Category: SEO

In the fast-paced digital landscape, it is crucial to remove outdated content from your website regularly. Outdated content can mislead readers, harm your website’s credibility, hinder search engine optimization efforts, and sometimes create compliance risks.

Proactively identifying and eliminating outdated content can ensure accuracy, enhance the reader’s experience, improve search rankings, maintain industry compliance, and present a positive brand image.

In this post, we will explore the importance of removing outdated content and provide insights on how to do it effectively if you want your website to stay fresh and updated.

What Is Outdated Content?

Outdated content refers to any information, media, or resources that have become obsolete, inaccurate, or irrelevant to the current context or audience. It can include various forms of content, including articles, blog posts, images, videos, product descriptions, and more. 

Outdated content on most websites may arise due to changes in industry practices, technological advancements, legislation updates, consumer preference shifts, product/service offerings, products out of stock or no longer available, and more.

It can confuse readers, damage a website’s reputation, and hinder improved search engine rankings. Google has favored websites that continuously update their content and keep it fresh for readers by rewarding them with better search engine rankings.

Identifying and removing outdated content is crucial to maintaining credibility, providing accurate information, and enhancing user experience. We are in the age of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), where content relevance at any particular time is a ranking signal. When your content is irrelevant to the current times, your rankings drop; when it is relevant, your rankings improve.

Why You Need to Remove Outdated Content 

1. Accuracy and Credibility

Outdated content can provide incorrect or misleading information to your audience. Keeping your content up to date ensures that you provide accurate and reliable information, enhancing your credibility and reputation.

With more accurate and credible content, you can also command more clicks to your offers because of the improved trust with your audience.

2. User Experience

Users rely on your content for relevant and valuable information. Outdated content can frustrate and confuse them, leading to a poor user experience. A lousy reader experience makes them leave your website without spending much time on it, increasing your bounce rate. A high bounce rate is recorded by Google: “Even though we send readers to this website, people leave the website very fast, which means they don’t like the website. So we will stop sending people to this website.”

It’s not exactly what Google says, but this is what it will think, and then boom! Your rankings drop.

Removing outdated content improves user satisfaction and engagement, positively impacting your website’s performance, keeping readers on your website longer (hence a lower bounce rate), and a positive signal to Google that the readers it’s sending to your website love it.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. Outdated content can negatively impact your search engine rankings, reducing your visibility and organic traffic. Regularly removing and updating obsolete content with current and optimized content can help improve your SEO efforts.

Read Also: SEO Tips to Help You Rank Higher

When people search for things on Google, now Google shows them how long ago the content they’re finding was published or last updated. See this screenshot below:

The one with the most recently published data is ranked higher than the article with a later date. In most cases, Google’s users will prefer to click on the topmost result that’s been recently updated.

Don’t miss out on the clicks or higher SEO rankings because of outdated content. Keep your content updated whenever you can.

4. Industry Compliance

Industries undergo changes in regulations, best practices, and standards over time. Outdated content may no longer align with the latest compliance requirements for your niche, potentially leading to legal or regulatory issues.

Some marketers have lost money in court battles because they didn’t understand the offers they were promoting or were too busy promoting them, and they didn’t realize the policies of those programs had become fraudulent. Think it’s a joke? Read this: Affiliate Marketers to Pay More Than $4 Million to Settle Charges that They Promoted a Fraudulent Business Coaching and Investment Scheme.

By removing outdated content, you ensure that your platform remains compliant and avoids any potential liabilities. If you were promoting a program that became fraudulent, you need to update your content as soon as possible to stay compliant.

5. Resource Optimization

Outdated content takes up storage space, server resources, crawling budget, and maintenance efforts. By removing outdated content, you free up valuable resources that can be allocated to more relevant and helpful content, improving overall website performance and efficiency.

6. Brand Perception

Outdated content reflects poorly on your website.

It may give the impression that you are not actively maintaining and updating your site, potentially diminishing trust with potential visitors.

Removing outdated content demonstrates your commitment to providing current and valuable information, enhancing your website’s perception.

Read Also: Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Brand?

How to Remove Outdated Content Safely 

Removing outdated content safely is necessary to ensure your website’s integrity and user experience and avoid the loss of good content that could still serve your readers.

Here are detailed steps on how to remove outdated content safely:

1. Conduct a Comprehensive Content Audit

Before removing any content, perform a thorough content audit to identify outdated pages, articles, or resources.

This audit should include checking website analytics, feedback or comments from your readers, engagement metrics, and SEO KPIs.

Look for content with outdated information, low user engagement, high bounce rates, or declining traffic.

In some cases, even pages with consistent traffic (not falling or rising) might get better performance after an content update.

2. Establish Clear Criteria for Outdated Content

Define specific criteria for determining whether the content is obsolete.

This could include outdated facts, statistics, references, technologies, or practices. Also, check for links to any broken or 404 pages.

Consider consulting subject matter experts or doing more research to ensure the content’s accuracy and relevance.

3. Prioritize Content for Removal

Once you have identified outdated content, prioritize the removal process.

Focus on pages with the highest negative impact on user experience, search engine rankings, or compliance issues.

Consider the potential consequences of removing content, such as broken internal links or adverse user reactions, and plan accordingly.

4. Archive or Update Relevant Information

For content that still contains valuable information but needs updates, consider archiving or updating it.

Archiving involves moving content to a separate section of your website and preserving it for reference. Updated content can be edited to reflect current information.

5. Implement Proper Redirects

When removing outdated content, implement proper redirects to guide users and search engines to the new addresses where they can find the most relevant and up-to-date version of the content.

To redirect visitors and search engines from old URLs to the new equivalent URLs, utilize 301 redirects.

This prevents users from encountering 404 errors and helps preserve your website’s search engine rankings because Google will direct users to the new page and keep your rankings intact.

6. Update Internal Links and References

After removing or updating content, review and update any internal links or references pointing to the outdated content.

This includes updating links within your website’s content, navigation menus, sidebar widgets, or related post sections.

Broken or incorrect internal links can negatively impact your user experience, which has a ripple effect on your website’s rankings.

7. Communicate Changes to Users and Stakeholders

Inform your readers about the removal or updating of outdated content.

Consider adding a notification on the affected pages that shows the content has been updated or removed. You can also publish a blog post explaining the reasons behind the changes.

This helps manage user expectations, reduces confusion, and demonstrates transparency with your audience.

8. Maintain a Backup of the Removed Content

Before removing any content, create a backup to preserve a copy of the original content.

This ensures that you have a record of the removed content for future reference or in case you need to restore it.

9. Handle 404 Errors Properly

Despite implementing redirects, some users may still encounter 404 errors due to outdated links or cached pages. Customize your 404 error page to provide a helpful message and suggest alternative resources or navigation options. Monitor your website for 404 errors and fix them promptly to enhance the user experience.

10. Update Xml Sitemaps and robots.txt Files

After removing or updating content, update your XML sitemap to reflect the changes.

This allows search engines to locate and index your updated information quickly.

Review your robots.txt file to ensure it doesn’t block search engine crawlers from accessing your updated pages.

11. Conduct Thorough Testing and Quality Assurance (QA)

Before and after removing outdated content, conduct thorough testing and QA checks.

Test your website’s navigation, internal links, redirects, and search functionality to ensure everything functions correctly.

Also, check for any unintended consequences of the removal, such as broken design elements or functionality.

12. Monitor Search Engine Indexation and Traffic

Keep a close eye on search engine indexation to ensure your updated content is properly crawled and indexed.

Monitor your website’s traffic, user behavior, and engagement metrics after removal to gauge the impact and identify any necessary adjustments.

SEO Factors to Remember Before Removing Your Outdated Content

When removing outdated information from your website, it’s critical to consider the possible influence on your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Here are the key SEO factors to keep in mind before removing outdated content:

1. Traffic and Rankings

Review the organic traffic and search engine rankings of the content you plan to remove.

If the content drives significant traffic or ranks well for relevant keywords, consider the potential impact on your website traffic and visibility.

Look for opportunities to update or repurpose the content instead of removing it to maintain the traffic and rankings.

2. Backlinks

Examine the backlinks pointing to the outdated content pages.

Backlinks are crucial for SEO as they contribute to your website’s authority and search engine rankings.

If the writing has important backlinks, redirect the URLs to relevant pages on your site to maintain link equity and keep the SEO juice.

3. Internal Link Structure

Evaluate the internal links pointing to outdated content.

Internal linking plays a significant role in distributing link equity across your website and helping search engines understand the hierarchy and relevance of your content.

If you remove internally linked content, ensure that you update or remove those internal links to maintain a logical and organized internal link structure.

4. User Experience

Consider the impact on user experience when removing content.

If the outdated content provides valuable information or serves as a reference for users, removing it abruptly can disrupt their experience.

In such cases, it’s better to update the content with current information or redirect users to a relevant alternative rather than remove it entirely.

5. Redirect Strategy

Implement proper redirect strategies when removing content. If the outdated content has valuable traffic or backlinks, use 301 redirects to redirect users and search engines to relevant and updated pages.

This helps preserve link equity, maintain user experience, and prevent organic traffic loss.

6. XML Sitemap and Robots.txt

Update your XML sitemap and robots.txt file after removing the content. Remove the URLs of the outdated content from your XML sitemap to ensure search engines don’t crawl and index them.

Review your robots.txt file to ensure it doesn’t block search engine crawlers from accessing your updated pages.

7. Keyword Considerations

Evaluate the keywords targeted by outdated content. If the content ranks for valuable keywords or contributes to your keyword strategy, consider updating it with fresh information rather than obliterating it.

Ensure the updated content aligns with your keyword strategy and provides relevant and optimized content for target keywords.

Read Also: Keyword Optimization Guide For SEO Beginners

8. User Intent and Search Queries

Analyze the user intent and search queries behind outdated content. If the content no longer aligns with user intent or fails to address users’ queries effectively, it may be appropriate to remove it.

However, consider creating new content or optimizing existing pages to meet user intent and address those search queries, ensuring you don’t leave gaps in your content coverage.

9. Monitor and Adapt

After removing outdated content, monitor your website’s performance, organic traffic, and search engine rankings.

Analyze the impact of the removal and make necessary adjustments based on the data. If you notice significant drops in traffic or rankings, consider revisiting your content strategy and finding alternative ways to address user needs and search engine requirements.

Tools You Can Use to Remove Outdated Content

1. Content Management System (CMS) Tools

If your website is built on a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, you can leverage the built-in tools and plugins to manage and remove outdated content.

These CMS platforms often offer features to delete or update content in bulk, schedule content removal, and manage redirects.

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides valuable insights into the performance of your website’s content.

Utilize the “Behavior” section to analyze engagement metrics, such as bounce rates, time on page, and exit rates.

Identify pages with low engagement that may be candidates for removal or updating.

3. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a powerful website crawler that can help you identify outdated content and broken links.

It scans your website and provides detailed reports on URL status codes, metadata, and other SEO-related information.

Use it to find pages with outdated timestamps, low word counts, or other indicators of obsolete content.

4. SEMrush

SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool that offers various features to assist with content management.

Use the Site Audit feature to identify outdated pages, broken links, or issues affecting SEO performance.

The Content Analyzer tool helps you analyze content quality, relevance, and engagement metrics.

5. Google Search Console

Google Search Console gives information about how your website ranks in Google’s search results.

Use the “Coverage” report to identify any errors or issues with your pages, including outdated content.

The “URL Inspection” tool allows you to check individual URLs and request removal from Google’s index if necessary.

6. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset that offers features to analyze and manage your website’s content.

Searching for specific keywords or subjects may uncover old information with the content explorer tool.

You can also utilize the Site Audit feature to identify pages with low traffic, low backlinks, or other indicators of outdated content.

Final Take 

Removing outdated content from your website is crucial for maintaining relevance, user experience, and SEO performance.

You can safely identify and remove outdated content by following a systematic approach, utilizing tools, and considering SEO factors.

This process helps ensure that your website provides accurate and valuable information to your audience while maintaining its visibility and authority on search engine pages.

Keep your content fresh, up-to-date, and aligned with user needs to impact your website’s performance positively.

In SEO, things move more quickly than you can keep up, and landing on the first page of Google seems like hitting the jackpot. If you’ve ever worried about keywords, been frustrated by backlinks, or wondered why your site isn’t ranking despite your best efforts, you’re not alone. SEO can be a difficult and sometimes perplexing job, but it also has a lot of amusing moments that only those in the industry fully understand.

In this post, we’ve compiled 35 SEO memes that shows the ups and downs of the job . Now get a cup of coffee,  settle in, and get ready to chuckle (or groan) as you go through the most hilarious SEO jokes the internet has to offer.

1. The Viral Unicorn vs. The SEO Marathoner

It’s humorous sometimes, despite all the hard work, a bit of luck and timing can catapult someone to the top! It’s like watching someone effortlessly get through a challenging course you’ve been sweating over by using a secret shortcut that no one else is aware of.

2. Cat Listens, No One Else

It seems like only your cat, with its unblinking gaze and full attention, fully comprehends the depths of your SEO existence. Your cat sits there, ears perked up, hanging on every word as if you’re sharing the secrets of the universe, while everyone else is lost in the jargon.

3. The Ultimate Test of Patience

You speak SEO, but they hear “blah, blah, blah.” They don’t care about the complex science involved—they just want to know why their rankings are declining!

4. Seriously, Google?

Just when you thought you could relax and enjoy the holidays, your rankings decide to take a holiday too!”

5. Planning a Coup?

It’s like trying to dethrone a king with an impenetrable fortress—sure, a coup is possible, but it’s going to take a lot more than just good content.

6. Either Way, it’s A Headache!

Is there a Google update that will pass, or have you been penalized? Either way, you’re stuck figuring out how to get back on track!

7. Great Job, Honey!

It’s a little accomplishment, but it feels like winning the lottery of internet validation. Finally your moms comments have a competition!

8. My Morning Brew

Knowing that my content has just received a boost, I’m motivated to plunge into optimizing and ascending the SERPs, driven by coffee and SEO successes!

9. The Polite Threat

I may not know where you are, but I’ll find you and politely ask you to remove those links!

10. Constantly Checking SERP positions? Yep, We All Do It

No matter how many SERP tools come out, we just can’t resist. SEO is thrilling for geeks. Google always keeps us on our toes. So, here we are: checking rankings, checking again in incognito mode.

11. It’s Just Waiting for Google to Get Around to You

SEO may appear hard, but it is more about patience than brain surgery. With a little time and effort, you will notice results!

12. No Content Strategy? Nice Try, But No Entry!

Without a content strategy, you’re not getting through the SEO gatekeepers. You Gotta Have a Plan, Bro! Without one, you’re just wandering aimlessly in the SEO wilderness!

13. Thought I Will Never Find You

I’ve finally done it! It makes you want to shout from the rooftops. That moment is pure, unadulterated joy, and no amount of metrics can ever measure it!

14. Nichmares Again!

You’re tossing and turning, dreaming of keyword opportunities and market segments, as if your subconscious is hosting its own SEO conference. SEO can consume your thoughts, even when you’re supposed to be catching some z’s!

15. How Now?

It’s like asking for a slow-cooked, gourmet meal but demanding it in five minutes. But don’t worry, we’ll turn up the heat as much as we can and get those results cooking faster.

16. You Might Lose Your Leg Next Time😄

It’s like saying “I’m not afraid of spiders” and then realizing you’re in a room full of them.

17. Oh, Really? Dream On!

Sure, good content is important, but don’t forget about all the other factors that come into play!

18. The Never-Ending Battle

Please google let me hold it a little longer.

19. Your Crush Doesn’t Know You Exist

Time to give it a makeover before Google swipes left for good.

20. Backlink Insomnia

“I really need to build more backlinks!” It’s funny how SEO stress can invade your sleep and make you obsess over backlinks.

21. Play By The Rules, Buddy 😉

The goal is to play fair and make Google’s job easier by offering valuable content and a great user experience. Earn those rankings with quality content and honest effort! The goal is to stand out, not to sneak around!

22. A Thousand Reasons To Smile

Could have been worse, LOL! Seeing this graph makes me realize my day isn’t so bad after all. Sometimes, a little perspective on someone else’s SEO struggles can be oddly comforting.

23. The SEO Struggle of Being Almost Famous

You’re so close to the spotlight, but somehow, you’re stuck in the “better luck next time” zone! “Don’t give up your big break could be just one search engine adjustment away!”

24. SEO Goldmine

Time to seize that prime spot on the SERP and enjoy the sweet taste of SEO victory!

25. The Ultimate ‘Déjà Vu’ Moment

When your competitor takes ‘great minds think alike’ to a whole new level.

26. I’m Just A Devotee At The Church of Google

While my friends and family think I’m a tech wizard, I’m only just paying tribute to the Google gods if you see me with my eyes glued to the screen and whispering sweet nothings to the search bar, know that I’m just paying homage to the SEO gods.

27. Google’s Wandering Eye

Did I forget to sprinkle some magic SEO fairy dust? The whole thing just leaves me scratching my head and laughing through my frustration—because, let’s be honest, sometimes the SEO game is just downright confusing!

28. Pure frustration! Lol

I start off with enthusiasm, but end up feeling like I’m reciting the alphabet in a foreign language. They’re nodding and smiling, but I can tell they’re mentally checking out! Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if I should just show them cat videos instead!

29. Just Lost My Appetite

Why does every update feel like Google’s way of saying, “Surprise! Your hard work is now a puzzle with missing pieces”?

30. Seriously, Where Do We Hide?

And just when you think you’ve found a hiding spot, Google’s like, “Found you!”

31. If Pity’s Too Much, How About a Bit of Shame? Lol!

So here I am, laughing through my exasperation, wishing Google would at least feel a twinge of embarrassment for all the chaos they create!

32. Mastering the Art of SEO Self-Sabotage

Hey Google, check me out! I’m so obviously human with all my ‘genuine’ spelling errors and grammar slip-ups, right? No way an AI would mess up like this, so my EEAT score is bound to skyrocket… isn’t it? Guess am in for a shock!

33. Newsflash! You can’t Rank By Adding More Garbage

Exactly! More words don’t equal better rankings. Quality and relevance are key.

34. The Struggle is Real

I stand a chance but its tough though. I need the Lords intervention too!

35. When Your Client Thinks SEO is Instant Magic—Brace for the LOLs

Unfortunately, we don’t have a fairy godmother on speed dial.

If you’re like most people, Google is your go-to search engine due to its unmatched popularity and domination. It might not, however, always provide the greatest experience for everyone. Whether you want new viewpoints, increased privacy, or more customized search results, there are numerous options to consider.

Here are 25 excellent Google search engine alternatives to consider. These search engines each have unique features, privacy benefits, or specialized search capabilities.

AI-Powered Search Engines

AI search engines offer numerous benefits, including the capacity to understand context, quicker and more relevant results, and customized experiences.

They do, however, have drawbacks, including the possibility of bias, privacy issues, and an excessive reliance on technology.

It’s important to exercise caution while using AI search engines, double-check information from several sources, and be mindful of any potential negative effects. In this manner, you may maximize the advantages while lowering the dangers.

1. Bing

Google’s closest rival is Microsoft’s Bing search engine. It offers a variety of search features, such as map, video, and image searches.

According to HawkSEM, about 27% of US search queries are handled by Microsoft’s Bing.

Bing offers a range of customizable search settings, such as location settings, privacy controls to control data collection and usage, and safe search filters.

With the help of Microsoft’s AI technologies, Bing’s search capabilities are improved, outperforming many other search engines in terms of accuracy and contextual relevancy.   

Bing uses its own search algorithms and crawler, making its SERPs different from Google’s. It also offers Microsoft Rewards, earning users points for searches or shopping. These points are redeemable in Microsoft and Windows stores.

Bing has its chatbot, Copilot, which provides customized results to users.

According to Meetanishi Microsoft Bing gets more than 3 billion monthly active users.

3. Perplexity.ai

Perplexity AI is a search engine powered by AI that can be accessed via online and mobile applications. Since its launch in 2022, it has grown to 15 million users and answered 250 million questions by July 2024.

The platform uses AI to provide answers to search queries, providing source links that allow users to explore the original content. While the basic version is free, membership is necessary to access other services like image generation and Copilot, an intelligent assistant that prompts follow-up questions to improve search results.

However, because it relies on large language models (LLMs) to extract answers, Perplexity can occasionally generate false or misleading results.
For example, when asked “What are the seven wonders of the world”, Perplexity delivered a clear and informative response, accompanied by helpful citations for further reading.

4. You.com

You.com was founded in 2020 by Richard Socher, a well-known natural language processing (NLP) expert and former Salesforce chief scientist. Since its launch, they have served 1 billion queries.

You.com’s AI-powered search engine provides summary responses to questions. Additionally, they offer a list of websites with content related to your search.

Even though You.com has its internet crawler, it uses Bing to power its searches. You can select between a private mode, which guarantees that You.com does not gather any of your data, and a personal mode, which provides more customized options. You.com offers both a paid and freemium edition.

Additionally, the company provides an AI writing helper called YouWrite, an image-generating tool driven by AI, and a Chrome extension.

You may select from more than 20 different AI models with it, making it the ideal option for AI enthusiasts.

Mainstream Search EngineschGPT

Mainstream search engines have established themselves as credible competitors to Google and have retained a small but consistent market share over the last few years.

5. Yahoo!

Yahoo! is one of the more popular alternatives to Google, with a decent 2.67% of the market share in 2023.

Yahoo was around before Google. It started as a web portal and in 1995 developed its search engine. Yahoo’s strength lies in its diversification; in addition to search, it offers services like email, news, finance, and more.

Since Yahoo! uses Microsoft Bing as its engine, search results are comparable. It has a simple, text-heavy layout for its search results page.

Yahoo received over 700 million monthly active users and received 3.4 billion monthly visits in 2022 even though their search market share is declining.

6. Ecosia

The primary distinction that sets Ecosia apart is its dedication to using ad income for green initiatives, like planting trees.

Ecosia plants a tree for around every 45 searches you conduct. They give you a customized counter to keep track of the number of searches you’ve done, which demonstrates your direct involvement in reforestation.

Nearly 210 million trees have been planted by Ecosia to date, and the organization has also committed 85 million euros, or roughly $92 million, to climate action.

It doesn’t build a personal profile to customize adverts and search results, nor does it keep your search history indefinitely (it gets erased after a week). Additionally, Ecosia is open about the fact that you can disable cookies.

Additionally, Ecosia asserts that it is carbon-negative, having constructed its solar power plant to power its servers sustainably. Ecosia is free, however, you can gift a tree.  

7. Aol

AOL, previously America Online, is a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. You still get a start page with selected hot subjects from the news, entertainment, sports, health, food, and finance categories in the online portal game.

However, it can also be used as a web search engine. In the US, its market share is 0.09%. During the 1990s and 2000s, it was extremely popular.

It is not the most private search engine because location and activity tracking are enabled by default. On the other hand, you can disable these through the Privacy Dashboard. The search results are powered by partnerships with Google and Bing.

Privacy-Focused Search Engines

Protecting your digital privacy might be tough in the present day of targeted ads and tracking. For a more private and safe online search experience, these are the best alternative search engines.

8. Startpage

Startpage, headquartered in the Netherlands, provides Google-like search capabilities without tracking users. It is excellent for people who appreciate privacy.

Instead of searching the entire web, Startpage collects results from numerous search engines such as Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, highlighting links that are present across all of them. It also includes a URL generator, a proxy service, and HTTPS capability.

Startpage had topped 3 million daily searches by 2023, indicating that it was becoming increasingly popular among privacy-conscious users. It also complies with the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), which ensures user data privacy.

9. DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a mainstream search engine, but its main appeal is that it doesn’t collect or store any personal information.

In 20121 it had substantial growth, managing about 98.79 million search queries per day. DuckDuckGo accounted for 2.13% of the US search market as of December 2023.

DuckDuckGo’s search results come from over 400 sources, but no personal information is shared with any of them.

DuckDuckGo is a wonderful solution for those who value their privacy and personal information when exploring the web.

They have DuckDuckGo Lite, a mobile version of the search engine.

10. Swisscows

Swisscows is a privacy-focused search engine headquartered in Switzerland, a country known for its strict privacy rules. It uses semantic information recognition to get rapid and efficient search results without retaining personal information.

Swisscows is also family-friendly, with automatic filtering of violent and inappropriate content. It avoids using tracking cookies and geolocation. While it uses Bing for web searches, it created its index for the German language edition.

With over 20 million searches processed monthly in 2018, Swisscows distinguished itself as a search engine that respects user privacy by not collecting or keeping data.

Swisscows also provides a unique, ad-free music search option that respects user privacy.

11. Brave Search

The private search engine Brave Search is produced by Brave Software, the same company that created the privacy-focused Brave browser.

In 2023, it became completely independent of other search engines such as Bing, relying only on its index to improve user privacy and transparency in search results.

Brave Search, which is integrated with the Brave browser, provides an ad-free browsing experience while also rewarding users with cryptocurrency, resulting in a unique combination of privacy and earnings.

Brave Search has grown rapidly, with 24.57 million daily active users as of January 2024. Additionally, it states that over 65 million people use the Brave browser every month for a faster and safer browsing experience.

12. Gibiru

Gibiru is a search engine that values privacy and does not censor results. It is ideal for people who want to avoid being tracked by the government or companies. Gibiru’s servers remove all search logs within seconds after processing the query. In March, Gibiru received 2.84 million visitors. It uses a modified Google algorithm to provide search results, so you can get what you’re looking for without worrying about Google tracking you.

Gibiru also offers a mobile app for anonymous online browsing. Gibiru earns commission when users make purchases or perform activities based on its search results, rather than using personal data for ads.

Search Engines for Specific Countries or Languages

These search engines are intended to address the special needs of users in various regions by reflecting local languages and cultural backgrounds. They can adjust to both language and cultural differences.

For example, Baidu and Yandex adhere to local censorship laws, which influence the material that users see. Similarly, Naver’s design has been modified to South Korean consumers’ preferences.

Here are some notable examples:

13. Baidu

Baidu is China’s leading search engine, with a 66% market share. Its search results cater specifically to the Chinese market, with content hosted on Chinese servers ranking higher in the SERPs.

Baidu, like Google, provides a variety of services, such as maps, music, movies, and an app store. In addition, Baidu offers a mobile browser and an app.

14. Yandex

Yandex is Russia’s top search engine, with more than 50% of the market share. It is well-known for its powerful algorithm, which accurately interprets Russian-language search requests. Yandex is also widely used in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Apart from its search engine, Yandex offers a range of services like Yandex.Maps, Yandex.Music, and Yandex.Money, all of which contribute to a smooth user experience.

It also has an advertising network that lets businesses and organizations reach their intended audiences.

15. Sogou

Sogou is a rapidly growing Chinese search engine with a 5% market share in China. It provides an interactive search experience and includes features like WeChat integration, article search, English search, and translation services.

Sogou is committed to providing professional, accurate, and convenient search results by utilizing its own artificial intelligence algorithms.

16. Naver

Naver is the second most popular search engine in South Korea, accounting for 34% of the market share. Its interface is only in Korean, with no English version available.

As a local search engine, Naver does not index the entire internet. Instead, it concentrates on offering a variety of services, including blogs, news, music, and shopping.

Furthermore, Naver provides a mobile app for easy searching on the go.

Charitable search engines

17. Goodsearch

Goodsearch is a charitable search engine that donates a portion of its profits to organizations that its users choose. Goodsearch donates $0.01 to the user’s selected charity for each search that is conducted. Yahoo generates the search results.

But there are a few things you should know about the GoodSearch browser extension. It is categorized as a browser hijacker by PCRisk, which implies that it can change browser settings without the permission of the user, possibly compromising their security and privacy.

18. YouCare

YouCare, a charitable search engine founded in France, gives away 80% of its income to various charitable organizations.

YouCare stands out for being transparent; to confirm the contributions made, go to their donation certificates page. YouCare also has a counter that keeps track of how many searches you’ve done.

You can also specify where your money can be allocated among the many charitable deeds.

A Copyright-Free Search Engine

19. Openverse

Openverse is an open-source search engine developed as part of the WordPress initiative to assist users locate free and freely licensed content like as images and audio.

Unlike Google, which provides a broader range of search results, Openverse focuses on a huge, searchable library of open-source media, such as images, audio, and videos.

It’s excellent for anyone who needs music for movies or photos for blog articles without having to worry about copyright issues.

Openverse indexes more than 700 million objects from 45 sources, including Wikimedia Commons and Flickr.

A Revenue-Sharing Search Engine

20. Yep.com

Yep.com, created by Ahrefs, positions itself as a unique search engine that prioritizes user privacy by not tracking or selling user data.

While it monitors the frequency of keyword searches and the click popularity of links, it does not create personal profiles for targeted advertisements. Its business approach encourages direct pay for content providers by offering a 90/10 revenue share.

Additionally, it does not keep search history, IP addresses, or User-Agent strings indefinitely.

Knowledge-Based Search Engines

21. Wiki.com

Wiki.com collects results from thousands of wikis throughout the internet, making it a perfect search engine for people who value community-driven information, such as Wikipedia.

Wiki.com increases the accessibility of varied information sources by focusing on collaborative content, which appeals to individuals who value community-led information.

22. Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive, often known as the Wayback Machine, is a useful tool for researching historical web pages and much more.

It serves as a comprehensive online library, providing access to a wide collection of digitized materials such as millions of free videos, books, music, and software.

23. X (Formerly Twitter)

X stands out as a fantastic real-time search engine, especially useful during situations when immediate updates are critical. While Google may eventually catch up, nothing beats the speed of a tweet in critical situations.

X excels in providing minute-by-minute information, making it the go-to platform for those who need quick updates and insights when every second counts.

Its capacity to supply real-time material ensures that people remain informed and connected during critical events.

Specialized Search Engines

Specialized search engines focus on specialized topics or industries, giving users more relevant and focused results than broad search engines such as Google.

Here are some  examples:

24. WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha is a powerful computational knowledge engine that delivers precise answers in a variety of fields, including mathematics, science, and linguistics.

It is an excellent resource for students, teachers, and professionals.

The Pro version, priced at $5.49 per month, includes advanced computing and data processing features.

25. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is widely known as a business-oriented search engine, with 61 million searches made each week. Its search algorithm promotes the originality of an organization’s LinkedIn Page name; more distinctive names get higher search results. 

However, overusing keywords might backfire, triggering spam filters and lowering visibility.

The system takes into account criteria such as the number of followers, connections to the searcher, page activity, and the relevancy of search terms in the organization’s name, all of which influence search ranks.

Conclusion

While Google is still the preferred search engine for many people, it’s important to know that it may not always be the greatest fit for your requirements and tastes.

Exploring other search engines can have numerous advantages, including increased privacy and a more personalized search experience. Whether you want to share entertaining material or protect your online privacy, these options can help.

From privacy-focused platforms to those with unique features and eco-friendly solutions, there is a search engine for everyone. We encourage you to experiment with these alternatives and share your results.

Which ones did you try, and how did they affect your search habits?

Let’s say you just launched your website. It looks great, it has all your services, maybe even a blog post or two. Now what?

How do people find you on Google?

This is where SEO comes in.

In this guide, I’ll explain what SEO really means, how it works, and how to start using it—in plain, non-technical language. Whether you’re a small business owner, startup founder, or total beginner, this is for you.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

It simply means making changes to your website and content so that search engines like Google can:

1. Find your pages
2. Understand what your pages are about
3. Decide to show them to people searching for something relevant

In other words: SEO helps your website show up when people search for things on Google.

If you sell handmade soap, and someone types “natural lavender soap for sensitive skin” into Google—you want your page to show up, right?

That’s SEO.

How Does SEO Work?

To understand SEO, you have to know what happens behind the scenes when someone types something into Google.

Here’s a simple version of what Google does:

1. Crawls your site (like a robot scanning all your pages)
2. Indexes your pages (stores them in its giant library)
3. Ranks them (decides which page should show up first for each search)

To help Google do this well, your site needs to be clear, helpful, trustworthy, and easy to navigate.

Let’s break it down further.

Key Concepts to Understand

1. SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

The SERP is what you see after typing a question or phrase into Google.

It includes:

• Organic results (these are the ones SEO helps with)
• Ads (people pay to show up here)
• Featured snippets, AI overviews, people also ask, and more

Your goal in SEO is to appear in the organic results—ideally near the top, because most people don’t scroll far.

2. Keywords

Keywords are the words or phrases people type into Google.

For example:

• “how to bake banana bread”
• “best hiking shoes for beginners”
• “accounting software for freelancers”

To rank on Google, your content needs to match the intent behind those keywords. That means:

• If someone wants a guide, give them a full tutorial
• If they want to compare products, create a comparison
• If they want to buy, show them pricing and features

Keyword research is the process of figuring out what people search for, how often, and how hard it is to rank.

3. Links (Backlinks and Internal Links)

Backlinks are when other websites link to your site. Think of it like a vote of confidence.

• The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more Google trusts your content.
• That trust helps your pages rank higher.

Internal links are when you link from one page on your site to another.

• This helps users navigate your site
• It helps Google understand how your pages relate to each other

4. Crawling and Indexing

Google uses bots (called spiders or crawlers) to scan the web.

• Crawling is when the bot visits your site and checks out your pages.
• Indexing is when Google stores that information and decides whether your page should be shown in search.

If your site has broken pages, weird code, or missing information, Google might skip it or not understand it well.

That’s why technical SEO—making sure your site loads fast, works on phones, and is structured clearly—is so important.

What SEO Looks Like in Practice

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you run a local dog grooming business in Seattle.

You create a page titled “Professional Dog Grooming Services in Seattle.”

You include:

• A clear description of your services
• Prices
• Photos
• Customer reviews
• Your location and hours

You also:

• Add this page to your website’s menu
• Submit your site to Google using Search Console
• Ask a local pet blogger to mention your service (earning a backlink)

Now when someone nearby searches “dog grooming near me” or “pet grooming Seattle,” Google might show your page—especially if your competitors aren’t doing SEO.

That’s the power of SEO.

Why SEO Matters

• It brings free traffic to your website
• It compounds over time: the longer you invest, the more results you get
• It builds trust and authority with your audience
• It helps you get discovered by people actively searching for what you offer

You don’t need to be an expert to get started.

You just need to:

• Create helpful content
• Make your site easy to use
• Learn a little at a time
• Keep showing up

SEO is like planting seeds. It takes time, but once things start growing, the results keep coming.

What’s Next?

Now that you understand what SEO is, you might want to:

• Learn how long SEO takes to work → [Read our SEO Timeline Guide]
• Discover what search intent is → [What Is Search Intent and Why It Matters?]
• Fix common tech issues on your site → [Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO]

Let’s take it one step at a time. You’ve already started.

Welcome to SEO.

Backlinks remain one of the most critical factors in improving search engine rankings. This guide highlights 40 free backlink sites that can help you earn high-quality backlinks to your website.

We selected platforms based on their reliability, domain authority, and relevance to different industries.

Whether you’re just starting or refining your SEO strategy, these free resources offer practical opportunities to strengthen your backlink profile and boost your site’s authority in search results.

What is the Role of Backlinks in Improving SEO Rankings?

Backlinks are a key factor in how search engines evaluate and rank websites. When reputable sites link to your content, they signal trust and authority. These links validate your site’s relevance and credibility within a topic or industry.

Google and other search engines rely on backlinks as part of their ranking algorithms. The more high-quality backlinks you earn, especially from authoritative sources, the higher your site will appear in search results. It boosts organic traffic, lead generation, and brand awareness.

However, not all backlinks are equal. A few links from trusted, relevant sites are far more effective than dozens from low-quality or unrelated sources. Prioritizing quality over quantity is essential to building a strong SEO foundation.

In short, backlinks directly impact your site’s authority, visibility, and position in search results.

Read Also: How Many Backlinks Do I Need To Rank On Page 1

Top Free Backlink Sites 

In this section, we will introduce you to the top free backlink sites that can provide valuable backlinks to your website.

These websites have been selected carefully for their domain authority, relevancy, and reputation to ensure quality. As a result, utilizing these sites can improve your website’s SEO rankings and increase your online visibility.

1. Crunchbase

Crunchbase offers a high-authority (DA 81) backlink opportunity. You can list your business for free, include your website link, and optimize your profile with accurate details and relevant keywords to strengthen your backlink profile and boost SEO visibility.

2. HARO 

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) connects journalists with expert sources. Create a free account, select relevant industries, and receive three daily emails with media queries.

Respond to the ones that match your expertise. If a journalist uses your response, you’ll earn a backlink from a reputable publication.

3. MyBlogU

MyBlogU is a content collaboration platform where bloggers, writers, and marketers connect to exchange ideas and co-create content.

Create a profile and participate in interviews or brainstorming projects. Share valuable insights within your niche, and contributors may credit you with a backlink, helping you grow authority and improve SEO.

4. Google Sites 

Google Sites is a free tool that lets anyone with a Gmail account build a simple website and secure a backlink. These sites get indexed quickly, helping improve your brand’s visibility in search results.

Create a Google Site with relevant content about your niche or business. Then, add a link to your main website and optimize the page with niche-specific keywords to boost SEO.

Read Also: Best SEO Practices to Dominate the SERPs

5. Google Drive Assets

Google Drive offers more than just cloud storage. You can use it to build quality backlinks. Create public Docs, Sheets, or Forms that include links to your website.

Share these assets publicly and embed valuable content with niche-relevant links. Boosts your backlink profile, drives referral traffic, and strengthens your authority in search results.

6. SourceBottle 

SourceBottle connects journalists with expert sources. It sends daily emails with media queries from reporters looking for insights and quotes.

To earn backlinks, sign up, create a complete profile showcasing your expertise, and monitor queries related to your niche. Respond with precise, helpful pitches. If selected, your quote may appear in a published article with a backlink to your website, boosting SEO and referral traffic.

7. BizSugar

BizSugar lets business owners and entrepreneurs share tips, trends, and news. You can gain backlinks by posting niche-relevant content others vote on and engage with.

To build backlinks, create an account, publish valuable content, and include a link to your website. As your posts gain traction, other members may share or link back to your content, increasing referral traffic and SEO rankings.

8. GitHub 

GitHub is a platform where developers collaborate and share open-source projects. You can build backlinks by contributing to repositories, creating documentation, or launching your projects.

Add a link to your website in your GitHub profile, project READMEs, or shared resources. Positions you as an active contributor and helps drive traffic while improving your site’s authority.

9. GrowthHackers 

GrowthHackers is a community for digital marketers focused on business growth. You can earn backlinks by sharing original content, syndicating blog posts, and engaging in discussions.

Post valuable insights and link to your website where relevant. Consistent participation increases your visibility, drives referral traffic, and improves SEO.

10. DeviantArt 

DeviantArt is an online community where artists share artwork, photography, and GIFs. Upload your creations, include a backlink in the description or bio, and attract a new audience while improving your SEO.

Create an account, post consistently, and link to your site. Boosts visibility and earns valuable backlinks from an engaged art community.

11. Business 2 Community 

Business 2 Community is a content-sharing platform where professionals publish insights on marketing, SEO, leadership, and tech. As a contributor, you can submit original or repurposed content to build authority and gain backlinks.

Not only boosts your visibility but also drives referral traffic to your content marketing website, helping improve your search rankings.

12. SoundCloud 

SoundCloud is a popular platform for sharing both music and podcasts. Create a free account, upload your audio content, and add your website link to each track, episode description, or show notes. Helps you build backlinks and drive referral traffic from listeners.

13. Blogger

Blogger is a free, Google-owned platform you can use for link building. Set up a branded blog, publish valuable articles related to your niche, and add relevant links to your website. Optimize blog posts with keywords to drive organic traffic and strengthen your backlink profile.

14. Alltop 

Alltop is a content aggregator that collects real-time RSS feeds from top blogs and websites. Submit your blog’s RSS feed to earn a backlink, boost brand visibility, and drive referral traffic. Optimize blog content to ensure relevance and value for the Alltop audience.

Read Also: How to Remove Outdated Content from Your Website

15. Mix 

Mix is a free platform for curating and sharing content. Create an account, build collections of high-quality articles, videos, or images, and include links to your site.

As users engage with your collections, you earn backlinks, boost brand visibility, and improve your backlink profile.

16 Weebly 

Weebly is a free Web 2.0 platform for building backlinks. Use its drag-and-drop builder to create a branded site, add valuable content, and include backlinks to your main website. These links help improve SEO, boost brand visibility, and build credibility.

17. Wix 

Wix is a free platform you can use to build Web 2.0 backlinks. Create a site, add optimized content, and include backlinks to your leading site.

Sign up for a free account, customize your pages with valuable content, images, or videos, and boost your SEO with relevant links.

18. Yola

Yola is a user-friendly site builder that lets you create content and add backlinks to your business. Sign up, build a site with optimized content, and include links to your main website to strengthen your backlink profile and improve SEO rankings.

19. Live Journal

LiveJournal is a blogging platform that lets you share industry-related posts and include backlinks to your website. Create an account, publish content with targeted links, and engage readers to boost traffic and strengthen your backlink profile.

Read Also: Content Marketing Statistics to Drive Your Brand

20. Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that still offers link equity, making it helpful in building free backlinks. Create an account, share valuable multimedia content, include backlinks, and optimize posts with relevant keywords to boost traffic and brand visibility.

21. WordPress

WordPress is the world’s leading content management system, powering over 40% of all websites. To build backlinks, start with a self-hosted WordPress site.

Then, publish high-quality content in your niche and embed strategic backlinks. Additionally, engage your audience through comments and social sharing to boost SEO and increase traffic.

22. Yelp

Yelp is a high-authority platform ideal for building local backlinks. To get started, claim your business listing with a verifiable local address. Once approved, Yelp provides a free, high-quality backlink.

Next, optimize your profile with accurate details, images, and services. Finally, respond to customer reviews to build trust and improve local SEO visibility.

23. Google My Business Profile

Google My Business helps your business rank higher in local search results and builds website authority by linking your brand to a trusted Google platform.

Since 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, claiming your profile can significantly boost local visibility and customer trust

Read Also: SEO Tips to Help Your Rank Higher

24.  TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is a high-authority platform ideal for businesses in the travel industry, such as hotels, restaurants, car rentals, or tour services.

You can earn a quality backlink by creating a strong profile, responding to reviews, and highlighting what sets your business apart. Additionally, this builds trust and attracts potential customers searching for reliable travel experiences.

25. Trustpilot

Trustpilot is a customer review website that contains reviews of businesses worldwide. You may sign up, have your company listed, and add a backlink.

Then, encourage your consumers to submit reviews for your site, which can help you increase your brand’s authority in your sector.

26. LinkedIn

LinkedIn helps you connect with industry professionals and share content relevant to your niche. When you post valuable insights, engage in conversations, and link to your website, you build backlinks while increasing your brand’s authority and visibility.

27. Medium

Medium lets you publish for both original and repurposed content with backlinks to your website. Use this platform to boost your reach, build authority, and strengthen your SEO strategy.

28. Quora

Quora is a popular Q&A platform where users seek and share knowledge. While it doesn’t primarily serve for backlink building, providing valuable answers related to your expertise can indirectly drive traffic to your site.

Include links when genuinely relevant. However, be cautious not to overly self-promote, as Quora values informative contributions.

29. Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where you can showcase both contents through engaging pins and boards.

To get started, create eye-catching visuals, optimize descriptions with keywords, and link back to your website. Consistent activity helps you build visibility, drive traffic, and earn valuable backlinks.

30. Facebook

Facebook isn’t a primary backlink source, but you can still earn link equity. Create a business page, add links in the About section, and share content in posts. Join niche-relevant groups, engage with users, and post valuable content to increase visibility and drive traffic.

31. Twitter

Twitter is a popular site for various Internet marketers, and it’s an excellent place to obtain a steady supply of backlinks.

32. YouTube

YouTube is a powerful platform for building both do-follow and nofollow backlinks. Add links in your video descriptions, channel About section, and community posts.

Include more than five links per channel to drive traffic and improve SEO. Create helpful videos that match your niche, and engage with viewers to guide them to your site.

Also Read: How Many Backlinks Per Month Should You Get?

33. Vimeo

Vimeo is a professional video-sharing platform that creators and businesses use to showcase high-quality videos. Additionally, it lets you add links to your website in your profile and video descriptions.

Vimeo doesn’t primarily focus on link building, but supports your SEO strategy if you regularly publish video content. These links can drive traffic, improve visibility, and boost your brand’s authority.

34. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a widely used online encyclopedia with strict editorial standards. You can earn backlinks by contributing well-sourced, neutral content to relevant articles.

When you cite your website as a credible reference, editors may retain the link if it adds value. While Wikipedia backlinks are usually nofollow, they can improve your site’s visibility and drive traffic from a trusted platform.

35. Industry Blogs

Industry blogs offer opportunities for guest posting, which is an excellent way to earn backlinks. However, to make the most of this strategy, choose reputable blogs relevant to your niche with good domain authority, ensuring that the backlinks gained can positively impact your SEO efforts.

36. Minds

Minds is a blockchain-based social media platform where users earn tokens by posting and engaging with content.

You can include backlinks in your posts and profile to drive traffic to your site. It offers a niche space to build backlinks while participating in a decentralized, crypto-friendly community.

37. Unsplash

Unsplash is a platform where users share and download free, high-quality images. While not designed for link building, photographers and creators can add backlinks to their website in image attributions.

By uploading original photos, you can earn backlinks and drive referral traffic when others use your images and credit your site.

38. Flickr

Flickr is an image-sharing platform where users can upload and showcase their photos. Moreover, you can include your website link in image descriptions or your profile.

While Flickr isn’t primarily a backlink-building tool, popular images can generate referral traffic and improve brand visibility.

39. SlideShare

SlideShare is an online resource that allows you to share presentations and documents. Moreover, it enables users to include backlinks in their slides, making it a valuable platform for sharing content and earning backlinks.

40. Wattpad

Wattpad is a writing and reading community. While it allows authors to showcase their work, including backlinks within the content might be more complex.

However, you can still use it to engage with readers while indirectly promoting your website.

Final Take on Free Backlink Sites

Free backlink sites can help boost your SEO rankings, but they work best when used strategically. Focus on relevant platforms, share high-quality content, and diversify your link sources.

It builds a strong, natural backlink profile that supports long-term SEO growth.
Since the value of these sites can change over time, track their performance and adjust your strategy regularly to maintain lasting results.

Featured Image Source: seochatter.com

There has been a rapid increase in AI-powered search experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s evolving Search Generative Experience (SGE).

And businesses and content creators are facing a stark reality: ranking well in traditional search results is no longer the sole path to online discoverability.

Leaders must now rethink their content through two distinct, yet interconnected lenses: SEO and GEO.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the well-established practice of improving a website’s visibility and ranking in traditional SERPs to drive organic traffic and ultimately, conversions.

Here is a visual example of the traditional SEO ranking system of blue links that direct users to your page.

The primary audience for traditional SEO has always been human searchers using platforms like Google, Bing and YouTube.

Its evolution traces back to the early days of the internet, when basic algorithms analyzed keywords to determine relevance.

Over decades, SEO has matured into a complex discipline, built upon these core pillars:

• Technical SEO: Ensuring a website is crawlable, indexable and has a healthy technical foundation (e.g., site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data implementation).
• On-page SEO: Optimizing individual web pages for specific keywords and user intent (e.g., title tags, meta descriptions, headings, content quality, internal linking).
• Off-page SEO: Building authority and trust through external signals like backlinks from reputable websites, brand mentions, and social signals.
• Content Strategy: Creating authoritative and engaging content that answers user queries and satisfies their needs.

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the newer and more nuanced process of making your content retrievable, referenceable and directly cited by AI engines and large language models (LLMs).

Unlike traditional SEO, which aims to get users to click on your link, GEO aims to have your content become the answer, or at least a highly credible source for an AI-generated answer.

To visualise the current AI search, here’s a screenshot that shows an AI overview summary on the left and the relevant cited pages on the right.

The audience for GEO is fundamentally different: it’s AI models themselves and by extension, the users interacting with AI agents and conversational interfaces.

With GEO, the focus shifts from keywords in isolation to a deeper understanding of structured data, chunked facts, machine-readable formats and pervasive brand mentions.

Key Differences Between SEO and GEO

While both SEO and GEO aim for online visibility; their approaches, targets, and success metrics diverge significantly.

Here’s a breakdown of their core differences:

How GEO Impacts the Modern Marketing Funnel

AI assistants fundamentally alter the traditional marketing funnel by introducing a new, critical discovery layer: zero-click discovery.

A study by Wordstream shows that 58% of Google searches now result in zero clicks as consumers bypass traditional search results entirely.

• An example is when I asked an AI assistant: “What are the best noise-canceling headphones for travel?”

Here is a snippet of the response from a list of 10 items ranked by quality:

This shows that if your brand’s content isn’t visible to AI or detailed in a way that’s digestible by LLMs, you’re missing a massive chunk of the early-stage consumer journey.

How SEO and GEO Work Together

SEO and GEO are not mutually exclusive. Here is how they complement one another:

• SEO Feeds GEO: Well-structured and optimized content that is easy for crawlers to understand and organize is more likely to be pulled into AI-generated summaries.
• Programmatic Content For Dual-Purpose: Content generated programmatically for SEO scale (e.g., thousands of product variations or location pages) can be designed with GEO in mind to serve traditional search intent and AI prompts.
• Brand Consistency and Trust: Both SEO and GEO benefit immensely from a consistent brand message, strong trust signals (E-E-A-T) and factual clarity.

Practical Steps for Marketing Leaders

Marketing leaders must employ sound strategies to prioritize both SEO and GEO initiatives.

For SEO:

Maintain a Strong Foundation

• Invest in technical SEO and monitor your site health.
• Adopt robust backlink strategy for authority,
• Conduct a meticulous keyword mapping to ensure you’re targeting relevant human queries.

Leverage Programmatic SEO for Scale

Programmatic SEO is an efficient way to create content at scale when used strategically.

Otherwise, you run the risk of creating thin content that does not appeal to user intent.

Companies like Zapier have created thousands of landing pages for each product they integrate with using programmatic methods.

Monitor Traditional SERP Shifts

Continuous monitoring of your site is essential. A Semrush study indicates that AI search visitors could surpass traditional search visitors by early 2028 or sooner.

Keep a close eye on how Google’s AI Overviews and other generative features are impacting your organic clicks using tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.

For GEO:

Structure Content Relentlessly

Break down complex information into easily digestible “fact blocks” that AI can readily identify and utilize.

• Implement JSON-LD schema markup meticulously.
• Use HTML tables, bulleted lists, and clear FAQ sections.

Cultivate Brand Mentions Across Trusted Third-Party Sources

AI models value collective intelligence and established authority.

With strategic PR, you can:

• Secure positive reviews on industry-leading platforms.
• Build a strong network of brand citations on high-authority websites.

Test Your Content’s Visibility in AI Platforms

• Don’t just assume.
• Actively search for your brand, products, and key topics in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google’s AI Overviews.
• Map out when and how your content is cited (or not cited) by these AI models.

Publish Original Research and Definitive Guides

To stand out, create content that offers:

• Unique insights and perspectives
• Proprietary data
• Definitive answers to complex questions

GEO Tools and Metrics to Track

The measurement landscape for GEO is still in its early stages but rapidly evolving.

Here are some tools to consider:

1. Perplexity Pages / Pro Search

This tool enables SEO professionals to research topics, create comprehensive content pages, and reference their own websites for link building.

2. ChatGPT with Browse

It analyzes existing content to identify optimization opportunities and generates SEO-optimized content by browsing current web data.

When Browse is enabled, observe if ChatGPT directly links to or summarizes your content.

3. LLM Retrieval Simulators

These tools test and simulate how LLMs retrieve and process content for AI-powered search results from your site.

4. AI Visibility Tools

Platforms like Writesonic’s GEO, Profound, Peec AI, and Keyword.com are specifically designed to track brand mentions and visibility within AI-generated responses across various LLMs.

They can help you monitor citation frequency, prominence, and even sentiment.

5. Semantic SEO Tools

These tools analyze entities, topics and relationships (beyond just keywords) to improve AI comprehension.

The metrics to track include:

• The frequency of brand/content citations in AI outputs
• The position of your content within AI-generated summaries
• Sentiment of the AI references
• The types of queries that trigger your content as an AI source

The Future: From SEO Teams to Visibility Teams

The traditional “SEO team” must transition into a broader “AI Visibility Team.”

This requires new skill sets and a reimagined workflow:

• Content Engineers

These professionals are essential for structuring content for machine readability and scalability.

• AI Prompt and Retrieval Optimizers

These are specialists who understand how users phrase queries to AI and how AI models retrieve information, enabling them to fine-tune content for optimal AI response.

• Data Structuring Experts

These professionals are skilled in implementing schema, creating robust content models and ensuring data integrity across complex content systems.

Success will depend on how effectively organizations can structure their knowledge base to be consumed and cited by intelligent agents, not just crawled by traditional search bots.

The Brands That Adapt Win

The future of search is no longer just a list of blue links; it’s a combination of AI summarized answers, intelligent agents and interactive AI interfaces.

While traditional SEO is still essential for driving conversions at the final stage of the customer journey, GEO is rapidly becoming critical at the initial, zero-click discovery phase powered by AI.

Marketing leaders must recognize this shift and invest in both SEO’s foundational principles and GEO’s advanced content structuring to double their rewards; visibility and conversions.

To ignore this, is to risk obsolescence.

If you’ve just started working on your website’s SEO and are wondering when you’ll start seeing results, you’re not alone. Almost every founder, blogger, or marketer has asked this same question: How long does SEO take to work?

And the frustrating answer?

It depends.

But that’s not helpful, right? So in this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly what’s going on behind the scenes, what affects how fast (or slow) you rank, and how to know if your SEO is on the right track. Think of this like a map—one that shows you where the slow curves, steep hills, and acceleration lanes are.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Why Does SEO Take So Long to Work?

Imagine planting a seed.

You water it, give it sunlight, and care for it daily. But the next day? It still looks like a pot of dirt. That’s SEO.

SEO works kind of like farming. You’re not buying results like you would with ads. You’re building authority, relevance, and trust with Google—over time.

Here’s why it takes a while:

• Google doesn’t instantly trust your website. Especially if it’s new, Google needs time to figure out who you are and if you’re a reliable source.
  
• There are millions of websites. If you’re writing about something lots of other websites are also covering (like “best laptops” or “how to lose weight”), you’re in a tough race.
  
• Google uses hundreds of factors to rank websites. Things like your content, your website’s speed, how many other websites link to you, and how easy your site is to read and navigate.
  
• Google needs time to find and understand your content. Even if you publish a great blog post, it can take days or weeks before Google fully crawls, indexes, and evaluates it.
  

So SEO isn’t just about writing and waiting. It’s about doing the right things consistently and patiently.

How to Get SEO Results Faster

Now, while SEO takes time, there are things you can do to speed things up a little bit. Think of these like adding fertilizer to your plant—it doesn’t make it grow in one day, but it helps.

1. Choose Easier Keywords to Compete For

Let’s say you’ve just opened a tiny coffee shop in a big city. If you try to compete with Starbucks on day one, you’ll get crushed. But if you focus on your local street or neighborhood—boom, now you have a chance.

That’s what low-competition and long-tail keywords are.

Instead of going for “digital marketing,” try something like “digital marketing for handmade soap businesses.”

Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or even Google’s autocomplete can help you find these gems.

2. Understand What the Searcher Really Wants (Search Intent)

Let’s say someone types “best running shoes.” Do they want a history of shoes? No—they want recommendations.

Google tries really hard to match what people mean when they search—not just the words they type.

So before you write, Google the keyword yourself and look at the top results:

• Are they listicles? (“Top 10 Running Shoes”)
  
• Are they reviews? (“Nike vs. Adidas”)
  
• Are they how-tos? (“How to choose running shoes”)
  

Match the type of content you create with what’s already ranking. That’s what Google thinks people want.

3. Fix the Hidden Tech Problems on Your Site

Even if your writing is great, your website needs to be technically sound.

Think of it like a beautiful house built on a weak foundation—it looks good, but it’s risky.

Technical SEO means:

• Making sure your pages load fast
  
• Making sure your site works well on mobile phones
  
• Fixing broken links
  
• Avoiding duplicate content
  
• Making sure search engines can find your pages (via sitemaps and clean code)
  

You can use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or Sitebulb to find and fix problems.

4. Keep Publishing Great Content—and Clean Up the Bad Stuff

Content is your fuel.

You need to publish regularly, but more importantly—you need to publish helpful content. That means:

• Giving real answers
  
• Showing examples
  
• Keeping it updated
  

At the same time, go through your old posts. If something is thin, outdated, or useless—either fix it or delete it.

And if you have 3 articles saying the same thing? Combine them into one powerful guide and redirect the old ones.

5. Get Links—Internally and From Other Sites

Links are like votes.

If other good websites link to your content, Google sees you as trustworthy.

You can get these by:

• Guest posting
  
• Being featured in niche blogs or news sites
  
• Creating content that’s good enough to be cited naturally
  

Also, don’t forget to link between your own pages. It helps Google understand your site structure and keeps people exploring.

5 Things That Determine How Fast You’ll See Results

You can do everything right and still see slow results if these factors aren’t working in your favor:

1. Your Budget and Resources

If you’re doing everything yourself in your spare time, results will come slower. If you have a team creating content, fixing your site, and building links, things move faster.

2. Your Domain’s Age and History

Older websites that have built up a good reputation usually rank faster. New sites? They need to prove themselves.

If your domain has been penalized before (maybe someone used spammy tactics in the past), that can also slow you down.

3. How Search-Engine-Friendly Your Website Is

If your website has poor navigation, no clear structure, or messy code, Google has a hard time figuring it out. Clean things up:

• Use proper headings (H1, H2, etc.)
  
• Make sure your URLs are simple and descriptive
  
• Write good page titles and meta descriptions
  

4. How Fast Google Can Crawl and Index Your Site

Sometimes Google takes a long time to discover your pages. You can help by:

• Submitting new pages to Google Search Console
  
• Having a sitemap
  
• Avoiding pages blocked by robots.txt or “noindex” tags by mistake
  

5. The Competition in Your Industry

Trying to rank for fitness, health, finance, or tech? Expect slower results. These are ultra-competitive.

But if you’re targeting something specific like “SEO for landscaping companies in Phoenix,” you might see traction within weeks.

What a Real SEO Timeline Looks Like (Month by Month)

Let’s say you’ve just started your SEO campaign. Here’s what to expect in the first six months:

Month 1: Research and Audit

You begin by:

• Auditing your website
  
• Researching your keywords
  
• Looking at what your competitors are doing
  
• Making a game plan
  

Not much happens on the surface this month, but this research is your blueprint.

Month 2: Fixing and Preparing

You fix tech issues, set up Google tools, and maybe redesign a few parts of your site.

You’ll also start writing your first pieces of content.

But traffic? Still probably flat. That’s normal.

Month 3: Content Starts Rolling Out

Now the fun begins.

You start publishing helpful blog posts, improving service pages, and setting up internal links. If you’ve done outreach, maybe you get your first backlinks.

A few keywords might creep onto page 2 or 3 of search results.

Month 4: First Signs of Life

Now you start seeing actual growth.

• You get more impressions in Google Search Console
  
• A few posts show up on page 1 (usually for long-tail keywords)
  
• You might start getting a trickle of traffic
  

Keep going. This is where most people give up—but you’re just warming up.

Month 5: Acceleration

You’re in a groove now.

• Content is consistent
  
• You’re building links and getting mentions
  
• You’ve removed bad pages and improved your site structure
  

Traffic starts climbing. Maybe 300–1000 monthly visitors. Leads or sales might start trickling in.

Month 6: Compounding Growth

This is when it gets fun.

Your old posts are ranking higher. Your new posts get indexed faster. Your site starts earning trust.

If you’ve done things right, you might be seeing:

• 2–5x the traffic you had in month 3
  
• Consistent keyword wins
  
• Some page 1 rankings for higher-volume queries
  

So… When Will I Rank #1?

If you’re asking, “When will I be number one on Google?”—pause.

It’s not about ranking #1 for everything. It’s about building a steady stream of traffic that grows month after month.

Realistically:

• In a low-competition niche with great execution? You might see real results in 3–6 months.
  
• In a competitive niche? Expect 9–12 months before you hit serious traction.
  

But the cool part?

Once it works, it works on autopilot. No ads. No chasing trends. Just reliable, compounding organic traffic.

Final Thoughts

SEO is not a quick fix. It’s a long-term investment. But if you stick with it, the rewards are huge.

You’ll build trust, get traffic while you sleep, and eventually—rankings, leads, and authority will come to you.

So be patient. Keep learning. Keep publishing.

Your future self will thank you.

Using images from the web for your blog is a great way to grab attention and make your content more engaging. But for many content creators, figuring out where to find these free images can be quite a task.

Should you risk using images from Google and potentially run into copyright issues? Or are there better alternatives out there for sourcing free-to-use photos? The good news is there are numerous websites where you can find high-quality stock photos without any cost.

However, searching for these free images can be time-consuming. So, we’ve compiled a list of reliable sites you can turn to whenever you need to add visuals to your blog. But before we dive into that, let’s discuss why incorporating images into your blog posts is so important.

Why You Need Free Images for Your Blog

Did you know that the average attention span is now 8 seconds? Your attention span is now worse than that of a goldfish.

Part of the reason for this decline in attention is information overload. So much content is created every day. Furthermore, anyone with a smartphone or a computer can create and share content daily.

Imagine reading through paragraphs and paragraphs of nothing but text in the middle of all the distractions pictured above. It’s not easy, even for the most focused person.

So, how do you break through this noise and capture and retain your audience’s information? First, you need to write about something your audience cares about. Second, you need to create quality content.

A big part of quality content is visual content. Visual content gives your readers a break from what would otherwise be masses of text, and it makes your blog post more fun to read.

Using free images for your blog will retain your readers’ attention and help them recall the lessons in your content.

Ultimately, suppose a reader can recall your content quickly. In that case, you will remain at the top of their minds as a trusted authority and a worthwhile solution to their problems.

Now that you know why visual content in your blog posts is so important, let’s discuss where to find these images without spending money.

Where to Find Free Images for Your Blog

Luckily, there are many places to find free images for your blog. We’ve compiled a list of 13 ways you can get these images.

Licensing of Free Images

Most of the images in the sources listed below are free from copyright or licensed under Creative Commons. This means you can copy, modify, and distribute the photos—even for business purposes—without asking the owners for permission.

Even though most of these fall under the Creative Commons, we have done our best to highlight where attribution is required. It also wouldn’t hurt to double-check when you download your images. Remember that images marked CC0 can be used worldwide without restrictions if you’re especially worried about attracting legal fines.

13 Places to Find Free Images for Your Blog

1) Pexels

We love Pexels because you can search for quality photos and videos in different categories.

When you download an image from Pexels, attribution is not required but is appreciated. Moreover, you can use the content you get from Pexels for business purposes, as long as you don’t portray any identifiable people negatively. However, if you’re selling the photo, then you must edit it first. Finally, Pexels doesn’t allow you to share or sell their images on other stock photos or wallpaper sites.

2) Unsplash

When we can’t find something on Pexels, our next stop is usually Unsplash. This site has various categories and is a great place to look for free images for your blog.

As with Pexels, permission isn’t required, but attribution is appreciated. Similarly, you cannot resell or redistribute Unsplash images unless you’ve made significant edits.

3) Canva

We at Kontely are huge fans of Canva. While its primary purpose is to help you design your visuals, a free account also gives you access to stock images and videos.

Since Canva offers multiple design templates, this deal is even sweeter because you can incorporate images into any organic design. For example, you can use their pictures in a social media post or flyer for your brand. How awesome is that?

When you use images from Canva, you don’t need to get permission or attribute anyone. You can freely use these images on your blog, website, and any marketing material. However, you can’t resell or redistribute their photos on other sites.

4) Freepik

Freepik is heaven for designers, boasting free vectors, stock photos, PSD files, and presentation templates. For this reason, it works well as a one-stop shop for free images for your blog. While a premium version exists, you can still access many resources on a free account.

As with the three previous sites, you don’t need to ask for permission or attribute your images from Freepik. On the other hand, you can’t sell or redistribute these images.

5) StockSnap.io

StockSnap offers a vast collection of high-resolution images in different categories. You can browse their collections at random or enter a specific search term.

The Creative Commons (CC0) license governs the photos on this site. In other words, as before, they are free to download, edit and use. StockSnap encourages you to attribute the images you download to their owners. At the same time, it’s not illegal to use the photos without attribution.

6) Reshot

Reshot is the perfect place to go if you’re looking for non-stocky, stock-free photos. Here, you can get free images for your blog, and most of their images are unique.

The photos you download from Reshot can be used in both non-commercial and commercial projects. As with the previous sites, attribution is appreciated but not required.

7) Foodiesfeed

As the title suggests, this site is for you if you are a content creator and a foodie. Foodiesfeed will provide plenty of free images for your food, cooking, or dining blog.

All the images on Foodiesfeed are licensed under the CC0 license. This means you can use them for non-commercial and commercial purposes without restriction.

8) Pixabay

Since Pixabay delivers on its promise of stunning free images, it’s an excellent site for your blog.

All the photos on Pixabay are in the public domain, so you can use them freely without worrying about legal issues.

9) Kaboompics

We couldn’t leave Kaboompics off our list of places to get free images for your blog. It hosts a massive collection of photos to meet every need. Go ahead, check it out, and see for yourself.

All the photos on Kaboompics are licensed under the CC0 license, making this a straightforward site.

10) Flickr

Flickr is more well-known than most other sites and with good reason. This site has a vast collection of high-quality images that anyone can use.

Although we’ve added Flickr to this list of places to find free images for your blog, this site requires more attention. Flickr has copyrighted content and content covered by the CC0 license, so you must use these photos carefully.

11) New Old Stock

If you need vintage photos, New Old Stock is the perfect place for free images for your blog. The site is a collection of pictures from the public archives that beautifully recapture history.

These photos are sourced from Flickr and are governed by the Flickr Commons license. While most pictures from this site can be used freely for personal and non-commercial purposes, the site administrator provides a link to each original Flickr photo where you can confirm this.

12) Google Advanced Image Search

Did you know you can use Google’s Advanced Image Search to find free images for your blog under the CC0 license?

You only need to type a description of the image you’re trying to find. Once done, you can narrow the results by choosing details such as file size and image color. As you narrow your search, select the “Creative Commons licenses” option under “usage rights,” you’re all set.

13) WOCinTech

If you need diversity in the free images for your blog about tech, then this is a great site to check out. WOCinTech knows content creators have difficulty finding women of color doing anything tech-related. They aim to solve this problem by building photo albums of women of color in tech for the public.

Since the actual albums are hosted on Flickr, the photos combine copyrighted content and content governed by the CC0 license. Use these wisely.

The Value of Company Photos When You’re Looking for Free Images for Your Blog

Yes, your company photos can be a valuable source of free images for your blog. They might be even more priceless than the photos you could get on any of the above sites. This is because they give your brand authenticity by displaying the real faces behind your brand name.

Ultimately, seeing photos of your team members helps your audience feel connected to your brand.

Your coworkers are the ideal models, just waiting to be photographed for free. If you’re having a brand event or just hanging around at the office, take advantage of these opportunities and build a collection of authentic photos representing your brand. While you should always ask people for permission first, you shouldn’t let these photo ops pass you by.

As you can see, there are many places you can go when you need free images for your blog. The CC0 license covers most of the sites we’ve recommended. You can use the images freely if you don’t imply that the people in these photos endorse your product, portray them negatively, or use them as part of a logo. Nevertheless, it’s always important to be attentive so that you know what kind of license you’re working with.

The main element of your search engine optimization / SEO strategy is to drive more qualified leads to your site by using keywords in your Content. Excellent keyword research reveals the most common terms, phrases, and questions your users and customers search for.

Read on to learn about keyword optimization, its benefits, and how to use it for long-term website rankings and traffic.

What Is Keyword Optimization?

Keyword optimization effectively uses the best keywords to improve visibility in search engines, drive traffic to your site, and increase its organic ranking.

Good keyword optimization involves researching, analyzing, and selecting the keywords you will use for each page on your Site.

In simpler terms, keyword optimization helps search engines better understand your Site, making your pages more accessible for people searching for those key phrases.

Benefits of Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization is significant in digital marketing, from content strategy to how your site content is organized. It is among the most critical aspects of search engine optimization and pay-per-click/ PPC.

Here are the specific benefits of keyword optimization:

1. Increases Organic Discovery: Keyword optimization will help deliver your site pages to a relevant audience through pertinent search queries.
2. Measure and drive potential traffic flow to your Site: Optimization helps you measure and understand your potential online market size.
3. Write captivating Content. Optimized keywords in your website’s Content let you instantly connect with potential customers and address their needs.
4. Understand client behavior: By analyzing the best keywords, you get an idea of what your clients need and how to service those needs.
5.  Credibility and Trust: As a result of ranking first for a specific keyword, your credibility is endorsed, helping clients trust you more 

How Do You Optimize Keywords?

1. Find the Right Keywords for Optimization

Keyword optimization begins with finding keywords and phrases associated with your Site, product, or service. 

However, figuring out which words to use is a daunting task. 

Therefore, using the best keyword optimization tools will help you analyze the popularity of the keywords and improve your SEO. 

Several practical keyword optimization and SEO analytics tools will help you choose the right keywords.

Some that offer free trials include Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Keyword Hero, Jaaxy, and Soovle. 

Ideally, it would be best if you aimed to find keywords with high search volumes but lower competition. This way, your Content will easily rank high on Google’s search result pages.

2. Map The Keywords to Each Page on your Site

Now that you have the relevant keywords you will be working with, the next step is mapping them to your website. This is assigning keywords to specific pages on your Site based on keyword research to avoid duplicating keywords on multiple pages.

It would be best to focus on one primary keyword per page while including at least two or three SEO keyword variations. Each page should focus on a single topic and include the most essential SEO keywords. 

3. Check Your Current On-Page SEO and Do Keyword Optimization

You will audit your current on-page SEO strategy to see if your Site has existing Content.

However, if you are creating new Content, ensure it is optimized.

Here are things to look for during content optimization:

a. Title Tags

 The title tags will show what your page is about. You need to ensure they contain the right length of 56 to 60 characters and are unique.

b. Header Tags

 Your page should have appropriately formatted headings and subheadings in HTML instead of bold headers.

c. Meta Descriptions

This short description is usually below your web page in search results. It should be 100 to 155 characters and clearly describe your page.

d. URL Structure

 The URL should be short and simple and include your primary keyword.

e. Images

You should have more than one image on the page. Ensure the image has the image file names for each keyword and alt text.

f. Content

Ensure that your content is optimized by using the main and a few secondary keywords within the first 100 words on your page. Content should be at least 300 words.

g. Internal Links

If you have links to other Content, ensure those links still work. 

4. Submit your Content to Google Search Console

 Submitting your Content to Google Search Console will help index your pages on the search engine results page (SERPs). It will also potentially speed up the discovery process.

5. Track Your Keyword Rankings

After your Content is indexed and ranked in Google, you need to track and see how those keywords rank. 

You should give it at least 2 months for new Content before making any keyword search optimization changes.

You can track rankings daily for 14 days before changing existing Content.

Featured Image credit: page.one