SEO & GEO Blog

Practical SEO and GEO guides from Dan Kern, founder of Kern Media®, with 20+ years of SEO experience. You'll find evergreen advice on technical SEO, eCommerce SEO, content strategy and traffic recovery, all updated for how people search today in Google and AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

Want help applying it to your site? See our SEO and GEO services or our original AI search citation study.

How to Write Content AI Tools Cite (in Your Brand’s Voice)

October 14, 2026 by Dan Kern

Most advice on showing up in ChatGPT and other AI tools starts with “publish more content.” I start somewhere else: with the content you already have. Before I suggest a single new page, I want to know what your site says, whether it says it consistently, and how well it answers the questions your buyers […]

20 Black Friday SEO & GEO Tips to Maximize Holiday Revenue (2026)

October 4, 2026 by Dan Kern

Updated October 2026. I first wrote this post in 2016 and have rewritten it for how people shop now, in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Black Friday is still one of the best weeks of the year for eCommerce sites to win sales from search. The catch is that most […]

How to Re-Optimize Your Website with Google Search Console’s Performance Report

October 4, 2026 by Dan Kern

Updated October 2026. I first wrote this post in 2015, when Google launched what was then called the “Search Analytics” report. It’s now the Performance report in Google Search Console, and it’s still the best free source of keyword data for re-optimizing pages you already have. Google Analytics stopped showing organic keywords years ago (“not […]

Identifying Google Penalties & Algorithmic Traffic Drops

October 4, 2026 by Dan Kern

Updated October 2026. I first wrote this post in 2012, when Panda and Penguin were the big worries. Those are now part of Google’s core ranking systems, and traffic drops have a few other causes (including AI Overviews). I’ve rewritten this guide for how I diagnose traffic drops now, and folded in my old post […]

Insider eCommerce SEO & GEO Tips for Mid-Sized Shopping Sites

October 4, 2026 by Dan Kern

Updated October 2026. I first wrote this post in 2017. The core advice still holds, and I’ve added what mid-sized stores need to do to show up in AI shopping answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode. I’ve spent most of my 20+ years in SEO optimizing eCommerce sites to compete against Amazon […]

Amanda Ferm

When Kern Media came in, they inherited nearly 30 years of accumulated SEO debt. Dan helped us untangle and clean up years of technical and content issues, build a much stronger SEO foundation, and ultimately allowed us to outrank our competitors for the most valuable keywords in our industry. What I appreciated most was that they didn't treat SEO as a static checklist. Their strategic appoach helped us understand how search was evolving, what changes actually mattered, and where we needed to adapt. As AI began reshaping search and discovery, they were already helping us think beyond traditional SEO and understand what emerging AI-driven search meant for our visibility. Kern Media brought both deep expertise and a practical, strategic approach to the work. They significantly improved our visibility while building a strong organic search foundation that positioned us to stay ahead of the curve as search continues to evolve—from traditional SEO to the rapidly changing world of AI-driven discovery.

Keith Nickoles

I have partnered professionally with Dan and his team at Kern Media for over five years, and their SEO strategies consistently deliver impressive results. I've never seen a system so detail-oriented. It's impressive to witness and be a part of. I strongly recommend their services to any business seeking a reliable, long-term partner for digital growth.

Ashley Mo

Dan and the Kern Media team so impressed me with their expertise that he was my first call when I changed jobs and needed to hire an SEO consultant. Our organic traffic continues to grow as we've followed the content and technical recommendations from the team. Dan is great at explaining complicated terms simply and extremely responsive. I highly recommend working with Kern Media.

Benjamin Smith

Within minutes of talking to Dan he was able to help me troubleshoot a good deal why my search rankings were struggling. He has fantastic insight and truly is expert in the ever-changing world of SEO.

Mike W

Working with Dan has been a pivotal part of our company. For the past 10 years, we've been selling furniture online and have achieved early success in ranking well on Google. However, our pages were not structured to rank effectively. After our traffic began steadily declining, we decided to engage with Kern Media to improve our ranking and hopefully bring more traffic to the site. Our organic traffic has since more than doubled in less than a year. As the holiday season approached, Dan had the idea to come out with a Black Friday page and created a content brief for us to follow. Within a week, the page was ranking 3rd on Google for "Black Friday cat trees," which helped lead to a record-breaking Black Friday Sale. Kern Media has been quick to respond to questions, always available to talk through issues, and has been a pleasure to work with.

Tim Hampton

Dan & Kern Media have been awesome to work with for many years. We've seen incredible growth with our organic results and have grown our keyword footprint immensely. Dan's technical acumen and knowledge of the "SEO" space is impressive. If you ever get the chance to work with Dan and Team, DO IT!!! Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do! We appreciate you, @Dan!

Karen Johnson

Dan and his team came in and really changed the game for us. To date our organic results have grown 41%. He helped us clean up our site, add quality content and provided excellent guidance so we could continue to make improvements on our own. I highly recommend!

Karyssa Cox

Kern Media has been an incredible partner in developing my team's overall SEO strategy and implementing new tactics. We've worked with Dan on a number of different complex projects as well as ongoing consultation. Dan is on top of the latest SEO trends and best practices and always has ideas on how to ensure we're making the moves we need to in order to stay ahead. Dan's expertise and attention to detail have been crucial in completing our projects successfully, and he's also been great to collaborate with on how we can use SEO as a tool to achieve our overall goals. We've been very pleased and impressed with the results and are so grateful for the opportunity to work with Kern Media. Thanks, Dan and the Kern team!

Sandra G

Dan and his team at Kern Media are truly SEO experts and our trusted advisors to us. Through their hard work our website, customer.com, is now of the first page of google search results for our area of expertise.

How to Write Content AI Tools Cite (in Your Brand’s Voice)

20 Black Friday SEO & GEO Tips to Maximize Holiday Revenue (2026)

How to Re-Optimize Your Website with Google Search Console’s Performance Report

Identifying Google Penalties & Algorithmic Traffic Drops

Insider eCommerce SEO & GEO Tips for Mid-Sized Shopping Sites

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