045: How To Become Known As The Go-To Expert In Your Niche & Thrive In The AI World of Search

In this episode, Jules White dives into the evolving world of search and how you can stand out as a topical authority in your field.

Jules discusses the rise of AI in search, with Google rolling out its AI overviews and ChatGPT adding a "search the web" button. She emphasises the importance of adapting your SEO tactics to these changes, but also stresses the need to focus on the basics first - like page speed, user experience, and clear language.

Jules explains the concept of "topical authority" and how niching down can help you become the go-to expert in your field. She shares her own experiences with niching and how it has helped her business.

This episode explores how to become a topical authority by:

• Identifying your core topics
• Creating a content strategy around those topics
• Using AI to research and analyse trends
• Putting your own unique spin on your content

If you're looking to navigate the changing landscape of search and establish yourself as an expert in your field, this episode is a must-listen!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 009: Why A Content Strategy Is Your First Step To Website Success!
• Episode 014: The Beginner's Guide to Optimising Your Website for AI-Powered Search (GEO)
• Episode 035: The Pathway To Website Success
• Free Guide To Discovering Your Core Topics
• Book a free Website Potential Discovery Call

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:35 Why are things changing?
• 3:40 The Rise of AI in Search
• 6:50 SEO Tactics are Changing
• 10:12 Why these changes are good
• 12:03 Topical Authority vs General Expertise
• 15:50 Becoming an Expert
• 16:27 How to Become a Topical Authority
• 20:34 Using AI to Analyse Trends
• 23:40 Putting Your Own Spin on Things
• 25:32 Creating Quality Content
• 27:29 Identifying Your Core Topics
• 29:38 Tying in Website Content with Core Topics
• 31:44 Conclusion

Transcript

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Introduction

Morning, happy Friday. So today I want to talk about how we can continue to stand out in the changing world of search. I'm going to look at why AI is playing a bigger role in searches, why that can be a good thing for us as business owners, what you can do to stand out. And how we can make your website a hub of well-structured and quality content that answers your audience's questions.

It's one of those things that I think definitely the SEO industry and the online world in general is massively going through changes. Literally, think things are changing by the day, and I think it's really important that we look at it and look at what we can do to make the most of that and to use it to our advantage.

And I think it will be to our advantage, actually, as small business owners. I think there's definitely lots of unknowns right now, but hopefully, we can just keep those basics in place and just do all that we can to try and make sure that we're still standing out in searches and that we're getting more visibility and basically just becoming that known and go-to expert in our industry for what we do.

Why are things changing?

So why are things changing? First of all, let's just look at what searches are. So when we're, when we're talking about anything to do with SEO and talking about optimising our websites for search, essentially, what we want to try and do is optimise our website to show up anywhere where there is a search function that could potentially lead to our website.

Whether that is somebody searching on a Google page or searching using AI anywhere where it would deliver web pages as results, then that's what we're trying to optimise for. People are basically out looking for answers to their questions, whether that's looking for a business or looking for an actual solution to a problem that they want to find out more about.

And if we can be that solution and our website can show up as that solution, that's the goal with what we're trying to do with search. Google is making big, big changes. There's lots and lots of rumours out there about Google dying, and this is going to be the end of Google and, you know, no point optimising for Google anymore.

And I would say at this point, it's just not true. Google is not going away overnight. Certainly, things are changing, and as different search engines are coming through, and as the search engines themselves are changing and the answers that people are getting in those searches are changing that will happen, but the work that we put in to optimise for Google will also apply to any other search engine wherever people are searching. So it, people sort of saying, I'll forget about Google. It's just not true. As I say, it's not going away overnight, even if it does go away.

And I don't think it will. The Google algorithm has been evolving for nearly 30 years and becoming more and more sophisticated in order to deliver us the results that we are looking for.

And I think that's potentially what might happen is that people might start using other ways to search and then discover that actually the results that they're getting aren't quite as good. I think definitely Google is a bit behind in terms of keeping up with what people actually want. I think they're, they're developing so much on the back end.

The Rise of AI in Search

I've been reading this week, a book about how Google was involved in AI development, and it's incredible, but I can't believe having read more into that and how they've evolved and developed. I can't believe that they're, they're not there at the forefront of this really.

I think it's a real shame. Obviously, there's, business decisions on why they've done this. It will affect their ad revenue from people actually using things like ChatGPT to search and perplexity and all the other search engines that are out there. But, um, yeah, I think it's a shame, but that's actually, I've gone completely off track there of what I was actually talking about, which is, what, what people are actually using these search engines for.

So. There's a few big changes. Google is rolling out its AI overviews, on a Google search results page now, you will see AI overviews at the top of the page for some searches. And this wasn't rolled out until very recently. This wasn't rolled out to lots and lots of countries. And that's one big change that's happening this week.

So people might find, especially if it's the sort of content where it can be answered by those AI overviews, people might find that they're getting a drop off in clicks through to their websites. That is definitely one of the, one of the issues with this is those kind of informational search intent queries are.

It's definitely going to affect the amount of clicks that people get through to their website, but hopefully, what we're talking about today is more about getting that visibility and getting that overall visibility. And because we don't know how this is gonna affect businesses and how this is going, going to affect websites.

But what we're all trying to do is get more visibility. So. If we can show up in those AI searches, it's better than not showing up anywhere. But we'll see. We'll see what happens in terms of how that has an effect on people's websites.

So, you've got that. You've got Google rolling out its AI overviews.

ChatGPT have added in a search the web button directly in the ChatGPT app. So if you're, whether you're looking on your phone or on the desktop version, there's a button there now that will literally take you through and take you through a web search. That is a big, big change. And that is, one of the biggest threats, you know, to people using Google, really.

You've got perplexity as well. I'm not massively into that. It's not one of the ones that I use regularly. It's, it's something that a lot of people really, really like, Perplexity, and that's another one that maybe sort of switches over to people using that more. There's also AI assistants being built into phones more and more now, and becoming more and more complex.

I feel like maybe robot butlers are just right around the corner, so it won't be too long before our assistants in our phone can do so much more for us. And maybe the smart speakers as well. I definitely feel like Amazon have missed a trick with the. Smart speakers, if they could have got the AI working better on those, then they were already in everybody's home.

So there's definitely, uh, missed opportunities there, but it's business decisions, you know, that's obviously not where their, where their, their priority is really. That's basically the world of search. So that's what, when we're talking about. Optimising. This is why things are changing.

And this is where we're kind of at a state of play at this moment, really.

SEO Tactics are Changing

So what this is meaning is that SEO tactics are changing as well. SEO tactics have always changed. Every time Google does an update and the algorithms become smarter and it works out more and more about how people are actually trying to game the system and things like keyword stuffing.

Buying backlinks, all the things that used to work and gradually over the years, there have been different things that would work. And then Google would figure out this isn't necessarily what the people who are doing the searching will want to be finding. And these people are just gaming the system.

And then they update the algorithm and that no longer works as well as it used to. And sometimes it actually then, has the opposite effect. So things like stuffing keywords into your website now actually can have the opposite effect of what you want. So it can, if you stuff keywords into a page that can actually harm your rankings.

So those kinds of things, that's, that's how the world is changing. And it's still ever-changing with all the, the SEO communities I'm in just basically keeping an eye on what's working and what's not, and it's a case of trying things and seeing what works with the new AI overviews and everything. There's a lot of talk about how to optimise for AI search, but the big thing that's really important with that is making sure that we are actually optimising for the basics first.

So we need to make sure that a lot of the work that we would do if we were optimising for search engine optimisation is done in place for AI optimisation. We can't just skip the basics, really. I talk about this in episode 14 of the podcast where I talk about generative engine optimisation and how we can kind of start thinking about optimising for that. But the big thing is that we need to make sure those basics are in place.

And this is something I also talked about in episode 35 of the podcast.

I talk about making sure that you've got those basics in place before you try and optimise your whole website. Like when you're in phase one of the pathway to website success, making sure that you've got everything in place in terms of your branding, having a clear offer, having your three to five key pages of your website optimised for both search and conversions as well. So making sure that you've got that is clear to the people and to the robots that read your website, what you do, how you're going to make people's lives better, what they need to do to get it and making sure that that's laid out in a well-structured and organised way that links together.

And you've also got those basic things in place. Like your page speed is good. Your user experience is clear. Looks good. Enjoyable to use. It's not confusing. Your website is mobile optimised as well, and that you're using really clear language on that page so that people can understand it basically.

So I think if we forget those things, we could do lots and lots of work on almost like the tricks of getting optimised to show up in AI searches or to show up in voice search and those kinds of things. But actually, if you've neglected those basics, then it's not going to work anyway. The bots aren't actually going to be able to understand what your website is about.

And so, yeah, it's going to, it's going to be detrimental to you in the end, in the long run, really.

Why these changes are good

So the reason that I think these changes are good, I think it helps to level the playing field, so it makes it a lot easier for those people who are genuinely providing value to actually stand out and connect with the right audiences and makes it a bit harder for those who are relying on those SEO tricks.

In general, this is going to make the Internet a better place to be. It's going to make it easier. Easier for us to find the information we want. And I think as business owners, it will ultimately make it easier for those who are genuinely helping their audience to stand out.

So the big thing is that it's less about those tricks and tactics and it's more about the genuine knowledge of what to do. Which is what makes it easier in some ways, but it also can be harder as well because it requires a bit more of a deeper strategy and more consistency and actually having a plan about how you take that information, that knowledge that you have in your head to share with your customers, how can you take that and, and share it in a more structured way that makes it easier for other people and Google to understand why you're the expert in your field.

And I think this is one of the big things that will come out with the way search is changing is it's going to be more important than ever for us to be recognised as an expert in our field. Establishing the core things that we need to be known for and getting that information out there is more important than ever really.

But I think it is, in general, it's a good shift because it's favouring that expertise and that quality content over, those quick tactics really. Essentially we, we need to focus on, is becoming a topical authority. And what that means is becoming the go-to expert in your niche.

Topical Authority vs General Expertise

There's a big difference between becoming an authority on your topic and becoming the go-to person and just general expertise where you don't really dive deeply on anything, where you cover lots and lots of topics and you don't really ever go into the your own expertise and your own thoughts around those.

It's there's lots of pros and cons for niching or not niching, generally what you hear from the most successful business owners is that niching in some way, niching can help. And certainly when we're thinking about marketing, when we're thinking about, trying to stand out, then having a niche is a massive, massive plus.

If we can be that go-to person for that particular type of audience, then it's going to be so much easier for, for us to be recognised. It means that we can stand out. It means it's a lot easier to stand out in a smaller crowd than it is just in general and overall audience.

For example, if you're thinking about my business if I'm trying to stand out website and SEO consultant, for me to stand out as a solopreneur, my small business, then that's going to be really tough, but actually by focusing on a specific audience, I focus particularly on businesses who have both a local presence and an online business.

So, that might be a small eCommerce business. It might be a local spa or local salon or a local shop where they also have an online presence as well. By focusing on that, it immediately helps me to focus my content. It helps me to create content more specifically around this topic. And this is something that I am actually diving into more.

I kind of de-niched a little bit when I first started my business. I, I had a few conversations with business coaches who said that, you know, I was making my life harder by niching. And actually, I really wish I, I kind of hadn't listened to that.

It's one of those things that you do, you learn as you go along and you, you learn what maybe advice you've had that's been good and what doesn't necessarily fit for your business. I work with people across all sorts of different industries.

But because of my background in beauty and wellness, I feel like that's where my area of understanding and expertise is. So actually diving more into that and those core topics of what I talk about on that.

Is helpful, but that doesn't necessarily relate to what my core topics are in my business. So in my business, my core topics that helped me to become an authority within my field are SEO, conversion rate optimisation, and content optimisation. And what helps me to then stand out even more is by specifying that that is primarily for beauty and wellness brands.

And that's something that I ummed and ahhed and niched and de-niched around this. But actually it feels really good to contain, contain that within my marketing. Much, I can be so much more helpful when I'm talking to that specific audience than I can just as being a general website and SEO person, as much as it might feel like it's constraining me to do that.

And I've definitely had those thoughts of, ah, should I, should I niche again or should I not? But actually I think. It doesn't stop other people wanting to work with me, and it doesn't mean that I can't work with people outside of those industries, but it just helps me to really focus on who I'm trying to attract and who I'm talking to when I'm talking to people about these kind of topics.

It doesn't mean to say that other people won't want to listen. It just means that I can be so much more specific with my topics.

Becoming an Expert

So I think if you haven't decided on what you want your niche to be, or if you don't, if you're very much anti-niche and you don't want to do that, think instead about how you can become the expert.

So even if that is you don't have a specific niche in terms of the industry or the type of customers you're trying to attract. Your niche might be your specific expertise and your background can be built into that. But thinking about those core topics and how you can stand out, I think is really key to moving forward with the AI searches, really.

How to Become a Topical Authority

So how can we become a topical authority? I actually talked about this back in episode nine about content strategy, and how that is the first step to website success. I talked about how focusing on your core topics helps to build that topical authority and it helps you to build a content strategy that makes sense for you, helps you to organise your website, helps you to keep everything streamlined, helps you to stop going off track, and helps with preventing the shiny objects syndrome. Because then you have a plan, you know what your core topics are for a start, you know which parts of your core topics you've dived really deeply in, already, you know, you've covered the basics.

So you've got your, what we call cornerstone pieces of content around each topic. And then you can think about, okay, what else do I need to create to support that? And it might be that those cornerstone pieces of content aren't the ones that actually bring lots of traffic into your website, but what they really do now, which is the most important thing,

is they help you to be that authority around those core topics. The other supporting content that you create can really help you then to raise your authority to show up for those searches where there might not be as many people searching for it each month. But those people that are searching are going to find your content because it's very specific. Google and people know that you know what you're talking about because you have these cornerstone pieces of content to show you're an authority and then all of those extra pieces of pieces of content that you create are all supporting that.

So everything you create around that core topic is helping for the people to connect with you at the right moment when they're actually searching for content like yours. So the way that you can do this, it, once you've decided on your core topics is going to do some research. You can use AI to help with this.

And this is one of the things that chat GPT and Google Gemini are really, really good at. Suggesting ideas of how you could dive deeper into your core topics, how you need to cover it in that cornerstone piece of content, and then what you can do with those supporting pieces of content around the sides of that, that all link back and maybe link together as well, and help to have your website as that hub of information around the topics that you talk about.

So you can go and do that research, you can get some ideas from Google Gemini or ChatGPT, and then start off with your own brain. So if you, if, ChatGPT gives you 10 ideas for pieces of content that you could create around your cornerstone piece of content on your particular core topics.

Then sit with a piece of paper and just think about that or get a voice note on your phone and just talk about how you would approach that. Maybe you could even ask it to create some interview questions for you.

So if you sit and I definitely have this where sometimes I'll sit and try and write a blog and my brain will just depart and I just have no idea what to write about it. Whereas actually, if I get you to ask me some questions and then I just almost record it as an interview with myself, really, of

me talking about those, the answers to those questions. It helps to create content that's very natural. It helps to create content that has your own experiences in there as well. And it helps to create content that hopefully is going to be more engaging for your audience. And then you can refine it. You could, you can turn that into more in-depth articles.

You can turn it into a blog post with specific points that you want to cover. I think having those ideas there in the first place can be really massively helpful in just in terms of building out your authority on that particular topic, and it might not be that you have to create a tonne of content around your core topics.

And I certainly would say don't approach it with that. Don't approach it with, okay, I've got to create 20 articles that all link back to my core topic. Think about that cornerstone piece of content first, make sure that you've covered the topic well there. Make sure that is optimised to show up in search, even if it might not be showing up in search for the main sort of seed keywords.

Using AI to Analyse Trends

So, if I create an article, for example, if I create an article around SEO. I'm not expecting that that is going to show up for somebody searching for the word SEO because it's very, that's a very broad search term.

There's a tonne of content out there already around that. But what that will do is support all the other little articles that I create around of those question-based searches, it's going to help to support that.

So Google knows, I know the basics, I understand what I'm talking about. And so that is more likely than to rank those other articles. You can use AI as well to help you analyse trends.

So if there's something that's trending within your core topics, something within your industry that's trending, then getting ahead of the curve with that and actually creating content first.

Creating good authoritative content around that before other people are out there or before there is that explosion of content around that can be a really, really good way to get some traffic to your website and just help to show you as that thought leader really and show you as somebody who is ahead of the curve really.

You can also ask it also to identify common questions that your audience asks. You can use this yourself, do market research yourself. If you've got somewhere where you connect with your audience, whether that's through your email newsletter or through your Facebook group or community where your audience members are there or other Facebook groups where you know, your kind of audience hang out.

What kind of questions are they asking? What are the things that they want to know? What are the things that are troubling them? What are the things that? They need help with and how can you create content around that as well?

And even with your content ideas, if you've got things where you're thinking, okay, I, I know I've got this piece of cornerstone content asking chat, GPT or Google, how can this is my piece of cornerstone content, load it in, come up with 10 ideas for content that I can create around that, whether that's creating

additional blog posts or it's creating podcast episodes or it's creating content for social media or newsletters. I always say start with content that you own first, focus on things like your own website, how you can expand on that cornerstone piece of content with things like frequently asked questions on your own website, your newsletter, your email list and your podcast as well because you own those and know you know, nobody can take that away from you, basically.

And the other way you can then build out that topical authority is being consistent across the web.

So wherever you are online, making sure that you are very consistent with the type of language you use, the topics that you talk about, and that's where having these core topics. If you can become known for three to five core topics of what you talk about, then, and having that consistently across everywhere, everywhere you've got a bio.

Everywhere people might be sharing your content, making sure that that is consistent, then that is a massive, massive signal to Google and other search engines that you are that topic and then hopefully that will bring backlinks into your website as well that can then show that you, you know what you're talking about, basically.

Putting Your Own Spin on Things

One of the other things you can do is putting your own spin on things. And I think this is where we can really stand out with AI. I think one of the big problems is there is this explosion of content.

So the only thing that we can personally do to stand out, and I think this is one of the things with, whenever we're thinking about competition and whenever we're thinking about the imposter syndrome of not being good enough and not knowing enough as the next person who you're comparing yourself to, your own personal experiences, person that you are and the reason that your customers will choose you is because of you.

And so actually putting your own own spin on content you're creating, whether that is blog posts or newsletters or podcasts, putting your own unique experiences in there and your, your own unique thoughts. That is how you can actually then stand out against AI because AI can't do that.

AI is getting cleverer, is getting harder to see what content is specifically generated from AI, but that does come across in terms of your own unique experiences and the things that you, the life that you've lived, getting that across and why that relates to what, why you're an expert, I think is, is going to be absolutely critical in the future and in the future, I am going to dive more into the more sort of practical aspects of optimising our websites for AI.

I don't feel like that's the thing to focus on right now. If you go back to episode 14, you can listen to the more specifics of why optimising for AI search, we need to consider the foundations first and foremost as well.

So definitely recommend go and have a listen to that episode. But I think in terms of the thing to focus on, if you're thinking, if you've got it in your brain, you're thinking, okay, how can I make sure I stand out?

Creating Quality Content

How can I get more traffic to my website? How can I make sure that the work that I'm doing now on my website is going to help me both now and in the future?

Focusing on how you can become that expert and that authority in your field, I think is key. I think there's nothing more you can do that other than creating quality content and making sure that you are creating quality content that answers your, your audience's needs and concerns and people want to consume.

By doing that and making sure your website is very clear and is very easy to navigate, if you start with nothing else, starting with that is going to make a massive, massive difference. It's really going to help you to move forward and have the right sort of plan in terms of what to create.

You're going to know what to create, when to create it, how to then look at how that is actually resonating with your audience. And making sure that you've covered everything that you need to in relation to your core topic and that people will then start referring back to you as that expert in your field.

And it might only be that that happens locally to you. I say only that could that's not a bad thing. That's not a bad way to stand out when I was talking about niches.

Maybe your niche is that you are the go-to expert in your particular local area, and there's, that's definitely something I would, I would say to think about, because if you're out there getting, getting to know people locally, as much as we might think, if we've got a global business, we can sometimes ignore that local market.

And actually, that can be where you can really, really connect with people. People are much more likely to buy from a local business. You're much more likely to have people who you've met in person and who know you in person and would recommend you in your local area.

So don't ignore that in terms of when you're thinking about how you can stand out.

Identifying Your Core Topics

So focusing on making sure you become that expert in your field. Um, you already are an expert, but it's just how to connect that with search engines and with people actually understanding that about you. So one thing I would say is to start off by identifying your core topics. I do actually have a free resource on my website for this.

I'll link to that in the show notes, which can help you to identify those core topics. And I would say that this isn't necessarily always that easy to identify what your core topics are, but it's it's one of those things that does evolve, I think, as well.

Like with my business, I was thinking yesterday on whether AI should be some, one of my core topics. I actually had a chat with ChatGPT around this. I, I often brainstorm with ChatGPT around things, but what we decided together, was that actually, all three of my core topics of SEO, conversion rate optimisation, and content optimisation.

AI is actually weaved through all three of those. This. So with my core topics, everything I do is around websites. And within that, I have the core topics of search engine optimisation, conversion rate optimisation, and content optimisation. Within that, when I'm talking about those core topics, AI is weaved through all of those.

So actually, I don't feel like AI is a core topic that I talk about or need to talk about specifically because it's there within the others. But it does, it takes time to get to this point of actually thinking, okay, these are the core topics I'm going to focus on.

And you're not committing to them for life, you know, just thinking about the overall of what you do and how you can narrow that down to the specific things that you talk about.

So grab my freebie. It will help. It's basically just helps you to have a post-it note party and just work out these things for yourself.

Even if you feel like you're already quite confident in what your core topics are, this might just help you to actually understand how to break it down and how to relate that to back to your website and to relate that to actually making your website content more structured and having an easier way for people to navigate your website as well.

Tying in Website Content with Core Topics

And then once you've done that, think about how the content on your website ties in with each of those core topics that you have. Think about what, what articles you have on your website that relate to that and where the gaps are. Also, think about your content elsewhere.

So thinking about what you've already created for social media, what podcast episodes you've maybe created, if you've done any guest expert slots, any in-person networking.

Think about what you talk about elsewhere, and how that relates to your core topics. And most importantly, whether that is on your website already. And if it's not, what can you do to actually get that information, the amazing information that you're sharing elsewhere.

And I see this so often, I see people who've got fantastic, beautiful Instagram grids, and they then aren't sharing that information on their website. So they might be talking about their core topics within their Instagram, but they haven't got anything that then brings that back to their website. Ultimately, your website is where you're going to make money.

It's going to be where you're going to get people signing up for your email list. It'll be where you're getting people actually making that purchase for you or booking an appointment or whatever it is you're trying to get them to do. So bringing them back to your website is going to massively, massively help.

And that can help you then to identify any gaps in your content as well. So you'll be able to see what you need to create and why you need to create it as well.

So you'll be able to move forward with a cohesive plan on what your website needs and how you can use that content you create for your website to then support your social media and your podcast and all the other things that you're doing, rather than the other way around of actually thinking about social media first, and then coming back to your website.

I'm all about our own domain first, create content for our own domain first, and then use that to bring people back to that domain.

So if you need some help with this, you can book a discovery call and it'll help you to develop a strategy for your website to make sure that you are making the most of every piece of content you're creating, that you're showing up as that expert in your field, and that you're also enjoying the process as well. I think a lot of this can feel like it's a real hurdle to get over.

Conclusion

But actually, if you get these core things in place first, it means that what you can focus on is creating content around the things that you love to talk about and that you can then make sure is resonating with your audience and actually bringing in the results you want it to as well. 

So I hope that's helpful. Have a lovely weekend.

It's our wedding anniversary, so I'm having a few days off and I will definitely fit a cold water swim in. It was dropping down. What was it last week? Eleven point something. So it's nearly at the point where we're in single figures. I love it though. I just get that such a buzz when I get into the water.

I love this time of year. It's amazing. I do get in, this is the start time of year when I start getting into the water and I actually want to cry when the cold water hits my legs. 

But I know that once I've been in for a couple of minutes, it's just going to feel amazing. So I don't think my husband will be joining me for that, definitely he won't!
 
But, I hope you have a lovely weekend and I'll see you soon. 

Bye.