Google Hits Creators + DOJ Hits Google

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SEO

Google AI Overviews Not Linking To Sites Hit By Helpful Content Update

Barry Schwartz highlights an interesting development where sites affected by the helpful content update (HCU) are not being cited or linked to in AI Overviews, even when explicitly asked about. This occurs regardless of the site's ranking in traditional search results. Lily Ray and Glenn Gabe have also confirmed this across multiple HCU-impacted sites. The phenomenon suggests Google may be filtering out these sites from AI Overview results, potentially as part of its quality control measures.

Google Faces Potential Breakup: How DOJ Ruling Could Reshape Search

Matt G. Southern reports that DOJ has outlined potential remedies to address Google's search monopoly, including data sharing, limiting exclusive deals, and changes to search result generation. Google of course strongly opposes these proposals, arguing they could harm innovation and user experience. Here’s a look at some of DOJ’s proposals:

• Limiting or prohibiting Google's exclusive search distribution deals

• Ending or modifying revenue-sharing agreements that incentivize partners to use Google search

• Requiring Google to share its search index, data feeds, and models with competitors

• Allowing websites to opt out of Google's AI training or features

• Ensuring fair access to web content for rival search engines

• Creating more competition in search advertising

• Potentially requiring Google to license or syndicate its ad feed independently of search results

Sneaky Mobile Problems in Google's Mobile-First World

Glenn Gabe of GSQi sheds light on the importance of catching mobile SEO issues in today's mobile-first indexing world. Glenn reveals how seemingly minor mobile discrepancies can lead to significant SEO problems through two case studies: forgetting mobile canonical tags and mobile pages containing less content than desktop . Since Google now uses the mobile version of pages for indexing, you have to make sure all content, structured data, and technical elements are present on mobile.

SEO Ripples

• Google is hosting an invite-only creator summit at their Mountain View campus Oct. 28-29th. Led by Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan, the event aims to connect with small and independent publishers, particularly those affected by recent algorithm updates. Attendees will have a chance to share feedback directly with Google engineers and representatives. Did you get your invite? If not, you just weren’t loud enough on social media 😂 

• Daniel Waisberg and Omri Weisman from Google cover using Google Trends for marketing and sales strategies. They use a fictional gourmet cheese store, "Cheese Nuts," to demonstrate four key techniques: understanding vertical trends, benchmarking against competitors, analyzing brand awareness, and researching keywords for ad campaigns. They show how to leverage search data to make informed decisions about inventory, content creation, and market positioning.

• Google is now testing verified labels on product results overlays, expanding on their earlier experiment with verification badges in organic search results. These blue verified badges are appearing on retailer listings like Walmart, with a hover message “This icon is being shown because Google's signals suggest that this business is the business that it says it is. Google can't guarantee the reliability of this business or its products.” So…the business is real, but it might now be real. I’m real or am I?

• Google's now ignoring unsupported fields in robots.txt files. They're sticking to just four supported fields - user-agent, allow, disallow, and sitemap. Time to audit your robots.txt and ditch any custom directives Google won't recognize. This update aims to clear up confusion and keep things simple for crawlers.

AI

OpenAI Executive Says No Plans to Share SearchGPT Ad Revenue With Publishers

Bron Maher reports on OpenAI's stance regarding revenue sharing with publishers for its SearchGPT product. Varun Shetty, OpenAI's head of media partnerships, stated the company currently has no plans to share ad revenue, believing SearchGPT will drive significant traffic to publishers instead. So be happy with clicks and traffic to your site if you’re cited.

My Take: Lovely … 😒 

Zoom to Let AI Avatars Talk to Your Team for You

Emma Roth discusses Zoom's upcoming AI avatar feature, set to launch early next year as part of their custom AI Companion add-on. This new tool will allow users to create digital versions of themselves that can record and send brief video messages to colleagues. By recording an initial video, Zoom's AI will generate an avatar that looks and sounds like you, which can then deliver messages you've written. Zoom is implementing strict authentication and watermarking to address deepfake concerns.

My Take: A call? Sure! Happy to jump on a call anytime 😂 

AI Ripples

• The Copilot Team at Microsoft is rolling out two exciting new features: Copilot Labs and Copilot Vision. Copilot Labs offers Pro users early access to experimental AI tools, starting with "Think Deeper" for tackling complex problems. Copilot Vision brings visual context to AI assistance in Microsoft Edge, allowing it to understand and interact with web pages you're viewing. These features prioritize user privacy and responsible AI development, with opt-in participation and strict data handling. The initial rollout is limited, but Microsoft plans to expand based on user feedback.

• Jim Clyde Monge shares how to fine-tune Flux to generate unlimited photos of yourself. Using just 10+ clear selfies and a unique trigger word, you can train Flux on Replicate for around $1-2. The process takes about 20 minutes and allows you to create AI images of yourself in any scenario by including your trigger word in prompts. This is one of the better ways to get consistent AI-generated images of yourself. Nice step-by-step.

• OpenAI partners up with Hearst to get content from Esquire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Houston Chronicle, and other 20+ magazine brands and 40+ newspapers.

• A team of Wikipedia editors has formed "WikiProject AI Cleanup" to combat poorly-written, unsourced AI content on the platform. They're not banning AI outright, but targeting low-quality submissions that degrade Wikipedia's reliability. The group has developed methods to spot AI-generated text, including telltale phrases and writing patterns.

• Google is rolling out an AI-powered video creation tool in Product Studio for US-based merchants. It allows sellers to transform product images into videos by selecting a theme and customizing elements like audio and headlines. The tool aims to save time and resources for merchants creating product videos for campaigns across Google Ads, Merchant Center, and other marketing channels.

MARKETING

Ad Copy Tactics Backed By Study Of Over 1 Million Google Ads

Navah Hopkins dives into some juicy data on Google Ads tactics, based on a massive study of over 1 million ads. The research busts some common myths and gives us actionable insights to boost our ad game. Some interesting results with Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), and Demand Gen campaigns:

• Turns out, obsessing over Ad Strength scores might not be worth it - ads with "average" ratings often outperform the "excellent" ones.

• Selective pinning seems to hit the sweet spot between control and letting the algorithm do its thing.

• Sentence case is the new cool kid on the block beats out title case in RSAs and Demand Gen ads.

• Less is more with headlines, especially in RSAs.

• What works for ETAs might backfire in RSAs, so tailor your approach to each ad type for best results.

Did You Hear About the White House on Reddit?

Lora Kelley reports on the White House's new official Reddit account, launched to combat misinformation during recent hurricanes. The White House sees Reddit as a platform where users gather around shared interests, making it an ideal place to directly engage with communities and provide accurate information.

My Take: If the White House is on it, does that mean it’s time for the rest of us to get onboard too?

CONTENT

SEO Content Has a Packaging Problem — Whiteboard Friday

Bernard Huang argues that the traditional "skyscraper technique" is losing effectiveness due to AI-generated overviews and Google's focus on user engagement. He suggests that SEO content now has a "packaging problem" - it's not about creating more comprehensive content, but about repackaging existing information into unique, engaging perspectives that offer real value to readers. He emphasizes the importance of firsthand experiences and relatable content to stand out in search results and meet user needs.

Marketing to Humans: The 5 Ways to Get Personal in Your Digital Marketing

Following right up with content packaging problems, Andy Crestodina discusses the importance of making brands more personal and relatable to connect with human audiences effectively. He provides a number of practical tips for infusing humanity into various aspects of digital marketing, including:

• Add real people's photos to service pages to increase credibility and differentiation

• Place human faces near call-to-action buttons to boost click-through rates

• Use personal sender names in email marketing to improve open rates

• Include quotes and people pictures in social media posts for higher engagement

• Create an "About Us" page that tells your origin story and showcases team members

How to Craft a Winning About Us Page: 10 Real Examples for Creators and Small Businesses

Following up how to get personal, Tamilore Oladipo shares inspiring examples of About Us pages for creators and small businesses. She highlights key elements like sharing your origin story, mission statement, and company values to help your audience connect with your brand on a deeper level.

How the HubSpot Blog Built a Freelance Writing Program That Actually Makes Great Content

Kaitlin Milliken shares insights on how HubSpot transformed its freelance writing program to produce high-quality content at scale. She details the infrastructure changes made, including adapting to AI and Google's E-E-A-T algorithm by pivoting to subject matter experts. The program now creates over 800 pieces annually, focusing on human insights and expertise. Key tips given:

• Invest in personalized onboarding and training for freelance writers

• Streamline administrative processes to let writers focus on content creation

• Provide detailed content briefs with proposed outlines for new posts

• Implement a zero-tolerance policy for AI-generated content

• Prioritize subject matter experts to align with Google's E-E-A-T guidelines

LINK BUILDING

Link Building Pricing in 2024 (Statistics and Analysis)

Vince Nero breaks down costs for different link building strategies, including guest posts, link insertions, and digital PR. He emphasizes the rising value of high-quality links due to Google's algorithm updates and the shrinking pool of reputable sites. He suggests that while prices vary widely, marketers should be prepared to invest around $1,500 for a truly valuable link in 2024. Some of the key takeaways:

• Guest post links average $220, but many are low quality and potentially risky 💸 

• Link insertions cost about $141 on average, but finding high-quality opportunities is challenging

• Digital PR link building ranges from $1,250-$1,500 per unique link and offers the most value

• Calculate link value using monthly traffic value divided by number of linking root domains

• Expect link building costs to rise in 2025 as quality becomes increasingly important 😭 

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Adobe Content Authenticity Free Web App to Protect Creator Work

Adobe shares their latest offering - a free web app called Adobe Content Authenticity. This tool allows creators to attach Content Credentials to their digital work, essentially adding a digital signature. It helps protect your creations, ensures proper attribution, and lets you control how your work is used online. The app also includes a feature to set preferences for generative AI training and usage, giving creators more say in how AI models interact with their content. Join the waitlist for the public beta, expected to launch in Q1 2025

NEWS

The Wayback Machine Was Hacked, Leaking 31 Million Email Addresses

Jake Peterson reports on a major security breach at the Internet Archive, affecting 31 million users. An unknown hacker managed to steal a database containing email addresses, usernames, and hashed passwords. The attacker left a JavaScript alert on archive.org, hinting at the site's vulnerability. Adding insult to injury, the Internet Archive then suffered a DDoS attack, taking the Wayback Machine offline. Users should check Have I Been Pwned to see if their data was leaked.