LinkedIn’s Off-Platform event ads now empower me to promote external events effectively in-feed, driving registrations directly to my site by May 6.
LinkedIn has unveiled Off-Platform Event Ads, providing me with a novel way to promote events without the need for a native LinkedIn Event Page.
What’s happening. This innovative format lets me craft Event Ads that link directly to external destinations. These can be webinar platforms, landing pages, or livestream sites, allowing me to guide traffic away from LinkedIn for a more tailored experience.
This transition signifies a move from experiences contained on a single platform to more adaptable, marketer-directed journeys.
How it works. I can now create an Event Ad using a third-party URL, add essential event details like date and format, and select objectives such as awareness, engagement, traffic, or lead generation.
Every click takes users directly to the external event page, while I can still track performance metrics with Campaign Manager.
Why we care. Previously, promoting events on LinkedIn often meant staying within platform-imposed limits, complicating the user experience and restricting control over registrations.
With Off-Platform Event Ads, I can leverage LinkedIn’s targeting features while retaining traffic, data, and conversions on my own platform, which simplifies scaling campaigns and preserving consistency for participants.
What to watch:
Whether these ads result in higher registration rates compared to native Event Pages
How I can balance LinkedIn’s precise targeting with off-platform conversion tracking
Possibilities of LinkedIn extending similar versatility to other ad formats
Availability. Off-Platform Event Ads are being gradually introduced globally and should be available to all marketers, like myself, by May 6.
Bottom line. By allowing Event Ads to target off-platform destinations, LinkedIn provides an opportunity to elevate event promotion without the need to operate solely within its ecosystem, which is a game-changer for my marketing strategies.
I’ve always found brand positioning to be an intricate dance of claims, proofs, and strategic framing. While AI can validate claims, it won’t decide on the conclusions that best elevate your business. Let me share how framing transforms proof into brand loyalty.
In today’s digital world, every brand has its arsenal of claims and underlying proofs scattered across its digital presence. AI engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI can verify these, but they hold no narrative power to create an engaging story for your brand.
Often, there’s a disconnect between what your audience desires and what brands or AI understand. The missing link? A powerful frame that converts disjointed data into a compelling brand narrative.
Here’s where I introduce the claim-frame-prove (CFP) approach. Claims and proofs are mechanical, but framing adds that strategic layer necessary to craft your brand’s narrative.
Claims and proofs are mechanical tasks AI can handle, but creating a strategic frame is your brand’s unique prerogative.
Building your brand through CFP means understanding that AI can link known facts but cannot make that creative leap your brand requires. AI connects the dots logically but lacks the ability to reach a commercially beneficial insight.
Consider the alphabet analogy: while C is an apparent commercial reach, J represents a nuanced insight, and Q symbolizes a bold vision your brand can aspire to.
I’ll illustrate with some personal examples. My work in answer engine optimization demonstrates this journey from mere understanding to unique brand positioning.
A + B → C
A: I coined answer engine optimization in 2017. B: I also run a brand engineering firm. AI arrives at the simple, logical conclusion: I’m connected to AEO implementation. While true and functional, it lacks depth.
A + B → J
By pushing further, the narrative evolves. J: I might be the only practitioner with extensive insights from a decade’s worth of operational data.
This move from A and B to J is vital. It’s about identifying which non-obvious insight fosters brand growth and constructing a logical link from accepted realities to this aspirational leap. That logical bridge is essential for AI to consider it factual, rather than mere self-promotion.
Why AI Can’t Decide What’s Best for Your Brand
AI won’t instinctively choose the best narrative for your brand—that responsibility is yours. Even as AI gets more sophisticated, it lacks the commercial insight to select paths that benefit your brand uniquely.
A creative marketer makes two critical moves: discovers imaginative insights and aligns them strategically with brand goals. Not a feat even the most evolved AI can match, as it lacks the personal stake in this narrative crafting.
I use an approach called “empathy for the machine,” which helps brands create content that AI can easily comprehend and relay, rather than leaving connections for AI to interpret independently.
This method enables a three-tiered communication with AI, evolving from mere proof of claims to frames that the AI can transmit seamlessly to your audience.
Level 1: Scattered Proof of Claims
Many brands rest here—proofs exist in separate spaces, disconnected, leaving AI to infer relationships. The reality is that without explicit links, much of this value is lost.
Without these connections, AI struggles to assert your brand’s credibility, potentially leaving valuable insights untapped.
Level 2: Connected Proof of Claims
At this stage, connections via copy, hyperlinks, and schema are established, significantly reducing the AI’s workload and increasing your brand’s credibility.
Proper connections allow AI to confidently present your brand’s claims as facts, significantly enhancing its visibility and competitive positioning.
Level 3: Framed Proof of Claims
This is where strategic framing really takes shape—bridging claims, proofs, and strategic insights to position your brand distinctly in the market.
With well-framed claims, AI doesn’t just confirm but actively advocates for your brand’s superiority, making your voice the narrative AI conveys to the world.
I’ve realized that just adding more content won’t automatically boost my SEO. In fact, it can dilute my website’s authority, split rankings, and waste crawl budget. So what’s really driving visibility now? Let’s explore!
Many believe the best way to grow organic visibility was to publish more and more content, thinking that covering every angle of a topic would ensure traffic growth. I used to think that too.
Like many SEO teams, I used to follow content calendars based on search volume targets, believing content quantity equaled growth. But lately, I’ve noticed the effort doesn’t always match the outcomes.
I’ve learned that simply adding more pages doesn’t guarantee increased visibility. Instead, it can dilute the overall performance. I find maintaining a large content library challenging, as it can lead to internal competition and fewer pages appearing in search results.
The real challenge now is understanding why a lot of my content fails to enhance visibility, not just producing more of it.
For a long time, simply increasing content volume worked well. Search engines relied on keyword matching and topical coverage, which meant expanding into different keyword variations often captured more demand.
I found that competition was significantly lower, and the limited high-quality search results made it easier to gain visibility quickly. Publishing frequently seemed to enhance domain authority, signaling freshness and relevance.
But now, the conditions have changed. The search ecosystem evolved, making the relationship between content volume and visibility less predictable.
Entering this new landscape, I’ve encountered content saturation. Most relevant topics have established pages with links and data years in the making. A new page tends to be at a disadvantage.
When creating content around adjacent keyword variations, I noticed a trend of similar queries being directed to the same URL, making it hard for multiple pages to perform well.
The development of AI overviews impacted a significant share of informational queries, reshaping the landscape of informational content and consequently the efforts I’ve put into volume strategies.
I’ve come to understand Google’s indexing limits and that low-value URLs drain valuable crawl activity. Thin or redundant content becomes deprioritized, never contributing meaningfully to search competition despite constant additions.
The reality I’ve faced is that the content library behaves as a system at scale, which can lead to problems compounding over time.
Publishing each page creates an obligation—a debt, so to speak—to keep it updated and relevant. At scale, this quickly becomes overwhelming; a library isn’t merely a collection of assets, but a series of commitments.
I’ve realized that focusing editorial resources on keeping a library from becoming a liability prevents us from strengthening existing high-performing pages.
Google allocates a finite crawl budget. If my site’s content volume expands without quality or authority gains, it can reduce the crawl frequency and reliability for high-value pages.
Search engines prefer signals being consolidated rather than rewarding each competing page individually. Without clear authority, overlapping queries often perform worse.
Broadly expanding my content range without depth erodes topical authority rather than building it. Maintaining consistent subject matter expertise is crucial for SEO success.
Sites publishing high volumes without strong engagement harm domain-level quality assessments, thereby affecting better-performing pages. I learned the hard way that more mediocre content introduces risks to overall engagement.
Turning to a new model means shifting focus from sheer volume to impactful content. Publishing is about creating pieces that truly add value and earn visibility.
Auditing reveals that a few pages generate most traffic while many offer little to none, diverting precious resources and attention.
My strategy now involves merging overlapping intent pages and removing thin content. Producing new pages with authority and signal potential is key.
To impact SEO, content must address truly unaddressed issues, providing unique perspectives and targeting specific intents.
As I move forward, my focus will be on creating fewer, but quality-driven sources of information relevant to users and credible to search engines.
Depth ensures authority and relevance, while targeted distribution and being citation-worthy enhance the chance to stand out and drive SEO success.
I’ve learned that SEO is not just about getting noticed — it’s about earning trust and becoming the top choice.
Wil Reynolds, founder and CEO of Seer Interactive, really got me thinking about how artificial intelligence is changing the game for us SEOs.
In his SEO Week session, “SEO is a performance channel, GEO isn’t. How do you pivot?” he emphasized that too many of us are chasing the wrong goals and crafting content that people simply don’t buy into.
Marketing isn’t just about being seen
Reynolds challenged us to look beyond visibility to what truly drives success — belief in our brand.
“Marketing was never just to be seen or be visible,” he said. “It’s about transforming that visibility into brand belief… and ultimately, being chosen.”
He outlined a crucial journey for marketers: being seen, being believed, and then being chosen.
Even when we hit that number one ranking, the job isn’t done. As Reynolds put it, “Job’s not finished.”
Low-quality marketing is everywhere
Reynolds made me rethink some of the standard marketing tactics we use that don’t actually provide value.
He criticized methods like automated outreach, saying, “That’s not marketing.”
I found myself questioning my past work habits — was it really marketing?
The industry is producing ‘zombie content’
Reynolds shed light on our tendency to churn out templated content just to rank, equating it to “zombie content.”
Lists like “best restaurants in Minnesota” when such searches aren’t even realistic? It truly made me think about content creation differently.
Short-term tactics vs. long-term brand building
Reynolds pointed out the stark contrast between short-term wins and the sustained success of building a powerful brand.
“Some focus on winning now, others play the long game,” he explained.
He made it clear that chasing immediate results often leads to producing work nobody wants.
SEO success doesn’t translate to AI visibility
Reynolds illustrated this with an example about “ethical jeans,” showing how AI results can diverge significantly from SEO.
A brand could rank highly on Google yet fail to gain traction in AI models due to a lack of genuine credibility.
Visibility without belief doesn’t lead to outcomes
Just having visibility doesn’t guarantee anything if people don’t trust or believe in us. A reality check I needed.
This visibility is merely a stepping stone, not the end goal.
What people say matters
Reynolds encouraged us to listen actively to how people discuss brands, especially on platforms like Reddit.
Despite how brands might try to show themselves as leaders, user sentiment can reveal a drastically different picture.
The wrong metrics are being measured
Many of us fall into the trap of focusing on easy-to-track metrics instead of those that tell the real story.
Reynolds suggested that if our visibility isn’t driving results, we’re looking at the wrong data points.
Watching real users changes the picture
He emphasized the breakthroughs that come from observing actual users interact with AI tools. It’s eye-opening and transformative.
Start with your brand
Understanding exactly how our brand is perceived in AI-generated content is vital.
If we’re not ensuring our brand is accurately represented, all our marketing efforts might be in vain.
AI can shape your brand narrative
Reynolds shared a personal experience where AI misrepresented his company, prompting him to take action by publishing clear, corrective content.
There is too much content
With all this content flooding the digital space, I’ve realized the importance of stepping back and curating high-quality material instead.
Rethinking performance
Reynolds drew attention to the varying effectiveness of different traffic sources, reminding me to focus on the ones that truly convert.
A final question for marketers
He left us pondering: Are we prepared to give up a fraction of visibility for the sake of being more credible?
I’ve recently learned that YouTube is testing an innovative search feature called “Ask YouTube”. This aims to make searching on YouTube more conversational and interactive, just like Dave from YouTube explained. It deepens our interaction with content, allowing us to explore topics with more depth.
What it looks like. I had the chance to see it in action through a captivating GIF:
How can I try it? If, like me, you’re curious to test this feature, visit youtube.com/new. There, you can opt-in to experience this new way of interacting with YouTube.
Currently, this experiment is only open to Premium users in the US who are 18 and older. However, Google has plans to expand access soon, which is promising for non-Premium users.
What it does. Here’s an example shared by Dave from YouTube:
“If you’re in the experiment, you can try it out by selecting “Ask YouTube” in the search bar. For instance, you might ask for help planning a 3-day road trip from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. Instead of just a list of videos, you’d receive a detailed, step-by-step itinerary. The response incorporates a mix of long-form videos, Shorts, and informative text, featuring local tips and must-see stops. You can even ask follow-up questions, like “where can I find good coffee?” to discover local gems along your journey. This approach surfaces various videos and video segments, complete with titles and channel details, making it easier to find new creators and content that matches your search.”
Why we care. The integration of AI search is becoming prevalent in all Google platforms, and YouTube is joining this transformation. We should anticipate more AI-enhanced search experiences across various Google services as they evolve over time.
For more insights and updates, you can check out detailed coverage on Techmeme.
Have you ever wondered which domains lead the way in the world of AI citations, specifically with giants like ChatGPT and Gemini? I’ve delved into a staggering 58.6 million AI citations to uncover the patterns and top-performing sites dominating this space. Join me as I share insights into these trends and explore strategies to boost your own citation share.
The AI industry is bustling with innovation and adaptation. Identifying which domains stand out can give us valuable insights into the digital landscape’s future. Let me walk you through the journey of how these insights can be leveraged for growth and visibility in this ever-evolving domain.
As I delve into the concept of net information gain, I’m uncovering its immense importance in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This isn’t just a theoretical pursuit; it’s about translating original insights, real experiences, and clear opinions into a framework that enhances rankings and AI citations.
Understanding net information gain transforms how we approach content creation. It’s not just a buzzword; it’s a tangible metric that drives meaningful AI advancements. By focusing on genuine informational value, I can elevate content beyond mediocrity and into a realm where it truly resonates with both users and algorithms.
I’ve observed that when I infuse content with authentic insights and leverage my personal experiences, search engines and AI systems notice. It’s this distinct edge that propels content to the forefront, ensuring it isn’t just seen but valued and referenced.
Embracing net information gain is my key strategy for thriving in the competitive AI landscape. By consistently prioritizing substance over superficiality, I position myself — and my content — to challenge and outshine AI content mediocrity.
I’m sure if you’re here, you’re as passionate about SEO as I am. With over a decade of experience in agencies, I’ve seen a lot.
Working in agencies allowed me to hone my skills, collaborate with top talent, and partner with some of the world’s leading brands.
In my agency days, I wore many hats—from technical SEO and content marketing to business development.
Switching to in-house SEO was a major shift. Here are the seven insights I’ve gained from this transition.
1. Owning performance changes how SEO is evaluated
In an agency, a performance drop means quickly drafting a report before moving on. But in-house, handling that report is just the beginning of the journey.
I’m the one who has to interpret those numbers and turn the data into a strategy that improves outcomes.
Understanding this changed my whole perspective. Every dip in performance feels like putting my whole SEO strategy on trial.
It’s intense being directly accountable, but owning the outcome is powerful.
In agencies, a polished slide deck was the endpoint. Now, execution is everything. It’s not enough to have a pretty report. It’s about executing and measuring the impact.
Being in-house, I realized you need everyone—from designers to developers—in alignment to see success. It’s challenging but crucial.
I discovered that moving the needle involves translating plans into concrete actions. Working cross-functionally is vital in this regard.
Executing powerful strategies means working closely with every department involved. It’s messy at times, but it makes you grow exponentially.
3. The shift from agency partner to internal stakeholder
Moving in-house meant I became the client. It’s a unique opportunity to apply all my agency insights and decide the kind of client I want to be.
I’ve worked with all sorts of clients in the past, and that experience shaped me into the partner I aspire to be now.
Being patient, collaborative, and empathetic to the team’s goals helps foster a better working environment.
4. Storytelling matters more than strategy
Technical SEO is my forte. Watching metrics improve is fulfilling, but to others, it’s just numbers.
Storytelling turns those metrics into a narrative that executives understand. Crafting a compelling story around your work is key to showing its true value.
By translating technical work into clear, impactful stories, you can highlight its importance and application.
Success in SEO demands a team effort. In-house means working together across different functions. You can’t just operate in isolation.
Having allies in engineering or product management transforms ideas into reality. Building relationships with them is crucial.
6. Taking initiative and trusting your judgment
I’ve always been encouraged to take initiative. In-house, this advice is golden. Acting decisively can lead to breakthroughs—waiting could mean missed opportunities.
My experience has taught me to trust my instincts and push forward, even without explicit permission.
During a recent presentation, I was thrilled to learn about Microsoft’s latest tease regarding new AI reporting features in Bing Webmaster Tools. These updates aim to enhance the existing AI performance reports, offering fascinating insights into citation share, query intent grounding, and GEO-focused recommendations.
I stumbled upon shared screenshots from this intriguing presentation delivered by Krishna Madhavan at SEO Week in the bustling city of New York. Azeem Ahmad captured the essence of this moment, highlighting the growing transparency gap between Bing and Google.
Intriguing Details: The presentation shared several slides showcasing these promising new features. One can feel the excitement building within the SEO community as these innovations hint at a more insightful way to track AI interactions.
Bing Webmaster Tools just dropped some VERY COOL stuff at #SEOWeek 2026
Stay Tuned: While these features aren’t live just yet, catching a glimpse of them was very promising. It seems Microsoft is ramping up to offer more ways to navigate AI-driven search results.
Why This Matters: Gaining more transparency on how our content performs in AI search results is invaluable. I eagerly anticipate the day when these tools go live, promising greater clarity and control over AI interactions.
At the moment, details on the exact functionality and release timeline remain vague. I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for further updates to better understand their full potential.
I’ve noticed that AI systems are improving in generating Spanish language content, but they’re not quite grasping the nuances of Spanish markets.
In fact, we often see a familiar trend: over 20 Spanish-speaking nations reduced to a single standard. Spain is typically the default, and Mexico might as well be interchangeable with any other country. The rest get simplified into statistical norms.
The root of this problem is structural, involving dialect defaulting, format contamination, and regulatory hallucination. These issues are more pronounced in a generative search setup where one synthesized response replaces several search results.
This misinterpretation acts as a barrier to visibility. Generative AI seeks clarity, and if my content doesn’t specify its market context, it defaults to an average—leading to missed opportunities and misapplication.
To tackle this, I’ve developed a framework that ensures market context is clear across content, technical indicators, and retrieval systems, so AI systems don’t have to assume.
What is Cultural SEO?
Cultural SEO goes beyond mere multilingual support or localization. Its foundation is firm on locale precision—ensuring the market context is clear in retrieval and generation practices so that your Spanish content is associated with the specific country it was intended for.
Here’s a framework that proves effective when working around Spanish and Latin American markets.
You can’t effectively optimize for a market you aren’t serving. Cultural SEO isn’t an afterthought; it’s the backbone of a strategic decision to genuinely operate within a market, encompassing logistics, customer service, compliance, and product-market alignment.
If you ship from Spain to Mexico with unrealistic delivery times or lack local support, even the best hreflang configuration won’t suffice. Users will abandon such experiences, and as AI learns from these interactions, it will deprioritize similar content.
Speaking the market’s language goes beyond spoken words—it’s about conveying trust, ensuring payment and delivery expectations are met, and adhering to regulatory standards.
Assuming you’re committed to these standards, here are the four pillars: segmentation, transcreation, retrieval constraints, and entity reinforcement. Before applying any framework, ensure this commitment.
Pillar 1: Market Segmentation at the Entity Level
International SEO often considers segmentation as a mere folder structure: /es-es/, /es-mx/, /es-ar/, but that’s merely scratching the surface.
In generative search, the challenge is ensuring the AI associates a page with a specific country like Mexico, and accumulates enough market-specific signals to prefer it over a general alternative. If the architecture simplifies differences, visibility diminishes equally.
Pillar 2: Transcreation, Not Just Translation
Translation is about converting words, while transcreation is about interpreting meaning. Given two pages with 95% similar content, the AI merges them into one representation—defaulting to one perceived as standard. Therefore, differentiating with local examples or unique terminologies is essential.
Pillar 3: Retrieval Constraints
In constructing AI experiences like RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), it’s crucial to establish clear boundaries about what content should be sourced for specific markets to avoid defaulting to “Global Spanish.”
Pillar 4: Market Authority Through Entity Reinforcement
AI models learn from both your site’s content and external perceptions. Thus, building location-specific authority through local media presence, partnerships, and consistent regional knowledge graph reinforcement is vital to establish market-specific authority.
Ultimately, Cultural SEO ensures that content not only serves the market but resonates with it. By embracing these pillars, I can ensure my brand isn’t just another “Spanish” entity but a recognized authority in each targeted market.
This journey isn’t about merely adapting your website but architecting systems to reflexively consider the market’s dynamics from the ground up.
