Indexsy - 🔀 How to Track Your SEO Competitors

SEJ has the scoop on 3 changes to Google Ads. Basically, they’re testing new designs with the aim of improving organization and simplifying various processes. There will be a new navigation menu, a reorganized interface, and a user-friendly interface. Looks kinda fresh, TBH. You might have to make a few adjustments if your workflows and scripts are based on the old interface— but it’s on you if you expected Google not to, y’know, change everything suddenly. Early impressions are that the new design is a step up. Tools, features, etc. are better organized and easier to locate. Generally, it’s more consistent and more predictable… a better time overall.

Also, Barry Schwartz took a look at the massive ranking fluctuations after the late-Feb product reviews update. Sounds like Google might still be pulling some strings and tweaking behind the scenes, or rolling out some unconfirmed updates. You might’ve noticed the erratic shufflings in rankings the last few weeks— hopefully, you’re not one of the unlucky ones seeing substantial drops.

The article’s worth checking out, either way. Some are saying it’s favoring larger sites at the moment, but could def change. But the situation is being closely monitored by the various hawks in the SEO community, and word on the street says this update should be settled soon.

Finally, Google is really emphasizing a simple message lately: "Bard is not Search."

What does that mean? Well, first of all… Bard is not search. Some people knew that, others didn’t. Google is really pushing Bard as a standalone experience that can be used for search, and which will include a "Search It" feature, but Bard is not a knowledge model and isn’t necessarily spitting facts. Keep an eye on how generative AI and Search learn to co-exist. Interesting stuff, IMO. Obviously some huge implications for the SEOs in your life.
Thread of the Week: Using ChatGPT For Prompts 🤖

Head to the thread for the rest, but if you’re not using generative AI for this type of work yet, you’re missing out. We learn more about ChatGPT’s limitations daily, but some steps of your process are pretty safe to delegate that way IMO.
Best ‘Link in Bio’ Option for SEO 🔗
Gotta love the SEO community. If there’s something to be optimized, it’s gonna be optimized. This article is good, giving some insight on the whole array of "Link in Bio" platforms and their impacts on SEO…

The question, basically, is whether Link in Bio platforms like Linktr.ee are worth using. They’re convenient and easy— that should be your first clue that they might not be good for ranking (lol). But seriously, social media profiles pull huge ranking weight. This article takes a look at if / when / whether it’s worth your time to engage with these platforms, and ranks the various options by: number of pages indexed, followed links, custom page URL form, and more. Their conclusion? Some are a lot better for SEO than others— one relevant factor is that they allow users to add "follow" links. I won’t spoil it, but here’s the top 3 for the TLDR crew out there:

1. Linktr.ee
2. Taplink.cc
3. Carrd.co
Article looks at 7 others, too. Check it.
Finding Your SEO Competitors 🔀

Lidia Infante just dropped a nice piece on Competitor Analysis and its role in your marketing / SEO strategies. Spoiler alert: she thinks it should be fundamental to your marketing / SEO strategies to identify your actual competitors— aka, the people out there targeting your keywords, speaking to your audience, reaching the needs of your target consumers. All that.

Lida proposes a really strong data-led approach, taking a look at the pros and cons of manual analysis, bottom-up analysis, and competitor research tools. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution here— that’d be too easy. Instead, you gotta find the right method for your operation based on the size and scope of your project, your target resources, etc.

Worth checking out.
Social Media Round-up 🐮
Yeehaw folks, another big week of social media to get rounded in an upward direction. Let’s go.

→ Lots of people were pretty stoked about YouTube’s new Monetization efforts re: shorts… and the early returns? Some are saying it’s not great, others are fine with it:

Shorts is a revenue share program, pooling the total revenue from Shorts ads, cutting it in half, and then distributing that to shorts creators with the highest view counts. King’s getting $0.02 RPM, some others are reporting double that. Could be worse.

→ Lots going on w/ TikTok. There’s some buzz that Biden might listen to Republicans and take the opportunity to outright ban it, while others are saying making a big move like that is a little too politically complicated. What else is new at TikTok? Well, they’re def not hurting their rep with anyone of voting age by allowing for parental controls— now, parents can implement usage limits for teens.
→ LinkedIn quietly continues making some big feature additions, including ‘collaborative articles.’
→ In Meta-related-news, a new Facebook Reels update includes Memories and longer clips. In a much bigger picture sense, some are saying that Zuck is ready to fold his hand on the Metaverse and double down on AI.

Indexsy - 🔀 How to Track Your SEO Competitors

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