Ben Feltwell
Key takeaways
- 3:04Domain trust—the quality and quantity of relevant, reputable inbound links—must be assessed first; it's like a head start in a 200-meter race that determines whether you can realistically compete against larger sites.
- 10:10AI Overview results are causing significant drops in organic search traffic to traditional top-ten results, but that traffic is often being captured by AI sources, making dual tracking (organic + AI visibility) essential.
- 24:23Keywords should be tagged and grouped in your keyword manager—marking which are AI-relevant, cornerstone, or branded—so content teams can apply the right effort level and structural approach to each.
- 7:07Backlink gap analysis reveals which directories, publications, and industry websites your competitors are listed on but you are not, providing a roadmap for low-friction citation and reference-building opportunities.
- 35:34Build a large keyword list (300–800 terms) during research, then refine through multiple iterations, preserving tags so your final 12–36 month content plan reflects both traditional SEO and AI visibility priorities.
Questions Ben Feltwell answered
Start with domain trust and off-site factors as your benchmark; if you're too far behind, focus on other competitors or longer-tail phrases instead. Technical SEO and content are controllable, but domain trust requires time to build through backlinks and citations.
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI5:06
Domain trust is the quality and quantity of relevant, reputable inbound links. Identify gaps compared to competitors, find those opportunities, and encourage citations and references back to your website rather than pursuing raw link-building.
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI8:08
Schema markup on your own site has minimal direct impact on domain trust. However, when other websites use schema markup to reference you as an author or source, that can help. The more important element is the inbound link itself.
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI13:13
Group keywords by topic and focus on a selective set of core indicator keywords rather than all granular variations. Present high-level groupings that show which topic areas are performing well or declining, then expand into detail only when stakeholders ask questions.
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI24:25
The AIO tracker measures the same keywords you add to your project ranking tracker. First add keywords to your ranking project, then select them in tracking setup and add them to the AIO tracker to monitor AI Overview visibility over time.
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI31:31
In Ben Feltwell's words
“AI and SEO their AI is now here. I don't think it's going to go away anytime soon, and most industry experts think the same.”
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI1:01
“If you imagine that search engine optimization is like a 200 meter race, you and your competitors racing to the finish line, domain trust is not far off equivalent to the meters head start you get.”
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI3:04
“The most important thing with all of our marketing campaigns is that yes, they're ambitious, but they're also realistic with their ambition.”
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI4:05
“The impact that AI is having on search results, especially organic rankings, is massive. We are seeing a huge drop off in terms of the amount of engagement and interaction the top five results are getting.”
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI9:09
“This is an evolution and it's a sort of a new adjacent arm, in the same way that when we're researching our search keywords it just fits in with our pay-per-click or Google ads research.”
How to Outrank Bigger Sites: SEO Data Hacks Against Google’s AI38:38