The Pillars Of A Modern SEO Strategy

Posted on 5/25/2026, 2:28:26 PM

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is considered such an assumed part of the modern digital marketing strategy that a lot of businesses might not stop to think about what it really is, and which strategies are the most effective in achieving their goals. To that end, we’re going to take a closer look at the strategies that have been devised to help businesses make their website much more search engine-friendly, landing them near the top of those all-important search engine results pages.

Content

Content is king, as the now cliché adage goes. Content is still highly important in SEO, even in the age of AI, as it gives both search engines and users something to understand and share. While keyword volume and density might have once been the key to a good content marketing strategy, actually writing valuable questions that align with common customer search intent is a lot more crucial nowadays, so you should start by identifying the questions, problems, and comparisons your audience is most likely to search for.

Technical SEO

While content gives your audience something to search for that brings them to your site through the medium of search engines, technical SEO makes sure that your site appears in search engines by ensuring that it can be found, crawled, understood and used properly. Even strong content may struggle if search engines cannot access it or if visitors have a poor experience. Key areas include site speed, mobile performance, crawlability, indexation, structured data, internal linking, and the like. 

Ai Search

As mentioned, we are now in the age of AI, and customers are not just using traditional search engine results to find what they’re looking for. They’re asking questions of search engines, fully expecting to get the information, recommendations, and next steps within the AI overview. As such, AI-aligned SEO companies are doing more to help brands structure content in a way that it’s a lot more likely to be cited in not just AI overviews, but AI mode answers in Google, as well as LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity. If more and more people are turning to AI for answers, then being a reliable source for AI to use can lead to more traffic your way and build your brand’s authority, too.

PR Outreach

Relevant content that’s easily read by search engines and AI platforms isn’t all that matters to your visibility. Sites and brands are measured by authority, as well, and building trust and visibility beyond your website can help you further support your own SERP placement, as well. Third-party mentions are a great way to build this credibility, including quality backlinks from respected publications, expert quotes, podcast appearances, guest articles, industry features, and the like.

It’s important to align your aims with the SEO strategy you use. Beyond the vanity metrics like how high your pages rank, you want to make sure that you’re getting not just clicks but conversions when it matters, as well, so measurement and continuous improvement are an important part of the process, no matter which combination of strategies you’re implementing.