Hello and welcome back to The Search Session. I’m Gianluca Fiorelli, and in this episode, I’m joined by Himani Kankaria, a growth marketing strategist from India. We explore her journey from consultancy to agency, the evolution of India’s SEO community, and how content, channels, and AI shape brand growth and visibility.
The central topics of the conversation:
The journey from consultancy to agency: how bandwidth limits and outdated SEO models led to building a scalable team and launching Missive Digital in India.
The rise of India’s SEO community: how early meetups, post-update silence, and COVID-era connection led to a stronger, more inclusive industry.
Common content strategy mistakes in tech and SaaS companies: how an unbalanced focus on either top- or bottom-of-the-funnel content limits performance, and why a KPI-driven, full-funnel approach is essential for organic growth.
Content teams need to unlearn rigid SEO writing rules: how removing outdated SOPs and focusing on audience-centric writing improves engagement and ROI.
The actual results of an omnichannel strategy: how blending SEO, social media, and AI visibility leads to faster sales cycles, better lead quality, and measurable brand growth.
How to guide business leaders on LinkedIn: navigating the challenges of unlearning personal biases, maintaining a professional tone, and aligning content with audience expectations and brand positioning.
How use case–specific content boosts visibility in LLMs and drives leads: why integrating real-world insights strengthens E-E-A-T, brand reputation, and sales beyond Google rankings.
The human edge of AI-assisted SEO: how integrating AI tools and entity-based semantic search strengthens content strategy while keeping human creativity and validation at the center.
Let’s get right into today’s episode.
Video Chapters
Transcript
Gianluca Fiorelli: Hi, I am Gianluca Fiorelli. Welcome back to The Search Session. Today, our guest is coming from India, a country that, well, it’s funny, the relationship the Western SEO world has with. Because on one side, if you think about it, many of the most important people—even CEOs in search engines like Google—come from India.
In the past, we had a wonderful Indian representative for Google Analytics, Avinash Kaushik. But on the other side, there’s still this stereotype about Indians as, let’s say, the ones doing the work in the background of the big agencies and big SEO consultants. And that’s something I really don’t like.
So, I wanted to invite one of the best representatives of the Indian SEO world, a wonderful person with a lot of knowledge. She’s the founder of Missive Digital, an SEO—well, more broadly, a growth marketing agency—that specializes in content strategy consulting. The agency also does coaching with content teams and works primarily with tech and SaaS companies. This person is Himani Kankaria. How are you doing?
Himani Kankaria: Yay! I'm doing good. How are you?
Gianluca Fiorelli: I'm fine, I'm fine. Today—the day we're recording this episode—is the 10th of December, and I just had a little break, a little vacation, going back to Rome. It was nice. I'm rested and getting ready for Christmas time, which is going to be crazy.
Himani Kankaria: Oh, nice.
Gianluca Fiorelli: What about you?
Himani Kankaria: I just finished a holiday, and now I’m just wrapping things up so I can also enjoy my Christmas time.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Okay, perfect. Maybe at the end of our conversation, I’ll ask you how Christmas is in India. But first, a classic question, a big one. We always start the conversation this way: how is SEO treating you lately, with all the craziness?
Himani Kankaria: Okay, so in that case, I would relate it to Ferrari World, because I just went there, and, you know, all the rides... I feel it’s the same feeling. Like sitting on a roller coaster, you’re going left, right, and center, and you don’t even know where you’re headed.
But there’s one feeling that stands out: at least the noise will be cut out, right? The processes and the practices we've been following—the ones that have been working and the ones that are authentic—they're going to continue. And because of that, the noise or the chaos in the industry—all those practices that never really worked—they’ll be wiped out straight away.
So that’s the good part, I would say. But yes, it’s a learning curve. We have to adapt to different platforms; we have to adapt to all the new features that are coming up. But the foundation of SEO, that’s not changing. It’s still the same. And that’s something we’re really happy about.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes. The common denominator of everything over these past twelve months has been confusion, in many cases. But I mean, that confusion is maybe created by too many people, too many non-experts, talking about everything.
And when you dig a little deeper, especially in the case of certain people I call the AI bros, people who’ve never actually done SEO, you start to wonder, why are they even talking about SEO if they’ve never done it? But anyway, let’s shift gears and talk about you.
How a Solo Consultant Ended Up Building an Agency
Gianluca Fiorelli: Okay, Missive Digital, it’s already been almost eight years since you’ve been running the agency. So, my question—maybe also in the context of my introduction—is how you decided to move from consultancy or working with other entities to creating your own agency? And how hard is that in a country like India? Is it harder than in other parts of the world?
Himani Kankaria: Right. So, you know, to start with—after seven years of my journey—I moved into consulting. When you're a consultant, you are the face of the organization, right? You’re the one dealing with all the strategies. You go out, you hire other agencies, you hire teams, you manage them, and everything.
Being a consultant, you face bandwidth issues. You don’t feel like you can scale after a certain point or after handling a certain number of clients.
And then COVID happened. And we had the agency before that, but we hadn’t named it. We had a small team—not a big team or anything like that—just a few freelancers or so. But officially, Missive came into existence when we actually coined the brand name.
So it was during COVID that a lot of our customers, who used to tease me and play pranks, saying things like, “Himani, let it be, you won’t be able to find a team you really want to work with”. Because at that time in India, we used to see agencies selling these keyword packages—like 10 keywords per month, 15, 20, or 40 keywords per month kind of deals, right?
So it was getting difficult for me to find and build the right team—a team that could really justify the effort we were putting in, the ROI we wanted to achieve, the business metrics, and the conversions. I mean, you can’t just target 10 or 15 keywords and forget about the 500 or 1,000 queries that actually need to be focused on to get the real business outcomes, right?
And since I wasn’t able to find that, and I was struggling with bandwidth issues as well, one time, sitting with my husband, he was like, “Why don’t you build a team?”
And since he comes from a business background, running a traditional trading business, he had that business mindset. He pushed me into it. So we sat down, we discussed the entire model, and I helped him understand how the industry works, how I’ve been consulting clients.
And then we decided, okay, let’s make this official and roll it out. That’s how I — together with my husband—started Missive Digital. And that’s how it came into the picture.
How India’s SEO Community Found Its Voice Again
Gianluca Fiorelli: Cool, cool. And, well, India is a booming market, a booming country. I mean, despite all the contradictions, any fast-growing country may have.
But how did you see the evolution of the SEO community in India? It was maybe huge, enormous even, but perhaps not very organized. Now it seems to be starting to look more like a classic SEO community, with meetups, conferences, and so on. How would you describe the SEO community in India today?
Himani Kankaria: So I would say, when I started, when I entered this industry 15 years ago, that was a time when a lot of meetups used to happen. Of course, they weren’t just limited to SEO. They used to cover overall digital marketing topics. And I used to attend those meetups. There were Twitter meetups, social media meetups, digital marketing ones, SEO-specific ones, things like that.
But then, there came a period of complete silence, I think from the Panda or Penguin updates. Things were a little silent for a couple of years. And then, from around 2016 or 2017, we started seeing that hype coming back, people coming together again.
There was this one event, not a meetup, but a conference, that SEMrush did in 2019 in Bangalore. That was a very crucial moment when the entire SEO community from all over India came together in massive numbers. And that’s when people really started getting to know each other more.
So that started, and I think COVID actually did some magic in terms of the number of online conferences and online meetups that started happening. A lot of people began showing up, sharing knowledge, and getting to know one another.
Now, the community is much stronger. People stick together, they help each other, they support each other. And I’d also like to highlight the women in the community—there are so many women SEOs now who are coming out, helping each other, and are really eager to build this entire community and take it to the next level as well. I even had a word with Areej AbuAli about having the Women in Tech SEO in India. So yes, I mean, now it’s really getting warmer and stronger.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Cool, cool. Good to know. Yes, I remember that event. I remember the Bangalore event because I tried talking with Fernando Angulo from Semrush, who was behind organizing that event too. I tried to jump in, but I wasn’t lucky.
But yes, I remember when it happened. And yes, quite a few years have already passed. I remember, as someone who attended MozCon regularly for many years, I started to see people coming from India to attend, coming to MozCon, coming to European conferences when they could, and so on.
Because yes, it’s a huge community, and not just because of the statistical numbers. It’s the most populated country in the world, so statistically, maybe the biggest number of SEOs are in India. But it’s like a classic community that, strangely, you don’t have a language problem—unlike, say, the Spanish community, or Italian, or French, or other countries in Europe might have. It’s somehow a sort of… how do you call it? It’s not coming to my mind—this thing where you’re good, but you don’t think you’re good enough. What is that called again? When you’re good but afraid to show it because you don’t believe in yourself? This kind of syndrome.
Himani Kankaria: The imposter syndrome?
Gianluca Fiorelli: Imposter syndrome, yes. I feel like many in the Indian SEO community might experience it. Even the really good ones. And it’s nice to see that now it’s changing. Like, “Okay, we are as good as anyone else.” As good as someone in, I don’t know, in Arkansas or in London or wherever.
It's really good. But the more diversity we have in the community, the better, because then we can share and discover things from experiences in other countries, things that maybe we can also implement and test in our own.
Himani Kankaria: Right. And there are a lot of conferences that have happened, even just this year. If I talk about the entire 2025, right? We had the India Conference in January, the SaaS SEO Alliance in September, and the AMAZE Conference in October. So now, there’s this diversity, and we talk about the fact that everything is becoming more inclusive.
Why Most SaaS Content Strategies Don’t Actually Work
Gianluca Fiorelli: Cool. Perfect. And so Missive Digital has decided to go with a very, very specific niche—which is not a small niche, but it’s a growing one—tech and SaaS.
And as I was saying, you're also focusing—even though you surely touch all the verticals of SEO—you're really specialized in everything content and SEO. I imagine that includes content and AI search.
What would you say is the classic mistake you see tech and SaaS companies make when it comes to content? And what, instead, is the type of content that tends to work best?
I know it’s a very generic question, because depending on the company, it could be one type of content or another. But, if you had to find some common denominator in this type of industry, what would it be? What’s the classic mistake, and what’s usually the best-performing content for these companies?
Himani Kankaria: Right. So, you know, the biggest, let’s say, concern that we always see when we onboard any SaaS or tech company... I’d like to bifurcate them here: when we say SaaS, it’s pure SaaS companies, and when we say tech, we also include IT companies and other tech service agencies.
So, when it comes to SaaS, the biggest concern we see is that, even from day one, even if they’re investing in SEO, their content strategy is mostly focused on bottom-of-the-funnel content. Well, that’s not incorrect. I would say, of course, we should have bottom-of-the-funnel content, but I think it should also be balanced with top-of-the-funnel and middle-of-the-funnel content as well.
And when I say top-of-the-funnel, I’m not talking about the very top, like just talking about “what,” “why,” benefits, and all of those things, but rather, you know, there are many things that an ideal customer profile would want to know about. That’s the first step, where they would be able to see that you exist.
Then it moves to the middle-funnel content, and then it goes to the bottom-of-the-funnel content. But that balance is almost negligible when we onboard them. I mean, of course, customer acquisition is the ultimate KPI. But then, you know, you have to do so much performance marketing just to make sure your bottom-of-the-funnel content is in front of them.
But to bring in organic traffic—Google traffic, AI traffic—it has to be a mix of all kinds of content. You have to make sure it’s all present.
Coming to tech companies, the biggest issue we see is the reverse. They have too much of that very, very top-of-the-funnel content.
If I talk about, for example, one IT company, they might write about why Flutter is important for apps or why someone should use Python for an AI project. I mean, these are very basic pieces of information—now, even AI answers that, right?
So rather than focusing on such very, very top-of-the-funnel content or basic queries, it’s really important to pick up the use cases—the ones your sales team has been talking about, the ones your product team or service team is focusing on. How they’re serving clients, how your product team is building products for other companies—that kind of storytelling needs to come out. And that applies whether you’re writing top-of-the-funnel, middle-of-the-funnel, or bottom-of-the-funnel content.
So these are the two separate patterns we see in both industries. And if I have to mention what the best approach is—of course, best is too subjective—but one thing both can definitely do is balance it out.
Depending on the KPIs you’ve defined—like, say, a certain level of organic traffic, a specific number of conversions, or the MQLs you’re aiming to generate—and based on all of these KPIs, we need to build the content for both of them, whether it’s tech companies or whether it’s a SaaS company. That’s how the balance needs to be maintained, so that not just one channel is performing while the rest are ignored. It shouldn’t happen that way.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Indeed, indeed. Because sometimes, the concept is correct—and, you know, the whole product-led SEO approach is totally fine, it’s totally correct, especially in this last case with tech companies.
But sometimes, maybe you see that because people are seeing that AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and so on are substantially covering a big part of the informational sphere, so the top-of-the-funnel.
But then we forget that E-E-A-T also means you have to show your expertise. And you cannot really show your expertise—or your experience—just through top-of-the-funnel content. That kind of experience usually comes in the middle or bottom of the funnel, using your terminology.
That’s where you present case studies, where you explain how you solved a specific problem with your own internal examples or studies that you did. And then you also have to show that you are authoritative. So, instead of writing about why you have to use Python for programming, you could write about how Python is evolving, or rather, about the evolution and implementation of Python, and so on. All this kind of content that can’t be easily replaced by AI, maybe?
Himani Kankaria: Exactly.
Gianluca Fiorelli: So it becomes citable, mentionable, and so on. And this kind of content is still substantially top-of-the-funnel, because it’s not necessarily something that brings you immediate leads, but it helps build your authority. And I mean, we’ve been talking a lot about visibility over the last 12 months.
Himani Kankaria: Oh, yes.
Gianluca Fiorelli: But if you're not visible in the beginning and only start to become visible later on, maybe another competitor has already been visible throughout the search journey. So, who is the person going to choose? The one who just pops in at the very end, or someone who's been consistently visible and maybe even visited the website in a previous step.
So I don’t know, I just find it logical. And I don’t understand why so many are trying to forget informational content and so on. I think it’s silly. I’m containing myself and not saying anything worse. You also said that, with the agency, you do a lot of coaching for content teams?
Himani Kankaria: Yes.
What Happens When You Stop Writing for Old SEO Rules
Gianluca Fiorelli: I sometimes do that as a consultant too, especially when I collaborate with companies that have, let’s say, a dedicated in-house content team. And I don’t know if you agree with me, but sometimes, more than teaching them new things, it’s more like—I’m inventing a word here—unteaching them things they already know or think they know about how to write for the web. Is it the same for you?
Himani Kankaria: Yes, exactly. I mean, we have to make them unlearn the things they’ve been following. They have these stringent SOPs to follow, like, “You need to have this many queries in the content, you need to have only a certain length of paragraphs, and you need to stick to some word count.”
I mean, there are so many such restrictions given to the writers, and it's like they are completely out of their zone of being a writer. They’ve almost forgotten how to naturally write content because they have to keep so many things in mind. And when you're restricted, when you’re not allowed to experiment, when there are limitations on research, and when there are restrictions on bringing in value, then of course, no matter how much content you create or how much effort you put in as the SEO team, it will lead nowhere, right?
So, we literally have to scrap all the SOPs they’ve been given. We have to go back to the basics and forget about the queries. As a writer, you don’t need to worry about the queries. You need to worry about the audience. Think about one single ideal customer profile when you’re writing.
Because if you’re talking to that one person, you’ll be able to create a conversation, not just paste together words from AI tools. Because that doesn’t build a connection, that doesn’t create engagement between the reader and the content. And that leads to no ROI.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes, yes, completely. And usually, it’s the poor writers. Because at the end of the day, it’s not even their fault. They’re being commanded from someone above to do things a certain way, and then, when the results don’t turn out as expected, suddenly they’re guilty because they didn’t do that. But it’s like, “You told me to do this.”
What Omnichannel Really Does for Your Sales Pipeline
Gianluca Fiorelli: You, as an agency, use Instagram quite a lot, too. So I wanted to know, how much has this integration between content on the website, let’s say classic content focused on positioning yourself for classic SEO, and the synergy with other channels, like social media, YouTube, and so on, increased in your overall strategy?
And what kind of results have you seen? Because maybe, with some numbers, we can help our listeners understand why omnichannel is so important now.
Himani Kankaria: Right, that’s right. So, I think for the past one and a half years, we’ve started integrating social media, and specifically because we’re focusing on B2B, SaaS, and tech companies, LinkedIn and X really matter a lot.
Instagram matters too, but more for pulling in and attracting talent. But we’ve been heavily focused on X and LinkedIn. And especially for LinkedIn, we’ve been integrating it into our strategy for the last one and a half years.
And to be very honest, if I have to mention the metrics or I would say the KPIs, that we’ve seen happening, the first one is that we’ve started focusing on the personal brand of the founders or the top management as well. So what’s happening is that the brand is becoming credibly visible. The moment a conversation is happening with a founder or a member of the sales team, the person on the other side is able to quickly recognize, “Okay, this is the brand we’re talking to. This is the company we’re engaging with.”
So the trust-building has already started, and the conversion rates of the sales team have increased massively. I would say, for one of our clients we’ve been working with for more than two years now, they’ve seen at least a 12% increase in conversion when their sales team talks to them on a month-on-month basis.
I’m talking about the ratio they’re seeing, the difference, right? It’s a 12% increase in the speed at which conversions happen. So that’s something we’ve observed.
When it comes to LinkedIn, of course, LinkedIn and other types of content we create, like white papers and everything, the sales teams have been running campaigns on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, they’ve been pushing out white papers there, and we’ve seen the response rate is better than with their previous outreach efforts.
Because here, they’re not doing a direct sales speech; instead, they’re able to do a better demand generation kind of activity. And we’ve seen at least 1.2x better results compared to what they used to get previously.
And then, of course, there’s brand reputation. When someone wants to integrate with a B2B SaaS or tech company, the sales cycle is not quick. Unlike SaaS products, where someone might just sign up for a free trial, test it, and then decide whether to buy or not.
But when it comes to the service industry, the buying cycle is long, right? So in that case, when the brand reputation is already built—you are visible in AI, you are visible on Google, you are visible on LinkedIn, everywhere—then imagine the kind of people and conversations that start happening.
And brand mentions have drastically improved in LLMs, which has built up the brand reputation, and that is directly helping them get conversions from pages that are not even ranking on Google.
We published a couple of content pieces—let’s say, three months ago—and in just one month, or even 18 days, I would say, we were able to see conversions happening from ChatGPT, from the targeted country. Very niche and very qualitative leads, right?
So brand reputation is building up really fast and performing better, and I think it’s even performing better than what Google used to deliver before.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes, that’s something I’ve noticed too, especially in the B2B market. And it’s extremely important.
Helping Business Leaders Sound Human on LinkedIn
Gianluca Fiorelli: And since we were talking earlier about unteaching content teams, sometimes—I’m sure this happened to you as well—you end up unteaching businessmen, or even CEOs, how to use, for instance, LinkedIn the wrong way.
Because one aspect of LLMs that sometimes gets mentioned—but not as much as I’d like—is that LLMs are basically the ultimate online reputation management vertical. Because what we want to see in the results is how a brand is cited and mentioned as a brand, but also in relation to their services, their topics, and so on. Because LLMs pick up from everywhere.
And maybe a too-vocal CEO—someone who’s not able to properly manage emotion or reactions on social media—can cause huge damage. A classic case is Elon Musk, for instance. But there are also many smaller “Elon Musks” who can completely destroy what a brand is trying to build in terms of trust and credibility. Especially when they start using platforms like LinkedIn as if they were political arenas.
So I’m sure you’ve had to do this kind of coaching too, right? And how do you handle that kind of coaching?
Because one thing is when you’re working with a team of people who really want to learn. But sometimes, how do you teach these things to someone who’s a VP, a CEO, or a founder—someone who usually already has a strong belief about what works for me? How do you get them to unlearn and learn what not to do?
Himani Kankaria: Right. So, here also, there are two scenarios.
A: There are larger companies where they don’t manage their own LinkedIn, their content teams or social media teams handle it. So in those cases, the challenge is a little less, because you're already training the team for other types of content as well. It becomes easier to guide them, to say, “This is how your communication needs to be. You have to think like a founder, you have to think like a VP,” and so on.
B: When it comes to teaching CEOs, CTOs, CXOs, VPs, and others directly, what happens is that sometimes they just come up with ideas like, “We need to push this.” And if we hesitate at first, they’ll say, “No, no, that founder posted it; we can also post it.” And I’ll say, “Okay, let’s try.” And when we try, we see that it hasn’t performed well, right? So that’s when we show them the results: “Look, this is what happened. And this is how your other post performed better.”
Usually, with a couple of clients who’ve come to us just for LinkedIn marketing, we’ve had to make them understand that you can’t go and post that you’re exploring Bali or Dubai. No, you can’t write that. LinkedIn is a very professional network. There has to be a certain level of depth, a connection, or some value that the audience gets for the time they’ve invested in reading your post. So, you have to understand who is reading, why they are coming to you, and why they are reading your posts. You have to curate content accordingly. It’s not about what we want to put out for our audience; it’s all about what the audience wants to know from us. How they see you. How you want to be positioned.
Like, for a couple of CEOs, we’ve defined that these people need to be showcased as authorities in the industry. And based on that, your content should reflect that positioning. You can’t always just educate, and you can’t always only influence; there has to be a mix of everything. You also need to motivate your team and sometimes set industry standards.
Similarly, there are some founders who aren’t very comfortable with the English language, right? So in that case, you have to create content that is minimal, because otherwise, people won’t feel like they’re hearing from the same person they’ve met, whether online or offline.
You have to bring that balance, and you have to help them understand, either with your data or with your experience, that this is how it is.
Why Use-Case Content Wins in the Age of LLMs
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes, and talking again about content, I saw that you, as an agency, but also you personally, always talk about data-driven and research-oriented content. That kind of content we were also discussing earlier.
So what kind of impact have you seen, apart from classic rankings and standard search visibility? How much is this type of strategy impacting visibility in LLMs? And why? If you have a hypothesis, I’m sure you do. And what kind of approach do you take when designing a content strategy?
Himani Kankaria: I would say, and I really want to highlight this, something I already mentioned earlier when talking about the type of content: use case–specific content.
So whether we’re creating top-of-the-funnel content, middle-of-the-funnel content, bottom-of-the-funnel content, or even any type of media content, we’ve heavily focused on adding a use case to every section that we create, right?
Like, say for example, we work with one of the IT companies that is already a leader in their space. But in this case, we’re still building on their brand reputation and brand credibility, and also improving the value and the depth that their content team is creating.
So in that case, when you’re already an established player, and you're looking to build brand reputation, you have to showcase what you’ve already done, right? As you mentioned, E-E-A-T aspects need to be present in the content. And that comes from your experience, authority, and experts.
So that’s exactly what we’ve incorporated into all of our content. Whether we’re creating a blog, a case study, a white paper, or anything else, we make sure that real-life insights and real project inputs are always included in the content.
So that, you know, the E-E-A-T aspect is also taken care of. And also, such things have helped us generate leads as well. Whether it’s MQLs or SQLs, we’ve been able to stay visible in LLMs, and we’ve seen really great results. Even when the content isn’t ranking on Google, it’s still helping us drive sales.
So, use case–specific content has been working really well for most of our clients now.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Cool, cool, cool. Yes, also because, if we go more into the specifics of semantic search, that kind of content is a very good way to connect different identities that are still related within a topic, etc., etc.
And obviously, this should ideally also be done with the client of a case study, so if we’re talking about an IT company, their client should be part of the conversation too.
Not just saying, “We worked with an IT company,” blah blah blah—but ideally, supporting it with a testimonial in your case study. Or even if it’s not on your website, maybe it’s through a LinkedIn post from the client’s company.
Something like, “We recently worked with this IT company and did this, this, this…”—not just a bland recommendation, but more like a LinkedIn-native version of a case study, coming from the client’s side, not just from the IT company. That would be interesting to really make the match.
And I’ve found, especially with iTech, that it’s really interesting to create these kinds of data-informed, data-driven content that really pushes out your expertise in something. Maybe it’s, as I was saying, how Python has started to be introduced, or what new techniques are going to be adopted, or even a list of new traits in cybersecurity, or something like this.
But making something that is regularly returning, the recurrence of the content is really important to establish a sort of custom, where all the journalists return to your content to see if things have been updated, and so on.
And instead, when it comes to software as a service, what we’ve been seeing… A classic case for me, especially in SaaS—and even in iTech but B2B—is that the best content is either in a PDF or, in the case of SaaS companies, it’s buried somewhere in a developer or help subdomain.
So how do you, or how are you eventually, repurpose those hidden gems that are stuck in subdomains and bring them into the main communication on the main website?
Himani Kankaria: Right. So… you can complete it.
Gianluca Fiorelli: No, I’m finished. I’m just curious to know, first, how do you convince them that something super specific—maybe in a help page—can actually be reused for, let’s say, a specific FAQ page on the main website?
Because sometimes, I’ve seen these kinds of companies with a subdomain ranking better than the main domain. But the problem is that those subdomains, like developer or help, are not meant for conversion. So the potential conversions are lost; they just disappear because there’s no conversion funnel in those subdomains. So instead of creating new content, how do you repurpose that kind of content?
Himani Kankaria: So, these are the types of content that, most of the time, don’t have larger search volumes. If they have help documents, yes, they definitely have higher search volume queries.
But if we have to choose between both of them to decide which page ranks, what we usually do is add it in the introduction of the content, or we try to dedicate a section where we literally add the data or information that was originally included in the help page, and we bring that data into the blog or main content. That’s one way we do it.
Another way is that we curate an entirely new topic based on what we’ve written in the help document. And we do that specifically to be visible in LLMs as well. Because, as I mentioned earlier, for the use case–specific content in that case, we identify which type of content matches which ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and what that ICP would actually need to know when they land on that help document, right?
So, based on that analysis—and also discussions with the sales team and product team—we try to incorporate that information into separate, different types of blogs. These might appear in different places.
For example, we’ve used content in comparison blogs, like HubSpot vs. Salesforce. In those, we include sections that say, “This is what we’ve seen in the help document for HubSpot, and this is what’s mentioned in the help documentation for Salesforce.” So, we try to connect that information too. And there are different types of content, and in some cases, we also source them.
Gianluca Fiorelli: And now, the one million dollar question. We always know, because Google is a genius at this kind of vague definition, that “you have to write quality content.” So, with 15 years of experience, and considering how things have evolved over those 15 years, did you understand what Google really means by quality content?
And now that other players have entered the space, what is the quality content that really pays?
Himani Kankaria: Right. So I would say, I don’t know what Google exactly considers as quality content, but what I understand as quality content is this: when you are able to justify and answer the query that the user had, when they searched for something. If that purpose is solved, then it’s quality.
Because, you know, just updating and optimizing content or just being visible on page one doesn’t automatically justify the quality of the content. If someone is searching for it, and they land on the page; if they’re able to engage with your content; if they’re scrolling more on your page; if the scroll depth is better; if engagement is visible through heatmaps; if user recordings show different types of interaction happening on your page and then they take any kind of action—that is where the user satisfaction level is measured. And that’s what I consider quality content, even if it’s just one visitor or 10 million visitors.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Indeed, indeed. And talking about AI, how much are you integrating the concept of entities and semantic search in your agency’s work? And how much are you using AI tools, and how do you use them—from the classic API of Gemini to using ChatGPT as a coworker, and so on?
How are you dealing with AI as a tool, but also with the semantics in the background, like entity search and entity connection, which are becoming so important right now? How do you use them? And how do you still put the human in the loop, which is maybe the most important thing?
Himani Kankaria: You know, even this morning, I was talking to one of the teams, and I literally told them this line, “The thought process should always be yours, because that is something that LLMs or any AI tools cannot generate on their own.”
So the thought process should always come from us humans; we should be the ones giving it, and then they should just execute it. You can also ask them to research something for you, and you can ask them to create something for you, but the art—the real art—always comes from the imagination or the thought process of the person creating it. And that’s where humans should always be present: to give that thought process and also to validate whether the art or the output you expected from the LLMs has actually been created or not. So that’s how we use LLMs and other AI tools.
When it comes to entity search and semantics and all of those things, I think it’s pretty much the same as what we use for classic and traditional SEO, where we focus on building the brand entity to improve brand visibility. And we curate all the content, the website architecture, and everything else around that same principle. So that has not changed majorly.
Beyond the Bio: Himani Kankaria
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes, indeed. So let’s talk a little bit about you. You live in Ahmedabad—I don’t know if I'm pronouncing it well?
Himani Kankaria: Yes, Ahmedabad.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yay! So, you’re not just an agency founder; you’re, let’s say, the ambassador of your city. And you have to invite people like me and from other countries. What do you really love about your city?
Himani Kankaria: Food. We have amazing food and so many varieties. There are so many dishes that people actually take from here to their cities and countries. You might have heard about Khakhra, Dhokla, and Khaman, and this is winter going on, so we eat Undhiyu over here, which is a well-known dish in winters. So, we have that. And of course, we have beautiful hearts.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Okay. And when we met in Barcelona, I remember that you were talking about hoping to travel more. You already spoke, for instance, at BrightonSEO, if I’m not wrong, and now in November, you spoke at the International Search Summit. So if you had to dream, where would you like to speak?
Himani Kankaria: Next?
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes.
Himani Kankaria: MozCon.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Ah! Which one, London or New York?
Himani Kankaria: New York.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Oh, that’s good, that’s good. I assure you—I spoke at MozCon when it was still in Seattle.
Himani Kankaria: Wow.
Gianluca Fiorelli: And I mean, it was bigger than the last edition. Classic, old-school MozCon. And it’s quite impressive. One, because it’s MozCon, so it’s the mother of all the big conferences. And two, because the number of people was incredible.
But let’s talk about just one last question. What were your fears when you were going to speak in front of an audience that’s not your comfort zone? Because obviously, and rightly, you’re super respected in the Indian SEO community. You’re also well known in the global community.
But when you go beyond your comfort zone—your country, your familiar peers, the people you usually talk with—what were your fears stepping into that space? Jumping into a pool of people you may know virtually but have never met in person?
Himani Kankaria: Yes.
Gianluca Fiorelli: And how you've overcome it, maybe. Because this is the kind of suggestion and personal experience that can really help push others, people from India or from other countries, who usually feel this impostor syndrome, to start, to jump the shark.
Himani Kankaria: Right, that’s right. I mean, even I had the same, you know, first fear, like, “Am I going to deliver something that they actually want to know? Am I just going to say the same things they already know? How am I going to sound? Am I going to sound like a beginner? Will people even understand what I’m saying? Will they be able to connect with me? Will my talk be able to give them any kind of new thing to learn?” So all of those fears that everyone usually has, I had them too.
And, you know, those tickling feelings in the stomach and everything. But to be very honest, more than me, the best thing that’s always happened is the audience. You know, the audience has always supported everyone who stands on stage with that cheer, that loud welcome, so that I never felt like I’m not going and talking in a place or on a stage that’s outside my comfort zone.
The entire audience made me feel so comfortable that I’ve never, ever felt like I’m coming from India, or that I’m not, you know, like, known to anyone. All those fears, they just go away when you see that people are very, very welcoming. They’re with you, they cheer for you, and they root for you.
I still remember when Bengaluru whistled when I was climbing that stage to speak at the International Search Summit. To be very honest, for me, that moment changed my entire energy to deliver that session. So those things have really helped me. The Indian community has always supported me, all my friends, you know, Parth Suba, Malhar Barai, Manish Chauhan. There are so many people in the SEO community: Amit Gupta, Jaydip Parikh, and many others who have always helped me, cheered for me, and encouraged me to deliver sessions.
I still remember when I first did my SEMrush webinar, SEMrush conference, and something like that. It’s all because of the audience and the community that keeps supporting you. You just have to go out and share the knowledge that you have, because our SEO community, the entire global SEO community, is very welcoming, very nice, and very helpful. So, all those fears will always be there. But then you have people who will always be there for you.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes. Always, always. We are a strong community, very opinionated, because I’ve never seen as many polemics in other communities like in SEO. But usually, we are very respectful of one another. And yes, it's a very supportive community.
Himani, it was a great pleasure to have you as a guest—mine and Advanced Web Ranking’s—here on The Search Session. I really hope to have another opportunity in the future. Let’s see what happens in between.
Himani Kankaria: Yes, absolutely. It was a real pleasure to be here, get to know you, and learn from you. So that is the biggest, you know, pleasure that I have.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Don't make me blush.
Himani Kankaria: But you look cool in pink—blushing.
Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes. Okay, so thank you to all of you who have been listening to this episode with Himani Kankaria. And remember—this is my influencer moment—to hit the bell and subscribe to the channel. And see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.
Podcast Host
Gianluca Fiorelli
With almost 20 years of experience in web marketing, Gianluca Fiorelli is a Strategic and International SEO Consultant who helps businesses improve their visibility and performance on organic search. Gianluca collaborated with clients from various industries and regions, such as Glassdoor, Idealista, Rastreator.com, Outsystems, Chess.com, SIXT Ride, Vegetables by Bayer, Visit California, Gamepix, James Edition and many others.
A very active member of the SEO community, Gianluca daily shares his insights and best practices on SEO, content, Search marketing strategy and the evolution of Search on social media channels such as X, Bluesky and LinkedIn and through the blog on his website: IloveSEO.net.
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