Human-Centric Content Foundation for Search Success

Key Quotes

"To me, and I think Google might be thinking this way too, this whole AEO, GEO, LMAPEO, whatever it is that people are thinking about, 'I need to do for AI format search engines or chat formats or whatever you want to call it,' to me, I'm defining those as a subset of SEO. Those are things that people still use to search."

John Mueller explains that emerging search formats like AI-driven or chat-based search are not entirely new concepts but rather extensions of existing search engine optimization (SEO) principles. Mueller categorizes these new formats as subsets of SEO, emphasizing that the core goal of being discoverable on search remains the same.

"SEOs and SEO tools can be helpful, but they are not required. We talked about this in part one, which is why people should go back and listen to part one if you didn't. In short, there are plenty of sites that succeed in search. Think about SEO, just focus on great content for people, and that is the foundation, the bedrock. Everything that you want to be successful for in search is built on that great content."

Danny Sullivan highlights that while SEO professionals and tools can offer assistance, they are not essential for a website's success in search. Sullivan asserts that the fundamental element for achieving search visibility is creating excellent content that caters to human users, forming the essential basis for all other optimization efforts.

"I really think at some point you really need to understand what the direction is from Google's side with regards to SEO. Then it's a lot easier for you to kind of pick between the different SEO service providers and also to evaluate a little bit, 'Are they actually doing what goes into the direction that I've learned that Google wants, or are they kind of optimizing things that are not actually on Google's list, but they say that there's like some secret backdoor kind of thing happening here?'"

John Mueller advises that understanding Google's official SEO guidelines is crucial for effectively evaluating SEO service providers. Mueller suggests that this foundational knowledge empowers users to discern whether a provider's strategies align with Google's recommended practices or if they are pursuing less legitimate or unverified methods.

"Now, I know this may surprise you, but there are some SEO tools and companies that recommend things that would be against our guidance. And you know what? That is shocking. I don't know what to say. I am flabbergasted."

Danny Sullivan expresses surprise, albeit sarcastically, that some SEO tools and companies may suggest strategies that contradict Google's official guidance. Sullivan uses this statement to underscore the importance of critically assessing SEO recommendations and verifying them against established best practices.

"One of my favorite things that always be, if I'm, I guess my favorite, it's just kind of sad, but you something like, 'I don't understand. I have domain score 89. How am I not doing better?' And it's like, 'I have Google domain score 89.' You're like, 'Well, it's not our domain score. We don't have that.' And it doesn't, yeah, no, it's not even a thing."

John Mueller clarifies that Google does not utilize or recognize proprietary "domain scores" often promoted by third-party SEO tools. Mueller points out the confusion this can cause, emphasizing that such metrics are not an indicator of Google's evaluation of a website's performance.

"To go to one of the things, I talked about the specific things people like, 'What is the thing I need to prove?' One of the things I keep seeing over and over in some of the advice and guidance, and people are trying to figure out what do we do with the LLMs or whatever, is that turn your content into bite-sized chunks because LLMs like things that are really bite-sized. We don't want you to do that. I've talked to some engineers about them like, 'And we don't want you to do that. We really don't.'"

Danny Sullivan directly advises against fragmenting content into small, bite-sized pieces specifically to cater to Large Language Models (LLMs). Sullivan states that neither he nor Google engineers recommend this practice, indicating that optimizing content for LLM consumption is not the desired approach.