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SEO

Google August 2024 Core Update Rolling Out

Google has begun rolling out its August 2024 core update to improve search result quality by showing more genuinely useful content. The update is expected to take about a month to fully roll out and should benefit small, independent publishers creating original, relevant content.

🛑 But don’t get too excited or dejected just yet if you’ve been seeing some action in your Google Search Console. Less than 15 hours after the release of the core update, Google Search announced issues affecting a “large number of search results.”

They announced they’re fixing the issue with rankings and next update would be within 72 hours from Aug. 16th.

My Take: Do you believe in coincidences? Or is it a stall tactic to first gauge the views of how people are responding and then saying “bugs were fixed days ago,” so changes are all from the core update. Or “bugs caused the ranking fluctuations and it’s fixed now, so you should see what the core update should’ve done.” 🫣 

Refining AI Overviews for Maximum Impact

Albert Gouyet shares exciting developments in AI Overviews from July 2024. The focus is shifting towards more specialized and user-focused content, particularly for decision-making processes. Key changes include increased use of "When" statements to guide user thinking, emphasis on long-tail keywords, and integration of facets for filtering results. Some of the interesting insights:

• AI Overviews grew from 8% to 12% of search results in July.

• Healthcare maintained a high AIO presence around 65-68% for most of July.

• Insurance jumped from 15% to over 35% in AI Overview presence in the second half of July.

• Versus Tables showed a 175% increase in average daily occurrences from June to July.

• AI Overviews window sizes shrunk by an additional 12.5% during July, following June's 13% reduction.

Google is rolling out new AI Overview features globally, including a revamped link display for desktop and mobile. Users can now save AI Overviews for quick access later, and there's a new simpler language mode for some overviews in the US. Google also notes that while AI Overviews are logged in Search Console, they're not separated and shown in performance reports.

A/B Test for Better Search Engine Performance

The Bing Webmaster Blog dives into the power of A/B testing for improving SEO performance and boosting search engine rankings. They explain how implementing IndexNow and Microsoft Clarity (see gif below) can accelerate data collection and provide valuable insights into user behavior, allowing for more efficient and effective optimization of your website. It also discusses how to A/B test title tags, meta descriptions, and headings to find the most effective variations for SEO.

My Take: If you haven’t tried out Clarity, it’s a killer tool and FREE. You do need to add its script code to your site, but it’s like adding Google Analytics.

SEO Ripples

• Reddit is gearing up to roll out AI-powered search features to improve content discovery on the platform. The announcement came alongside impressive Q2 2024 financial results, showing a 54% revenue growth (thanks Google!). Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, shared that AI will soon be used to summarize and recommend content. There’s no specific timeline on this feature yet, just “later this year.”

• Maggie Harrison Dupré reports on a new AI-generated local news site called OkayNWA in Northwestern Arkansas. The site, created by app developer Jay Price, uses AI "reporters" to scrape the web for local happenings and publish low-stakes content like event information and business updates. The site intentionally avoids controversial topics, focusing on "events and fun and good times. Check out the OkayNWA here.

• Matt G. Southern outlines 13 steps to improve crawling and indexing, including optimizing page loading speed, improving Core Web Vitals scores, strengthening internal link structure, and submitting sitemaps to Google. He also covers updating robots.txt files, checking canonicalization, performing site audits, and eliminating duplicate content and redirect chains.

AI

Made by Google 2024 Event Recap

Morgan Little from TechCrunch dives into Google's latest hardware and AI innovations, revealed at their 2024 "Made by Google" event. The highlights include the new Pixel 9 phones and the integration of Google's Gemini AI.

Gemini AI will help users generate emails on the fly with a more natural conversational interface. There are new AI-powered tools for photo editing and a feature that will summarize your calls. The other big feature is Gemini Live that allows for real-time conversational AI discussions like OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode. See more about Gemini’s integration in the Google Blog.

And if you’re an influencer in Google’s Team Pixel program, don’t forget that you can’t feature other phones nor show preference to others.

xAI’s Grok-2 Beta Release with Image Generation

Grok-2 is here, and it's setting new benchmarks in the AI landscape! The latest models, Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, bring advancements in reasoning, coding, and chat capabilities. These models are now available on 𝕏 and will soon be accessible via an enterprise API.

Grok image-generation uses Black Forest Lab’s Flux 1 AI and allows users to create and share images directly on X. The Verge also reports on the lack of restrictions on the content generated that has already sparked concerns. Early examples show AI-generated images of political figures in controversial scenarios, raising questions about the potential spread of misinformation.

Using AI as Your Business Consultant

Ole Lehmann and Michael Stelzner explore how entrepreneurs can leverage AI as a virtual business consultant. They suggest using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to tackle various business challenges, from creating sales pitches to understanding legal documents. While AI can't replace human experts entirely, it can quickly bring you to a 70-80% knowledge level on various topics, enabling faster iteration and go-to-market strategies.

My Take: Definitely some useful things in here that can help jumpstart other things that chatting with AI can do.

AI Ripples

• Midjourney has released a new unified AI image editor on the web. The updated interface combines existing features like inpainting and outpaining into a single view, making editing AI-generated images more seamless. A new virtual brush tool allows for more precise inpainting. The editor is now available to users who have created at least 10 images on the platform.

• Aubree Smith explores AI disclaimers on social media and the debate around responsibility and transparency. She highlights how platforms like Meta, YouTube, and TikTok are implementing disclosure tools, while emphasizing that brands ultimately bear the responsibility for maintaining audience trust. Smith provides examples of how companies like MANGO and Toys"R"Us are navigating AI disclosures, and advises brands to consider their audience when deciding on disclosure practices.

• Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, shares his controversial take on AI startups and scraping content. He suggested a "move fast and break things" approach for AI entrepreneurs: use copyrighted content first, worry about legal consequences later. Build your product, and if it takes off, hire lawyers to clean up the mess.

• Matt Southern reports on a study revealing a mismatch between ChatGPT's training data and its real-world uses. While the AI's training heavily features news articles and encyclopedias, users primarily employ it for creative writing and brainstorming. This gap suggests ChatGPT may struggle with current events or niche topics.

MARKETING

How to Do a Social Media Audit in 6 Steps (with Template)

Kristen McCormick shares a guide on conducting a social media audit in six steps. She emphasizes the importance of regular audits to maintain accuracy, improve security, control brand consistency, and guide data-driven decisions across multiple platforms. She also provides a handy spreadsheet template divided into tabs for profiles, content, audience, performance, and competitive analysis.

14 UX Design Examples for Inspiration

Sydney Go shares some great UX design inspiration and highlights 14 examples from big brands like Apple, Netflix, and Spotify. Sydney breaks down what makes each one special, from Apple's sleek minimalism to Spotify's personalized playlists. She also explains what good UX design is all about - stuff like usability, functionality, and accessibility.

How The Hustle Got 43,876 More Clicks

Curt del Principe reveals how The Hustle newsletter boosted their email clicks by a whopping 43,876 in just one quarter. The secret? A clever A/B testing strategy that goes beyond the basics. They send two subject line variations to 30% of subscribers each, then blast the winner to the remaining 40% an hour later. And here's the kicker - they focus on click-through rate instead of open rate, segment their audience, and add a dash of "WTF factor" to jolt readers out of autopilot.

Marketing Ripples

• Meta's team is rolling out new web features for Threads to help creators and businesses manage their content more effectively. They're introducing insights to track post performance and audience demographics, allowing users to save multiple drafts (up to 100), and testing a scheduling feature for planning future posts.

• The FTC is cracking down on fake reviews and deceptive practices. The sweeping regulation prohibits businesses from creating, buying, or incentivizing fake reviews. It also requires clear disclosure of connections between reviewers and companies. The FTC is taking aim at review manipulation tactics like threatening customers over negative feedback or artificially inflating popularity metrics. Set to take effect in about two months, this rule gives the FTC power to fine violators and should push businesses to audit their review practices.

DIGITAL PR / LINK BUILDING

How to Find Journalists to Cover Your Story

Vince Nero shares insights on finding the right journalists to cover your story. He walks through using media databases, Google News searches, and social media to identify relevant reporters. He emphasizes vetting potential contacts by checking if they still work at the publication, cover the right beat, and haven't already written about your topic. He also provides helpful tips on uncovering contact information and crafting personalized pitches that resonate with each journalist's interests.

How Links Impact Organic Results and Local Packs

Joy Hawkins discusses link building for local SEO, sharing insights from her agency's experiments. She explains how links impact both organic search results and local pack rankings differently. She found that a single well-placed link with keyword-rich anchor text can significantly boost organic rankings, sometimes jumping from 10th to 3rd position within weeks.

However, the same link only slightly improved local pack rankings. This suggests that while link building is crucial for organic search visibility, it may not be as impactful for businesses primarily focused on local pack rankings.

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Local Profits Course - Rank and Rent without GBP

Joe & Mike Brusca, along with Jon Dykstra from Fat Stacks Blog, launched a new "Local Profits" course that introduces a new "Leapfrog Rank & Rent Method" method to create passive income through small local websites.

The approach involves building simple 5-page microsites targeting local businesses, then renting them out for $100-$500+ monthly. All without needing to bother with creating a Google Business Profile. The course includes all the training, tools, and templates to help users replicate the system. There will be 3 additional live AMA’s for students, so it’s only available for a limited time.

My Take: I went through the Local Profits course and it’s beginner-friendly, so if you’ve never created a local site before, they walk you through it all. You can follow along their over-the-shoulder build of a local site going through all their steps. They also share some more advanced tactics for link building like cloud stacks, but you don’t need to do that.

Check out the Local Profits course now. There’s only 36 hours left before they stop accepting new students.

Google Search Console Bulk Data Export

Mike Ginley explains how to use the new bulk data export feature in Google Search Console and how to integrate it with BigQuery and Google Looker Studio for streamlined SEO reporting. He walks through the entire setup process, from enabling bulk exports in Search Console to using SQL in BigQuery and creating automated reports in Looker Studio.

Google Trending Now Updates

Google Trends has updates to its Trending Now tool to provide more timely and localized insights. It now shows how users discover emerging trends in real time. There’s a new forecasting engine to access trends data that's refreshed every 10 minutes and is available in over 100 countries, including specific regions within 40 of those countries. The update also allows for greater customization, letting you filter trends by location, time frame, and activity status to pinpoint exactly what you’re looking for.

CASE STUDY

Does Having an Address on Your Website Impact Your Local Ranking on Google?

Colan Nielsen from Sterling Sky shares an interesting case study on the impact of adding a business address to a website. The team worked with a service area business that ranked well for their main keyword (e.g.furnace repair) but struggled when the city name was added (e.g. furnace repair boston). After adding the business address to the footer, contact page, and about us page, rankings improved significantly within weeks. Nielsen notes that this is a common oversight for service businesses without physical locations.

BUSINESS IDEAS

SEO Proposals with Expert Tips and Template

Chris Haines shares insights on crafting winning SEO proposals in this article. He breaks down the key components of an effective proposal, including a clear structure, tailored recommendations, and strategic pricing. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the client's needs and demonstrating expertise through case studies and results. He also provides a customizable template and expert tips from industry professionals to help create compelling proposals that land new business.

SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost?

Joshua Hardwick discusses SEO pricing based on a survey of 439 SEO service providers. He breaks down the costs for different types of SEO services, revealing that most businesses spend between $500-$5000 per month on SEO. Interestingly, agencies charge significantly more than freelancers on average. Joshua also digs into hourly rates, project-based pricing, and how factors like experience and location impact pricing. Some of the takeaways:

• The average monthly retainer for SEO is $2,917

• Local SEO tends to be more affordable at $1,557/month on average

• 78.2% of SEOs use a monthly retainer pricing model

• SEOs with 5+ years of experience charge over double those with <2 years

• Worldwide SEO services cost about 40% more than local-only services