Inside the episode
From Teletext to 20 years of SEO
Is SEO dead? Nick Lima has been doing it for over 20 years, so he is the right person to ask.
He started out in travel, when adverts went in newspapers and on Teletext. When the internet turned that upside down, he taught himself HTML to get the phone ringing. Today he runs RankFresh.
Google and AI both want the same thing
AI tools like ChatGPT look across the whole web for mentions of your brand. So being talked about on podcasts, in reviews and in newsletters now matters as much as your own website.
Both Google and AI are trying to act like a helpful human. Write for people first and the machines will follow.
Put the answer first
Write down the questions your customers ask you, then answer each one. Put the answer in your first paragraph, not at the bottom.
Use clear headings and skip the jargon. Nick suggests writing as if for a 16-year-old, in the words your customers actually use.
Launch it, then make it better
Nick once had a client who started a website in June and still hadn't launched it months later. Perfection never comes.
Get it live, listen to what people click and ask, then keep improving. What you start with won't be what you have a year later, and that's the point.
