SEO
15 Project Management Tools For SEO Professionals

Search engine optimization is complex.
Between changes to search algorithms, new keywords, and strategic changes made by competitors, the field is in a constant state of flux.
If you’re like most SEO pros, at any given time, you’re juggling numerous projects, plans, and tasks.
Just staying organized can feel like a full-time job in itself.
Luckily, you can put technology to work for you in the form of project management (PM) tools.
Why SEO Professionals Need Project Management Tools
If you’re already using a project management platform, you undoubtedly recognize the benefits it provides for busy digital marketers and web teams.
If you’re still getting by without one, you should get one as soon as possible. Why you ask?
Because it can uncomplicate your life and help you get more done in less time.
Some of the essential functions a good project management platform provides for SEO professionals are:
- Accurate planning. From a bird’s eye view of all your campaigns to detailed information on how a specific keyword performs, SEO project management software allows you to create structured plans.
- Task and time management. Whether you’re working solo or as part of a team, PM tools allow you to assign tasks and receive notifications about them, so you can more accurately work hours. This can also be used to generate accurate invoices for your clients.
- Resource allocation. An SEO PM software will give you at-a-glance information about where your budget and resources are going. Useful for SEO, it’s also extremely helpful if you’re also running pay-per-click ads.
- Reporting. Most modern PM platforms offer robust reporting features and dashboards, so you can generate and analyze data to improve efficiency.
It’s easy to see why so many SEO professionals have turned to PM platforms to help them stay organized and productive, but there are a lot of options.
How do you know which one is right for you and your team?
We’ve compiled a list of some of the top ones. Below, you’ll find our choices for the 15 best PM tools with a brief overview of each, including pros and cons.
Our Top 15 Project Management Platforms For SEO
1. Asana
The PM platform used by Search Engine Journal, Asana is a personal favourite.
This cloud-based platform provides a virtual workspace from which your team and various stakeholders can collaborate.
It’s useful for SEO and digital marketing because it allows you to clearly set and manage strategies, goals, tasks, and expectations.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Task management: Using the forms feature, you can create standard workflows customized to your SEO processes.
- Automated workflow: Rules-based automation can replace tedious manual tasks.
- Reporting features: Asana has dashboards, charts, and graphs with real-time reporting, so you can get a high-level view or dive into the details.
- Free for up to 15 users: Asana has a free tier that can be used by teams of 15 or less. It includes unlimited tasks, messages, projects, and 100MB of storage for each user.
- Integrations: Asana plays nice with more than 100 other apps and platforms, including Microsoft Office, Dropbox, and Salesforce.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Unintuitive design: If you’ve never used Asana before, it can be a little challenging to figure out. However, once you’ve mastered the learning curve, it’s quite easy to use.
- No time tracking functionality: There is no built-in time tracking functionality in this platform. This can cause complications in billing clients or resource allocation.
- Not ideal for small teams: With a range of advanced features and capabilities, it can be overwhelming for small teams or limited SEO projects.
2. Monday.com
Garfield may hate Mondays, but SEO professionals who use Monday.com for project management sure don’t.
With an operating system that can be customized to your preferred workflow, it’s a great choice for smaller SEO teams looking for a tool to help them stay on track.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Clean user interface: Monday.com has a clean interface that allows you to customize your dashboard and extend data in columns. You can easily get multiple views of an SEO project including calendars, Kanban boards, and collateral.
- Templates: Monday.com has many templates to choose from, so you will likely find one that matches your workflow.
- Notifications and communication: This platform streamlines team communication. Team members can leave comments on tasks or documents and stakeholders can be notified via email.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Steep learning curve: Like many PM platforms, it can be challenging to get the hang of Monday.com. Bigger tasks with more communication can begin to get a bit unwieldy.
- Slow dashboard loading: It can take some time for your Monday.com dashboard to load, particularly on larger projects where a lot of data has to be transferred from its servers to your computer.
- Client licenses not included: If you want to invite clients to participate in your workspace, you will need to buy a license for them.
3. GanttPro
For more than a century, PM professionals have been using Gantt Charts to track their project schedules.
GanttPro is a web-based PM solution based around these visual trackers.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Readily understandable: You don’t have to have a project management certificate to track tasks with GanttPro. It gives you status information in an easy-to-understand visual format.
- Undo functionality: A simple mistake doesn’t have to derail your project because this tool saves your history and lets you undo actions with CTRL + Z.
- Customizable fields: You can create custom fields for every task.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Not as many integrations: Unlike other PM platforms, GanttPro is light on integrations with other apps.
- No billing or invoicing tools: You will need an outside program to generate invoices for your SEO services.
- Manual date input: Changing dates for benchmarks and project completion must be input manually, which some users find tedious.
4. Trello
One of the most popular platforms for project management, Trello uses boards, lists, and cards to help keep you organized.
With a free basic plan, it is useful for SEO teams of all sizes.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Free basic plan: Your entire team can try Trello for free. If you like it, there are premium plans available that add integrations, automation, and other functionality.
- Intuitive Kanban boards: Trello’s drag-and-drop card system makes it easy to track the status of any project.
- Useful for campaigns of all sizes: Trello works just as well for huge, complex campaigns as it does for simple projects.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Kanban-reliant: If you don’t like to use Kanban boards, this is not the PM tool for you, as most of its functionality is built around them.
- Upload sizes limited: Trello restricts free users to 10 MB of online storage and paid users to 250 MB. For most SEO teams this probably won’t be a problem, but you may differ.
- Timeline relationships are not always clear: Trello does not allow users to manipulate relationships for a better understanding of how they work together.
5. Teamwork
Another Kanban-based PM tool, Teamwork offers a drag-and-drop interface with more advanced reporting features.
Teamwork lets you create custom branding accounts, which is useful if you’re working on more than one client.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Unlimited users: You can add any number of users to a single task.
- Clear vision of scope: Teamwork’s board view makes it easy to understand what is going on with each project.
- Repeating tasks: Teamwork lets you simply copy any task, which is especially useful for SEO professionals.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Can be overwhelming: The upside is Teamwork has a lot of features. The downside is all those features can get confusing, especially when you’re a new user.
- No in-platform chat functionality: You’ll need to use an outside app to “chat” with your team and/or stakeholders.
6. Zoho Projects
A cloud-based platform, Zoho Projects provides the functionality you need to manage several SEO projects at once.
You can choose from a limited free version with basic features and four premium plans with different features and user caps.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Communication tools: Zoho Project has real-time chat and forum pages, so you can quickly and easily share information with your team.
- Timekeeping: If you bill your SEO clients by the hour, this platform is a good choice because it has excellent time tracking functionality.
- At-a-glance-info: Zoho makes it easy to spot delays, lags, and bottlenecks.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Features can be overwhelming: Because it offers so much functionality, some users may be intimidated by this PM platform. It also has a steeper learning curve.
- Inflexible: It can be difficult to customize projects to your needs with this platform.
7. Wrike
Wrike can help you simplify planning while keeping your SEO projects on track.
Customizable workflows and ample communication options help you reduce emails, meetings and status updates.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Task prioritization: With Wrike, you can push critical tasks to the front to make sure you don’t miss deadlines.
- Natural workflow: Wrike is structured in a way most people will find logical and easy to use.
- Advanced features: Functionality for task management, Gantt charts and real-time newsfeed is built-in.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Pricier than some options: There is a free version available with limited functionality, but premium plans with more functions are more expensive than other PM tools.
- Difficult onboarding new users: Adding new users and assigning tasks to them must be done manually, which can be time-consuming.
- Can be difficult to navigate: Users who are unfamiliar with Wrike may have difficulty navigating projects.
8. Smartsheet
With project and work management tools, Smartsheet is an online work execution platform that allows you to automate tasks and generate real-time visuals, including Gantt charts and dashboards.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Robust communication and collaboration: Smartsheet makes it easy to create and implement communication plans.
- Adding tasks and dependencies: Smartsheet has an intuitive design that allows you to add tasks and dependencies with ease.
- Custom dashboards: Set up your dash to display the information you want.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Doesn’t support detailed documents: Users are only allowed to upload 10 documents per ticket, which can be troublesome for highly specific campaigns.
- May be too simple for larger teams: If you’re overseeing a big team with many stakeholders, you may find this platform doesn’t include all the functionality you want.
9. Celoxis
Designed to be an all-in-one PM platform for enterprise-level organizations, Celoxis has nearly all the functionality an SEO professional could ever want.
It has high-level visibility and numerous reports, to help your campaigns stay on track and on budget.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Easy to use: Celoxis gives you the tools to dive deep into a project, without sacrificing usability. It’s also easy to set up.
- Includes time tracking, resource management, and budgeting: It also has ample reporting features to keep you on track.
- Good value: Celoxis offers the functionality of a top-tier PM platform at the price point of a mid-tier one.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- No billing or invoicing functionality: You will have to use an outside program to bill your clients.
- No free version: If you’re looking for a free-to-use PM platform for your SEO team, this isn’t it.
10. ProofHub
ProofHub doesn’t have as many features as some other PM platforms, but it’s still a good fit for SEO.
It provides a centralized hub for task lists, workflows, calendars, and documents.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- All the tools you need: ProofHub gives you everything you need for SEO planning, team collaboration, and management.
- Unlimited users: You can add as many people to the platform as you need.
- Communication: All discussions can be centralized in one place thanks to built-in chat and document sharing features.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Recurring tasks must be entered manually: ProofHub does not provide you with the option to repeat tasks.
- No budgeting: You will need to use a third-party platform to oversee budgeting for your SEO tasks.
11. ClickUp
ClickUp is a cloud-based platform that combines centralized company information and business tools in one place.
It allows you to create and manage to-do lists, workflows, and schedules in a variety of formats.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Easy to use: ClickUp has a short learning curve, meaning you and your team can start benefiting from it faster.
- Multiple views: Track your campaigns via a list, board, calendar, and workload view, among others.
- Perfect balance of functions and ease of use: ClickUp falls in the Goldilocks zone by including the features you want without the complexity.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Navigation can be confusing: The differences between tabs is subtle.
- Implementation can require significant planning: Because it’s highly customizable, you may have to systematically plan workflows to maximize ClickUp’s benefits.
12. Forecast
With Forecast, you can put all your SEO projects, resources, and budgeting in one convenient tool.
An AI-native platform can significantly reduce your administrative workload.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Easily track the lifecycle of projects: You can assign and allocate tasks and budget for your entire SEO PM operation through this platform.
- Schedule visualization: You can get information on a team member’s workload at a glance.
- Gathering data is easy: Want to compare a current campaign to an old one? Forecast makes it easy to pull data.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Updating time and task entries can be tedious: Manual entry can be a time-consuming process.
- Not ideal for larger teams: Visualization elements can be overwhelming if you have a lot of people working under you.
13. Adobe Workfront
Adobe’s solution for project management needs, Workfront is configurable to your needs and includes extensive integrations, so you can easily track the latest developments in your SEO projects.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Well-designed user interface: Workfront is easy to use and visually appealing.
- Real-time information: It keeps you abreast of any status changes.
- Good transparency: This platform helps eliminate confusion about who is supposed to do what, as stakeholders and project scope are easily visible.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Lengthy setup process: A high level of customization means Workfront requires a more in-depth initial setup.
- May offer too much detail: With Workfront, you can get as granular into tasks as you like, which may lead to some people becoming lost in the details.
- Finding tasks can be difficult: If you don’t know what project a task is assigned to, it can be difficult to locate.
14. WorkOtter
With WorkOtter, you can plan resources for your SEO campaigns at a project, rather than task level.
One of the easiest PM platforms to use, it’s an excellent choice for SEO work.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Very easy to use: You don’t have to be a tech wiz to use WorkOtter for SEO project management.
- Good communication and reporting tools: Real-time information keeps your entire team on the same page.
- Good for resource management: This platform is useful for deciding exactly where your SEO resources will be allocated.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Cloud-only: There is no local version available, which can be problematic if you are trying to work offline.
- English-only support: This may present challenges for non-native English speakers.
15. PSOHub
This versatile PM platform is as useful for SEO teams as it is for architect firms or financial companies.
It has predictive project management to allow you to more accurately project how your SEO campaigns will run.
Why It’s Good For SEO:
- Excellent time tracking functionality: PSOHub is one of the best platforms for tracking where your team’s time is going, on both group and individual levels.
- CRM Integrations: This platform integrates with Hubspot and other CRMs, so you can track your SEO campaigns alongside email initiatives.
- Flexible reporting: PSOHub lets you choose the data you want to include in reports.
Potential Drawbacks For SEO:
- Time-consuming setup process: It can take some time to manually enter all your campaigns and tasks into this platform.
- All users must have the same license level: You cannot have some users on a basic level and others on a more complex one.
How To Pick The Right PM Tool For Your SEO Needs
We’ve given you 15 different project management options that can work for your needs as an SEO professional. But how do you pick the right one for you?
It all comes down to your specific needs. Any of these platforms will help you streamline your operations, manage campaigns more effectively, and eliminate wasted time. But each of them has slightly different functionality.
It’s up to you to decide what will work best for your needs. But hopefully, by this point, we’ve given you enough information to get started.
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
SEO
A Year Of AI Developments From OpenAI

Today, ChatGPT celebrates one year since its launch in research preview.
Try talking with ChatGPT, our new AI system which is optimized for dialogue. Your feedback will help us improve it. https://t.co/sHDm57g3Kr
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 30, 2022
From its humble beginnings, ChatGPT has continually pushed the boundaries of what we perceive as possible with generative AI for almost any task.
a year ago tonight we were probably just sitting around the office putting the finishing touches on chatgpt before the next morning’s launch.
what a year it’s been…
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 30, 2023
In this article, we take a journey through the past year, highlighting the significant milestones and updates that have shaped ChatGPT into the versatile and powerful tool it is today.
a year ago tonight we were placing bets on how many total users we’d get by sunday
20k, 80k, 250k… i jokingly said “8B”.
little did we know… https://t.co/8YtO8GbLPy— rapha gontijo lopes (@rapha_gl) November 30, 2023
ChatGPT: From Research Preview To Customizable GPTs
This story unfolds over the course of nearly a year, beginning on November 30, when OpenAI announced the launch of its research preview of ChatGPT.
As users began to offer feedback, improvements began to arrive.
Before the holiday, on December 15, 2022, ChatGPT received general performance enhancements and new features for managing conversation history.

As the calendar turned to January 9, 2023, ChatGPT saw improvements in factuality, and a notable feature was added to halt response generation mid-conversation, addressing user feedback and enhancing control.
Just a few weeks later, on January 30, the model was further upgraded for enhanced factuality and mathematical capabilities, broadening its scope of expertise.
February 2023 was a landmark month. On February 9, ChatGPT Plus was introduced, bringing new features and a faster ‘Turbo’ version to Plus users.
This was followed closely on February 13 with updates to the free plan’s performance and the international availability of ChatGPT Plus, featuring a faster version for Plus users.
March 14, 2023, marked a pivotal moment with the introduction of GPT-4 to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.


This new model featured advanced reasoning, complex instruction handling, and increased creativity.
Less than ten days later, on March 23, experimental AI plugins, including browsing and Code Interpreter capabilities, were made available to selected users.
On May 3, users gained the ability to turn off chat history and export data.
Plus users received early access to experimental web browsing and third-party plugins on May 12.
On May 24, the iOS app expanded to more countries with new features like shared links, Bing web browsing, and the option to turn off chat history on iOS.
June and July 2023 were filled with updates enhancing mobile app experiences and introducing new features.
The mobile app was updated with browsing features on June 22, and the browsing feature itself underwent temporary removal for improvements on July 3.
The Code Interpreter feature rolled out in beta to Plus users on July 6.
Plus customers enjoyed increased message limits for GPT-4 from July 19, and custom instructions became available in beta to Plus users the next day.
July 25 saw the Android version of the ChatGPT app launch in selected countries.
As summer progressed, August 3 brought several small updates enhancing the user experience.
Custom instructions were extended to free users in most regions by August 21.
The month concluded with the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise on August 28, offering advanced features and security for enterprise users.
Entering autumn, September 11 witnessed limited language support in the web interface.
Voice and image input capabilities in beta were introduced on September 25, further expanding ChatGPT’s interactive abilities.
An updated version of web browsing rolled out to Plus users on September 27.
The fourth quarter of 2023 began with integrating DALL·E 3 in beta on October 16, allowing for image generation from text prompts.
The browsing feature moved out of beta for Plus and Enterprise users on October 17.
Customizable versions of ChatGPT, called GPTs, were introduced for specific tasks on November 6 at OpenAI’s DevDay.


On November 21, the voice feature in ChatGPT was made available to all users, rounding off a year of significant advancements and broadening the horizons of AI interaction.
And here, we have ChatGPT today, with a sidebar full of GPTs.


Looking Ahead: What’s Next For ChatGPT
The past year has been a testament to continuous innovation, but it is merely the prologue to a future rich with potential.
The upcoming year promises incremental improvements and leaps in AI capabilities, user experience, and integrative technologies that could redefine our interaction with digital assistants.
With a community of users and developers growing stronger and more diverse, the evolution of ChatGPT is poised to surpass expectations and challenge the boundaries of today’s AI landscape.
As we step into this next chapter, the possibilities are as limitless as generative AI continues to advance.
Featured image: photosince/Shutterstock
SEO
Is AI Going To E-E-A-T Your Experience For Breakfast? The LinkedIn Example

Are LinkedIn’s collaborative articles part of SEO strategies nowadays?
More to the point, should they be?
The search landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, blurring the lines between search engines and where searches occur.
Following the explosive adoption of AI in content marketing and the most recent Google HCU, core, and spam updates, we’re looking at a very different picture now in search versus 12 months ago.
User-generated and community-led content seems to be met with renewed favourability by the algorithm (theoretically, mirroring what people reward, too).
LinkedIn’s freshly launched “collaborative articles” seem to be a perfect sign of our times: content that combines authority (thanks to LinkedIn’s authority), AI-generated content, and user-generated content.
What could go wrong?
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What are “collaborative articles” on LinkedIn?
- Why am I discussing them in the context of SEO?
- The main issues with collaborative articles.
- How is Google treating them?
- How they can impact your organic performance.
What Are LinkedIn Collaborative Articles?
First launched in March 2023, LinkedIn says about collaborative articles:
“These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team, but they aren’t complete without insights from our members. A select group of experts have been invited to contribute their own ideas, examples and experiences within the articles.“
Essentially, each of these articles starts as a collection of AI-generated answers to FAQs/prompts around any given topic. Under each of these sections, community members can add their own perspectives, insights, and advice.
What’s in it for contributors? To earn, ultimately, a “Top Voice” badge on their profile.
The articles are indexable and are all placed under the same folder (https://www.linkedin.com/advice/).
They look like this:

On the left-hand side, there are always FAQs relevant to the topic answered by AI.
On the right-hand side is where the contributions by community members get posted. Users can react to each contribution in the same way as to any LinkedIn post on their feed.
How Easy Is It To Contribute And Earn A Badge For Your Insights?
Pretty easy.
I first got invited to contribute on September 19, 2023 – though I had already found a way to contribute a few weeks before this.


My notifications included updates from connections who had contributed to an article.
By clicking on these, I was transferred to the article and was able to contribute to it, too (as well as additional articles, linked at the bottom).
I wanted to test how hard it was to earn a Top SEO Voice badge. Eight article contributions later (around three to four hours of my time), I had earned three.


How? Apparently, simply by earning likes for my contributions.
A Mix Of Brilliance, Fuzzy Editorial Rules, And Weird Uncle Bob
Collaborative articles sound great in principle – a win-win for both sides.
- LinkedIn struck a bullseye: creating and scaling content (theoretically) oozing with E-E-A-T, with minimal investment.
- Users benefit from building their personal brand (and their company’s) for a fragment of the effort and cost this usually takes. The smartest ones complement their on-site content strategy with this off-site golden ticket.
What isn’t clear from LinkedIn’s Help Center is what this editorial mix of AI and human input looks like.
Things like:
- How much involvement do the editors have before the topic is put to the community?
- Are they only determining and refining the prompts?
- Are they editing the AI-generated responses?
- More importantly, what involvement (if any) do they have after they unleash the original AI-generated piece into the world?
- And more.
I think of this content like weird Uncle Bob, always joining the family gatherings with his usual, unoriginal conversation starters. Only, this time, he’s come bearing gifts.
Do you engage? Or do you proceed to consume as many canapés as possible, pretending you haven’t seen him yet?
Why Am I Talking About LinkedIn Articles And SEO?
When I first posted about LinkedIn’s articles, it was the end of September. Semrush showed clear evidence of their impact and potential in Search. (Disclosure: I work for Semrush.)
Only six months after their launch, LinkedIn articles were on a visible, consistent upward trend.
- They were already driving 792.5K organic visits a month. (This was a 75% jump in August.)
- They ranked for 811,700 keywords.
- Their pages were ranking in the top 10 for 78,000 of them.
- For 123,700 of them, they appeared in a SERP feature, such as People Also Ask and Featured Snippets.
- Almost 72% of the keywords had informational intent, followed by commercial keywords (22%).
Here’s a screenshot with some of the top keywords for which these pages ranked at the top:


Now, take the page that held the Featured Snippet for competitive queries like “how to enter bios” (monthly search volume of 5,400 and keyword difficulty of 84, based on Semrush data).
It came in ahead of pages on Tom’s Hardware, Hewlett-Packard, or Reddit.


See anything weird? Even at the time of writing this post, this collaborative article had precisely zero (0) contributions.
This means a page with 100% AI-generated content (and unclear interference of human editors) was rewarded with the Featured Snippet against highly authoritative and relevant domains and pages.
A Sea Of Opportunity Or A Storm Ready To Break Out?
Let’s consider these articles in the context of Google’s guidelines for creating helpful, reliable, people-first content and its Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Of particular importance here, I believe, is the most recently added “E” in “E-E-A-T,” which takes experience into account, alongside expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
For so many of these articles to have been ranking so well must mean that they were meeting the guidelines and proving helpful and reliable for content consumers.
After all, they rely on “a select group of experts to contribute their own ideas, examples and experiences within the articles,” so they must be worthy of strong organic performances, right?
Possibly. (I’ve yet to see such an example, but I want to believe somewhere in the thousands of pages these do exist).
But, based on what I’ve seen, there are too many examples of poor-quality content to justify such big rewards in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
The common issues I’ve spotted:
1. Misinformation
I can’t tell how much vetting or editing there is going on behind the scenes, but the amount of misinformation in some collaborative articles is alarming. This goes for AI-generated content and community contributions alike.
I don’t really envy the task of fact-checking what LinkedIn describes as “thousands of collaborative articles on 2,500+ skills.” Still, if it’s quality and helpfulness we’re concerned with here, I’d start brewing my coffee a little stronger if I were LinkedIn.
At the moment, it feels a little too much like a free-for-all.
Here are some examples of topics like SEO or content marketing.


2. Thin Content
To a degree, some contributions seem to do nothing more than mirror the points made in the original AI-generated piece.
For example, are these contributions enough to warrant a high level of “experience” in these articles?


The irony to think that some of these contributions may have also been generated by AI…
3. Missing Information
While many examples don’t provide new or unique perspectives, some articles simply don’t provide…any perspectives at all.
This piece about analytical reasoning ranked in the top 10 for 128 keywords when I first looked into it last September (down to 80 in October).


It even held the Featured Snippet for competitive keywords like “inductive reasoning examples” for a while (5.4K monthly searches in the US), although it had no contributions on this subsection.
Most of its sections remain empty, so we’re talking about mainly AI-generated content.
Does this mean that Google really doesn’t care whether your content comes from humans or AI?
I’m not convinced.
How Have The Recent Google Updates Impacted This Content?
After August and October 2023 Google core updates (at the time of writing, the November 2023 Google core update is rolling out), the September 2023 helpful content update, and the October 2023 spam update, the performance of this section seems to be declining.
According to Semrush data:


- Organic traffic to these pages was down to 453,000 (a 43% drop from September, bringing their performance close to August levels).
- They ranked for 465,100 keywords (down by 43% MoM).
- Keywords in the Top 10 dropped by 33% (51,900 vs 78,000 in September).
- Keywords in the top 10 accounted for 161,800 visits (vs 287,200 in September, down by 44% MoM).
The LinkedIn domain doesn’t seem to have been impacted negatively overall.


Is this a sign that Google has already picked up the weaknesses in this content and has started balancing actual usefulness versus the overall domain authority that might have propelled it originally?
Will we see it declining further in the coming months? Or are there better things to come for this feature?
Should You Already Be On The Bandwagon If You’re In SEO?
I was on the side of caution before the Google algorithm updates of the past couple of months.
Now, I’d be even more hesitant to invest a substantial part of my resources towards baking this content into my strategy.
As with any other new, third-party feature (or platform – does anyone remember Threads?), it’s always a case of balancing being an early adopter with avoiding over-investment. At least while being unclear on the benefits.
Collaborative articles are a relatively fresh, experimental, external feature you have minimal control over as part of your SEO strategy.
Now, we also have signs from Google that this content may not be as “cool” as we initially thought.
This Is What I’d Do
That’s not to say it’s not worth trying some small-scale experiments.
Or, maybe, use it as part of promoting your own personal brand (but I’ve yet to see any data around the impact of the “Top Voice” badges on perceived value).
Treat this content as you would any other owned content.
- Follow Google’s guidelines.
- Add genuine value for your audience.
- Add your own unique perspective.
- Highlight gaps and misinformation.
Experience shows us that when tactics get abused, and the user experience suffers, Google eventually steps in (from guest blogging to parasite SEO, most recently).
It might make algorithmic tweaks when launching updates, launch a new system, or hand out manual actions – the point is that you don’t know how things will progress. Only LinkedIn and Google have control over that.
As things stand, I can easily see any of the below potential outcomes:
- This content becomes the AI equivalent of the content farms of the pre-Panda age, leading to Google clamping down on its search performance.
- LinkedIn’s editors stepping in more for quality control (provided LinkedIn deems the investment worthwhile).
- LinkedIn starts pushing its initiative much more to encourage participation and engagement. (This could be what makes the difference between a dead content farm and Reddit-like value.)
Anything could happen. I believe the next few months will give us a clearer picture.
What’s Next For AI And Its Role In SEO And Social Media?
When it comes to content creation, I think it’s safe to say that AI isn’t quite ready to E-E-A-T your experience for breakfast. Yet.
We can probably expect more of these kinds of movements from social media platforms and forums in the coming months, moving more toward mixing AI with human experience.
What do you think is next for LinkedIn’s collaborative articles? Let me know on LinkedIn!
More resources:
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
SEO
What It Really Is & How to Build One

Building a personal brand is undeniably hard work, but it isn’t as tricky as you might think.
I spoke with two influencers—Wes Kao and Matt Diggity—for their best tips on establishing a name for yourself online.
A personal brand is how people perceive you and what you’re known for. It’s the skills, experience, and values that give you an edge over others.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman is one example. He helms and hosts the science/health podcast Huberman Lab, lectures at Stanford Medicine, and has earned media mentions from the likes of BBC, TIME, and more.
Andrew’s personal brand is built on his credibility and areas of expertise. Many of his posts attract thousands of likes and hundreds of comments on X and LinkedIn.
If we want to dig deeper, Maven and altMBA co-founder Wes Kao has a somewhat alternative take on the definition:
In my opinion, it’s better to reframe ‘personal branding’ into ‘personal credibility.’ Personal branding has a superficial undertone. It assumes you have your work, then you tack on an artificial layer of ‘branding’ to shape perceptions.
She suggests that personal credibility is about substance: Showing people what you do, how you think, and how you can contribute. Wes adds:
In this way, you build deeper connections with people who believe in your work—which means stronger relationships, more control, and more opportunities.
In this podcast interview snippet with Nick Bennett, SparkToro’s Amanda Natividad echoes Wes’ sentiment:
People generally don’t like the term [personal brand] because it sounds disingenuous and icky. Acknowledging the existence of your personal brand is admitting that you care what others think about you, and that you find ways to manage those expectations at scale.
Wild as it sounds, building a solid personal brand gives you more control over your life.
A strong following could:
- Expand your realm of influence, particularly in your area of expertise (i.e., be viewed as a subject matter expert).
- Boost your credibility, in turn allowing you to promote your company/product better.
- Build a loyal following independent of the company you’re working for (or if you own that company, create more positive sentiment towards it).
- Open doors to job, networking, and investment opportunities.
Chiangmai SEO conference founder Matt Diggity shares some excellent points in his Facebook post on the topic, too.


There’s no linear path to building your personal brand.
As a precursor to the below steps, let’s first talk about finding your “voice.”
Wes and Matt both emphasize the importance of staying true to yourself. That means not crafting an online persona of who you think you should be.
I try to write like how I sound in person. Talking and writing are different media, so you shouldn’t try to match the two in a literal sense, but you want to capture your overall spirit. For example, I have a hint of snark in my writing because that’s how I sound in person.
Matt echoes this sentiment:
How I talk on the internet is how I talk IRL. If I’m not having a f**king blast on my YouTube videos, I won’t do them. It has to be fun.
Keep this idea in mind as you go through the steps below.
Step 1: Position yourself
Think of yourself as a product: What are your strengths, obsessions, and areas of expertise?
If you’re well-versed in technical SEO or a seasoned entrepreneur, these might be your unique selling points.
From there, double down on something you would be excited to think, write, and talk about for years—because “it will likely take years to get to where you want to go,” says Wes.
As an (optional) next step, consider solidifying your position with a spiky POV—a term coined by Wes, and which she cautions should be used with care.
A spiky POV is not about a contrarian hot take for the sake of it. In 2023, social platforms are flooded with hot takes and generic advice. I think about respecting the intelligence of my audience and teaching them something they don’t already know. A true spiky POV is rooted in deep expertise, including recognizing the limitations and counterpoints of your idea. This builds your reputation as someone who is rigorous and worth the time to engage with.
Here’s a LinkedIn post by Wes that combines all of the above: a unique perspective backed by her personal experiences, with a takeaway for the audience too. In other words—a spiky, worthy POV.
Step 2: Start sharing publicly
You already knew this, but social media platforms are one of the best ways to get growth and build your name. It’s your chance to build your reputation in a public arena.
Wes, Amanda, and Matt each utilized a combination of online channels to promote their voice and content. It’s one of the first things you should do—because your content is really only as good as its reach.
This is the first thing I did to build a personal brand and authority in the SEO industry, and I still do it to this day…
Take an hour a week, go to SEO social media hangouts (SEO Facebook groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) and go from top-to-bottom answering people’s questions.…
— Matt Diggity (@mattdiggityseo) September 27, 2023
This doesn’t mean cross-posting your content across more platforms than you can manage, of course.
Study where your target audience spends most of their time, then hone in on those platforms (ideally, stick to no more than 2-3).
In Matt’s case, his followers are primarily on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube—and that’s where his SEO-led content thrives.


If creating whole posts from scratch seems daunting, start by commenting thoughtfully in relevant online communities. Obviously, do it with heart:
This is the first thing I did to build a personal brand and authority in the SEO industry, and I still do it to this day…
Take an hour a week, go to SEO social media hangouts (SEO Facebook groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) and go from top-to-bottom answering people’s questions.…
— Matt Diggity (@mattdiggityseo) September 27, 2023
Here are some simple ways to start.
LinkedIn: Contribute to a collaborative article
You might have seen these articles floating around LinkedIn—perhaps even been invited to add your insights to them.
These blog posts are similar to Wikipedia pages: LinkedIn users build on each AI-generated article with their perspectives, and readers can choose to react to these additions or engage with the content.


Here’s an example of what a contribution looks like:


Reddit: Weigh in on discussions
- Go to a relevant subreddit, e.g. r/bigSEO
- Sort by “Top” and “This Week”
- Browse the questions or discussions and offer your two cents where relevant.


Ride on trending topics
Found an interesting insight on X or someplace else? Turn it into a poll, question, or post. (Be sure to also tag and credit the author!)
Bring it all together
If some of your responses or posts get traction, repurpose those answers into new content: a blog post, video, or series of social posts.
(PSST: Learn more about my process behind curating and repurposing content for Ahrefs’ X account.)
This segues into our next and final step:
Step 3: Double down on what works
By now, you should have an idea of which topics you’re most comfortable discussing at length—and what resonates most with your target audience.
You can further maximize your reach by doubling down on the things that have brought you success. Or, more specifically, by repurposing popular content in other formats and creating more content about similar things.
For instance, we turned this popular video on how to use ChatGPT for SEO into a Twitter thread and LinkedIn post—and later, a blog post.




Wes has also done this plenty with her “eaten the bear” analogy over the years. She first wrote about it in this 2019 blog post, rewrote it in 2023, and shares variations of the analogy on LinkedIn and X every few months.


Each time, these posts garner hundreds or thousands of likes
Too much backstory is one of the biggest killers of good stories.
Backstory scope creep is real. We’ve all been there: Long-winded, stream of conscious explanations—all in the name of “giving context.“
I’ve been guilty of it myself.
The solution?
Minimum viable backstory pic.twitter.com/XFe2wAJysg
— Wes Kao 🏛 (@wes_kao) October 3, 2023
Don’t let your success die there, though. You can find more content ideas that will resonate with your audience by doing some keyword research around your topic. Here’s how:
- Plug your target topic into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
- Go to the Matching terms report
For example, if we enter “chatgpt seo,” we see that people are searching for ChatGPT prompts for SEO and ChatGPT SEO extensions:


Given how our audience is interested in ChatGPT and SEO, these would be great topics to create content about—whether that be social media posts, videos, blog posts, or something else.
If you don’t have a paid account with us, you can plug your topic into our free keyword generator tool to view related phrases/questions.
Extra tips to build your personal brand
We mentioned some of these in some shape or form earlier, but they’re worth expanding on.
Maintain human connections
Who are you without the people who consume your content? Engage consistently with your followers and others’ content. Human connections are worth their weight in gold when you’re trying to get your personal brand off the ground.
Maintain consistency across your social media profiles
This means using the same profile picture across all platforms, and a standardized bio so others can quickly get a sense of who you are and what you often post about.
Jack Appleby is a great example. The creator/consultant is behind Future Social, an independent social strategy newsletter with 56,000+ subscribers.
Notice how he maintains consistency on X and LinkedIn:




Ahrefs’ Tim Soulo further explains the importance of your profile picture in personal branding here:
Your profile pic is your “personal branding” tool. (duh!)
My journey so far:
2009 – “I have no idea what I’m doing;“
2014 – I want to stand out & be memorable;
2018 – I want to look provocative;
2020 – I want to look professional.I can expand this into a thread if you want 😉 pic.twitter.com/W7FtZTcYGO
— Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 (@timsoulo) September 14, 2020
Be yourself
Remember how Wes and Matt shared the importance of staying true to yourself? We couldn’t emphasize that enough.
Final thoughts
These steps aren’t exhaustive, obviously. To truly stand out online, Wes suggests having a combination of these things: social proof, good design sense, strong writing, interesting insights, and a track record of contribution.
As she puts it:
All these things will make people think, ‘This person knows their craft.’
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