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Month: August 2023

Marketing 

SMX West session: Harnessing the power of online reviews

news

Columnist Greg Gifford recaps a session by Thomas Ballantyne about the value of online reviews, showing why businesses need to start thinking about them if they aren’t already. Closing out the excellent first time slot in the Local track at SMX West this year was Thomas Ballantyne’s session about online reviews. Far too many business owners either ignore or don’t care about reviews, so Ballantyne — the director of marketing at Bulwark Pest Control — built his presentation as a tool to help marketers get buy-in from their clients. Reviews…

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Bing 

Google & Bing: We’re Not Involved In “Local Paid Inclusion”

news

It sounds great. A program that guarantees top listings for local searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing. An “officially approved” one in “cooperation” with those search engines. But it’s not so, say Google and Bing. The “Local Paid Inclusion” service launched officially today. The site’s home page pitches: Local Paid Inclusion is a Google, Yahoo […] It sounds great. A program that guarantees top listings for local searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing. An “officially approved” one in “cooperation” with those search engines. But it’s not so, say Google and…

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google 

Google Search Advocate: Outbound Links Do Nothing for SEO

news

John Mueller, a Google search advocate, has thrown cold water on one of the most enduring SEO beliefs: that outbound links impact SEO. Websites commonly link to high-traffic, authoritative websites in an effort to boost their own search engine rankings. In response to a question on Reddit about the practice, Mueller set the record straight, saying it was one long-running myth: Nothing happens. Why should it? This has been one of those things that SEOs have claimed / hoped since literally decades. “Here’s my affiliate site about handbags – and here’s…

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Social 

X (Twitter) lowers eligibility threshold for ads revenue sharing program

news

The changes were announced after X was criticised for failing to pay content creators on time earlier this month. X, formerly known as Twitter, has reduced the eligibility threshold for its ads revenue sharing program. Verified creators now need to have generated 5 million impressions in the previous three months – as opposed to 15 million. In addition, the company has also lowered the minimum payout requirement to $10 instead of $50, enabling more content creators to get paid for posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform. Why we care. X’s ads…

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SEO 

Tracking 20 years of search

news

Key takeaways and findings from an analysis of seroundtable.com’s historical Google Analytics data from 2003 to 2023. Are you a new search marketer looking to learn about the history of search? Do you want to stay updated on the latest search marketing news? If so, there’s only one person you need to “follow” to know 90% of the interesting changes in the industry. This individual has a website; his first blog post was published on Dec. 2, 2003. The site’s Google Analytics (GA) code is tellingly short: UA-67314-1. Several months…

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SEM 

3 creative-driven tips to optimize your PPC performance

news

Explore three actionable ways to leverage ad creative in your PPC campaigns while retaining data-driven insights for peak performance. Historically, PPC marketers are accustomed to spending hours behind a spreadsheet crunching numbers, analyzing bid models, finding statistical significance for test results, and carefully plotting the next move. PPC has been very logical, data-driven and more science than art. But the industry is shifting, and creative is arguably one of the best levers PPC managers have to optimize performance. As a result, performance agencies must adapt quickly and rebalance the scales between art and science.…

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Latest News 

Saudi Arabia Joins EU & India In Mandating USB-C Smartphone Chargers

news

Saudi Arabia has joined the EU and India in mandating USB-C chargers for smartphones in an effort to prevent e-waste and improve the customer experience. Much of the smartphone industry already uses USB-C chargers but Apple is the notable exception. The iPhone maker relies on its own Lightning port/cable for charging and data transfer. The EU and India recently passed rules mandating the use of USB-C for smartphone chargers, and now Saudi Arabia is following suit. According to Khaleej Times, Saudi Arabia’s decision was announced by the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization and the…

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Marketing 

OpenAI Unveils Its Web Crawler Bot and Provides Instruction on How to Block It

news

OpenAI has unveiled its own web crawler bot, GPTBot, and has provided web admins with the means to block it if they want to. AI training methods have become a hot topic, with the industry still trying to figure out the legality and ethics of training AI models using data on the internet. OpenAI is addressing those concerns head-on, by giving web admins the ability to block GPTBot. Usage Web pages crawled with the GPTBot user agent may potentially be used to improve future models and are filtered to remove sources that…

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Bing 

SERPs.com Google & Bing “Weather Report” Tool

news

SERPs.com has quietly launched a SERPs Volatility Index, which aims to work like the MozCast tool to track search results fluctuations and help webmasters know if there was an algorithm update at Google and Bing. While MozCast only tracks Google, SERPs.com tracks both Google and Bing. SERPs.com also shows a 30-day and 90-day volatility charge. […] SERPs.com has quietly launched a SERPs Volatility Index, which aims to work like the MozCast tool to track search results fluctuations and help webmasters know if there was an algorithm update at Google and Bing. While MozCast…

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google 

Google Search Console link report fixed

news

Two weeks ago Google confirmed its link report had reporting issues, those reporting issues are now resolved. Google has fixed the issues with the Search Console link report we reported a couple of weeks ago. The issue was the number of links being reported dropped drastically for some site owners. Resolved. The issue is now resolved. I noticed the links increasing in the report this morning, and then John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, confirmed, saying, “Yeah, I think it should be ok now.” Reporting glitch only. Google wanted to clarify that this was “just a reporting…

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