App Policy What's Next in Tech

Jan 8 2025

What’s next for our privacy?

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

Every day, we are tracked hundreds or even thousands of times across the digital world. Cookies and web trackers capture every website link that we click, while code installed in mobile apps tracks every physical location that our devices—and, by extension, we—have visited. All of this is collected, packaged together with other details (compiled from public records, supermarket member programs, utility companies, and more), and used to create highly personalized profiles that are then shared or sold, often without our explicit knowledge or consent.

A consensus is growing that Americans need better privacy protections—and that the best way to deliver them would be for Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation. While the latest iteration of such a bill, the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024, gained more momentum than previously proposed laws, it became so watered down that it lost support from both Republicans and Democrats before it even came to a vote.

There have been some privacy wins in the form of limits on what data brokers—third-party companies that buy and sell consumers’ personal information for targeted advertisements, messaging, and other purposes—can do with geolocation data.

These are still small steps, though—and they are happening as increasingly pervasive and powerful technologies collect more data than ever. And at the same time, Washington is preparing for a new presidential administration that has attacked the press and other critics, promised to target immigrants for mass deportation, threatened to seek retribution against perceived enemies, and supported restrictive state abortion laws. This is not even to mention the increased collection of our biometric data, especially for facial recognition, and the normalization of its use in all kinds of ways. In this light, it’s no stretch to say our personal data has arguably never been more vulnerable, and the imperative for privacy has never felt more urgent.

So what can Americans expect for their personal data in 2025? We spoke to privacy experts and advocates about (some of) what’s on their mind regarding how our digital data might be traded or protected moving forward.

Reining in a problematic industry

In early December, the Federal Trade Commission announced separate settlement agreements with the data brokers Mobilewalla and Gravy Analytics (and its subsidiary Venntel). Finding that the companies had tracked and sold geolocation data from users at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals, and military installations without explicit consent, the FTC banned the companies from selling such data except in specific circumstances. This follows something of a busy year in regulation of data brokers, including multiple FTC enforcement actions against other companies for similar use and sale of geolocation data, as well as a proposed rule from the Justice Department that would prohibit the sale of bulk data to foreign entities.

And on the same day that the FTC announced these settlements in December, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule that would designate data brokers as consumer reporting agencies, which would trigger stringent reporting requirements and consumer privacy protections. The rule would prohibit the collection and sharing of people’s sensitive information, such as their salaries and Social Security numbers, without “legitimate purposes.” While the rule will still need to undergo a 90-day public comment period, and it’s unclear whether it will move forward under the Trump administration, if it’s finalized it has the power to fundamentally limit how data brokers do business.

Right now, there just aren’t many limits on how these companies operate—nor, for that matter, clear information on how many data brokerages even exist. Industry watchers estimate there may be 4,000 to 5,000 data brokers around the world, many of which we’ve never heard of—and whose names constantly shift. In California alone, the state’s 2024 Data Broker Registry lists 527 such businesses that have voluntarily registered there, nearly 90 of which also self-reported that they collect geolocation data.

All this data is widely available for purchase by anyone who will pay. Marketers buy data to create highly targeted advertisements, and banks and insurance companies do the same to verify identity, prevent fraud, and conduct risk assessments. Law enforcement buys geolocation data to track people’s whereabouts without getting traditional search warrants. Foreign entities can also currently buy sensitive information on members of the military and other government officials. And on people-finder websites, basically anyone can pay for anyone else’s contact details and personal history.

Data brokers and their clients defend these transactions by saying that most of this data is anonymized—though it’s questionable whether that can truly be done in the case of geolocation data. Besides, anonymous data can be easily reidentified, especially when it’s combined with other personal information.

Digital-rights advocates have spent years sounding the alarm on this secretive industry, especially the ways in which it can harm already marginalized communities, though various types of data collection have sparked consternation across the political spectrum. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for example, was concerned about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bought location data to evaluate the effectiveness of pandemic lockdowns. Then a study from last year showed how easy (and cheap) it was to buy sensitive data about members of the US military; Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, called out the national security risks of data brokers in a statement to MIT Technology Review, and Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, later said he was “shocked” when he read about the practice in our story.

But it was the 2022 Supreme Court decision ending the constitutional guarantee of legal abortion that spurred much of the federal action last year. Shortly after the Dobbs ruling, President Biden issued an executive order to protect access to reproductive health care; it included instructions for the FTC to take steps preventing information about visits to doctor’s offices or abortion clinics from being sold to law enforcement agencies or state prosecutors.

The new enforcers

With Donald Trump taking office in January, and Republicans taking control of both houses of Congress, the fate of the CFPB’s proposed rule—and the CFPB itself—is uncertain. Republicans, the people behind Project 2025, and Elon Musk (who will lead the newly created advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency) have long been interested in seeing the bureau “deleted,” as Musk put it on X. That would take an act of Congress, making it unlikely, but there are other ways that the administration could severely curtail its powers. Trump is likely to fire the current director and install a Republican who could rescind existing CFPB rules and stop any proposed rules from moving forward.

Meanwhile, the FTC’s enforcement actions are only as good as the enforcers. FTC decisions do not set legal precedent in quite the same way that court cases do, says Ben Winters, a former Department of Justice official and the director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, a network of organizations and agencies focused on consumer protection. Instead, they “require consistent [and] additional enforcement to make the whole industry scared of not having an FTC enforcement action against them.” (It’s also worth noting that these FTC settlements are specifically focused on geolocation data, which is just one of the many types of sensitive data that we regularly give up in order to participate in the digital world.)

Looking ahead, Tiffany Li, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who focuses on AI and privacy law, is worried about “a defanged FTC” that she says would be “less aggressive in taking action against companies.”

Lina Khan, the current FTC chair, has been the leader of privacy protection action in the US, notes Li, and she’ll soon be leaving. Andrew Ferguson, Trump’s recently named pick to be the next FTC chair, has come out in strong opposition to data brokers: “This type of data—records of a person’s precise physical locations—is inherently intrusive and revealing of people’s most private affairs,” he wrote in a statement on the Mobilewalla decision, indicating that he is likely to continue action against them. (Ferguson has been serving as a commissioner on the FTC since April 20214.) On the other hand, he has spoken out against using FTC actions as an alternative to privacy legislation passed by Congress. And, of course, this brings us right back around to that other major roadblock: Congress has so far failed to pass such laws—and it’s unclear if the next Congress will either.

Movement in the states

Without federal legislative action, many US states are taking privacy matters into their own hands.

In 2025, eight new state privacy laws will take effect, making a total of 25 around the country. A number of other states—like Vermont and Massachusetts—are considering passing their own privacy bills next year, and such laws could, in theory, force national legislation, says Woodrow Hartzog, a technology law scholar at Boston University School of Law. “Right now, the statutes are all similar enough that the compliance cost is perhaps expensive but manageable,” he explains. But if one state passed a law that was different enough from the others, a national law could be the only way to resolve the conflict. Additionally, four states—California, Texas, Vermont, and Oregon—already have specific laws regulating data brokers, including the requirement that they register with the state.

Along with new laws, says Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, comes the possibility that “we can put some more teeth on these laws.”

Brookman points to Texas, where some of the most aggressive enforcement action at the state level has taken place under its Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton. Even before the state’s new consumer privacy bill went into effect in July, Paxton announced the creation of a special task force focused on enforcing the state’s privacy laws. He has since targeted a number of data brokers—including National Public Data, which exposed millions of sensitive customer records in a data breach in August, as well as companies that sell to them, like Sirius XM.

At the same time, though, Paxton has moved to enforce the state’s strict abortion laws in ways that threaten individual privacy. In December, he sued a New York doctor for sending abortion pills to a Texas woman through the mail. While the doctor is theoretically protected by New York’s shield laws, which provide a safeguard from out-of-state prosecution, Paxton’s aggressive action makes it even more crucial that states enshrine data privacy protections into their laws, says Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, an advocacy group. “There is an urgent need for states,” he says, “to lock down our resident’s’ data, barring companies from collecting and sharing information in ways that can be weaponized against them by out-of-state prosecutors.”

Data collection in the name of “security”

While privacy has become a bipartisan issue, Republicans, in particular, are interested in “addressing data brokers in the context of national security,” such as protecting the data of military members or other government officials, says Winters. But in his view, it’s the effects on reproductive rights and immigrants that are potentially the “most dangerous” threats to privacy.

Indeed, data brokers (including Venntel, the Gravy Analytics subsidiary named in the recent FTC settlement) have sold cell-phone data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as to Customs and Border Protection. That data has then been used to track individuals for deportation proceedings—allowing the agencies to bypass local and state sanctuary laws that ban local law enforcement from sharing information for immigration enforcement.

“The more data that corporations collect, the more data that’s available to governments for surveillance,” warns Ashley Gorski, a senior attorney who works on national security and privacy at the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU is among a number of organizations that have been pushing for the passage of another federal law related to privacy: the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. It would close the so-called “data-broker loophole” that allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies to buy personal information from data brokers without a search warrant. The bill would “dramatically limit the ability of the government to buy Americans’ private data,” Gorski says. It was first introduced in 2021 and passed the House in April 2024, with the support of 123 Republicans and 93 Democrats, before stalling in the Senate.

While Gorski is hopeful that the bill will move forward in the next Congress, others are less sanguine about these prospects—and alarmed about other ways that the incoming administration might “co-opt private systems for surveillance purposes,” as Hartzog puts it. So much of our personal information that is “collected for one purpose,” he says, could “easily be used by the government … to track us.”

This is especially concerning, adds Winters, given that the next administration has been “very explicit” about wanting to use every tool at its disposal to carry out policies like mass deportations and to exact revenge on perceived enemies. And one possible change, he says, is as simple as loosening the government’s procurement processes to make them more open to emerging technologies, which may have fewer privacy protections. “Right now, it’s annoying to procure anything as a federal agency,” he says, but he expects a more “fast and loose use of commercial tools.”

“That’s something we’ve [already] seen a lot,” he adds, pointing to “federal, state, and local agencies using the Clearviews of the world”—a reference to the controversial facial recognition company.

The AI wild card

Underlying all of these debates on potential legislation is the fact that technology companies—especially AI companies—continue to require reams and reams of data, including personal data, to train their machine-learning models. And they’re quickly running out of it.

This is something of a wild card in any predictions about personal data. Ideally, says Jennifer King, a privacy and data policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, the shortage would lead to ways for consumers to directly benefit, perhaps financially, from the value of their own data. But it’s more likely that “there will be more industry resistance against some of the proposed comprehensive federal privacy legislation bills,” she says. “Companies benefit from the status quo.”

The hunt for more and more data may also push companies to change their own privacy policies, says Whitney Merrill, a former FTC official who works on data privacy at Asana. Speaking in a personal capacity, she says that companies “have felt the squeeze in the tech recession that we’re in, with the high interest rates,” and that under those circumstances, “we’ve seen people turn around, change their policies, and try to monetize their data in an AI world”—even if it’s at the expense of user privacy. She points to the $60-million-per-year deal that Reddit struck last year to license its content to Google to help train the company’s AI.

Earlier this year, the FTC warned companies that it would be “unfair and deceptive” to “surreptitiously” change their privacy policies to allow for the use of user data to train AI. But again, whether or not officials follow up on this depends on those in charge.

So what will privacy look like in 2025?

While the recent FTC settlements and the CFPB’s proposed rule represent important steps forward in privacy protection—at least when it comes to geolocation data—Americans’ personal information still remains widely available and vulnerable.

Rebecca Williams, a senior strategist at the ACLU for privacy and data governance, argues that all of us, as individuals and communities, should take it upon ourselves to do more to protect ourselves and “resist … by opting out” of as much data collection as possible. That means checking privacy settings on accounts and apps, and using encrypted messaging services.

Cahn, meanwhile, says he’ll “be striving to protect [his] local community, working to enact safeguards to ensure that we live up to our principles and stated commitments.” One example of such safeguards is a proposed New York City ordinance that would ban the sharing of any location data originating from within the city limits. Hartzog says that kind of local activism has already been effective in pushing for city bans on facial recognition.

“Privacy rights are at risk, but they’re not gone, and it’s not helpful to take an overly pessimistic look right now,” says Li, the USF law professor. “We definitely still have privacy rights, and the more that we continue to fight for these rights, the more we’re going to be able to protect our rights.”

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

App Artificial intelligence

Jan 8 2025

How optimistic are you about AI’s future?

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

The start of a new year, and maybe especially this one, feels like a good time for a gut check: How optimistic are you feeling about the future of technology?

Our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, published on Friday, might help you decide. It’s the 24th time we’ve published such a list. But just like our earliest picks (2001’s list featured brain-computer interfaces and ways to track copyrighted content on the internet, by the way), this year’s technologies may come to help society, harm it, or both.

Artificial intelligence powers four of the breakthroughs featured on the list, and I expect your optimism about them will vary widely. Take generative AI search. Now becoming the norm on Google with its AI Overviews, it promises to help sort through the internet’s incomprehensible volume of information to offer better answers for the questions we ask. Along the way, it is upending the model of how content creators get paid, and positioning fallible AI as the arbiter of truth and facts. Read more here.

Also making the list is the immense progress in the world of robots, which can now learn faster thanks to AI. This means we will soon have to wrestle with whether we will trust humanoid robots enough to welcome them into our most private spaces, and how we will feel if they are remotely controlled by human beings working abroad.

The list also features lots of technologies outside the world of AI, which I implore you to read about if only for a reminder of just how much other scientific progress is being made. This year may see advances in studying dark matter with the largest digital camera ever made for astronomy, reducing emissions from cow burps, and preventing HIV with an injection just once every six months. We also detail how technologies that you’ve long heard about—from robotaxis to stem cells—are finally making good on some of their promises.

This year, the cultural gulf between techno-optimists and, well, everyone else is set to widen. The incoming administration will be perhaps the one most shaped by Silicon Valley in recent memory, thanks to Donald Trump’s support from venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen (the author of the Techno-Optimist Manifesto) and his relationship, however recently fraught, with Elon Musk. Those figures have critiqued the Biden administration’s approach to technology as slow, “woke,” and overly cautious—attitudes they have vowed to reverse.

So as we begin a year of immense change, here’s a small experiment I’d encourage you to do. Think about your level of optimism for technology and what’s driving it. Read our list of breakthroughs. Then see how you’ve shifted. I suspect that, like many people, you’ll find you don’t fit neatly in the camp of either optimists or pessimists. Perhaps that’s where the best progress will be made.

Now read the rest of The Algorithm

Deeper Learning

The biggest AI flops of 2024

Though AI has remained in the spotlight this year (and even contributed to Nobel Prize–winning research in chemistry), it has not been without its failures. Take a look back over the year’s top AI failures, from chatbots dishing out illegal advice to dodgy AI-generated search results.

Why it matters: These failures show that there are tons of unanswered questions about the technology, including who will moderate what it produces and how, whether we’re getting too trusting of the answers that chatbots produce, and what we’ll do with the mountain of “AI slop” that is increasingly taking over the internet. Above all, they illustrate the many pitfalls of blindly shoving AI into every product we interact with.

Bits and Bytes

What it’s like being a pedestrian in the world of Waymos

Tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler finds that Waymo robotaxis regularly fail to stop for him at a crosswalk he uses every day. Though you can sometimes make eye contact with human drivers to gauge whether they’ll stop, Waymos lack that “social intelligence,” Fowler writes. (The Washington Post)

The AI Hype Index

For each print issue, MIT Technology Review publishes an AI Hype Index, a highly subjective take on the latest buzz about AI. See where facial recognition, AI replicas of your personality, and more fall on the index. (MIT Technology Review)

What’s going on at the intersection of AI and spirituality

Modern religious leaders are experimenting with A. just as earlier generations examined radio, television, and the internet. They include Rabbi Josh Fixler, who created “Rabbi Bot,” a chatbot trained on his old sermons. (The New York Times)

Meta has appointed its most prominent Republican to lead its global policy team

Just two weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, Meta has announced it will appoint Joel Kaplan, who was White House deputy chief of staff under George W. Bush, to the company’s top policy role. Kaplan will replace Nick Clegg, who has led changes on content and elections policies. (Semafor)

Apple has settled a privacy lawsuit against Siri

The company has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that Siri could be activated accidentally and then record private conversations without consent. The news comes after MIT Technology Review reported that Apple was looking into whether it could get rid of the need to use a trigger phrase like “Hey Siri” entirely. (The Washington Post)

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 8 2025

The Download: how AI is changing internet search, and the future of privacy in the US

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it

We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Fundamentally, it’s just fetching information that’s already out there on the internet and showing it to you, in a structured way.

But all that is up for grabs. We are at a new inflection point.

The biggest change to the way search engines deliver information to us since the 1990s is happening right now. No more keyword searching. Instead, you can ask questions in natural language. And instead of links, you’ll increasingly be met with answers written by generative AI and based on live information from across the internet, delivered the same way.

Not everyone is excited for the change. Publishers are completely freaked out. And people are also worried about what these new LLM-powered results will mean for our fundamental shared reality. Read the full story.

—Mat Honan

This story is from the latest print edition of MIT Technology Review—it’s all about the exciting breakthroughs happening in the world right now. If you don’t already, subscribe to receive future copies.

What’s next for our privacy?

Every day, we are tracked hundreds or even thousands of times across the digital world. All of this is collected, packaged together with other details, and used to create highly personalized profiles that are then shared or sold, often without our explicit knowledge or consent.

A consensus is growing that Americans need better privacy protections—and that the best way to deliver them would be for Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation.

So what can Americans expect for their personal data in 2025? We spoke to privacy experts and advocates about what’s on their mind regarding how our digital data might be traded or protected moving forward. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

This piece is part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, looking across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

How optimistic are you about AI’s future?

The start of a new year, and maybe especially this one, feels like a good time for a gut check: How optimistic are you feeling about the future of technology?

Our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, published on Friday, might help you decide. Artificial intelligence powers four of the breakthroughs featured on the list, and I expect your feelings about them will vary widely. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

This story is from the Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready to transform our understanding of the cosmos

High atop Chile’s 2,700-meter Cerro Pachón, the air is clear and dry, leaving few clouds to block the beautiful view of the stars. It’s here that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon use a car-size 3,200-megapixel digital camera—the largest ever built—to produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days.

Findings from the observatory will help tease apart fundamental mysteries like the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two phenomena that have not been directly observed but affect how objects are bound together—and pushed apart.

A quarter-century in the making, the observatory is poised to expand our understanding of just about every corner of the universe. Read the full story.

—Adam Mann

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthrough—you have until 1 April!

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 A Louisiana man has died of bird flu
He’s the first person known to have died from the virus in the US. (WP $)
+ He was over 65 years old and had underlying health conditions. (NYT $)
+ The risk of a bird flu pandemic is rising. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Meta is shifting towards the right
Appointing Trump ally Dana White to its board is the latest in a string of political moves. (NYT $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg has overhauled Meta’s board in the last five years. (Bloomberg $)
+ The company recently donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. (WSJ $)

3 The Pentagon is blacklisting China’s biggest EV battery firm
CATL and other companies will be barred from doing business with it. (WP $)
+ The US is convinced they’re working with China’s military. (CNN)

4 Nvidia is working on a ‘personal AI supercomputer’
Project Digits will go on sale in May, priced at a whopping $3,000. (TechCrunch)
+ It’s based on a super secret chip, apparently. (VentureBeat)
+ CEO Jensen Huang has his sights set on humanoid robots, too. (FT $)

5 Doctors are turning to AI for note taking during appointments
It could save them hours each day—if it doesn’t mess up, that is. (FT $)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)

6 U-Haul is a treasure trove of personal user data
And hackers are exploiting it to dox or hack their victims. (404 Media)

7 New York drivers are already trying to evade congestion pricing
Subtly obscuring license plates can trick tracking cameras. (New York Post)
+ Reaction to the new charge is decidedly mixed. (NY Mag $)
+ Why EVs are (mostly) set for solid growth in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Frustrated workers are complaining about their bosses on LinkedIn
Try this at your own risk. (Insider $)

9 Men are notoriously poor at replying to text messages
And their failure to communicate could be making them lonely. (The Atlantic $)

10 You can now play Doom on a captch
What better way to prove you’re not a bot? (Vice)
+ Death to captchas. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“We have glitches that need stitches.”

—Tech entrepreneur Mike Johns describes his experience of becoming trapped in a malfunctioning self-driving car to the Guardian, nearly causing him to miss a flight.

The big story

What happens when your prescription drug becomes the center of covid misinformation

September 2021

By the time Joe Rogan mentioned ivermectin as one ingredient in an experimental cocktail he was taking to treat his covid infection, the drug was a meme. In the weeks leading up to the popular podcaster’s revelation, the drug had already become a flashpoint in the covid culture wars.

But Ivermectin isn’t some new or experimental drug: in addition to its use as an anti-parasite treatment for livestock, it’s commonly employed in humans to treat a form of rosacea, among other things. So for those of us who have been using it for years, its sudden infamy was unexpected and unwelcome. Read the full story.

—Abby Ohlheiser

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ RIP the bar cart, we barely knew you.
+ If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your unclaimed luggage, now you’ll finally have an answer.
+ This motorbike-sized tuna is a thing of beauty.
+ Happy birthday to the one and only Michael Stipe, who turned 65 over the weekend.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 8 2025

AI Apps to Get Things Done in 2025

Productivity and project management platforms have embraced AI to help individuals and businesses get more done. AI can automate workflows, optimize schedules, utilize data, and more.

Here is a list of tools to help you increase productivity in 2025. There are all-in-one project management platforms and AI assistants to manage tasks and calendars.

TimeHero

TimeHero

TimeHero is an AI-driven time management tool that automatically plans and manages daily tasks and projects. Plan projects with smart workflow templates, built-in multi-task time tracking, and autonomous recurring tasks. TimeHero automatically plans when to work on tasks based on availability. If events or priorities change, TimeHero adjusts everyone’s plan. Automatic risk detection shows when projects fall behind, pinpointing risky tasks and overloaded team members. Use project forecasting to see how schedules look for better decisions. Price: Plans start at $4.60.

–

Trevor AI

Trevor

Trevor AI is a daily planning app and time management assistant that schedules and syncs tasks between to-do list applications and calendars in real-time. Schedule tasks through drag-and-drop, auto-scheduling, and in-schedule suggestions. Trevor AI assigns a base duration for each task, which you can overwrite. In-schedule suggestions provide optimal times to accept tasks with a click. Trevor integrates with task managers such as Todoist and Google and Microsoft calendar applications. Price: Free for individuals. Plans start at $5 per month.

–

Motion

Motion

Motion is an AI-powered task management system and to-do list app. Its AI assistant prioritizes and timeblocks projects and tasks on your calendar and automatically optimizes your schedule throughout the day. Using deadlines, priorities, and dependencies, Motion’s AI will provide the best task to work on at any moment. Use it to turn a batch of tasks into an optimized plan. Price: Plans start at $12 per month.

–

Reclaim

Reclaim

Reclaim, part of Dropbox, is an AI-powered smart calendar assistant. Its Smart Meetings tool automates schedules with participants’ time zones, availability, and priorities. Teams can auto-schedule recurring meetings across any number of people, using advanced AI scheduling to optimize times. Set your amount of focus time, or adjust your calendar for work-life balance. Track skipped or rescheduled meetings, with daily recommendations to teams to keep them connected. Price: Free for one user. Premium plans start at $8 per month.

–

Notion

Notion

Notion is a productivity workspace to collaboratively generate ideas, manage projects, and run a business. The workspace includes Kanban boards, tasks, wikis, and databases. Notion AI is a collection of connected AI tools within the workspace. Use search to find answers from Notion and connected apps such as Slack and Google Drive, with answers limited to your trusted sources. Generate and edit text in any document and autofill databases with summaries and insights. Notion also has an integrated calendar to set meetings, manage project timelines and deadlines, and connect to Notion docs and collaborators. Price: Notion is free for individuals. Premium plans start at $10 per month. Notion AI is an additional $8 per month.

–

Taskade

Taskade

Taskade is an application layer for AI-driven workflows. Build, train, and deploy custom AI agents that automate tasks across workflows and learn from real-time project data. Automatically generate task lists, flow charts, mind maps, and more. Let AI prioritize and organize tasks, manage progress, and provide insights to streamline your workflow. Automate information gathering, distill web content, research topics, watch competitors, and monitor trends. Price: Free for one AI agent. Premium plans start at $8 per month.

–

ClickUp

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management and productivity platform that features tasks, whiteboards, document collaboration, and chat. Its AI feature, ClickUp Brain, suggests what to work on next, highlights urgent tasks, summarizes documents and notes, and provides information on team members and project targets. Link to knowledge from all files and data sources across Google Drive, GitHub, Figma, Salesforce, and more. Price: Plans start at $7 per month.

–

Monday.com

Monday.com

Monday.com is a productivity and project management platform for teams. Use building blocks, such as boards, views, charts, automations, and integrations, to create custom workflows to manage projects and work, such as sales, social media marketing, and advertising. Monday AI provides an assistant to automate marketing and creative tasks, generate summaries, and more. Start from an AI-powered template, or click the AI icon on any board. Write any prompt in your own words to instantly create an AI automation that fits into your workflow. Aggregate data from multiple apps, including Slack, Google Suite, Mailchimp, Zoom, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Excel. Price: Free for up to two seats. Premium plans start at $9 per month.

–

Asana

Asana

Asana is a work management platform for teams. Create projects, assign tasks, automate workflows, set deadlines, and communicate directly within the platform. Asana includes reporting tools, calendars, and goal tracking. Asana AI lets users design AI agents with a no-code builder and deploy them directly within teams’ workflows. Asana AI also allows users to assign incoming requests automatically, suggest timelines and resource allocations, highlight risks, generate content, and provide real-time insights for data-driven decisions. Use AI to draft goals, standardize them across an organization, and track the progress. Price: Free for up to 10 collaborators. Premium plans start at $10.99 per month.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 8 2025

Ad Strategies for Competitor Keywords

Bidding on competitor terms has always been controversial in pay-per-click advertising. IBM could bid on “Amazon Web Services,” for example, although it cannot use the trademarked terms in the ad copy. It could say “Compare to IBM” but not “AWS alternative.”

Though Google allows competitor keyword bidding, two factors have stopped advertisers from doing it. First, competitor keywords typically produce poor Google Ads Quality Scores.

Google assigns a Quality Score to all keywords. A QS measures the keyword’s relevance to the search query, ad copy, and the landing page. A keyword’s relevance is low when not used in the ad copy. Low QSs result in higher costs per click. Thus competitor keyword bidding does not typically make economic sense.

The second reason is ethics. Is it ethical to bid for competitor keywords? Why not bid solely on one’s own products or brands?

In my experience, it is ethical and applicable within commonsense boundaries. Competitor keyword bidding gives searchers options. Let the best ad win.

Competitor queries

Competitor ads likely show without bidding on those keywords owing to Google’s relaxed matching. For example, queries for “Amazon cloud” and “AWS cloud computing” could trigger IBM ads if it bids on, say, “cloud computing” or if Google’s algorithm projects a user searching for “Amazon cloud” could click IBM’s ad. Hence competitor ads will likely show for related queries unless the advertiser excludes them via negative keywords.

Advertisers should create specific campaigns to control the ads and landing pages for competitor queries. However, it’s essential to have realistic expectations. Competitor-specific campaigns will likely have poor Quality Scores and higher CPCs.

Framework

When planning competitor campaigns, create the landing page first. The goal is to convince searchers to choose a different option. The landing page must reinforce this messaging, informing visitors of the unique benefits unavailable elsewhere.

Consider the landing page below from Five9, a call-center software provider. A competitive keyword — “Genesys contact center” — triggers an ad that links to the page. The page initially highlights Five9’s accomplishments (not shown below) and then a table comparing features among its competitors. It’s compelling and persuasive.

Screenshot of Five9's landing page comparing features

Five9’s landing page table compares features among its competitors.

Five9’s comparative landing page includes two competitors — Genesys and Nice — but it could focus on one or the other based on volume and response.

The page’s contact form has just three fields, which encourages conversions. When requesting information from prospects, less is more.

The quote form has just three fields, encouraging conversions.

Ad copy

Poor Quality Scores cause ads from competitor keywords to show less and cost more. Moreover, a competitor’s ad will likely include the brand name, reinforcing its relevance to searchers. That ad will almost certainly be in one of the top three positions — above the organic listings. Furthermore, brand ads tend to deploy multiple assets, which occupy more search space. Hence an ad triggered from competitor keywords may show but not necessarily stand out.

Advertisers cannot include competitors’ names in ad copy but can imply a better alternative. If Five9 bids on “Nice AI,” the ad headline might be “Make Your Switch To Five9.”

Regardless, consider the searcher’s mindset when composing the ad copy.

“Pinning” headlines and descriptions ensures specific messaging appears in every ad. Pinning is critical in competitor campaigns but can produce low Quality Scores. That’s acceptable, however, since control over the copy matters.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft Bing shows image-based Multimedia Ads from searches on competitors’ terms. Below is an example of a Docusign ad triggered by a search for Signeasy, a competitor.

Screenshot of Bing search results showing Docusign's ad.

A search on Bing for “signeasy” triggers Docusign’s image ad. Click to enlarge.

Ad groups and keywords

Consolidating campaigns allows Google to collect aggregate data for better bid strategies.

Accounts generally need just one search campaign for all competitor ad groups and keywords. One competitor per ad group is typically sufficient unless search volume dictates otherwise.

For example, IBM could place multiple competitors’ keywords with little search volume into one ad group, with keyword-level URLs if each competitor had its own landing page.

Potential buyers

In short, Google’s ad platform has evolved, and so has bidding on competitor keywords. Keywords influence the ads that show, but other signals — search history, predicted performance, user location — also matter. Ads already show for competitor queries. Those searchers are potential buyers who will convert more with optimized experiences.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 7 2025

WordPress.com Launches Studio Sync Local Development via @sejournal, @martinibuster

WordPress.com, the Automattic web hosting platform, just announced that the free and open source Sync local development app can now integrate directly with WordPress.com hosting. The new synchronization feature streamlines the process of developing a website on the desktop then pushing it live when it’s ready for deployment.

WordPress.com Hosting

WordPress.com is a WordPress web hosting and publishing platform that offers a free and paid tier, plus bargain-priced domain name registrations. WordPress.com is a for-profit company that’s owned by Automattic. Their slogan is “Everything you need to build and grow any website—all in one place” and with this new feature that slogan has never been more true.

The new feature is available to WordPress.com users on the paid Business plan level or higher.

According to the announcement, the new features bring the following benefits to users:

“Push and Pull with Ease: You can keep your local Studio sites connected to your WordPress.com site, so pushing or pulling will be as easy as clicking a button.
Flexible Syncing: Having complete freedom, you can connect a WordPress.com site to multiple Studio sites.
Team Collaboration: Multiple developers can connect a local Studio site to a shared WordPress.com site, making it easy to push and pull changes as a team.
Sync To and From Staging: If using staging sites are part of your development workflow, you can now easily push from your local Studio site to your WordPress.com staging site.
One-Click Bliss: No need to worry yourself with database dumps, manually syncing files over SFTP, or performing other monotonous manual steps. Synchronize your local and hosted sites at any time with just one click.”

Studio is available for both the Mac and Windows desktop environments.

Read the announcement:

Build Locally, Deploy Globally: Meet Studio Sync for WordPress.com

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Fauzi Muda

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 7 2025

Study: 47% Find Search Terms Irrelevant During Product Research via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A recent study from Reddit shows that many people are frustrated with traditional search engines and ads, pushing them to seek product recommendations on community platforms.

The study found that 47% of social media users find “irrelevant search terms” particularly annoying during online product research. This frustration drives users to Reddit, where they can engage in discussions and receive personalized advice.

These findings suggest Reddit plays an increasingly important role in consumer decision-making.

Consumer Frustrations With Search

The study suggests there’s a growing gap between what users expect from search engines and what they deliver.

Almost half (47%) of the users surveyed were unhappy with search engines because they couldn’t find relevant, helpful answers during product research.

As a result, many users are turning to Reddit for better, context-specific recommendations.

71% of respondents said that Reddit is the best social media platform for finding quick and specific answers to their questions.

Reddit’s Role in the Purchase Journey

Reddit’s research shows how important the platform is in the buying process, from discovering products to making decisions.

The study finds that ads on Reddit help create more conversations about brands, which increases their visibility.

For every 1,000 ad impressions on Reddit, advertisers get about two organic posts, averaging 3,500 views.

The study also reveals that 23% of recommendation posts on Reddit lead to “redirection.” This means users start considering brands they had not thought about before.

These redirections usually occur when users ask for help, such as when they want advice on products that better suit their needs.

Reddit vs. Other Recommendation Sources

One of the study’s more striking claims is that Reddit recommendations are more trusted than many other forms of advice.

According to the findings, 42% of social media users value Reddit recommendations over other sources, including influencer-sponsored posts, branded ads, and even some expert reviews.

While Reddit recommendations ranked slightly below expert review sites (+17%) and consumer review sites (+15%) in terms of influence, they reportedly outperformed social media ads and influencer posts.

This suggests an increasing preference for community-driven recommendations over more traditional forms of advertising.

Reddit’s Reach Compared to Influencers

The study claims that Reddit’s reach is comparable to, or in some cases greater than, traditional influencer marketing:

82 Reddit recommendation posts reportedly reach the same audience as an article on an endemic review site.
Six Reddit posts are said to match the reach of an Instagram influencer with 100,000 followers.
Eight Reddit posts equal the reach of a TikTok influencer with the same follower count.

Given that an estimated 25% of Reddit posts are recommendation-related, the platform’s potential for scale is significant.

For example, over 25,000 recommendation posts were recorded in the beauty category alone in December.

Balancing Reddit’s Claims

While Reddit’s findings highlight the platform’s potential as a discovery and recommendation tool, it’s important to view these claims in the context of the study’s source.

As a platform promoting itself as a solution to consumer frustrations, Reddit is interested in positively presenting its influence.

That said, the data does align with broader industry trends, showing a growing demand for authentic, peer-driven recommendations.

Consumers increasingly prioritize trust and personalization in their decision-making processes, and platforms like Reddit offer a space for this type of engagement.

Looking Ahead

Reddit’s research shows how consumer behavior is changing. Consumers increasingly value personalized recommendations from their communities over traditional discovery methods.

This shift could change how brands interact with consumers. Right now, Reddit’s statement that “conversation is the new influencer” highlights an important trend to watch.

Methodology

The study surveyed 1,000 social media users across seven key product verticals—laptops, TVs, cars, refrigerators, credit cards, makeup, and movie tickets—totaling 7,000 respondents.

Participants were asked to evaluate various recommendation sources, including Reddit posts, influencer-sponsored content, expert reviews, and branded ads.

Featured Image: voronaman/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 7 2025

Google Search Console Adds Hourly Data Export To 24-Hour View via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has expanded its newly launched 24-hour data view in Search Console by adding the ability to export hourly performance data.

This enhancement comes in response to user feedback since the feature’s initial rollout.

The announcement, shared on LinkedIn, stated:

“Last month we announced the 24-hour view in the Search Console Performance reports, and we got lots of positive feedback and feature requests. Today, we’re making the export button available for that view (one of the most requested features): the ability to export data on an hourly basis for the last 24 hours. Enjoy the new data!”

This update allows users to access detailed website performance data within the last 24 hours, broken down by the hour, and export it for further analysis.

Key Details About the 24-Hour Data View

The 24-hour data view, introduced in December, is an upgrade to Google Search Console’s performance reports.

It aims to provide near real-time insights into how website content performs across Google Search, Discover, and News.

Fresher, Faster Data

With the 24-hour view, website owners no longer need to wait up to 48 hours for performance metrics to update.

Data for clicks, impressions, average click-through rate (CTR), and average position is now available with minimal delay.

This feature is handy for monitoring the early performance of newly published content or tracking the immediate impact of updates to existing pages.

It provides timely insights into which search queries drive traffic and how pages rank in search results.

Hourly Breakdown

The 24-hour view includes an hourly breakdown of performance metrics displayed in an overtime graph.

While the data updates as soon as it becomes available, Google notes that incomplete data is marked with a dotted line in the interface to indicate ongoing collection.

You can filter the data by query, page, or country and analyze performance within their local time zone, as determined by browser settings.

How the Export Feature Enhances the 24-Hour View

Adding an export button to the 24-hour view addresses one of the most requested features from users.

With this functionality, you can now download hourly data for the past day, enabling deeper analysis through external tools like Excel or Google Sheets.

This enhancement is expected to help businesses better respond to performance trends and optimize their content strategies.

Why It Matters

By making website metrics more accessible and timely, Google is helping marketers and SEO professionals stay competitive.

To access the 24-hour view, you can go to the performance reports section of Search Console and select the “24 hours” tab. The export button is now available to all users with access to this feature.

As the rollout continues over the coming months, this update highlights Google’s broader commitment to providing real-time tools that enhance website performance tracking and optimization.

Featured Image: Vladimka production/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 7 2025

How To Create Effective Global Websites For Local Audiences via @sejournal, @motokohunt

Many businesses create global websites hoping to replicate the success from online business in their home country in other countries.

Some companies see the return on investment put into creating multiple websites, and some companies struggle to grow their business in foreign countries.

Creating effective global websites requires attention to several essential factors to ensure they resonate with local audiences.

In this article, we learn from successful global businesses such as IKEA, McDonald’s and KFC and apply that to global website best practices.

Language And Cultural Product Adaptation

It is essential to understand and implement locally unique customer interests and preferences. In many cases, global websites are created by translating/localizing the main site multiple times.

IKEA

IKEA is known for its giant warehouse-style buildings. In the U.S. and most countries, people drive to IKEA prepared to purchase large items that can only be transported by car.

In Japan, while most people own a car, they don’t drive on a daily basis. Having cavernous warehouse stores was limiting their business potential in Japan.

In order to increase business in Japan, IKEA pivoted to tap into people shopping on foot in the bigger cities. It opened a much smaller footprint in the middle of Harajuku in 2020.

In the city center shop, people can purchase 1,000 items, which they can easily carry out, as well as place orders for larger items through a kiosk for delivery.

Based on this initial test, it also opened additional shops in the high-traffic areas of Shibuya and Shinjuku. These shops not only increased the sale of items in the stores but also enabled easy access to an additional 9,400 items available online.

Image from IKEA Japan, November 2024

While this is a physical store example, the idea of understanding the customers’ needs and putting it into practice can be applied equally to their online business as well.

Because IKEA has tailored many of its products specifically for the Japanese market, where home sizes are generally smaller, space-saving is a priority.

On its Japanese website, it emphasizes compact, multifunctional furniture that fits Japanese urban apartments, with suggestions for optimizing smaller living spaces.

McDonald’s And KFC

Similarly, both McDonald’s and KFC’s websites are localized by pushing locally popular items in each country, as shown below.

By creating special menu items that cater to local Japanese culinary preferences, McDonald’s conveys a sense of cultural sensitivity, making the brand feel more “local” rather than foreign.

Screenshot from KFC Japan website, November 2024

Screenshot from KFC USA website, November 2024

During the holiday season, the KFC Japan website prominently displays its Christmas offerings, featuring family meal packages and seasonal items.

The site encourages early reservations, as these special holiday meals are extremely popular.

Screenshot from McDonald’s Japan website, November 2024

Screenshot from McDonald’s USA website, November 2024

By understanding the local audience, you will know which products to promote and when to promote them on the site.

By promoting special web offers around local holidays and cultural events, such as Christmas in Japan or Ramadan in the Middle East, KFC and McDonald’s position themselves as a brand that celebrates local traditions. These market-specific adjustments will generate greater conversions/sales.

In many markets like Japan and India, locals tend to use mobile devices to access content.

Ensuring your website and apps are mobile-friendly with a user-friendly experience, including fast load times, simplified interfaces, and intuitive navigation that appeal to a preference for efficiency and speed.

This makes it easy for users to quickly locate nearby stores, order online, and access promotions.

Best Practices For Adapting Your Website To Global Audiences

Translate All Content

Website translation and localization projects require significant resources and budget. It is understandable that some websites are not 100% localized.

I used to sympathize with those sites, especially the ones owned by small businesses. However, with the AI advancements in localization, there is no excuse. You should translate the entire site, including user-generated content.

More than just translation, the type and depth of content reflect an understanding of local shopping preferences.

In Japan, customers highly value detailed product descriptions and customer reviews, which must be in Japanese.

This level of localized and market-specific detail aligns with the Japanese tendency to do extensive research before making a purchase.

Optimize The Website With Localized Colors, Images, And Videos

From language and product selection to seasonal promotions, adapting your site’s content to reflect local tastes and practices helps establish a sense of authenticity and resonance with users.

All too often, local markets only have the text translated, leaving the website design and media content the same across the sites.

Needless to say, the site feels much more relatable when they see images and videos that they feel familiar with. To the audience in some countries, the color scheme could unfavorably change the site’s impression.

IKEA Japan localizes the site using faces that look like those in the local market.

Screenshot from IKEA Japan website, November 2024

With free and inexpensive AI image design tools, the cost is no longer an excuse not to optimize the images.

You can also run the website through Google’s Vision API to review your images and assist in localizing alternate image text. More importantly, you can use the safe search function to flag sensitive content, as well as any colors or situational elements that might become a problem in the market.

Make It Easier For Users To Convert

It goes without saying that you need to build trust by ensuring secure transactions, reliable delivery, and buyer protections on par with local ecommerce sites.

You must integrate with local payment platforms and methods to enable your brand to become a part of the local digital landscape, making it easier for users to interact and transact.

Ensure all forms – especially those involved in engagement or conversion flow (registration, contact, order, etc.) – are adapted to the local market.

As these are your most important pages, you want to ensure that you remove any ambiguity and friction as they move through the conversion process.

Regardless of how people land on the website, organic, ads, or direct traffic – if the forms are not well-tuned for the local audience – they may abandon the form and will not convert for you, even when they want your services or products.

For example, if you take orders from foreign countries but the form is formatted for the U.S. (or wherever your HQ is), requiring information or a format not recognized by the local market, customers may be unable to complete the form.

Make your forms and checkout pages flexible enough to accept different digits and styles for phone numbers, postal codes, and addresses; ensure you don’t require a U.S. state name.

Typically, Japanese addresses are quite lengthy, combining both numbers and characters. If your form has a maximum character limit that is too short for the market, they may not be able to complete it.

If you have a multinational website, display a specific target country name at the top of the “country” selection of the form.

In addition to form localization, there are other critical website functions that should be considered.

For example, a variety of login methods and payment options are used worldwide.

In the U.S., in addition to email/ID login, many websites offer social media logins, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as Google and Microsoft logins.

While it works fine in many countries, in some countries, such as China, your standard options may not be as popular or even available.

Conclusion: Building A Cohesive Global Presence

Creating a successful multinational website is a strategic investment that requires careful planning and continuous adaptation.

By focusing first and foremost on the local users’ experience, including localization and local adaptations coupled with geo-targeting, SEO, technical infrastructure, compliance, and analytics, executives can develop a website that aligns with local expectations while reinforcing a consistent brand identity.

As your global website evolves, keep listening to your audience and monitoring performance to better understand consumer behavior and adapt to the unique demands of each market to maintain a competitive edge.

The digital landscape constantly changes, and proactive adjustments will keep your brand competitive in the diverse global market.

More resources:

Featured Image: LookerStudio/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments

Jan 7 2025

Wix Vs. WordPress: Which Is Better For SEO? via @sejournal, @AdamHeitzman

Wix and WordPress are both solid options for building a website that ranks on Google – but which one is actually better for SEO and why?

According to BuiltWith, WordPress dominates the market with over 34 million websites and controls 44% of the content management system (CMS) market. Wix runs just over 8 million sites with an 11% market share.

But here’s the thing: These platforms aren’t as different as you might think.

Wix is built as an all-in-one solution. You get your hosting, build your website, and manage everything in one place.

You can connect all your SEO tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, link your social media, and handle email lists right from one dashboard.

For small business owners, especially those who aren’t super technical, this setup makes a lot of sense.

WordPress works differently. As an open-source CMS, it lets you build your site exactly how you want. You get complete control over your site structure, theme, and content – but you’ll need to find your own hosting provider.

While WordPress isn’t going anywhere as the market leader, Wix keeps getting better.

In this guide, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both platforms for SEO, and help you figure out which one makes the most sense for your website.

Why Wix Deserves A Second Look

Remember when WordPress was the only real choice for SEO? Those days are gone. New website builders have changed the game, and Wix should be a major consideration.

Wix started out as just an easy way to build good-looking websites. Tech-savvy users usually passed it by because they wanted more control over their sites. But that’s changed in a big way over the last few years.

Wix has been rolling out serious improvements, with a lot of focus on SEO tools. Here’s what they’ve added:

Custom URL Control: You can now change your URL structure however you want, add or remove prefixes, and create flat URLs that look clean and professional.
Smart Sitemap Management: The platform automatically updates sitemaps when you set up 301 redirects or change canonical tags.
Real-Time Tracking: You can see how search engines interact with your site through Bot Traffic reports that show you activity over time and by page.
AI-Powered SEO Help: Its new assistant analyzes your pages and suggests specific improvements.
Built-In Structured Data: Product pages and blog posts automatically get the right markup to help you show up in rich results.
Server Side Rendering: This helps search engines read and index your content more effectively.
Developer Tools: The Velo API lets developers customize things on the technical side.
SEO Checklist: A built-in guide helps you optimize your site step by step.

Back in the day, you’d need a bunch of different tools to handle all this. Getting accurate reports was especially tricky. Having everything built into Wix makes life much easier.

The Drawbacks Of Wix For SEO

Of course, Wix isn’t perfect. Here are the main SEO drawbacks from customers:

Code bloat is still a problem, which can slow down your pages.
Even with recent updates, you’re still somewhat limited in how much you can customize your site’s structure. Plus, since hosting and building are tied together, moving your site elsewhere can be a headache.
Some developers aren’t happy with Wix Studio, its new platform for high-end projects. One Reddit user recently called it “completely unreliable.”

The Argument For WordPress

WordPress started by making it relatively easy to build a website. Its open-source nature means it’s theoretically getting better thanks to its huge community of developers.

While the basic platform is free, you’ll probably need to pay for some plugins to get modern features.

These plugins are how you’ll handle most of your SEO work. WordPress also has more users than any other platform, which means more help is available when you need it.

The WordPress SEO Challenges

WordPress isn’t without its problems:

Plugins don’t always play nice together. While Yoast SEO might be the most popular tool, there are tons of options – and they can conflict with each other and cause issues.
Like any plugin, security vulnerabilities can pop up, and updates sometimes break other parts of your site.
Some people think WordPress has lost touch with what publishers need, pointing to bloated code in themes and plugins that make it harder to score well on Core Web Vitals.

That said, the huge number of available plugins is still a major plus. New ones come out daily, making it possible to build highly optimized sites.

Check out Search Engine Journal’s WordPress SEO guide for more details.

Head-To-Head Comparison

Both platforms nail the SEO basics. You get:

Title tags and meta descriptions.
All the heading tags you need (H1-H6).
XML sitemaps.
Alt tags for images.
301 redirects.
No-index options.
Schema markup.
Mobile-friendly designs.
Easy connection to Google Search Console, Analytics, and Bing Webmaster Tools.

The real differences show up when you need more advanced SEO features. That’s where WordPress’s flexibility gives it the edge.

But, for many small businesses that just need the basics, either platform will do the job.

Making SEO Work

Both platforms have their own way of handling SEO tasks you’ll need to tackle:

Content Management

While WordPress gives you more control over your content structure with custom post types and taxonomies, Wix makes it simple with built-in blog and product page tools that come pre-optimized.

Both platforms handle the basics well – like meta descriptions, title tags, and image optimization.

Speed And Mobile

WordPress lets you fine-tune your site’s performance through hosting choices and optimization plugins.

Wix handles this differently, with built-in mobile optimization and automatic speed improvements, though you have less control over the technical details.

Ecommerce SEO

If you’re selling online, both platforms can handle product schema and category structure.

WordPress + WooCommerce gives you more flexibility but requires more setup, while Wix’s e-commerce tools come ready to go with built-in SEO features.

Wix Vs. WordPress: The Verdict

Wix has come a long way. Many old complaints about lack of control don’t hold up anymore, and their basic SEO setup rivals WordPress.

For small businesses and online stores, Wix might be exactly what you need.

As Google’s John Mueller put it:

“Wix is fine for SEO. A few years back, it was pretty bad, but they’ve made fantastic progress. The old reputation lingers, but don’t let that sway you. They’ve done great work recently, including making it easy to have a fast site. If Wix works for you and meets your needs, there’s no reason to switch.”

Your choice really comes down to what matters most for your business. If you need deep customization and complete control over your website’s technical setup, WordPress is your best bet.

But if you want a simpler path to getting online while still maintaining strong SEO capabilities, Wix could be perfect – especially with its all-in-one approach that handles the technical details for you.

More Resources:

Featured Image: TierneyMJ/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments