Very excited to be accepted onto the MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Essex! It’s delivered over 2 years and will give me an academic grounding to build on for my work. It’s never too late to start. I left education at 16 and returned to college in my mid-20s to study computing. I don’t have a traditional degree and the usual entry requirement is a Bachelor's in science. So I applied via the 'prior experiential learning' route based on a portfolio and aptitude test. Last year I followed a 'DIY BSc in AI' using lectures and short courses all online for free. Now I'm brushing up on foundational maths and feel like I've discovered a new world of thinking. This year, I plan to 'study in public' sharing insights on how the theory learned connects to industry and innovating our services at @SeekerDigital.

Another BrightonSEO roundup post... - Delivered a Course - Back with the Advanced Link Building and Outreach course. I adapted the end-to-end workflow to work with Claude: 1. Developed a @MajesticSEO API integration with Python live on the spot. 2. Then performed ideation based on audience and competitor research. 3. Built a branded linkable asset with full HTML and content. 4. Prospected and imported an outreach campaign to Pitchbox and BuzzStream using their APIs. - Gave a Talk - Happy with my talk on "Machine PR" how machines interpret information from Digital PR campaigns and the importance of nurturing your brand profile. Packed in too much as usual, aiming to do an extended online version soon. - Sipped and Searched - Enjoyed hanging out at the Sip and Search meetup. Watched some slick automation demos from @SERanking, @ahrefs, @Wix, @screamingfrog and a few others. Thanks to chima mmeje🏳️‍🌈 for the invite. - Showcased an AI Server - Demoed our custom built GPU box running open-source LLMs, enabling @SeekerDigital to integrate AI more closely into client work with confidentiality and control. ... Thanks to Dre, Tim, Andrea, Hannah, Kelvin and the rest of the @brightonseo crew for their support and making it a success. As an exhibitor, people often ask if we get leads and we always do. My advice is consistent is key. Don’t be "flash in the pan" with a huge fancy stand and lose momentum. Spread the budget out, build trust and keep showing up. Looking forward to the next one, which at this rate of change will be wildly different once again! Thanks to @Linkbuildinghq for the pic (must try to smile more, I did actually enjoy it 😀)

Looking forward to next months course! Naturally, with the recent updates I've got lots of fresh technical content to share. @Laura_Mallinson who has won truly incredible coverage recently will be bringing tons of value on the Digital PR front

PRs, SEOs stop obsessing over “follow” links. Recently, a prominent link provider reached out to us for ‘follow’ links for a client of theirs. I asked them “why follow?”. They cited the usual theory that no-follow links don't ‘pass authority’.  I asked for an example of a "good follow link" and analyzed it using ChatGPT with a straightforward prompt. The response was something like: - Tone and messaging promotional. - Linked to a commercial landing page. - Unnatural anchor text. - No impartiality with outbound links. - And it literally said “Sponsored” on the post. You really fooled Google there 🤦 This doesn’t even consider other capabilities Google has at its disposal (such as identifying link footprints). Similar to how a Venus flytrap reacts to contact with its sensory hairs, Google can detect and nullify your links if too many red flags are raised. I’ve been teaching this theory on my BrightonSEO link building course for many years. It has been challenged but Google's announcement that the no-follow is just a hint validates this perspective. Learning Natural Language Processing helped me to better understand how Google may work. Google will use the signals it deems appropriate for the scenario. This may change from site to site, SERP to SERP. For example, if a news site no-follows all outbound links, how can it be used as a differentiator? It’s a useless signal in that situation and algos will resort to other methods. So, if your agency reports on or touts “follow links” they don’t have the right mindset for modern link building. Forming our own hypothesis instead of blindly following the SEO crowd has stood the test of time for Seeker’s clients. At best, low quality links will be ignored, at worst they’ll harm your domain reputation - negatively impacting your SEO performance. With organic attribution so hazy you may never even know it. I can help with that by grading the links and looking for cause and effect in the SERPs. Send me a DM if you'd like me to take a look.

Happy birthday to @SeekerDigital (and to me)! 8 years ago, on my birthday, I founded this agency and I’m newsjacking it again for 3 exciting announcements… 1: seeker.digital In 2016, I was driving the current generation of off-site SEO. Numerous forward thinking PLCs and industry big hitters invested heavily in (and loved) our tactics. A few startups also stumbled upon us and we helped them become very very succesful. In 2024, many will continue to shill (a Wish version of) the link building I helped to pioneer, but it's effectiveness is diminishing. We're transitioning to the next generation of organic marketing which is bigger than links and much more than SEO... I'm back to growth hacking and developing a new suite of services to help you keep growing in never-before-seen arenas. *** Seeker is looking for 3 beta-testers, so if you’re a founder/marketer at a PR worthy ecom or tech brand please DM me. *** 2: seeker.ai Through Seeker AI, I work directly with marketing/growth leaders to develop and implement AI marketing roadmaps. I’m now segmenting this service from the agency partly because others are using GenAI to automate low quality marketing and I don't want my team's handcrafted work to be confused with it. No criticism intended here, as long as it’s user centric. I prefer this to buying ads and funding ‘the big tech establishment’ ;) *** I'm looking to take on one more consulting client. Get a preview of what this work can do for your marketing ops at: newsletter.seeker.ai. *** 3: laptoplinkup (dot) org The charity I founded is in need of an experienced trustee. Laptop Linkup aims to donate laptops to children who need them, and we’re ready to launch. *** Please let me know if you, or anybody you know is interested in joining the board. *** Finally, a big thank you to Annika and the rest of the Seeker team for everything you do, and enabling me to chase these whacky ideas! Also, thanks everyone for all the birthday messages and support :) It's going to be an exciting year...

🎉 Big News at @SeekerDigital! I’m delighted to announce that @annika_haataja has been promoted to SEO Director! Annika is now a business partner with shares and voting rights 🤝. Her dedication and skill have been pivotal in driving Seeker's success, I couldn’t run this agency without her. Client uplifts after recent Google updates give me confidence in our ability to innovate and deliver organic results through SEO, AI and Digital PR. Annika is a key part of Seeker's future vision and I’m grateful to have her working alongside me on our next chapter 🚀.

New podcast with @mktg_speak! I had the privilege of discussing the impact of AI on SEO, link building and consumer behaviour with @sspencer (not a "how to create cheap content with AI" talk), so check it out below. And if you're at @BrightonSEO this week and curious about our work in this space, drop by the @SeekerDigital Photo Booth.

Not the sunrise shot I was hoping for but I'm excited to run another link building and PR course with @Laura_Mallinson for #BrightonSEO today! Also look out for @annika_haataja and @CharlieWarnerPR on the @SeekerDigital stand at the @PRLinkShow! See you around 😄

AI assisted mail processing. Old fashioned mail can be a bit of a pain for remote companies like @SeekerDigital. I built a little automation to help with that this weekend: 1. Mail is sent to a @UKPostbox virtual address (great service btw) 2. They scan and upload to Google Drive 3. Zapier watches the folder 4. New mail scans are fired over to a task list (Notion/Clickup) 5. We get a notification and process like any other task. Next, I'm going to try an AI assisted step: - Run the scan through an optical character recognition tool to extract text - Run the extracted through an AI to summarise points and identify actions - Zap actions to project management tool. Has anybody tried an app that could help with this? Thanks :) #ai #remote #zapier

📣 Exciting announcement! Learn how to build links with support from the latest AI tools in this webinar on 2nd August at 4pm BST ⏰. I will cover:  🎯 AI for the editorial outreach process. 📰 AI for Digital PR and winning media placements. 🔗 AI for optimising onsite link architecture. I’ll even demo an autonomous outreach campaign manager that could one day oversee the entire process. Get ahead of the curve… 📈 With changes in search platforms and consumer behaviour, organic marketing is taking on new dimensions. The days of ‘guest posting’ on a topic without the appropriate experience and authority are numbered. We’ll need to work harder (and smarter 💡) to make our offsite content stand out. Learn to embrace future concepts like Response Engine Optimisation (REO) or Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) – potential additions/successors to SEO that go beyond the search results pages 🌐. Cultivate your brand’s profile… 🌟 It's time for PR that caters not only to humans but machine intelligence too 🤝. Maintain your brand's image by ensuring accuracy, positivity, and inclusion in suggestions and prompt responses. Consider AI PR for emerging platforms like Apple Vision, Bard, or good old-fashioned ChatGPT. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll cover actionable steps you can implement today, as well as some important concepts to consider for your future strategy. By embracing these shifts, you position yourself for organic success. Don’t let your brand (or your agency) lag behind. Welcome change. Stay ahead 🚀 Link in the comments! 👇

Just in case you missed it! --> buff.ly/3JIRO42 - Thanks to Alex (@Pitchboxapp) and @SimpsonGareth (@SeekerDigital) for allowing us to be a fly on the wall of this epic behind-the-scenes first look at Pitchbox's new AI features!😍#seo #ai

It’s a great point from @SimpsonGareth about headcount being an irrelevant metric. I remember a big media agency director telling me honestly over dinner that if we had a team of 10 great people, we had just as many as they have!

I was on a call with @annika_haataja for a SaaS brand last week. We were at the end of an initial 6 month retainer. It’s moving in the right direction I thought but we can’t call it ‘ROI’ just yet. This pitch could go either way… The client said to us “Before you start your presentation, you’re the 5th agency we’ve worked with and your links have been the best. I’m already happy to renew.” Seeker isn’t the best at marketing, most of our work comes from referrals. We have a very effective product. It’s great to work with people who understand SEO and hold realistic expectations.