SEO Insights
Practical insights on SEO, AI in search, Google updates, and digital marketing strategy from Zach Karl, founder of Search Dog Consulting. No fluff, just actionable advice to help your business grow.
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Principles of GEO (A Starter Guide)
What is GEO? GEO is generative engine optimization, which means to optimize a brand and website for AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc., so that a brand is cited more often and with more accuracy in answers to user prompts. SEO (search engine optimization) is relatively similar, with the target being ranking pages in…
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Frequently Asked Questions about AI Search
It’s difficult to keep up with all of the advancements going on with AI search. Especially when people start talking about patents and cosine similarity and probabilistic associations. It’s too much. So I’ve started documenting my frequently asked questions here.
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How to Succeed With Local SEO in 2026
Local search has gotten more complicated, but the businesses winning in 2026 aren’t doing anything groundbreaking. This is a plain-English breakdown of the six pillars of local SEO, what the latest ranking factor research actually says, and how AI search is raising the bar on fundamentals most businesses haven’t fully nailed yet.
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Choosing an SEO Agency vs. SEO Freelancer
Choosing between an SEO freelancer and an agency is one of the more confusing decisions a small business owner can make, mostly because no one explains what you’re actually getting with either. Zach Karl has worked on both sides of that equation, as an agency-side SEO and as an independent consultant. Here’s his honest breakdown of how the two models compare.
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Search Dog’s Approach to SEO in the Age of AI
The internet has gotten worse, and SEOs deserve some* of the blame. In this first post from Search Dog Consulting, Zach Karl lays out his approach to SEO in the age of AI: why the old metrics are losing relevance, how to create content that actually earns attention, and what it means to build a brand that shows up everywhere your audience is searching, scrolling, or existing.
