Yandex is old news now. This week’s all about the giants facing off.

📰 News & updates

Google Launches Bard, Its Answer to ChatGPT – Here's What It Looks Like

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced the soft launch of Bard to a set of “trusted testers,” showcasing what this early experimental release looks like with some examples.

Microsoft Announces New Bing and Edge Browser Powered by Upgraded ChatGPT AI

The war between big tech companies over AI intensifies—“Microsoft says it’s using conversational AI to create a new way to browse the web. Users will be able to chat to Bing like ChatGPT, asking questions and receiving answers in natural language.”

Google Search Podcast Carousel Going Away on February 13

Google’s pre-Valentine’s Day gift for you: Removing the podcast carousel.

The Mastodon Bump Is Now a Slump

Article by Amanda Hoover

That was … short-lived?
 

🔝 SEO

Google’s Featured Snippets: All You Need to Know to Get Them

Follow this guide to learn everything you need to know about featured snippets and what it takes to optimize for them.

How to Execute the Skyscraper Technique (And Get Results)

Despite the Skyscraper Technique being 8 years old, 61% of SEOs still believe it works. But why do some people think it’s no longer effective? I suspect the main reason is that SEOs are copy-pasting Brian Dean’s outreach template word for word and sending—sorry, spamming—it.

The Current State of Google PageRank & How It Evolved

Google removed the ability to see PageRank—and plenty of SEOs thought it was no longer a ranking factor. Spoiler alert: Google still uses PageRank.

What Are the Benefits of SEO? (And How to Get Started)

From increasing your share of voice to being cost-effective, here are seven reasons why you should be doing SEO (or use this to convince your boss!).

ChatGPT for SEO: Best (and Worst) Use Cases

We tested dozens of ways to use ChatGPT for SEO and here’s the list of prompts you can use to improve your SEO.

Mastering Website Navigation: The Ultimate Guide

From keyword research to ordering navigation by popularity, follow these 12 website navigation best practices.

The Future of B2B SEO Is Audience Development

Article by John-Henry Scherck

Two important quotes:

• “In order to win in today’s search landscape, companies need to evolve beyond executing SEO tactics in a silo and pretending as if the path to purchase is a simple linear clickstream from SEO article, to solutions page, to demo request, to closed-won account.”

• “Clicks from search should primarily be viewed as an intro to a new audience member with a goal of earning their email, not earning a meeting on their calendar. The goal for SEO shouldn’t be to get them to buy right now, it should be to get them to follow along to the point where buying your product isn’t just a possibility, but the only path they consider taking.”

Google Search's Guidance about AI-Generated Content

Article by Danny Sullivan and Chris Nelson

Focus on E-E-A-T, not how the content is produced.
 

💻 Digital marketing

How to Use WordPress in 9 Simple Steps (Beginner’s Guide)

Compared to Wix or Squarespace, WordPress has a fairly steep learning curve. However, it’s still the CMS most recommended by SEOs. Follow these nine steps to set one up for your business.

If I Had to Start My Podcast Again, Here’s What I’ll Do

Jay’s podcast is part of the HubSpot network and has 1.5 million downloads. Some counter-intuitive lessons he learned (that he would apply if he started over!).

We Ran 100s of Experiments at Duolingo in 2022. These Four Helped for Retention

Twitter thread by Ali Abouelatta

May not be applicable to all, but these Duolingo experiments are pretty interesting and might even spark some ideas!

I Built a Lenny Chatbot Using GPT-3. Here’s How to Build Your Own

Interesting idea to build a chatbot based on content archives.

24 Books I Re-read and Study Every Year as Part of My Personal “Business Fundamentals Course”

Twitter thread by Patrick Campbell

I’m a huge book nerd, and there are some books in this thread I’ve never heard of. Great list.
 

Till next time ;)
Cheers,