<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Level Alpha — Insights</title><description>Plain-English writing on AI search, generative-engine optimization, and the technical work of getting a brand found.</description><link>https://levelalpha.net/</link><language>en-us</language><item><title>Ranking #1 and still broke: why traffic without conversion is worthless</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/ranking-number-one-and-still-broke/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/ranking-number-one-and-still-broke/</guid><description>Getting found is only half the job. If the page people land on doesn&apos;t turn them into customers, your rankings are a vanity trophy. Here&apos;s the other half almost every SEO ignores.</description><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>Conversion</category><category>SEO</category><category>Plain English</category></item><item><title>How to tell if AI is recommending your competitors instead of you</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/is-ai-recommending-your-competitors/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/is-ai-recommending-your-competitors/</guid><description>A five-minute test you can run yourself today. Open ChatGPT, ask the questions your customers ask, and see whose name comes up. Here&apos;s exactly how — and what to do about the answer.</description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>GEO</category><category>AI Search</category><category>How-To</category></item><item><title>What is GEO? Generative Engine Optimization, explained for people who aren&apos;t marketers</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/what-is-geo/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/what-is-geo/</guid><description>Everyone suddenly says &apos;GEO.&apos; Here&apos;s what it actually means, why it&apos;s different from SEO, and whether it matters for your business — in language a normal person can use.</description><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>GEO</category><category>AI Search</category><category>Plain English</category></item><item><title>Why your website traffic is dropping — and the SEO advice isn&apos;t working</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/why-your-traffic-is-dropping/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/why-your-traffic-is-dropping/</guid><description>Your traffic is sliding, you&apos;ve done everything the checklist said, and nobody can explain it in plain English. Here&apos;s what actually changed, without the jargon.</description><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>AI Search</category><category>SEO</category><category>Plain English</category></item><item><title>Why you keep losing to Forbes and Reddit — and what a small brand can actually do about it</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/losing-to-forbes-and-reddit/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/losing-to-forbes-and-reddit/</guid><description>Search your own category and the whole first page is big media and Reddit threads. Your site is nowhere. Here&apos;s the real reason Google leans on a handful of giants now — and the moves that still work for a smaller brand.</description><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>Brand Authority</category><category>SEO</category><category>Plain English</category></item><item><title>How to look like a brand to a machine that&apos;s never heard of you</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/look-like-a-brand-to-a-machine/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/look-like-a-brand-to-a-machine/</guid><description>Google and AI recommend businesses they recognize as real, coherent brands. If they can&apos;t tell what you are, you&apos;re invisible — no matter how good you are. Here&apos;s how to become a recognized entity from scratch.</description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>Brand Authority</category><category>GEO</category><category>Structured Data</category></item><item><title>The metric that predicts who AI recommends: how often people say your name</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/the-metric-that-predicts-ai-recommendations/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/the-metric-that-predicts-ai-recommendations/</guid><description>Forget keyword rankings for a second. The single strongest signal for whether Google and AI will recommend you is how many people search for you by name. Here&apos;s why brand demand beats keywords — and how to build it.</description><pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>Brand Authority</category><category>GEO</category><category>AI Search</category></item><item><title>AI content is fine. Thin content isn&apos;t. The line that actually matters.</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/ai-content-is-fine-thin-content-isnt/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/ai-content-is-fine-thin-content-isnt/</guid><description>Half the internet thinks Google punishes AI-written content. It doesn&apos;t. What it punishes is content that doesn&apos;t solve the problem — and that distinction changes how you should think about writing anything.</description><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>SEO</category><category>AI Search</category><category>Content</category></item><item><title>The fastest SEO win is hiding in your own data (and it&apos;s free)</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/fastest-seo-win-in-your-own-data/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/fastest-seo-win-in-your-own-data/</guid><description>Everyone obsesses over new content. Meanwhile the quickest wins are pages you already have that are one nudge away from page one. Here&apos;s how to find them without spending a dollar.</description><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>SEO</category><category>How-To</category><category>Quick Wins</category></item><item><title>Pillar and spoke: the website structure that survives every Google update</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/pillar-and-spoke/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/pillar-and-spoke/</guid><description>Most websites are a random pile of pages, which is why they wobble every time Google changes. There&apos;s one structure that keeps holding through the chaos — here&apos;s how it works and why machines love it.</description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>SEO</category><category>Site Architecture</category><category>Plain English</category></item><item><title>Stop guessing. Reverse-engineer whoever&apos;s already winning your search.</title><link>https://levelalpha.net/insights/reverse-engineer-whos-winning/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://levelalpha.net/insights/reverse-engineer-whos-winning/</guid><description>Most SEO advice is generic guesswork. But the answer to &apos;what should we do&apos; is sitting on the results page already — in whoever&apos;s ranking. Here&apos;s how to read it, in plain English.</description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><category>SEO</category><category>Competitive Intelligence</category><category>How-To</category></item></channel></rss>