To be honest, as late as the fall of 2024, I was pretty doom-and-gloomy about what AI meant for the open web. I had long guided my clients in writing generous, helpful, expertly written content that answered the burning...
This is the second in my series on the 3 Rs of AI Search Optimization. If you missed the last one, click here to read the first post in the series. If you’ve ever met me, you’ve probably realized that I’m an optimist....
Once I started digging into how AI search works (and what small brands can do to optimize for it) I knew it was a fool's errand to start optimizing without a plan. I needed a way to focus on what mattered. It needed to be...
So you've installed Yoast or another WordPress search engine optimization (SEO) plugin, like SEOPress or RankMath. Great move! That’s an essential first step to creating a WordPress website that rolls out the red carpet for...
If you run a website, you probably get emails from people you don’t know who want to write an article for your blog. What’s up with that? Should you accept them? And why are they asking, anyway? Should you accept guest posts on...
I'm an SEO, editor, copywriter, and historian. Strange combo, I know. But you know what holds it all together? Words. So let me introduce you to my new brand. Edited by Michelle is now Words on the Rise. I want to publicly thank...
“Haven’t I already written about this? I feel like I’m repeating myself.” I’m an SEO editor who creates data-driven content plans to boost the traffic websites get from online search. The question above is one I get a lot....
I'm a professional editor. I edit websites. I define editing as making writing better—making it more clear, concise, and compelling. What is SEO editing? SEO editing is simply making online writing better—making it more clear,...
Keyword research gets a bad rap. It sounds so mysterious, it’s you—an intrepid business blogger—against Google, the unfeeling machine. Writers get stuck thinking that there’s just one right keyword that they need to find and...
Strictly speaking, no. Spelling and grammatical errors are not ranking signals. Google doesn’t care about your typos. (Proof? Lorem Ipsum text can rank.) However, SEO editing (that is, making strategic, data-driven decisions to...
The internet radically changed not just access to information, but access to audiences. One click, and your writing can reach thousands, even millions, of people. Anyone with an audience is a publisher. That’s a weighty...
