TMU 2.0 is Here! 50% Off for Quick Replies

TMU 2.0 RELEASED!

Topical Maps Unlocked 2.0 has finally been released! 🎆 

Yes, it’s been a long time coming 😆 But this isn't just a simple update. 2.0 takes you beyond basic SEO tactics.

It's funny. When I mention "topical maps" to some people, they say, "I don't do SEO (anymore)." But topical maps aren't just about SEO.

I show you how topical maps are the secret weapon behind building a powerful brand, hitting the audience's needs, and creating a content strategy that works across all channels—from your website to social media and beyond.

We’ll leverage topical maps throughout 2.0 to:

• Craft a Brand Identity that Fuels Growth: Learn to build a brand that resonates with your audience and guides your entire content strategy.

• Create an Advanced Content Strategy & Map: Build a content plan that guides your audience through their buyer journey across all channels.

• Dominate with Omnichannel Content Distribution: Reach your target audience across social media, email, and beyond for maximum impact.

And yes, the TMU 2.0 still has all the key 1.0 content – updated! That includes:

• Topical maps

• Topical hierarchy

• Topical and keyword research

• Internal linking and anchor text strategies

Build Your 2.0 Authority Now 👇️ 

Go straight to checkout

AD

💥 Use AI to 10X your productivity & efficiency at work (free bonus) 🤯

Still struggling to achieve work-life balance and manage your time efficiently?

Join this 3 hour Intensive Workshop on AI & ChatGPT tools (usually $399) but FREE for first 100 readers.

Save your free spot here (seats are filling fast!) ⏰

Want to be one of these people & be a smart worker?
Free up 3 hours of your time to learn AI strategies & hacks that less than 1% people know! 

🗓️ Tomorrow | ⏱️ 10 AM EST

In this workshop, you will learn how to:

✅ Make smarter decisions based on data in seconds using AI 
✅ Automate daily tasks and increase productivity & creativity
✅ Skyrocket your business growth by leveraging the power of AI
✅ Save 1000s of dollars by using ChatGPT to simplify complex problems 

👉 Hurry! Click here to register (FREE for First 100 people only) 🎁

SEO

Final "Core Update Notes" on August 2024 Core Update

Glenn Gabe breaks down how the update affected various sites, especially those hit by the September 2023 helpful content update. Glenn notes that while some sites saw recoveries, many are still not back to their previous levels. He also discusses the impact on e-commerce and forum sites, as well as the continued surge of Reddit in search results.

• Out of about 390 sites heavily impacted by the Sept. 2023 HCU, 91 saw some level of recovery.

• 57 sites out of the same group actually dropped even further.

• There was a significant "tremor" on August 24th-25th, mainly affecting commerce-focused sites.

• Reddit continued to surge in search visibility.

• Quora remained relatively flat through this update.

• Some forums correction with them moving down.

• Links don’t always save you - At the 9:10 minute mark, he talks about how high-authority links don’t always mean you’ll be safe.

Barry Schwartz Interviews Google's Search Liaison On The August 2024 Core Update

Barry Schwartz sat down with Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, to get the scoop on the August 2024 core update and more. Sullivan shed light on Google's efforts to reward great content from smaller, independent publishers. While some sites hit by previous updates have seen improvements, Sullivan admitted there's still work to be done. Overall, Sullivan's message was clear: keep creating awesome content, and Google will keep working on surfacing it.

My Take: Not really anything new here. Nothing specific either, still.

The Definitive Guide to SEO Taxonomy Strategies

Yulia Deda dives into the world of SEO taxonomy, explaining how proper content organization can boost your site's search engine visibility and user experience. She outlines four main types of taxonomies - flat, hierarchical, faceted, and hybrid - each suited for different website structures and content types. Deda emphasizes the importance of understanding your audience, using descriptive naming conventions, and regularly auditing your taxonomy to keep it relevant and effective.

My Take: “SEO taxonomy” is a term I’ve seen here and there, but it’s no different than topical research and creating what I call a “topical hierarchy.”

Reddit SEO Guide: How To Use Reddit for SEO

Andrew Craig from Siege Media shares insights on leveraging Reddit for SEO and marketing strategies. He explains how Reddit SEO can boost brand visibility, drive potential conversions, and increase SERP real estate. He provides practical tips for creating an optimized Reddit profile, researching relevant subreddits, and developing a content calendar. The article also covers the importance of community engagement, monitoring performance, and considering Reddit ads to amplify your reach.

SEO Ripples

• As Google’s second antitrust is gearing up, Jason Koebler from 404 Media reveals some findings about Google's internal communication practices during an antitrust case. The article exposes 22 instances where Google employees explicitly asked colleagues to turn off chat history for sensitive discussions, seemingly to avoid creating discoverable evidence. All aligned with Google's "Walker Memo," which instructs employees on data retention policies. I can only imagine what’s said when the ‘History’ feature is turned off. 🫣 

AI

YouTube Develops AI Detection Tools, Creator Controls for Content

Sarah Perez shares YouTube is developing tools to detect AI-generated content, including synthetic singing voices and simulated faces. This will help protect creators from having their likeness copied without permission. YouTube is also working on ways for creators to control how their content is used for AI training. The company plans to expand its Content ID system to identify AI-generated music, with testing starting early next year.

Canva Says its AI features are Worth 300% Price Increase

Jess Weatherbed reports on Canva's massive price hike for Teams subscriptions, set to increase by over 300% in some cases. The Teams subscription for five users go from $120 per year to $500.

Canva justifies this steep rise by citing the value added through their recent rollout of generative AI features. Canva claims these new tools have transformed the platform from a simple design tool to a broader workspace offering.

My Take: If you’re like me and saw the message in the Canva dashboard, it came as quite a shock. I don’t even use the AI features because they haven’t produced anything usable for me.

AI Ripples

• Gems launched to paid users (think ChatGPT’s GPT and Claude’s Projects). They have premade Gems like Brainstormer or Career guide. You can customize your own to fit your needs and if you're stuck, Gemini can help craft instructions, and you can even upload files or connect apps for more context.

• Scharon Harding reports that Amazon's upcoming generative AI Alexa will use Anthropic's Claude AI models instead of Amazon's own tech. Early versions using Amazon's models reportedly struggled, taking 6-7 seconds to respond. Amazon claims it will still use some of its own AI alongside partners' models.

• A chef at Dodo Pizza used ChatGPT to create a hit pizza recipe. The AI-generated pizza, featuring an eclectic mix of shawarma chicken, paneer cheese, Za'atar herbs, and tahini sauce, became unexpectedly popular in Dubai.

MARKETING

Mediavine Bans Publisher For Overuse Of AI-Generated Content

Matt Southern reports that Mediavine has terminated publisher accounts for overusing AI-generated content. This move aligns with Mediavine's policy against low-quality, mass-produced AI content that could devalue legitimate creators' work. The takeaway? Use AI as a tool, but don't let it dominate your content strategy if you want to maintain monetization partnerships.

My Take: I don’t mind Mediavine taking this action and do think it should be done. Lots of people out there promoting the use of AI writers “as-is” and sharing early success in Google. Ask for a chart 1 month, 3 months or if it survives this long, 6 months. How long did it last? Use AI to help your process, but not replace the process. Have your human writers/editors go through and polish the content. Never use AI as-is for a site you want long-term.

What’s Next In Paid Media?

Sam Tomlinson offers valuable insights for paid media buyers looking to gain an edge. He highlights three key strategies: conducting more audience research, finding undervalued attention, and leveraging CRM and offline data. He points out opportunities in undervalued platforms like Twitter (X), YouTube, podcasts, and even linear TV during election seasons. He also points out the significance of using offline conversion data to optimize ad campaigns for better results.

Go for the Win-Win: Game Your Paid Media Strategy

Robert Rose shares insights on the rising trend of "advergames" in paid media strategies. Big brands like Disney, Amazon, and Discord are incorporating interactive elements into their advertising formats, such as quizzes and polls. He highlights the usefulness in B2B marketing tactics too.

Pinterest Ads Are Changing the Game—Wait Until You See How

Jeff Bullas discusses leveraging Pinterest ads to boost your marketing efforts. With over 522 million active monthly users and high purchase intent, Pinterest offers unique advertising opportunities. The massive guide covers setting up Pinterest ads, targeting options, creating effective ad content, budgeting strategies, and measuring success.

CONTENT

NLP in SEO: What It Is & How to Use It

Ravi Pandya explains Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its impact on SEO. He covers how NLP works, including concepts like tokenization, semantic analysis, and entity recognition. Pandya then offers practical tips for optimizing content with NLP in mind, such as analyzing search intent, answering audience questions, and including relevant entities. He emphasizes the importance of clear language and proper content organization using headings.

7 Tips to Improve Your Organic Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

Gabriela Jhean discusses boosting organic clickthrough rates (CTR) in search engine results. She explores seven key strategies to enhance your website's visibility and attract more clicks. From aiming for top SERP positions to optimizing for SERP features like rich snippets and sitelinks. She emphasizes the importance of understanding search intent, crafting compelling metadata, and creating SEO-friendly URLs.

How New Chrome AI History Feature Challenges SEO To Evolve

Roger Montti shares insights on Google Chrome's new AI-powered history search feature, highlighting its potential impact on SEO. This innovative tool allows users to find previously visited pages using natural language queries, even identifying content within images.

My Take: If you’re like me, I’m constantly using the browser bar to enter keywords to try and find previously visited pages weeks or months ago. Those searches only search the page title and URL. Sometimes I find it, but this AI feature now says it will search through the page contents too. We’ll see how much space it on my hard drive to save all that data too.

LINK BUILDING

How to Pitch Journalists in 2024 (According to Journalists)

Vince Nero offers insights on how to effectively pitch journalists in 2024. He emphasizes the importance of personalization and relevance, advising PR pros to thoroughly research journalists before reaching out. He suggests matching your subject line to the journalist's headline style and focusing on the value your pitch brings to their audience. He also stresses providing all necessary information upfront, including relevant data, expert quotes, and multimedia elements.

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Best SEO Newsletters

Have to highlight this best newsletters list of the top 10 SEO newsletters from Robert Brandl and Inka Wibowo. Why? Because it highlights Digital Surfer 😁 It’s a really good recap of each newsletter, even with the mention. Most are usually generic, but you can tell they read each of these newsletters to find the M.O. of each one. They also offer email marketing services if you’re looking for consultants on how to grow or why you’re having deliverability issues.

Free Cursorcast Tutorials

Ian Nuttall, serial SaaS tool creator has released a series of free, bite-sized screencasts on AI-assisted coding using Cursor. If you’re using other AI-coding tools, check out what Cursor can do in these videos.

Vulnerabilities In Ninja Form and Contact Form WP Plugins Affect +1.1 Million

Ninja Forms is affected by a failure to escape a URL which can lead to a reflected cross-site scripting attack (reflected XSS) and the Contact Form Plugin by Fluent Forms vulnerability is due to an insufficient capability check.

Go update them now if you’re using them.

CASE STUDY

The Helpful Content Update Was Not What You Think

Tom Capper dives deep into Google's HCU, challenging the common perception that they primarily focus on content quality. Through data analysis of multiple HCUs, Capper found that sites with lower Brand Authority (BA) and higher Domain Authority (DA) to BA ratios were more likely to be negatively impacted. This suggests the updates may be more about brand demand signals than content helpfulness. He theorizes that Google is using a system similar to an older patent related to navigational search behavior to identify potentially over-optimized sites with weak brand recognition.

My Take: This study focuses on the Moz’s own BA metric, so there could be a bit of bias there, but I do believe that “brand” is a more important factor than ever. It’s not just on-page either. It’s across all online channels and that’s why I put an emphasis on branding, target audiences, and omnichannel marketing with topical maps in TMU 2.0. I just haven’t come up with my own formulas and metric term (yet!).

BUSINESS

Founder Mode vs Manager Mode

Paul Graham shares insights from Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky's recent talk at a Y Combinator event. Chesky revealed that conventional wisdom about running large companies often fails founders. Instead of following the "hire good people and give them room" approach, Chesky developed his own method inspired by Steve Jobs' leadership at Apple. This revelation resonated with many successful founders who experienced similar challenges.

Graham introduces the concept of "founder mode" versus "manager mode" in running companies. He argues that the traditional manager mode, taught in business schools, may be less effective for founders. The article suggests that founder mode involves more direct engagement across all levels of the company, breaking away from the hierarchical "black box" approach of manager mode.

My Take: While not our traditional fare in the newsletter, it’s a very interesting piece because many of us are online entrepreneurs. Many of us are one-person teams with VAs, others are small teams, and others are larger. Whatever your size, it’s a great time to take a look at how you run things. I don’t believe he’s advocating micro-management either. He’s suggesting that founders should be involved and not just with the managers of various departments.