Hiya!

Hope y’all had a nice Independence Day (and/or vacation if that’s how you chose to spend that week 🙂).

• Don’t be misled by this recent Search Engine Land headline: Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024. But, what’s behind the data? And, who might use this to question the value of SEO: 40% of the 100 billion searches a month conducted on Google = 40 billion link clicks. Who doesn’t want to get a piece of that action?

• 71% of adults worldwide think Generative AI will have a “very/somewhat large impact” on “social media companies (72%) and search engine companies (71%).” Meanwhile, “retailers” have the lowest rating for large impact at 47%. Check out the full list here and let us know if you agree with these findings and/or if you find them a little slanted, as we do, based on the level to which companies like Meta (Facebook) and Google have been very visible in their implementation of Gen AI to date.

• Is negative SEO something to worry about? If you don’t know, link-based negative SEO tactics set up spammy site links to ruin the targeted site’s SEO. Google’s Gary Illyes explains that search engine bots look at the topic of the linking page. He states, “if someone is linking to your flower page from a Canadian casino that sells Viagra without prescription, then why would we trust that link?”. Very logical point. We believe solid white-hat SEO can combat negative SEO tactics.

• To paraphrase Elizabeth Barret Browning, “How do I reach thee, let me count the ways.” Actually, Salesforce did the counting and their answer is marketers use about 10 channels to engage customers. The top 3 are Social Media, Website, and Digital Ads. Need we say more?

• Many people shook their heads when Netflix prohibited password sharing in multiple locations. Now, they are phasing out the Basic ad-free plan. We say this because more people will be switching to the ad-supported subscriptions, which may provide more marketing opportunities. The question is: do you want your brand ads to be showing up on an audience that is forced to watch more ads? Or is this a new opportunity to show off your ad creativity chops?

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

It’s Discovery’s infamous Shark Week this week — it brings a sort of nostalgia for me.

To think, these beautifully powerful creatures are portrayed in such diverse lights. They’re scary monsters with creepy theme songs or majestic ancient creatures perfectly adapted to their environments. 

Why do we have to place things in neat, categorized boxes? What if our thoughts about others were more fluid and open-minded?

If we judge sharks so harshly without even talking to them, how critically are we judging other people?

You got this!

Natalie

Did you know that sharks have a role to play in reducing ocean carbon? By eating fish who eat ocean plants, ocean plants like seagrass can store more carbon. Nerd out on the scientific facts here!