SEO in the Gemini Era: Training resources by Marie Haynes

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Book ($30)

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Multiple AI systems are responsible for ranking results in Google Search. In this book we discuss how Google has learned to use machine learning – from spelling corrections to complex systems where queries and content are embedded in vector spaces.

We have so much to learn about how AI has changed how Google ranks results! I’ll share with you how your purpose is likely so much more than just to make websites rank higher. AI is changing the world, and you are at the forefront!

  • Google Doc / PDF Book: SEO in the Gemini Era: The Story of how AI Changed Google Search
  • Includes Workbook: Traffic Drop Diagnosis (Free)

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Workbook bundle ($175)

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While it’s super interesting to understand how the machine learning systems work, we know what they are built to reward!  The systems recommend content that people are likely to want to check out of the Library and find helpful. This workbook will help you analyze search results from a user’s perspective and determine how to use our knowledge of how search works to gain a competitive edge.

  • Google Doc / PDF Book: SEO in the Gemini Era: The Story of how AI Changed Google Search
  • Workbook: Traffic Drop Diagnosis
  • Workbook: Put Yourself in the Shoes of a Searcher

 

BUY THE WORKBOOK BUNDLE    BUY JUST THE WORKBOOK

Course Bundle ($625)

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Go deep into learning how Search Works. We will go through exercises to learn about RankBrain, DeepRank and RankEmbed BERT. I’ll try to get you as excited about vector search as I am. And we’ll go through exercises designed to get you thinking about how to win with our knowledge of how Google’s systems value originality, freshness, topicality and most of all, helpfulness.

If you earn money by using a knowledge of how Search works to improve organic search performance then this course is built for you! You’ll also enjoy it if you are just super geeky and want to learn how AI is used to predict what is best to show searchers. The course is packed with exercises, LLM prompts, and ideas to get you thinking about Search from the perspective of your searchers.

If you can understand and explain how Google’s core ranking systems RankBrain, DeepRank and BERT work to rank results, you will have advantages over those optimizing for Google’s traditional pre-AI search algorithms because you know what the systems are working to reward. This course includes many exercises and my specific strategies for developing topical authority, understanding and meeting user intent and becoming known as a provider of fresh content.

You will get access to a Google Docs document which contains the full course. 

The Bundle includes

  • Book: SEO in the Gemini Era: The Story of how AI Changed Google Search
  • Workbook: Traffic Drop Diagnosis (Free)
  • Workbook: Put Yourself in the Shoes of a Searcher
  • Course: SEO in the Gemini Era

BUY THE COURSE BUNDLE    BUY JUST THE COURSE

SEOs in the Gemini Era Membership Group ($99/m)

Course members will be given the option to join this group in which we will share our strategies and discuss what is working in this new age of SEO.

Monthly: $99/month or Yearly: $1000/year

  • Membership in the new SEOs in the Gemini Era Group in the Search Bar
  • Share about your theories, successes and questions as we learn to do SEO in the Gemini Era
  • Ask Marie questions about the course material and strategies
  • Share your successes! We are going to learn together.
  • Be notified about significant changes or additions to the course content
  • Be involved as we brainstorm together on using our knowledge of machine learning, Search and business to make money and help others.

You’ll also get:

  • Search Bar News & AI (public membership group / app to stay up to date on the latest news.)
  • Marie’s Notes Subscription (access to my weekly Google doc on what’s important to Search and AI)
  • Monthly Search Bar Pro Group call with Marie to discuss the latest in Search and AI and strategies and opportunities that are working for Search Bar members. It’s recorded if you can’t make it.

You’ll get an invite to purchase once you have purchased the course.

Traffic Drop Diagnosis Workbook (Free)

This is a free workbook that will help any site owner who has been impacted by a Google update. It has exercises to help you determine whether you’ve been impacted, and more importantly whether you can recover.

This book is included in all bundles. It will also be sent to anyone who has submitted a site for my algo update research.

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Or purchase individually

I hope you get as excited learning about how AI drives Search as I am!

Google’s machine learning systems are primarily responsible for rankings today. How does this change how we do SEO today? I called this course SEO in the Gemini Era because I believe we have entered a new era which will require the SEO industry to reshape our understanding and practices. Google’s March 2024 Core update marked an evolution in how they identify the helpfulness of content. It fell on the heels of their announcement of a new machine learning model with a new type of architecture that dramatically enhances performance and also, how much data can be used in machine learning calculations, Gemini 1.5.

I spoke with Jeff Dean, head of AI at Google, and author of the paper on the Mixture of Experts architecture that is referenced in Google’s announcement. He randomly sat next to me during lunch at Google I/O! He confirmed my thought that the breakthroughs with this architecture were as monumental as Google’s development of the Transformer – responsible for the T in ChatGPT and most of the AI technology we use today. These Gemini 1.5 advancements did not just improve Google’s Gemini LLM Chatbot. They also vastly improve Google’s ability to use machine learning models to do more and more computation.

Google’s Elizabeth Tucker shared that there was re-architecture work involved with the March core update as Google changed a lot of core systems and brought in new signals. She said the March 2024 core update was “unprecedented”.

Today’s Google search algorithms use a multitude of signals from around the web to work together in complex ways with one goal in mind – to predict what a searcher is likely to find helpful.

Really, it all comes down to this:

  • Have webpages that people tend to choose in their Search results
  • Be among the resources a searcher found helpful 

In the summer of 2022, Danny Sullivan from Google reached out and asked if they could share about an upcoming new system – the helpful content system. Although Danny did not share many details, I left that call knowing that the way we do SEO is going to change. Google’s documentation for the helpful content system told us this process of understanding helpfulness was completely automated using a “machine learning model.”

How machine learning works in Search

Here’s a conversation I had with Alan Kent when he was at Google in which he describes how machine learning works. Watch from 19:00 –  25:00.

He says with machine learning you give it examples of what’s good and what’s bad. You may not know why they are good or bad, but you can list a bunch of the characteristics that are worth considering. Then, machine learning systems try and work out a pattern of behaviours of what people have found more useful. Google’s helpful content guidance is not a list of things the algorithm looks for, but rather, characteristic of what people tend to like. Now that we have learned via the DOJ vs Google trials about Navboost and Google’s use of user engagement signals, so much more of this makes sense!

When Google says we should have original, insightful content that is substantially more valuable than what else exists in Search, they are saying, in Alan’s words, “These are the characteristics that we see in good results.” These are things that users like!

This has been quite the journey for me. I hope you enjoy learning about the AI systems behind Search as much as I do!

Marie