

#ad #ElevenAgentsPartner

Every AI tool you've used in the last 2 years has the same interface:

A text box with a blinking cursor.

Quarterzip threw it away entirely.

Instead of building another chat wrapper, they built an AI that watches your screen share and guides you visually - like having a colleague sit next to you and point at things.

No SDK installation. 
No browser extension. 
No IT approval ticket.

Just a picture-in-picture window that sees everything you see. Any tool, any tab, any workflow.

Picture this:
- You’re onboarding to a new tool
- You brace yourself for a barrage of forgettable tooltips and painful ‘educational’ flows
- Instead, you click ‘Start Onboarding’ and you’re prompted to share your screen
- You share, and you’re placed directly in the app, with a helpful AI assistant in the corner that sees everything you see
- It’s trained on the help docs, all past onboarding calls, and can guide you through the journey whilst answering any question you might have along the way

They launched a week ago. Already running hundreds of AI-powered onboarding sessions a day with Apollo and Grab.

And the growth loop is elegant - every person who gets onboarded through Quarterzip sees the brand sitting inside the PIP window.

Product usage drives distribution.

I broke down the full strategy in this week's newsletter (link in the comments)

On July 7th, 2025, I added another SaaS idea to the pile:
A Chrome extension. SimilarWeb for builders. Traffic, revenue signals, founder socials, ads - all in a sidebar you can trigger when you visit any company's website.

A 9-bullet sketch of something I'd personally use a dozen times a day, if it existed.

Nothing came of it. Got buried under many more (half-baked) ideas.

Fast-forward 6 months.
The Figma team reached out about a partnership.
They wanted me to try their new prompt-to-app AI tool, Figma Make.

I mulled over the angle for a while, then realised I had the perfect test case.
Could I take a 6-month-old idea that had never left the notes app and turn it into a fully interactive, clickable product prototype? Without writing a single line of code? Without opening a design tool?

The pipeline I came up with:
→ 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (raw idea, 9 bullet points) 
→ 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲 + 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗿 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 (interview to flesh it into a full PRD) 
→ 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 (PRD in, interactive prototype out)

One sitting later, I had my answer.
Here’s how it went down (link in the comments 👇)

Most newsletter sponsors get a terrible ROI.

All because they're advertising to the wrong readers.

Here's the thing about audience quality that most marketers miss:

1/ You need readers who make decisions.

This is the #1 mistake I see. Advertising to e.g. 1 million people containing 1k decision-makers, rather than 100k people containing 50k decision-makers.

71% of Strategy Breakdowns readers have meaningful influence over budget and procurement decisions at their company.

You need to get in front of the actual people who sign off on the tools, platforms, and services their teams use.

2/ Open rate is a proxy for trust.

Industry average open-rate is under 40%. Strategy Breakdowns sits at 55%, while earning the trust of 110,000 readers every week. Our sponsors inherit that trust.

3/ Niche is more efficient than broad.

A 110,000-person list of senior strategy and tech leaders doesn’t just contain *more* decision-makers than 500,000-person general business list - it is also costs less to advertise in. The signal-to-noise ratio is what makes our campaigns so efficient for sponsors looking to allocate their marketing budgets strategically.

4/ The seniority and industry breakdown matters.

- 30% Founder / C-level
- 20% VP / Director
- 40% Senior / Manager

Tech, consulting, and finance make up ~80% of our audience. I mean, these are literally the buyers.

5/ One ad isn't a campaign.

The sponsors who see the best results run 4 touchpoints minimum. Decision-makers don't act on first exposure, especially at this seniority level. (Honestly, when was the last time you saw a $100/mo tool for the first time and immediately pulled out a corporate card?) Plus, you need to test, learn, and iterate based on the data from each ad run.

6/ We treat it like a partnership (but actually).

Ad copy collaboration, custom AI tools we’ve built for partners, full 7-day and 14-day performance reports with 100% of the data we have available, ongoing input to optimise the campaign. Nearly every sponsor I work with (Atlassian, Vanta, Clay, Attio, Ahrefs, etc) comes back multiple times. 

Probably the thing I’m most proud of.

We have just 2 slots left before prices go up for Q2.

If your product is built for founders, PMs, engineers, or operators in tech - link to our full media kit in the comments 👇

How many DMs do you send per week on LinkedIn?

Connor Gillivan

Scaling my 4 B2B companies w/ SEO. Daily posts about the process. 7x Founder (Exit in 2019).

Hey hey! Thanks for stopping by my profile. Here's a quick tl;dr: 

I've been an entrepreneur since 2009. I've scaled multiple businesses to 6, 7, & 8 figures in ARR and I exited one, FreeUp, in 2019. Today, I run a portfolio of companies, teach SEO, and scale B2B and SaaS businesses with SEO.

A little bit more about me:

Over the last decade, I've built 5 businesses to 6, 7, & 8 figures in yearly revenue. 

In 2019, I exited one of them, FreeUp, to The HOTH after 4 years of growth to 40+ team members and $12M+ in ARR.

Today, I'm building a portfolio of 10+ B2B companies. 

→ TrioSEO: SEO growth services for B2B and SaaS businesses. 
→ Outsource School: Teaching business owners how to build affordable teams in the Philippines.
→ EcomBalance: Monthly bookkeeping for eCommerce companies.
→ AccountsBalance: Bookkeeping for agencies, SAAS, and service providers. 
→ ConnorGillivan.com: Teaching SEO & marketing strategies, processes, & know-how. 
→ HG Media: Social media growth agency for LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Youtube, and more.

My business partner is Nathan Hirsch. We met in college and have been working together ever since.

Our mission is to build businesses in areas where we struggled while growing our first companies and we wished there had been better solutions...hiring, outsourcing, bookkeeping, accounting, billing, legal, SEO, growth, etc. 

If you need help growing your business, I'd love to help. Here's how...

TRIOSEO

I'll work with you on keyword research, building an SEO content plan, writing SEO content, and publishing it on your website to drive more organic traffic, leads, and revenue. 

→ Get an SEO Audit here: https://trioseo.com/audit

THE SEO SYSTEM

In this 4 hour video course, I'll teach you the 4 Pillars of SEO and give you my exact SOPs that I've used to scale multiple companies to millions in ARR with SEO. Packed with value and loved by hundreds. 

→ Purchase Access: https://connorgillivan.com/seo

BOOKKEEPING & OUTSOURCING

Need help with your bookkeeping? Or hiring a virtual assistant? I've got you covered. Get a Pricing Quote for our monthly bookkeeping services. And check out the exact Hiring System we've used to build remote teams for our companies.  

→ Go here: https://ecombalance.com and here: https://outsourceschool.com

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. 

I'm committed every day to making SEO & marketing simpler for millions. 

See you out there!

Best,
Connor

Email: Connor@ConnorGillivan.com

Founder and Owner

ConnorGillivan.com is the home to my personal brand where I make SEO simpler for millions. It hosts my weekly newsletter, The Savvy SEO, and my SEO course, The SEO System. Come learn SEO from my 10+ years of experience scaling my own companies to 6, 7, and 8 figures with an exit in 2019.

My ChatGPT Ranking Cheat Sheet:

(How I rank my business on ChatGPT for traffic & leads)

Founder: "How do I rank on ChatGPT?" 
Me: "It boils down to AUTHORITY & PRESENCE. Let me explain:"

ChatGPT and LLMs rely on the Internet to make "inferences" to your questions. 

If you ask it, "What's the best B2B SEO service online?", it's going to scour the Internet for data specific to that topic. 

Then it compiles that data, parses it, and spits out their best judgement. 

Here's a WINNING Strategy to Follow: 

#1: Prompt Research

- Brainstorm a list of prompts your ICP is asking ChatGPT. 
- Ask ChatGPT to come up with similar prompts. 
- Search them and see what's provided. 

#2: Results Analysis 

- Analyze the answers and who's being mentioned. 
- Search similar queries on Google & see what's ranking. 
- Find content ideas & "best of lists" to get added to. 

#3: Create Content

- Create new Service pages & blog content. 
- "Steal" from competitors ranking top of ChatGPT & Google.
- Replicate content they have, but make it your own & better. 
- Publish the content on social media & tag your brand. 

#4: Build Authority 

- Reach out to "best of lists" & pitch to get yourself included. 
- Write your own "best of lists" to get them ranking on Google.
- Build high DR backlinks to create "authority" for your brand. 

#5: Track Results

- Every 2-4 weeks, search the prompts on ChatGPT again. 
- Take note of changes to the results & look for your brand. 
- Repeat for 3-6 months until you're ranking on ChatGPT.

Ranking on LLMs & ChatGPT comes back to SEO. 

You won't "magically" rank on ChatGPT w/out content & authority. 

I dare you to try. 

---

What you think? 

♻️ REPOST if you found this useful. 

P.S. I talk about AI's impact on SEO & marketing every week. Follow me for more.

Connor  Gillivan

I scale companies w/ SEO & content. Book a call & let's talk SEO. 7x Founder (Exit in 2019).

My ChatGPT Cheat Sheet for SEO Backlinks:

(How I use ChatGPT to help in building backlinks.) 

I've found that ChatGPT is best for ideation. 

When you're stuck, it helps you through. 

- Ideas for better HARO answers
- Processes to analyze competition
- Backlink strategies I didn't know
- Email templates for outreach
- Local backlink ideas to build
- Digital PR story inspiration

Building backlinks isn't easy. 

ChatGPT doesn't do it for you. 

But man is it a great sparring partner. 

Don't underestimate it. 

& find ways to incorporate it. 

It'll feel weird at first, but then you'll love it. 

---

You agree with me? 

Repost ♻️ if you think it will help others.

P.S. I drop a weekly newsletter every Sunday. Tomorrow, I'm sharing insights on building an SEO strategy. Grab a copy: https://lnkd.in/gs3iPKMA

My Proven SEO Keyword Research Cheat Sheet:

(7 steps to DOMINATE keyword research in 2026)

1/ Brainstorm like your ICP
2/ Analyze KD & Volume
3/ Look at "Suggested" Keywords 
4/ Steal from your competitors
5/ Shortlist 100+ Keywords
6/ Label Intent & Prioritize
7/ Repeat Quarterly

---

Keyword research is the backbone of your SEO. 

It will make or break whether you rank top of Google. 

AND whether you'll rank in ChatGPT and LLMs.

Don't overlook it bc you don't know how. 

Follow my proven SOP & start dominating.

---

Find this helpful? 

♻️ REPOST so others can learn too. 

P.S. My company, TrioSEO, will take keyword research off your plate. And form an unbreakable SEO strategy. Download my SEO eBook to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

My Technical SEO Checklist to Rank on Google & LLMs (no tech skills needed):  

Technical SEO is just “making it easy for bots to crawl, understand, and trust your site.”

If you can click around in WordPress, Wix, Webflow, or Shopify, you can do 80% of it.

1/ Make sure Google can index you

- Google “site:yourdomain.com” and see pages show up
- In Google Search Console, check Indexing → Pages for errors
- If pages aren’t showing, they may be “noindexed” accidentally

2/ Submit your sitemap

- In your SEO plugin, find your sitemap URL (usually /sitemap.xml)
- Add it in Search Console → Sitemaps
- This helps Google find new pages faster

3/ Fix broken pages and redirects

- Install a broken link checker plugin or use a free crawler tool
- Redirect old URLs to the closest matching new page
- Don’t leave 404s for money pages or top traffic posts

4/ Get your titles + meta descriptions under control

- Every important page needs a unique title tag
- Include the main keyword, keep it readable
- Write a meta description that matches search intent

5/ Make your site fast enough

- Run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage + a blog post
- Compress images (biggest easy win)
- Use caching and remove bloated plugins/apps

6/ Make your site mobile-friendly

- Check your pages on your phone
- Fix text that’s too small and buttons too close
- Make sure menus and forms work cleanly

7/ Clean up your URL structure

- Use short, clear URLs: /service-name/ not /p=123/
- Avoid dates unless news-based content
- Keep one “canonical” version (no duplicates)

8/ Add internal links like a librarian

- Link from related posts → your main money pages
- Add 3–5 internal links on every new post
- Use descriptive anchor text, not “click here”

9/ Add basic schema (no coding)

- Turn on FAQ schema for FAQs (only if visible on page)
- Use Organization/Website schema via your SEO plugin
- This helps search engines + LLMs understand entities

10/ Make your pages easy for LLMs to extract

- Use clear headings (H2s that match questions people ask)
- Add a quick TL;DR and definitions near the top
- Use bullet lists, steps, and short sections

---

Most people overthink technical SEO.

You don’t need perfection, you need clean basics.

Speed, indexability, and clarity beat fancy tricks.

Do this once, then maintain monthly.

Technical SEO is reputation insurance for your site.

---

Whatcha think?

Repost ♻️ to help others learn too.

P.S. Do you want more LEADS from your SEO? I have the solution. Read the entire SOP here: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

Top 21 SEO Creators Helping You Rank on ChatGPT & LLMs:

1. Aleyda Solís
2. Jake Ward 
3. Anna York 
4. Louis Smith 
5. Lily Ray 
6. Sarvesh Shrivastava 
7. Artur Perrella Glukhovskyy
8. Steven Schneider 
9. Connor  Gillivan 
10. Ume Laila 
11. Britney Muller
12. Tom Winter 
13. Amanpreet Singh 
14. Liam Quirk 
15. Nick Zviadadze 
16. Jairo Guerrero 
17. Fery Kaszoni 
18. Nick Eubanks 
19. Brodie Clark
20. Neil Patel
21. Rob Hoffman 

---

You learning from this squad yet?

♻️ REPOST if you're interested in what GEO is becoming. 

P.S. GEO is rapidly evolving. SEO is becoming more about LEADS than traffic. Read my "SEO Lead Magnet Project" ebook here: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

P.P.S. Want to chat about your GEO w/ me? Book a call: https://lnkd.in/gYccSVY8

SEO teams don’t have a data problem.

They have a decision-speed problem.

Most teams sit on incredible data.

They just can’t access it fast enough when it matters.

Board asks:
“Why did traffic drop?”

CMO asks:
“Where are competitors gaining ground?”

Content team asks:
“What should we build next?”

And someone has to go:
“Give me 30 minutes.”

That’s the old workflow.

Semrush MCP inside Semrush One quietly changes this.

Instead of navigating dashboards,
you prompt the question directly.

Here’s how I think about it.

1. Stop navigating and start asking
→ “Show me keywords competitors rank for that we don’t”
→ “Find pages that lost positions in the last 30 days”

2. MCP pulls structured Semrush data
→ Live keyword datasets
→ Position changes
→ Competitive domain gaps

3. Get analysis-ready outputs
→ Tables, rankings, clear comparisons
→ Turn answers into action immediately
→ Adjust content briefs, update internal pages

The shift is subtle but important.

SEO used to be:
Pull data → Analyze → Decide.

Now it’s:
Ask → Decide.

That compression matters at scale.

Especially for agencies.
Especially for in-house teams reporting up.
Especially when time-to-decision is a competitive advantage.

Semrush didn’t just add another feature.

They reduced friction between question and insight.
And in SEO, speed compounds.

Start with Semrush MCP with Semrush One here: https://bit.ly/4kr4jlM

♻️ Repost if you think SEO tools should help you think faster, not click more.

P.S. I'm Connor Gillivan. Follow me for daily SEO tips & SOPs.

(Thanks to Semrush for teaming up w/ me on this post)

How to win the modern SEO game

My ChatGPT Cheat Sheet for Digital Marketing (40 Free Prompts):

Prompts to apply TODAY for your marketing:

1/ Content Marketing Strategy
2/ Social Media Marketing
3/ SEO & Web Traffic
4/ Email Marketing
5/ PPC Advertising
6/ Analytics & Reporting
7/ Marketing Automation
8/ Content Personalization

---

Digital marketing isn’t a guessing game...it’s a system.

Smart marketers don’t work harder, they work smarter.

This cheat sheet is your shortcut to great results.

Master these prompts, dominate your strategy.

Start marketing like it's 2026. 

---

What would you add? 

Repost ♻️ to help others work smarter too. 

P.S. I am Connor Gillivan. Follow me for SEO, Marketing, & AI advice.

The Anatomy of a Winning SEO Campaign: 

No, it's not just "blogging". 

In 2026, it's comprehensive. 

1/ Technical SEO

First, you set a foundation for success.

- Optimize speed
- Robots.txt
- Mobile optimized
- Modern UX + design
- URL structure
- Use of CDN
- HTTPS set up
- Schema markup
- Redirect rules

2/ Link Building

Second, you build trust w/ Google. 

- Partnerships
- Custom outreach
- HARO + Featured
- Podcasts
- Guest articles
- Digital PR
- 30+ DR
- 1,000+ traffic
- 10+ backlinks/mo
- Linkable assets
- Directories
- Expert Quotes
- Anchor text

3/ SEO Content

Third, you write content to attract your ICP. 

- Keyword research
- BoFu vs MoFu vs ToFu
- 90 Day Content Plans
- Specialized Writers
- SERP Research
- Competitor Analysis
- In-depth Outlines
- Editing + Optimization
- Internal linking
- CTAs in content
- Images + Videos
- Infographics
- Monthly analytics
- Keyword tracking
- Content upgrades
- Measuring RoT
- Calculators + Tools
- Easy to read + nav

---

Are you winning in SEO? 

♻️ REPOST if this made you think.

👋  Speak with me about your SEO: https://lnkd.in/gYccSVY8

What is EEAT? Is it still important for SEO in 2026? 

Yes, more important than ever. Let me explain: 

E = Expertise
• Google wants subject-matter experts, not surface-level summaries.
• LLMs reference creators with deep topical footprints.
• If you can’t prove expertise, search engines will sniff it out.

E = Experience
• First-hand stories, real examples, behind-the-scenes details.
• AI can’t fake lived experience (yet). Humans still win.
• Google and ChatGPT both trust content tied to real operators.

A = Authoritativeness
• Backlinks, mentions, citations, and recognition in your niche.
• The more others reference you, the more LLMs surface you.
• Authority compounds. It's a MUST in today's search.

T = Trustworthiness
• Clean design, transparent authorship, sources, accuracy.
• Google penalizes low-trust pages. It's just a fact.
• LLMs reduce hallucinations by leaning on trusted publishers.

Why It Matters More in 2026:
• AI writing flooded the internet with low-quality noise.
• Google shifts ranking weight to real expertise signals.
• ChatGPT & other LLMs cite brands & creators they trust most.
• Your E-E-A-T becomes your competitive moat.

---

AI didn’t kill SEO...it raised the bar.

Real operators stand out more than ever.

E-E-A-T is your brand identity online.

Invest in it now. It's KEY to search success.

---

Agree or disagree?

Repost ♻️+ Follow me for daily takes on SEO & GEO

P.S. I drive SEO traffic and leads for fast-growing brands. Steal my SOP on how I do it: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

10 AI courses every founder should take (all free):

(Full credit to Matt Gray on this one. I hit SAVE immediately & had to share!) 

1. AI Essentials - Harvard Introduction

Start here if you're completely new.

Covers the fundamentals without overwhelming technical jargon.

You'll understand what AI can and can't do for your business.

Most founders skip this and make expensive mistakes.

2. ChatGPT Mastery - Advanced Prompting

Beyond basic prompts.

Learn the frameworks that turn AI from a toy into a business weapon.

I use the techniques from this course to generate $100,000+ monthly with AI content.

3. Google AI Magic - Business Applications

How Google thinks about AI implementation.

Covers practical applications for search, advertising, and customer insights.

Perfect for understanding AI's role in marketing and operations.

4. Microsoft AI Basics - Enterprise Perspective

Learn from the company that invested $10 billion in OpenAI.

Focuses on business integration and scaling challenges.

Essential for founders planning enterprise-level AI implementation.

5. Prompt Engineering Pro - Technical Deep Dive

The advanced course that separates amateurs from pros.

Learn to craft prompts that consistently produce business-grade results.

6. Machine Learning by Harvard - Strategic Foundation

Don't just use AI - understand how it works.

Helps you make intelligent decisions about custom AI development and vendor selection.

7. Language Models by LangChain - Development Framework

For founders considering custom AI applications.

Teaches you to evaluate technical partnerships and development costs.

8. Generative AI by Microsoft - Creative Applications

How to use AI for content, design, and creative problem-solving.

Perfect for personal brand builders and content entrepreneurs.

9. AWS AI Foundations - Infrastructure Understanding

Learn the technical infrastructure behind AI applications.

Helps you make smart decisions about hosting, scaling, and costs.

10. AI for Everyone - Strategic Overview

The big picture course that ties everything together.

How AI fits into business strategy, team building, and competitive positioning.

__

Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Matt Gray for more.

Want to learn how to future-proof your founder brand with AI systems?

Get my free AI course that shows you the systems that helped me scale my businesses with AI automation: https://lnkd.in/g9MPKpyv

AI won't replace SEO. But you MUST learn how to use it. Here's 5 AI + SEO examples: 

1/ AI for Keyword Research

- Use AI to expand seed keywords into 100+ variations.
- Identify high, medium, and low intent faster.
- Validate with tools like Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner.
- Resource: https://lnkd.in/gJGyj_2g

2/ AI for Content Outlines

- Analyze top ranking pages in seconds.
- Generate H1s, H2s, FAQs, and “People Also Ask” ideas.
- Build drafts that align with search intent.
- Resource: https://lnkd.in/gKdQx2Bc

3/ AI for Keyword Clustering

- Group related keywords into topic clusters fast.
- Identify pillar pages and supporting blog content.
- Build stronger internal linking structures.
- Resource: https://lnkd.in/guYp-aDT

4/ AI for Optimization

- Refresh posts ranking 5–20.
- Add missing entities, FAQs, and internal links.
- Improve CTR with better titles and meta descriptions.
- Resource: https://lnkd.in/gkFJKdzb

5/ AI for Repurposing

- Turn blogs into LinkedIn posts, threads, emails.
- Extract snippets for short form content.
- Multiply distribution without rewriting from scratch.
- Resource: https://lnkd.in/gyT5-ui6

---

I still don't recommend using AI to write your content. 

But I absolutely encourage you to use it for other areas of SEO. 

AI tooling is becoming too smart to ignore. 

If you're not using AI somewhere in SEO, you're showing your age. 

Adjust to the times and level up with AI. 

---

Find this useful?

Repost ♻️ to help others learn too.

P.S. Want my guide on using AI to create SEO Lead Magnets? Download it here: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

My SEO Internal Linking Strategy:

Most websites treat internal linking like an afterthought.

That's not the way to gain likeness w/ Google & ChatGPT. 

1/ Map Your Topical Hubs
• Create 3–5 core hubs around your main offers.
• Each hub gets 10–20 supporting articles.
• Google sees topical authority. ChatGPT sees depth.

2/ Use 1 Clear Primary Link Per Post
• Every article should push authority to ONE key page.
• No guessing. No clutter. Decide and link.
• Helps Google and LLMs understand hierarchy.

3/ Add 3–5 Contextual Links Naturally
• Place them inside the content, not just at the bottom.
• Anchor text should match search intent, not exact-match spam.
• LLMs use these connections to learn how concepts relate.

4/ Link “Up, Down, and Across”
• Up = link to your hub page.
• Down = link to deep, niche articles.
• Across = link between related articles.
• Google crawls deeper. ChatGPT builds a knowledge graph.

5/ Refresh Links Every 6 Months
• Update old posts with new internal links to fresh content.
• Keeps your whole site “alive” in Google’s eyes.
• LLMs benefit from a fully connected content ecosystem.

6/ Prioritize High-Intent Pages
• Link aggressively to service pages, comparison posts, and category pages.
• Drives conversions and strengthens the pages you actually want ranking.
• ChatGPT tends to surface pages that have clear depth and strong relationships.

---

Internal links are your quietest SEO power move.

Few people do them consistently.

They compound over years, not weeks.

The more connected your site is, the harder it is to beat.

---

What did I miss?

Repost ♻️ to help others master internal linking as well. 

P.S. Want to turn more SEO traffic into real leads? Download my SEO Lead Magnet SOP ebook: https://lnkd.in/gJ8pJ7dz

Which is best? SEO vs Ads vs Email:

Let's break each down...

SEO:

- Cost effective long term
- Drives organic traffic
- Depends on Google
- Higher conversions
- Long term investment
- Helps rank on ChatGPT
- In a phase of transformation

Ads:

- Costs for every click
- Paid traffic in search 
- Paid traffic from social
- Pay until you stop
- High CRO potential
- Targeting is unique
- Works then doesn't

Email Marketing:

- Low cost, high ROI
- Turns traffic to leads
- Turns leads to revenue
- Full control over it
- Fast acting (if done right)
- Takes time to build list
- Fighting w/ lots of noise

---

I'd rank them:

1) SEO
2) Ads
3) Email

SEO still takes the crown. 

When done right, it drives leads for years. 

I used to be an ads "hater", but that's changed. 

I now get 100s of leads from it every month. 

It's a great complement to SEO for instant leads. 

Then email nurtures & warms leads up. 

It's very much a symbiotic relationship..

....when you execute it properly. 

---

What's your favorite? Post it below. 

♻️ REPOST to encourage this conversation. 

P.S. Follow me + slap my 🔔 for daily Marketing tips & advice.

Your competitors are ranking on ChatGPT.

You're not and you don't even know why.

Most founders have zero clue who's winning in AI search results.

No visibility into which prompts matter. 

No idea what content is getting cited.

Semrush One is built for this shift.

It unifies traditional SEO + AI search visibility in one place.

And the AI Visibility Toolkit shows where AI platforms mention your competitors, but not you.

Here’s my competitor gap workflow for AI search:

1/ Start in Competitor Research
→ Benchmark visibility vs your actual AI competitors
→ Filter by platform (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode)

2/ Find topic gaps first
→ Use the Topics & Prompts section
→ Apply the Missing filter to see where competitors appear and you don’t

3/ Drop to prompt-level gaps
→ Switch to Prompt view
→ Pull the exact questions users ask where you’re absent

4/ Identify citation gaps
→ Open the Sources tab
→ Use Missing to find domains cited for competitors but not you

5/ Track the fixes
→ Add the highest-value prompts to Prompt Tracking
→ Watch daily movement after updates

This is the shift.

Not “rank higher.”

Get mentioned where AI is answering.

The brands winning in AI search aren't doing anything magical. 

They have structured content, clear answers, and authority. 

The brands losing don't even know what prompts to track.

I use Semrush One to run this process. 

It tracks AI visibility, prompt mentions, competitor gaps, and sentiment across LLMs. 

All in one dashboard alongside traditional SEO. 

It's become essential for how I do competitive analysis in 2026.

Try Semrush one for Free here: https://bit.ly/473eyr0

---

What you think? 

♻️ Repost if you think this can help someone stay ahead of AI search.

P.S. I talk about AI's impact on SEO & marketing every week. Follow me for more.  

#Semrushpartner

This cold email is satisfying on multiple levels.

Not because of the copy.

Because of the proof.

Here is the context:

Warmy sent me this email.

It landed in my primary inbox.

Not promotions. Not spam. Primary.

That is their entire product in action.

Think about that for a second.

The email itself is the case study.

No PDF needed. No testimonial screenshot.

Just open your inbox and see it working.

Here is what makes this smart:
1/ The value prop is proven before you read it.
2/ The messaging is simple and direct.
3/ It reframes what cold email can be.

Cold email has a bad reputation for a reason.

Most of it is noise that never gets seen.

Warmy makes sure yours actually arrives.

This is one of the smartest product demos I have seen. No call needed.

♻️ Repost if this made you rethink your cold email setup.

P.S. Check out Warmy
here: https://lnkd.in/gheuYKEc

taplio

The Battle

Tom Alder

Connor Gillivan

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taplio

The Battle

Tom Alder

Connor Gillivan

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);}Tom Alder's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreConnor Gillivan's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreTom Alder's LinkedIn Performance