SEO & AI Search (GEO) Expert

Improve your Google ranking with Peter Mahoney, 20+ years SEO & Wordpress experience

Why search volume matters in your keyword strategy

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When planning an SEO strategy, one of the most important questions is not simply which words describe your business, but which words are people actually searching for. You may have the perfect phrase to capture your services, but if nobody types it into Google, it’s not going to bring visitors to your website.

This is where search volume comes in. Search volume refers to how many times a particular keyword or phrase is entered into a search engine over a given period. The higher the volume, the more people are looking for that term. But raw popularity is only part of the equation- you also need to consider how many other websites are competing for the same word too.

Take the example of “sports psychology” versus “performance psychology”, which is a real world example I worked on with a client recently.

On the surface, both describe a similar area of practice in the same industry. But data shows that in the UK, “sports psychology” has been searched far more frequently over the past year. At the same time, when you compare the number of sites optimised for each phrase, the balance between competition and demand becomes less clear. This is why data-driven analysis matters: it reveals the difference between what you think people are searching for and what they actually are.

The key lesson here is that SEO success depends on striking the right balance between popularity and competition. Sometimes the most obvious keyword is worth pursuing because of its sheer search volume. But other times a slightly less common term provides a better chance to rank because fewer competitors are targeting it.

In practice, the best approach is usually to target both high-volume keywords and their close alternatives. And then over time your analytics will show which terms bring the right visitors to your site, helping you refine your SEO strategy for maximum success.

And of course, these are all things I do for all my own clients, all the time.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Don’t rely on gut instinct – always check actual search data.
  2. Balance keyword popularity against the the level of competition.
  3. Use both primary and secondary terms, then refine based on the data.

How do I make the most of AI search optimisation?

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Thank you for sharing the recent update. I’m in the early stages of planning for the upcoming year, and with the increasing influence of AI-driven search tools becoming part of SEO, I wanted to ask if there are any additional elements I should be mindful of. Specifically, are there considerations I should take into account when it comes to website optimisation and future improvements?

I’ve also noticed on our analytics platform that “ChatGPT” has started appearing more frequently as a search medium driving activity. I would be really interested to understand more about this development and whether it is something we should be actively preparing for in terms of strategy.

Thank you for your question, and I really appreciate your interest in how AI search is beginning to shape SEO. It’s definitely an area worth paying close attention to, a LOT os going tiok change every week over the coming few years!

At the moment, I’m closely monitoring how search engines are incorporating AI-assisted answers into results, and I’ll be keeping you updated through the reporting I already share.

The good news is that I’m managing the technical side of it for you, so there’s nothing urgent you need to change immediately. Over the next month or two – possibly three – I’ll have the data to come back to you with some concrete suggestions. These will likely include adjustments to some of the text and posts you already have on your site, ensuring they are fully aligned with how AI-generated search results are evolving.

Some of the older SEO guidance may no longer apply to be honest; for example, the traditional advice to avoid counting things like headings or bullet points toward overall word count might be shifting. AI-driven search tools appear to give more weight to structured and scannable content, so elements such as lists, headings, and formatting could carry greater value than before.

In short, it’s still early days, but I’ll continue keeping a close watch. As soon as I can say for sure based on actual data, I’ll provide you with specific actions so we can future-proof your content and ensure it performs well in both traditional search engines and AI-driven searches.

Thanks again for raising this—it’s the most important shift in search since Google launched – so absolutely something to talk about!

Peter Mahoney
SEO & AI Search (GEO) Expert

How do we fix 404 errors after a site move or migration?

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Hi Peter,
We migrated from Visualsoft to Woocommerce approx. 10 days ago and are experiencing 404 errors. Please see a couple of examples below –

https://furnituredirect.co.uk/contact-us-i3

https://furnituredirect.co.uk/hollywood-station-pro-white-p578

How do we quickly resolve this?

Many thanks.

Thanks for contacting me.

I assume what happened was in the move, the structure of your old URLs wasn’t duplicated on the new site.

When I look at those URLs you’ve sent through, and compare them to the new examples – there doesn’t seem to be some simple rule that could be written to resolve that.

What I mean by that is sometimes if a company changes systems, it’s as simple as the old URL looking like:
https://furnituredirect.co.uk/shop/hollywood-station-pro-white/

and the new one:
https://furnituredirect.co.uk/product/hollywood-station-pro-white/

in which case it’s easy enough to write a rules that says:
/shop/

has changed to:
/product/

But your site looks much more complex – every old URL has seemingly random characters and numbers at the end of it (which is probably some internal Visualsoft ID).

The correct approach is to make sure all the old URLs have proper 301 redirects in place to forward them to the new URL. In your case I think that would be a matter of manually mapping each one. Creating a spreadsheet of all the old URLs (which you’d need to either glean from an old sitemap file, or perhaps searching for your domain in Google and copying/pasting all the old URLs they’re showing) in one column, with the equivalent new URL next to it.

Then that could be used to create the forwarding rules.

The quick way is to install a plugin to forward all 404s to the homepage. The downside is you’d lose much of the SEO authority the site had previously I’m afraid.

With any site move, ideally this would be a major part of the migration plan ahead of time. Doing it after the fact is always a bit stressful, and less than ideal from an SEO standpoint too.

I hope that helps – and sorry there’s no perfect quick fix!

 

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

Why does SEMRush show my ranking change so much?

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Hello Peter, I have noticed on SEMrush that keywords do yoyo quite a bit. Any thoughts? Why do my search engine results rankings seem to jump around so much?

SEMrush is an ok system – but far from perfect.

Those 3rd party systems will show you a variety of different results – but it’s down to how they’re able to work from a technical perspective rather than anything really indicative of your own ranking position.

Think about how search engines personalise results. Different people see different results based on their search history, location, all kinds of variables.

One big issue was if you searched for the same thing a lot from the same IP address you might end up seeing your own site totally skewed. I would see mine too low (because I would often search for myself and never then click on the link) but some people see theirs too high too high (think about people that work in organisations who search for their own company site to find it).

These third party systems like SEMrush fell foul of that too. They had a few servers they used for all their searching, and ended up with very personalised results. Which were inaccurate.

Their attempt to resolve that issue is only mildly better – they now have lots of servers with lots of IP addresses, but in different locations, countries, and with a really varied search history.

So they are still wildly affected by personalisation.

I get all my data directly from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools – which are the official stats packages those search engines offer. They give me an average ranking; so if 500 people found you in different positions through the month, it cuts through personalisation to show the most useful stat representing your rank.

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

Feedback on another SEO company’s proposal

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I’m looking at a local firm for my digital marketing and would like your feedback on their proposal.

The company we met proposed £900 per month for a full package including paid advertising on google/ socials and SEO.

SEO Analysis

The current domain authority score of your website stands at 9 out of 100. Given the fact that your site has only secured 7 backlinks, this is a respectable figure. It’s clear that no prior search engine optimization efforts have been made on the site, presenting us with a blank canvas to start our work. This means there’s no need to undo any previous SEO mishaps. At present, your site is listed for 27 distinct keywords within the UK market, the specifics of which are included in the attachment to this email. Currently, the keyword foundation is quite minimal.

Our strategy should encompass a dual approach of link building and content generation. These foundational SEO practices do not require extraordinary measures. Your website exudes a high-end, luxurious appeal, though it lacks substantial textual content. Enhancing the blog and integrating more content throughout the site will significantly contribute to improving your D/A rating and achieving organic rankings for your chosen keywords.

Paid Advertising Insights

Google Ads allows for precision in selecting search terms to appear on the first page, leveraging our existing data on effective terms, optimal times, and target demographics.

Social Media Advertising requires more targeted efforts, focusing on individuals who have expressed interest in similar products, even if they have not specifically searched for yours. We advise directing users to a Meta-generated form upon ad click, facilitating direct communication.

Advertising Budgets

We suggest a minimum budget of £500 for Google Ads and £300 for social media to begin.

Our Agency Services

We offer a comprehensive package that includes SEO efforts, such as content and blog creation and link building, alongside management of Google Ads and Social Media Ads, for a monthly fee of £900 plus VAT.

There’s a couple of red flags in that proposal.

900 quid a month is a lot. And I guarantee that almost all of that will go towards PPC, which has a very low ROI.

They also mentioned something about getting you first page listings through PPC. That’s a bit of a bait and switch – hearing ‘first page’ sounds exciting but of course they’re just buying that, there’s nothing clever or sustaining about it (like there is with proper SEO). Also all kinds of studies have demonstrated people are a lot less likely to click on ads they see in search compared to organic results–which is precisely why Google keeps experimenting with ad placement, style, etc.

In my experience (which is longstanding, it predates even Google and certainly their PPC system) people selling PPC and SEO are usually just focussing on PPC. It requires the lowest amount of work from them (and therefore easy income) and looks like it gives quick results (“Look! You’re on page one!”) even though that’s not really what’s going on, nor is it providing the most useful visitors.

Your crew here may be different. There are definitely exceptions, and also some really awesome people out there.

I would suggest this as a measure. SEO grows over time and builds upon itself, but PPC doesn’t – it’s just one click costs x – so in that regard any return you get should be immediate.  Ask them to give you access to the PPC account, so you can see the monthly spend. If you didn’t make more than that spend in that month from revenue sourced through ads–it’s not worth it.

I know they say they’ll do SEO too – and I do hope that’s the case. But a red flag there is that they seem to put a real focus on link building…again, ask to see the list of links they made in a month. Because most people focusing on link building as a primary strategy are just clicking a few buttons and auto-generating (through inexpensive software) low quality links that will hurt in the long term. And it takes them about 30 seconds a month to action that.

I guess all I’m saying is…be careful out there. 🙂

SEO backlinks, what is Reverse Outreach linking?

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Backlinks are SEO gold, but only if they’re legitimate. Essentially, all off-site SEO boils down to creating backlinks. Directory listings, local citations, they’re all much the same when it comes to it.

When I say legitimate, I mean someone genuinely appreciates your site and has a valid reason to link to it. Nearly any attempt to manipulate your link profile goes against Google’s guidelines, and they’re pretty adept at catching those who try, and dish out penalties accordingly.

Here is one simple (albeit time consuming) technique I have long recommended for building organic, useful links.

And Google loves this one, because it’s not just a nonsense URL in a profile or some other low status link – it’s authoritative content that adds to the usefulness of the web.

I’ve been recommending it for twelve years (it’s in my e-book people get when they start working with me) but has now become recognised widely enough it has it’s own proper name in the industry: reverse outreach.

It’s based around targeting journals and articles on high profile sites.

When a story appears in the mainstream press that relates to your industry, quickly write a post about it. Then find the story on news outlet’s websites (The Guardian, The Telegraph, etc.) and post in the comments section something similar to:

You know, I’m an expert in this industry, and have shared my thoughts here…

Then add a link back to your post.

The impact is twofold: an immediate boost in site visitors who see you as a field authority and a new relevant backlink from a major site.

Beyond instant gains, this strategy improves your page’s visibility when a similar story surfaces in the future, increasing the likelihood of your site being the go-to source for more information.

It’s a proven, enduring technique, valued by Google for its authenticity and contribution to the web’s usefulness.

 

Prices are quoted exclusive of VAT unless expressly stated.

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