Straight answersabout search
Written by Tom Claydon, co-founder of Nudge. One question per post, in plain english.
Can Claude do LinkedIn outreach?
Claude can review LinkedIn outreach for you: we used Claude in Chrome to read 9 OutFlo campaigns across 2 accounts in one pass and find the best one.
Researchwhy 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.
Researchwhere AI answers actually get their sources
Citation studies show AI platforms lean heavily on a narrow set of domains, Wikipedia and Reddit above all, and overlap surprisingly little with each other, so visibility means being corroborated in the places each engine already trusts.
Researchpassage-level optimization: writing for the way machines read
AI engines evaluate passages, not pages, so every section must stand alone: conclusion first, subject named, evidence attached, one idea per passage.
Researchentities, not keywords: how machines decide who you are
Modern search and AI systems resolve businesses as entities, distinct things with consistent properties, so a company described identically everywhere is machine-legible, and one with a common name must work harder to be disambiguated.
Researchwhat makes an AI trust a source?
Machine trust looks like human trust made checkable: identifiable authors, claims with evidence attached, agreement with the wider record, and behaviour over time, which is why honesty is becoming a technical advantage.
Researchthe freshness effect: why updated content keeps getting quoted
AI engines prefer recently maintained sources, and industry data shows citation rates decay as content ages, so a refresh discipline, substantively updating your best pages on a schedule, outperforms publishing alone.
Researchhow to show up in AI search: a plain-English guide for businesses
To show up in AI search you need pages that answer buyers' real questions in plain language, a site AI systems can read and quote, and consistent mentions across the web that back you up.
AI searchhow do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
ChatGPT recommends businesses it can find, understand and trust, so the work is publishing quotable answers and building consistent mentions across the web.
AI searchwhat are Google AI Overviews and what do they mean for your business?
AI Overviews are Google's own written answers at the top of results, assembled from pages Google trusts, so the goal shifts from ranking on the page to being the source the answer cites.
AI searchAI search vs SEO: what actually changes?
AI search optimization is the next layer on top of SEO: SEO gets your site found and indexed, AI search work makes your content the passage an assistant quotes.
AI searchhow to measure your AI search visibility
Ask the assistants your buyers' questions on a monthly schedule, record who gets named, and pair that trend with AI referral traffic in your analytics.
AI searchdo you need AI search optimization yet? an honest answer
If your buyers compare options before choosing, start now; if customers find you by postcode and reputation alone, fix your fundamentals first and revisit in a year.
AI searchhow much should a UK small business spend on Google Ads?
There is no universal number, but there is a reliable method: start from what a customer is worth, set a test budget big enough to buy real data, and scale only what pays.
Google Adsshould you run Google Ads in-house or use an agency?
Run it in-house if someone has real hours and appetite to learn the craft; use an agency when your spend justifies specialist attention; either way, own your own account.
Google Adswhy isn't my Google Ads account converting?
Nine times out of ten the answer sits in one of four places: the search terms you actually show for, the match between ad and page, the landing page itself, or broken tracking.
Google Adshow long does Google Ads take to work?
You will see data in days, decisions in weeks, and dependable performance in about three months; traffic is immediate, truth is not.
Google Adsis Google Ads worth it for a small business?
Worth it when three things are true: people search for what you sell, your website converts them, and the numbers work; when they hold, it is one of the most controllable growth channels there is.
Google Adswhat should a Google Ads agency actually do each month?
Real management looks like search term hygiene, a test always running, budget moving toward what works, and a report that tells the truth in plain English.
Google AdsGoogle Ads or SEO: where should your first pound go?
Ads buy speed and SEO builds compound visibility, so the practical answer is a sequence: paid search on high-intent terms first, reinvested into content that earns lasting presence.
Google Adssearch marketing for charities: a practical guide
Charities win in search by treating donors and beneficiaries as two different audiences with different questions, and by using the Google Ad Grant properly instead of letting it idle.
Verticalshow charities can use the Google Ad Grant well
The Ad Grant gives eligible charities a monthly Google Ads allowance at no cost, and most of it goes unspent or unfocused; using it well means treating it like paid money with a purpose per pound.
Verticalssearch marketing for solicitors and law firms
Legal clicks are expensive because cases are valuable, so the firms that win pick specific practice-area questions and answer them better than anyone, with compliance treated as an asset.
Verticalssearch marketing for language schools
Students search with exam names, levels and deadlines, so schools that answer those exact questions win the moments that matter.
Verticals