Ann Smarty
Ann Smarty is the founder of Smarty Marketing, a boutique SEO agency based in New York, and Viral Content Bee, a social media promotion tool.
Ann's search engine optimization career began in 2005. She is the former editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs, including Small Business Trends and Mashable.
Ann is also a frequent speaker at Pubcon and many other digital marketing events.
Contact Ann via email or LinkedIn.
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Technical SEO
SEO Signals from SERPs
December 7, 2023 • Ann Smarty
The search result page for any query provides signals for optimizing for that term.
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Design & Dev Tools
AI Tools to Analyze Complex Documents
December 5, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Deciphering a long or complex document is daunting and time-consuming. Enter AI.
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Link Building
How Topic Authority Impacts SEO
November 30, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google's assessment of expertise and trust is critical in achieving top rankings.
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Design & Dev Tools
Custom GPTs for Marketers
November 27, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Creative GPTs can generate logos, web layouts, content analysis, brand messaging, and much more.
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Technical SEO
3 New Metrics for Today’s SEO
November 23, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Modern search result pages are much more than 10 blue links. SEO performance metrics have changed, too.
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SEO Tools
3 AI-powered SERP Analyzers
November 21, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google has long relied on AI for organic rankings. Now search optimizers are using it too.
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Analytics & Data
GA4: User Acquisition vs. Sessions
November 16, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google Analytics 4 segregates traffic reports by user and session. Here's the difference.
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Social Media
AI Tools to Create Reels, TikToks, Shorts
November 14, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Producing mini videos for social media once took hours. No more.
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Keyword Research
SEO: Targeting the Long Tail for More Sales
November 9, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Targeting niche "long tail" queries has changed from exact-match keywords to understanding a searcher's intent and meaning.
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Social Media
AI Tools for Better Social Media Profiles
November 7, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Done well, social media profiles entice followers and drive website engagement.
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SEO Tools
How to Set up Organization Schema
November 2, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google's use of structured data is shifting from producing rich snippets to explaining purpose and content.
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SEO Tools
2 (Imperfect) Ways to Block Bard
October 31, 2023 • Ann Smarty
How to block Google Bard without jeopardizing organic search traffic?
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Technical SEO
SEO: How to Target Countries
October 26, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Cross-border ecommerce is booming. Here's how to ensure a site ranks in organic search for a targeted country.
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Technical SEO
SEO for SGE
October 24, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience will soon roll out to all users, replacing the current layout and results.
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SEO Tools
Google’s SITE Operator Is a Top SEO Tool
October 19, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google's site: is a longstanding advanced search operator. It's handy for finding indexing errors, internal pages for linking and updating, and much more.
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Design & Dev Tools
4 AI Tools to Condense Text, Audio, Video
October 17, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Sophisticated tools can now analyze, summarize, repurpose, and explain content — supercharging productivity.
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On-page SEO
How to Recover from Google’s Helpful Content Update
October 15, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Google's helpful content guidelines aren't particularly helpful. Here are suggestions for affected sites.
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Social Media
AI Tools to Create Social Media Videos
October 10, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Producing social media videos has never been easier or more impactful.
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SEO Tools
4 Uses of Google’s URL Inspection Tool
October 5, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Search Console can identify non-indexed pages, duplicate content, crawl errors, and more.
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Design & Dev Tools
Comparing 4 Image-to-text AI Tools
October 3, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Drop a photo into an AI vision technology tool and receive product descriptions, social media captions, and more. We test four leading providers.
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Technical SEO
How 404s Impact Organic Rankings
September 28, 2023 • Ann Smarty
A deleted page is not the issue. The harm is from broken backlinks to that page.
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Social Media
ChatGPT Prompts for Social Media Marketing
September 26, 2023 • Ann Smarty
The right prompts can increase social media productivity with idea suggestions, sample posts, repurposed content, and more.
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SEO
SERP Signs of a Trusted Brand
September 21, 2023 • Ann Smarty
A site's trustworthiness could be its top ranking factor. Google provides clues on search result pages.
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Content Marketing
Best Content Types for ChatGPT
September 19, 2023 • Ann Smarty
ChatGPT cannot share personal experiences, but it can help with rote descriptions, repurposed text, and more.
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On-page SEO
Cross-border SEO for Same-language Sites
September 14, 2023 • Ann Smarty
How do merchants optimize organic rankings for country-specific sites, all in the same language?
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Platforms & Apps
How to Train ChatGPT for Better Responses
September 12, 2023 • Ann Smarty
ChatGPT's responses are generic by default. Here's how to customize them to your business or product.
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On-page SEO
SEO for Events
September 7, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Tactics include title keywords, consistent URLs, schema markup, speaker pages, and more.
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Technical SEO
How Google Personalizes Search Results
August 29, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Search results differ based on a user's history, interactions, location, and more.
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Photography & Video
4 Handy AI Video Generators
August 28, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Sophisticated tools offer many languages, avatars, voices, editing options, and more.
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Technical SEO
How to Remove a Web Page from Google
August 24, 2023 • Ann Smarty
Legit reasons for removing a page from search results include confidentiality, premium content, dated info, and more.
How to Track ChatGPT Traffic in GA4
ChatGPT Shopping Is Coming
Temu and Shein Cut U.S. Advertising
Rethink Your Email Sunset Policy
Charts: U.S. Digital Media Trends 2025
A Playbook for Influencer Marketing
Drive More ROI from Meta and Google Ads