MSP SEO: How to Rank Higher & Increase AI Search Visibility

Did you know that Google now sees more than 5 trillion searches per year? Additionally, the number one organic result is 10x more likely to receive a click compared to a page in the number ten spot, and there are over 700 million weekly active users of ChatGPT. With these numbers, it’s easy to see why search engine optimization (SEO) and AI search optimization are essential for MSP’s digital marketing strategy.

If you want to learn how to use SEO to increase your MSP website traffic, rank higher on Google Search, and improve your AI search visibility, then you’re in the right place. In this guide, we will cover the MSP SEO strategies and tips you can use to take your MSP’s marketing efforts to the next level.

What is MSP SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) for your MSP is the process of optimizing your MSP website so it is better positioned to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs), with a goal to brand awareness and organic traffic to drive new business. Organic search traffic is any search traffic that you don’t pay for — it shows up naturally or “organically” because it’s relevant to the query a person (or AI) has searched.

What is local SEO for MSPs?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing a website to improve visibility for location-based search results. This helps business websites rank highly in SERPs when people search for services (products, etc.) that they offer in the area where the businesses are located. While many MSPs render their services digitally and can work with companies anywhere in the world, local SEO is still a valuable strategy for maximizing relevant and local search traffic from search engines.

What is E-E-A-T?

Before we dive into SEO strategies and best practices, let’s define E-E-A-T since it’s a term that will come up often in the following sections. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and it’s a framework that Google Quality Raters (human reviewers) use to assess the quality of content on a website. By demonstrating E-E-A-T, you build reader trust and signal to Google, your website contains helpful content for searchers. This ultimately increases the likelihood of ranking better in Google Search and being cited and mentioned by LLMs.

There is a set of guidelines that businesses use to ensure that their content demonstrates E-E-A-T. One example of an E-E-A-T best practice is using expert quotes in your content. By showing an expert quote, you can help build trust with the reader that what you are talking about is connected to expertise, thus increasing the reader engagement, which is a ranking factor.

Step-by-step guide to building an MSP SEO strategy

Step 1: Create a solid foundation with technical SEO

Unless you have a web-development, programming, or technical background of some sort, technical SEO can seem like a hurdle with a significant learning curve. While it’s definitely recommended to hire a web developer at some point to help with the more complicated aspects of technical SEO, there are some steps marketers can do on their own, such as:

• Reduce image sizes to help improve page load speeds (recommended resource for reducing image sizes)

• Fixing broken links and redirects (recommended resource for fixing broken links and redirects)

• Preventing orphan pages with internal linking (recommended resource for preventing orphan pages)

• Using robots.txt file for pages that should not be crawled/indexed (recommended resource for using robots.txt file)

• Submitting an XML sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to improve search discoverability (recommended resource for submitting an XML sitemap)

• Using meta tags to better control how pages appear in search results (recommended resource for using meta tags)

• If using WordPress, make sure to keep your WordPress plugins updated and deactivate and uninstall any plugins no longer in use (recommended resource for updating WordPress plugins)

• Depending on your content management system (CMS), consider a caching plugin and use a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare CDN (recommended resource for caching plugins and CDNs)

• For images that are above-the-fold, make sure those are not set to loading=”lazy” (this will help prevent layout shift) and instead place lazy load images below-the-fold (recommended resource for lazy load images).

• For blogs or content hubs, make sure to implement breadcrumbs that use categories, for example: Home / Blog / {category} — this is helpful for users and for search systems to find and understand how your website and content is structured. (recommended resource for blog categories).

• Also, for blogs or content hubs, include a “You might also like” section at the bottom of your blog posts to distribute additional link equity among other blog posts. This helps both users and search systems (recommended resource for displaying related posts)
• Make sure your website loads correctly and functions well on mobile devices (recommended resource for improving mobile performance).

Good website performance is one of many things that can help improve your website rankings and authority on search engines, but more importantly, it improves user experience, which can lead to increased conversions and a positive brand sentiment. So, although it may require some time and effort, technical SEO is worth the investment for any SEO strategy.

Step 2: Follow on-site SEO best practices

On-site SEO includes anything you do on your website to optimize for SEO. While this includes technical SEO, we already covered that step, so these best practices will focus more on content strategy and on-page optimization. Some on-site SEO best practices include:

• Creating a content strategy that is relevant to your industry/audience (recommended resource for SEO content strategy)

• Optimizing content with short-tail and long-tail keywords based on search volume, competitors, relevance, and value (recommended resource for SEO keyword optimization) (Avoid keyword-stuffing, modern SEO is well beyond this)

• Ensuring pictures and files contain descriptive alt text, title, and filenames (recommended resource for SEO image optimization)

• Using specific and descriptive language for your anchor text on links (recommended resource for SEO anchor text)

• Creating URLs that are structured, lowercase, hyphenated, and that use the primary target keyword for the page/post (recommended resource for SEO URL structure)

• Adding an HTML title that uses the primary target keyword and is around 60 characters in length (recommended resource for SEO HTML titles). Note that 60 characters is not a hard rule but anything beyond that will be truncated if Google uses it within search results.

• Adding a meta description that describes the value of the page for the reader and is under 160 characters for the description to ensure that they aren’t cut off in the results page (recommended resource for SEO meta descriptions). Note that Google often does not use these, but sometimes they do, and other search systems and LLMs do – they still have value!

• Preventing and removing duplicate content on your website to avoid cannibalization (recommended resource for fixing duplicate SEO content). As your site grows, this becomes a bigger challenge. One quick-and-dirty way to help avoid this is, before your team writes a first draft, do a Google Search with the “site:” operator. For example, site:www.yourdomain.com “some topic” and quickly see if you have something already indexed for the topic. If so, maybe you should update that URL instead or merge the two.

• Designing an internal linking strategy (recommended resource for SEO internal linking strategies)

• Writing valuable, people-first content, meaning your content is written for your audience, then optimizing for SEO/AI search (recommended resource for writing people-first SEO content)

• Crafting engaging content by using text, graphics, videos, audio, etc. (recommended resource for crafting engaging SEO content)

• Using a content calendar to publish regularly and be consistent with your content and SEO efforts (recommended resource for SEO content calendars)
• Refreshing content, where needed, every 6 to 12 months (recommended resource for refreshing SEO content). TIP: Make sure to use a “last updated <date>” towards the top of your content when possible. This is critical for both traditional search engines and LLMs, indicating the freshness of your content.

Step 3: Develop off-site SEO strategies

In addition to on-site SEO, MSPs should consider taking some time to focus on off-site SEO. Unlike on-site SEO, which focuses on optimizing your own website, off-site SEO focuses on external strategies and methods to help your website’s rank and domain authority. There are multiple ways to help your website’s SEO externally, such as:

• Gaining backlinks by creating linkable assets, guest posting on other sites, and setting up an outreach program (recommended resource for gaining SEO backlinks). TIP: Do you have unique data or stats that you can publish publicly that your audience would find helpful? Stat-related content, when done well, can passively build backlinks.

• Collaborating with your MSP social media team to post links to your site and build credibility by engaging with your users, which also supports AI search optimization efforts (recommended resource for integrating SEO with social media)

• Incorporating SEO into your videos hosted on other platforms, such as YouTube, by following SEO video best practices like adding keyword-rich video titles, descriptions, and relevant tags (recommended resource on SEO video optimization)
• Research local resources and directories that list local businesses. Often, these are free, and if they’re a reliable resource, a great place to pick up a backlink.
• Sponsor local MSP-related events. Often, by sponsoring events, you can acquire some great backlinks from event promotions.

Step 4: Optimize your content for AI search

Most of your SEO efforts are going to be applicable to AI search as well. The main difference, at the time of this writing, is that you can prioritize some SEO tactics that have proven helpful with improving visibility in AI responses.

We cover these tactics in more detail in our AI search section below.

Step 5: Track and report your SEO results

No matter what area of business you are in, there’s no doubt that testing, tracking, and reporting is important for long-term success. As you set up your SEO program, ensure you have the right processes and tools in place to track and report on your efforts. This will allow you to make data-informed decisions, measure the success of your efforts, and find opportunities for improvement.

Step 6: Select the best SEO tools for your needs

Every business has its own preferences, budgets, and needs when it comes to SEO tools, but some of the most well-known and useful ones for SEO as a whole include:

• Google Search Console (Free)
• Google Analytics (Free standard version)
• Google PageSpeed Insights (Free)
• Google Keyword Planner (Free)
• BrightEdge (Paid)
• ScreamingFrog SEO Spider (Freemium)
• Ahrefs (Paid)
• Moz (Paid)
• Bing Webmaster Tools (Free)

What is the difference between SEO and Paid Search for MSPs?

While Organic Search (SEO) marketing and Paid Search marketing both use the SERPs, they are two entirely different types of marketing, each with its own pros and cons. Take a look at this table to see the main differences between SEO and Paid Search.

Is SEO still relevant for MSPs even with the arrival of AI search?

One question all digital marketers have been wondering is if SEO is still relevant even with the arrival of AI search? The short answer is absolutely!. Traditional SEO builds authority and visibility within Google and the digital search space, thus creating a solid foundation to support both traditional search and AI search. AI search systems, like ChatGPT and Perplexity, often use retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to ground their responses, using traditional search engines like Google Search and Bing.

Additionally, according to a recent ChatGPT usage survey conducted by Adobe, only 24% of the 1,000 people (800 consumers and 200 marketers/small business owners) surveyed in the U.S. go to ChatGPT first, with Gen Z (28%) being the most likely to do so. This means that users tend to rely on traditional methods of search (mainly Google) first before going to ChatGPT. Another report by BrightEdge on Google’s market share shows that Google is not only holding steady but increasing from 90.54% to 90.71%. As BrightEdge explains at the end of their report, “While new trends like AI agents are reshaping the field, Google’s continued dominance proves that traditional search optimization is more critical than ever.”

What MSPs need to know about AI search

The digital marketing world loves breaking down concepts and giving them abbreviations, and there are already plenty out there for AI search, such as AI SEO, AEO, GEO, and more. The two common terms that you might come across often are AEO and GEO. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) involves optimizing your website for AI search features on search engines (AI Overviews, AI Mode), while GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) involves optimizing your website for LLMs and AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity).

However, even though the digital marketing community is breaking down AI search optimization into multiple terms, they all represent one concept: optimizing your website for AI search as a whole, which includes LLMs, AI Overviews, AI Mode, et cetera. If you are optimizing your website for traditional and AI search as a whole, you’ll automatically optimize for AEO, GEO, and the many aspects of AI search.

How to optimize your website for AI search

AI search is still fairly new compared to SEO, and as of today, one of the best ways to optimize your website for AI search is to follow specific SEO best practices. While you should always follow SEO best practices, there are a few in particular that your MSP can prioritize to improve AI visibility, such as:

1. Creating concise, quick-read, summarized content
2. Use semantic HTML so that it’s easier for AI to understand your content by including the use of headings, subheadings, and bullet points (recommended resource for formatting content for AI)
3. Building brand authority with traditional SEO best practices and maintaining E-E-A-T (recommended resource for building brand authority with SEO)
4. Following technical SEO best practices, such as optimizing page speeds and improving mobile-friendliness (recommended resource for technical SEO best practices). It’s critical for your content to be accessible without any JavaScript dependencies, as most LLM crawlers do not render JavaScript
5. Refreshing content often, generally every 6 to 12 months, and avoiding the use of AI-only generated content (recommended resource for refreshing SEO content)
6. Off-site SEO, covered above, plays a significant role in AI visibility. LLMs often cite Reddit, YouTube, GitHub, and other websites with user-generated content since they show a preference for firsthand content and data. The approach to publishing content on these other websites and platforms is to always think of the user first, be helpful, and add something unique to the conversation without being overly self-promoting

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