SEO, generative AI and LLMs: Managing client expectations

Large Language Models (LLMs) remain a hot topic in SEO – especially with the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI tools with user-friendly chat interfaces.

It’s so easy to get excited about the potential of generative AI and what it means for an SEO strategy. But managing client expectations remains critical. 

This overarching guide serves to help SEOs educate clients on the potential functionality of LLMs as it applies to SEO from the client perspective. This pragmatic approach will help you set and maintain realistic expectations throughout your SEO projects.

Preliminary steps: Ask the client the right questions

Some clients come to the table operating from info collected in word-of-mouth interactions, social media posts, and headlines rather than a detailed understanding of what AI is and how it works.

As the expert in the room, the SEO maintains the responsibility of naming both the benefits and drawbacks of using AI tools for organic search initiatives.

Asking the right questions before jumping in too far clarifies objectives and serves as a preliminary risk assessment for all parties:

Assess client familiarity

Gauge the client’s knowledge of LLMs (as it pertains to SEO) to ensure effective communication.

If the client brings up the topic, ask leading questions about what inspired the ask – whether it was an intensive course, first-hand experience, or a stakeholder brainchild. The conversation allows SEO to steady the course.

Understand client desires around ROI

Determine what the client hopes to achieve in terms of return on investment (ROI) by using these tools.

Learn about the potential investment in enterprise or developer-owned versions of the tools that can offer more in terms of privacy and/or quality output.

Clarify client objectives

With more context, help the client shape their specific goals for using generative AI in their SEO strategy if unclear.

Empirical testing: Measure feasibility, quality and time commitment

Conduct empirical tests to assess the effectiveness of generative AI for a given task.

To get started, outline the steps involved in conducting empirical tests, such as:

  • Setting up test environments (which LLMs are being used).
  • Creating and experimenting with prompts.
  • Evaluating the quality of generated responses.

Evaluate the feasibility, quality, and time efficiency of LLMs compared to manual methods.

Ensure that these metrics are directly tied back to any initial objectives set, providing a complete feedback loop in your project management.

Offer a formal point of view (POV) before initiating work

A well-crafted POV document can help set clear expectations for clients.

A typical POV on using LLMs in SEO could include the following sections:

  • Introduction: Briefly explain the purpose of the POV and its importance in answering the client challenge at hand. Name the problem the client aims to solve and frame the usage of AI as a possible solution.
  • Competitor/landscape research: Look to competitors to determine how they are integrating AI technologies into their SEO and digital marketing processes. Whether the use case is backend or user-facing, a competitor who is already using the technology offers a glimpse into what looks to be pure hype versus what produces results.
  • Capabilities: Outline the specific features and benefits of generative Ai based on the client’s ask. Avoid oversharing jargon-ridden details unless necessary. It may be useful to include screenshots of outputs from the tool.
  • Limitations and risks: Dispel the notion that LLMs are a cure-all solution by explaining their limitations. Note that LLMs are evolving, and today’s hurdles might not apply soon. Conversely, today’s capabilities could be scaled back due to legal or ethical implications. Discuss potential risks associated with using generative AI, such as privacy concerns, data security, or the possibility of generating inappropriate, inaccurate or biased content.
  • ROI: Provide an estimate of the potential ROI based on the project’s objectives and scope. Consider naming the effort and impact of the work compared to doing it manually.

Creating a comprehensive POV document establishes a solid foundation for managing the client’s perspective and enables all parties to be on the same page before moving forward with the project. 

Establish objectives and goals for generative AI and LLM usage

It’s no secret that effective marketing initiatives, SEO and otherwise, are built around clear objectives and goals.

Based on the client’s initial questions and the response to a POV, formulate Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) SEO goals for your project to ensure the usage of LLMs is for a specific purpose.

  • Define key performance indicators (KPIs): Identify metrics that will be used to evaluate success. Both SEO metrics and product output metrics might be considered based on client goals.
  • Incorporate objectives and KPIs into an SEO roadmap: Develop a roadmap that outlines how you will achieve your goals.

Incorporate goals into an SEO roadmap

Using the findings from researching and testing the LLM tools, adding sensible deliverables to your SEO roadmap allows you to make necessary adjustments that align with your client’s overall goals and strategies. 

Remember that setting and managing expectations is an ongoing process, so be prepared to adapt and adjust your strategy and roadmap as needed due to technological advancements and changes in the legal landscape.

With proper planning and communication, you can help your clients harness the power of LLMs while minimizing potential risks and maintaining a sustainable and ethical approach to SEO.

Look to the future in answering client questions

When addressing client questions about AI and LLMs, consider the future implications of implementing the tools in an SEO strategy. 

Stay informed about industry trends and updates to make well-informed decisions about which tactics to employ.

For instance, while ChatGPT and similar tools can quickly generate FAQ and how-to blocks with associated schema, Google recently announced that this feature is being phased out for most sites. This emphasizes the importance of recognizing that the longevity of certain tactics may be uncertain.

In other cases, it is a matter of considering ethical concerns for a suggested SEO strategy using something like ChatGPT. 

For example, if a client intends to automate SEO content creation for numerous pages using prompts like “Write a 500–700-word search engine optimized article about Carpet Cleaning in XYZ City” without human supervision, imagine the potential impact on user experience and search engine reactions to similar content across multiple websites. 

Pose questions such as:

  • What happens if everybody does this?
  • How would consumers react to seeing ten similar generative-text-created blogs on 10 similar websites?
  • How might Google modify its system if/when this occurs? 

This line of thinking can help prevent wasted resources and ensure a more sustainable approach to SEO.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this article, and maintaining open lines of communication with your client, you can foster stronger relationships and ensure the long-term success of your SEO projects. 

The post SEO, generative AI and LLMs: Managing client expectations appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/seo-generative-ai-and-llms-managing-client-expectations-431979

Google launches new AI tool to improve YouTube ad optimization

Google Ads has launched a new feature to assist advertisers in optimizing their YouTube campaigns

Known as Creative Guidance, this innovative tool is now available through Recommendations and has been integrated into Video Analytics within Google Ads.

Creative Guidance leverages AI to evaluate your content and offer best-practice feedback. For example, if critical information is missing from your video ad, Creative Guidance will notify you, ensuring that your campaigns are as effective as possible.

Why we care. Creative Guidance offers rapid feedback and actionable steps for enhancing video ad performance, ensuring ideal setup and quick optimization to maximize your video ad’s performance.

Creative attributes. Creative guidance can detect if your video ad is missing the following key creative attributes:

  • Brand logo: Shows a prominent brand logo in the first 5 seconds.
  • Video duration: Follows the recommended video length based on your marketing objective.
  • Voice-over: Uses a high-quality, human voice-over.
  • Aspect ratio: Ad group includes all 3 video orientations, at least (1) horizontal 16:9, (1) vertical 9:16, and (1) square 1:1.

Depending on what’s missing in your video ads, you’ll get suggestions for high-impact improvements as well as links to handy tools that could boost the performance of your campaign.

Google has confirmed that it will be introducing more attributes in the not-too-distant future.

How it works. To access Creative guidance in Google Ads, follow these instructions:

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.
  2. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.
  3. Click “Videos”.
  4. Click the “Analytics” tab next to “Videos”.
  5. Select your video ad in the drop down menu.
  6. In the “Ideas to try” section below the retention curves, you’ll find the creative attributes you’re missing with recommendations on how to take action.

The steps listed above are part of a new Google Ads user experience that is set to launch for all advertisers in 2024.

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What has Google said? A spokesperson for Google Ads said in a statement:

  • “We’ll let you know if your video is missing a best practice. If we have a recommendation or tool to implement a suggestion such as adding a voiceover, we’ll direct you to it.”
  • “Voiceover has a big impact on YouTube. Thanks to the power of AI, quality voiceovers in 15 languages are accessible directly in Google Ads (both in the asset library and built into the video creation tool) and coming soon to Ads Creative Studio.
  • “Similarly, if your campaign would benefit from videos in different durations, we’ll guide you to Trim video. Or, if you’re missing a horizontal, square or vertical video, you can easily create one using a variety of high-quality templates.”
  • “These features empower marketers to take charge of their creative. AI can help turbocharge performance by tuning creative elements across all the different viewing experiences and content that YouTube viewers love.”

Deep dive: Read Google’s Creative guidance in Google Ads update in full for more information.

The post Google launches new AI tool to improve YouTube ad optimization appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-creative-guidance-improve-youtube-ads-432016

SEO, generative AI and LLMs: Managing client expectations

Large Language Models (LLMs) remain a hot topic in SEO – especially with the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI tools with user-friendly chat interfaces.

It’s so easy to get excited about the potential of generative AI and what it means for an SEO strategy. But managing client expectations remains critical. 

This overarching guide serves to help SEOs educate clients on the potential functionality of LLMs as it applies to SEO from the client perspective. This pragmatic approach will help you set and maintain realistic expectations throughout your SEO projects.

Preliminary steps: Ask the client the right questions

Some clients come to the table operating from info collected in word-of-mouth interactions, social media posts, and headlines rather than a detailed understanding of what AI is and how it works.

As the expert in the room, the SEO maintains the responsibility of naming both the benefits and drawbacks of using AI tools for organic search initiatives.

Asking the right questions before jumping in too far clarifies objectives and serves as a preliminary risk assessment for all parties:

Assess client familiarity

Gauge the client’s knowledge of LLMs (as it pertains to SEO) to ensure effective communication.

If the client brings up the topic, ask leading questions about what inspired the ask – whether it was an intensive course, first-hand experience, or a stakeholder brainchild. The conversation allows SEO to steady the course.

Understand client desires around ROI

Determine what the client hopes to achieve in terms of return on investment (ROI) by using these tools.

Learn about the potential investment in enterprise or developer-owned versions of the tools that can offer more in terms of privacy and/or quality output.

Clarify client objectives

With more context, help the client shape their specific goals for using generative AI in their SEO strategy if unclear.

Empirical testing: Measure feasibility, quality and time commitment

Conduct empirical tests to assess the effectiveness of generative AI for a given task.

To get started, outline the steps involved in conducting empirical tests, such as:

  • Setting up test environments (which LLMs are being used).
  • Creating and experimenting with prompts.
  • Evaluating the quality of generated responses.

Evaluate the feasibility, quality, and time efficiency of LLMs compared to manual methods.

Ensure that these metrics are directly tied back to any initial objectives set, providing a complete feedback loop in your project management.

Offer a formal point of view (POV) before initiating work

A well-crafted POV document can help set clear expectations for clients.

A typical POV on using LLMs in SEO could include the following sections:

  • Introduction: Briefly explain the purpose of the POV and its importance in answering the client challenge at hand. Name the problem the client aims to solve and frame the usage of AI as a possible solution.
  • Competitor/landscape research: Look to competitors to determine how they are integrating AI technologies into their SEO and digital marketing processes. Whether the use case is backend or user-facing, a competitor who is already using the technology offers a glimpse into what looks to be pure hype versus what produces results.
  • Capabilities: Outline the specific features and benefits of generative Ai based on the client’s ask. Avoid oversharing jargon-ridden details unless necessary. It may be useful to include screenshots of outputs from the tool.
  • Limitations and risks: Dispel the notion that LLMs are a cure-all solution by explaining their limitations. Note that LLMs are evolving, and today’s hurdles might not apply soon. Conversely, today’s capabilities could be scaled back due to legal or ethical implications. Discuss potential risks associated with using generative AI, such as privacy concerns, data security, or the possibility of generating inappropriate, inaccurate or biased content.
  • ROI: Provide an estimate of the potential ROI based on the project’s objectives and scope. Consider naming the effort and impact of the work compared to doing it manually.

Creating a comprehensive POV document establishes a solid foundation for managing the client’s perspective and enables all parties to be on the same page before moving forward with the project. 

Establish objectives and goals for generative AI and LLM usage

It’s no secret that effective marketing initiatives, SEO and otherwise, are built around clear objectives and goals.

Based on the client’s initial questions and the response to a POV, formulate Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) SEO goals for your project to ensure the usage of LLMs is for a specific purpose.

  • Define key performance indicators (KPIs): Identify metrics that will be used to evaluate success. Both SEO metrics and product output metrics might be considered based on client goals.
  • Incorporate objectives and KPIs into an SEO roadmap: Develop a roadmap that outlines how you will achieve your goals.

Incorporate goals into an SEO roadmap

Using the findings from researching and testing the LLM tools, adding sensible deliverables to your SEO roadmap allows you to make necessary adjustments that align with your client’s overall goals and strategies. 

Remember that setting and managing expectations is an ongoing process, so be prepared to adapt and adjust your strategy and roadmap as needed due to technological advancements and changes in the legal landscape.

With proper planning and communication, you can help your clients harness the power of LLMs while minimizing potential risks and maintaining a sustainable and ethical approach to SEO.

Look to the future in answering client questions

When addressing client questions about AI and LLMs, consider the future implications of implementing the tools in an SEO strategy. 

Stay informed about industry trends and updates to make well-informed decisions about which tactics to employ.

For instance, while ChatGPT and similar tools can quickly generate FAQ and how-to blocks with associated schema, Google recently announced that this feature is being phased out for most sites. This emphasizes the importance of recognizing that the longevity of certain tactics may be uncertain.

In other cases, it is a matter of considering ethical concerns for a suggested SEO strategy using something like ChatGPT. 

For example, if a client intends to automate SEO content creation for numerous pages using prompts like “Write a 500–700-word search engine optimized article about Carpet Cleaning in XYZ City” without human supervision, imagine the potential impact on user experience and search engine reactions to similar content across multiple websites. 

Pose questions such as:

  • What happens if everybody does this?
  • How would consumers react to seeing ten similar generative-text-created blogs on 10 similar websites?
  • How might Google modify its system if/when this occurs? 

This line of thinking can help prevent wasted resources and ensure a more sustainable approach to SEO.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this article, and maintaining open lines of communication with your client, you can foster stronger relationships and ensure the long-term success of your SEO projects. 

The post SEO, generative AI and LLMs: Managing client expectations appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/seo-generative-ai-and-llms-managing-client-expectations-431979

Microsoft calls deceased NBA player ‘useless’ in AI-written obituary

Microsoft has been criticised after publishing an AI-generated obituary for NBA star Brandon Hunter.

The former Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic player passed away suddenly this week, aged 42, after collapsing during a hot yoga class in Orlando, Fla.

Shortly after his passing, fans were shocked to see the father of three described as “useless” in an obituary published on MSN.

The headline read:

  • “Brandon Hunter useless at 42.”
AI

Why we care. MSN laid off two dozen editorial staff a few years ago with plans to replace the writers with generative AI, the Guardian reported. This case highlights the importance of not relying solely on AI for generating content due to factual inaccuracies and problematic errors, and the need to ensure that all work produced by AI is supervised by humans. Failure to do so could harm your brand’s reputation as well as negatively impacting your search rankings.

Incomprehensible. While the MSN headline was offensive, the rest of the article was incoherent. It read:

  • “Former NBA participant, Brandon Hunter, who beforehand performed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has handed away on the age of 42, as introduced by Ohio male’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.”
  • “Hunter, initially a extremely regarded high school basketball participant in Cincinnati, achieved vital success as a ahead for the Bobcats.”

Reputational damage. Despite swiftly removing the article from the MSN website, Microsoft was criticized on social media for publishing the offensive content:

artificial intelligence
BankRate
basketball coach

What Microsoft is saying. A Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Land:

  • “The accuracy of the content we publish from our partners is important to us, and we continue to enhance our systems to identify and prevent inaccurate information from appearing on our channels. The story in question has been removed.”

However, the company is yet to officially apologize.

Dig deeper. Futurism broke the news in Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player “Useless”.

Other brands stumbles with AI. We’ve previously reported on a number of brands that have published articles with errors, all of which were lacking in E-E-A-T in different ways:

  • Men’s Journal published an AI-generated article, What All Men Should Know About Low Testosterone, that contained bad advice and information.
  • BuzzFeed published 44 terrible “AI-assisted” articles.
  • Gizmodo published an article on “Star Wars” with numerous factual errors.
  • Red Ventures-owned properties (including CNET, BankRate and CreditCards.com) have also leaned heavily into AI-generated content.

As a reminder, Google doesn’t care who – or what – writes your content, as long as that content is helpful and not created to manipulate search results.

The post Microsoft calls deceased NBA player ‘useless’ in AI-written obituary appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-brandon-hunter-useless-ai-obituary-432008

TW-BERT: End-to-end query term weighting and the future of Google Search

Search is hard, as Seth Godin wrote in 2005.

I mean, if we think SEO is hard (and it is) imagine if you were trying to build a search engine in a world where:

  • The users vary dramatically and change their preferences over time.
  • The technology they access search advances every day.
  • Competitors nipping at your heels constantly.

On top of that, you’re also dealing with pesky SEOs trying to game your algorithm gain insights into how best to optimize for your visitors.

That’s going to make it a lot harder.

Now imagine if the main technologies you need to lean on to advance came with their own limitations – and, perhaps worse, massive costs.

Well, if you’re one of the writers of the recently published paper, “End-to-End Query Term Weighting” you see this as an opportunity to shine.

What is end-to-end query term weighting?

End-to-end query term weighting refers to a method where the weight of each term in a query is determined as part of the overall model, without relying on manually programmed or traditional term weighting schemes or other independent models.

What does that look like?

All Marketers Are Liars

Here we see an illustration of one of the key differentiators of the model outlined in the paper (Figure 1, specifically).

On the right side of the standard model (2) we see the same as we do with the proposed model (4), which is the corpus (full set of documents in the index), leading to the documents, leading to the terms. 

This illustrates the actual hierarchy into the system, but you can casually think of it in reverse, from the top down. We have terms. We look for documents with those terms. Those documents are in the corpus of all the documents we know about.

To the lower left (1) in the standard Information Retrieval (IR) architecture, you’ll notice that there is no BERT layer. The query used in their illustration (nike running shoes) enters the system, and the weights are computed independently of the model and passed to it.

In the illustration here, the weights are passing equally among the three words in the query. However, it does not have to be that way. It’s simply a default and good illustration. 

What is important to understand is that the weights are assigned from outside the model and entered it with the query. We’ll cover why this is important momentarily.

If we look at the term-weight version on the right side, you’ll see that the query “nike running shoes” enters BERT (Term Weighting BERT, or TW-BERT, to be specific) which is used to assign the weights that would be best applied to that query.

From there things follow a similar path for both, a scoring function is applied and documents are ranked. But there’s a key final step with the new model, that is really the point of it all, the ranking loss calculation.

This calculation, which I was referring to above, makes the weights being determined within the model so important. To understand this best, let’s take a quick aside to discuss loss functions, which is important to really understand what’s going on here.

What is a loss function?

In machine learning, a loss function is basically a calculation of how wrong a system is with said system trying to learn to get as close to a zero loss as possible.

Let’s take for example a model designed to determine house prices. If you entered in all the stats of your house and it came up with a value of $250,000, but your house sold for $260,000 the difference would be considered the loss (which is an absolute value).

Across a large number of examples, the model is taught to minimize the loss by assigning different weights to the parameters it is given until it gets the best result. A parameter, in this case, may include things like square feet, bedrooms, yard size, proximity to a school, etc.

Now, back to query term weighting

Looking back at the two examples above, what we need to focus on is the presence of a BERT model to provide the weighting to the terms down-funnel of the ranking loss calculation. 

To put it differently, in the traditional models, the weighting of the terms was done independent of the model itself and thus, could not respond to how the overall model performed. It could not learn how to improve in the weightings.

In the proposed system, this changes. The weighting is done from within the model itself and thus, as the model seeks to improve it’s performance and reduce the loss function, it has these extra dials to turn bringing term weighting into the equation. Literally.

ngrams

TW-BERT isn’t designed to operate in terms of words, but rather ngrams.

The authors of the paper illustrate well why they use ngrams instead of words when they point out that in the query “nike running shoes” if you simply weight the words then a page with mentions of the words nike, running and shoes could rank well even if it’s discussing “nike running socks” and “skate shoes”.

Traditional IR methods use query statistics and document statistics, and may surface pages with this or similar issues. Past attempts to address this focused on co-occurrence and ordering.

In this model, the ngrams are weighted as words were in our previous example, so we end up with something like:

Core

On the left we see how the query would be weighted as uni-grams (1-word ngrams) and on the right, bi-grams (2-word ngrams).

The system, because the weighting is built into it, can train on all the permutations to determine the best ngrams and also the appropriate weight for each, as opposed to relying only on statistics like frequency.

Zero shot

An important feature of this model is its performance in zero-short tasks. The authors tested in on:

  • MS MARCO dataset – Microsoft dataset for document and passage ranking
  • TREC-COVID dataset – COVID articles and studies
  • Robust04 – News articles
  • Common Core – Educational articles and blog posts

They only had a small number of evaluation queries and used none for fine-tuning, making this a zero-shot test in that the model was not trained to rank documents on these domains specifically. The results were:

Godin

It outperformed in most tasks and performed best on shorter queries (1 to 10 words).

And it’s plug-and-play!

OK, that might be over-simplifying, but the authors write:

“Aligning TW-BERT with search engine scorers minimizes the changes needed to integrate it into existing production applications, whereas existing deep learning based search methods would require further infrastructure optimization and hardware requirements. The learned weights can be easily utilized by standard lexical retrievers and by other retrieval techniques such as query expansion.”

Because TW-BERT is designed to integrate into the current system, integration is far simpler and cheaper than other options.

What this all means for you

With machine learning models, it’s difficult to predict example what you as an SEO can do about it (apart from visible deployments like Bard or ChatGPT).

A permutation of this model will undoubtedly be deployed due to its improvements and ease of deployment (assuming the statements are accurate).

That said, this is a quality-of-life improvement at Google, that will improve rankings and zero-shot results with a low cost.

All we can really rely on is that if implemented, better results will more reliably surface. And that’s good news for SEO professionals.

The post TW-BERT: End-to-end query term weighting and the future of Google Search appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/tw-bert-end-to-end-query-term-weighting-google-search-431907

Google search antitrust trial updates: Everything you need to know (so far)

Google is on trial for allegedly using underhand tactics to ensure it stays the world’s leading search engine.

The U.S. Justice Department claims Google, which owns a 90% market share in search, paid massive sums to companies like Apple to make it the default search engine on products like the iPhone.

These multibillion-dollar deals gave Google an unfair advantage, the DOJ alleges, making it nearly impossible for rival companies to compete.

The trial will last 10 weeks and include testimonies from key figures like Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The outcome of the landmark case could bring significant changes to Google and the future of the Internet. But it’s equally likely the trial will result in no changes and Google will be free to continue operating however it wants.

We’ll keep updating this article with the latest developments from this landmark trial.

As the trial is set to cover many Google search-related issues, we have organized the updates by topic to make the timeline easier to follow.

Google credits its 90% market share to being a superior platform (Sept. 12)

  • John Schmidtlein, lead lawyer for Google, claims the company dominates the search market due to being a superior product.
  • Google argues that users can easily switch to rival search engines even if it’s the default.
  • Antonio Rangel, a California Institute of Technology economist, testified that Google’s defaults discourage users from switching, saying switching to a different search engine is not easy.
  • He cited an example where switching to Bing from Google on an Android 12 phone required 10 steps, describing it as “considerable choice friction”, reports Business Insider.
alleged search monopoly

Google ‘hid and destroyed evidence’ (Sept. 12)

  • Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer accused Google of “hiding and destroying documents because they knew they were violating the antitrust laws”, reports Bloomberg.
  • In his opening statement on day one, Dintzer presented evidence to show that Google was knowingly breaking laws.
  • He pointed to an October 2021 chat message from CEO Pichai, which read: “Need the link for my leaders circle tomorrow…can we change the setting of this group to history off… thanks.”
  • When history is off, conversations are auto-deleted after 24 hours.
  • Google declined to comment.

Apple allegedly didn’t want a default search engine (Sept. 12)

  • The DOJ revealed that Apple intended to provide users with a choice screen to select between Google and Yahoo as their search engine.
  • However, Google rejected this proposal with the statement “No default placement, no revenue share,” as stated in an email.
  • Kenneth Dintzer, the lead attorney for the DOJ, characterized Google’s response as a monopolistic action.

Google pays $10 billion a year to maintain default status (Sept. 12)

  • Justice Department attorney Dintzer accused Google of recognizing the important of default status and said this was the reason why the company spent more than $10 billion a year to brands like Apple.
  • Dintzer added that ” this wheel has been turning for more than 12 years and it always turns to Google’s advantage.”
  • He claimed Google staff had previously described losing the company’s search default status on mobile as a “code red situation”.
  • Google’s counterargument said that despite commanding 90% of the search market share, it faces competition from companies like Amazong, Microsoft’s Bing and Yelp.
  • Google attorney John Schmidtlein, added: “There are lots of way users access the web other than default search engines, and people use them all the time.”

Google calls its competition ‘inferior’ (Sept. 12)

  • Google’s lawyer, Schmidtlein, argued in court that the government is pursuing a regressive lawsuit.
  • He said the claims was “all in the hopes that forcing people to use inferior products in the short run will somehow be good for competition in the long run.”

Google’s search engine default status on phones was a ‘priority’ (Sept. 13)

  •  Chris Barton, who worked for Google from 2004 to 2011, said negotiating deals to make Google the default search engine on mobile devices was a top priority during his time at the company.
  • He claimed that in return for default status, phone service providers and manufacturers were guaranteed a portion of ad click revenue.
  • This strategy, central to the government’s antitrust case, aimed to establish Google as the primary search engine across various devices, reports News Bytes.

Google faced competition to become default search engine on mobile (Sept. 13)

  • Former Googler, Barton, emphasized that Google faced competition from other search engines in becoming the default choice for phone companies during his testimony,.
  • In a 2011 email exchange, Google executives observed that AT&T had selected Yahoo as its default search engine, while Verizon had opted for Microsoft’s Bing.
  • Barton testified that he encountered a challenge because mobile carriers were fixated on revenue share percentages.
  • He aimed to convince potential partners that Google’s high-quality searches would lead to more clicks and greater advertising revenue, even with a lower percentage share.

Googlers were told to be mindful of their language (Sept. 13)

  • Google staff were allegedly told back as far as 2023 to avoid using certain terms to avoid being perceived as “monopolists”.
  • A memo written by Google Chief Economist Hal Varian read: “We have to be sensitive about antitrust considerations…We should be careful about what we say in both public and private.”
  • Staff were told to avoid terms like “market share” and “bundle”.

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Verdict. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta isn’t expected to issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.

Why we care: If the US Government wins this case, it could mean Google is no longer automatically installed as the default search engine on everyday products, which could threaten its position as the world’s search leader. This means rival companies like Yahoo could realistically stand a chance of taking Google’s crown for the first time, which could bring significant changes to the search landscape as we know it.

What’s at stake. The U.S. and state allies are not asking for money; they want a court order to stop Google from its alleged unfair practices. This order could greatly affect Google’s business. For example:

  • The court could potentially split up the company as a solution.
  • On a broader scale, the Justice Department might argue that it aims to prevent Google from using its alleged search monopoly to secure exclusive deals in new markets, like AI.

This lawsuit is considered one of the most significant challenges to the tech industry’s dominance since the DOJ sued Microsoft in 1998 for its control of the personal computer market. In that case, the trial court ruled that Microsoft had unlawfully attempted to hinder the rival browser Netscape Navigator. Microsoft ultimately reached a settlement that didn’t break up the company.

If Google’s lead attorney Schmidtelein looks familiar, that may be because he represented Microsoft against the DOJ in the 1998 trial.

Deep dive. Read the US Justice Department’s official statement for more information on why it is suing Google.

The post Google search antitrust trial updates: Everything you need to know (so far) appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/google-search-antirust-trial-hearing-updates-431977

Tips to Keep on Top of Your Workload When Starting a Business

Home Business Magazine Online

When you start a business, one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is staying on top of your workload. From supervising daily activities to making important sales and marketing decisions, the to-do list of an average business owner is huge. This is why you need to stay focused and keep on top of your workload. Otherwise, it won’t take long for your business to start getting out of control, which you obviously don’t want to happen.

To help you do all of this, here are some tips to keep on top of your workload once your new business is up and running.

Take Plenty of Breaks 

Ironically, breaks are great for helping business owners stay on top of things. The reason for this is that breaks provide you with an opportunity to refresh your mind and re-energize. As a result, you can complete your business tasks more efficiently without suffering any potential burnout.

Generally, it’s recommended that you take at least an hour-long break during a typical working day. When you do this, you can kick your feet up and relax, whether you’re in the office or working from home.

Don’t know how to spend your work break? No problem. Here are some suggestions:

  • Go for a walk
  • Visit a local coffee shop
  • Play mobile games

Mobile games are especially popular with business owners because they’re a great distraction and provide you with short bursts of entertainment. If you’re starting a business and also like gaming, it’s recommended you visit jackpotcitycasino.com and play online casino games whenever you need a break. JackpotCity Casino is a safe and reliable online casino that’s home to all the crowd-favorite casino games, from video poker to online roulette. If you decide to play here, you’re in safe hands.

Remember, make sure your employees are also instructed to take breaks during the day. During breaks, they shouldn’t be restricted to the office, and instead allow them to head outside and do whatever they like (as long as they return on time).

Download a Planner App 

Next, download a planner app to your smartphone. With a planner app, you’ll be able to list and prioritize all of the important business tasks you need to do, from sales meetings to employee one-to-ones.

If you don’t use a daily planner app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Download one as soon as possible so that you can boost your overall efficiency and keep your start-up on track.

Complete the Hardest Tasks First 

Another pro tip is to complete the hardest tasks first. Sure, it can be tempting to do the easiest tasks first, especially if you’re feeling tired. However, it’s important that you never take the easy route and always do the hardest tasks first. Once they’re out of the way, it makes all the tasks that come after feel like a breeze.

Keep Your Workspace Clean and Tidy 

One contributing factor to a workload getting out of control is a cluttered workspace.

Taking this into account, make sure you keep your workspace clean and tidy all year long. By dedicating 5 or 10 minutes a day to decluttering, you can easily do this. A bonus benefit to this is that it can make it easier to delegate tasks and receive information from others. If everyone knows where to find relevant work or where you prefer documents to be, it all goes to the right place.

The post Tips to Keep on Top of Your Workload When Starting a Business appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/success-tips/tips-keep-top-workload-when-starting-business/

Starting a High-Visibility Clothing, Jackets, and Coats Business

Home Business Magazine Online

High visibility clothing such as high visibility jackets, reflective shirts, safety vests, and coats are made with fluorescent fabric that makes it easier to spot anyone wearing them. Even more-so in low light conditions with limited visibility.

High visibility clothing is an essential safety requirement for anyone who works on construction sites, emergency operations, crowd control, sporting adventures, traffic work, road work, DOT, logistics, and more. Still, while such safety gear is essential, is it a business worth venturing into? What should you consider before getting started? Where should you begin?

Let’s delve right into all this and more:

The High-Visibility Clothing (Jackets, Shirts, Safety Vests) Industry at a Glance

The high-visibility clothing industry is highly profitable. It is currently worth over $1.5 billion and is forecasted to grow even more in the next decade.

Further, high-visibility clothing has a fairly consistent demand as most workers and companies require new reflector jackets, uniforms, or other items from time to time. It is thus not a fickle business niche that is bound to become irrelevant in a year or two.

Retail vs Wholesale Jackets and Clothing

You can sell high-visibility clothing items in retail or wholesale. It all depends on your start-up capabilities and market dynamics.

Selling retail may be a good option if you would like a safe affordable investment as it requires less capital, labor, and operational infrastructure. It is also more viable if your target market mostly comprises small-scale customers such as firemen, traffic coordinators, construction workers, and others.

Wholesale, on the other hand, entails buying and selling high-visibility gear in bulk. It may thus be a better business approach if you can access B2B customers such as emergency departments, security companies, construction firms, and similar entities. It often offers better profit margins than retail but requires a larger capital investment.

Tips on Starting a Reflective Jackets and Hi Vis Clothing Business

Now that you know what to expect in the industry, let’s switch gears and explore some tips on how to start a thriving reflective clothing business.

As you set up, pay attention to:

Creating an Effective High Visibility Business Setup

When setting up your business, begin by considering the following vital decisions:

  • A suitable selling approach – will you start a retail or wholesale reflective clothing business? Will you sell online or have a physical store?
  • Logistics – how will you source high-visibility clothing? How will you store it and deliver it to customers?
  • Staffing – will you run the business single-handedly or will you require staff? What kind of staff do you need?
  • Legal requirements – what kind of licenses do you require? Are there any legal stipulations that you should fulfill when selling reflective clothing?

Answering these questions will help you figure out how to create an efficient business system that you can perfect with time. Try to also create a setup that prioritizes a great customer experience and smooth operations that help boost profitability.

High Visibility Consumer Needs

Reflective clothing comprises a variety of items from jackets, overalls, and vests among others. Consumers choose them depending on their needs or line of work. Therefore, it is advisable to study your target market and understand what type of high-visibility clothing items they need so that you can stock up accordingly.

Building Customer Relationships for Additional Product Sales

Building customer relationships entails introducing your business and the products you sell to customers. It is an essential step regardless of whether you are starting a retail or wholesale reflective apparel business.

In retail, your customers are mostly individual buyers. You can thus take on marketing approaches like online ads, social media campaigns, a business launch event, or even handing out flyers if you own a physical store.

These marketing solutions can help you also attract the attention of wholesale customers. However, you may need to complement them with other more direct approaches.

For example, you can make in-person visits to companies, pitch to become their supplier, and offer samples of the reflective gear that you can supply. This makes it more likely for such businesses to consider you the next time they need to buy high-visibility clothing items.

It is equally important to mention that increasing the visibility of your business through marketing or direct pitches is only half the battle. Strive to also:

  • Engage potential customers and seek their feedback.
  • Respond to inquiries or pre-orders fast and with helpful information.
  • Share clear details about your business such as when you plan to launch, the products you will have in stock, how customers can buy from you, and how they can reach you.

Product Quality of Jackets, Shirts, and Vests

high-visibility clothing can be the fine line between safety and catastrophe. It is thus crucial for you to only source such gear from manufacturers that adhere to high-visibility clothing quality and safety standards.

Additionally, ensure that all high-visibility clothing that you source:

  • Is duly inspected and certified.
  • Comes from a qualified manufacturer.
  • Has clearly indicated usage and safety instructions.
  • Is durable.

In some industries, like sports, consumers may prefer reflective running shirts that are not only safe but also stylish. It may thus be wise to aim for quality designs that meet such needs.

Safety Clothing Sales

The sales you make directly impact your bottom line. So, it is important to strategize on how to increase your sales over time. Explore options such as:

  • Holding discounted sales to attract buyers.
  • Offering value-adding services like branding reflective clothing with custom company names or logos.
  • Online and offline ads to drive traffic to your store.
  • Marketing campaigns sharing safety information to help people understand why they need high-visibility clothing.
  • Stocking a variety of high-visibility clothing to broaden your customer base.

The Competition in Hi Vis Jackets, Shirts, and Apparel

The high-visibility clothing niche is not as competitive as other niches such as fashion or beauty. Still, you are likely to face some level of competition when you venture into it.

As with any business, it is wise to strive and do better than your competitors. So, begin by evaluating their strengths and weaknesses then learn how to gain an edge over them.

For example, if your competitors do not offer custom branding or fitting for high-visibility clothes, you can win over customers by providing such services. You can also try to offer:

  • More competitive pricing.
  • Shorter lead times between customer orders and deliveries.
  • More efficient customer support during and after sales.
  • Easier access I.e allowing customers to order online or through other convenient avenues.

Which Hi-Viz Products Are Best Sellers?

Hi Vis Coats and Hi Visibility Jackets

You’ve heard it before, jackets and safety coats are an opportunity in this market. If you are looking for quick win sales, these coat safety products and workwear work well in this market.

High Vis Safety Shirts

A classic main-stay of high visibility clothing. The humble safety shirt is a great product to scale your business.

High Visibility Parka Coat

Parkas are great high visibility coats to sell too. These are niche enough to be less competitive in the market.

High Visibility Safety Vests

The most popular of all of these options are safety vests. They are used in so many industries from roadwork / traffic control to logistics and warehouses.

In Conclusion

High-visibility clothing is hardly the first product one may think of when considering business ideas. Yet, therein lies its genius; it is not commonplace but it has a high demand in a variety of industries ranging from emergency care to motorsports, and more. So, why not reap the profits while you still can?

Need a reflective clothing supplier? Look no further, reach out to us for a wide variety of options.

The post Starting a High-Visibility Clothing, Jackets, and Coats Business appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/business-start-up/setting-up-a-business/starting-high-visibility-clothing-jackets-coats-business/

Amazon sellers can now use AI to write product titles, descriptions and listing details

Amazon is rolling out enhanced AI capabilities to help advertisers create better product listings.

The new technology simplifies how sellers create product descriptions, titles, and listing details by automatically generating content based on brief product descriptions.

Previously, sellers were required to enter many pieces of information to create product listings, however, the process has now been streamlined into just one step.

Why we care. Creating product titles, bullet points and descriptions has historically been a time-consuming task for sellers that demanded substantial effort. AI adoption could help alleviate this workload, simplifying and speeding up the process of listing new products, while also potentially improving product listing content.

How it works. To get started, you need to provide a brief description of your product in a few words or sentences. Amazon will then create content for you – which you can then review.

If you wish, you can make further adjustments to the generated content, or you can submit it directly to the Amazon catalog as it is.

Reviews. Early feedback collected over the last few months shows that most sellers are using the content generated by the AI model for their listings without editing it at all.

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What has Amazon said? Robert Tekiela, vice president of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, said in a statement:

  • “With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency.”
  • “Our models learn to infer product information through the diverse sources of information, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning that they learn. For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”

Deep dive. Read Amazon’s announcement in full for more information.

The post Amazon sellers can now use AI to write product titles, descriptions and listing details appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/amazon-sellers-ai-product-titles-description-431969

Google September 2023 helpful content system update rolling out

Google has begun to push out an update to its helpful content system, the last helpful content system update was the December 2022 helpful content update. The update started on September 14 and should take about two weeks to fully roll out.

What is new. Google said, “The September 2023 helpful content update is rolling out with an improved classifier. It will take about two weeks to complete. We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete.”

Google added new details about helpful content, specifically:

  • Added new guidance about hosting third-party content and more explanation on what to do after a helpful content system update (perhaps you don’t need to do anything, or perhaps self-assess your content).
  • Added new points about removing content or changing dates to the help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content.
  • Google also removed the words “written by people” and just wrote “helpful content created for people in search results.” I suspect this is to say AI-generated content is fine when it is helpful. Here is a screenshot of the before and after.
Alphabet Inc.

In May, Google told us a helpful content system update would be coming this year. Google said this update would enable the helpful content system to “more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view.” “We’re also improving how we rank results in Search overall, with a greater focus on content with unique expertise and experience,” Google also said a few months ago.

Google said this is not today’s update. Google wrote, “This work is still continuing and is not part of this particular update. We’ll share more about our work in this area in the future.”

What to do if you are hit. Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions as we posted over here, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update.

Please note if this update has hit you, it can take several months to recover if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time.

More on the helpful content update. Google’s helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”

This algorithm update aims to help searchers find “high-quality content,” Google told us. Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

Searchers get frustrated when they land on unhelpful webpages that rank well in search because they were written for the purpose of ranking in search engines. This is the type of content you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content.”

Google’s helpful content algorithm aims to downgrade those types of websites while promoting more helpful websites, designed for humans, above search engines.

Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.”

Why we care. If you notice any ranking and visibility changes in Google search over the next two weeks or so, especially if those were big changes, you can likely attribute it to this update. Read Google’s advice, make the necessary changes, and hope for a recovery in the upcoming months.

We hope you all will see a positive trend with your ranking and visibility in Google Search from this update.

The post Google September 2023 helpful content system update rolling out appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/google-september-2023-helpful-content-system-update-rolling-out-431978