Hi ,

Happy New Year! Another year has flown by and it can be both exciting and defeating to reflect on the accomplishments of last year. I try to stick to the mindful approach of living in the present - learning from the past and letting it be, and making decisions now that I believe will help me in the future. (all easier said than done, haha!)

From an SEO perspective, 2023 was a BIG year. It was the first year where AI started to shake things up. More tools than ever have been released and it seems as if people immediately embraced this idea of having AI do more for them. I'm still a bit on the fence there but I do see positives in many areas.

With that being said, here are a few thoughts I have for where I see 2024 going from an SEO perspective - many of these are pretty simple, but when we stick with simplicity, things work better!

• There's already a MASSIVE flood of AI content and this will continue. Google is going to get smarter with how they handle this and AI content will be pushed to the bottom of the ranks. Edited and real content will be more important then ever. Make sure you edit and modify any AI content you generate with your own insights and experience. Remember that AI cannot replace your true and genuine experience!

• SEO tools are going to seemingly get smarter. Coders are dropping new tools daily that seem better, however, these are based on generic and simple SEO rules and amplified with AI. This doesn't mean the tools are better! Many of the new tools you'll see could actually be damaging to your SEO as they will follow rules found in random articles on the internet. Search engine providers are the only ones who know the rules, and as their algorithms use more AI, they won't even understand what's happening over time - kind of crazy to think about!

• Real content and REAL links will continue to matter most. Write for people and produce content that actually helps and you'll be miles ahead of most competitors! This to me is the most important point of ALL even though it's the least exciting. Keep it real, make it matter, and you'll do the best.

That's it for today. I'll be keeping you updated of any changes I see in the SEO world that might affect your web rankings. Thanks for being here!

-Connor W.