André Sampaio

How I think about SEO

Traditional SEO optimises pages for specific keywords. I optimise for the full topic: every question your audience asks, every entity connected to your business, and the content structure that makes it easy for both Google and AI systems to retrieve and cite your pages.

In practice, that means building topical maps instead of keyword lists, covering entities and their attributes thoroughly instead of chasing word count, and structuring content so the most important claims sit where AI actually looks (the first 30% of the page, not buried halfway down).

I also build the systems that make this repeatable. That's content engineering: designing scalable, repeatable content production instead of writing pages one at a time. It includes a Python pipeline I built that maps the semantic entity space for a topic, surfacing the entities, attributes, and relationships a page needs to cover to build topical authority and earn AI citation, and a five-stage content engine that researches, analyses competitor gaps, briefs, writes, and quality-gates pages under enforced factual constraints. It turns content strategy into a data-backed process instead of guesswork. The systems live on the projects page.

This isn't theory I picked up from a thread. I study the primary research: how LLMs select sources, which content signals predict citation across different industries, and where traditional SEO principles carry over to AI search versus where they break down. That research directly shapes every recommendation I make.

I write about these topics regularly. You can read my research and thinking on the Insights hub.

Background

I started in search working as a search quality evaluator for Lionbridge, assessing how search engines surface and rank results. That gave me a foundational understanding of search quality from the evaluation side: what signals matter, what doesn't, and how quality is measured at scale.

From there I moved into hands-on digital marketing, managing SEO and PPC in the travel sector before leading organic growth at Tee Times, a golf travel platform that won Best Golf Tour Operator in Europe for the first time in its 30+ year history during my time there. That engagement produced the documented results in traditional search and AI visibility you can read on the portfolio.

Since then I have delivered AEO/GEO and technical SEO strategy and audit work across very different niches, including a major European bank, a SaaS marketing analytics platform, home services, and tourism operators, with recent audits running on my own tooling.

What I'm looking for

I do my best work on organic growth that compounds. Establishing visibility in AI-generated answers, building topical authority in competitive niches, fixing technical foundations that hold back performance. Whether that's as a freelance engagement or an in-house role.

Open to remote roles (in-house or contract), relocation for the right opportunity, freelance projects, and collaborations.

Get in touch at andre@andrefsampaio.com