SEO is Dead. Long Live TEO.

[00:00:00] It is Monday March 18th. Today, as Google battles AI spam in a fight for its relevancy,

[00:00:08] will TikToks push into search, topple the king? Also, is this the end of being real?

[00:00:15] YouTube adds more disclosure requirements and LinkedIn decides, you know what its business

[00:00:20] users really want is to play cheap mobile games. I'm Tod Maffin, that's ahead today

[00:00:28] in Digital Marketing. TikTok continues to try to capture some of Google's glory, positioning

[00:00:34] itself as a place to search for content and if you're willing to do a little extra research

[00:00:40] with its new tool, your brand could get a little extra money for the effort.

[00:00:45] Quoting the verge, quote, creators making money on the platform will now be paid based

[00:00:50] in part on how well their content meets what other users are searching for. TikTok calls

[00:00:56] this metric search value and it's one of four core elements in determining creator payouts.

[00:01:03] This metric is the TikTok version of search engine optimization. One tactic in SEO is keyword

[00:01:09] research where publishers make content that aligns with what searchers, the vast majority

[00:01:14] of whom are using Google, are looking up. On TikTok, search value is whether a creator

[00:01:20] is posting content that is about topics users are searching for in the app, unquote.

[00:01:27] And to this end, TikTok has added a new search insights tool to let brands and creators

[00:01:32] track down what people are searching for. This past January, Adobe published a study

[00:01:37] that found 40% of Americans use TikTok for search and 10% of Gen Z users were more likely

[00:01:44] to use TikTok than Google. Even Google executives themselves have said they're worried about

[00:01:51] losing ground to TikTok.

[00:01:57] TikTok has made some changes to its video shopping ads. First, they say they've made creating

[00:02:02] a campaign with Shopify data has been made a little easier and you can launch your first

[00:02:07] video shopping ad campaign using pre-populated campaign settings directly within Shopify.

[00:02:14] They've also made those ads discoverable from the search tab rather than hoping people

[00:02:19] come across them in their 4U feed. And you can now run your shop ads product cards

[00:02:24] in the newly launched shop tab this had only in the past been available on the 4U page.

[00:02:35] If tools like SEM, Russia and similar web can be believed Google is showing fewer sight

[00:02:39] links within the search results page, perhaps by as much as 20% fewer.

[00:02:45] Sightlinks are those sub pages that Google shows under a main listing if people search

[00:02:49] for your store, it would show your store, but also links on your site it thinks are relevant

[00:02:55] like return policies and best sellers and contact us. Similar web shows that sightlinks

[00:03:00] went from appearing about 63% of the time to about 41%. As the M rush said its tool saw

[00:03:07] drop from 68% to about 58%. This is not a huge deal to be honest, these sightlinks were

[00:03:14] automatically placed there by Google so we didn't really have a ton of control over them anyway.

[00:03:20] But given that it might not be showing as many you might see a drop in organic traffic.

[00:03:30] Be real the once popular Instagram clone that promised a more authentic experience might

[00:03:36] soon be on its last legs. Business Insider is reporting that the company is running out of funds

[00:03:42] and investor enthusiasm. The app is said to have about 25 million daily active users.

[00:03:49] Quoting Business Insider quote, while those numbers show some growth since 2022 when the app said

[00:03:54] it had 20 million daily active users, it is the same size user base be real said it had last

[00:04:00] year. In addition to the app's core features the company has added new features in a bid to

[00:04:05] increase user numbers in recent months like official accounts, groups, messaging, the ability to

[00:04:11] add video which has driven up some usage rates. Such features though have yet to meaningfully move

[00:04:17] the growth needle. Be real has struggled to attract investor interest for a series C two sources

[00:04:23] familiar with the company said they cited stagnant user numbers and a wider slowdown in the

[00:04:29] European growth funding market although be real has kept its head count at 60 employees

[00:04:35] its burn rate or the speed at which it spends money is seen by potential investors as high

[00:04:41] namely because of its service costs. Unquote

[00:04:48] more disclosure requirements coming for those brands that use AI in their content

[00:04:52] YouTube today saying you will have to disclose when your videos use AI to make realistic looking

[00:04:58] content they'll be updating their creator studio shortly to make that a little easier to disclose

[00:05:03] quoting tech crunch quote YouTube says the new policy doesn't require creators to disclose content

[00:05:09] that is clearly unrealistic or animated like someone riding a unicorn through a fantastical world

[00:05:15] it also isn't requiring creators to disclose content that used generative AI for production

[00:05:21] assistance like generating scripts or automatic captions instead YouTube is targeting videos that

[00:05:28] use the likeness of a realistic person for instance creators will have to disclose when they

[00:05:33] have digitally altered content to quote replace the face of one individual with another's or

[00:05:39] synthetically generating a person's voice to narrate a video unquote YouTube says

[00:05:46] they will also have to disclose content that alters the footage of real events or places

[00:05:51] such as making it seem as though a real building caught on fire creators will also have to disclose

[00:05:56] when they have generated realistic scenes of fictional major events like a tornado moving toward

[00:06:03] a real town unquote one of my frustrations with technology as a whole is that sites and apps

[00:06:14] and platforms aren't happy enough to just let good things be good they're always adding features

[00:06:20] nobody asked for which to me seemed more like an exercise in keeping top software engineers on

[00:06:25] the team than giving users what they've asked for last week linked in to fell into this trap by

[00:06:31] confirming it now wants to be a gaming platform and that it's working on a handful of dumb little

[00:06:38] games leaked screenshots show four games in testing one of which looks sort of like mine sweeper

[00:06:45] another seems to be a trivia game a LinkedIn PR person said they believe the games will quote

[00:06:50] unlock a bit of fun deepen relationships and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations

[00:06:57] unquote please stop as one social media commenter said quote the whole point of LinkedIn is that it

[00:07:05] is free of such distractions quoting social media today quote it does seem a bit out of place

[00:07:11] a bit random and really a fairly blatant attempt to boost time spent in the app but also

[00:07:19] it will probably work unquote LinkedIn does have some solid backbench talent to draw on its owned

[00:07:25] by Microsoft which also runs one of the biggest gaming businesses again from social media today quote

[00:07:32] but does it align with the platform's broader mission to connect the world's professionals to

[00:07:37] economic opportunity I mean probably not but as long as those engagement numbers go up

[00:07:44] it's all good right

[00:07:52] putting our podcast and newsletter together can get complicated we had show notes in one place

[00:07:57] interview coordination in another brainstorming somewhere else

[00:08:01] it's easy to lose track of the big picture when you have to open a new window for every detail

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[00:09:19] slider rolls head to hero dot code to shop today and finally google says if you are denied by the

[00:09:26] google business profiles appeals tool you can now request an additional review to a denied request

[00:09:33] this came not in the form of a formal announcement per se but rather as an update to a help document so

[00:09:39] it's not clear how new a thing this is quoting that document quote only if your reinstatement request

[00:09:45] is denied we may be able to do an additional review to prove your eligibility you can submit an

[00:09:52] additional review to a denied request you can provide additional evidence that wasn't added with your

[00:09:58] original appeal unquote so yes i could tell you now what the 10th anniversary wedding surprise was

[00:10:06] i have been keeping this a secret for a year and a half i started putting money for that long ago

[00:10:12] six months ago i reached out to our closest family and friends and set up a date for a uh for a

[00:10:19] surprise party essentially so i took my way out to dinner actually the um the the same restaurant where

[00:10:25] we had our very first date um and uh and then we were going back to the hotel and i said oh i forgot

[00:10:30] my card in the lounge uh we have to go there and when we got to the lounge

[00:10:42] i made an anniversary card that kind of rift on our shared love of the video game world fallout

[00:10:48] but the only place i could get printed was at a place that i had to do like a minimum of 10 cards

[00:10:54] so yeah she's getting that there's no more surprises for the next 10 years and she's going to

[00:10:58] get the same card every year for the next 10 years but anyway i'm so thrilled that it came off uh

[00:11:04] as well as it did so a little bit of bragging a little bit of gloating there you go that's uh

[00:11:09] that's it thanks for listening i'll see you tomorrow

[00:11:22] say goodbye to your credit card rewards greedy corporate mega stores led by Walmart and Target

[00:11:28] are pushing for a long congress to take away your hard earned cash back and travel points to line

[00:11:34] their pockets the Durban Marshall credit card bill would enact harmful credit card routing mandates

[00:11:39] that would end credit card rewards as we know it if you love your credit card rewards tell your

[00:11:45] lawmakers hands off my rewards tell them to oppose the Durban Marshall credit card bill

[00:11:53] every day we rise challenging ourselves to work for what we believe in

[00:11:59] at us board of patrol protecting our borders is more than a job it's a calling

[00:12:06] agents answer the call working together to keep our country and community safe

[00:12:11] if you're ready for a new mission join us board of patrol and go beyond

[00:12:17] learn more at cbp.gov slash careers