Google Ads pop-up survey disrupting advertisers trying to pause campaigns

Google Ads has started serving a pop-up survey that disrupts advertisers when they try to pause campaigns.

The survey asks users whey they want to pause their ad campaign before allowing them to continue.

Why we care. The pop-up survey may annoy and inconvenience busy marketers who lack the time to explain their ad campaign pause to Google. Nonetheless, this feedback will aid Google in enhancing its product, ultimately benefiting advertisers in the long run.

First look. The pop-up was first noticed by digital marketing expert Greg Kohler, who posted about the survey on X. He shared some screenshots of the notification and then asked Google:

• “Any chance this added friction could break the scripts or rules people have within accounts to auto-pause once certain budgets are spent?”
• “Similar to how the account confirmation popup broke large automated budget increase rules.”

Reaction. After Greg shared his findings on X, fellow PPC expert Greg Finn asked Google Ads to stop disrupting advertisers by displaying the survery. He wrote:

• “Kind request to @adsliaison to have this survey show AFTER the pausing occurs. Right now it adds extra steps for advertisers. We don’t need more bloat in Google Ads.”

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What Google is saying. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin took to X to explain the purpose of the survey:

• "This is a survey for internal understanding."

Deep dive. Visit the Google Ads Help Center for more information.

The post Google Ads pop-up survey disrupting advertisers trying to pause campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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AI-generated content in 2024: How to excel and where to exercise caution

Google searches for AI content skyrocketed and have remained high throughout 2023 as businesses and creators tap into new opportunities to scale.

Source: Google Trends

By March, 60% of writers already used AI in their work, a Hackernoon poll showed.

But while generative AI offers amazing content generation and optimization opportunities, balancing its capabilities and limitations is essential. 

Marketers are getting AI content right, from summarizing lengthy texts to crafting compelling social media copy.

However, as we approach 2024, examining where generative AI content falls short is equally important as where it goes right. 

Issues such as misguided SEO research, factual accuracy, plagiarism risks and the absence of human expertise and reasoning are all in play – and they present risks and challenges for brands. 

Where marketers are getting AI content right

When used right, generative AI can streamline processes, improve efficiency and even boost the overall quality of content.

Let’s explore key areas where marketers successfully leverage AI for content creation.

Summarizing long passages of text

One of generative AI’s significant advantages is its ability to quickly and accurately summarize lengthy documents, reports or articles.

This enables us to extract and share critical information with our audience. 

Generating landing page copy, titles and meta descriptions

Creating compelling landing page copy and meta descriptions is crucial for SEO and converting traffic to customers. 

You can use AI to analyze your core content and generate attention-grabbing titles, meta descriptions and landing page copy. 

Dig deeper: How to use AI and Chrome extensions for quick SEO wins

Creating social media copy for promotion

Promoting long-form content on social media platforms can be challenging, especially when you need to capture your audience’s attention quickly. 

Use AI to craft engaging social media posts tailored to your target audience. 

Extract key insights from long-form content and transform them into catchy captions and tweets to drive traffic to your in-depth articles or blog posts.

Dig deeper: 17 tips to improve your AI-assisted content creation process

Enhancing storytelling with use cases and examples

Storytelling is a powerful tool in marketing and AI can take it to the next level. 

Use it to craft relatable, persuasive stories showcasing the benefits of your product or service. It aids research by anticipating objections and questions.

Producing copy and title variations for testing

AI can enhance A/B testing with diverse copy and headline variations. 

Consider analyzing existing content and audience preferences to create alternatives for emails, websites and ads. This enables you to test and improve engagement and conversion rates quickly.

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While AI can be a valuable tool, it’s being abused and misused – as some do with all new toys.

In the next section, we’ll explore some of the less effective and perhaps more dangerous ways people use AI for content creation.

Where AI content falls down

Using generative AI in these ways can result in poor-quality content, misinformation, misleading recommendations and other undesirable results. 

The roots of any fall downs in generative AI are based on data. Whether it's ChatGPT, Bing AI, Google Bard or third-party tools, the quality and connectivity of the data that powers these AI systems is crucial.

To achieve impressive results, prompt engineering and fine-tuning of data from large language models (LLM) have become increasingly prevalent. These techniques are vital for maximizing the potential of generative AI. 

"Your site didn't get penalised because you used AI for your content.

Your site got penalised because, the way you used AI, and the output of your AI tool was crap."

- Pedro Dias/X

SEO and keyword research 

Relying solely on AI for SEO research can result in:

• Misguided keyword choices.
• Incorrect optimization tactics.
• Missed opportunities to connect with your target audience effectively.

Human expertise is essential to interpret AI-generated insights and make informed decisions.

AI content generators typically lack access to live, real-time data.

Tools rely on historical data and patterns to suggest keywords and optimization strategies. They can’t adapt to real-time shifts in search trends or user behavior. This limitation is a real liability that can result in wasted spend and effort. 

Too many tools can confuse, with over 70% of marketers recently feeling overwhelmed by AI changes. 

Factual accuracy 

AI-generated content cannot fact-check and verify information. Relying on it to do so can lead to misinformation, damaging your brand's reputation and credibility. Human oversight is crucial to ensure the content aligns with accurate and up-to-date information.

AI-generated content often requires human editors to review, refine, fact-check and ensure it meets the desired quality standards. 

While AI can assist in creating drafts, it may struggle with nuances, tone and context. 

Human editors play a critical role in fine-tuning content, making it more coherent, engaging and aligned with the brand's voice.

The risk of plagiarism

AI can inadvertently produce content that resembles existing materials already on the web. Without proper oversight, there is a risk of unintentional plagiarism. 

To avoid this, content creators must conduct thorough checks to ensure their AI-generated content is original and unique.

Perspective and subject matter expertise

While AI can be valuable for generating shorter content, such as product descriptions or social media posts, it may struggle with the complexity and depth required for long-form content like in-depth articles or research papers. 

Providing insightful analysis, coherent narratives and in-depth exploration of topics remains challenging for AI as it simply lacks the depth of knowledge and subject matter expertise that human writers and experts possess. 

It cannot fully understand intricate or niche topics, leading to shallow and inaccurate content. It doesn’t possess humans' creative and reasoning abilities, either.

It can generate content based on patterns and data but may struggle with producing truly innovative or emotionally resonant content.

Engaging storytelling, humor and emotional connections are often best crafted by human writers.

Dig deeper: AI can’t write this: 10 ways to AI-proof your content for years to come

Amplifying bias and stereotyping

AI algorithms learn from historical data, which can contain biases. 

If not carefully monitored and trained, AI content generators can perpetuate biases, stereotypes or discriminatory language, harming your brand's reputation.

Trying to cut costs with AI can backfire

For these reasons, looking to AI as a cost-cutting opportunity can be risky. 

Leaning too heavily on technology can undermine quality, customer trust and employee morale, as AI lacks humans' creativity, adaptability and nuanced decision-making. 

It can lead to errors, impersonal interactions and a loss of competitive advantage in industries where human expertise and customer experience are paramount. 

A balanced approach that combines AI's efficiency with human oversight and creativity is key to sustainable cost management while maintaining quality and customer satisfaction.

Keep human content creators and editors in your content creation process.

These professionals can ensure that your content aligns with your brand's unique voice and maintains a consistent tone throughout, retaining the desired brand identity and aligning messaging with your business goals.

Dig deeper: SEO scalability: We have a problem

Finding machine balance in 2024: Humans in the loop

A harmonious balance between humans and machines is key to a successful content strategy. 

While AI technologies offer incredible efficiencies and opportunities, it's crucial to understand where humans and machines can complement each other effectively. 

Check out these intersections between humans and AI throughout the content creation process and how we can work better together.

1. Editorial process balance

In crafting compelling content, humans and machines can find their equilibrium at various points in the editorial process. 

AI can be invaluable for initial research, data analysis and even generating first drafts. 

However, the human must drive, especially during the later editing stages, where context, style and authenticity are refined.

2. Iteration and collaboration

Improvement is a continuous process. Collaboration between humans and AI is crucial for optimizing content output. 

Humans can provide valuable feedback to AI systems, guiding them better to understand nuances, preferences and evolving trends. 

In return, AI can assist humans by automating repetitive tasks and offering data-driven insights that inform content decisions. 

3. Search experiences begin and end with humans

In SEO, it's essential to remember that search engines ultimately serve humans. Content optimization must begin with an understanding of human intent and user behavior. 

Once the content is optimized, humans will engage with it, so a human-centric approach ensures that the content:

• Meets their expectations.
• Answers their questions.
• Provides value.

4. Local and cultural relevance

Content must often cater to diverse audiences across regions and cultures. 

AI translation tools can aid in content localization for businesses targeting global audiences. 

However, human translators and cultural experts must ensure the content is accurately translated, culturally relevant and sensitive. 

With their cultural awareness and contextual understanding, humans can tailor content to resonate with specific demographics and audiences in each location. 

Dig deeper: The best AI tools for global SEO expansion

5. Creative ideation and strategy

AI is a great assist in generating content ideas based on data analysis, but from there, it's human creativity that sparks innovative content concepts and strategic direction. 

Humans bring the ability to think outside the box, connect disparate ideas and envision unique content angles that resonate with audiences.

6. Personalization and user segmentation

AI can analyze vast amounts of data to segment audiences effectively. 

However, humans play a critical role in interpreting these segments and tailoring content to meet each audience group's needs and preferences.

Human insights help create personalized content that resonates on a personal level.

7. Content distribution and optimization 

While AI can automate content distribution across various channels and optimize posting schedules, humans provide strategic oversight to ensure content aligns with the broader marketing goals. 

They can also respond to real-time engagement on social media or other platforms, adapting the content strategy as needed.

8. Content strategy growth and maturation

Developing a content strategy should be ongoing. Humans can:

• Evaluate the success of content initiatives.
• Understand audience feedback.
• Adjust the content strategy accordingly. 

AI can assist by providing data-driven recommendations, but human strategists ensure the strategy aligns with overarching business objectives.

9. Content repurposing and diversification

Humans can provide the creative ideas and strategic direction needed when scaling content efforts or diversifying content formats. 

From there, AI is a great assistant in generating additional content efficiently, whether as blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts.

10. Content accessibility and inclusivity

Ensuring that content is accessible to all audiences, including those with disabilities, is critical. Accessibility ensures that all individuals have equal access to digital content regardless of physical or cognitive abilities. 

Many countries have enacted laws and regulations that mandate digital accessibility, with non-compliance putting you at risk of legal consequences, fines, or lawsuits. While AI can help identify accessibility issues, humans are essential for implementing solutions and ensuring content meets accessibility standards. 

The future of content strategy lies in the synergy between AI, people and process. 

While AI streamlines processes, analyzes data and generates content efficiently, the human touch infuses content with creativity, authenticity and emotional resonance. 

In addition, it is essential that organizations find a balance between cost reduction and cost optimization. Reduction is often a short-term goal and limits content and creativity into silos. 

Optimization allows humans and machines to work together toward a common goal and reduces costs without compromising efficiency and results. 

Start with human intent, leverage AI for efficiency, and you'll end up with human-centric optimization inside a content strategy that can thrive in 2024 and beyond.

The post AI-generated content in 2024: How to excel and where to exercise caution appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Visual optimization must-haves for AI-powered search

Most language language models (LLMs) can now proficiently interpret and translate text into images. As these models evolve to acquire knowledge directly from images, optimizing your assets becomes imperative. 

The surge in visual search tools – such as Google’s “Search by image” feature, Google Lens, and more – has shifted visual optimization from a mere recommendation into an essential requirement.

It now plays a pivotal role in influencing search engine results and ensuring a smooth and engaging user experience.

Amid this visual shift, future-proofing your digital assets becomes crucial for improving user engagement and influencing diverse SERPs.

This article explores the critical need for a well-prepared strategy to maximize the benefits of visual search. It also outlines an action plan for safeguarding your digital assets in the future.

How brands can optimize digital assets

Search engines are becoming increasingly better at understanding context and intent.

As a result, your visibility on the SERPs ties directly into how well-optimized your digital assets are for your target audience. 

Google uses various tools and benchmarks to determine what makes a great digital asset, many of which are driven by sophisticated AI models. 

Here’s what your business needs to pay attention to when optimizing visual assets.

Relevance

Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the page’s content, including captions and image titles. 

Wherever possible, make sure images are placed near relevant text and on pages that are relevant to the image subject matter. 

Adding relevant alt-text to describe the image can also improve optimization.

SafeSearch

Ensuring that your images are not flagged as unsafe for certain audiences allows them to appear across search and improves the overall visibility of your assets. 

Determine if your images are safe for public consumption before adding them to your website.

Image quality

Even though Google favors high-quality images, the latter can impact the performance of your webpages, specifically page speed. 

Strike a balance between quality (resolution and size) and page performance to deliver a fast, high-quality on-page experience.

Entity identification

The suite of AI models that Google uses to determine the relevance of an asset looks for unique entities that provide context to images. 

Following entity identification, Google can match an image to a relevant query/search. Structured data/schema is the key ingredient to drive entity optimization of your images.

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A 3-step visual optimization strategy for enterprises and multi-location businesses 

Step 1: Centralize your assets

Asset consistency across various channels and devices (e.g., mobile, desktop, tablet) is fundamental to quality user experience. 

By organizing your assets in a centrally accessible manner, such as a digital asset manager (DAM) platform, you can bring about ease of maintenance for assets used across your locations and channels. 

This allows you to:

• Make global changes.
• Reduce redundancies by eliminating duplication of assets.
• Standardize design and aesthetics across channels.

Step 2: Optimize assets for all channels

Once your assets have been centralized, it’s time to ensure they are optimized for your website as well as search. 

To optimize assets effectively, start with clear, concise filenames under 50 characters, avoiding special characters. 

Specifically for images:

• Choose WebP or AVIF formats for faster loading times without sacrificing quality while improving page speed.
• Prioritize using high-resolution, original images to enhance user experience and reinforce your brand identity. 
• Ensure images comply with Google's safe search guidelines for a professional, user-friendly experience.

Step 3: Convert assets into entities

Assets have transformed from static website files to dynamic entities with their own authority and ranking signals. 

This shift is evident in tools like Google Lens, where Google analyzes images to offer search results aligned with the user's intent. 

Google also tailors image results based on specific queries, providing different sets of images from the same business to match user intent, as seen when searching for terms like “holiday getaways,” “beach vacation,” or “kids resort.”

Looking at the trajectory of search and the data required to perform these tasks, entity optimization is poised to take center stage, which means you must treat every asset on your website as an entity.

Start by performing an entity audit across your website, allowing you to identify entity gaps and improve your knowledge graph. 

For an image to be understood as a unique entity, it cannot have duplicates. Centralization of assets allows you to use a single optimized image across your locations and channels. 

Add structured data to your assets to help define each entity and provide deeper context. Complete optimization by adding alt tags and metadata, then ensure each file name is relevant to that asset and that the asset is relevant to the content on the page. 

Dig deeper: Advanced image SEO: A secret manual

Optimizing for visual search: A case study

Whenever you deploy strategies that improve the user experience, the impact on performance is overwhelmingly positive. 

A great experience will almost always translate to better visibility, more users and better engagement.

Nantasket Beach Resort, a resort on the South Shore of Boston, ​was seeking to enhance the discoverability and visibility of its digital assets. 

The challenges we had to overcome were that the business had multiple duplicate images, images weren’t optimized for search across devices, and their image management and governance had to improve overall. 

We employed a three-step strategy to drive the visibility of their images on search. 

• Step 1: Centralization
  • We took the images they had across their locations and channels and centralized them on the DAM. With central governance, assets were de-duplicated and treated as entities to be used everywhere the brand needed them. This helped with an improved user experience and better image management. 
• Step 2: Optimization
  • We ensured the images met Google’s image SEO guidelines (quality and safe search) and page experience for fast loading across devices.  
• Step 3: Defining entities
  • By removing duplicates and optimizing the assets with schema, meta details and entity tags, we converted the asset to an entity on search. 

The impact of the visual search optimization of assets was significant, and the business saw:

• 72% increase in image-rich results.
• 5% increase in overall impressions.
• 70% of images on SERPs were from the domain deployed.
• Local pages and their images ranked on top for Search ​Generative ​Experience ​results.

A 3-step strategy for visual asset optimization and improved search visibility

The journey toward a more visual and interactive digital experience is just beginning. 

With continuous advancements in AI and machine learning, the capabilities of visual search tools are bound to expand. 

By optimizing images in conjunction with textual content, employing advanced SEO techniques, and adapting to evolving visual search trends, you can significantly improve your brand’s online visibility, user engagement, and overall digital footprint.

The foreseeable future holds promise for those ready to adapt, optimize, and evolve in stride with the advancements shaping the digital search landscape.

The post Visual optimization must-haves for AI-powered search appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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9 ways to stay on top of the latest SEO trends

In the fast-paced age of readily available information, staying on top of your game is crucial. And, if your game is SEO, there are many ways to stay on top of news, trends, tips and tricks to keep you sharp and informed.

From free, visual-driven guides and videos on YouTube and other training-specific platforms like Google Skillshop, all the way down to tried-and-true case studies, trial-and-errors, and walk-throughs of what works in the real world (and what doesn’t), abundant free knowledge shapes our industry. It also keeps top brands at the forefront of the digital ecosystem.

Here are my nine top ways to stay on top of news, changes, and transformative ideas that will keep your SEO sharp and your knowledge at its best throughout your career.

1. Read SEO publications and blogs

It seems obvious and is probably the most common (you’re clearly reading one right now), but its value may be unparalleled.

Using the same platforms we research and troubleshoot every day – search engines – we can quickly find articles on diverse topics, aiding our understanding of complex concepts and new ideas. And we can do this anytime from anywhere with an internet connection. 

We can also subscribe to newsletters by many of these publications, so the news literally comes to us.

In addition to Search Engine Land, other publications worth your time include Search Engine Roundtable and brand-backed blogs, such as Semrush, Ahrefs and Moz.

One of the highest-regarded online sources for details pertaining to Google Search is the Google Search Central Blog (formerly the Google Webmaster Central Blog).

Subscribing to blogs and using Feedly or similar curation feeds can help you easily access and organize your reading resources for daily updates.

2. Webinars and YouTube

You can pretty much learn anything on YouTube. The most popular video search engine in the world is a trove of potentially life-changing knowledge and guidance. 

This includes SEO and digital marketing knowledge and guidance.

Whether it’s to learn about a specific, complex aspect of SEO or to delve into industry news or fresh tactics, YouTube offers a myriad of user-generated content that proves priceless to millions every day.

Some of the most valuable videos on YouTube (at least concerning digital marketing and other specific areas of expertise) are pre-recorded webinars. 

These webinars are typically administered by brands and/or thought leaders in their respective niches and recorded when first broadcast, then published on YouTube for consumption by people on-demand. Use them to your advantage.

3. Podcasts

The growth of podcasts over the last decade has been incredible. 

What once seemed limited to obscure interviews on eclectic or controversial topics have evolved into educational content, spanning topics from peanut allergies to murder mysteries and everything in between, including SEO.

Some solid SEO- and digital marketing-focused podcasts include: 

• Branded Search (and Beyond) with Jason Barnard. 
• The SEO Mindset Podcast. 
• Marketing O’Clock.

Do some research and find one or two that you get the most value (and entertainment) from, and stay in tune with news and trends when it’s convenient for you.

4. Follow thought leaders

One of the most powerful entries on this list, SEO thought leaders help shape the digital marketing industry and what we learn and strategize around constantly. Most of these folks are sharing their thoughts and reflections daily, too.

You can see evidence of it anywhere on social media – X and LinkedIn are some of the most potent platforms for real-time SEO tips and tricks.

There are so many high-octane players in the SEO community. Anyone not following at least a handful of these thought leaders is simply doing themselves a disservice. 

Some of my favorite people who focus on SEO daily are:

• Lily Ray
• Marie Haynes
• Mike King
• Cyrus Shepard
• Glenn Gabe
• Brodie Clark

Official Googlers tend to be helpful follows as well:

• John Mueller
• Danny Sullivan
• Martin Splitt

These thought leaders can keep you updated and inspire you to do revolutionary things. You can usually follow them in more places than just X.

Many will become industry friends if you engage with them online and whenever you see them at conferences, too.

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5. Online groups and communities

Online forums and communities were once the lifeblood of SEO communication and troubleshooting – and they still have big impacts today. 

Classic spaces like WebmasterWorld still drive discussion and engagement, as well as sites like Webmasters Stack Exchange, the SEO Forum, and the longstanding Moz community. 

The emergence of social media and other industry communication platforms has crowded the slate of troubleshooting forums, but you can still find nearly any answer you need either way. 

6. Conferences

Conferences offer a unique chance to listen, learn, and, if you're interested, speak or present.

Typically a multiple-day affair with many of SEO’s (and other marketing channels’) most popular and insightful subject matter experts, these opportunities aren’t free, but their value is priceless.

You can most definitely find a reputable one relatively close to where you live and work or attend a conference remotely (and usually at a reduced rate) depending on each conference’s options for attending and price point.

Some of the best conferences are:

• SMX
• PubCon
• Mozcon

Conferences are investments your company should always get behind. They're great for networking with top professionals, and they provide an authentic way to meet your online SEO connections in person.

7. Use SEO tools

Tools help us learn to be faster and more efficient, but they also shape the SEO industry.

Most digital marketing SaaS tools are valuable for:

• Figuring out unique issues for clients’ digital presence.
• Simplifying tasks.
• Discovering new ways to identify and remedy things in our day-to-day.

Their content teams also consistently produce rock-solid content for us to use to our advantage.

8. Use search and its features

We can use all the tools available and read hundreds of articles a week, but if we aren’t working in search in real-time, our knowledge will always remain limited.

We need to use all the tools and tricks to make our job easy, but using, testing, and exploring Google Search and all other relevant search engines will forever remain critical.

Google is always testing new things (so don’t fall in love with any changes you notice), but there’s only one way to know what you think is the best search experience.

Test, experiment, hypothesize – then test some more.

9. Do work!

There’s really only one way to become a good SEO. And that’s being an SEO.

Part of being an SEO is keeping up with news, trends, and innovations. 

Learning and growing in the trenches is the most effective and only true way to earn your stripes.

The changes I have seen up to this point over 13 years have been incredible and, at times, even daunting.

And it’s all just beginning.

Do the work. Stay in the know.

And enjoy the ride.

The post 9 ways to stay on top of the latest SEO trends appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Instagram Reminder Ads launch new features to boost reach

Instagram Reminder Ads are rolling out new features to help advertisers reach a wider audience:

• Instagram Stories visibility: Reminder Ads can now be featured within Instagram Stories, allowing businesses to increase visibility and improve efficiency.
• Ads Manager set up: Reminder ads can now be created directly in Ads Manager, which removes the previous requirement of only using organic posts to create a reminder ad.

The new capabilities, which also make it easier to create Reminder Ads, will be launched by the end of October.

Why we care. Expanding your reach to engage with more potential customers can boost brand recognition, leading to more conversions and a better return on investment (ROI). Streamlining the ad creation process also simplifies life for marketers, potentially saving them time and allowing them to concentrate on other important tasks.

What are Reminder Ads? Reminder Ads, launched by Instagram earlier this year, is an ad product designed specifically to enable advertisers to generate awareness, anticipation, and interest in upcoming launches, events, and special moments. Reminder ads give users the option to sign up for notifications about the events they’re interested in. People who opt in will receive three push notifications leading up to the event to help keep them informed and engaged.

Getting started. Once it’s available to your business, advertisers can boost an organic post or create a Reminder ad directly in Ads Manager.

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What Instagram is saying. An Instagram spokesperson said in a statement:

• "People come to Instagram to discover new brands, products or upcoming events."
• "[So we introduced Reminder Ads] to give businesses more ways to get discovered and form meaningful connections."

Deep dive. For more information visit the Instagram Help Center.

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How to integrate generative AI in your SEO

As the initial buzz around AI dies down, the practical use of generative AI is now well-established in the content creation world. 

In theory, this creates a huge content marketing opportunity. However, as we are seeing, there are many pitfalls from an SEO perspective. 

This article outlines how we are primed to make such mistakes, ways Google has tackled this historically and how to safely integrate generative AI in your SEO and content marketing. 

Pitfalls and problems

Human beings are hardwired to seek the path of least resistance. 

Generative AI tools seemingly make it easy to write an expert-level article about any topic. This allows websites or authors to assume unwarranted expert status and pump out legions of articles on almost anything. 

This is the path of least resistance for content production, and on the surface, it seems an attractive proposition with some huge SEO opportunities.  

I have sat in marketing meetings with AI consultants advising this very strategy. One consultant called the approach “automate and dominate.” I was there to temper such blind enthusiasm and ensure no SEO mistakes were made. 

This creates a problem for consumers looking for the best information and for search engines who need to ensure that the best information is promoted accordingly. 

SEO history lesson

To look into the SEO future, we have to look at the well-documented SEO past. 

In the early days, around 1999-2000, it was easy to manipulate Google with links and content.

However, Google soon caught up and plugged the main problems of low-quality links and mass-produced, low-quality content with the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. 

Today, it is easy to look at generative AI and believe these tools provide an opportunity to create lots of content quickly and grab a greater slice of organic search traffic. 

However, the battle-hardened Google of 2023 differs from the Google of old. 

High-quality and human-first content is already baked into the search algorithm, and recent updates have only served to confirm that. 

Google is ahead of the curve here, and we have already reviewed several sites that have seen recent dips in performance after helpful content updates, some with up to a 70% drop in organic traffic. 

70% traffic drop – Pop culture site targeting students

There was nothing wrong with this site. It was not spammy, but it also did nothing unique. It was just the same content you could pick up from several sources. 

Reviewing the losses, it seems that rankings were lost to sites that were more expert or relevant for the topics. 

This is an existential threat to sites of this manner that rely on organic traffic but only pump out relatively generic content that could be found on many other sites. 

If SEO is central to your marketing strategy, then sensible integration of generative AI, rather than full automation, is the only sustainable strategy. 

What does Google want?

To understand what your content strategy should look like, we must consider what Google is trying to achieve and aim at that. 

Fortunately, Google communicates fairly clearly what they want within their documentation on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. 

If you want to do a really deep dive, then take a look at the Search Quality Rater Guidelines (but at 176 pages is a somewhat time-consuming read). 

Fortunately, E-E-A-T summarizes the philosophy for the rest of us more concisely.

I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here, but the key points are as follows: 

• Experience: Personal experience should be clearly demonstrated in content.
• Expertise: Content should be based on an individual’s proven expertise.
• Authority: The author and website should be an authority on the topic.
• Trust: The author and website should be trustworthy. 

The key here is to factor this into your SEO goals. 

• Have content that is based on your real human expertise and experience.
• Ensure you have the technical aspects of your UX, website design and SEO in a good place. 

An AI analogy

The problem with SEO and generative AI reminds me of a scene in one of my favorite movies: Good Will Hunting. 

The protagonist, Will, is a genius who can consume, remember and regurgitate raw knowledge and data unlike anyone else alive – much like ChatGPT. 

Will knows everything to know, but it is all book smarts. He has no real-world experience. He has never lived, he has never loved, he has never lost someone close to him. He has never truly experienced any of what he knows. 

The AI content tools are a lot like this. They know everything about everything, they have crazy book smarts but no real experience, and they never will have. 

That is the opportunity where you can come in and create something unique by integrating these two components – your experience and expertise with the rapid output and breadth of knowledge provided by AI. 

Dig deeper: AI can’t write this: 10 ways to AI-proof your content for years to come

A strategy to safely use AI in your content production

The key here is to think of AI as an intelligent assistant rather than a complete means to an end. 

If you take the path-of-least resistance approach, as most will, your content will never satisfy Google’s criteria. Worse still, you will create nothing that Google can’t answer directly with their own Search Generative Experience (lose-lose). 

By combining your expertise and experience with generative AI, you can create content that is greater than the sum of its parts and almost certainly more significant than anything a generative AI can automate and produce alone. 

A simple SEO SWOT analysis that looks at your competitors will allow you to identify SEO opportunities, as most sites are just not doing this as well as they could yet. 

The benefits here extend beyond content creation. Whether you rely on SEO or PPC, or some other traffic generation, your engagement and conversion rates will rocket. 

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Tasks where generative AI can be helpful

This is not to say that generative AI is not truly helpful. 

There are several tasks in the content ideation and creation process where generative AI tools like ChatGPT can radically help you speed up and improve your output. 

1. Ideation 

ChatGPT simplifies generating ideas and a simple prompt asking for topic ideas will generate several results. 

For example: “Can you suggest some article topics around generative AI and SEO?” 

This produced around 20 articles in 10 categories in around 30 seconds. Each of these could then be further explored (using your own expertise and experience). 

2. Research and information gathering

AI can be used to quickly sift through vast amounts of data or provide summaries of detailed articles or scientific studies. This can help you develop deep, well-researched articles in a short amount of time. 

You can also use ChatGPT to cross-check facts and provide sources to ensure the information shared is trustworthy. 

It is always worth double-checking before you publish, but even with this step, you will speed up your workflow and cover more ground. 

3. Content drafting

With a topic and a rough outline, generative AI can quickly create drafts for you to polish and refine. You can also create variants in different tones, styles or from different perspectives to pick the very best approach. 

4. Editing and proofing

AI can check your grammar, review content readability and suggest improvements in flow and structure. 

5. SEO

AI can help simplify the optimization of an article by suggesting keywords and optimizing the article and metadata. 

6. E-E-A-T 

AI tools like ChatGPT can also review your content from the perspective of E-E-A-T criteria and suggest improvements to ensure you hit all of these important points for modern SEO content. 

Tip: I would generally recommend tackling each element of the E-E-A-T criteria separately here, as you can get some whacky results trying to get feedback here. 

7. A/B testing

AI makes it easy to create multiple versions of content headlines, calls-to-action or even an entire content piece and then use these to split tests for engagement. 

How to review your content 

Google has outlined what they are looking for with E-E-A-T and also provides a series of questions you can use to review your content at Google Search Central.

Google certainly provides a comprehensive set of questions to review content. Still, for your average content writer or marketing team, this is almost an insane level of overkill that will tie you up in knots. 

To make this more actionable, I have created a simple set of 10 questions that covers the author, content, website and E-E-A-T and helps you ensure your content is something that Google will want to surface in the search results. 

Author

• Is it clear who authored the content?
• Is there detailed author information available?

Content 

• Is the content original, useful and substantive? 
• Is the content different or substantially better than other pieces out there?
• Does the content provide a new viewpoint or way to view the topic?

Website

• Is the publishing website credible with a good reputation?

Experience

• Does the author have first-hand experience on this topic?

Expertise

• Does the author have demonstrable expertise on the subject?

Authority

• Is the author (and or website) a known expert and source for this subject?

Trust

• Is the page accurate and the facts reliable?

You can also use tools like ChatGPT to help you answer these questions and find out more about the author, review the content, review competing content and much more. 

You just have to get creative in your approach, ask these tools questions and review the responses. 

AI in SEO: Intelligent assistance 

The obvious pitfall with generative AI and SEO is falling into the path-of-least-resistance trap. 

SEO history has shown us that these low-value approaches, while you may generate some small, transient wins, won’t win the more significant, long-term battles. 

Instead of looking to automate and dominate, use AI tools as an intelligent assistant rather than a complete means to an end. 

Automated content will never satisfy Google’s ever more robust criteria. Worse still, you will create nothing that Google can’t answer directly with their own Search Generative Experience, making your content irrelevant.  

By combining your expertise and experience with generative AI, you can create content greater than the sum of its parts and almost certainly greater than anything a generative AI can produce alone. 

The benefits here extend beyond content creation, and whether you rely on SEO or PPC or something other traffic generation, your engagement and conversion rates will skyrocket. 

The post How to integrate generative AI in your SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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4 ways to find unique content ideas from real-life insights

Marketers often work at a distance from frontline operations.

We may not directly build the product, deal with angry customer phone calls, or be out in the field selling.

We might even be at an agency, an additional level removed from the shop floor or direct interactions with the target customer. 

How, then, can you:

• Know what to write about?
• Insert meaningful insights into your landing pages or ad creative?
• Effectively persuade your target audience that you are the clear choice over your competitors? 

Digging new wells to find new content

One of the best writing tips I’ve ever received is to “dig new wells.” That is, to get content no one else is writing, you need to establish different sources. 

Too often, content writing for the web starts with the search results. While it makes sense to look at what’s ranking for your target keywords, it should not be your only source of information. 

The rise of 10x content and the Skyscraper Technique led some content writers to rely on rewording and combining top pages into a long, SEO-focused page. But it’s not getting outside sources of information. 

For me, the best type of content for the web comes from outside the web. Pulling content ideas, inspiration, and even language from real-life sources can help your content stand out, resonate with your target audience, and even alleviate any concerns they have. 

Plus, combining outside-sourced content with an SEO’s skills in finding keywords, structuring content, and generating links can form a powerful piece of content that performs nicely. 

Here are a few ways to dig new wells to find new content. 

1. Source content from employees

The single greatest source of content is from front-line employees. Depending on your business, you might have: 

Salespeople

• Salespeople earn their living by earning trust, highlighting benefits, and alleviating fears of potential customers or clients.
• Any successful salesperson has already worked out a script based on common pain points and exactly what message can help convince people to buy.

Customer service representatives (CSRs)

• As frontline workers who come in contact the most with existing customers, they know the most common questions and objections people have.
• If a CSR gets asked the same question regularly (say once per week or greater), the answer to that question should become content on your site. 

Those doing the work

• Another great source of content is from those doing the actual work. Visit the factory floor, buy coffee for the production team, or go for a ride along with the installation team.
• By spending time with those who actually make your products or carry out your services, you will get a newfound understanding and appreciation for what they do.
• Plus, they should be able to provide great insights into how you are different than your competitors – whether it is better materials, unique processes, or attention to detail. 

Example of sourcing content from employees

I had a client in the agriculture industry who wanted to grow by getting their brand in front of more farmers. My main contact was a salesperson working in the field six days a week, traveling from farm to farm.

In some ways, he functioned more as a consultant, helping generate ideas and sharing best practices from others to help each farmer expand their operation. 

He would be the first to tell you he was not a great choice for writing new content for their website. Here’s what worked for us: I would get him on the phone while driving between farms, and he would rant.

For half an hour, he would brain-dump his thoughts on a certain product or service his company was offering. I was simply there to transcribe and ask follow-up questions. 

When it was time to write the website content, I found that the salesperson’s rants would form 80% of the page. I was merely there to edit and shape it into a logical flow and ensure it was optimized for search and conversions. 

Dig deeper: How to create local content that builds trust and drives sales

2. Source content from current customers

Another well of great content ideas is from your current customers or clients. They are your best source for entering the buyer’s mind and decision-making process. 

If possible, make it a habit to regularly interview some of your current customers. Ask them questions about: 

• Their pain points. 
• How they researched options.
• What mattered and didn’t matter to them as they made a decision.

You can sometimes use these stories as the basis for case studies or featured project pages for your site. At the very least, you will uncover phrases, words and concepts that can become integral parts of your website content and marketing efforts. 

Example of sourcing content from current customers

A few years back, I was working on a branding campaign for a furniture company. Their core business was selling through furniture stores; they saw an opportunity to increase sales by working with high-end interior designers. 

As we worked on drafting content for their website and marketing material, our team booked calls with a handful of interior designers with whom they currently worked. 

These phone calls were a wealth of information and insights into these interior designers’ pain points, goals and dreams. 

Some insights they provided were completely unknown to the furniture company. What we learned from these calls proved invaluable in shaping the website content.  

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3. Source content from past customers

Past customer reviews are among the easiest yet impactful wells to pull content ideas and language.

Whether past customers have left reviews on your Google Business Profile, Amazon, a third-party review site, or your own internal system, these are great sources of info about how the market views your product or service. 

Customer reviews are great because they provide a glimpse into your customer's thinking at scale – no need to interview them. Online reviews also collect the right language, pain points, and angles you may not have noticed. 

Whenever I take on a new local SEO client, I make it a point to read every review on their Google Business Profile. I like looking for trends and themes across the reviews and see anecdotally what really matters to customers. 

Google does pull out themes by seeing the top 10 topics or phrases mentioned in reviews.

You can take your reviews and put them in a sentiment analysis tool to see topics, trends, and talk points that you can share with your CSR or use in your marketing, advertising and website efforts. 

Example of sourcing content from past customers

One time, I was reading reviews for a new client in the home service industry.

A few reviews told a similar story: each mentioned the same salesperson by name and how professional and informational the salesperson was – especially compared to other companies. And each said a surprising detail: the salesperson gave a gift of local jam. 

One specific salesperson was doing this to make connections with his prospects, but it was leaving such an impact on customers that they mentioned it in their reviews.

When our client found out about this, they made it a standard across all sales staff, and we mentioned it as part of the online appointment scheduler. 

4. Source content from competitors 

A surprising source of content ideas can come from your competitors.

As we saw above, if online reviews for your own products or services can provide helpful insights for your marketing efforts,  what can you learn from reading the reviews of your competitors? A lot!

Find a few of your competitors and read every review of theirs that is three stars or lower. Bad or mixed reviews can provide a gold mine of information about what people don't like about your competitors.

These points can be used in your marketing efforts, as they are pain points your target audience has, and your competitors are not meeting. 

Example of sourcing content from competitors

While conducting competitive research for an outdoor structure company, I noticed their main competitors had a fair amount of indifferent reviews. As I read these reviews, I noticed themes. Most reviews mentioned:

• A lack of communication. 
• Misunderstandings about the delivery and installation process. 

I took this to the client, and we discussed how we could make their service better. The client worked on strengthening their already solid customer communication system. 

On the website, we invested in content to fully explain how they deliver and install their structures, answering every single question their CSR is regularly asked. 

Finally, we created a comprehensive guide on the entire sales process, from initial order through installation. We used this as a target for a remarketing campaign to help reengage with potential customers. 

Dig deeper: Competitor content analysis: Here’s what you can learn

Start creating new content today

To create content that no one is creating, you need to get different sources no one else can get.

Interview your employees and current customers. Summarize feedback from past customers and those disappointed with your competitors.

Gain valuable insights to tell your unique story and stand out.

Dig deeper: Tangential SEO: Using Google Bard to identify content ideas fast

The post 4 ways to find unique content ideas from real-life insights appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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September 2023 Google core update: A deep dive into personal knowledge panels and E-E-A-T enhancements

In July, Google released a massive update to the Knowledge Graph. We named it the E-E-A-T Knowledge Graph update and gave it the codename “Killer Whale” because it made a splash in the SERPs twice:

• In real time between July 14 and 18.
• As part of the September helpful content update.

A Knowledge Graph (Vault) update rarely occurs simultaneously with a ranking update, core or otherwise. SERP volatility has seldom coincided with Knowledge Graph volatility. Kalicube Pro has been measuring volatility since 2015 with our Knowledge Graph Sensor. 

The graph below shows a significant uptick in the depth of the Knowledge Graph between July 14 and 18.

As you’ll see, Google’s SERPs were hugely volatile on those days, too – for the first time ever. 

Checking the tools that provide historical data for SERP volatility, there is a huge peak between July 14 and 18. Accuranker and Advanced Web Ranking show that the volatility was significantly higher than during the subsequent core updates.

Algoroo indicates that July to August 2023 was the most intense and longest volatility since they started tracking in 2018.

So. Huge.

Some people reported changes to their Knowledge Panel in July. Still, Kalicube data shows changes to Knowledge Panels were not widespread in July (we analyzed over 100,000 rand SERPs containing Knowledge Panels). 

Please exercise caution when making assumptions and performing manual checks. The degree I earned in economics and statistical analysis taught me that generalizing from a particular, or several particulars, is a huge mistake.

The changes to Knowledge Panels happened during the September core update, as we will see.

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Knowledge Panels represent Google’s explicit understanding of named entities

Google cannot fully apply E-E-A-T signals to an article's author (writer) if it doesn’t explicitly understand the writer's identity. 

The Knowledge Panel is the visual representation of Google’s explicit understanding of the writer. Without a stable, information-rich, and non-duplicated Knowledge Panel, your work building and demonstrating the writer’s E-E-A-T credentials is significantly under-leveraged. 

The same approach applies to the company that owns and runs the website. 

Sidenote: Google changed some significant terms in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines (SQRG) in December 2022, including changing “website” to “website owner.”

“The website owner is the person, company, or organization responsible for a website,” according to Google’s SQRG. This definition clearly indicates they are looking for the named entity responsible for the website and its content.

2023 core updates, E-E-A-T, Knowledge Panels and the Knowledge Vault update

The September 2023 helpful content update introduced the changes made in the Knowledge Vault on the SERPs in the form of Knowledge Panels. 

The percentage of Personal Brand SERPs with a Knowledge Panel increased from 38% to more than 50% (a rise of more than a third). 

This is truly a Person update. For Corporations (and Organizations), the figure stayed steady at 40%. 

We know that helpful content updates focus on improving Google’s ability to deliver the best solution from the most credible source (a.k.a., E-E-A-T). 

Google’s July 2023 Knowledge Graph update added a layer to the September helpful content update. Google talks about “improved classification,” which is exactly what the Killer Whale update did to Person entities in the Knowledge Vault.

A quick aside: we now talk about N-E-E-A-T-T, adding “notability” and “transparency” to the mix. Without niche-level notability, you don’t stand out in your market. And without transparency, neither humans nor bots can understand who you are and why they should trust you. 

Importantly, notability does not mean what Wikipedia says it means. Consider notability as having enough impact in a particular field for a specific audience to warrant recognition. Well-targeted digital PR and placement of your content on relevant platforms that are authoritative in your niche are two ways to approach niche notability. 

Transparency simply means being open and honest. For example, having an easy-to-find and clear returns policy, privacy policy, cookie policy, About us page, etc.

Reliance on Wikipedia in Knowledge Panels dropped significantly

The percentage of Knowledge Panels on personal brand SERPs using descriptions from Wikipedia dropped from 77.7% in June 2023 to 50.4% in September.

For Corporations, the ratio remained steady: the percentages were 69.8% and 66.8% respectively.

Additionally, Google is expanding its horizons: the number of unique domains providing descriptions in Knowledge Panels or trusted sources has more than doubled.

Importantly, the relative importance of each non-Wikipedia platform has changed significantly.

Crunchbase has become much more important, and Google Books and IMDB are no longer dominant, which makes sense given the Knowledge Vault update I have described. 

But before you leap on Crunchbase, remember that Google will prioritize hyper-niche trusted sources for Knowledge Panels.

For example, Google has identified jasonbarnard.com as the trusted source for Boowa and Kwala. So, your strategy needs to be to go “hyper niche.” 

The Kalicube Pro database contains over 63,000 unique trusted sources and the 400 trusted sources we provide free on the site.

Avoid handing control of your brand narrative to a third party, like Wikipedia. A source the entity owns and controls, like a website, is ideal.

For example, kalicube.com is the trusted source for Kalicube, and Kalicube controls the information about the business instead of a third-party source.

What you need to do right now

Knowledge Panels are already the next big thing. The July 2023 E-E-A-T Knowledge Graph update is based on expanding, classifying, and identifying E-E-A-T-applicable entities. It is limited to people. 

The September 2023 helpful content update also prioritized Person entities and significantly reduced its dependency on Wikipedia for information it shows in Knowledge Panels for people.

For writer/author entities

If you are in any of these three situations:

• You missed the boat this time, and a Knowledge Panel still doesn’t trigger on your personal brand SERP. 
• You see incorrect information in the Knowledge Panel for your Person entity. 
• You lost a personal Knowledge Panel.

…then it’s time to work on the Knowledge Panels of your key Person entities to leverage as much E-E-A-T goodness as possible. 

It’s time to build your personal brand and get your “Google stamp of approval” in the form of a Knowledge Panel. 

Take action and actively educate Google about who you are and earn its trust. (Or get lost in the abyss of Internet darkness. 

For website owner entities

The next Knowledge Vault update will likely be the expansion, classification, and identification of E-E-A-T-applicable entities for Corporations and Organizations. 

For companies, businesses, corporations and people who double up as authors and website owners, it's time to build a brand around your entities, build understanding for Google and get a Knowledge Panel. 

Unless Google knows, likes and trusts you (through E-E-A-T), the next update spells disaster. 

When will the next update be?

From our historical data, the pattern for Entity updates is clear for the last eight years: December, February (or March), and July have consistently been the critical months. 

In each of the last five years, July has seen by far the most impactful updates.

Get ready. Our experience with thousands of Knowledge Panels is that you need to have all your corroboration straight six to eight weeks before the update. That update will be either February 2024 or July 2024. 

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