Can’t wait to see what the future is like:

📰 News & updates

We published a children’s book: Join our giveaway to get one of our awesome books!

Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens: Google’s preparing for the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules scheduled to come into play in March. Some changes: Google will add a space for comparison sites for some searches (e.g., hotel searches) and will cut its own services (e.g., Google Flights.)

New ways to search in 2024: Google’s introducing two updates:

• Circle to search — Search anything on your Android phone screen without switching apps

• AI-powered multisearch experience — When you point your camera/upload a photo and ask a question using the Google app, the new multisearch experience will show results with AI-powered insights that go beyond just visual matches.

Google search is losing the fight with SEO spam: A new study found that "the majority of high-ranking product reviews in the result pages of commercial search engines (SERPs) use affiliate marketing, and significant amounts are outright SEO product review spam." Oops.

🔝 SEO

Headless SEO explained: A headless CMS separates a website’s content from its design and code and functions differently from a traditional CMS like WordPress. If you’re using a headless CMS, or thinking of using one, follow the best practices in this guide.

Enterprise SEO metrics: In an enterprise environment, you’ll be fighting other teams for resources or budget. You need to be able to show why your company should invest more in SEO vs. other channels. The best metrics to report are revenue, or any metrics that are closely related to money (e.g., SQLs, MQLs, LTV, ROI.)

How to buy a website: The most important aspect is doing your due diligence. You want to audit the website to see if there’s anything shady: unnatural-looking spikes in referring domains or big drops in traffic. You also want to ask the seller to share access with analytics tools and some financial accounts, plus get on a video chat to ask more detailed questions.

How much does it cost to rank for a single keyword?: Garrett Sussman tried to reverse engineer how much it would cost Bank of America to try and rank for “mortgage refinance.” All in all, it would cost ~$55,400. Ridiculous? Maybe, until you calculate the potential ROI for this page: $3.6m annually.

[Video] How to filter backlinks for quality: You probably don't need as many links as you think you do to rank for a keyword or outdo a competitor. Vince Nero shows you a quick guide on how to find the best links.

💻 Digital marketing

Mind the gaps: Any advice that’s given to us is a mere sample of the advisor’s worldview. No thanks to the limitations of language and perception, the given advice is lossy. Not only that, we’re also influenced by our own experiences and biases. So, we must be aware of these gaps and distortions whenever we try to apply the advice given to us.

Till next time ;)
Cheers,