Companies are currently bracing for a potential economic downturn, and many are searching for a solution to their current woes. Increases in labor costs over the past few years, an abrupt churn of employees and clients, looming difficult business decisions and keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of new and emerging technology solutions are all compiling realities in today’s climate—causing further complexities for businesses today. So where do you turn? AI tools like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can mitigate many of these fears and create real efficiency and opportunity for your business. Creative solutions like ChatGPT are already a reality for digital advertisers. So what’s next for AI in the industry—and more importantly, how can the industry leverage them to reap their direct benefits, such as increased efficiency, productivity and efficiency? Using AI to create new business opportunitiesSavvy digital advertisers are already using AI tools—like ChatGPT—to support creative tasks like writing content (email copy, outlines for long-form content, etc.), generating keywords and code, and creating images with just a few simple prompts. And this is only the beginning. As variations of ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots continue to advance, users will be able to ease on the prompts they give and, in turn, have to modify even less. Where else will we see AI in digital advertising? Customer support is one area where AI can learn from unique data points of your customers like commonly asked questions, and reply to them as they arise again. Generative language is also emerging in videos; users can quickly generate and deliver important messages via web portals, email and the like—at scale—to unlock critical time savings. Consider the multi-family industry: with this form of AI, users can quickly upload a few images which AI can use to create a video of their available properties in seconds. It’s these types of forward-thinking solutions that will drive efficiency throughout the industry. Why it’s time to get on board with automationWhat do emerging AI technologies have in common with navigating economic headwinds? It’s simple: automation can create vast efficiencies within your organization. The need to hire 20 additional strategists to support the grunt work is no longer a necessity; instead, you can automate those repetitive—yet critical tasks—and focus the staff you have on the more strategic side of your business. One of the most straightforward ways to understand how automation can create these efficiencies within your organization is to look at the salary of one of your digital advertising strategists. On average, strategists bring in around $80-$85,000 annually. So imagine if they’re spending half of their time each day on tasks that could be automated, like account launches and budget management. That’s virtually $40-$45,000 per year per strategist you’re spending on taskwork. Multiply that by a team of 10 strategists, and at the very least, that’s $400,000 a year you’re spending on tasks that simply could have been automated. Automating task work also transforms the time it takes to do it—think days down to seconds. Once you start reducing the time your employees spend on taskwork, you can put them on more forward-thinking efforts. Creating more productive hours for your team also decreases the number of strategists needed to complete taskwork. That’s the power of automation: It creates benefits for both the business from a revenue perspective and employees from a sentiment standpoint. Both outcomes are important— and both parties come out on top. Don’t take your hand off the wheelAI is taking form in the industry, whether organizations are ready or not. The question is, will you adopt it and stay afloat, or better yet, get ahead? Or will you continue to resist it and get left behind by an organization that can cater to the rising demands of this technology? If you don’t know where to start, begin by thinking of AI as an assistant or alternative solution to hiring. Despite the promises of automation, AI in digital advertising is still very much like the notion of a self-driving car. Sure, it’s extremely convenient and impressive, but it shouldn’t be left to its own devices. The same rings true for automation. You can’t eliminate the need for creatives—to do it right, you’ll still need a team of strategists pulling the levers and supporting the more strategic side of the business, but the need to fully staff a team for the grunt work is in the rearview mirror. How fluency leverages AI to create opportunities for scaleOne of the ways Fluency—an enterprise-level ad automation platform—creates opportunities for scale is through Blueprints—a Fluency-exclusive benefit of the platform. Think of Blueprints as an advertising strategy plan that uses data to build and apply changes to advertising accounts at scale. Why is this important to your advertising strategy? Blueprints offers the ability to create the backbone of your advertising strategy and launch against it with selected accounts for large-scale control. Where it used to take your staff countless hours to launch accounts, Blueprints use dynamic data points, like inventory feeds, to inform advertising account structures and all of the elements contained in them, like campaigns, settings, targeting, keywords, creative and pretty much everything else. The result? Quality increases, capacity is limitless, and success is sustainable. These are just a few of the many ways partners of Fluency can take advantage of automation to create a meaningful ripple effect across the organization where the work is strategic and engaging. Explore Fluency’s Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform. The post How AI can recession-proof your business appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/how-ai-can-recession-proof-your-business-395873
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Beginning in June 2023, new Google Ads accounts will no longer be able to include a URL in their account names. What’s changed. Specifically, when creating a new Google Ads account through the Google Ads API or updating an existing one, if a URL is found in the descriptive_name field, an ACTION_NOT_PERMITTED error will be generated, causing the operation to fail. This change, however, will not impact the descriptive_name field of existing accounts. Dig deeper. You can read more about the change on the Google Ads Developer Blog. Why we care. Adhering to new naming conventions is crucial to maintaining a seamless ad experience. By adhering to the new rules, advertisers can avoid encountering errors when creating or updating their accounts, thus ensuring a smooth account setup process, preventing potential delays in launching campaigns, and fostering a more organized and consistent naming convention across the platform. The post Google announces new validations for ad account names appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-announces-new-validations-for-ad-account-names-395951 Guides are all over the web. Google any word + “guide,” and you’ll probably find someone has written about that topic, no matter how obscure. But there’s a good reason for this: Well-written guides are extremely valuable pieces of content. When your audience encounters your guide at the right place and time, it can be life-changing. Your guide may be the cornerstone or the turning point in their experience of a particular topic. You could teach them valuable skills, introduce them to a vital concept, expand their knowledge, or help them understand a complex subject. As you’d imagine, a good guide can help build a strong trust between a person and a brand. And trust contributes to the customer experience. It can eventually translate to profitable action like converting a casual reader into a subscribed follower or turning a fan into a customer. That’s why it’s time to learn how to create optimized, useful, and comprehensive guides – so you, too, can build trust with your audience through high-quality content. What is a guide?A guide is a comprehensive piece of content that aims to educate an audience by:
Quite simply, an effective guide will teach you in some way. But, the best of this content type will meet you at your level of understanding, speak to you in terms you understand, and take you to the next level to broaden your knowledge. How to create a guide, ultimate-style1. Understand the knowledge level of your target audienceTo write a great guide, you need to understand your audience and know their knowledge level about your topic.
These points are crucial to understand because you will use them as a benchmark for where your guide will begin and what it will cover. Not understanding your audience’s knowledge level about your topic will lead to a less useful guide. For example, starting a guide on baking bread with information about buying mixing bowls will be helpful only to true beginners who don’t have the right equipment yet. It won’t be helpful for baking enthusiasts who have moved beyond acquiring tools. So, if you’re unsure what your audience knows or doesn’t know about your topic, you’ll need to do some research. When all else fails, ask them directly. Post a poll or survey on social media, or post a question asking for feedback on what your audience would like to know about X topic. 2. Research and outline your topicNow it’s time to start drafting your guide. I always start with an outline and jot down everything I know the guide should include. Then I research the topic to see what I’m missing, what others have written about it, and any additional tidbits I should add. For example, even as an expert, you don’t want to rely entirely on your brain for fleshing out a topic. You may know it well, but you also need to ensure you cover all the key areas readers care about. Start by researching the topic on Google. Look at what the top articles cover and make sure your guide includes all of those sub-topics, too. For example, say you’re writing a guide on planting tulips. You discover the guides at the top of Google also include information about when to plant them, how to care for them, and additional tips on varieties and container planting. That means your guide needs to be just as thorough. When your outline is equally as comprehensive as the top articles in Google, you’re still not done. You need to go further. Include information guided by your expertise (or the brand’s expertise). That’s the mixture of experience and education that’s unique to you that will differentiate your content from the masses.
For instance, in this particular tulip planting guide, the author added information on common pests and fun facts. Similar guides are missing these pieces: Beyond Google, look at other information sources to flesh out your topic. Research books, look at interviews with experts, or watch videos. Double-check to ensure you include the most accurate, relevant, and useful details in your guide. 3. Split your guide into sections, organized by sub-topicAt this point, while your draft is still pared down, it’s a good idea to get it organized.
4. Use keyword-rich headingsThe best guides have clearly labeled sections with descriptive headings. This format helps readers find the information they’re looking for without having to hunt through unlabeled paragraphs that all bleed together. It’s also good for SEO, especially if you include keywords in your section headings. Here’s an example of a Chicago travel guide that uses clear, keyword-rich headings for each section: Particularly, note that the keyword “Chicago” is included in each heading. Imagine if each heading was more generic, like “When to Go” vs. “When to Go to Chicago.” The difference is optimization. The latter heading is optimized – and the former isn’t. If adding the focus keyword in your section headings doesn’t make sense, consider including related terms and phrases instead. You can find these by entering your main keyword into Semrush or Ahrefs. At the very least, write headings that help your reader scan your guide and find the necessary information. 5. Go deepGuides are typically long-form content for a reason. When readers look for a guide on a subject, they expect comprehensiveness. For that reason, don’t just skim the surface of your topic. Go deep. That means you should try to include examples, descriptions, comparisons, or definitions in your guide.
You may use some of these techniques or all of them – it really depends on your topic. For example, in a guide about making a complex dessert, you might want to describe how it should look and taste to help your audience understand a successful end product. Similarly, in a guide about bird-watching, you could help your audience identify a particular bird species by comparing it to a similar species and noting the key differences. Explaining a subject well is an art form, so take the time to get it right to create the most useful guide possible for your particular audience. 6. Research and link to useful, authoritative sourcesLet’s return to high school English class briefly for this one. A useful lesson for writing guides is the importance of referencing sources to beef up your points. In a nutshell, citing sources gives your content more credibility. Include them, and you’re essentially saying, “Hey, all these other authoritative people on this subject agree with me about this. That’s why you should listen to me.” Even if you’re a known expert on your topic, including sources still shows that you did your homework. You’re drawing from the collective knowledge that exists on the topic, not just your own brain. Even further, some claims need proof to be credible – like if you write a guide on birds and claim that 10% of bird species can’t fly. You’ll need to prove that’s true, even if you’re the top bird expert. So, to add credibility to your guide, look for opportunities to link to authorities on the subject. Search for recognizable names that are established authorities in the field. (Example: For medical information, known authorities include WebMD, Mayo Clinic, or the American Medical Association.) Check their credentials and experience on their About page if the name isn’t well-known. When evaluating websites, look at a variety of factors like their DA (domain authority) score, whether they accept and publish sponsored content, how they label that content, and whether the site is actually providing good information or if they’re just trying to sell you something. (Note: A good identifier for credible websites is whether they accurately link to outside sources in their own content!) Along with proving your credibility, linking to other sources can help provide additional information or context on your topic for readers from a trustworthy point of view (one you vetted for them!). For that reason, consider adding links to related blog posts, ebooks, or even full-length books to allow the reader to learn more. 7. Add helpful visualsIt’s true what they say: A picture is worth 1,000 words. For that reason, adding helpful visuals to your guide is a great idea. And, by the way, “visuals” means much more than just a few stock photos. Instead, try to find a variety of visuals in different formats that truly add meaning to your guide and clarify concepts.
Think about what visual elements would add clarity to your text. If you were reading this guide as a beginner, what visuals would help you most? 8. Format for readabilityWithout good formatting, long-form guides can be a chore to read. After all, when faced with a lengthy, unbroken wall of paragraphs on a web page, what’s your first instinct? If you’re like most people, you probably want to run away screaming. Or, you try to read a few paragraphs, but they all start to run together as your eyes glaze over and your mind wanders. If that’s your guide people are trying and failing to read, that’s a failed guide. Instead, the most successful guides are easy to read, scan and skim to find the information you need. That’s because they are:
9. Edit and optimizeWith your first draft complete, you can edit and optimize your guide. Even if you don’t have an editor, self-editing helps you trim your content’s fat and improve it. Editing steps:
Optimization steps:
5 examples of effective guidesFor inspiration and guidance, check out these examples of effective guides that incorporate all of the above steps well. Hiking guideThis beginner's guide to hiking the Appalachian Trail details everything you need to know, including a trail overview, when to start, what to pack, where to sleep, what to eat, additional resources to read, and more. This guide is also a great example of how to link to authoritative and useful sources in your content: Definitive guide to influencer marketingThis ultimate guide will teach you every facet of influencer marketing – including the how, the what and the why. It's super comprehensive and is broken down into chapters like "Getting Started with Influencer Marketing" and "How to Work with Influencers." Cooking mushrooms guideThis guide is a great example of delving deep into a specific topic. The author breaks down 15 types of mushrooms, how they taste, and how to cook them for delicious results. The kinds you've heard of – button mushrooms and shiitakes – are included, as well as ones you've probably never seen before, like black trumpet mushrooms or lion's mane mushrooms. Financial planning guideThis financial planning guide is a great example of what I like to call "overview" content. This type of guide provides an introduction to a topic for beginners. It helps them understand what something is, its importance, and how to get started. This guide doesn't go deep but gives newbies the basics they need to understand the topic and eventually dive in deeper. Tech stack guideThis tech stack guide's audience is software companies, so the content is framed for that audience's particular needs and problems. It also uses vocabulary that the average person won't understand but the average software company staffer or founder will. Create useful guides to nurture your audienceCreating a guide can be a huge undertaking, but it's worth it. A useful guide will earn more than search traffic if optimized correctly – it will also bring in and build connections with people who need the information you're offering. Provide helpful, readable, educational, and useful information, and your guide just might become the turning point in someone's experience of a topic. That's powerful and can lead to greater things like growing your audience and, thus, growing your business. The post How to create a guide that is optimized, useful and comprehensive appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/create-optimized-useful-comprehensive-guide-395891 It’s been 11 years since Google launched one of its most significant algorithm updates, Penguin. Here, we’re looking back over more than a decade of Penguin. Find everything you want to know about Google’s Penguin algorithm update – what it is, why it was launched and its impact – plus Search Engine Land’s coverage of Penguin from 2012 to 2021. What was the Google Penguin update?The Google Penguin update was an algorithm update launched on April 24, 2012, to combat webspam techniques. Penguin’s primary focus was link building, keyword stuffing and general webspam. The war against webspam wasn’t new as Penguin followed the Panda and Page Layout algorithm updates. All of these updates had a common goal – to reward high-quality content and sites in search that provided a great user experience and fulfilled search intent. Penguin was an extension of these efforts. It was thought that Penguin affected 3.1% of queries in English and around 3% of queries in German, Chinese and Arabic. To contextualize its significance, it was expected that a regular user would see the impact of Penguin in SERPs. Penguin was a pretty big deal, and it impacted a lot of sites. What made this change frustrating for web owners and SEOs is that an algorithm change isn’t something a site owner can appeal to. There was no quick fix to recover from Penguin. If hit, it was made clear that website administrators needed to reduce spam on their sites. As a result, sites suffered, and some didn’t recover. Naturally, there was a question about whether or not the algorithm improved or worsened the SERPs.
Considering that Penguin is still highly influential in the algorithm today, it’s safe to say that it improved the SERPs, web owners, and SEOs have collectively learned what constitutes spam. Most conscious site owners wouldn’t even need to think about the Penguin update since the webspam tactics that felt the wrath of Penguin – like keyword stuffing and link schemes – are an industry no-no. Why was Google Penguin launched?Before Penguin, the quantity of links was weighted in the algorithm. As a result, poor quality or spammy pages were ranking when they didn’t really deserve to. Their rank was influenced by the quantity of links pointing to the site rather than the quality of the site or the content itself. If quantity is the only factor, then it’s easy to manipulate. You just need links and lots of them. To help us understand what constituted spam, Google shared examples of spammy pages with keyword stuffing and poor uses of links. If link quantity mattered, then links like the above were useful to websites. But it’s clear that the linked text has nothing to do with the article’s content. Plus, the link text reads very unnaturally within the context of the article. If it’s not an engaging and helpful read, the content shouldn’t be ranking at all. The link tactic demonstrated above is a black-hat SEO tactic executed solely to manipulate SERPs. Penguin was designed to identify and demote websites that were engaging in these spammy link building tactics, while rewarding websites that had natural and high-quality links pointing to their well-researched and well-written content. Why did Google name it Penguin?Despite being named Penguin by Google, there doesn’t seem to be a known story about why it’s called Penguin, unlike the Panda algorithm, which was named after a key engineer. But it was the second major new Google algorithm named after a black and white animal. Google Penguin algorithm explained: How it workedIf you want to recover from Penguin or understand how Penguin fits into the wider guidelines and algorithms it helps to understand how it worked. Penguin was a webspam algorithmThere's a bit to unpack here. Penguin was a webspam algorithm, meaning it impacted all sites across the web at around the same time. Sites were crawled and new algorithm factors were taken into account. The intention of this algorithm was for high-quality sites following Google guidelines to be prioritized. The Penguin algorithm was launched to combat spammy sites. To do this, the algorithm needs to consider many factors, including spam links and content. Perhaps it was the timing of the Penguin update – after Panda and before the Disavow Tool – that has Penguin heavily associated with spam links and link farms, but truthfully, Penguin was more than that. As Google's John Mueller put it:
Penguin ignores spam links and considers individual pages and entire sitesWhen Penguin launched, one of its purposes was to devalue links, taking spam links weighting out of the algorithm. However, it's thought that the Penguin algorithm can do more than just that. In the video, Mueller says:
Recovering from PenguinRecovering from Penguin was no easy feat for SEOs. There were long delays between updates which were incredibly frustrating. As an algorithm update, the only way out was a lot of hard work, cleaning a site of its spam, which for many was no easy feat. Google formsFor sites that had previously been flagged as spam by Google, there used to be a reconsideration request where webmasters could request a second view of their site. This was useful in the case of a manual action, meaning a person had spotted an issue and manually marked it as spam. But, Penguin was an algorithm change. Google announced that reconsideration requests wouldn't work if a site has suffered since the Penguin update. Instead, webmasters had to reduce the spam on their sites. Once done, they'd eventually recover from Penguin and appear in SERPs again. That said, there seemed to be some acknowledgment that sites were impacted by Penguin unfairly. Google released a form where webmasters could flag this issue to Google. This same form could also be used to report sites that should've been penalized. Clean spammy backlinksSince Penguin was launched to fight spam with a primary focus on link spam, one strategy to recover from Penguin was the disavow tool launched on October 16, 2012. In 2012, Matt Cutts explained how and when to use the tool. It's important to note that this tool was not designed for most websites but for that 3% of sites using spammy links, manipulating SERPs and using link farms. If you follow the guidelines and create content consciously, you won't need the disavow tool. Remove on-page spamEarlier, I shared an image of a spammy article linking to payday loans unnaturally from an article about exercising. This is the sort of spam that webmasters needed to remove from their sites. Other on-page spam might include keyword stuffing. The thing to remember is that Google wants to prioritize content that is useful to readers. So, before publishing content, ask yourself: is this informative? Do I meet search intent? Is this content helpful? Although some of these guidelines were set or improved upon more than 10 years ago with the Penguin algorithm update, you might note that these items are still prevalent today. Does Google still use Penguin?Yes, Google still uses Penguin as part of the core algorithm. Mueller shares tips and insights on what a site owner should do if their site is flagged as spam. As you can see, this video is very similar to the video published by Cutts 10 years ago. Mueller recommends the webmaster forums and advises you not to hide anything about your website. A complete timeline of the Google Panda UpdatesHere's Search Engine Land's coverage of Penguin, from 2012 to 2021: April 24, 2012: Penguin Update 1.0Google Launches "Penguin Update" Targeting Webspam In Search Results April 25, 2012Did Penguin Make Google's Search Results Better Or Worse? April 26, 2012Penguin Update Peck Your Site By Mistake? Google's Got A Form For That The Penguin Update: Google's Webspam Algorithm Gets Official Name Google Penguin Update Recovery Tips & Advice May 3, 2012Adjusting Your SEO Strategies During Panda & Penguin May 10, 2012Two Weeks In, Google Talks Penguin Update, Ways To Recover & Negative SEO May 14, 20125 Local Linkbuilding Ideas For The Post-Penguin/Panda Era May 15, 2012In Wake Of Penguin, Could You Be Sued For Linking To Others? May 17, 2012Google's Penguin Update Makes The Wall Street Journal May 21, 2012Bing Offers Advice On Google's Penguin Update: Diversify May 26, 2012: Penguin Update 2.0Google Releases Penguin Update 2 May 29, 2012First Report Of Google Penguin Recovery May 31, 2012Google Penguin & Panda Talk Now In Coffee Shops & Elementary School June 11, 2012The Four Keys To Post-Penguin Directory Submission Happiness Aug. 16, 2012Google: Further Penguin Update "Jolts" To Come; Panda Is Smoother & Monthly Oct. 5, 2012: Penguin Update 3.0Google Penguin Update 3 Released, Impacts 0.3% Of English-Language Queries The EMD Update: Like Panda & Penguin, Expect Further Refreshes To Come Feb. 20, 2013No, Google Hasn't Released Unannounced Penguin Updates March 11, 2013Google's Matt Cutts On Upcoming Penguin, Panda & Link Networks Updates March 19, 2013Study Finds Google's Penguin Update Getting Stricter Over Time April 23, 2013Risk Management for Links - How To Prepare For The Next Penguin Update May 10, 2013Google's Matt Cutts: Next Generation Of The Penguin Update "Few Weeks" Away May 22, 2013:Penguin 4, With Penguin 2.0 Generation Spam-Fighting, Is Now Live May 23, 2013Still Seeing Post-Penguin Web Spam In Google Results? Let Google Know Penguin 2.0 Losers: Porn Sites, Game Sites, & Big Brands Like Dish.com & The Salvation Army June 3, 2013June 18, 2013Is Link Building Dead? 3 Tips For Link Builders Post-Penguin 2.0 Oct. 4, 2013:Penguin 5, With The Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm, Is Now Live April 8, 2014Google's Penguin Algorithm Comes In Different Levels Of Degrees? May 28, 2014No, Google Says There's Been No Penguin Update July 30, 2014Penguin: Google's Punitive Algorithm - And A Call To Google To Fix It Sept. 12, 2014A Year Later, Are We Finally Going To Get A Penguin Update Refresh? Oct. 2, 2014Google: Penguin Refresh May Come As Early As Next Week Oct. 19, 2014Google Releases Penguin 3.0 -- First Penguin Update In Over A Year Oct. 21, 2014Google Penguin 3.0: Worldwide Rollout Still In Process, Impacting 1% Of English Queries Nov. 4, 201418 Days Later, Google Penguin 3.0 Continues To Slowly Roll Out Worldwide Dec. 1, 2014Google: Penguin 3.0 Rollout Still Ongoing Dec. 3, 2014Is This The End Of The Penguin & Panda Era Shakeups And Recoveries? Dec. 4, 2014Was Your Site Hit By Google's Panda Or Penguin? This Flowchart May Help You Find Out. Dec. 10, 2014Google Says Penguin To Shift To "Continuous Updates" Dec. 11, 2014How Google's Penguin 3.0 Is Playing Out Across The Web Feb. 11, 2015Google Says There's No Whitelist To Save You From Panda Or Penguin April 8, 2015Google Says The Penguin & Panda Algorithms Still Require Manual Data Pushes April 13, 2015Google Panda & Penguin Lack Real-Time Updates, Despite Google's Past Statements June 2, 2015Google: We Are Working On Making The Penguin Update Happen Continuously July 13, 2015Google Says Penguin Refresh Months Away From Happening Oct. 1, 2015Google Confirms The Real Time Penguin Algorithm Is Coming Soon Oct. 29, 2015Google: Next Penguin Update Should Happen By End Of 2015 Nov. 17, 2015How To Prep For The Pending Penguin Update & Ensure You're Penalty Free In 2016 Dec. 3, 2015Google: New Penguin Algorithm Update Not Happening Until Next Year June 23, 2016Key takeaways from the Google AMA: RankBrain, Panda, Penguin, bots & more Sept. 6, 2016How many days has it been since the last Google Penguin Update? Google: Friday's update was not due to the Penguin algorithm Sept. 23, 2016: Penguin Update 4.0Google updates Penguin, says it now runs in real time within the core search algorithm Sept. 28, 2016Google Penguin doesn't penalize for bad links - or does it? Google says Penguin recoveries have started to roll out now Sept. 30, 2016Authority & link building with real-time Penguin Oct. 10, 2016Google Penguin looks mostly at your link source, says Google Google labels your links, such as 'footer' or Penguin-impacted Oct. 13, 2016Google says Penguin 4.0 rollout now complete Oct. 25, 2016Penguin 4.0: Necessary and positive improvement Oct. 27, 2016A Penguin's Tale: Responding to the latest update Nov. 1, 2021Google on Penguin algorithm; aims to ignore spammy links but can lead to distrusting your site The post Lookback: Google launched the Penguin algorithm update 11 years ago appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-penguin-algorithm-update-395910 Microsoft Bing Chat said it is now better at responding to news questions and also reduced unnecessary duplicate searches, end conversation triggers, and returning no response to queries. News answers. Bing wrote, “We’ve taken steps to help Bing give better answers if you’re asking questions about news. Bing said we should try to ask Bing Chart “What are today’s top breaking news stories?” So I did and it gives me these stories about Theodore McCarrick, a top news item from a few days ago; a six-year-old being shot, which is a more recent news story; Clemson being a top pick for Casey Poe, also recent news and some financial advice from CNBC from 30 minutes ago. Here is a screenshot: When you compare it to Google Bard, they both tell very different stories. I like how Bard breaks it down but I also prefer the top news box that Bing Chat provides: Other Bing Chat improvements. Other items Bing mentioned as updates to Bing Chat include updates to its :
Why we care. News publishers may be starting to notice some traffic from Bing Chat. If not, if Bing Chat grows, it may drive more and more traffic over time, as Bign Chat grows in popularity. Plus, watching these rapid improvements to AI search and AI chat features is really exciting. The post Bing Chat gets better at news questions and minimizes no-response answers appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/bing-chat-gets-better-at-news-questions-and-minimizes-no-response-answers-395922 Google has now added new details that explain the three categories its Google crawlers fall into, they include Googlebot, special-case crawlers and user-triggered fetchers. In addition, Google now lists a JSON formatted file containing the list of IP addresses each of these different crawler types use. Types of Google crawlers. At the top of this Googlebot page, Google listed these three crawler types:
IP addresses. Google also listed the IP address ranges and reverse DNS mask for each type:
What is new. Here is the section of the page that was updated; the rest of the page is mostly unchanged. Why we care. I believe Google made this change after they saw some of the reactions to the GoogleOther robot they announced the other day. This now explains how Google crawlers act, when they respect the robots.txt and how to identify them better. Now, if you want not to block Google’s main crawler, Googlebot, but you decide to block the others, you can better identify those crawlers more accurately. The post Google explains the use cases for its different crawler types appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-explains-the-use-cases-for-its-different-crawler-types-395907 Google quietly updated its documented Google ranking systems page and completely removed several page experience-related ranking systems from the page. Google removed the page experience system, the mobile-friendly system, page speed system and the secure site system from the page. These removals makes you wonder if any of these algorithm updates mattered at all to the overall Google ranking system? What changed. If you compare the live page to the archived page, you will see the following changes: (1) Google has completely removed the page experience system from the page, it was not even moved down to the “retired” systems section, it was removed entirely: (2) Google removed the mobile-friendly system, page speed system and the secure site system from the retired section of the page. This is what it looked like earlier: This is what it looks like now: Why the change. Just a couple of days ago, Google revised the helpful content guidance to include page experience, while at the same time removing the page experience report and the mobile usability report from Google Search Console. In the Google blog post explaining these changes, Google wrote, “The page experience update was a concept to describe a set of key page experience aspects for site owners to focus on. In particular, it introduced Core Web Vitals as a new signal that our core ranking systems considered, along with other page experience signals such as HTTPS that they’d already been considering. It was not a separate ranking system, and it did not combine all these signals into one single “page experience” signal.” Google is outright saying that this page experience update was always just a “concept” and added it was never a “separate ranking system.” Was it never a ranking system? It seems Google is saying that these four old ranking updates that Google made really big deals about when they launched were never a true ranking system. Maybe I am reading too much into what content changes were made to these pages but we all know that those four ranking updates had little to no impact on true rankings. Google even wrote in the new post, “Google Search always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par.” Why we care. Maybe, at least for SEO and ranking purposes, we can spend less time worrying about page experience, speed and mobile-friendlessness and more time worrying about content and engagement. Of course, page experience, speed and mobile-friendlessness are super important for your users and usability, but for rankings, they just never seemed all that important. The post Google removes several search ranking algorithm updates from its ranking systems page appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-removes-several-search-ranking-algorithm-updates-from-its-ranking-systems-page-395885 Google Bard can now help you code, and it supports over 20 different programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python, and Typescript. So those of you that do a lot of coding during your search marketing tasks may want to utilize Google Bard or other AI chat engines, like ChatGPT or Bing Chat, to help with coding. Coding with Bard. Google showed examples of how Bard can help you code. Google said you could “export Python code to Google Colab,” without having to use copy and paste to get it into Colab. Bard can also assist with writing functions for Google Sheets, Google explained. Bard can help you debug code. Plus, if Bard gives you an error message or code that doesn’t do what you intended, you can just tell Bard, “this code didn’t work, please fix it,” and Bard can help you debug. Bard can also explain what code does, here is an example of Bard explaining code: Why we care. If you do any coding, maybe Bard can help you along the way. Try prompting Bard for help with languages like C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, and even Google Sheets functions. Google said this should work for programming experience levels from beginners to experienced engineers. The post You can now use Google Bard to help you code appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/you-can-now-use-google-bard-to-help-you-code-395880 Starting April 21, verified check marks will be necessary for brands running ads on Twitter. Unless they’re spending over $1,000 a month, that is. A copy of the email was posted on Twitter by Matt Navarra. Why we care. To avoid paying the $8 a month for verification, your business will either need to spend $1,000 a month in ads or have a gold checkmark (which also costs $1,000 a month and indicates that you’re a “verified business”). Either way, Mush really wants his $1,000 a month from you. IMO, it’s a confusing mess for businesses and advertisers trying to navigate Twitter’s new verification requirements, potentially deterring smaller advertisers and reducing the platform’s overall appeal. As if that was even possible at this point. Not totally unreasonable. There is no official information on Twitter’s ad account pages indicating that only verified accounts can advertise, but it is reasonable to require verification for advertisers if it helps reduce spam or discourage malicious actors from using the platform. For this to be genuinely effective, however, a more rigorous vetting process beyond requiring a credit card and phone number would be necessary, as the $8 monthly fee alone is not a significant deterrent for scammers. Going forward, it appears that those wishing to post an ad or promote a tweet must pay either $8/month for Twitter Blue or $1,000 per month to be recognized as a verified organization. An exception may be made for accounts with a grey checkmark, designated for official government-related accounts such as agencies, embassies, parliaments, and the like. The post Twitter introduces mandatory verification for advertisers appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/twitter-introduces-mandatory-verification-for-advertisers-395877 The role of click-through rate (CTR) in SEO has been debated for many years. Several industry studies have asserted that CTR is a ranking factor – a claim that’s been ardently denied by many Googlers. Whether it’s a direct ranking signal or not, CTR has its place in SEO. This article explores why CTR matters in SEO, Google’s stance on the metric and how to use it right. What does CTR mean for SEO?CTR can mean many things depending on the context. In PPC campaigns, it is used as a metric to measure ad effectiveness. When it comes to SEO, CTR refers to the percentage of people who click an organic or unpaid (Google) search result that leads to your website. Essentially, if out of 100 searchers, five clicked through to your page from Google, then your CTR for that particular result is 5%. Google conveniently shares the numbers with us on Google Search Console (GSC): As usual, you have to take the numbers you see as approximations or relative numbers because Google withholds a significant percentage of search queries from us for privacy reasons. Local results often make people disclose their whereabouts or other sensible data. Likewise, health and finance information may be too risky to share, so Google hides related keywords. Measuring the impact of SEO: A look at metrics and KPIsIf CTR is not a confirmed ranking factor, is it still a useful KPI for tracking our SEO efforts? Or is it a vanity metric for showing off? Many SEOs still rely on metrics that don’t really provide actionable insights, including rankings, traffic and engagement. They are not completely useless, but by themselves and without context, these metrics won’t make sense. Rankings differ depending on who searches from where based on search history and location and may be pointless with the wrong user intent. Traffic can be completely irrelevant or downright harmful. Thousands of people looking for the wrong thing you don't even offer only cause server load! Engagement can be the wrong kind of engagement. When people are angry and write comments, it might look good as a number. Satisfied visitors typically write fewer comments. Complaining happens much more often than expressing gratitude. I believe CTR is a useful SEO metric. It lets you see how many people are clicking through and also how many are not. Then you need to find out why. Does Google use CTR as a ranking factor?Some SEO experts argue that Google can't rely on links anymore as they are "gamed" easily. What else would be a useful metric they thought? Well, given all the websites using Google Analytics and Search Console, Google has a wealth of user experience data. Some even point out that Google Chrome also collects such information. For example, they can see whether visitors came, puked and ran away after clicking your website (thanks to bounce rate as measured by Google Analytics). They could also see who clicked through in the first place. So these SEO experts concluded that such metrics might be a perfect ranking signal to use for Google along backlinks. Yet, there’s no reliable way to find out. Then, some resorted to “correlation studies.” They tried to look at the top-ranking content, analyze it and then, based on that analysis, reverse-engineer the algorithmic ranking signals. A famous and somewhat shortsighted correlation has been widely spread ever since – content length. The correlation studies showed that most top-ranking content was much longer that its lower-ranking counterparts. Does it mean that just by writing 3000 words of fluff, you can outrank 1,000 words of expertly written, highly specific content? Most likely not. It just means that the existing articles are probably expertly written and comprehensive. Note that this was before AI became a major part of ranking algorithms. Today, search engines can use highly complex "machine learning" and artificial intelligence to determine the quality of websites and have to rely less on indirect metrics. So correlation studies have indicated that well-ranking pages also have a higher CTR. Does it mean that Google uses CTR as a ranking signal? Well, no. It's possible but not proof. As we know from science, correlation is not causation. Just because you sneezed on a sunny day does not mean that the sun caused the sneezing. Let's take a closer look at some popular correlation studies below. What do correlation studies say about CTR's impact?I remember at least three widely read correlation studies that looked at user experience factors like CTR (among others). They suggested that indeed there is a significant correlation between website usage or click-throughs from search results and increased rankings.
The Semrush study stirred a lot of controversy for its bold claim that "direct traffic is the top ranking factor these days." They did not specifically refer to CTR, though. What does Google say about CTR as a ranking factor?After word about these study results spread far and wide, it led to some weird tricks to fool Google into believing that results were clicked. Huge click farms were used in Asia (e.g., mainland China) to simulate clicks by setting up a vast amount of hardware (thousands of smartphones or computers). These click fraud machines were made to fake all kinds of online metrics, such as ad clicks, social media engagement and app downloads. Google spokespeople repeatedly and vehemently deny that there is some impact or ranking signal related to CTR or other so-called UX factors. Most strikingly, John Mueller stated in 2021:
Whether you believe Mueller or not, it is improbable that CTR is an important ranking signal as it's too easy to fool both by using click farms and by creating clickbait. Last but not least, click studies have always shown that the results already on top get clicked the most. This would create a self-fulfilling prophecy and a closed loop in case Google uses CTR to determine rankings. Position 1 results get the highest CTR, and thus Google would have to put the results that are already ranking on top higher than those shown below. So unless Google created a rather complex algorithm to reduce the impact of top rankings on CTR (which differs based on numerous factors like location, industry, SERP features etc.), it would not make sense. How to use CTR to improve your SEOTL;DR: Although CTR is likely not a significant ranking signal and may be a bit of a vanity metric without context, it is also quite useful. (Otherwise, I wouldn't go to such great lengths to write about it!) So how can organic CTR benefit your SEO efforts? Use CTR for discovering low-hanging fruit: You have many impressions but no clicks (low CTR)? Bingo! That might be a page that is almost ranking for a keyword. You can find keyword combinations that just need a nudge to finally capitalize on existing visibility and get some clicks. Use CTR to locate off-topic or irrelevant pages: So you have a high CTR but no conversions? There may be some mismatch between search query or user intent and the actual page or its content. You may even rank high for a lucrative transactional query, but you waste people's time and energy when there is nothing to buy (think out-of-stock products). Use CTR to find highly valuable long-tail queries: So some more obscure three-word keyphrase has just three searches but 100% CTR? Whoa! Let's take a closer look, maybe there are even more similar long tail keyword combinations possible on the same page? Just consider this screenshot from my blog's GSC: Yes, CTR can be a valuable SEO metric beyond mere vanity, regardless of whether it is a ranking factor. The post Is click-through rate a valuable SEO metric? appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/click-through-rate-seo-metric-395858 |
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