Topical Authority in SEO: The Complete Guide [2025]
Why authority on a topic now beats keyword targeting in isolation, and the operational playbook for building it across an entire content surface.
Writing
Essays, notes, and longer-form pieces on SEO operations, AI tooling, MarTech, and building SaaS for SMBs.
A few featured pieces below, followed by the complete index — 80+ articles across Search Insights Academy, Supple Digital, and earlier work at Xugar, spanning SEO, AI, analytics, and paid media.
Search Insights Academy
Founder & lead author. Frameworks and research at the AI-SEO intersection.
GEO vs SEO Explained: Why Your Content Strategy Needs Both to Survive Google's AI Shift
Generative Engine Optimisation isn't a replacement for SEO — it's a parallel discipline. How to plan for both as Google's AI surfaces reshape the SERP.
Building Autonomous AI Agents for SEO in 2025
What an actually useful SEO agent looks like in production, the tasks that survive automation, and the guardrails to keep human judgment in the loop.
Vibe Coding for SEO: Rapid Micro-Automations
Small, scrappy automations — the kind you build in an afternoon — that compound into serious operational leverage for an SEO team.
Google's ccTLD Sunset: How the End of Country-Code Domains Impacts Your SEO Strategy
What changes for international SEO once Google stops treating ccTLDs as the primary geo-signal, and how to restructure for a hreflang-first world.
Mastering Google AI Overviews
How AI Overviews actually pick sources, what the citation pattern looks like, and a practical optimisation framework for being in the answer box.
Headless CMS SEO: Solving JavaScript Rendering Issues
The rendering pitfalls that kill organic traffic on headless stacks, and the tested patterns — SSR, prerender, edge — that actually solve them.
How to Conduct a Comprehensive SEO Audit
The full audit framework I use across enterprise accounts — technical, content, links, analytics — written so a mid-level SEO can run it end-to-end.
Supple Digital
Head of SEO Operations — technical SEO, AI tooling, and analytics for enterprise accounts.
15 Black Friday SEO Tips to Maximize Your Sales this Holiday Season
The pre-season checklist that high-traffic e-commerce sites should be running before peak retail — technical, content, and link signals combined.
8 Pagination Best Practices to Ensure It Doesn't Hurt Your SEO
Pagination is one of the silent killers of crawl efficiency on big sites. The eight patterns that work, and the legacy ones to retire.
Rel=Canonical: The Ultimate Guide to Canonical Tags and URLs
Canonicals are deceptively simple and routinely misused. The full guide to when they're enforced, when they're hints, and how to set them right.
Product-Led SEO Strategy for SaaS: 6 Experts Share How to Do It Right
Roundup of operator-level perspectives on building product-led SEO for SaaS — what works, what's noise, and where the real moat is.
14 Most Useful Custom GPTs for SEO Professionals and Agencies
The custom GPTs I keep coming back to for SEO work — what each one does well, where they fall short, and which workflows they unblock.
Google March 2024 Core Update: What You Need to Know
What the March 2024 update actually shifted in the SERP, what kinds of sites took the biggest hits, and the recovery framework that has worked for our portfolio.
Complete archive
Every published piece, grouped by topic. 80+ articles across three publications.
Search Insights Academy · 38 articles · founder & lead author
SEO fundamentals
- SEO 101: The Basics Every Business Needs
- How Search Engines Work: Crawling, Indexing & Ranking
- Keyword Research Basics: Finding & Prioritising Target Terms
- On-Page SEO Essentials: Titles, Meta Descriptions & Headers
- Core Content & Pages: Building a Solid Site Structure
- Link Building 101: The Basics of Gaining Backlinks
- Welcome to Search Insights Academy!
Technical SEO
- Technical SEO Part 1: Site Speed, Mobile-Friendliness & Security
- Technical SEO Part 2: Crawlability & Indexability
- Structured Data & Schema Markup: Speaking the Engines' Language
- Headless CMS SEO: Solving JavaScript Rendering Issues
- User Experience (UX) & SEO: The Overlap You Can't Ignore
- How to Conduct a Comprehensive SEO Audit
Content & strategy
- Content Optimisation: Writing for Both Users & Search Engines
- Topic Clusters & Pillar Pages: A Modern Content Strategy
- Advanced Keyword Research: Semantic Search & User Intent
- Topical Authority in SEO: The Complete Guide [2025]
- Advanced Link-Building Strategies for Sustainable SEO
- Building a Content Calendar: Step-by-Step
AI & the future of search
- GEO vs SEO Explained: Why You Need Both for Google's AI Shift
- Mastering Google AI Overviews: The New Search Landscape
- Building Autonomous AI Agents for SEO in 2025
- Vibe Coding for SEO: Rapid Micro-Automations
- ChatGPT Shopping: The New Frontier for E-commerce Visibility
- Google's ccTLD Sunset: Impact on Your SEO Strategy
E-commerce & local
- E-commerce SEO Complete Guide: Products, Categories & Architecture
- Visual Commerce Playbook 2025: Free Listings & AI Shopping Ads
- Local SEO in 2025-26
- Local SEO: How to Optimise for "Near Me" Searches
PPC, ads & analytics
- PPC 101: Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Advertising
- Setting Up a Google Ads Search Campaign
- Writing Killer Ad Copy: Grabbing Attention on the SERP
- Optimising Bids & Budgets for Better ROI
- Remarketing & Display Ads: Staying Top-of-Mind
- GA4 101: Setting Up & Navigating Your Dashboard
- How to Track Conversions & Goals in GA4
- Search Console 101: Index Coverage & Performance Reports
- Measuring SEO Success: Intro to GA & Search Console
Supple Digital · 42 articles · Head of SEO Operations
Technical SEO
- HTTP Status Codes for SEO: What You Need to Know
- Lazy Loading for SEO: What You Must Know About It
- 8 Pagination Best Practices for SEO
- Rel=Canonical: The Ultimate Guide to Canonical Tags & URLs
- What is Index Bloat and How to Manage It?
- Image Optimisation Checklist for SEO
- SEOs Guide to Using RegEx in Search Console
- How to Implement Structured Data for SEO
- .com.au vs .au: What's the Difference, and Which is Better?
- Blog Post SEO: The Complete Checklist
- 12 SEO Tips for Web Developers
- Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting a Backlink Audit
Content & strategy
- A Brief Introduction to Entity-based SEO & its Importance
- What Are Zero-Click Searches & How to Optimise for Them?
- Will Content Velocity Now Affect Your Website's SEO?
- Content Optimisation Strategies: 6 Experts Share Their Hacks
- Content Marketing for Australian Startups
- What is Content Gap Analysis and How to Use It?
- How to Get Rid of Duplicate Content
- 9 Tips on How to Write an About Page that Converts
- How to Boost Traffic from 0 to 200k Monthly Views
- Welcome New Subscribers with these 3 Essential Emails
- How to Optimise & Rank Your Content on Google Discover
AI, tools & community
- 14 Most Useful Custom GPTs for SEO Professionals
- AI Content Generators: Reviews, Applications, Pros & Cons
- Product-Led SEO Strategy for SaaS
- 6 Best SEO Tools That Use the GSC URL Inspection API
- Best SEO Slack Groups
- Best SEO Facebook Groups Worth Joining
- Christmas Gifts for SEOs: A Helpful Guide
Analytics & measurement
- A Guide to Migrate from Universal Analytics to GA4
- Switch to GA4 or a Different Analytics Solution?
- How to Create a Custom Review Link for Google Reviews
Business, local & algorithm updates
- What's a Good Budget for SEO?
- How Long Does It Take to See SEO Results?
- How Small Businesses Can Outrank Big Brands on Google
- How to Add Users to Your Google Business Profile
- How to Set Up a Google Ads Account for Your Website
- WooCommerce vs Shopify: What You Need to Know
- 15 Black Friday SEO Tips to Maximize Your Sales
- Google March 2024 Core Update: What You Need to Know
- Is Video Content the Next Big Thing after May '22 Core Update?
Xugar · earliest published work (2017–2018) · recovered via the Wayback Machine
- 7 Important SEO Predictions for 2018: SEO Trends
- 5 Tips on How to Improve Google PageRank for Your Website
- Trending Searches in Australia for 2017 (Google Trends)
- Google Update: Meta Description Length Increased to 320 Characters