SEO and business blog
Read about SEO, digital marketing, website optimisation, check out case studies and learn more about how I run my business!
Understanding and using AI for an effective international SEO strategy - A talk at the SEO Camp Day Strasbourg 2023
Link to the slides in French 🇫🇷
If you’re here, this means you likely just attended or watched my conference at the SEOCamp Day in Strasbourg, held on the 10th February 2023. I hope you enjoyed it!
I have a ton of resources about AI and international SEO. Here’s a brief list of links, I’ll soon add a comments and a few more.
What is generative AI? - McKinsey
GPT-3 explained - Science Focus
Chinese room thought experiment - Wikipedia
ChatGPT for SEO - Aleyda Solis
Generate alt tags with ChatGPT - Danny Richman
ChatGPT: Friend or Foe? - The Recipe for SEO Success Podcast - Kate Toon
What’s the future of SEO? - Panel discussion at the Erepday 2022 conference
I had the privilege of participating in the panel discussion “What’s the future of SEO?” at the 2022 Erepday conference in Strasbourg alongside two other SEO experts. Find out more about my experience at this amazing event.
I had the privilege of being invited to participate in the panel discussion “What’s the future of SEO?” at the 2022 Erepday conference in Strasbourg alongside two other SEO experts: Dan Bernier and Mickaël Hamard.
The Erepday conference brings together the essential news of the “hot” topics of e-reputation, branding and customer relations 2.0. It is an exceptional day of conferences, panels and networking with expert speakers in the field of the web and e-reputation to grow your brand and business. It’s organised by the amazing teams at Blue Boat.
So, what’s the future of SEO?
On the panel discussion, we discussed what SEO will look like in 10 years. My take on this was that it will remain fun and exciting, and I am positive that SEO will be around for the foreseeable future. I also believe the emphasis will be put on inclusivity and accessibility on the web.
We can't predict exactly what will happen in SEO over the next 10 years, but we know Google's global vision is to make internet information available to everyone. That shouldn't change much.
By working on making information available to people all around the world, Google is setting the stage for a new era of digital knowledge, where information is made accessible to everyone, regardless of their location, language, device or background.
We had conversations around the evolution of the SERP, especially how Google was bringing sensorial elements to the SERP. We also discussed the importance of authenticity, the need to remain true to oneself, and the concept of staying true to one's values even when the world around us changes. We discuss how the future of online search will be spread across multiple platforms, and how this will create a shift in the way we access information. We explore the implications for businesses, as well as the importance of finding ways to remain relevant in this ever-evolving landscape. Additionally, we consider the impact on people's lives and how our approach to information gathering will be shaped by the resources available to us.
The video is only in French, but the transcript can be translated to English 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the 2022 Erepday conference in Strasbourg and I am thankful to the organisers for inviting me to be a part of the panel. It was great to be able to share my insights and knowledge with the other experts and attendees.
I am confident that SEO will continue to evolve and become even more important in the future, and I am looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for the industry.
My First Mentoring Experience - An Inspiring Story of Helping a Talented SEO
Sonja Marinkovic was mentored by me for two months this Summer through the Women in Tech SEO mentorship program. We discussed topics such as client relationship management, business development, and strategy, as well as the importance of self-care and balancing work and life. I was proud to see Sonja's progress and she had positive feedback about the mentorship experience, which was a successful and rewarding experience for both of us.
Women in Tech SEO launched their new mentoring cohort last Summer, and I was honoured to be a mentor for 2 months to the fantastic Sonja Marinkovic, a talented SEO based in Serbia.
What is the mentorship program?
The mentorship program by Women in Tech SEO is an initiative that aims at helping mentees and their mentors feel empowered through conversations and shared experiences. It’s all about women mentoring women. The program is focused on helping mentees reach their goals and find their own unique way of doing things.
I applied to be a mentor so I could share my experience as a freelancing SEO consultant with someone who might just be starting out. I wanted to share the struggles and make sure that my mentee would feel supported in their entrepreneurial skills. The goal wasn’t to provide a training course on how to be an independent SEO consultant, but rather to have conversations around client relationship management, business development and strategy.
I was paired with the fantastic Sonja Marinkovic, the founder and SEO consultant at Digital Search Hero. I strived to listen and foster an open conversation between us so that Sonja could gain confidence and the experience needed to take control of her own decisions. We talked about things like goal setting and time management, and how to handle difficult clients and tricky situations. We also discussed the importance of self-care and how to balance work and life. Overall, the mentorship experience was incredibly rewarding and it was a pleasure to watch Sonja's progress over the course of the Summer.
A bit more about Sonja
Sonja Marinkovic
Sonja Marinkovic is a freelance SEO consultant and webmaster. She’s passionate about SEO strategy, fixing technical bugs on the site, and managing multiple SEO projects at once. When she’s not working, she reads, rides a bike, does yoga, prepares healthy (sugar-free) cookies, and cuddles with her bunny pet Pirga.
Sonja is the head of Digital Search Hero, a boutique consultancy serving tech, consulting, and service businesses worldwide by providing fully customized SEO services.
She was also interviewed by Women in Tech SEO about her work in SEO.
What we worked on together during the mentorship
Over the course of the Summer, we took the time to dive deep into different topics.
We discussed the importance of goal setting and time management, and how to handle difficult clients and tricky situations. We also discussed the importance of self-care and how to balance work and life. We worked on topics such as showing up on social media, getting regular revenue, gaining confidence, and improving the website.
I encouraged Sonja to make sure she was taking care of herself, and gave her some tips on how to do that. By the end of the mentorship, Sonja had gained a lot of valuable experience and knowledge that she could apply to her work. She also found value in learning to be gentle with herself and to take control of her own decisions.
Sonja’s thoughts about the SEO mentorship
“How I am feeling regarding this: in general, this was a super-positive experience and I gained so much more than I thought it’s possible. We both created a kind of bond and were summer buddies. It was easy to see that you were genuinely interested in mentoring me. Also, you possess wonderful skills in motivating other people. I learned how to be more gentle with myself, to avoid being a bad boss to myself sometimes. 🙂
Our brainstorming meetings were a blast, I got so much value! 🙂”
Podcast: SEO Strategies that stand the test of time - Recipe for SEO Success
I was invited on The Recipe for SEO Success, Kate Toon’s famous podcast, to talk about longevity in SEO. 🎙 Listen to the episode!
I’m very honoured to have been invited on The Recipe for SEO Success, Kate Toon’s famous podcast. 🎙
She invited me to talk about longevity in SEO and we had a lovely chat!
Here’s what we talked about:
Core SEO pillars and principles that have remained unchanged
How long it will take to get results from your SEO strategy
Keywords: should you update them constantly or stick with the same ones
What your long-term keyword strategy should be
How to react when a new competitor moves above you in the rankings
Milestone changes in SEO in the last three years
Updates in SEO that you should be aware of
How iteration factors into a solid SEO strategy
My top two tactics to try out today
Listen on Apple Podcasts ↓
Listen on Spotify ↓
“I highly recommend that you follow Alizée. She just approaches SEO with a real enthusiasm, positivity, and a human touch, which I think is very much aligned with how I approach it.”
Huge thanks to Kate for inviting me on the podcast! 🥰 I had a great time!
Round Table: French Technical SEO - the SEO Kitchen Show by Oncrawl
Watch the replay of the roundtable on French Technical SEO at the SEO Kitchen Show by Oncrawl!
I was kindly invited by the Oncrawl teams to participate in The SEO Kitchen Show’s first roundtable about French technical SEO. The SEO Kitchen Show is a series of webinars that were run over the course of 3 days in June 2022.
The goal was to share our expertise and have the audience benefit from it. We got to debate on various topics related to French technical SEO with my colleagues Véronique Duong, Julien Deneuville, Emmanuel de Vauxmoret and Rebecca Berbel to try and sort out the best French technical SEO recipe.
Topics we talked about include:
What is technical SEO and how it’s different from “regular” SEO
How technical SEO is important and what is its role in an SEO strategy
What are the hot trends in technical SEO right now and which subjects could be more highlighted
Technical SEO tools
This particular roundtable was in French, but you can switch on translated subtitles if you want the English version.
Other topics were discussed in English and included:
SEO automation
Enterprise and strategy
Agency SEO
Search intent
Algorithm updates
Content and technical SEO
E-commerce
Data science
I highly recommend you check out the other round tables where a lot of people I deeply admire in the industry gave their best advice.You can watch/binge watch all the replays for free!
Bonus → The SEO Kitchen Show created a cookbook with all our best recipes! 👩🏻🍳🥘
I’m launching a newsletter!
100% Organic is my newsletter where I share with you my tips, expertise, knowledge and methodologies. I want to help you build a better website, not just for Google, not just for your users, but to sustain your business in the long run, in an organic way.
I promised myself I’d do a better job at sharing my expertise this year, so here we are!
This has been in the works for months. I searched for the right name, asked my clients what they were expecting and benchmarked my entire email archive.
For those who have followed me for a long time, you may remember I used to have a newsletter called The Pragmatic SEO up to early-2020. Unfortunately, I lost my rhythm with the pandemic and wasn’t able to pick it back up again.
Since 2020, a lot of things have changed, I am now a more experienced SEO and business owner with lots to share, more of my own opinions and resources.
This is the goal for 100% Organic: to share with you my tips, expertise, knowledge and methodologies, to help you build a better website, not just for Google, not just for your users, but to sustain your business in the long run, in an organic way.
So, what’s the plan with this newsletter?
The name: 100% organic
SEO is all about organic traffic, it’s what I’m really good at and the area I want to focus on. 🤓
What will this be about?
The plan right now is to share with you my expertise and knowledge, in the most practical and actionable way for you. This will probably include:
SEO tip of the moment: something you should look up, check out, work on, or simply be reminded of, that can take you a bit further in your SEO journey.
SEO news: a handpicked selection of 1 to 3 articles, guides, tools or resources I found interesting and actionable.
Recent blog posts: case studies, webinars, podcasts, events, guides, articles from my blog
Now: a quick summary of what’s been going on in the business, topics I’m investigating, work I’m doing with clients, etc.
I’m very open to feedback and this newsletter will evolve with your needs.
How long is it going to be?
I get a lot of newsletters each week and tend to keep only the ones that I can read in under a minute or two. I’ll do my best to be as clear and practical as possible.
How often will you receive 100% organic?
I’m aiming for 1 to 3 emails per month.
Where can I subscribe?
Right below! ↓
Twitter takeover: Use Search Intent to Optimise Product Pages - Semrush #SEOThread
I got to take over the Semrush #SEOThread on Twitter! I chose to write about using search intent for product pages. I’ve detailed here some key points and added relevant links.
The Semrush team got in touch with me a few weeks ago to do a #SEOThread on their Twitter account. I chose to write about using search intent to optimise product pages for e-commerce. You can read the whole thread below. ↓
Hello SEO friends! 👋 I'm Alizée, a freelance SEO consultant with a passion for specialty coffee and knitting.
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
I'll be taking over the #SEOthread today to talk about using #searchintent to optimise product pages 🤓
So get cozy, grab a notepad, and read on! 😉↓ @AlizeeBaudez pic.twitter.com/w7iyHbK6X2
In a nutshell, here are the few elements I mentioned in this #SEOThread.
What is Search intent?
First things first, search intent is the purpose of a user’s search.
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
There are 4 type of search intent:
→ Navigational = find something or a website
→ Informational = research
→ Commercial = compare options
→ Transactional = buy, complete an action#SEOthread @AlizeeBaudez pic.twitter.com/l25vgdiJxB
In a way, informational, commercial and transactional search intents coincide with the buyer’s journey. The general idea here is that you want to take your user through each step of the journey with the content you put on your website.
Where does the product page fit?
The product page can be visited by the user at any stage of the process (=any stage of the buyer’s journey). But at the end of the day, its goal is to sell. So you want to optimise your product page for the decision stage, with keywords that have a transactional search intent.
How to optimise your product page for transactional queries?
How to optimise your product page for transactional queries?
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
1️⃣ Check out what queries the page is already ranking for on Google Search Console
2️⃣ Extend your keyword research to transactional queries
3️⃣ Implement optimisations#SEOthread @AlizeeBaudez
1 - On Google Search Console
Look at the keywords that drive traffic to your product page. Read through them carefully. Can you already spot what type of search intent is emerging from those keywords?
Export the keyword and define a search intent for each of them. You can use a spreadsheet or a keyword analysis tool.
How to easily spot a transactional keyword?
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
Look out for the words “buy”, “for sale”, “price”, “cost”, “supplier”, “quote”, etc.#SEOthread @AlizeeBaudez pic.twitter.com/19YyEwRE9V
2 - Extend your keyword research to transactional queries
Now you have deciphered what brings your users to your product page, it's time to adjust and broaden your horizons! We'll do this by doing a bit of keyword research, just to make sure what we're changing is in line with what our users need.
I often use the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to find related queries and filter the results by search intent, keeping only the transactional ones.
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
Pick a few of the best ones according to your usual keyword research criteria.#SEOthread @AlizeeBaudez pic.twitter.com/9ogMu9yiTl
3 - Implement your transactional keywords where it matters the most
Make sure the keywords you end up with are in the page title, the meta description, the headings of the page. Include them in bold in your paragraphs, optimise your copy in the best way possible.
Extra elements to consider on your product page
💡 Extra elements to consider on your product page:
— Semrush (@semrush) June 14, 2022
→ Have a clear CTA for your product
→ Keep the page design simple and effective
→ Go to the point in your copy
→ Include reassurance elements (reviews, payment options, delivery, use cases...)#SEOthread @AlizeeBaudez
If you need any help with your product page, your e-commerce website, or if you want to optimise your keywords for the right search intent, get in touch with me today!