Another great read, fair play. Point 7 around legal teams is so good, particularly timely for us as we're about to start this with a heavy legal compliance brand soon
I figured, it’s always been something SEOs had to deal with, so no sense skipping it. In fact, those internal relationships and convincing the compliance teams that they impact results with their choices? Way more important now! Google and Bing could afford to edit algorithms to account for those requirements that even big trust companies needed to deal with. Today’s systems? No way can you suggest it play along due to “that’s just the way it is in our industry” - nope. Align or get skipped.
Can I ask you a question? I am working on a project for a client and I do NOT have WP block text functionality, only an RTE. Would you recommend that I create a new, smaller RTE “chunks” instead of adding the copy in on a super large chunk?
Even if you’re limited to a rich text editor (RTE) without block-level structuring, it’s still worth chunking your content manually. Think in terms of logical sections: use subheadings, short paragraphs, bullet points, or even bolded labels to visually and semantically separate ideas. That helps GenAI systems interpret the content as distinct “chunks,” even without formal block markup.
If your CMS allows it, creating multiple RTE fields (one per section or subtopic) is even better — it gives the system clearer breakpoints and retrieval cues. But if that’s not possible, structuring within a single RTE using clear formatting hierarchy is your next best option.
The key principle: make each chunk scannable and self-contained — both for users and machines.
Great insight. I shared with our team as well. Astute assessment of the difficulties and strategy for collaborating with legal and compliance departments.
Keep fighting the acronym war! Can't stand them myself.
-- Additional points for emphasizing "clarity and direct statements" over "hedging and waffling".
Many legal departments get paid well to be concerned about distributing information that may be a contested "fact" in a lawsuit or legal proceedings, but that doesn't mean informational facts that may be up to debate can't be presented in your content as differing opinions in the industry, with disclaimers, or marked up to indicate "this is not legal/medical/etc advice, contact your lawyer/doctor/etc."
Exactly my experience in public companies. And yeah, communication - and building the good relationships - is key. Which ultimately means that part of the job as an SEO remains to be a relationship builder.
Another great read, fair play. Point 7 around legal teams is so good, particularly timely for us as we're about to start this with a heavy legal compliance brand soon
I figured, it’s always been something SEOs had to deal with, so no sense skipping it. In fact, those internal relationships and convincing the compliance teams that they impact results with their choices? Way more important now! Google and Bing could afford to edit algorithms to account for those requirements that even big trust companies needed to deal with. Today’s systems? No way can you suggest it play along due to “that’s just the way it is in our industry” - nope. Align or get skipped.
Can I ask you a question? I am working on a project for a client and I do NOT have WP block text functionality, only an RTE. Would you recommend that I create a new, smaller RTE “chunks” instead of adding the copy in on a super large chunk?
Yes, and that’s a great question.
Even if you’re limited to a rich text editor (RTE) without block-level structuring, it’s still worth chunking your content manually. Think in terms of logical sections: use subheadings, short paragraphs, bullet points, or even bolded labels to visually and semantically separate ideas. That helps GenAI systems interpret the content as distinct “chunks,” even without formal block markup.
If your CMS allows it, creating multiple RTE fields (one per section or subtopic) is even better — it gives the system clearer breakpoints and retrieval cues. But if that’s not possible, structuring within a single RTE using clear formatting hierarchy is your next best option.
The key principle: make each chunk scannable and self-contained — both for users and machines.
Thank you so much!
Great insight. I shared with our team as well. Astute assessment of the difficulties and strategy for collaborating with legal and compliance departments.
Keep fighting the acronym war! Can't stand them myself.
-- Additional points for emphasizing "clarity and direct statements" over "hedging and waffling".
Many legal departments get paid well to be concerned about distributing information that may be a contested "fact" in a lawsuit or legal proceedings, but that doesn't mean informational facts that may be up to debate can't be presented in your content as differing opinions in the industry, with disclaimers, or marked up to indicate "this is not legal/medical/etc advice, contact your lawyer/doctor/etc."
When Legal & Compliance say, "no", the correct approach is, "How do we turn this into a yes?"
Listen to their concerns and find phrasing they approve of -- or disclaimers -- so everyone wins in the end.
Odds are, they're objecting to the specific language and phrasing, and not the message behind it.
Compromise is possible, but communication is key!
Exactly my experience in public companies. And yeah, communication - and building the good relationships - is key. Which ultimately means that part of the job as an SEO remains to be a relationship builder.