[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-seo-metadata-guide":3},{"message":4,"data":5},"Blogs retrieved successfully",{"blog":6,"latest_blogs":49},{"id":7,"author_id":8,"title":9,"slug":10,"content":11,"short_summary":12,"featured_image":13,"status":14,"meta_title":9,"meta_description":15,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":19,"published_at":20,"created_at":21,"updated_at":21,"deleted_at":16,"author":22,"categories":28},351,3,"Everything You Need to Know About Meta (Not the Company)","seo-metadata-guide","\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The word “meta” refers to a person, place, or object that’s self-aware—an “X about X,” as it’s often referred to. An article about how to write an article is as meta as a documentary on how to make documentaries. English is amazing, isn’t it?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The SEO space has its own example of meta: metadata. Commonly defined as “data about data,” it’s information that identifies and explains specific data for use by machines. In this case, it teaches search engines and AI models what a certain detail is and how to utilize it. After all, it’s not like you can talk to machines the same way you do to a person.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Metadata has been around far longer than SEO or even search engines, and is still essential in today’s search. Let’s explore the different types of metadata, starting with one that’s no longer in use.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta Keywords\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta keywords are how search engines understand the nature of every page they crawl on. Visitors don’t usually see these because they’re embedded in the page’s code, particularly the &lt;head&gt; section, along with other meta tags.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Ffireshot-capture-107-html-meta-tag-wwww3schoolscom-20260522034229-4BROwjLu.png\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Source: \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.w3schools.com\u002Ftags\u002Ftag_meta.asp\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>W3Schools\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">You might think that linked anchor text in the content is how search engines spot keywords, but that’s only part of it. They also check other locations like the metadata in a page’s code. In the example above, the meta keywords tell the search engine that the page should rank for the keywords “html,” “css,” and “javascript.”\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">However, meta keywords have fallen out of use since Google announced it no longer considers them in its web rankings. Matt Cutts, in a 2009 Q&amp;A video, discussed the rationale behind the decision.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Suppose you have two website owners, Alice and Bob. Alice runs a company called AliceCo, and Bob runs BobCo. One day, while looking at Bob's site, Alice notices that Bob has copied some of the words that she uses in her keywords meta tag. Even more interesting, Bob has added the words \"AliceCo\" to his keywords meta tag. Should Alice be concerned?\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">I’d be concerned if I were Alice because the meta keyword system is being misused. Sites can spam low-quality or irrelevant keywords in their content. The visitors will be none the wiser, as they’re invisible but prompt the content to appear in irrelevant queries.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Despite some search engines still using them, meta keywords are practically dead as far as modern SEO goes. That said, it won’t hurt to keep them in the code (if your website already has them) in case they covertly contribute to search visibility.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If you haven’t started using meta keywords, focus on the next item on this list instead.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta Title and Description\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta titles and descriptions are the information that shows up in the “blue links” results.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Ffireshot-capture-106-no-bs-marketplace-google-search-wwwgooglecom-20260522034326-pB9hD7vY.png\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">These forms of metadata provide both search engines and users with an idea of the page’s contents. Anytime a query is made, search engines will return results with an exact match in the meta title and description. In situations like a misspelled query, they’ll return results with words or phrases that are closer in context.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If a page doesn’t have a meta title or description, the search engine will generate one based on its content. Still, it’s better to make your own because you know your own content better than anyone. Here are a few best practices for creating meta descriptions from Google.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Keep it short: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Although meta descriptions have no character count limit, long ones are truncated. It isn’t a major issue, but some context may be lost when reading. To avoid this, keep the description to no more than 160 characters (including spaces).\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Keep it unique: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Using one meta description for all your pages won’t help users get the information they need. A good example is a one or two-sentence summary for articles and blog posts, along with a keyword or two.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Keep it high-quality: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Avoid taking meta descriptions for granted. Google advises against making them too short, a basic list of keywords, or the same for all pages. Otherwise, it’ll automatically change them into proper ones.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">As for meta titles, you can get away with them being similar to the H1 titles. But if you’re going to do this, make sure that it’s optimized for search and is 60 characters (including spaces) long or fewer. If the H1 title is too long, consider shortening its meta title.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta Robots\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta robots are used to indicate pages that shouldn’t be indexed or crawled, among other things. And before you say, “But we have robots.txt for that,” that’s what I thought, too.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">There’s a world of difference between the two methods, starting with their capabilities. A robots.txt file is designed to restrict crawlers from crawling the website or multiple pages within the domain. For example, if I want Googlebot to prevent it from crawling my website, the file should contain the following:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>User-agent: Googlebot\u003Cbr>Disallow: \u002F\u003Cbr>User-agent: *\u003Cbr>Disallow:\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">But keep in mind that a crawler block does NOT translate to a deindex. The page can still be visible in search results if other websites link to it. Also, blocking crawlers is pretty much all robots.txt does, which is useful for prohibiting malicious crawlers.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">This is where the meta robots tag comes in. With its array of commands, it can control how search engines index and deliver a page in the results. Some examples include:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fpicture35-20260522034403-m9KSBNdZ.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Although meta robots only work on a page-by-page basis, they strictly follow the command given. If you tell one to nofollow a page, it will do so even if other websites link to said page. Meta robots should be employed alongside robots.txt for the best effect, with one industry professional even suggesting using the \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FSEO\u002Fcomments\u002F1g41u79\u002Frobotstxt_vs_meta_robots_which_one_should_you\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>former before the latter\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Take note that the standard meta robots tag only works on HTML pages. This means other types like PDF documents need a different tag for this task, namely the x-robots-tag.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta Viewport\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The meta viewport tag is a key element of responsive web design. It instructs the browser to scale the page according to the size of the mobile device’s display. Without it, the browser will display the page on mobile as it would on a desktop PC—a user experience nightmare.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fimages-two-mobile-phones-6d335a19e1c9c-856-20260522034430-8rwYWREz.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Two similar pages, one without the meta viewport (left) and the other with (right).\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Source: \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"http:\u002F\u002FWeb.dev\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>Web.dev\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Although not directly engaged with the search engine, the meta viewport tag is essential in SEO. Under Google’s mobile-first indexing, websites with user-friendly mobile versions are at an advantage over websites without. It also recommends responsive web design for its ease of execution and maintenance (compared to dynamic serving and separate URLs).\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Take note that the tag does NOT adjust text size and image resolution. An image exceeding the display size when scaled for mobile introduces horizontal scrolling, which is a pain for users. All content must be contained within the display.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meta Charset\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">This last type of metadata is an honorable mention. It doesn’t directly impact SEO, but it’s still necessary because visitors will be reading gibberish without it.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The meta charset sets the type of character set (charset) to use for encoding and decoding content. Without getting too technical, the web browser and the server talk in charset every time a user accesses a page. The encoding and decoding take less than a second, resulting in content that’s readable and reliable.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">This is the part where I’d discuss the various charsets in use. However, there’s only one you really need, and that’s UTF-8. This charset is used by over 99% of websites and can support characters in languages other than English. Using other charsets risks bricking the entire encoding and decoding process, which can lead to the page becoming incomprehensible.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">And when users can’t even read your content, they’ll bounce and keep looking elsewhere. That can’t be good for establishing search visibility, let alone building a good image.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Impacting SEO in the Shadows\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Metadata likes to contribute to an SEO strategy hidden from plain sight. Their efforts may not be as outstanding as the likes of link building or content creation, but every bit helps. Never forget to put some metadata in every page.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","If you need search engines to know exactly what your content is all about, talking like a human just won't do. Your page needs to talk in what's known as \"metadata.\" Here are some examples of metadata in use in modern SEO.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fpixelcreatures-wordpress-265132-1280-20260522032811-RJwo8kbj.jpg","published","Despite being out of sight for its entire life, metadata contributes to a page’s SEO in more ways than one. Learn more about it here in this guide.",null,"blog",true,1312,"2026-05-22T11:46:00.000000Z","2026-05-22T03:46:21.000000Z",{"id":8,"name":23,"email":24,"about":25,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16},"Jonas Trinidad","jonas@nobsmarketplace.com","","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog-authors\u002F2023\u002F05\u002Fjonas-trinidad.jpg","2025-10-26T11:10:22.000000Z",[29,33,37,43],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":17,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":32},1,"Blogs",{"blog_id":7,"category_id":30},{"id":8,"name":34,"slug":35,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":36},"SEO","seo",{"blog_id":7,"category_id":8},{"id":38,"name":39,"slug":40,"created_at":41,"updated_at":41,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":42},11,"Content","content","2025-10-26T11:10:27.000000Z",{"blog_id":7,"category_id":38},{"id":44,"name":45,"slug":46,"created_at":47,"updated_at":47,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":48},16,"Educative Content","educative-content","2026-02-10T11:18:29.000000Z",{"blog_id":7,"category_id":44},[50,61,87,112],{"id":7,"author_id":8,"title":9,"slug":10,"content":11,"short_summary":12,"featured_image":13,"status":14,"meta_title":9,"meta_description":15,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":19,"published_at":20,"created_at":21,"updated_at":21,"deleted_at":16,"author":51,"categories":52},{"id":8,"name":23,"email":24,"about":25,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16},[53,55,57,59],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":17,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":54},{"blog_id":7,"category_id":30},{"id":8,"name":34,"slug":35,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":56},{"blog_id":7,"category_id":8},{"id":38,"name":39,"slug":40,"created_at":41,"updated_at":41,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":58},{"blog_id":7,"category_id":38},{"id":44,"name":45,"slug":46,"created_at":47,"updated_at":47,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":60},{"blog_id":7,"category_id":44},{"id":62,"author_id":8,"title":63,"slug":64,"content":65,"short_summary":66,"featured_image":67,"status":14,"meta_title":63,"meta_description":68,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":69,"published_at":70,"created_at":71,"updated_at":71,"deleted_at":16,"author":72,"categories":73},350,"Guest Blogging in the Age of AI Search","guest-blogging-ai-search","\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“Stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done.”\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Those were the words of Matt Cutts, a renowned name in the SEO space, in a \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mattcutts.com\u002Fblog\u002Fguest-blogging\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>blog post\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> he published in 2014. The state of guest blogging, at least at the time, had gotten so spammy that he wouldn’t recommend it unless you could personally vouch for someone. But later, he slightly scaled back, stating that he was referring to low-effort guest blogging.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Over 10 years have passed, and guest blogging is still a valid link building strategy. I mean, what else can they rely on for SEO if not this?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Editorial links? You’re up against a low acceptance rate.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Internal links? That’s not enough to get your brand out there.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Private blog networks? Let’s not even get started with that.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest blogging (also called \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fguest-posting\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>guest posting\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">) is too valuable to lose because of its advantages over other techniques. Provided a good pitch and write-up, you don’t have to wait long for a backlink. And even if the publishers aren’t as well-known, guest posts can still benefit from their sound reputation and relevance if in the right niche.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">That said, it’s 2026. SEO, as we know it, has undergone a radical change. The battlefield has shifted from the first page of search results to AI-generated summaries. But despite all this, I can confidently say guest blogging is still a good link building strategy. All you need to do is tailor your content and outreach to suit AI requirements.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Understand Your Niche\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Even before AI, guest blogging has always required a calculated approach. You can’t simply get your off-page article published anywhere you feel like it and call it a day. It doesn’t make sense for a write-up on fixing a busted furnace to appear on a gaming or esports news site.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Making guest posts work begins with knowing your niche. Not just the industry but also its target audience, brand image, etc. These factors will determine where best to publish your content, which includes three kinds.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fpicture32-20260521052332-zVI4TnFG.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">There are several ways to interpret the inverted pyramid above, starting with readership for each type. General publishers attract the most readers because of their wide coverage of topics, especially news sites. And while niche sites attract fewer readers, they’re more in line with the niche and tend to show stronger interest in it.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Just because you have to be careful in choosing publishers doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to one or two. In fact, some experts suggest having at least 10 websites that cater to your niche. And they don’t have to be big names, either.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">General publishers are great for creating content around news and current events (not necessarily newsjacking, but that works, too). For example, a local plumbing service can publish a winter plumbing maintenance guide before winter arrives.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Niche publishers are ideal when you have certain groups in your customer base. For example, a parenting blog is suitable if your article about camping is written in a tone that benefits new and long-time parents.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Specialized publishers are highly situational, as they cover topics that general or niche publishers don’t accept. This is evident among the so-called “gray niches,” with examples like CBD, crypto, and gambling.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Without understanding your niche, you’ll be hard beset on finding a publisher that can put your content on the Web. Many publishers are strict about the topics they can run and the kinds of content they accept. And without an off-page article, don’t expect the AI to cite or mention your content, let alone your brand, in a summary.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 17pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Learn the Publisher’s Rules\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">It’s common courtesy to follow house rules anytime you’re visiting a friend or close relative at their home. The same goes for getting articles published: the publisher has the final say on what goes live and what doesn’t.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Many websites post their publishing guidelines in their “Write For Us” section (or something to that effect), along with FAQs and other details. If you can’t find one on a specific website, use “website name” + “write for us” as your search query.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Publishers have varying rules but have some in common.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Meet the publisher’s preferred word count and image size, if any\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Submit the manuscript in the appropriate document format\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Avoid writing your article or post in a promotional or salesy tone\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Ensure proper spelling and grammar before submitting\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Cite reliable sources, especially for writing \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fguide\u002Fymyl\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>YMYL topics\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">A good tip is to look for and read the website’s most-read articles. Those pieces don’t earn that much traffic for no reason, which should serve as a guide on how to write yours. While some websites have a section dedicated to popular posts, you can use SEO tools such as Ahrefs or Google Analytics 4 for those without one.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If you want to keep things simple, you can hire a \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Flink-building\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>backlink building service\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> to do most of the work. This approach is ideal when you don’t have the resources or time to produce content in-house. That said, it’s important to stay involved even when someone is doing the work.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 17pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Propose Your Topics\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest blogging goes beyond making your content seen and leading readers to your website. The moment a publisher accepts your content is the moment both of you enter into a long-term partnership. After all, you can ask said publisher again if you plan another piece, and they’ll likely be more than glad to entertain the idea.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">On that note, the first submission is the most crucial. Once you’ve chosen your publishers, the next step is to propose your selected topics to their editorial team. Your letter should be straight to the point and, more importantly, treat the recipient like a living human instead of a mere statistic. On that note, avoid addressing them in a generic tone.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In my \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog\u002Fbeginner-link-building-guide\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>updated beginner’s guide\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> to link building, I stressed the need to make every pitch as personalized as possible. Keep your letter brief, but SEMrush advises that it should at least contain the following information:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">A subject line that explains what the publisher will get out of publishing your piece\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">A link to one of the publisher’s articles, along with a reason you picked that article\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">An explanation of how your article will benefit the publisher’s reader base\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Links to a few of your published works, preferably relevant to the article’s niche\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">A sound plan on how you intend to promote your article once it goes live\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">After receiving the proposal, the editorial team may take a few days to get back to you. Be patient and wait for a reply. Only follow up after a week has passed without a response. If there’s still nothing, don’t bother with another follow-up and move on.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If the editorial team replies with feedback, consider it before deciding whether or not to follow through. Don’t hesitate to share your reservations as long as you can justify them. The same applies to making edits to your content’s first draft.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 17pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Use AI Tools Responsibly\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Not everyone can write well—that much is certain. And for these kinds of people, using AI for the entire writing process can be tempting. The good news is that Google doesn’t care how the content was made: human, AI, or a mix of the two.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">But while some publishers accept AI-generated articles, others require AI writing to be kept to a minimum or outright forbid it. They’re aware of the “AI slop” circulating on the Web, not to mention their readers’ aversion to such low-effort content. Publishing one puts them at risk of damaging their reputation and losing their trust.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">As I explained in another post, this time about having a \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog\u002Fwant-your-content-to-rank-think-like-a-journalist\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>journalist’s mindset\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> when creating content, AI can be great for certain uses. One example is performing background research, such as using chatbots to generate topics or content outlines. Know that the AI-generated result is still subject to changes on your end, as AI isn’t perfect.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cbr>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fpicture33-20260521052434-egtUaQfz.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">AI should be designed to augment, not replace. Even if you let the model write, a human must still be present to check and revise its output. Without the human element, it’ll just be rejected by most publishers—if not because it’s AI, then it’s because it’s poorly made.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest Blogging is Still Relevant\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest blogging’s advantages have largely kept it in the rapidly evolving SEO scene. It’s the mainstay of SEO campaigns, generating backlinks faster than editorial links while keeping in line with content guidelines. And given how AI search operates, it won’t be going away anytime soon.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","Guest blogging, like many SEO techniques, had been at the receiving end of the \"X is Dead\" argument. And yet, it's still widely used years later because the alternatives are either a steep climb to the top or a good way to rile Google up. Don't be quick to dismiss guest blogging, even in the era of AI-powered search.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fdeeezy-laptop-4906312-1280-20260521051408-l0rLc9q7.jpg","Guest blogging has been declared “dead” several times, yet here it is still kicking in the era of AI search. Learn how you can make guest posts AI-ready.",1374,"2026-05-21T13:25:00.000000Z","2026-05-21T05:25:43.000000Z",{"id":8,"name":23,"email":24,"about":25,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16},[74,76,78,83,85],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":17,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":75},{"blog_id":62,"category_id":30},{"id":8,"name":34,"slug":35,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":77},{"blog_id":62,"category_id":8},{"id":79,"name":80,"slug":81,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":82},4,"Content Marketing","content-marketing",{"blog_id":62,"category_id":79},{"id":38,"name":39,"slug":40,"created_at":41,"updated_at":41,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":84},{"blog_id":62,"category_id":38},{"id":44,"name":45,"slug":46,"created_at":47,"updated_at":47,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":86},{"blog_id":62,"category_id":44},{"id":88,"author_id":8,"title":89,"slug":90,"content":91,"short_summary":92,"featured_image":93,"status":14,"meta_title":89,"meta_description":94,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":95,"published_at":96,"created_at":97,"updated_at":97,"deleted_at":16,"author":98,"categories":99},349,"Dofollow vs. Nofollow Backlinks: Are They Still Different?","dofollow-vs-nofollow-backlinks","\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>This post is an updated guide on our post about \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog\u002Fdo-follow-link-building-vs-no-follow-whats-the-difference\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>dofollow and nofollow backlinks\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>. Whether much has changed or not, it’s important to keep your SEO knowledge up to date.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Backlinks come in various forms, from those earned by inspiring the audience to those that are paid for through link building. But no matter the form, they’re generally classified in one of two types: dofollow and nofollow backlinks.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">You probably hear this a lot in SEO circles or anytime you talk to an SEO professional. This is because distinguishing the two is a fundamental skill in this line of work. Trust me, it’s a lot simpler than how the terms look.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">What Are Dofollow Backlinks?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Dofollow (or follow) backlinks are the default form of backlinks. It passes link equity, which we in the industry call “link juice,” to the target link. In coding, these links appear as regular hypertext reference (\u003Cem>href\u003C\u002Fem>) attributes.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Ffireshot-capture-101-hyperlink-html-generator-web-code-tools-webcodetools-20260514031946-RV2UaJPN.png\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">For duplicate content, a dofollow link is slapped with a \u003Cem>canonical\u003C\u002Fem> attribute. This lets Google know that the page or site it’s on is “canon” or the accepted version of the duplicates. Also, the code syntax used is different.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Ffireshot-capture-102-canonical-tag-generator-measureseo-wwwmeasureseocom-20260514032005-SXWc4UdM.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Search engines read this as a link endorsing the target page or website. Assuming it doesn’t violate the guidelines, they’ll pass the juice to it without incident. That gives the target page or website a merit in search results, especially if the source is reputable.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Dofollow links were the foundation of ranking high in search results, and they still are in the age of AI. Features like Google’s AI Overviews still depend on backlinks to create accurate summaries. While we have yet to get an idea of exactly how it does this, we’re aware that AI\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog\u002Fahrefs-only-about-38-of-ai-overview-citations-come-from-the-top-10\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>cares less for rankings\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> when choosing its sources.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">What Are Nofollow Backlinks?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Nofollow backlinks are the opposite—links that \u003Cem>don’t \u003C\u002Fem>pass link equity. This is shown in the code as \u003Cem>href \u003C\u002Fem>attributes but with the addition of the relationship (\u003Cem>rel\u003C\u002Fem>) attribute. In their basic form, the links are tagged with “rel=nofollow” in the code.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Ffireshot-capture-103-hyperlink-html-generator-web-code-tools-webcodetools-20260514032026-V5Pqiur7.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Nofollow was introduced in 2005 as Google’s means of fighting against comment spam. By flagging certain links with this attribute, search engines can be instructed not to pass value to the target page. At least, that used to be the case—but more on that in a bit.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In 2019, Google expanded the nofollow system by adding two specific values: sponsored and user-generated content (UGC). The sponsored tag is used for sponsored content and other similar pages, while the UGC tag is for links in comments and forum posts. The code syntax is mostly the same, just replace the \u003Cem>rel \u003C\u002Fem>value with the appropriate tag.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Has Anything Changed?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Dofollow and nofollow links still work the same way as when they were introduced. Despite AI changing SEO, search engines still require websites to tag their backlinks as dofollow or nofollow to maintain a good search experience. Labeling one as the other when it isn’t can be grounds for link devaluation, if not a penalty.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">And don’t think that Google isn’t watching.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Remember when Google added more \u003Cem>rel \u003C\u002Fem>values in 2019? Well, that was also the time it changed how it treated nofollow links. Once ignored, they’re now \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fblog\u002F2019\u002F09\u002Fevolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>considered “hints”\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> for including or excluding certain backlinks. This shift helps it understand unnatural linking patterns, better rewarding good content and penalizing bad ones.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Long story short, nofollow links now work like dofollow ones—to some extent.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">But with traditional SEO in its final years, we need to consider how these links will help with AI visibility. AI hardly cares for rankings as long as the content is relevant. Would this reflect on how it treats dofollow and nofollow?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Kevin Indig, author of \u003Cem>Growth Memo\u003C\u002Fem>, seems to think this is the case.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002F87553306-ac64-460a-bab9-9c3d8e43e0fd-1600x1054-20260514032047-d2hCChLN.png\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Source: \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.growth-memo.com\u002Fp\u002Fhow-ai-really-weighs-your-links-analysis\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>Growth Memo\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In his study of 1,000 randomly selected websites, Indig discovered that AI gives as much of a [bleep] for dofollow or nofollow links as for rankings. As the data above shows, there’s no clear winner between the two in terms of the frequency of AI mentions. The results support the fact that AI cares more about the content’s context.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">He also stated that AI models favor dofollow or nofollow differently. Even Google is split: AI Overviews favor the former, and Gemini the latter (despite both using the same model).&nbsp;&nbsp;\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">With that, nofollow links found a new lease of life. Instead of affecting search rankings, they can now influence AI visibility through brand mentions. AI models love it when they’re given a clear citation, namely crediting a statement to a business or an in-house expert. This is why \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fdigital-pr\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>digital PR\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">, which uses nofollow links a lot, has grown in importance in SEO as of late.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Nevertheless, search engines still want to see natural link profiles, and going fully nofollow isn’t a good way to build one. A balance between dofollow and nofollow links is necessary. Too much of one thing is a good way to be penalized.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Still Different, Still Necessary\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Dofollow links still pass value, whereas nofollow links pass \u003Cem>some \u003C\u002Fem>value. Both are very much still needed in AI search, given that AI models ignore them in favor of contextual relevance. However, search engine guidelines still exist and must be followed (no pun intended).\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","The most basic classification of backlinks is whether they're dofollow or nofollow, that is, whether or not they pass link equity. While their nature hasn't changed, changes in search have rewritten the rules on how they should be used.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fbigwheel-desk-8822746-1280-20260514030955-s22f6ruk.jpg","Backlinks are classified as either dofollow or nofollow, but is that still the case in an AI-dominated search? This guide breaks it down.",848,"2026-05-14T11:22:00.000000Z","2026-05-14T03:22:16.000000Z",{"id":8,"name":23,"email":24,"about":25,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16},[100,102,104,110],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":17,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":101},{"blog_id":88,"category_id":30},{"id":8,"name":34,"slug":35,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":103},{"blog_id":88,"category_id":8},{"id":105,"name":106,"slug":107,"created_at":108,"updated_at":108,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":109},8,"Link Building","link-building","2025-10-26T11:10:26.000000Z",{"blog_id":88,"category_id":105},{"id":44,"name":45,"slug":46,"created_at":47,"updated_at":47,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":111},{"blog_id":88,"category_id":44},{"id":113,"author_id":114,"title":115,"slug":116,"content":117,"short_summary":118,"featured_image":119,"status":14,"meta_title":115,"meta_description":120,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":121,"published_at":122,"created_at":123,"updated_at":124,"deleted_at":16,"author":125,"categories":130},348,9,"Adding Schema Doesn’t Boost AI Citations","schema-doesnt-boost-ai-citations","\u003Ch1>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Adding Schema Doesn’t Boost AI Citations\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh1>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Ahrefs, the SEO and AI search analytics platform, published a study on May 11 that tested one of the more popular assumptions in AI visibility advice: that adding schema markup to a page will get it cited more often in AI responses. The study tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema between August 2025 and March 2026, matched them against 4,000 control pages with similar citation history, and measured what happened to AI citations on Google AI Overview, AI Mode, and ChatGPT in the 30 days before and after schema was added. Adding schema produced no meaningful citation boost on any of the three platforms.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">That finding cuts against a lot of marketing content from the past 18 months that has positioned schema as an AI visibility lever. The argument usually starts with a correlation: pages cited by AI are much more likely to have schema markup than pages that aren’t. The Ahrefs data confirms the correlation. What it doesn’t confirm is the cause-and-effect story people have been telling about it.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The correlation everyone has been quoting\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Before the study, the team at Ahrefs analyzed six million URLs and found that schema markup is much more common on AI-cited pages than on pages that aren’t cited. Among non-cited pages, only 18.5% had JSON-LD schema. Among AI-cited pages, 53.6% had it for reference citations and 71.7% had it for inline citations. AI-cited pages were almost three times more likely to have schema than non-cited ones.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">That gap is the kind of stat that gets shared in conference slides and LinkedIn carousels as evidence that schema is the unlock for AI visibility. But correlation and causation are two different things, and a difference this clean usually has a confounding explanation. Schema markup tends to live on better-maintained, more technically sophisticated sites. Those same sites publish stronger content, build more authority, earn more links, and do all the other things that get pages cited. So the team designed an experiment to find out whether schema specifically was doing the work, or whether it was just along for the ride.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The study Ahrefs ran on 1,885 pages\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The team built a dataset of 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema between August 2025 and March 2026. They identified the exact date schema went live on each page by combing through historical crawl data and spotting the first day the page had a JSON-LD script tag.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">For each of those treated pages, they then picked three control pages from different domains with similar pre-period citation levels, none of which had added schema during the same window. The matched pairs let them compare apples to apples: a page that added schema versus a similar page that didn’t, both starting from a comparable baseline.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The reason for the matched comparison comes down to how noisy AI citation data has been over the past year. AI Overview citations were contracting during the study period while AI Mode citations were expanding. If the team had just compared each page to itself before and after schema, they would have been measuring the platform-wide trend, not the effect of schema. The matched comparison let them strip out those platform swings and isolate what adding schema actually did.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The numbers across three AI platforms\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">After running the matched comparison across the full dataset, the results came out like this:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">•\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 7pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">\u003Cstrong>Google AI Overview\u003C\u002Fstrong>: citations on treated pages fell 4.6% relative to control pages. The decline was small but statistically significant.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">•\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 7pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">\u003Cstrong>Google AI Mode\u003C\u002Fstrong>: citations on treated pages rose 2.4% relative to control pages. The result is statistically indistinguishable from zero.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">•\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 7pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">\u003Cstrong>ChatGPT\u003C\u002Fstrong>: citations on treated pages rose 0.8% relative to control pages. Also indistinguishable from zero.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Two of the three numbers are essentially noise. The AI Overview decline is real in the sense that it’s unlikely to be random chance, but the absolute size is small (an average loss of around 12 daily citations on pages that were already getting hundreds), and the team can’t cleanly attribute the gap to schema itself. Treated and control pages were both already on a downward trajectory in AI Overview citations during the study window, which suggests something else (a Google update, content staleness, AI Overview pulling back from certain content types) may explain part of the decline.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">To make sure the conclusion held up, the team ran the test four different ways: a basic t-test, a difference-in-differences analysis, an event study tracking week-by-week trends, and a symmetric-window version of the DiD analysis. All four pointed in the same direction. No citation growth in AI Mode, no growth in ChatGPT, and a small AI Overview decline that’s real but can’t be definitively pinned on schema.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The small AI Overview decline that nobody can explain\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The 4.6% AI Overview decline deserves a closer look, since it’s the one finding that isn’t statistical noise. The team flagged it as real but unexplained. A few possible explanations:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The pages in the study were already getting heavy AI Overview citations going in. Every page in the dataset had over 100 AI Overview citations in February 2025 before any schema was added. Pages that high in the citation pool tend to be the ones AI Overview is actively reviewing and refreshing, which means small changes to those pages get noticed. It’s possible that adding schema triggered some kind of re-evaluation that pulled some of these pages slightly out of favor.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">It’s also possible the decline reflects content-type patterns that happen to correlate with the kind of sites that add schema during the study period. A more granular follow-up looking at which schema types and which content categories drove the decline could clarify the question.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">For now, the only thing the team can say with confidence is that the decline is real, small, and not the kind of result anyone betting on schema as an AI visibility lever would have predicted.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Where schema might still play a role\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The study has one important caveat that anyone reading the headline should keep in mind. Every page in the dataset was already being cited heavily by AI before any schema was added. These were pages already inside the consideration set, being crawled and surfaced by language models. The study tested whether adding schema pushed those pages higher. It did not test whether schema helps pages that aren’t being cited at all get into the consideration set in the first place.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">For pages that aren’t being seen by AI search, schema markup might still help with crawling, parsing, or indexing. A separate experiment from searchVIU tested whether five major AI systems (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Mode) actually parsed schema markup when fetching a page in real-time. None of them did. All five extracted only visible HTML content during direct retrieval, ignoring JSON-LD, hidden Microdata, and hidden RDFa.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">That doesn’t rule out schema playing a role in earlier stages of the pipeline (the crawl, the index, the entity recognition layer that decides what a page is about before any user prompt comes in). But it does suggest that at the moment of retrieval, when an AI system pulls content to compose a response, the content that matters is the content humans can see on the page.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">What the data suggests actually drives AI citations\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Schema being three times more common on AI-cited pages was the original observation that kicked off the schema-helps-AI-visibility theory. The study confirms the correlation and dismantles the causal claim built on top of it. So the question becomes: why are 53% of AI-cited pages running schema if schema isn’t what’s getting them cited?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The Ahrefs analysis offers the answer directly. Sites that add structured data tend to also invest in technical SEO, publish authoritative content, build links, maintain their pages, and rank well in regular search. AI systems are more likely to retrieve and cite that kind of content. Schema and citation eligibility share a common cause, which is the broader investment in content quality and authority that makes a page citation-worthy in the first place.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">For brands trying to build AI visibility, the takeaway is to focus the investment on what causes citations rather than what correlates with them. \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Flink-building\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Link building\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> and \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fdigital-pr\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">digital PR\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> build the third-party authority signals that AI retrieval systems use to decide which pages to trust. \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fguest-posting\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Guest posting\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> on credible domains and \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Flink-insertion\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">link insertions\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> into authoritative content put a brand inside the citation pool through pages that retrieval systems already trust.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Schema can still earn its place on a page for other reasons. Rich results in regular search (where they still apply), voice assistant compatibility, knowledge graph contributions, and downstream entity recognition all benefit from structured data. But if the only reason for adding JSON-LD was to get more AI citations on pages already being indexed, the Ahrefs data doesn’t support that as a working theory.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The simpler story is the one the study lands on: pages that get cited tend to be pages whose owners do a lot of things right, and schema is one of those things, alongside everything else that actually moves the needle. Adding the marker without the underlying work isn’t going to get a page over the line.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","Ahrefs ran a difference-in-differences study on 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema between August 2025 and March 2026. Adding schema produced no meaningful boost in AI citations on Google AI Overview, AI Mode, or ChatGPT, despite schema being three times more common on AI-cited pages overall.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fbottle-20260513133606-WOq2SzvQ.png","Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages adding schema markup over eight months. The result: no meaningful citation gains on AI Overview, AI Mode, or ChatGPT. (",1504,"2026-05-13T13:14:52.000000Z","2026-05-13T13:36:11.000000Z","2026-05-13T13:39:00.000000Z",{"id":114,"name":126,"email":127,"about":16,"avatar":128,"created_at":129,"updated_at":16,"deleted_at":16},"Rasit Cakir","rasit@nobsmarketplace.com","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Frasit.webp","2026-01-26T11:10:22.000000Z",[]]