IndieHackers - 🗞 What's New: SEO in the age of AI

AI is killing search:

• Product-led SEO stands out in Google Search. Let your product drive your SEO strategy and bring users straight to you.
• Wasted time is lost money. Quit spending so much time on these things that don't add value (meetings, chasing perfection, and more).
• 6 products. $35K MRR. This founder quit a $350K job at Meta to bootstrap his own products.

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by Tyler Scionti

90% of content does not get any traffic from Google, and as the web grows more crowded (and AI-driven), those odds likely will not improve.

Should marketers throw in the towel on SEO? Nope! Enter product-led SEO.

Why change SEO?

Everyone uses the same tools, plugs in the same keywords, follows the same suggestions, creates similar content, and ends up with SEO strategies that mirror their competitors.

In other words, they don't stand out on Google, especially in the age of AI.

Product-led SEO

Product-led SEO is a fairly new strategy where, instead of using keywords to market your product, you let your product and customers drive your SEO strategy.

1. Know who you are targeting:

Develop detailed buyer personas to get a clear picture of who your audience is, and what their pain points are.

2. Align your SEO efforts to a business outcome:

You're not just aiming for more traffic; the goal is to help the company reach its overall business objectives.

Setting SMART SEO goals helps.

3. Innovate:

Consider which questions your competitors aren't answering, or find new ways to address those questions.

4. Use data:

Where possible, track metrics that matter to the business. Find ways to attribute movement in these metrics to the activities you are doing (writing content, earning backlinks, etc.).

5. Ship content relentlessly:

Don't sit on drafts. Publish your content, see how it performs, then optimize it based on user feedback and data insights.

Applying product-led SEO to your website

Center your keyword research around the customer, including their core problems, goals, and challenges, using:

• Customer conversations or reviews.
• Online forums.
• Native features within Google (i.e. autosuggest).
• Traditional keyword research tools.

Also, brainstorm bottom-of-the-funnel keywords by defining:

• What your product does.
• Synonyms for what it does.
• Different categories that your target customer would place the product in.

The goal here is not to end up with a long list of keywords to target. The goal is to understand how and why your target customer uses Google to solve their problems.

Types of content to consider adding to your website:

• Blogs.
• Landing pages.
• Interactive tools.
• A resource library.
• Video or audio content.

Include original data, exclusive interviews, and unique insight for link building success!

Discuss this story.

from the Growth Trends newsletter

🎞 Creating killer Instagram Reels: Making yours stand out.

👋 Ad blockers on YouTube may be a thing of the past.

🗣 Does your copy's tone accurately represent your brand?

🚀 Nailing subscriber referrals puts growth on autopilot.

📉 Google Search is showing 50% less Twitter URLs after Twitter blocked unregistered users.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

by Syed Balkhi

Are you wasting too much time on one of the below areas? If so...stop.

Ways to waste time

1. Unnecessary meetings:

Keep meetings only for essential issues, and rely on emails or content management systems for everything else.

2. Chasing perfection:

Trying to make everything perfect can cost you more time than it's worth. Instead, try to focus on getting things done quickly and efficiently.

3. Email overload:

Not holding meetings doesn't mean you should be overburdened with emails. Try to limit the number of emails you send and receive.

Leverage your blog, customer support, and email newsletters for communicating with existing customers, and use platforms like Slack to help manage internal communication.

4. Staying stuck on failures:

Failures are there to learn from, not dwell upon. Reflect on your mistakes, but don't let them consume too much of your time.

5. Micromanagement:

You don't really need to check every single task your team does.

If you have a good team in place, trust them. Delegate and move on.

6. Watching competitors:

It's good to know what your competitors are up to, but don't obsess over their every move.

Focus on your growth, and ways to improve your own product.

7. Networking:

Networking is important for any business, but identify opportunities wisely, then choose which ones you should give your energy to.

Ways to save time

1. Automation: Automate as many of your business tasks as you can.
2. Outsource: Outsource tasks that don't require your expertise.
3. Learn to prioritize: Identify what's most important, and tackle that first.
4. Be realistic: Avoid over-committing to tasks or projects.
5. Don't multitask: Multitasking takes up more time, and increases the risk of errors.

Wrapping up

Time is a valuable resource, and time and money go hand-in-hand. Wasting one means wasting both.

Stay organized and remove tasks that don’t add value!

Discuss this story.

by the One Page Love newsletter

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips:

Avoid the word "cheap."

🚫 Cheaper.

✅ More affordable.

✅ Economical.

✅ Cost-effective.

Positioning your offering as "cheaper" sells it short, and could raise concerns about its quality.

Subscribe to the One Page Love newsletter for Rob Hope's favorite UI, design, and development finds.

by Sveta Bay

Nick quit his $350K design job at Meta to bootstrap his own products. More below!

The core products

1. Movevirtual, an off-shore growth assistant platform:

• $10K+ MRR.
• $50K in revenue in four months.
• 13 customers.

2. Get Baked, a design roasting service:

• $500 MRR.
• $12K+ in revenue in four months.
• 30+ customers.

3. Indie Design Kit helps indie hackers ship high-quality designs:

• $6.3K+ in revenue in two months.
• 600+ customers.

4. Value, a closed mentorship group for founders:

• $98 MRR.
• $1.3K+ in revenue in 20 days.
• 19 customers.

5. Home Services, a local home cleaning service:

• $7.4K MRR.
• $80K+ in revenue in 10 months.
• 279 customers.

Aside from Movevirtual, all of my products mainly focus on design, and how it can help people deliver products that evoke emotion.

How did you get your first 10 customers?

Each of my businesses has a different ideal customer, so it’s a challenge to context switch sometimes.

With Movevirtual, I tested Facebook Ads and got low-quality leads because I had minimal knowledge of how to market the offer.

I spent weeks trying to build scripts, emails, and documentation on how to reach businesses and pitch my idea. None of those worked. They just delayed the failure!

What worked for me was selecting a particular niche and joining its respective Facebook Groups. I tirelessly helped people with setup, design, and marketing to build a reputation among founders.

Once I had confidence in my offering, I started talking about it in replies (I never made actual posts about my business). The replies resulted in direct messages and calls, which eventually led to my first 10 customers within 24 days.

Only two of the first five customers are still with Movevirtual. I personally offboarded them, as I understood their reasoning behind canceling the plan: They said it was too expensive. I decided to change the pricing plans from monthly to bi-weekly to make the offer sound cheaper, and it worked!

My goal with every project is to reach at least $1K in a week, then double it every 2-3 weeks. Always validate your ideas in public and keep the timeframe short as you launch more products!

What’s your best strategic decision?

My top advice is to give before you ask. I try to always provide value first.

Check out MakerBox for more marketing case studies from profitable founders!

Discuss this story.

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Tyler Scionti, Darko, Syed Balkhi, Rob Hope, and Sveta Bay for contributing posts. —Channing