Author Archives: SocialSignalCounter

A dark landing page won our A/B test – here’s why best practices got it wrong

A dark landing page won our A/B test – here’s why best practices got it wrong

I expected the dark-themed landing page to lose.  Everything I knew about conversion optimization said the light background should win.  Light themes are standard for B2B lead generation pages because they offer better readability, cleaner visual hierarchy, and align with accessibility standards.  Unbounce’s analysis of 41,000 landing pages establishes baseline patterns favoring light backgrounds. It […]

Search Engine Land celebrates its 19th birthday

Search Engine Land celebrates its 19th birthday

Search Engine Land turns 19 today. Nineteen years. Almost two decades of analyzing, explaining, questioning, challenging, obsessing over, and occasionally shaking our heads at whatever Google and the search industry throw our way. And this past year? The pace of change has made it one of the most transformative since we launched in 2006. Through […]

Bing tests Google-style “Sponsored results” grouping

Bing tests Google-style “Sponsored results” grouping

Microsoft is now testing a Google-like redesign of search ads in Bing, grouping multiple sponsored links under a single “Sponsored results” label and adding a “Hide” button that collapses the entire ad block. Driving the news. Sachin Patel spotted the Bing test in the wild and shared screenshots and video showing the new layout. In […]

Google December 2025 core update rolling out now

Google December 2025 core update rolling out now

Google today released the December 2025 core update. Google said this core update “Today we released the December 2025 core update.” This is the third core update of 2025, and the fourth overall update in all of 2025. Google previously had the August 2025 spam update, before that was the June 2025 core update and before that […]

Google Releases December 2025 Core Update

Google Releases December 2025 Core Update

Google has released the December 2025 core update, the company confirmed through its Search Status Dashboard. The rollout began at 9:25 a.m. Pacific Time on December 11, 2025. This marks Google’s third core update of 2025, following the March and June core updates earlier this year. What’s New Google lists the update as an “incident […]

AI Agents Are Coming For You & What To Do No

AI Agents Are Coming For You & What To Do No

I’m carefully watching the development of agentic SEO, as I believe over the next few years, as capabilities improve, agents will have a significant impact on the industry. I’m not suggesting this will be a seamless replacement of talent with a highly capable machine intelligence. There is going to be a lot of trial and […]

The roadmap for long-term brand authority

The roadmap for long-term brand authority

We’ve established the AI resume as the new C-suite-level asset that defines your brand at the bottom of the funnel, and we’ve mapped the strategic landscape that shows how it operates across explicit, implicit, and ambient research modes. So, how do you build this asset to thrive in a three-part environment? The answer is shifting […]

14 Things Executives And SEOs Need To Focus On In 2026

14 Things Executives And SEOs Need To Focus On In 2026

So many people spent 2025 arguing about whether SEO was dying. It was never dying. It was shifting into a new layer. Discovery continues to move from search boxes to AI systems. Answers now come from models that rewrite your work, summarize competitors, blend sources, and shape decisions before a browser window loads. In 2026, […]

What Are Learning Periods In Digital Marketing?

What Are Learning Periods In Digital Marketing?

Most ad platforms have something called a “learning period.” This is not a period for the marketer to observe and learn from the performance. Instead, it’s a period of time ranging from 48 hours to two to four weeks when the ad platform is learning how the campaigns should behave based on conversion rates and […]