Hey there,

This shower thought from Reddit made me pause:

“The SEO community is a strange place where everyone competes with each other, but at the same time, we help each other."

I’ve never thought about it this way, but it’s so true!

Moving on to the newsletter this week:

• Mateusz shares the difference between long-tail and short-tail keywords.

• Sam reveals four affiliate sites that are crushing it.

• Jamie shows how you can align SEO with other aspects of marketing.

• Josh explains why SEO is not dead.

✍️ New from Ahrefs

Long-tail vs. Short-tail Keywords: What’s the Difference?

The difference between long-tail and short-tail keywords comes down to popularity. Many people search for short-tail keywords, while few search for long-tail keywords.

Successful Affiliate Marketing Websites to Learn From

These four affiliate sites are crushing it. Learn how these sites get tons of traffic and generate millions of dollars in revenue.

How to Fit SEO Into Your Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing specialists tend to focus solely on the channel or channels nearest to their hearts. In many cases, SEO gets undervalued. 

Jamie shows you how you can actually align SEO with other digital marketing disciplines, from advertising to PR. 

Is SEO Dead? Heck NO. Here’s Why

Joshua Hardwick

A surefire thing that happens in the SEO industry every year: Someone will declare SEO dead. But if your customers still use search engines with organic results you can influence with SEO, then SEO isn’t dead.

📚 What we’re reading

Awesome ChatGPT Prompts

Are you sick of ChatGPT yet? Some of us are. But it is indeed an amazing tool, with tons and tons of use cases all up to our imagination.

If you’re stuck, Fatih has curated a repository of potential prompts you can use with ChatGPT. That’s not all, though. 

• Rob Lennon has a Twitter thread on 10 more prompts.

• Aleyda Solis’ article shows you 20 ways to leverage ChatGPT for your SEO.

• Joe Hall shows you five prompts for technical SEO.

What Is the Effect of Leaving Photos With Google Reviews

Will a review with a photo stay in the top 10 listings longer than those without? The answer is yes. (I spoiled the answer for you here, but Joy conducted even more experiments with the same idea, so click to find out.)

RetroDodo’s SEO and Brand Growth Story

RetroDodo hit 1 million clicks and $50,000 in monthly revenue in November 2022. These are the four lessons we can learn from this niche site.

The SEO Impact of Viral News Coverage

Two years ago, an infamous political press conference happened at the "wrong" Four Seasons. As a result, that company received tons of coverage (and tons of links!). Was that an SEO win for them? Patrick digs in and finds out. 

Emotional Truth: The Intangible Many Stories Need to Go From Good to Great

Emotional truth is the portal through which we see ourselves in a story. Three tactics help get across emotional truth:

• Exaggeration

• Omission

• Speed (of storytelling)

Permission to Slow Down

My favorite passage from the article:

“No one has their Asana archive on their tombstone. Great entrepreneurs, authors, creatives, and whoever you admire, hardly ever talk about their robust productivity routine and intense notion templates. They’re focused on long-term productivity. A life of great achievements. 

“When your goal is to be long-term productive, say by creating jobs for hundreds of people or publishing a few great books, you realize your day-to-day productivity isn’t what you should optimize around. Taking a strategic break from a problem lets your mind noodle on it in the background so you can attack it more intelligently afterward. Anyone who exercises regularly knows that rest is when your body gets stronger.”

Memes of SEO in 2022

Just for a little fun in the new year: Google’s John Mueller has collected a list of the best SEO memes from last year.

Till next time ;)
Cheers,