Hey Reader,
Thanks for allowing us in your inbox! Lots happening in search & marketing this week, so as usual...
Let's get started =)
Brilliant work by our brilliant members
1) Celeste Gonzalez - Finding Client Opportunities In Competitor Feedback
2) Crystal Carter - WTF is NLWeb?
3) Laura I. Abreu - How travel brands can earn AI recommendations
4) Lily Ray - Why Calling Yourself the Best Could Be Helping Your Competitors Win in AI Search
5) Sara Vordermeier - How is Google Search Behavior Actually Changing for Local Businesses?
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If you’d like to recommend resources for future editions (& yes, please recommend your own work!), fill out this form:
Winning the AEO Race
WTSKnowledge by Christina Clark, Head of Product Growth, HubSpot
Why is the standard SEO playbook not enough?
Something shifted in the last couple of years—and if you work in search, you felt it before you could fully name it.
The signals were subtle at first: a dip in click-through rates that the data couldn't fully explain, a customer telling you they'd already researched your product on ChatGPT before ever landing on your site. Then the signals got louder. Answer engines — AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini — weren't just supplementing how people searched. They were replacing the journey for a growing slice of your audience.
I've spent the last year at HubSpot helping to build the measurement frameworks, workflows, and strategy necessary to navigate exactly this shift. What I've learned is that the teams winning in this environment aren't the ones who abandoned SEO. They're the ones who understood that SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) aren't competing disciplines — they're two lanes of the same road.
The question is whether you know how to drive both...
YOUR BRAND here next week - just hit reply to lock it in
[Headline Sponsor: YOUR BRAND!]
Erin here with some data & thoughts about why a lot of brands pull back sponsorship budget in the summer.
Yes, summer is quieter. But not that quiet...
The community is still here - opening, engaging, & appreciating folks who show up with helpful resources.
Here's the maths:
(I'm sorry for complicating this, Areej, this is who I am as a person)
- We have 9,189 subscribers
- Usual open rate: 51%, that’s 4,686 folks reading our newsletter
- Summer open rate: 48%, that’s 4,411 folks reading our newsletter
So yeah, fewer readers - about 276 fewer (or 6% less).
I did all this maths, planning to take whatever percentage less reach we’re seeing off the sponsorship price. But I’m pretty sure no one cares about 6%.
So let’s keep it simple, after all my complicating it:
25% off WTSNewsletter summer sponsorship for readers like YOU
Pricing is for two, back-to-back features:
- Headline: £900
(£1,200) featured in this spot
- Spotlight: £600
(£800) featured in a Spotlight spot below
- Jobs: £150
(£250) featured in Jobs spot below
This is for brands who want to earn trust by sharing genuinely helpful, educational resources (not product / services pitches).
Sponsors & WTSPartners keep our content & community free, helping us pay our team, writers, & speakers while working towards our goal of making our community redundant.
[Webinar] Technical Playbook for Accessibility, SEO, & AI Search
WTSTalk by Diane Kulseth & Kacie Emeigh, Marketing Leaders, Siteimprove
How do you ensure your brand remains visible in the AI era?
Join Diane Kulseth & Kacie Emeigh, live on Zoom on Wednesday 8th July, at 4pm BST for the latest edition of WTSTalk.
Together, they will explain how AI search is reshaping discovery, and why the structure, meaning, and clarity that serve assistive technologies are exactly what AI surfaces and search engines reward.
You’ll leave with:
--> A clear understanding of the technical practices that impact your visibility
--> A single framework that serves Accessibility, SEO, and AI search
--> A prioritised action plan so you can get started
Building a Community-Led Content Strategy for SEO Businesses
AthensSEO Knowledge by Erin Simmons, Managing Director, WTS
Content strategies used to be built primarily around the question: will this rank? That’s not the only question that matters anymore.
Being cited and mentioned is becoming just as valuable, if not more, in our AI-forward landscape. A community-led content strategy gets you talked about in those places you may not be able to reach with your current content strategy alone.
Here’s the advantage SEO businesses have that most industries don’t: your audience are already content creators. They’re writing, publishing, speaking and actively looking for more opportunities to do all three.
You’re not trying to recruit reluctant contributors – you’re meeting people on the path they’re already on. You’re opening more doors at a quicker pace along their journey.
All industries can benefit from a community-led content strategy, we just have a huge head start...
Interviewing Oksana Prykhodko
WTSInterview series - get to know WTSers
Introducing Oksana Prykhodko!
Okasana is a top-performing Technical AI SEO Specialist with expertise in optimizing digital marketing strategies for various clients.
She's successfully conducted comprehensive SEO audits for law firms and developed advanced structured data solutions to improve search visibility for marketing agencies.
She's also proficient in AEO/GEO optimization, JSON-LD schema implementation, and structured data audits, ensuring enhanced website performance and engagement.
Designing WTSFest with intention
We design WTSFest to be the kindest, most helpful, judgement-free, respectful, & innovative search conference in the world. That's our goal.
As a community conference, that means building not just for our community, but with all of you.
We'll be dripping out some questions over the coming weeks to get a feel for what's important to you - then use that to shape the continued evolution of our events.
| What matters most to you in choosing to go to a full-day SEO and marketing conference? |
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Open Search & Marketing Roles
[Brought to you by WTSPartners]
🌍 Content Engineering Jobs & Projects - AirOps Job Board
🇬🇧 Agency Growth Manager - SEO & Digital PR agency
📍 Hybrid: London offices 2 x a week
💰 up to £60,000 + generous bonuses
🇬🇧 eCom focused Growth Manage - Female wellness space
📍 London (3 x a week)
💰 £50,000 - £60,000 + equity options
🇺🇸 Sr. Paid Media Manager - Conductor
📍 NYC
💰 $130,000-$160,000
🇺🇸 Content Lead - Profound
📍 NYC
💰 $150,000 to $210,000
🇺🇸 Marketing Engineer - Profound
📍 NYC
💰 $135,000 to $200,000
🇺🇸 Instructor, Profound University - Profound
📍 NYC
💰 $150,000 to $210,000
🇺🇸 Account Executive - Citation Labs & ZipSprout
📍 Remote - hours aligned with Eastern time
💰 $60,000 to $80,000
🇺🇸 Director, Account-Based Marketing, Enterprise - Yext
📍 NYC
💰 $189,500 - $284,500
As always, thanks for allowing us into your inbox!
- Areej, Erin, & Himee
