Tips Tuesday – AI SEO, Videos in Search, Content Silos Work 

Tips this week include:

• Test your contact form
• Updates to WP Fastest Cache Settings
• Test of Kadence Form block
• Important AI SEO article that is a must-read
• Getting clicks in AI Search
• Google still shows videos first
• Internal YouTube promotion rocks
• Get video clicks with AI SEO help in YouTube
• Making Shorts for more eyeballs
• Short video workshop coming soon
• Why I’m going all in on Content Silos
• ADA compliance refresher
• Why you can’t afford to be a tip collector anymore

Site Tips

Test Your Contact Form

My clients and I use Formidable for our contact forms. (See my tut here.)

And we also use Cloudflare Turnstile to protect our forms from spam.

But last week both plugins had an update that knocked out the Turnstile connection so that folks could not submit the form. We got that fixed very easily and quickly.

But, it’s just a reminder to check that your forms work now and then. You could be missing an important connection, and your visitor has no other way to alert you.

Updates to WP Fastest Cache Settings

That little contact form hiccup alerted me to two things we need to do regarding our contact page and for Turnstile.

I’ve added two new sections to the WP Fastest Cache Settings post for excluding your contact page from cache, plus excluding the Turnstile challenge from your entire site.

Test of Kadence Form Block

The Kadence Form block natively integrates with Turnstile reCaptcha too. 

So, I checked into using their Form block to see if it was a good replacement for Formidable.

But, the deal breaker was that only the Form (Adv) block, found in the paid version of Kadence Blocks Pro, has a way to turn off collecting form data in the database.

That’s a big GDPR and site security no-no.

Formidable has that option in their free plugin version, so we will be sticking with it.

Get the Real Site Help You Need

Is your site on Cloudflare with all 30+ settings properly configured?

If not, you’re missing out on a WHOLE bunch of security and speed for your site, like having Turnstile protecting your forms from spam.

Get a site audit and get in the Hub to get your site squared away. Plus, get the inside scoop right away on how to resolve any issues and keep up with changes.

You also get monthly quick checks to ensure everything about your site is in top form. Those checks include things like ensuring your home page, about page, and sidebar are up to date too – you know, the things your new visitors check out, and that you tend to put on ignore?

Real help is not just about the techie stuff. It’s about your site staying in top shape in all ways.

AI SEO Tips

Read This First

Take a moment to read this post from pro SEO, Ian Ferguson titled The Great Decoupling in Search Console.

We now have proof that everything I’ve been telling you about SEO this year is true.

And it’s exactly why the DIY SEO Everywhere course was flipped on its head.

We HAVE TO modify how we create content if we hope to show up anywhere online, not just in Google search.

Not kidding, go read that article.

It will make the rest of what I’m telling you in Tips Tuesday this week make even more sense and be more valuable in helping you get more eyeballs and make more money.  

Getting Clicks in AI Search

Y’all know that I’ve been preaching short, focused content all year, including all of the new workshops and masterminds in the DIY SEO Everywhere course.

That’s because it’s the type of content that is most shown in AI Search results, like Google’s AI Overviews (AIO).

My buddy Denise Wakeman has a super helpful post on it that will get your creative juices flowing to make this type of focused, helpful content.

READ: Be the Answer They Click

Short, answer-based content is the ticket to getting picked up by AI crawlers.

And Denise lays it all out for you on her Substack publication Your Visibility Edge.

Video SEO Tips

Google Still Shows Videos First

The one thing AI Search has not changed, at least at Google, is that they LOVE displaying YouTube videos at the top of search results.

And those usually FAR outrank blog post title/links.

I was looking at my YouTube metrics for Heartwood Art this weekend.

• 49% of folks find me via external sources
• Of those external sources, Google Search accounts for 66.5% of the clicks

And as you saw in that post from Ferguson, Google is now showing Shorts in regular Google Search as a way to augment the AI Overview summaries.

This is exactly why I’m in the process of breaking out clips from the longer tool tip videos I just posted on YouTube. 

Internal YouTube Promotion

The numbers above are overall visibility for my channel.

I do have a few posts that are getting 80% of their visibility from within YouTube.

Some of that is from folks searching within YouTube and some is from YT showing mine in Related Videos.

Those are videos that are making me the most money too.

Get Video Clicks with AI SEO Help

Earlier this year in the DIY SEO Everywhere course, we had workshops on YouTube channel settings as well as all of the new AI SEO features.

Y’all, that stuff WORKS!!!

I’ve been using those tools to refine my video creation ideas for the Heartwood Art Channel.

And sure enough, the two videos I created from that research are the ones getting the most impressions and clicks from regular Google Search as well as internal YouTube promotion.

With one of those ideas, I coupled it with regular metrics research to find a niche topic. It is taking off 3x faster than all other videos I uploaded around the same time.

I also did a series of videos on how to use a jigsaw and the one that I used YouTube’s title suggestions for is taking off 2x faster than the others.

And let me tell you, EVERY suggestion that it gives is for short, focused content.

The bottom line – use YouTube tools to give it what it is telling you it will promote to your audience.

Making Shorts for More Eyeballs

Two of the jigsaw videos I made were mid-form content, meaning that they were about 15 minutes each.

Being more than 8 minutes long qualifies them for mid-roll ads, so I get paid at least twice on those vids.

But, the main reason I created them this way is that each video is full of shorter, focused segments.

This week I’m going to break out those segments and reformat for Shorts. And I’ll link each one to the longer video.

This is a fantastic way to repurpose content for multiple video platforms including Reels and TikTok too.

Those little segments are so easy to script and storyboard. Plus, they are fast and easy to record and edit too.

In fact, I made each of these videos over a couple of days in my spare time. I wasn’t obligated to do the whole thing in one take.

My challenge to you – grab one of your best posts. See how you can break it up into discrete segments that teach one, focused thing. And then create that standalone content.

Short Video Workshop Coming

Y’all, this past week was FULL of client work, the contact form hoohaa, and more. So, I was unable to devote stretches of time to creating a new workshop for us in the DIY SEO Everywhere course for making super easy, super fast videos with Canva.

But this week, the client workload is easing and I’m learning Canva, which I haven’t touched in years. I use Camtasia for all of my video creating and editing.

But, I can see where Canva is going to be the better fit for these super easy videos, so I want to learn how to do them there too.

And I know most of the folks in the course already use Canva for Pinterest graphics and such.

So, this is definitely the platform for us to go with.

I’ll announce the workshop to folks in the course as soon as I have it ready.

This is going to be so fun!!!!!!

General SEO Tips

Going All in on Content Silos

Over the weekend, I started creating Content Silo pages on the Heartwood Art site.

The fact is, this was a hobby site that I let go fallow for a few years, and I just didn’t have enough posts in enough topics to create Content Silos.

But, since I decided to make a real go of the YouTube channel, I needed to spiffy up the site along with it.

I’ve decided to drop Categories from being indexed in search, and feature my Content Silo pages instead. I think this move is going to be way better for AI SEO too.

Site owners have been doing this for years, and there are definitely ways for making the switch that are better than others. In fact, some sites should not make this switch.

That’s why I have a whole workshop devoted to Content Silos and another devoted to Categories and Tags in the DIY SEO Everywhere course.

Once I get my site all squared away with this new layout and structure, we’ll revisit those workshops in the course so you can see how I made the change, and why.

But, the workshop replays as they stand have solid info. So you might want to jump into them now for a refresher.

FYI, now that I have all of my posts mapped out into these Content Silos, I’ll be making new, matching Playlists of them for my YouTube channel homepage too.

ADA Compliance Refresher

While I was making these new Content Silo pages, I used the same text on all of the button links – like “See It”. 

Well, that’s not very descriptive for folks using screen readers, is it?

In the DIY SEO Everywhere course we have a workshop on ADA and UX, for accessibility compliance along with links to articles on how to test your site for it. Both of these things can affect your site ranking.

With so many folks revamping their site structure since we did that workshop, and with all of the new content silos and other content changes folks are making, I think we need a new workshop that shows easy ways to do accessibility things, especially with Kadence blocks.

So, look for a new workshop on that topic coming this summer too.

Don’t Be Just a Tip Collector

Tips Tuesday is not just news. I try to share what I’m actually doing that is getting results.

Are you applying these tips to your own site, content creation, and marketing?

Go beyond skimming tips.

Linger a moment to see how you can make the connection with what you’re doing and what you can do to get more eyeballs and make more money.

And please do share what has inspired you and what new things you’re trying!!!!

I love hearing from you.