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Playbook essays.

End-to-end operator-grade playbooks: the actual marketing systems we run on our own brands and our clients', documented step by step so you can copy them.

73 essays tagged playbook

More Playbook essays

llms.txt explained: the one-hour setup that gets you cited by AIGEO

llms.txt explained: the one-hour setup that gets you cited by AI

llms.txt is a plain-text index that tells AI engines which pages are canonical and what each covers. It takes an hour and costs nothing. How to build one.

MAY 29, 2026
Digital PR for SEO in 2026: earn links and AI citationsPR · GEO

Digital PR for SEO in 2026: earn links and AI citations

Digital PR is the only link-building tactic that survived Google’s spam updates — and it now earns AI citations too. Formats, pitching, and measurement.

JUN 25, 2026
Building an AI content engine that ranks AND gets citedAI-AGENTS

Building an AI content engine that ranks AND gets cited

The AI content engine we actually run: a human-gated pipeline of research, drafting, and editing agents that makes work good enough to rank and get cited.

MAY 30, 2026
Local SEO in 2026: ranking in Maps, Google, and AI answersSEO

Local SEO in 2026: ranking in Maps, Google, and AI answers

Local search has three surfaces to win: the Map Pack, classic organic, and AI answers. The 2026 playbook — fundamentals that still rank, plus the AI layer.

MAY 30, 2026
SEM in 2026: paid search when the SERP is half AISEM

SEM in 2026: paid search when the SERP is half AI

AI Overviews pushed paid results down the page and changed which queries are worth bidding on. Where paid search still wins, and where it bleeds money.

MAY 29, 2026
Content repurposing: the hub-and-spoke system for 2026CONTENT

Content repurposing: the hub-and-spoke system for 2026

One long-form piece should yield 10–15 distribution-ready fragments. The extraction playbook, plus the GEO layer that turns each fragment into a citation.

JUN 23, 2026
How to actually build trust in your brand (post-AI-spam edition)BRAND

How to actually build trust in your brand (post-AI-spam edition)

Testimonials and security badges still matter, but the AI-spam era added requirements. Specific dates, named operators, and dated original work now win.

MAY 16, 2026
Brand personality in the age of AI homogeneityBRAND

Brand personality in the age of AI homogeneity

Every brand voice sounds the same because everyone uses the same AI to write it. Specific points of view and named operators stand out more than ever.

MAY 13, 2026
8 content marketing campaigns that actually worked (2024-2026)CONTENT

8 content marketing campaigns that actually worked (2024-2026)

Not a nostalgia tour. Eight campaigns from 2024–2026 that moved real numbers, what made them work, and what is portable to a smaller operator’s budget.

MAY 22, 2026
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