Ethan Smith, the CEO of the SEO and growth marketing agency Graphite, is a prominent voice in the world of search engine optimization. Through his work with major brands like MasterClass, Netflix, and Robinhood, and his role as an instructor at Reforge, he has developed a data-driven and impact-focused approach to growth.[1][2][3][4]
On SEO Strategy and Prioritization
A core tenet of Smith's philosophy is to avoid what he calls the "SEO death spiral"—investing in low-impact activities that yield no results and erode trust in the channel.[5][6] He advocates for a ruthless prioritization of tasks that will actually move the needle.
Key Learnings:
- The 80/20 Principle on Steroids: Smith emphasizes focusing on the small percentage of work that drives the vast majority of results.[3] His agency, Graphite, operates on the principle of identifying "the 5% of SEO work that generates 95% of the results."[3]
- Avoid the "SEO Death Spiral": This occurs when teams get caught in a cycle of executing a long list of seemingly correct but low-impact SEO tasks, leading to disillusionment and a loss of internal support.[5][6]
- Focus on Impactful Activities: He categorizes SEO into three main buckets: technical, programmatic, and editorial, and stresses the importance of concentrating on the highest-impact initiatives within each.[5][7][8]
- Technical SEO is Necessary but Often Overemphasized: While foundational, Smith cautions that many teams spend too much time on technical aspects that don't deliver significant growth.[7]
Topics Over Keywords
A recurring theme in Smith's teachings is the shift from a narrow keyword focus to a broader, more strategic approach centered on topics.
Key Learnings:
- "Topics are the new keywords."[2][4] A single page should be designed to rank for hundreds or even thousands of related keywords that fall under a single topic.[5][9]
- Comprehensive Content is Key: By understanding the entire cluster of keywords related to a topic, you can create more comprehensive content that better satisfies user intent.[10] For instance, a page about a "five-year plan" should also include templates and examples, as keyword research would reveal users are searching for those as well.[5]
- Topical Authority as a Competitive Advantage: For newer or less authoritative sites, building deep expertise in a specific niche ("topical authority") is crucial for outranking more established competitors.[5][11] Google rewards sites that are known for a particular subject.[5]
On Content and AI
Smith offers a pragmatic and strategic perspective on content creation, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.
Key Learnings:
- AI-Assisted, Not AI-Generated: He advises using AI as a tool to assist in content creation, but warns against relying on it to generate entire articles without human oversight. AI-generated content can be duplicative and suffer from "hallucinations" or inaccuracies.[10]
- Enhance Existing Content First: Before creating new content, a high-impact strategy is to enhance what you already have. Adding relevant terms you're already ranking for to the title and body of an article can lead to significant traffic increases.[5]
- Match Page Type to User Intent: Analyzing the search engine results page (SERP) is critical to understanding what type of content Google wants to rank for a particular query, whether it's a product page, a listicle, or an in-depth article.[1][2]
The Rise of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Smith is at the forefront of the shift from traditional SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), which focuses on getting a brand or product mentioned in the answers of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.
Key Learnings:
- "The future of search isn't links. It's mentions."[12] In the context of AEO, the volume of citations and mentions across the web (on platforms like Reddit and YouTube) is more important than a single high-ranking link.[12][13]
- AEO Levels the Playing Field: Unlike traditional SEO, where domain authority can take years to build, a new company can appear in an AI-powered answer engine's results quickly if it's mentioned in the right places.[13]
- Two Paths to Winning in AEO: Smith outlines two strategies: "Owned AEO," where your own URLs answer specific, long-tail questions, and "Earned AEO," where your brand is cited across various online sources to win the "head" or more general queries.[12]
- ChatGPT Traffic Converts Higher: He has found that traffic coming from ChatGPT converts at a significantly higher rate than traditional Google search traffic.[13]
For Startups and Marketplaces
Smith provides tailored advice for earlier-stage companies and specific business models like marketplaces.
Key Learnings:
- Start with High-Intent, Low-Scope Projects: For a new marketplace, he suggests starting with manually created listicles (e.g., "plumbers in San Francisco") rather than building a complex backend for thousands of pages. This allows you to test the waters and prove the model before overinvesting.[1]
- Determine if SEO is the Right Channel: For companies needing a quick return, paid advertising might be a better fit. SEO is a long-term investment.[7]
- Assess Your Addressable Market: Before diving into SEO, he recommends using tools like Similarweb to analyze the non-brand organic traffic of competitors to gauge the potential opportunity.[1]
- Marketplaces are Uniquely Positioned for SEO: Their large number of SKUs (products or services) allows for the programmatic creation of pages at scale.[1]
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