Duane Forrester: Evolving SEO Strategy for the Generative-AI World – Episode 32

Content + AI

Duane Forrester SEO has always been difficult, but generative AI takes things to an entirely new level. Duane Forrester has been immersed in the search world for more than 20 years, including stints as the Product Manager for the Bing Webmaster Program and Vice President of Industry Insights at Yext, where he developed company AI strategy. He also helped launch the schema.org structured-data standard. Duane offers plenty of AI-specific advice about how to navigate the new search landscape. But he also says that the foundations of good SEO are still grounded in timeless digital best practices: understanding your customers' needs and intentions and consistently giving them good content and helpful user experiences. We talked about: his long history as a search-industry expert and leader his high-level take on the current state of AI the true benefits of AI for content and how they relate to SEO the title of his content-and-genAI cookbook: "Common Sense" the importance of understanding the kinds of content that are resonating with your customers an interesting AI-driven SEO-localization case study that was presented at PubCon last year that demonstrates the power of understanding user intent an overview of the knowledge graph tech that underpins the search infrastructure at tech companies and big enterprises his predication that the future of search will be knowledge graph to knowledge graph conversations between companies and search engines the rapidly evolving new world of SEO and the imperative for businesses to leverage AI to keep up with the increasing need to scale SEO operations the enduring importance of providing a good user experience at the end of a search flow the importance of delivering content in video format into a search landscape increasingly driven by social media new search behaviors created by Google's Circle Search and AR tech like Meta's Ray-Ban glasses his observation that search is infinitely more complex than most SEOs can imagine the secret to search success: attracting attention from consumers, by deeply understanding their behaviors and intentions his prediction that Apple will launch an AI-powered Siri in September that will thrust ChatGPT into the mainstream Duane's bio Duane Forrester is a distinguished figure in the search industry, with a career that spans digital marketing, authorship, and leadership roles at prominent companies such as Microsoft Bing, Bruce Clay Inc. and Yext. His expertise in digital marketing is complemented by a strong understanding of AI/ML, consumer behavior and customer experience, making him a well-rounded and sought-after professional in the field. During his tenure at Microsoft, Duane was instrumental in the development and launch of Bing Webmaster Tools and Schema.org, focusing on the needs of webmasters and digital marketers. His deep knowledge of search engines and user behavior contributed to Bing's growth and success. Beyond his work at Microsoft and Bing, Duane has showcased his knowledge as a prolific author in the digital marketing sphere. He has written for most industry publications and his two books, "How to Make Money with Your Blog" and "Turn Clicks into Customers," have provided invaluable insights and guidance to numerous businesses navigating the competitive online landscape. Today, he, continues to share his extensive knowledge of digital marketing, AI, and customer experience, shaping the future of the search industry and empowering businesses to thrive in the digital era. Connect with Duane online LinkedIn Facebook Threads Twitter Duane's books How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog Turn Clicks into Customers - How to deliver conversions across all online marketing activities Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/OjCH0b3isrs