Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #119: Mise-en-scène in Marketing

A few weeks ago on the podcast, I spoke with Molly…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #118: Don’t Optimize for Your Peers

Years ago, I found myself working at HubSpot. This alone…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #117: Omnipresence

A peculiar thing happens when a brand appears everywhere at…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #116: The Life Changing Magic of Showing Up

In a world obsessed with breakthroughs and big ideas, it’s…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #115: Vocabulary, Fidelity, and AI Orchestration

Consider the Conductor Picture an orchestra. Violins swell, brass punches…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field Notes

Field Notes #114: The Doorman Fallacy

Thought experiment: how would you improve rail transit? Sutherland gives…

Alex BirkettApril 8, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #113: The New Gold

Assuming AI continues along its current trajectory, it will do…

Alex BirkettFebruary 18, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #111: Armchair SEO

There’s something undeniably alluring about playing the armchair quarterback. From…

Alex BirkettFebruary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #110: Boots on the Ground

First, let’s talk about the deleterious effects of architecting an…

Alex BirkettFebruary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #109: SEO Epistemology

This essay is for the nerds who love decision theory,…

Alex BirkettFebruary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #108: When SEO Success Doesn’t Translate to Business Success

We don’t usually work with very early-stage companies. Our ideal…

Alex BirkettFebruary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #107: A Meditation on Attention

It's often said that time is the only truly finite…

Alex BirkettJanuary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #106: Cargo Cult SEO

During World War II, remote Melanesian islanders observed Allied forces…

Alex BirkettJanuary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #105: Wittgenstein’s Attribution Model

Attribution models. If you’re in B2B, you’ve heard of them,…

Alex BirkettJanuary 3, 2025

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #104: The New Frontier of SEO

For a long time, working in organic growth felt a…

Alex BirkettDecember 2, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #102: TOFU is Suffering (Let it Die)

If you’ve been in marketing or SEO for the last…

Alex BirkettDecember 2, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #101: The Halo Effect in Marketing

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we judge marketing…

Alex BirkettDecember 2, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #100: Analysis of Competing Hypotheses

First a definition, and then I’ll get quickly into our…

Alex BirkettDecember 2, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #099: The Ikigai of SEO

Marketers are now in agreement that the “old playbook,” the…

Alex BirkettOctober 29, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #098: How Do You Know What Matters?

In some sense, this essay is exploring epistemological questions, like…

Alex BirkettOctober 29, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #097: Why You Should Choose Harder Problems

Everyone wants the easy win—the quick, low-effort path to success.…

Alex BirkettOctober 29, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #096: The Why Behind Your Growth Programs

I cut my teeth in marketing at CXL.  It’s where…

Alex BirkettOctober 11, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #095: Best Practices in SEO (and When to Ignore Them)

Here’s the punchline: When the stakes are low, best practices…

Alex BirkettOctober 11, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #094: Threshold Effects in Marketing

When I worked on freemium user acquisition at HubSpot, my…

Alex BirkettOctober 11, 2024

Field NotesSEO

Field Notes #093: A Tribute to the Old School

Anyone tired of the breathless “if you’re not doing X,…

Alex BirkettOctober 11, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #092: How to Harvest Demand with SEO

I’m not going to go into the whole “demand creation versus…

Alex BirkettSeptember 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #091: The False Consensus Bias in Marketing

For all the talk about “customer empathy” as a supreme value…

Alex BirkettSeptember 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #090: How We’re Using LinkedIn to Drive Business

We know, theoretically, that organic social is important.  We know…

Alex BirkettSeptember 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #089: The Strategy to Execution Gulf

Several years ago, I embarked on a journey to get…

Alex BirkettSeptember 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #088: Attention is money? No. Money is money.

It struck me the other day that we may now…

Alex BirkettSeptember 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #087: Show them Valhalla – pitching ideas worth investing in

A few different clients have said the same phrase to…

Alex BirkettAugust 5, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #086: Chicken bones in the garbage disposal

When you work with enough clients, you learn that a…

Alex BirkettAugust 5, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #085: The case against keyword difficulty

Any prioritization model built upon keyword difficulty is flawed and…

Alex BirkettAugust 5, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #084: How to Think About SEO Prioritization

Prioritization is the apex artifact bridging strategy and execution.  I’ve…

Alex BirkettJuly 12, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #083: The Cult of Authenticity

Before I come off as a cynic advising you to…

Alex BirkettJune 28, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #082: How to Improve Analytical Skills

This essay, I’ll admit, is almost too broad to tackle. …

Alex BirkettJune 20, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #081: Achieving escape velocity in early stage organic growth

There has been increased skepticism lately that SEO is a…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #080: Content catalogs: the key to scaling governance and optimization

At this point, most marketers and SEOs know the value…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #079: Clarity vs persuasion: when being too clever fails you

If you’re choosing between being clear and being clever, chances…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #078: The lost art of Sprezzatura

“A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #077: The tactical benefits of a low information diet

Ross’s tweet above is great, and it illustrates something I’ve…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #076: Is it a boring channel, or are you a boring marketer?

I admit, I still spend time on X (Twitter).  Since…

Alex BirkettJune 13, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #075: Is SEO Dead?

"The reports of death are greatly exaggerated" - Mark Twain, probably…

Alex BirkettMay 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #074: Content > Algo > User

Content creation without distribution is a lot like the proverbial…

Alex BirkettMay 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #073: My love letter to McDonald’s and effective content operations

Anyone can cook a single meal. But to cook and…

Alex BirkettMay 6, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #072: Prove It! Driving Buy-in for Ambitious Programs

You’re a marketer with big ideas. That’s good. It’s better…

Alex BirkettApril 12, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #071: Get to the Point (Cut the Fluff)

In 2018, I wrote a straightforward guide to email outreach.  One…

Alex BirkettApril 12, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #070: Is Repurposing an Opportunity Cost?

Spend some time on LinkedIn, and you might be convinced…

Alex BirkettApril 12, 2024

Content StrategyField Notes

Field Notes #069: SEOs are product managers

I come from both a marketing and a product management…

David KhimJanuary 31, 2024

Field Notes

Field Notes #65: The Art of Tradeoffs and Commitments

It’s been a busy time at Omniscient. We expected a…

David KhimOctober 13, 2023