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SEO

Any HCU recoveries with the core update?

People are sharing lots of screenshots with partial recoveries, so it’s good to see some people are recovering. But do keep in mind that some of these could also be specific pages and not site-wide. If one page surges with many high search volume keywords, that could be misleading to a “recovery.”

My Take: Remember to take anything on August 20th and before with a grain of salt because the search ranking bug was still going on. I’d personally only focus on pre-Aug. 15th and post-Aug. 21st data.

August 2024 Google SEO Office Hours

Some of the interesting Q&A’s from the Google SEO office-hours from August 2024.

• Can multiple subdomains for various markets with the same content rank specifically for the intended markets? There's variations due to the country, you can tell Google Search that by using hreflang. But just because you have regional subdomains or subfolders doesn't make the content unique and show up for specific regions.

• Could a YouTube video and the exact same text or content on the same web page be flagged as duplicate content? No. AI Automations - Ready, set, go! 🚦 😂 

• Why does Google crawl our hacked pages after a year, where those pages are 404 and deleted? It takes a while until Googlebot will give up. The good news is that this doesn't hurt your site in Google Search.

• I changed my website a year ago and did a lot of work on SEO. Should this be affecting my website's traffic by now? It's tricky to say much here…get input from others…Good luck!

• Will modifying the page meta title and description affect the current rankings? Yes, or better, maybe.

SEO Ripples

• Google's John Mueller confirms Google core updates, like the August 2024 one, directly impact whether a site appears in Google AI Overviews. Barry Schwartz explains that AI Overviews, like featured snippets and other search features, are affected by these algorithmic changes.

• Google has finally resolved a search ranking bug that persisted for over four days. The issue, which began on August 16th, was officially confirmed as fixed on August 20th. Now that it's officially fixed, we can start assessing how rankings may have been impacted from the ongoing August 2024 core update.

• Google’s Martin Splitt dives into the "Discovered -- currently not indexed" status in Google Search Console. He explains that this status isn't necessarily an error, but rather a normal part of how Google processes websites. He highlights two main reasons why pages might remain in this status: technical issues with your server or the more common content quality concerns. He also notes that Google doesn't index all content from a site, which is normal and often not a problem

• Brian Dean announces via tweet that Exploding Topics has been acquired by Semrush. Makes sense because Backlinko was also acquired by Semrush. Will be interesting to see if they integrate some of the features into Semrush.

• Barry Schwartz reports that Google has significantly expanded its documentation on Search Appearances in Search Console. The updated docs now include a detailed table showing supported appearances with descriptions, API values, and bulk export fields. This covers everything from AMP articles to Web Stories.

AI

Question Posts May Become a Key Focus for AI Training Data

Andrew Hutchinson looks at how question-based posts may become a big part of AI training data. Social media platforms like Meta and X are incentivizing users to post engaging questions and drive discussions, which could provide valuable inputs for AI systems. This shift may lead to more question-focused content in our feeds as platforms gather human-like Q&A interactions.

Fine-tuning Now Available for GPT-4o

OpenAI officially GPT-4o fine-tuning. Training costs $25 per million tokens, while inference runs $3.75 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens. The cherry on top? They're offering 1M free training tokens daily for every organization until September 23. For those interested in GPT-4o mini, there's an even sweeter deal - 2M free training tokens daily through the same date.

AI Ripples

• Sarah Perez shares that Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude has hit $1 million in mobile app revenue after 16 weeks, with nearly half coming from U.S. users. It’s a nice number, but Claude still trails far behind rival ChatGPT in both downloads and revenue rankings.

• Sabrina Ortiz shares Google's Imagen 3 AI image generator, that Google says outperforms competitors like DALL-E 3 and Midjourney in user preference tests. The best part? You can try it for free through Google Labs' ImageFX tool. The panda surfing image above is from ImageFX. 🌊 

• Ideogram just dropped 2.0, boasting industry-leading capabilities in realistic images, graphic design, and typography. Plus, they've launched a beta API for developers to play with. They’re one of the better AI tools for text inside images, so worth checking out. Blue macaroons image below is from Ideogram 2.0.

MARKETING

Shopify and the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program

Suyog Karnawat from YouTube announces the expansion of their partnership with Shopify. Now, eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S. can join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program through the Google & YouTube app. There’s also a new Chrome extension for U.S. creators in the program, making it easier to save and tag products while browsing brand websites.

The Big Idea Formula Can Create Irresistible Marketing

"If you have a big idea, you’ve likely revitalized something old."

Eddie Shleyner shares a marketing formula that combines big, irresistible ideas with differentiation to create compelling copy. He explains that big ideas are born when a promise meets a unique mechanism. The promise should provide novelty, security, ease, and significance, while the mechanism is the mysterious or curious method that fulfills the promise. Using Tim Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Work Week" as an example, Eddie breaks down how this formula creates intrigue and engages readers.

My Take: Fresh, unique ideas are very rare - it’s how and what you wrap around that idea that matters.

The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything is Fake

Lars Lofgren pulls back the curtain on the shady world of Reddit marketing, revealing how easy it is to manipulate the platform for personal gain. He walks through step-by-step tactics used by marketers to game Reddit's system, from moderator abuse to creating fake conversations. Lars explains how these methods can quickly boost content to the top of Google search results, driving massive traffic and potential profits.

7 Best Facebook Ads Tactics

Rob Glover shares Facebook ad tactics from top demand generation pros to help you get more leads and boost your ROI. He covers strategies like using "ugly" ads that look like organic content to bypass ad filters, featuring people instead of just products to build trust, leveraging Facebook's dynamic ad features for optimization, and using a three-step "engagement, purchase, scale" method to find and convert new customers.

CONTENT

Latest Trends in UX Design: What CMOs Need to Know

Mackenzie Pelletier shares eight emerging UX design trends that are enhancing user experience and improving website performance. She covers trends like personalized experiences, data visualization, microinteractions, accessibility features, dark mode options, 3D design elements, minimalist design with added flair, and interactive experiences including AI integration. She highlights how these trends can grab users' attention, improve engagement, and ultimately lead to better conversion rates.

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Bing Webmaster Tools vs Google Search Console

🎯 Shots fired! Fabrice Canel from Microsoft Bing, compares Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) and Google Search Console (GSC). He highlights BWT's user-friendly interface and unique features like IndexNow, which allows quick indexing of content changes. He emphasizes that while GSC is popular, BWT offers valuable features that often go unnoticed.

• Ian from Niche Site Growth has compiled a list of 107 sites from Mediavine and Raptive that have seen traffic increases of at least 100% since Google's August Core update was announced. It’s free to get the Google Sheet through Gumroad. The list compares traffic data from Aug. 15th and 20th, so it’s before the ranking bug was fixed (the 20th). Hopefully he updates it now to see only the Core Update changes.

CASE STUDY

🔥 50 Bootstrapped SaaS Companies Dominating SEO in 2024

Ryan Law breaks down the SEO strategies of top bootstrapped SaaS companies. He analyzed organic traffic growth for 1,600 companies to reveal what's working best. The top performers are crushing it with free tools, programmatic content, and localization. Smallpdf leads the pack with a 14M pageview boost, largely from free PDF conversion tools in multiple languages. BuiltWith saw massive growth by expanding into Korean. Ahrefs' own success comes from free AI writing tools and a clever programmatic SEO play.

My Take: Definitely a good skim to see jumpstart ideas for your own sites, SaaS or not.

BUSINESS IDEAS

How To Launch, Manage, & Grow An Affiliate Program

Adam Riemer shares valuable insights on launching, managing, and growing an affiliate program. He debunks common myths and highlights pitfalls to avoid. Building a successful affiliate program takes time and effort - there's no ready-made army of affiliates waiting to promote your brand. He cautions against questionable advice from networks and agencies, especially regarding coupon sites.