“Overoptimization can lead to undifferentiation,” as Rory Sutherland says. Over-reliance on SEO has left many businesses undifferentiated and vulnerable as Google has introduced more algorithms that reward user behavior. In this follow-up Memo to my article about crafting SEO strategies, I want to offer differentiation as an alternative to the common “out-execute” approach. Most companies try […]
Over the years, I’ve helped many early-stage startups gain traction through SEO campaigns, and I know many Search Engine Land readers have done the same with PPC. Often, restrictions on budget and/or staff resources mean you can’t take on both types of campaigns at once – you’ll have to pick one. I’m reminded of this […]
The following checklist distills actionable strategies for digital marketers from Lotame’s “The 2024 State of Data Collaboration: A Global Perspective” research report, fielded by Cint. It’s designed to enable smarter, faster and easier decision-making for forward-thinking marketers. Key takeaways from the research Data challenges: 98% of marketers and agencies face barriers in data orchestration and […]
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) pages (or informational hubs) enable your business to respond, react, and anticipate the needs of your audience more quickly and appropriately than other types of destination page experiences. An effective FAQ resource can educate, inform, and naturally guide the user through your website’s content and toward the goals and results you […]
Google is set to update its third-party policy in November 2024, introducing severe consequences for those enabling significant or sustained policy violations. Details: New penalties target third parties that enable significant or sustained policy violations Consequences may include: Loss of privileges Removal from Google third-party programs (e.g., Google Partners) Account suspension Why it matters: This […]
Google’s Web Performance Developer Advocate, Barry Pollard, has clarified how Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is measured. CLS quantifies how much unexpected layout shift occurs when a person browses your site. This metric matters to SEO as it’s one of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Pages with low CLS scores provide a more stable experience, potentially leading […]
Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, is working on simplicity after taking over as the head of Bing Search and AI efforts at Microsoft. Suleyman wrote on X, “Simplicity is one of the core principles I am focused on.” Removing Bing features. Instead of adding new features to Bing, Mustafa Suleyman said the Bing […]
The past year has been a rollercoaster for publishers navigating an increasingly crowded web. With competition rising and AI shaking up search results, staying on top of rankings is no small feat – especially in light of Google’s constant updates. This includes the helpful content update (HCU), which has left many sites struggling to recover […]
Gartner predicted in February that, by 2026, search engine volume will drop by 25%. The total market share lost by search will be transferred to AI chatbots and other virtual agents: “Generative AI (GenAI) solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional search engines,” said Alan […]
Schema Markup is a key SEO strategy for brands that want to stay competitive in this new world of search. Implementing robust Schema Markup can enable brands to improve their SEO performance by: Helping search engines understand, contextualize, and disambiguate the content on their site – which allows search engines to show users more accurate […]