Marketing Glossary
Improving search intent alignment with AI
Search Engine Land contributor Claire Brain has published an article featuring strategies to to use AI to diagnose and improve search intent alignment.
She says, “AI can act as a second set of eyes for content, helping evaluate intent signals, compare top results, and refocus underperforming pages.
Pages on your website can be well written, well laid out, supported by backlinks, and even meet E-E-A-T expectations – yet still fail to rank.
While there are many possible explanations, one common issue is a misalignment with search intent, and it’s often harder to spot than it sounds.
When the focus is on content, optimization, and usability, intent can easily be missed or misjudged.
This is where AI can become a useful review tool, helping guide things back in the right direction.
Get back to basics
Whether you’re starting work on a new page or updating something older, beginning with the basics of search intent can help set you up for success.”
How to use AI to diagnose and improve search intent alignment
Intro to Using AI for UX Design [Video]
Using AI for UX design enables teams to analyze user behavior, predict needs, and personalize interfaces at scale. By automating testing and insights, AI helps designers create more intuitive, accessible, and user-centric experiences faster.
Google Career Certificates has published a new video, ‘Intro to Using AI for UX Design’.
The Google team says, “Looking to work smarter and faster in UX Design? AI can help UX professionals shorten to-do lists and speed up daily tasks. Learn how to use generative AI to help iterate on design ideas, develop copy for a portfolio website, and much more in this tutorial from a Google director of UX.”
Intent-based marketing: How to target ready buyers [Guide]
Intent-based marketing focuses on understanding what customers want at the exact moment they search, browse, or engage online. By targeting real-time signals and motivations, brands deliver highly relevant messages that drive faster conversions and stronger customer alignment.
HubSpot contributor Erica Santiago has published a new guide, ‘Intent-based marketing: How to target ready buyers’.
She says, “Intent-based marketing (IBM) is a strategy that focuses on delivering targeted messages to consumers based on their online behavior and preferences.
Intent-based marketing differs from account-based marketing (ABM) in that ABM targets specific high-value accounts while IBM targets accounts that are actively searching for solutions.
For intent-based marketing, you’ll want a Smart CRM like HubSpot that utilizes AI automation to identify prospects who are actively showing interest and exhibiting buying signals, allowing you to prioritize and engage at the perfect time.
Furthermore, you‘ll need a CRM that unifies and enriches your data, with key features such as custom reporting, which will turn data insights into manageable reports that track everything from the start of the buyer’s journey to revenue attribution.”
Is An XML Or HTML Sitemap Better For SEO? [Answered]
XML and HTML sitemaps help search engines and users navigate a website efficiently, improving crawlability and user experience. While XML sitemaps are designed for search engines, HTML sitemaps focus on guiding visitors through site structure.
Search Engine Journal has answered the question, ‘Is An XML Or HTML Sitemap Better For SEO?’ as part of its Ask an SEO series.
Helen Pollitt says, “The purpose of the XML sitemap is to help search bots understand which pages on your website should be crawled, as well as giving them extra information about those pages.
The XML sitemap can help bots identify pages on the site that would otherwise be difficult to find. This can be orphaned pages, those with low internal links, or even pages that have changed recently that you may want to encourage the bots to recrawl.
Best Practices For XML Sitemaps
Most search bots will understand XML sitemaps that follow the sitemaps.org protocol. This protocol defines the necessary location of the XML sitemap on a site, schema it needs to use to be understood by bots, and how to prove ownership of domains in the instance of cross-domain references.”
Inbound Is Changing — Here’s What You Do Instead [Podcast]
Inbound marketing attracts customers organically by offering valuable content, helpful insights, and personalized experiences at every stage of the buyer journey. It builds long-term trust, nurtures relationships, and converts audiences into loyal customers without aggressive selling.
The latest Ahrefs Podcast episode is titled ‘Inbound Is Changing — Here’s What You Do Instead’ featuring Emily Kramer.
This episode covers the following:
- How Will AI Change Startup Marketing and Advising?
- The First Steps to Startup Marketing
- The 12 Marketing Advantages Framework
- Getting Your Messaging and Positioning Right
- The Fuel and Engine Framework
- The Difference Between Product Marketing and Content Marketing.
Is Google About To Go Full AI Mode? [Answered]
Search Engine Journal contributor Winston Burton has published an article answering the question, ‘Is Google About To Go Full AI Mode?’.
He says, “AI search is rapidly changing the way people discover content and engage with brands. Logan Kilpatrick, Google’s lead product manager for AI products, suggested in an X (formerly Twitter) post that “AI Mode” will become the default for Google Search “soon” and then reclarified his statements, but if that happens, what could potentially happen to the SEO industry, especially with over 100 million monthly active users searching in AI Mode, according to Google?
Let’s explore some potential possibilities, but before we do, let’s distinguish the differences between AI Mode and AI Overviews, as there is a clear distinction between the two.
AI Overviews Vs. AI Mode
AI Overviews are short, AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional search results for some queries that help users find information quickly. AIOs provide quick, concise answers and save users time by reducing the need to click on links, reducing clicks and traffic to brands.”
Internal Links: Ultimate Guide + Strategies [Guide]
Semrush contributor Alex Lindley has published ‘Internal Links: Ultimate Guide + Strategies’.
He says, “Internal links are hyperlinks that lead users to other pages on the same website. They guide users to related content and help search engines understand a site’s structure.
Internal links direct users from one page of your site to another. They improve navigation, pass link authority among your pages, and help search engines crawl your site. These links keep visitors within your domain, which can increase user engagement and conversion rates.
External links point from your site to a page on another domain. They help you cite references and provide extra context. They also build trust and authority when you link to reputable sources. Getting external backlinks from other websites can improve your domain authority and rankings.”
Is martech driving the blandification of marketing? [Answered]
MarTech contributor Mike Maynard has published an article answering the question, ‘Is martech driving the blandification of marketing?’.
He says, “Marketers have more tools than ever to personalize, automate and optimize — yet those same technologies are making our work look and sound increasingly alike.
At a recent conference, consultant Steve Fair illustrated this perfectly. He’s known for “Post-it Lady” — a woman staring at a wall of sticky notes in a popular Unsplash image that appears on countless agency websites. Fair showed how many agencies that claim to be different use that same photo.
His point was simple: even a great image can kill differentiation when everyone uses it. The irony is that the abundance of online image libraries has made agencies look more alike, not less. Martech often has the same effect.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Martech introduced countless innovations to help us personalize and optimize campaigns. I’ve been in the industry long enough to remember the excitement of automatically adding a salutation to a letter or fax.”
Is It Better To Refresh Content Or Create New Pages? [Answered]
Search Engine Journal contributor Adam Riemer has answered the question, ‘Is It Better To Refresh Content Or Create New Pages?’ in Ask An SEO series.
He says, “Once you have the new page created, look for where it can tie into the page you initially wanted to refresh and add an internal link to the new page. This gives the visitor on the page the opportunity to learn more or find the alternative, and then click back to finish reading or shopping. It also helps search engines and crawlers find their way to the new content.
New pages could be a good solution for:
- Articles and guides where you want to define a topic, strategy, or theory in more detail.
- Ecommerce experience to bring users to a sub-collection or sub-category, or a product alternative for things that are better for specific needs like size, fit, make, or model, etc.”
