Dawn Anderson is the founder and principle consultant at digital marketing and international SEO consultancy agency, BerteyShe is also an international conference speaker on search and web strategy (UK, US, AUS, IT), and organic search marketing trainer. https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando 2025-06-16 05:35:05 -0400 As generative AI reshapes how users discover information, many assume traditional search principles are obsolete. This talk argues the opposite. From ranking and relevance to retrieval pipelines and evaluation, modern AI Search systems are built on decades of information retrieval research. Attendees will learn how foundational IR concepts quietly underpin LLM-powered search experiences—and why understanding them is essential for building, optimising, and auditing AI-driven discovery systems. As generative AI reshapes how users discover information, many assume traditional search principles are obsolete. This talk argues the opposite. From ranking and relevance to retrieval pipelines and evaluation, modern AI Search systems are built on decades of information retrieval research. Attendees will learn how foundational IR concepts quietly underpin LLM-powered search experiences—and why understanding them is essential for building, optimising, and auditing AI-driven discovery systems. Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/everything-old-is-new-again-why-information-retrieval-still-powers-ai-search https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/everything-old-is-new-again-why-information-retrieval-still-powers-ai-search The industry has spent the last year obsessing over model parameters and prompt engineering, yet the biggest point of failure in Generative AI remains the one thing SEOs know best: Information Retrieval. In this session, we peel back the magic of AI to reveal the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture that actually powers it. We will demonstrate why an LLM is only as smart as the data it can successfully pull from an index. When AI fails to answer correctly, it’s rarely a "hallucination" problem—it’s usually a structure, freshness, or relevance problem. Attendees will move beyond the AI hype to understand the mechanical reality of how content is processed, chunked, and surfaced. We’ll discuss why the future of visibility isn't about gaming an algorithm, but about building a technical foundation that makes your content impossible for an AI to miss. Key Takeaways: The RAG Reality Check: Why retrieval is the unsung hero (and single point of failure) of the AI era. SEO’s New Mandate: Shifting focus from Ranking #1 to Contextual Retrievability. The Architecture of Knowledge: How document hierarchy and metadata now serve as the primary map for AI models. The industry has spent the last year obsessing over model parameters and prompt engineering, yet the biggest point of failure in Generative AI remains the one thing SEOs know best: Information Retrieval. In this session, we peel back the magic of AI to reveal the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture that actually powers it. We will demonstrate why an LLM is only as smart as the data it can successfully pull from an index. When AI fails to answer correctly, it’s rarely a "hallucination" problem—it’s usually a structure, freshness, or relevance problem. Attendees will move beyond the AI hype to understand the mechanical reality of how content is processed, chunked, and surfaced. We’ll discuss why the future of visibility isn't about gaming an algorithm, but about building a technical foundation that makes your content impossible for an AI to miss. Key Takeaways: The RAG Reality Check: Why retrieval is the unsung hero (and single point of failure) of the AI era. SEO’s New Mandate: Shifting focus from Ranking #1 to Contextual Retrievability. The Architecture of Knowledge: How document hierarchy and metadata now serve as the primary map for AI models. Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/the-retrieval-bottleneck-why-your-ai-strategy-is-still-a-search-strategy https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/the-retrieval-bottleneck-why-your-ai-strategy-is-still-a-search-strategy The birth of Generative Information Retrieval was 2023, so we're only a couple of years into the biggest paradigm shift the search world has experienced. Inevitably there's much confusion, mysticism and mythology filling the void of accurate understanding. In this talk you'll learn some of the common jargon - what really matters and what is simply noise (and even perhaps spam which might lead you into hot water). From chunking to vector databases and llms.txt. The birth of Generative Information Retrieval was 2023, so we're only a couple of years into the biggest paradigm shift the search world has experienced. Inevitably there's much confusion, mysticism and mythology filling the void of accurate understanding. In this talk you'll learn some of the common jargon - what really matters and what is simply noise (and even perhaps spam which might lead you into hot water). From chunking to vector databases and llms.txt. Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/debunking-and-demystifying-generative-information-retrieval https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/debunking-and-demystifying-generative-information-retrieval In this talk, we explore why Large Language Models depend entirely on retrieval systems to produce grounded answers, and how Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines reintroduce classic search problems under a new name. From document structure and chunking to relevance, freshness, and evaluation, the same decisions SEOs have always influenced now directly affect what AI systems “know.” In this talk, we explore why Large Language Models depend entirely on retrieval systems to produce grounded answers, and how Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines reintroduce classic search problems under a new name. From document structure and chunking to relevance, freshness, and evaluation, the same decisions SEOs have always influenced now directly affect what AI systems “know.” Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/you-cant-generate-what-you-cant-retrieve https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/you-cant-generate-what-you-cant-retrieve Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/snapshots-from-8-years-as-an-seo-information-retrieval-interloping https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/snapshots-from-8-years-as-an-seo-information-retrieval-interloping Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/merseysearch-welcome-to-the-generative-information-retrieval-era-and-what-it-means-for-seo https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/merseysearch-welcome-to-the-generative-information-retrieval-era-and-what-it-means-for-seo Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/from-search-rankings-to-answer-synthesis-how-to-weather-the-ai-storm https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/from-search-rankings-to-answer-synthesis-how-to-weather-the-ai-storm Dawn Anderson' talk from SEO Week in New York April 2025. SEO has long been considered in many ways adversarial to information retrieval but has evolved over the years into a valuable force for good, particularly in this modern age of generative information retrieval, whereby all sides of search are navigating challenging times and a huge paradigm shift. Here I talk about the value add that SEO brings to bridge the gaps between information retrieval and industry, developers, generic in-house marketeers and more and the opportunity available to us as well all move forward. Dawn Anderson' talk from SEO Week in New York April 2025. SEO has long been considered in many ways adversarial to information retrieval but has evolved over the years into a valuable force for good, particularly in this modern age of generative information retrieval, whereby all sides of search are navigating challenging times and a huge paradigm shift. Here I talk about the value add that SEO brings to bridge the gaps between information retrieval and industry, developers, generic in-house marketeers and more and the opportunity available to us as well all move forward. Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/heros-not-villains-modern-seo-in-the-generative-ir-era https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/heros-not-villains-modern-seo-in-the-generative-ir-era Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/google-bert-smx-london-what-seos-need-to-know https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/google-bert-smx-london-what-seos-need-to-know Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/life-of-an-seo-surfing-the-waves-of-googles-many-algorithmic-updates https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/life-of-an-seo-surfing-the-waves-of-googles-many-algorithmic-updates Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/humans-vs-ai-quality-raters-for-search-engines https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/humans-vs-ai-quality-raters-for-search-engines Originally presented by Dawn Anderson at Brighton SEO in April 2016 Why you should take care of crawls (Intelligent use of crawl allocation (budget)). Investigating 'crawl budget', 'crawl rank', 'crawl tank' and 'crawl scheduling by Search Engines' Originally presented by Dawn Anderson at Brighton SEO in April 2016 Why you should take care of crawls (Intelligent use of crawl allocation (budget)). Investigating 'crawl budget', 'crawl rank', 'crawl tank' and 'crawl scheduling by Search Engines' Fri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/seo-crawl-rank-and-crawl-tank-brighton-seo-april-2016 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/seo-crawl-rank-and-crawl-tank-brighton-seo-april-2016 Originally presented by Dawn Anderson at Manc SAS SEO meetup in Manchester, UK As SEO evolves so must we as practitioners. Whilst SEO 'dies' on a regular basis, but continues somehow to survive, everything evolves, and so must we as practitioners. The recent Adobe CMO Conference spoke of 'Whole Brain Marketers'. We also hear mention of 'T Shaped Marketers' which refers to those who have a deep core knowledge in a specialist area with a broad understanding of a range of related and 'touching' skills and topics. Whole Brain Marketers have the analytical skills married with creative and strategic skills. The left and right hemispheres of the brain working together in harmony and to full effect. This talk looks at how we can endeavour to work towards a 'balanced left and right brain' to become 'whole brain marketers'. It also looks at a range of tools to assist us in areas that are not naturally our strengths. e.g. If we are right brain dominant 'creatives' we may require some help and development with logic and technical tools, and vice versa for those left brained dominants amongst us. The talk also looks at how we can begin to use tools to relate to people too if this does not naturally come to us, and understand in advance about their personalities and best effect communication styles for our dealings with them. These could be target marketing personas, colleagues, suppliers or employees. Originally presented by Dawn Anderson at Manc SAS SEO meetup in Manchester, UK As SEO evolves so must we as practitioners. Whilst SEO 'dies' on a regular basis, but continues somehow to survive, everything evolves, and so must we as practitioners. The recent Adobe CMO Conference spoke of 'Whole Brain Marketers'. We also hear mention of 'T Shaped Marketers' which refers to those who have a deep core knowledge in a specialist area with a broad understanding of a range of related and 'touching' skills and topics. Whole Brain Marketers have the analytical skills married with creative and strategic skills. The left and right hemispheres of the brain working together in harmony and to full effect. This talk looks at how we can endeavour to work towards a 'balanced left and right brain' to become 'whole brain marketers'. It also looks at a range of tools to assist us in areas that are not naturally our strengths. e.g. If we are right brain dominant 'creatives' we may require some help and development with logic and technical tools, and vice versa for those left brained dominants amongst us. The talk also looks at how we can begin to use tools to relate to people too if this does not naturally come to us, and understand in advance about their personalities and best effect communication styles for our dealings with them. These could be target marketing personas, colleagues, suppliers or employees. Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/seo-as-whole-brain-t-shaped-marketer https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/seo-as-whole-brain-t-shaped-marketer Fri, 04 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/talk-to-the-spider https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/talk-to-the-spider Originally presented at Brighton SEO in 2014 by Dawn Anderson The document discusses how SEO has always been about building relationships and connections between concepts through ontology and taxonomy. It emphasizes writing content that is organized for both humans and search engines by developing internal links between related pages, using relevant keywords throughout, and avoiding irrelevant or generic content. Properly structuring information through formal ontologies and semantic relationships is key to success in both SEO and the semantic web. Originally presented at Brighton SEO in 2014 by Dawn Anderson The document discusses how SEO has always been about building relationships and connections between concepts through ontology and taxonomy. It emphasizes writing content that is organized for both humans and search engines by developing internal links between related pages, using relevant keywords throughout, and avoiding irrelevant or generic content. Properly structuring information through formal ontologies and semantic relationships is key to success in both SEO and the semantic web. Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/the-owl-and-the-hummingbird-ontology-and-seo https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/the-owl-and-the-hummingbird-ontology-and-seo Talk originally presented at Brighton SEO in 2012 by Dawn Anderson An infinite loop occurs when a sequence of instructions in a computer program loops endlessly without a terminating condition. The document discusses issues with having too many URLs on a site that can lead to crawl budget problems with search engines like Google. It provides tips on using XML sitemaps, internal linking strategies, canonicalization, and keeping content fresh to help search engines better crawl and index a large site within the finite crawl budget. Talk originally presented at Brighton SEO in 2012 by Dawn Anderson An infinite loop occurs when a sequence of instructions in a computer program loops endlessly without a terminating condition. The document discusses issues with having too many URLs on a site that can lead to crawl budget problems with search engines like Google. It provides tips on using XML sitemaps, internal linking strategies, canonicalization, and keeping content fresh to help search engines better crawl and index a large site within the finite crawl budget. Mon, 05 May 2014 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/infinite-loops-dirty-architecture-and-crawl-rank https://speakerdeck.com/dawnieando/infinite-loops-dirty-architecture-and-crawl-rank