Straight answersabout search
Written by Tom Claydon, co-founder of Nudge. One question per post, in plain english.
why your Substack is invisible on Google (and the ten minute fix)
Publishing on Substack doesn't put you on Google: until you verify your publication in Search Console and submit its sitemap, your posts can sit unindexed indefinitely.
SEO basicshow to set up Google Search Console in ten minutes
Search Console is Google's free control panel for how your site appears in search, and setting it up takes four steps: add the property, verify ownership, submit your sitemap, and check your key pages.
SEO basicsthe plain-English glossary of AI search
Every term you need to follow the AI search conversation, defined in one sentence each and expanded only where it earns it, from GEO and AEO to entities, passages and llms.txt.
AI searchthe AI search readiness checklist
Twenty checks across four areas, foundations, content, corroboration and measurement, that tell you whether AI assistants can find, understand, trust and quote your business.
AI searchthe answer-first page template (steal this structure)
The repeatable page structure that gets quoted by AI engines: a question for a title, the full answer in the first two sentences, self-contained sections, evidence attached to claims, and a real author underneath.
AI searchChatGPT vs Google: where should a small business focus?
Google still carries vastly more buying journeys and should get your foundation effort first, but the platforms cite surprisingly different sources, so the answer is one content strategy, checked on both.
AI searchDIY, freelancer or agency: who should run your search marketing?
Do it yourself when time is cheaper than money and you'll actually stay consistent, hire a freelancer for defined skills gaps, and use an agency when spend and complexity justify a team's weekly attention.
Working with an agencyfive free ways to check your AI search visibility
Before paying for any tool, five free checks tell you where you stand in AI search: the assistant test, the entity test, Search Console's AI reporting, your analytics referrals, and branded search movement.
AI searchAI visibility tools vs manual tracking: an honest comparison
Manual tracking is free, disciplined and enough for most small businesses; paid AI visibility platforms earn their fee at scale, when many questions, competitors and platforms need watching at once.
AI searchthe state of AI search, summer 2026: five shifts that matter
Google shipped AI-surface reporting in Search Console, citations decoupled further from rankings, ChatGPT's answers reward audience-specific clarity, and the engines agree with each other less than ever: here is what changed and what to do.
Researchhow to choose a search marketing agency
Choose the agency that shows you its thinking before you pay, insists you own your accounts, and talks about tests rather than promises.
Working with an agencywhat does search marketing cost in the UK?
Pricing comes in three shapes, a percentage of ad spend, a flat retainer, or project fees, and the number that matters more than any fee is the total cost per customer acquired.
Working with an agencysix questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign
Six questions do most of the vetting: who owns the accounts, who does the work, what happens in month one, how we measure, what would make you tell us to stop, and how do we leave.
Working with an agencywhy you should own your own ad accounts
If leaving your agency means losing your ad account, you lose the data and learning your money paid for, so insist on ownership before signing anything.
Working with an agencywhat is A/B testing and why your ads and pages need it
A/B testing shows two versions to similar people and lets results pick the winner, which is the difference between marketing that improves every month and marketing that stays the same price forever.
Conversionhow to write a landing page that converts
A landing page converts when it keeps the promise of the click: one message, one action, proof nearby, and the answer to "is this for me" in the first screen.
Conversionwhat to expect in your first 90 days with a search agency
A good first ninety days looks like access and audit in week one, tracking fixed and quick wins in month one, tests running by month two, and a truthful review at ninety days in numbers you understand.
Working with an agencythe first real study of GEO: what actually earns AI citations
The KDD 2024 study behind the term GEO tested nine content tactics across 10,000 queries and found quotations, statistics and cited sources lifted AI visibility by up to 40%, while keyword stuffing scored below doing nothing.
Researchinside the machine: how AI assistants choose what to quote
AI answers are assembled by a pipeline: the question is expanded into searches, pages are split into passages, passages are ranked by meaning, and the model writes from the winners, so the unit of competition is the passage, not the page.
Researchwhat the click data actually shows when AI answers appear
Pew Research found users click results roughly half as often when an AI summary is present, 8% versus 15%, and Ahrefs measured top-ranking pages losing even more, so the strategy is to be the answer's source and to win the clicks that still carry intent.
Research