About Sanjay Ananda
SEO Strategist
Founder of Search Central Update · Semantic SEO · AI Search · Entity Optimisation · 37 Free Tools
Who Is Sanjay Ananda?
Sanjay Ananda is an SEO strategist with a deep focus on the intersection of semantic search, machine learning, and entity-based optimisation. In an era where Google's ranking systems are increasingly driven by knowledge graphs, natural language understanding, and AI-generated responses, Sanjay helps brands and content creators cut through the noise, not by chasing algorithmic shortcuts, but by building the kind of genuine topical authority and entity clarity that search engines reward long-term.
His core specialisms span semantic SEO, Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), entity optimisation, technical SEO, and content strategy. Sanjay's approach is grounded in structured thinking: before writing a single word or building a single page, he maps the full entity landscape, understanding how Google perceives a brand, a topic cluster, or an expert persona within its Knowledge Graph. This entity-first methodology means that every tactic he implements is connected to a coherent information architecture rather than a disconnected collection of keywords.
What separates Sanjay's work from conventional SEO consultancy is his commitment to making complex, data-driven analysis accessible. He is the founder of Search Central Update, a free resource that combines daily editorial coverage of Google Search, AI search developments, and semantic SEO with a suite of 37 free tools powered by the DataForSEO API. These tools, ranging from an AI Overview Checker and LLM Visibility Comparator to a Topical Gap Analyser and SERP Volatility Monitor, give practitioners and in-house teams the same live data access that was previously only available through expensive enterprise platforms. The philosophy is simple: the best SEO insights should not be locked behind a paywall.
Sanjay writes, builds, and publishes consistently because he believes the SEO community learns best from transparency. Rather than opaque claims, every guide on Search Central Update is backed by structured data, repeatable methodology, and plain-English explanation. Whether you're a seasoned technical SEO, a content strategist pivoting to AI search, or a business owner trying to understand why your site doesn't appear in AI Overviews, you'll find actionable resources here, all free, all built by someone who has done the work himself.
What I Specialise In
Six areas that define how I think about modern search, and how I help sites win in it.
Why I Built Search Central Update
When I started out in SEO, the tools that provided real insight, live SERP data, keyword clustering at scale, AI-powered entity analysis, were locked behind subscriptions costing hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. Freelancers, solo practitioners, small agencies, and in-house teams at early-stage companies simply couldn't afford them. They were forced to make strategic decisions on incomplete data or rely on free tools that hadn't been updated in years.
I built Search Central Update to close that gap. With access to the DataForSEO API, I've been able to replicate a large proportion of the analysis that used to require enterprise tooling, and publish it as 37 free tools that anyone can use, with no login, no paywall, no limit. Whether you need to check if your site is appearing in AI Overviews, identify topical gaps in your content cluster, analyse SERP feature penetration, or benchmark your LLM visibility against competitors, there's a free tool here for that.
Alongside the tools, the editorial content on this site reflects my genuine thinking about where search is heading. The lines between traditional SEO, AEO, and GEO are blurring fast, and the practitioners who will thrive are those who understand the semantic web, not just keyword density. I write to help make that transition easier for everyone. That's the mission. It's free, it stays free, and I'm glad you're here.
Connect with Sanjay
Questions, collaborations, or just want to talk SEO? Reach out on any of these platforms.
How I Approach SEO in the AI Search Era
The search landscape shifted hard in 2024 and again in 2025. Here is the framework I use with every client project now.
When Google launched AI Overviews at scale and ChatGPT added persistent web search, the fundamental unit of search changed. It moved from a keyword matched to a document toward an entity matched to a cluster of knowledge. That shift is what I build every strategy around.
My starting point on any project is always the entity layer. Who or what is the site about, and how clearly does Google's Knowledge Graph resolve that? A site with ambiguous entity signals, where the brand name could refer to five different things, is fighting with one hand tied behind its back. Before doing any keyword research or technical audit, I run an entity disambiguation check and fix any signal conflicts I find. The entity analyzer tool handles this quickly for any URL.
From there I build topical maps. Not keyword lists, topical maps. The difference matters: a keyword list tells you what to write, a topical map tells you what the site needs to know to be the authoritative source in its space. I have spent years refining this process, and the results are consistently better than keyword-first approaches because Google's entity systems reward depth, not just coverage.
Technical SEO sits underneath all of this. An accurate XML sitemap with truthful lastmod dates, clean canonical implementation, crawl budget management on larger sites, and Core Web Vitals that don't embarrass you in PageSpeed Insights. None of it is glamorous. All of it compounds.
And the AI search layer is becoming non-negotiable. Getting cited in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity answers is a brand equity play as much as a traffic play. The brands that build strong entity presence now, through author schema, clear About pages, and consistent entity attribution across referring domains, are the ones that will dominate AI-generated answers as that share of search grows. I have a specific approach for ChatGPT SEO that I use with clients building in competitive verticals.
If you're building SEO strategy in 2026 without an entity layer, you are building on sand. Google's systems have been entity-first since at least 2013. The AI search wave just made that visible to everyone who was not paying attention.
My guides on entity salience signals and the Knowledge Graph in SEO go deeper on the technical side of this. And if you want to see which entities your pages are actually surfacing, the free entity analyzer runs a live NLP pass on any URL.