As a long time SEO professional, my signature model involves something that we seem to lose sight of when trends pop up and scarcity mindsets creep in. I’m speaking of course about common sense.
The phrase common sense brings up memories of teachers and parents teaching on the virtues of “good decision making” and “doing the next right thing” and it does include that. But really, Common Sense SEO is about stacking your marketing actions in a way that they build upon one another in a positive way. Ultimately, your efforts should compound so they amplify your growth.
Overtime, Common Sense SEO strategies should make your marketing dollars go further, your efforts easier and your time invested less costly.
So What Is Common Sense SEO?
Let me start by saying what it isn’t. It’s not magic, instant or fast. You have probably heard the phrase that you can have things in your life either cheap, fast or good. Usually, you only get two of the three at any time.
If you want something cheap and fast, you compromise on quality.
If you want something cheap and good, you compromise on time.
And if you want something fast and good, well, it’s gonna cost you.
The basic principles of SEO, which now include AI visibility, follow a set of best-practices that are not going away. What has changed is how the public looks for information. The average Google search is still about 4 words. The average AI query is about 8 exchanges. That is a quantum shift in how people search for information. Instead of just looking for concepts, you can now have entire conversations which gets you closer to taking action and the help you need.
If you want your content to show in AI, it has to show in Google. That’s where the information comes from and it’s not changing.
But, because AI encourages people to engage in back and forth discussions before making a decision, there are many new opportunities to create a unique business that aligns more tightly with your values, beliefs, training and revenue goals without needing to compromise or limit your growth.
Sounds great, but the trick to making it work, without it being overwhelming, is leveraging common sense.
Common Sense SEO Starts With What You Are Actually Selling
The set of services you sell are valuable to a certain population of people. Knowing who they are, why they want your products or services and then marketing in ways that match how your future customers look for what you offer is the key.
To get this right, you must know answers to the following questions:
- What do you sell?
- Who is looking for it?
- What are they willing to pay for it?
- What words do they use to search for you/your product?
- What proof do they need to trust you?
- Where do your future clients spend their time online?
- What kind of marketing content are you willing to create consistently?
- What does the data say about your efforts/traffic/results?
- What can you stop doing that’s a waste of your time and resources?
These questions start to define your unique business model. This is how you close the gap on your competition and do it quickly. When you know who you are and where your potential customers hang out, you know what marketing avenues make sense and which ones you can decline.
You Are Marketing to Two Audiences: Google and Real People
Google and AI engines need structure. Your content has to fall within certain frameworks so the tools/algorithms can ingest it and then share it with the public. The basic rules of HTML are not going anywhere either. The more complicated your website, the clunkier your images, the more crowded your pages, the more Google and AI get confused. And when Google gets confused, it does nothing. When AI gets confused, God knows what gets recommended, but you can bet it’s not you.
You’re also marketing to humans who need clarity, usefulness, and trust. Humans need to see themselves in your images and copy. Your bio must validate that you’re trustworthy, educated and a competent person/brand. Your word choices must match their pain points and your offers must match services or products they want to buy.
Common Sense SEO Reminds Us That Your Website Is a Puzzle and a Chess Match
The components of your website are the various puzzle pieces that help Google, AI tools, and real people understand what your business is about. Often, business owners are looking for one lever to pull to improve their SEO so they focus on keywords, backlinks, blogs, page speed, AI, social media, Google Business Profile or ads. But SEO does not work like one lever; it works like an ecosystem.
Most SEO advice focuses on puzzle pieces and that advice is not wrong, it’s incomplete. The SEO pieces only work when they create a coherent picture of your business.
Inside of the puzzle, each piece has a job:
- Keywords tell Google what language your audience uses.
- Page titles tell searchers and Google what the page is about.
- Meta descriptions help people decide whether your result is worth clicking.
- Heading tags organize the page so Google can understand the hierarchy of your idea.
- Internal links show the relationship between one page and another.
- External links show where you are sourcing, citing or connecting to authority.
- Backlinks from credible sources signal trust and positive reputation.
- Alt text helps accessibility and gives Google more context to understand your imagery.
- Schema gives search engines structured information in their own language simplifying the process to recommend your website.
- Body copy carries the actual argument, keywords, expertise and usefulness.
- UX tells the larger story of whether people stay, read, click, scroll and engage.
The mistake many people make is treating one puzzle piece like the whole picture. They think, “I need backlinks,” or “I need blogs,” or “I need better keywords.” But a pile of puzzle pieces is not a finished puzzle. The pieces have to connect for the picture to emerge.
The chess match begins when you ask where those pieces should go, what order they should happen in and how your competitors are already influencing the board. Common Sense SEO strategy is not about doing more; it’s knowing which move gives you the best chance of being found, trusted, clicked and hired ahead of your competition.
The chess match focus asks different questions:
- Who already ranks for the terms you want?
- Are they stronger than you?
- Are they stronger because of content, backlinks, age, authority, brand, local proximity, reviews or something else?
- Can you realistically beat them on the main keyword or do you need a more specific angle?
- Should you create a landing page, a blog post, a video, a podcast page, a FAQ or a case-study-style article?
- What move helps now, and what move builds authority six months from now?
That is the part most business owners miss. They think SEO is just a checklist of things to do. And while it’s partly a checklist, the items on the checklist do not tell you what move to make next. That’s where your own unique common sense strategy comes into play.
AI Did Not Kill SEO. It Made Weak SEO More Obvious
Because AI rewards specific, credible and useful content, anything that’s “generic” or written by AI without editing for the brand’s unique point of view is less valuable. We don’t need to read boring, repetitive content because we’re using tools to get us closer to our real questions. AI and the 8 exchanges brings us away from basic information and helps us determine our “real” question or our “deeper” need. Which, if you’re like me, is very specific to my life, point of view, budget, location, and values.
The Real Currency Is Attention
For your content to matter and generate actual traffic to your website, that content must be consumed, not merely published. In other words, someone must read it. They must spend time on it. They must give you their attention. This metric of “time on the page” is how Google evaluates your content for its value. If your article has very little time spent reading it, then it’s judged to be less valuable. And why would Google send traffic to content that no one reads?
Again, the common sense part of this is about being useful and valuable to people. Attention is the great equalizer and anyone who writes a great article or creates a great video can get attention. This is how you earn your reputation online and it is vitally important to the trust Google, AI and your consumers place on your brand.
Stop Doing SEO Work That Does Not Match Your Business
Common Sense SEO also tells you that it’s time to stop wasting energy and money on SEO tactics that do not generate traffic. Stop buying low-quality backlinks, stop creating content on irrelevant social platforms, stop publishing vague content, and stop engaging old-school tricks or SEO hacks. If you want attention from Google and AI, you have to earn it the real way.
SEO Works Best When It Is Practical, Human, and Consistent
Earlier I said that you can get two out of these three at any time: cheap, fast or good and this applies to SEO as well. Common sense tells us that you’re marketing to human beings. They need to like your site, visit your pages, read your articles and fill out your forms. You don’t need a million clients. You need the right clients who want your services and can afford your fees. You will obtain that faster when you use logic to help decide what you need to add, remove, increase, or decrease inside of your marketing plan.
This way of thinking about my client’s businesses has helped them not only grow but thrive over the years. It’s less burdensome and it is more authentic. I know it can work for you too.
Take our complementary marketing assessment to see where your business is today. And if you’re ready to expand your business and explore Common Sense SEO with our team, we would love to talk.
