Michael Candiloro

Most brands are doing SEO wrong in 4 layers. (And don’t realise which one’s holding them back.) Here’s the brutal truth: Every drop of visibility you're losing falls into one of these buckets... And in 2025? SEO isn’t one game. It’s 4 distinct battles you need to win: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) – The Citation Battle - Ranking isn’t enough, Are you cited in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity? - Think prompt phrasing, comparison blogs, expert lists No GEO = No mention = No trust AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) – The Snapshot Game - Own snippets, AI overviews, voice searches - Structure wins here: FAQs, schema, entity-rich answers No AEO = You don’t even show up AIO (AI Integration Optimization) – The Scale Factor - Plug into tools, APIs, workflows... let AI use your content - Think programmatic briefs, data-fed summaries, markdown chunking No AIO = No scale = Content chaos SXO (Search Experience Optimization) – The Conversion Engine - SEO isn’t just to rank, It’s to convert - Fast UX, scrollable layouts, mobile-first pages No SXO = Traffic that bounces Let’s take 2 real-world examples: DTC Brand Reality: AEO: Missed voice snippets and product schema GEO: No AI citations, poor content depth AIO: Manual content ops, no workflows SXO: Slow checkout flow, low conversions SaaS Startup Truth: AEO: Weak FAQs, no entity markup GEO: Blog lacks citations or prompt relevance AIO: No system for scaling blog or docs SXO: Long forms, high bounce on mobile You don’t have a traffic problem. You have a structure problem. Break SEO into 4: AEO: Gets you found in AI GEO: Gets you cited and trusted AIO: Gets you scalable content SXO: Gets you real conversions Common SEO Traps Long blogs, no structure = AEO fail No citations, no depth = GEO fail No workflow = AIO fail Poor design = SXO fail Your competitors ranking in ChatGPT? They cracked this. While you publish more posts and blogs randomly… They’re being retrieved, summarized, and chosen. Your next SEO breakthrough isn’t another post... it’s a new lens: AEO, GEO, AIO, SXO. Try These LLM-SEO Tools Built for AI visibility, citations, and structure: Semrush Enterprise AIO/AI Tool-Kit Peec AI Brandlight GrowthX AI AthenaHQ Cognizo Bluefish That’s how you rank and retrieve in 2025 and stay there. ♻️ Repost it to share with your network Follow me Madhav Mistry for insights on marketing

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16 SEO Tips Every Small Business Needs in 2025 SEO isn’t just for big brands with massive budgets. If you’re a small business owner in Australia (or anywhere in the world), the right strategy can help you compete with industry giants and actually win. Here’s the truth 90% of people searching online never scroll past page one of Google. If your business isn’t showing up there, you’re invisible to your customers. That’s why we’ve put together 16 must-know SEO tips to help your business grow this year: ✅ Focus on user intent (answer real customer questions) ✅ Optimize for mobile-first (most searches happen on phones) ✅ Improve page speed (slow sites lose sales) ✅ Create high-quality content consistently ✅ Strengthen local SEO (Google Business Profile is a must!) … and 11 more game-changing strategies. When applied the right way, these tips can: Bring more traffic to your website Build trust and credibility with customers Turn clicks into sales Swipe through, take notes, and start applying these to your business today. Which of these 16 SEO tips will you implement first? - ➕ Follow for more clarity in your SEO game. ♻️ Repost so your future self doesn’t forget this. Follow Dean Gravina for more

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When most people build links, they point them straight to product or blog pages. Sounds smart, right? Direct relevance, exact match, more context… But here’s what I’ve seen in testing (and across client sites): 👉 Pages rank better when the homepage is the authority hub. Why? Homepage links lift the entire domain’s authority They pass trust naturally through internal linking They’re safer and look more organic (brands get mentioned → usually link to homepage) In fact, in multiple campaigns, sites with ~80% of links to homepage consistently saw faster ranking jumps across all pages. It’s not about ignoring deep links — those matter too. But if you’re building every link directly to a sales page, you’re playing the short game. 📌 Build the brand → Power up the homepage → Watch the lift spread across the site.

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GEO Bullshit Jargon Translator - episode 7 - "Personalisation" 🔵 What GEO 'experts' say: "AI search is different to traditional search because next-gen AI search personalises answers to each user." 🔵 What GEO 'experts' mean: "You and I could type the same thing, and the machine will serve us different answers based on what we've done before." 🔵 What SEOs have been saying for years: "User intent matters. Previous behaviour affects search results. Things such as a searcher's location, browser, how often they visit a site, and more, can affect search results. The same keyword can mean ten different things depending on the person. That's why you don't write one-size-fits-all content." 🔎 SEO, innit?

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SEO vs AIO vs AEO vs GEO: Stop Naming It, Start Doing It. Renae Casey from Spicy Web has put together a great article — Let’s break down what modern SEO really looks like and why you don’t need a new acronym every time Google adds a new feature. Key Takeaways: AEO, GEO, and AIO are just SEO done right: these acronyms describe features and formats within modern search, not new disciplines. If you're already doing SEO well, you're already doing them. Search has changed, but the fundamentals haven’t: whether it's traditional search engine results, voice answers, or AI summaries, our job remains the same - to help people find useful, structured answers quickly. Don’t chase shiny acronyms: the industry doesn’t need more labels, it needs better execution. Focus on doing SEO right: fast sites, helpful content, proper schema, strong internal structure. You don’t need four strategies: one solid SEO strategy, adapted for how users search in 2025, will cover featured snippets (AEO), AI-generated summaries (GEO), and AI Overviews (AIO). It’s all about structure and clarity: write content that solves problems, uses natural language, includes schema markup, and is easy for both humans and machines to understand. Track what matters: forget vanity metrics. Optimise for organic visibility, conversions, and meaningful engagement, not just rankings or appearances. #chatgpt #SEO #AIO #AEO #GEO #digitalmarketing #spicyweb Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gv6cSfkJ

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When I started out in SEO, I lived in the world of content and links. Storytelling, on-page optimisation, building links, that was my lane. But when I joined TAL Agency I was pretty much thrown into technical delivery and realised pretty quickly how important it really is. Crawlability, indexation, structured data… it was like peeking behind the curtain of SEO and seeing how the magic really happens. Don't get me wrong, I'd always had a basic understanding of tech and the role is played, but I'd always shied away from talking about it, leaving it to the 'experts'. I started asking more technical questions in client meetings, sitting in on dev calls, and getting my hands dirty in site audits. I immersed myself in sitemaps, schema, and server logs. I taught myself how to properly use Screaming Frog and how to break down its recommendations into actionable tickets my clients could implement to drive results. Before long, I no longer identified as a content and link specialist, but a fully fledged SEO all rounder who can talk in-depth about technical issues and what they mean for results. It’s been the most rewarding shift in my career. If you’re in content or PR and curious about technical SEO: start small. Run a crawl. Check out Screaming Frog's in-depth documentation on what the issues mean. Join Women in Tech SEO and ask questions. Ask Chat GPT to break down more complex recommendations so you can fully understand what they mean. It’s not about becoming a developer; it’s about understanding how search engines see your work. It’s changed the way I work, and it might just do the same for you.

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