Hey Reader,
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We had a wonderful time connecting with WTSers at last week's WTSFest London! Thank you so much to every attendee, exhibitor & sponsor - we appreciate you 💗

🎥 If you weren't able to attend, you can still get access to our brilliant speaker's talks here.

Onto the next one and we are less than 3 MONTHS away from WTSFest Portland!

Now we're back in action with your latest industry updates from the past week.

Thank you to this week's WTSNewsletter sponsors: seoClarity, Conductor, Freddie Chatt & AirOps​

Let's get started!

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Brilliant work by our brilliant members
​​
1) Crystal Carter - How to optimize your website for the agentic web​

2) Francine Monahan -Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines and YMYL in the Age of AI Search​

3) Lily Ray - Is Google Finally Cracking Down on Self-Promotional Listicles?

4) MJ Cachon - The Complete Guide To Ecommerce SEO in 2026​

5) Sam Torres - JavaScript SEO AMA with Sam Torres: 13 Questions & Answers​

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For future editions, if you’d like to recommend any articles (and yes, you can totally recommend your own work!), fill out this form:

Recommend an Article

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Become an AEO certified marketer​
​[Headline Sponsor: seoClarity]

Prepare your SEO skills for the AI era.

You’ve survived one SEO “big shift” after another but now the real info you need on AI search is buried in noise.

That’s why we created our AEO Certification. It’s a free, practical course built by search professionals who’ve done this for years.

Your on-demand course will show you:

✅ How AI engines actually process & surface content
(no buzzwords, real mechanics)

✅ How to adapt your SEO strategy without starting over

✅ How to measure visibility, accuracy, & influence in AI search

No fluff - just the data, frameworks, & the know-how to accelerate results for your 2026 search strategy.

Plus an AEO Certificate of completion to showcase your skills!

See what our free certification covers

Share your message with 8,000+ WTSers -
​Transparent pricing & details starting at £500​

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Our latest WTSKnowledge

AI search doesn’t rank pages - it selects them. Large language models pull in a wide pool of content, discard anything unclear or risky, and only use a small number of sources they feel confident citing. That’s where Selection Rate Optimization (SRO) comes in.

In this WTSKnowledge by Aimee Jurenka, they break down how SRO helps your content survive that selection process by prioritising clarity, structure, and confidence signals - not just traditional SEO basics.

To increase your chances of being selected:

• Prioritise information density over length (clear facts beat long pages)
• Use lists, tables, and strong headings to make content easy to extract
• Write stand-alone content chunks that make sense on their own
• Keep your brand definition, language, authorship, and location consistent everywhere
• Reduce ambiguity - mixed signals = higher risk = no selection

The article also includes a downloadable SRO checklist covering eligibility, preference, and reinforcement, so you can apply SRO while writing, editing, or auditing content!

👉 Download your own copy of the SRO checklist and start optimising for AI selection, not just rankings.

Learn more here

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The State of AEO / GEO in 2026: What CMOs Are Actually Doing
​[Spotlight Sponsor: Conductor]

AI search isn’t “coming” - it’s already here, and the investment signals are loud. A new 2026 AEO / GEO report surveyed 250+ enterprise CMOs and senior digital leaders, and the results are pretty hard to ignore.

👉 97% saw a positive impact from AEO / GEO in 2025
👉 94% plan to increase investment this year
👉 Enterprises are allocating ~12% of digital budgets to AI search visibility

The big shift? Success is no longer about clicks alone. It’s about brand authority, citations, and visibility inside AI answers - and brands showing up there are seeing higher-intent traffic that converts faster than traditional organic.

The report breaks down how advanced teams are structuring roles, budgets, tech stacks, and measurement (spoiler: LLM visibility ≠ classic SEO reporting), plus what’s holding others back - especially around ROI and scalable, crawlable AI-ready content.

If you’re thinking about how SEO, brand, and AI search collide in 2026, this one’s worth your time.

Stay Ahead of AI Search in 2026

Share your message with 8,000+ WTSers -
​Transparent pricing & details starting at £150​

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WTSMentorship: 10th Cohort applications are now open!

Our TENTH (!!) WTSMentorship cohort is officially open 🎉 - and we couldn’t be more excited.

This cohort is proudly sponsored by 4M Digital, with a huge thank you to Meriem Nacer for supporting the programme 💗

Before applying, a few important things to know:

• This is a mentorship programme, not an SEO training course
  ​
• Applications close Sunday, February 15th
  ​
• Matching, onboarding, and training happen in late February
  ​
• The 2-month cohort runs March-April
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• We match 50 mentors with 50 mentees & prioritise new participants
  ​
• Everyone will receive an update by end of February

If you’re wondering “Am I good enough to be a mentor?” - the answer is YES!

If you are in the WTS Slack, head to the #announcements channel for the application form! If not:

Join our Slack to apply

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Your WTSFest conference countdowns

We'd love to see YOU at one of our upcoming full-day marketing events!
​
​85 days - Portland on May 7th, 2026 (standard tix now available!!)

232 days - Philadelphia on October 1st, 2026 (28 early bird tix left!)

401 days - London on March 19th, 2027 (tix opening soon!)

Our WTSFest Hub

Use our Dear Boss template to request budget to attend!

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3 months to go! WTSFest Portland is coming 🎉

The countdown is officially on ⏰

Join us on May 7th 2026 in Portland for a full day of:

• Expert talks
• Actionable SEO & marketing insights
• Unforgettable moments with your WTS community 💗

Join us!

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Freelance Flywheel - Book Giveaway
​[WTSPartner Feature: Freddie Chatt]

Our friend and WTSPartner, Freddie Chatt, is giving away 10 brilliant books for freelancers and I had to share it.

📚 These are the kinds of reads that genuinely change how you work:
​1. How To Have A Good Day by Caroline Webb
2. It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear
4. Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
5. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns
6. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
7. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
8. Out of Office by Fiona Thomas
9. Company of One by Paul Jarvis
10. Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

Whether you're new to freelancing or a seasoned pro, there's something in here for you. Good luck!

Enter Freddie's giveaway here!

Share your message with 12,000+ WTSers & 60,000+ social followers - Transparent pricing & details starting at £3,000​

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🎬 Grab your WTSFest London Recordings for £99!

Our WTSFest London talk recordings are currently in editing and will be released late February 🙌

Grab your access today for £99.

Once the talks are available on-demand, the price will increase to £149.

And the best bit?

These talks are open to everyone. You don’t need to have attended WTSFest, and you don’t need to be a WTS member.

Expert insights you can watch on your own schedule.

Grab your talk recordings here

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Our latest WTSInterview

Meet Kezia Bibby!

Kezia is an independent SEO and Digital Marketing Consultant based in Brighton, with over a decade of experience in international SEO.

She helps brands improve visibility across search engines and AI-driven platforms through technical audits, keyword strategy, and generative search.

Learn more about Kezia here

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Job openings ​
​[WTSNewsletter Job Sponsor: AirOps]

Content Engineer

Salary: $130K - $170K, Offers Equity

Location: New York City, San Francisco or Remote - Hybrid

Details:
​→ Build and run AirOps’ AI Search and Content Engineering workflows
→ Combine SEO best practices, automation, and AI to power brand visibility
→ Execute a high-velocity AI search roadmap across content, structure, and systems
→ Create structured content workflows that improve quality, speed, and extractability
→ Turn insights into public-facing examples of best-in-class Content Engineering

Details & application here

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If you've made it this far, thank YOU!
​
A reminder that everyone is more than welcome to subscribe.
​
We want to help amplify all the incredible people of marginalised genders in our industry, so the more people who subscribe, the more we'll achieve that as an industry.

Thanks,
Areej, Erin & Himee