SEO Conspiracy News #16

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How important is branding for SEO?

On Resignal.com: What is the brand impact on SEO performance? by Kevin Gibbons.

I’m a big advocate of branding included in the mix of any digital marketing strategy.
With my model of traffic, the analytics pie should be divided into three-thirds: popularity, notoriety, authority.
Branding plays a big part because at least one-third of your analytics pie should include a branding strategy, so thank you, Kevin, for reinforcing what I always say: “If you’re winning, continue to strengthen your brand, if you are trying to catch someone, figure out why they are winning and do everything you can to catch up to speed. Branding is hugely important as a ranking factor.”
What does your analytics pie look like? Do you have three-thirds like I do, or are you in danger, putting all your eggs in one basket? Especially if that basket is called Google Organic Search, you’re in danger.

Google is updating fact check guidelines

On Seroundtable.com: Google Search Fact Check Guidelines by Barry Schwartz.

I always recommend to stay up to date with structured data. Fake news is in the middle of the U.S. presidential election debate.
All social media, all search engines are trying to show efforts and good faith to be more transparent, fair, etc. So now it seems that google clarified everything and you have to comply, you have to stay up to date with structured data it is very important.

Youtube is admitting the limits of algorithms.

On Theverge.com: YouTube brings back more human moderators after AI systems over-censor

What I found funny is that at the end of the day, Google Search, Facebook, and Youtube find a limit with the algorithmic filters. They stop a lot but not enough. Now, the solution to hiring more people to filter out what needs to be out of these platforms is not a great solution because they are suffering a lot.
I remember reading a while back a piece I believe it was either in The Verge or maybe Wired. Someone from the Philippines said how depressed and near-suicidal he was because he had to watch the worst things that happen in humanity all day long, all week long, all year long, and look at it.

Ex content-moderator sues Youtube

On Cnet.com: Ex-content moderator sues YouTube, claims job led to PTSD symptoms and depression

The worker watched videos that included beheadings, shootings, child abuse, according to the lawsuit. Exactly what I just said, it’s the internet; it’s ugly. There is a nasty part of humanity, and it exists. We can’t deny it. We can try to hide it. There are no perfect solutions here and I remember a talk from the google ethics committee it was Matt Cutts started by saying, “do you want Google to censor the internet?”
Everybody said no, and the next question was, “Well, do you want to see child pornography online?” Everybody said no, so what do we do how do we figure it out? Very complex issue here.

Facebook, like most social media, is in a bad spot right now.

On Theverge.com: Mark in the middle by Casey Newton

Solid, complex piece. You need to read it because Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are in the middle of a problematic situation. He makes facebook employees angry; he has to try to stay fair as far as the political debate. It’s a very complicated situation for
Zuckerberg, who displays content for over 3 billion people so, again no perfect solutions and facebook is most definitely in a difficult case for sure and I don’t know how Zuckerberg is gonna get out of it, but I wouldn’t want to be him for sure

How to keep Facebook from detecting fake accounts

On Vice.com: Surveillance Company Explains How to Keep Facebook From Detecting Fake Accounts in Leaked Manual

Blackdot Solutions, a British company that offers social media monitoring services, included a step-by-step guide on creating fake profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

The user manual was removed since the news came out, but it is pretty funny because, of course, the manual leaked but do not think that Blackdot Solutions is the only one who has that manual. Pretty much every big agency is manipulating social media, and they all create fake user accounts. Not many people talk about it, but you know that’s a common practice if you’re in the industry.

Is Facebook as addictive as cigarette?

On Businessinsider.com: Facebook’s former director of monetization says Facebook intentionally made its product as addictive as cigarettes — and now he fears it could cause ‘civil war’

I’m always a little bit suspicious of a former employee’s testimonial. Beware, because you lack the context. Was the person fired? How does that person live as far as anger and resentment? Is it all good?
It is important because a former employee states that a company is doing this or that it needs to be analyzed with the context of how that person became a former employee. Supposedly, from Tim Kendall, “They followed the cigarette company playbook.”
I don’t know what to think about it; I don’t know what you guys think about it. It’s not the first time that this is brought up. Of course, they build features for people to use the app as much as possible, but did they use a 70-year-old playbook from the cigarettes company? I’m not sure, but who knows?

Facebook ranks last in digital trust among users

On emarketer.com

Linkedin, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook.
How much do you, U.S. social media users, agree that social media platforms protect their privacy and data?
I got news for you: none of them protect your privacy. All of them use your private data—all of them. Facebook is renowned, and I don’t like Facebook. Instagram, okay, but Facebook no, I never trusted Facebook never wanted to be on Facebook. I’m on it for business purposes, but on a personal level, I’m not on Facebook; it’s a personal choice, but I don’t think LinkedIn is better or Youtube. They’re profiling everybody as much as Facebook. Facebook has a lot more data. Facebook is a lot more dangerous because of what people are doing on Facebook, but I don’t think there are any of those companies that are better than the rest of the pack. Data is power.

Tik Tok’s algorithm explained.

On Eugenewei.com: Seeing Like an Algorithm

TikTok and the sorting hat and seeing like an algorithm is a piece on remains of the day very interesting, two-part article on a TikTok algorithm. The TikTok algorithm is pretty smart. It’s very relevant & how it’s able to sort out content & show you what you like takes a different approach than the other one.

A 94 years old naturalist breaks records on Instagram.

On Guinessworldrecords.com: Sir David Attenborough breaks Instagram record for fastest time to reach one million followers

Sir David Attenborough breaks the Instagram record for the fastest time to reach 1M follower, and this guy is 94 years old. He’s a naturalist who made an IGTV video about global warming.
I explained such winning on social media you have two options one
you win the internet lottery, that’s what happened here, and I’m thrilled that a 94-year-old gentleman was able to break this record, but that’s option one: you get lucky. option two you do the work, you’re consistent, you are relevant it’s what I’m trying to achieve with SEO conspiracy here. Only two options to the path to success on social media.

Brands spend $59bn in ads on the internet this year.

On Warc.com: Brands to spend $59bn on e-commerce ads this year

With the COVID-19 situation, internet seems like the way to go for a lot of people. I’m overwhelmed with work; most of my colleagues are in the same situation. It appears that the internet is the route or the media to bet on nowadays because whatever is happening in real life it’s not so appealing for retail

Google needs to improve how fast they clean up ugly SERPs.

This Tweet was posted on September 25th, 2020, at 9:46 p.m, and on Monday, September 28th, and this horrific search result is still on.
What are you guys doing at google? If an algorithm does not solve this, you need to put a guy to get rid of this manually; you do it for other stuff. Why are you waiting so long for this? I know it happens, I know you can’t control everything, but you need to address it right away if something pops up. Every day. if you deleted it and it comes back, well, come back and delete it again because this is under scrutiny and it doesn’t look good.

Pinterest shares how positivity is on the rise for health and work at home queries.

On Searchenginejournal.com: Pinterest Search Trends for Fall 2020.

Pinterest employs people to take control of their emotional well-being.
Pinterest is looking for example about how there was a steep increase
search for positivity the need for positive content is higher than ever
and I think that if you look at the keywords for mental health, we see:

5% is asmr food, 84% mindful eating, 44% photoshoot ideas, 56% zen bedroom idea. What’s good is people are trying to find positive ways to figure out this work at home and stay home a lot more than with a usual situation.

Thanks for your time, see you next week!

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