Oct 25 2024
11 Tips For How To Find Great Writers via @sejournal, @seocopychick

Great content is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy.

Content provides information to users, facilitates ranking in the organic search results, and can be a significant driver in attracting backlinks to your website.

But how and where one sources such amazing content depends on a few factors. For one, you can write your own content, if you have the skills and time to do so.

On the other hand, you could hire a professional writer to craft content for you, but you need to know where to look!

Need an excellent writer? Consider these top tips on how and where to find experienced content writers.

1. Assess Your Content Needs

The first step to finding a great writer is to determine what type of writer you need. Believe it or not, there are many different kinds of copywriters and content writers (yes, they’re different), and they bring different specialties to the table.

Is your goal to craft SEO-friendly content that ranks in search engines? You’ll need a writer who understands on-page SEO best practices and the nuances of keyword usage.

Is your goal to drive conversions from a landing page on your website? You’ll need a direct-response copywriter skilled in sales copywriting and buyer psychology.

Also, these writers may advertise their services on different platforms, so it’s important to consider your needs early on so you know where to look!

Content Writers Vs. Copywriters

If you are looking for a writer who specializes in long-form, SEO-friendly content, you’ll want to find a content writer. Some examples of content writers include:

  • Blog writers – when your goal is to drive organic traffic, build brand awareness, and engage readers.
  • Article writers – when you need in-depth articles (for websites, magazines, or online publications) that educate readers on specific topics.
  • SEO writers – if you want to improve your website visibility and organic traffic to webpages.
  • Technical writers – for writing manuals, how-to guides, software documentation, and white papers.
  • Social media content writers – when you need short-form content for social media platforms like Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Now, if you are looking for a writer specializing in persuasive writing that compels people to take action (like buy a product or sign up for a service, you’ll want a copywriter.

Some examples of copywriters include:

  • Direct response copywriters – who specialize in writing sales letters, email campaigns, landing pages, and ads that inspire action
  • Sales copywriters – when you need product descriptions, sales pages, or promotional materials
  • Email copywriters – who write email sequences for marketing campaigns, newsletters, and product launches
  • Brand copywriters – who specialize in writing content that conveys your brand’s voice, tone, and values to build your brand identity (may include website copy, slogans, or ads)

Some content writers and copywriters offer several services. For example, it’s common to find a content writer who does blog writing, article writing, and SEO content.

However, copywriters and content writers are notably different in what they aim to achieve – sales vs. traffic, respectively.

Consider what you are trying to accomplish with your content and search for a writer with that skill set.

2. Browse Reputable Writer Directories And Platforms

Now, it’s time to find a writer. Easier said than done, right? Business owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to the number of freelancer websites available, but not all are created equal.

Ask Your Professional Network

Before venturing to a freelancer website, I suggest asking your professional network whether they know of any writers they might recommend.

Not only will you then get a referral from someone who can vouch for the writer’s services, but you’ll save a ton of time in your search.

Reach Out To Your Network

I highly recommend reaching out to your existing network to find writers who have a track record of proven results.

A referral from someone within your industry is even better. Ask them about their experience working with the writer and what results they generated.

Niche Facebook Groups

Facebook is a great source of freelance writers, especially within niche-specific Facebook Groups.

For example, if you’re looking for a travel writer, look for groups like the Association of Travel Writers or Travel Writers Exchange.

Many Facebook Groups also allow you to post jobs to find writers for hire.

LinkedIn Search

LinkedIn is a popular professional networking site that allows you to search for consultants, brands, and freelancers.

Simply use the LinkedIn search bar to find a “writer,” “copywriter,” “SEO writer,” etc.

You’ll see individuals who rank at the top for these keywords. Be sure to check out their portfolio and recommendations.

College Job Boards

Many university students are looking for part-time jobs and contract opportunities.

Check out your local university or college websites to see if they have a job board, then post the requirements of the role.

Content Agencies

Content marketing agencies specialize in content strategy and content writing, often for a variety of platforms.

While their rates may be more expensive than working with a freelance writer, you can often trust that there’s a higher degree of quality control.

You may also be able to source content for social media, email, and your website – all in one place.

Writer Directories

Writer directories like Compose.ly and blcklst.com allow writers to publish their portfolios, post their rates, and apply for jobs.

Some sites allow you to post an open role, while others allow you to contact the writers directly. Again, look for writers with an active portfolio and, ideally, client testimonials.

3. Request Content Examples

Once you’ve found a writer (or several) that you’d like to work with, it’s time to request more information.

Hiring a writer is a financial commitment, so do your due diligence to assess their portfolio and skills.

Always ask for examples of their work – particularly work related to your niche.

Unfortunately, stealing content examples is common practice online, so you don’t always know what you are getting; if they can send you an example with their name in the byline, that’s a safer bet.

Human Writers Vs. AI Content

The prevalence of AI-generated content has been on the rise. With tools like ChatGPT and contents.ai, it’s easy for businesses to turn to this fast, cheaper form of content.

But there is a lot of personality, uniqueness, and quality lost in AI content.

For one, AI content lacks the history of lived human experience to tell stories, provide relatable examples, and solve modern problems in your content.

Human writers are able to empathize with your readers and buyers, incorporating this sentiment and psychology into the content.

Also, with AI content, you’re at risk of generating material that’s identical to other pieces of content that are on the web.

This can hurt your brand and your SEO. Human writers are able to craft a unique story that’s specific to your brand voice and audience.

AI content has its place – such as in content planning and drafts – but should not be the basis of your entire content strategy.

While cheap, AI content can end up costing you in terms of brand visibility, user trust, and conversions.

4. Interview The Candidates

When “chatting” with a writer, a lot can be lost in translation via email or messenger. It’s always best to get on a live call to assess whether the candidate is a good fit for your brand and needs.

Just as much as you are looking for a writer with the right skills, you want to be sure they are a good character fit. Communication is important throughout the entire content planning and writing process.

Here are some questions to ask during your writer interview:

  • What types of writing do you specialize in?
  • Do you have experience in our industry?
  • How do you approach research for a topic you’re unfamiliar with?
  • How do you incorporate SEO best practices into your content writing (if applicable)?
  • Do you have experience working with content calendars, marketing teams, or campaign strategies?
  • What is your preferred workflow (e.g., strategy provided by client, first draft approval, round one revision, final approval)?
  • What’s your average turnaround time for a [type of content]?

These questions will give you a better understanding of the writer’s skills, style, and approach to writing, helping you find the right fit for your needs.

5. Look For Case Studies And Reviews

Whether you’re using your referral network, social media, or writer directories to find writers, look for their case studies or client reviews.

Many professional writers will have a website where they showcase their work and/or recommendations on LinkedIn or social media.

This “social proof” will make it evident what kind of results they have been able to generate for their clients.

6. Assess Their SEO Knowledge

If your goal is to grow your traffic, you’ll want a writer who understands SEO and how to incorporate it into their content.

They may not be an SEO expert, but they should know on-page best practices, such as keyword usage in the page title, heading structure and hierarchy, and the importance of internal linking.

It’s appropriate to ask them a few questions about their expertise and to request examples of SEO content. If they have case studies that showcase measurable results, even better.

7. Ask How They Measure Success

On the topic of results, you should ask writer candidates how they measure the success of their content.

Though many factors go into content performance – not all of which they will have control over – it’s still a fair question to assess their approach to content writing.

For example, if they are an SEO writer, do they measure success by organic traffic and reduced bounce rate? Do they tend to look at the number and position of keyword rankings? A great SEO writer will pay attention to these metrics.

Similarly, if they are a sales copywriter, do they track conversions? How do they determine what makes their copy successful? Do they make updates to the copy to improve performance?

Not only will this consideration get you thinking about how you quantify results, but it will also help you identify a writer who is results-driven.

8. Understand Their Pricing Structure

There are many different types of pricing structures writers may use to charge for content.

The most common is price-per-word, where the writer provides a set cost per each word of content written.

Freelance writers can charge anywhere from $0.05 to $2.00 per word, depending on their experience.

Another common approach is cost per page/post. This is where the writer typically determines an approximate content length and set cost.

For example, a short blog post may cost around $150, whereas a long blog post may cost $300+. This option is great if you want the costs to be predictable.

Be sure to discuss the writer’s preferred pricing structure and rates before you start on a project. Ideally, get your agreement set in writing so there is no confusion over the terms.

9. Know What’s Provided In Their Services

Some SEO writers only include the content and the H1 and H2 tags. Others include all on-page SEO.

Even further, some provide keyword research or content planning. For any writer, ask what their services include and what needs to be provided by you.

Do they need you to do the keyword research and create the blog strategy? Get clear about that from the beginning.

You should also ask whether edits and/or rewrites are included. Complete rewrites are rare; don’t expect most writers to write an entirely new piece without compensation.

Typically, writers offer one to two rounds of edits, or a refund if they miss the mark.

10. Discuss Your Expectations

Hiring a writer is like any other professional relationship in that you need to discuss your expectations at the start.

Know what’s expected of you, make sure they know what’s expected of them, and outline a clear process when it comes to creating content together.

Note that some writers offer refunds, while others do not. Discuss this at the beginning (and get it in writing) before you find yourself in a pickle.

11. Know That Great Content Is An Investment

With all this talk about pricing and payment terms, you may be wondering, “How much does great content cost?”

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t simple. Writers’ rates vary based on their industry expertise, years of experience, the results they have generated for clients, their location, and a range of other factors.

But what remains true is that you get what you pay for. Don’t expect high-quality sales copy from a “cheap” AI content service. Don’t expect high conversions on sales pages written by a novice versus an expert.

When it comes to driving results, you’ll want a content writer or copywriter who understands the nuances of SEO and buyer psychology.

They likely have years of experience and a proven track record of delivering results for clients. And they likely aren’t cheap.

Consider what it’s worth to your business to have interesting, original, high-converting content. Do you want to pay pennies for basic copy? Or do you want content that will bring a return on investment (ROI)?

Final Thoughts

While there are mixed opinions on what constitutes “great” content and how much great content costs, it remains true that human writers are the source of the best content around.

Able to empathize with buyers’ experiences and craft unique stories, human writers are more equipped than AI to create content that resonates with an audience.

Finding the best writer for your brand depends on the type of content you need and the return you aim to generate from your content.

Your content “budget” should, then, be based on your willingness to invest in content that will achieve the results you want.

I recommend researching your options and outlining clear expectations with your writer from the beginning. That is the path to a positive writer-client relationship and great content for your brand.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 16 2024
Why Content Is Important For SEO via @sejournal, @lorenbaker

Content is SEO. More specifically, it’s one side of the SEO relationship. One core function of search engines is to connect users with the information they’re looking for. That information might be a product listing, a review, a news story, an image, or a video.

The other core function of search engines is to retain users.

Search engines retain users by ensuring their confidence and trust in the displayed results. Over time, they build expectations that using their platform is a safe, streamlined experience that quickly leads users to what they want.

SEO success depends on being found by your target audience for what they are looking for and consistently providing a satisfying user experience based on the context of the queries they type into search engines.

Search Is Built On Content

The core function of search engines is to help users find information. Search engines first discover webpages, they parse and render and they then add them to an index. When a user inputs a query, search engines retrieve relevant webpages in the index and then “rank” them.

Search engines need to know what pages are about and what they contain in order to serve them to the right users. In concept, they do this quite simply: They examine the content. The real process behind this is complicated, executed by automated algorithms and evaluated with human feedback.

Google constantly adjusts and updates it algorithms with the goal of ensuring the most relevant content is served to searchers.

This relationship between searchers, search engines, and websites, has come to define the internet experience for most users. Unless you know the exact URL of the website you intend to visit, you need must find it via a third party. That could be social media, a search engine, or even discovering the website offline and then typing it in. This is called a “referral,” and Google sends 64% of all website referrals in the U.S. Microsoft and Bing send the next largest amount of referrals, followed by YouTube.

Getting discovered by people who don’t already know you depends on search engines, and search engines depend on content.

The SEO Value Of Content

Google has said it prioritizes user satisfaction.

It’s confirmed that user behavior signals impact ranking.

At this point, whether this relationship is causal or correlative doesn’t matter. You must prioritize user experience and satisfaction because it’s a key indicator of SEO success.

Written language is still the primary way users interact with search engines and how algorithms understand websites. Google algorithms can interpret audio and videos, but written text is core to SEO functionality.

Enticing clicks and engaging users through content that satisfies their queries is the baseline of SEO. If your pages can’t do that, you won’t have success.

High-quality content and user experiences aren’t just important for SEO; they’re prerequisites.

This is true for all advertising and branding. Entire industries and careers are built on the skills to refine the right messaging and put it in front of the right people.

Evidence For The SEO Value Of Content

Google highlights the importance of content in its “SEO fundamentals” documentation. It advises that Google’s algorithms look for “helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people,” and provides details about how to self-assess high-quality content.

  • Content, and how well it matches a user’s needs, is one of the core positive and negative factors in Google’s ranking systems. It updates systems to reduce content it deems to be unhelpful and prioritize content it deems to be helpful.
  • In fact, Google’s analysis of the content may determine whether a page enters the index at all to become eligible to rank. If you work hard to provide a good experience and serve the needs of your users, search engines have more reason to surface your content and may do so more often.
  • A 2024 study in partnership between WLDM, ClickStream, and SurferSEO suggests that the quality of your coverage on a topic is highly correlated with rankings.

Content And User Behavior

Recent developments in the SEO industry, such as the Google leak, continue to highlight the value of both content and user experience.

Google values user satisfaction to determine the effectiveness and quality of webpages and does seem to use behavioral analysis in ranking websites. It also focuses on the user intent of queries and whether a specific intent is served by a particular resource.

The satisfaction of your users is, if not directly responsible for SEO performance, highly correlated with it.

Many factors affect user experience and satisfaction. Website loading speed and other performance metrics are part of it. Intrusive elements of the page on the experience are another.

Content, however, is one of the primary determiners of a “good” or “bad” experience.

  • Does the user find what they’re looking for? How long does it take?
  • Is the content accurate and complete?
  • Is the content trustworthy and authoritative?

The answers to these questions reflect whether the user has a good or bad experience with your content, and this determines their behavior. Bad experiences tend to result in the user leaving without engaging with your website, while good experiences tend to result in the user spending more time on the page or taking action.

This makes content critical not only to your SEO efforts on search engines but also to your website’s performance metrics. Serving the right content to the right users in the right way impacts whether they become leads, convert, or come back later.

Leaning into quality and experience is a win all around. Good experiences lead to desirable behaviors. These behaviors are strong indications of the quality of your website and content. They lead to positive outcomes for your business and are correlated with successful SEO.

What Kinds Of Content Do You Need?

Successful content looks different for each goal you have and the different specific queries you’re targeting.

Text is still the basis of online content when it comes to search. Videos are massively popular. YouTube is the second-most popular search engine in the world. However, in terms of referrals, it only sends 3.5% of referral traffic to the web in the U.S. In addition, videos have titles, and these days, most have automated transcripts. These text elements are critical for discovery.

That isn’t to say videos and images aren’t popular. Video, especially “shorts” style videos, is an increasingly popular medium. Cisco reported that video made up 82% of all internet traffic in 2022. So you absolutely shoulder consider images and video as part of your content strategy to best serve your audiences and customers.

Both can enhance text-based webpages and stand on their own on social platforms.

But for SEO, it’s critical to remember that Google search sends the most referral traffic to other websites. Text content is still the core of a good SEO strategy. Multi-modal AI algorithms are getting very good at translating information between various forms of media, but text content remains critical for several reasons:

  • Plain text has high accessibility. Screen readers can access it, and it can be resized easily.
  • Text is the easiest way for both people and algorithms to analyze semantic connections between ideas and entities.
  • Text doesn’t depend on device performance like videos and images might.
  • Text hyperlinks are very powerful SEO tools because they convey direct meaning along with the link.
  • It’s easier to skim through text than video.

Text content is still dominant for SEO. But you should not ignore other content. Images, for example, make for strong link building assets because they’re attractive and easily sharable. Accompanying text with images and video accommodates a variety of user preferences and can help capture attention when plain text might not.

Like everything else, it’s down to what best serves users in any given situation.

SEO Content: Serving Users Since Search Was A Thing

Search engines match content to the needs of users.

Content is one-third of this relationship: user – search engine – information.

You need content to perform SEO, and any digital marketing activity successfully.

The difficulty comes from serving that perfect content for the perfect situation.

So read “How To Create High-Quality Content” next.

Read More:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 9 2024
8 Out Of 10 TikTok Videos By Brands Fail To Capture Attention via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Despite TikTok’s increasing importance to marketers, the majority of brands are not getting it right, and their videos on the social media platform are under-performing.

According to new research, 84% of the video content released by brands on TikTok fails to generate strong positive emotions, capture attention, or enhance brand recall.

The mini-study conducted by DAIVID, which aids advertisers in assessing and enhancing the impact of their content on a large scale, also found that 24% of TikTok videos were triggering strong negative emotions, potentially damaging to brand reputations.

Their study evaluates the effectiveness of video content being shared on the social platform using a variety of metrics, including the positive and negative emotions elicited by each video, the attention they generated, and the impact the content had on various brand metrics, such as brand recall.

The study’s findings include:

  • Only 16% of the branded TikTok videos scored higher than the average Creative Effectiveness Score (CES) of 5.8 out of 10 – a composite metric created by DAIVID that combines the three main drivers of effectiveness: attention, emotions, and memory.
  • 60% of branded TikTok videos were simply forgettable, with below-average positive emotional responses and below-average brand recall. They also ranked above the global average for causing confusion and boredom.
  • 24% of branded TikTok videos triggered strong, extreme, negative emotions like anxiety, fear, discomfort, disgust, and shame.
  • Overall, branded TikTok content was 9% less likely to generate intense positive emotions than the global average and attracted 2.5% less attention.

In a press release, Ian Forrester, the CEO and founder of DAIVID, said:

“This research reveals that the vast majority of content being released on TikTok simply isn’t up to scratch. Sixty per cent of the creative is simply forgettable, under-indexing for positive emotions and over-indexing for negative emotions such as confusion and boredom. In one ear and out of the other for the viewer.”

He added:

“Yet, even more concerning for brands are the 24% of videos that evoked intense, extreme, negative emotions such as disgust, anxiety and shame. If these emotions are attached to the brand, they’re likely to do the brand damage, negatively impacting future sales potential.

This should be a wake-up call to brands and underlines the importance of analyzing the effectiveness of your social creative beyond just the basic reach, impressions and engagement rate data provided by the platforms to understand the real impact that it’s having.”

What Marketers Can Do To Avoid Negative Reactions

I realize that many marketers working at other big brands will ask, what should I do next?

For starters, read “39 Emotions Digital Marketers Can Use In Advertising.”

You’ll discover the latest research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science at the University of South Australia has uncovered: “Generally, it’s advisable for … brands to leave us with a positive emotion.”

Next, read “TikTok Trends 2024: The Most Important Trends To Watch.” Among other things, you’ll learn that TikTok launched its Creative Center earlier this year.

This can help you find inspiration by giving you insights into what type of content is trending in your country, broken down into hashtags, whether lip-syncing audio, popular creators, or specific video formats.

Finally, read the “10 Most Emotionally Engaging Olympics Ads (For Paris 2024 & For All Time).”

Yes, these video ads were uploaded to YouTube, not TikTok. But Procter & Gamble (P&G) dominates DAIVID’s all-time chart, with five of the top most emotionally engaging Olympics ads – including the top three tear-jerking positions.

So, you’ll want to figure out what they know that you don’t.

Spoiler alert: Brands should focus on creating more TikTok videos that generate intense positive emotions, including hope, admiration, amusement, and trust, as well as making fewer TikTok videos that evoke intense negative emotions, such as anger, disgust, fear, and anxiety.

We shouldn’t need new research to reinforce this important lesson. But, if 84% of TikTok videos by brands are underperforming and 24% generate a strong negative reaction, then I guess it’s time to ask some hard questions.

What SEO Pros Should Do To Seize This Opportunity

Some SEO professionals might mistakenly assume that they should “move along – nothing to see here” because they don’t optimize TikTok videos. But they should reconsider.

TikTok videos have been appearing in Google’s search results for a couple of years. If you need to verify this, then Google “most viewed TikTok videos in 24 hours.”

So, what should you do about this?

If you are a savvy SEO, then you’re already incorporating relevant keywords in your video title, caption, and hashtags, leveraging trending topics, engaging with your audience, and collaborating with other creators to increase visibility.

But if another group within your company or client is cranking out TikTok content without optimizing it first, then reach out and suggest that you get together and maybe suggest a “lunch and learn” session, where training can occur in an informal setting.

If you want to do a little homework to make suggestions on optimizing TikTok content, try reading the following.

For starters, read Video SEO: 10 Steps to Optimizing Videos for Search and Discovery.” It focuses on video SEO best practices for YouTube.

But if you plan to optimize videos for TikTok.com, which gets 2.7 billion visits a month worldwide, then you should also optimize videos for YouTube.com, which gets 73.0 billion visits a month worldwide, according to Semrush.

Next, read The Future of SEO Lies in the “Messy Middle” of the Purchase Journey.”

Among other things, you’ll learn that people look for information about products and brands in a looping process across a huge array of online sources, including search engines, social video platforms, and review websites, in two mental modes: exploration and evaluation.

Finally, check out “Customer Personas Can Transform SEO, PPC, and Content Marketing,” which was published in March 2021.

It says:

“… decision-making is not a rational process, but one driven mainly by how people feel. The rational brain layers on reasons for our choices only after they’re made.” This explains why video should be a critical component of any future SEO strategy.

It’s Time To Pay Attention To Video SEO

Many SEO professionals have been busy preparing for the threat of a “searchquake” that was supposed to be triggered by Search Generative Experiences (SGE), so they may have overlooked the opportunity of video SEO.

But TikTok does present an opportunity for many brands with huge potential if you are one of the brands getting it right.

It’s time for SEO professionals, as well as marketers, to pay attention to video marketing and to do their homework to understand why some brands are generating negative emotions. And to learn how they can be the ones that get the positive reactions.

The data from above was taken from a study conducted by DAIVID, a global creative effectiveness platform.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Pheelings Media/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 5 2024
How To Create High-Quality Content via @sejournal, @sejournal

SEO success depends on providing high-quality content to your audiences. The big question is: What exactly does “high quality” mean?

Content has many meanings. In digital marketing, it simply means the information a website displays to users.

But don’t forget: In a different context with a different emphasis on the word (content as opposed to content), content is a synonym for happy and satisfied. The meaning is different, but the letters are the same.

If you want to understand content quality online, keep these two different definitions in mind.

Every webpage has content. “High-quality” content depends on contexts like:

  • What the needs of your audience are.
  • What users expect to find.
  • How the content is presented and how easy it is to pull critical information out of it quickly.
  • How appropriate the medium of the content is for users’ needs.

What Makes Content High Quality?

This is a complex question that we hope to answer in full during this article. But let’s start with a simple statement:

High-quality content is whatever the user needs at the time they’re looking for it.

This might not be helpful in a specific sense but note this somewhere because it’s a guiding light that has far-reaching implications for your website and audience strategy.

We use this definition because the quality of your content isn’t static. Google and other search engines know this and frequently update search engine results pages (SERPs) and algorithms to adjust for changing user priorities.

You need to bake this idea into your understanding of content and audiences. You can have the most beautifully written, best-formatted content, but if your target audience doesn’t need that information in that format, it’s not “high-quality” for SEO.

If you provide a story when the user is looking for a two-sentence answer, then you’re not serving their interests.

This is especially pertinent with the introduction of generative AI features into search platforms. This is a continuation of a “zero click” phenomenon for certain types of searches and why Google doesn’t send a user to a website for these searches.

Defining & Meeting Audience Needs

SEO professionals have many different ways of conceptualizing these ideas. One of the most common is “the funnel,” which categorizes content into broad categories based on its position in a marketing journey.

The funnel is usually categorized something like this:

  • Top of the funnel: Informational intent and awareness-building content.
  • Middle of the funnel: Consideration intent and product/service-focused content.
  • Bottom of the funnel: Purchase intent and conversion content.

While it’s helpful to categorize types of content by their purpose in your marketing strategy, this can be an overly limiting view of user intent and encourages linear thinking when you conceptualize user journeys.

As Google gets more specific about intent, such broad categorization becomes less helpful in determining whether content meets users’ needs.

Build a list of verbs that describe the specific needs of your audience while they’re searching. Ideally, you should base this on audience research and data you have about them and their online activity.

Learn who they follow, what questions they ask, when a solution seems to satisfy them, what content they engage with, etc.

Then, create verb categories to apply to search terms during your keyword research. For example:

  • Purchase.
  • Compare.
  • Discover.
  • Learn.
  • Achieve.
  • Check.

User Intends To Purchase

If the user is looking for something to buy, then high quality probably looks like a clean landing or product page that’s easy to navigate. Be sure to include plenty of detail so search engines can match your page to specific parameters the user might enter or have in their search history.

Product photos and videos, reviews and testimonials, and Schema markup can all help these pages serve a better experience and convert. Pay particular attention to technical performance and speed.

Remember that you’re highly likely to go up against ads on the SERPs for these queries, and driving traffic to landing pages can be difficult.

User Intends To Compare

This could take a couple of different forms. Users might come to you for reviews and comparisons on other things or to compare your benefits to those of another company.

For this content to be successful, you need to be dialed into what problems a user is trying to solve, what pain points they have, and how specific differences impact their outcomes.

This is the old “features vs. benefits” marketing argument, but the answer is “both.” Users could want to see all the features listed, but don’t forget to contextualize how those features solve specific problems.

User Intends To Discover

This intent could describe a user looking for industry news, data to support their research, or new influencers to follow.

Prioritize the experience they’re seeking and ensure that the discovery happens quickly.

This could look like adding text summaries or videos to the top of posts, tables of contents to assist with navigation, or page design elements that highlight the most critical information.

User Intends To Learn

If a user intends to learn about a topic, a long, well-organized post, video, or series of either may serve them best. This content should be in-depth, well-organized, and written by genuine topic experts. You may need to demonstrate the author’s qualifications to build trust with readers.

You must consider the existing knowledge level of your target audience. Advanced content will not satisfy the needs of inexperienced users, while basic content will bore advanced users.

Don’t try to satisfy both audiences in a single experience. It’s tempting to include basic questions in this type of content to target more SEO keywords, but think about whether you’re trading keywords for user experience.

For example, if you write a post about “how to use a straight razor” and your subheadings look like the ones below, you’re probably not serving the correct intent.

  • What is a straight razor?
  • Are straight razors dangerous?
  • Should I use a straight razor?

The chances are high that someone landing on your page “how to use a straight razor” doesn’t need answers to these basic questions. In other words, you’re wasting their time.

User Intends To Achieve

A slightly different intent from learning. In this instance, a user has a specific goal for an action they want to perform. Like learning content, it should be written by subject matter experts.

If the person creating this content doesn’t have sufficient first-hand experience, they won’t effectively guide users and predict their real-world needs. This results in unsatisfying content and a failure point of many SEO content strategies.

In SEJ’s SEO Trends 2024 ebook, Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Brand at Wix, said:

“One trend I would get ahead of that aligns with Google’s focus on expertise and experience is what I’m coining “situational content.” Situational content attempts to predict the various outcomes of any advice or the like offered within the content to present the next logical steps. If, for example, a piece of content provides advice about how to get a baby to sleep through the night, it would then offer the next steps if that advice didn’t work.

This is “situational” – if X doesn’t work, you might want to try Y. Situational content creates a compelling form of content I see more frequently. It does a few things for the reader:

  • It addresses them and their needs directly.
  • It’s more conversational than standard content (an emerging content
    trend itself).
  • To predict various outcomes and situations, you have to actually know what
    you’re talking about.

That latter point directly addresses E-E-A-T. You can only predict and address secondary situations with expertise and experience. Most of all, situational content indicates to the user that a real person, not a large language model (LLM), wrote it.”

The difference between “learn” and “achieve” intents can be difficult to see. Sometimes, you might need to satisfy both. Pay careful attention to these types of content.

User Intends To Check

Misunderstanding when a user just wants to “check” something can cause you to waste resources on content doomed not to perform, and another failure point of SEO strategies. If what a user needs can be solved in a few sentences, you’re in zero-click territory.

For example, ‘How to tie a bowtie’.

That is, Google will serve users an answer on the SERP, and they may not click a link at all. You may want to target these types of queries as part of longform content for other search intents using good content organization and Schema markup.

That way, you can give your authoritative and in-depth content opportunities to show up in rich results on SERPs, and users might click through if they see more information available or have follow-up questions.

You should consider these intents part of your SEO strategy, but think of them as awareness and branding tactics. AI features such as AI Overviews in Google seek to surface quick answers to queries. It will be much harder to acquire clicks on SERPs where features like this are activated.

If you struggle to understand why well-written content is losing traffic, you should assess whether you wrote hundreds of words to answer a query that only needed 30.

More intents exist, and to complicate matters further, they are not exclusive to each other in a single piece of content. Comparison and discovery intents, for example, often combine in listicles, product comparisons, and titles like “X alternatives to X.”

More reading about user intent:

Continue reading this article 👇

Content Quality Signifiers

While there’s no quantifiable answer to what good content means, there are many ways to evaluate it to ensure it contains key signs of quality.

Google’s content guidelines provide some questions you can ask yourself to objectively assess your content’s quality.

The SEO content mantra is E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Google uses many signals to approximate these concepts and apply these signals to ranking algorithms. To be clear, E-E-A-T are not ranking factors themselves. But they are the concepts that ranking systems attempt to emulate via other signals.

These concepts apply to individual pages and to websites as a whole.

Experience: Are the people creating content directly knowledgeable about the subject matter, and do you demonstrate credible experience?

Expertise: Does your content demonstrate genuine expertise through depth, accuracy, and relevance?

Authoritativeness: Is your website an authoritative source about the topic?

Trust: Is your website trustworthy, considering the information or purposes at hand?

In its content guidelines, Google says this about E-E-A-T:

“Of these aspects, trust is most important. The others contribute to trust, but content doesn’t necessarily have to demonstrate all of them. For example, some content might be helpful based on the experience it demonstrates, while other content might be helpful because of the expertise it shares.”

Understanding these concepts is critical for building a content strategy because publishing content with poor E-E-A-T signals could impact your website as a whole. Google’s language downplays this potential impact, but it’s critical to know that it’s possible. It’s tempting to assume that because a website has high “authority” in a general sense or in one particular area, anything it publishes is considered authoritative. This may not be true.

If you chase traffic by creating content outside your core areas of authority and expertise, that content may perform poorly and drag the rest of your site down.

More reading about E-E-A-T:

Continue reading this article 👇

Creating Effective SEO Content

This article focuses on written content, but don’t neglect multimedia in your content strategy.

The thought process behind content should go a little bit like this:

Audience > Query (Keywords) > Intent > Brief / Outline > Create

You can also express it as a series of questions:

  • Audience: Who is our audience?
  • Query: What are they searching for?
  • Intent: Why?
  • Brief: How can we best assist them?
  • Create: What does exceptional user experience look like?

Keyword Research For Content

Keyword research is a massive topic on its own, so here are some key pieces of advice and a few additional resources:

  • Look at the SERPs for the keywords you target to understand what Google prioritizes, what your competitors are doing, what success looks like, and whether there are gaps you can fill.
  • Cluster related keywords together and develop a content strategy that covers multiple branching areas of a topic deeply.
  • High search volume often means high competition. Allocate your resources carefully between acquiring lower competition positions and fighting for a slice of competitive traffic.
  • Building a robust catalog of content focused on long-tail keywords can help you acquire the authority to compete in more competitive SERPs for related topics.

More reading about keyword research:

Continue reading this article 👇

Briefing SEO Content

Once you have performed your research and identified the intents you must target, it’s time to plan the content.

SEO professionals may not have the required knowledge to create content that demonstrates experience and expertise – unless they’re writing about SEO.

They’re SEO specialists, so if your website is about finance or razor blades, someone else will need to provide the knowledge.

Briefing is critical because it allows the SEO team to communicate all that hard work and research to the person or team creating the content. A successful brief should inform the content creators:

  • The target keyword strategy, with suggestions or a template for the title and subheadings.
  • The purpose of the content for the user: What the user should learn or be able to accomplish.
  • The purpose of the content for the business: Where it falls into the marketing strategy and relevant KPIs.
  • Details such as length, style guide or voice notes, and key pieces of information to be included.

Creating SEO Content

Your research should guide the format of your writing.

Remember, intent impacts the usability of different types of content. Prioritize the information most likely to solve the user’s intent.

You can do this by providing summaries, tables of contents, videos, pictures, skip links, and, most importantly, headings.

Use The Title & Headings To Target Keywords & Organize Information

The title of a page is your primary keyword opportunity. It’s also the first thing users will see on a SERP, which impacts CTR. Match the title to your target query and think about effectively describing the content to entice a click. But don’t misrepresent your page for clicks.

Your primary responsibility in SEO content is to set expectations and then deliver on them. Don’t set if you can’t deliver.

HTML heading formats help users navigate the page by breaking up blocks of text and indicating where certain topics are covered. They’re critical to your on-page SEO, so use your keywords.

Expectations are as true for headings as for titles. Headings should be descriptive and useful. Prioritize setting an expectation for what the user will find on that part of the page and then delivering on that expectation.

More reading about headings:

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Get To The Point

Whether content should be long or short is subjective to its purpose. All SEO content should be as short as possible while achieving its goals. “As short as possible” could mean 4,000 words.

If you need 4,000 words to achieve your goal, then use them. But don’t add any more than you need.

This is a call to avoid rambling, especially in introductions. Do you really need to cite the projected growth of an industry just to prove it’s worth talking about?

Not unless you’re writing a news story about that growth. Cut that sentence and the link to Statista from your introduction. (No shade, Statista, you rock.)

Features like skip links can also help with this. Give users the option to skim and skip directly to what they need.

Use Internal Links To Connect Your Pages Together & Provide Further Reading

Internal links are the bedrock of SEO content strategies. They are how you organize related pages and guide users around your website. They also spread the SEO value of your pages to the pages they’re connected to.

In the keyword research section, we suggested that you create clusters of keywords and topics to write about – this is why. You build authority by covering a topic in-depth and creating multiple pages exploring it and all its subtopics.

You should link between pages related to one another at contextually important points in the content. You can use this tactic to direct the SEO power of multiple pages to one important page for your strategy or your business.

Contextually relevant links that properly set expectations for what the user will find also contribute to a good site experience.

More reading about internal linking:

Continue reading this article 👇

Use Personal Experiences And Unique Expertise To Stand Out

AI presents numerous challenges for SEOs. Anyone can quickly create content at scale using generative AI tools.

The tools can replicate competitors, synthesize content together from myriad sources, and enable breakneck publishing paces. This poses two core problems:

  • How do you stand out with so much AI content out there?
  • How do you build trust in audiences looking for legitimate experts?

For now, the best answer is to lean into the E-E-A-T principles that Google prioritizes.

  • Tell human stories with your content that demonstrate your experience and expertise.
  • Use Oberstein’s “situational content” principle, mentioned earlier in this article, to connect with your audience’s experiences and needs.
  • Ensure that content is created by verifiable experts, especially if that content involves topics that can impact the audience’s well-being (YMYL.)

SEO Content Is Both A Strategy & An Individual Interaction

It’s easy to focus on what you need from users: what keyword you want to rank for, what you want users to click, and what actions you want them to take.

But all of that falls apart if you don’t honor the individual interaction between your website and a user who needs something.

Audience-first content is SEO content. Content is a core function of SEO because it’s the basis of how humans and algorithms understand your website.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Art_Photo/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 23 2024
How To Create Engaging Instagram Carousels via @sejournal, @annabellenyst

No Instagram strategy is complete without carousels.

Why? Because they’re powerful storytelling tools that generate outsized engagement among Instagram audiences.

But how do you make carousels effective?

Creating engaging carousels can help you increase your reach and engagement on Instagram and build a stronger relationship with your followers.

Plus, they’re easy to create if you have a plan and the right tips. Lucky for you, we have all the tips you need right here in this article.

Let’s get started.

Start With A Story

When designing an Instagram carousel, starting with a clear theme or story is crucial in helping you select images or videos that create a cohesive post.

Like any social media content, think about the message you want to convey and the content you want to showcase.

Consider your brand identity and target audience.

What content would resonate with your followers and align with your brand message? This could be a theme based on your industry, your brand values, or a particular aspect of your products or services.

For instance, if you’re a food blogger, you could create an Instagram carousel featuring a step-by-step recipe, with the first image being a shot of the finished dish.

Then, follow it up with images of each ingredient and each step in the cooking process. This way, your carousel tells a story while providing followers with value.

You can also showcase your products or services in action.

For example, if you run a fitness brand, create a carousel of exercises or workout routines featuring your products – like this apartment and travel-friendly workout routine from fitness influencer Kayla Itsines.

A fashion brand, on the other hand, might create a carousel showcasing different ways to style a particular item of clothing.

Another effective carousel format is to share behind-the-scenes content or personal stories, such as photos of your team at work, personal stories about your brand journey, or the inspiration behind your products.

This helps to humanize your brand and build a stronger connection with your followers.

Whatever you choose, the key is to pick a theme or story that is both relevant to your brand and interesting to your audience.

Content Order

The order in which you display your content is crucial to creating an effective Instagram carousel.

The first image or video is typically the most important, as it will set the tone for your content, capture your audience’s attention, and encourage them to swipe through the rest of the carousel.

It’s typically the first frame that people see (though occasionally, they may see the second frame first – so bear that in mind when creating your content).

Use subsequent images or videos to tell a story or provide additional context.

How you do this will depend on your carousel’s goal. What is the one thing you want a follower to “leave” with?

No matter what type of content order you choose, it should create a logical flow between slides, making it natural for audiences to swipe through.

Here are some examples of common Instagram carousel structures:

Narrative Structure

  • What It Is: The images are arranged logically to tell a story or share a message.
  • When To Use It: This method can be particularly effective for product launches or brand campaigns where you want to build excitement and engagement around a specific theme. It’s great for explaining specific concepts or breaking down stories linearly. This is why list style carousels are so popular.
  • Why You Use It: Narratives and stories get followers emotionally engaged in the content.

Here is a great example of narrative structure from Later.

Random Structure

  • What It Is: The images have no specific narrative or message.
  • When To Use It: This structure is ideal for showcasing various products or services or sharing behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t necessarily follow a specific sequence.
  • Why You Use It: Not only can a random structure be fun, but curiosity and spontaneity can be extremely helpful, particularly if you want to build up some buzz around an event.

This carousel from National Geographic is a nice example of a random structure.

Comparative Structure

Still trying to figure out how to present your images? Consider the visual appeal of the images and how they will look when viewed as a group.

You can alternate between different image types, such as close-ups and wide shots, or use consistent color schemes or filters to create a cohesive look and feel.

  • What It Is: The images are offered in pairs. Or half of the images will differ from the other half.
  • When To Use It: Comparative structure is excellent for demonstrating before-and-after, us-versus-competitors, or with-and-without.
  • Why You Use It: Choose this structure to show how your product solves a problem or emphasize the impact of an experience.

Here is an example of a comparative carousel showing before and after visuals from HGTV.

Use Visuals That Say The Right Thing

An engaging Instagram carousel starts with aesthetically appealing, eye-catching, high-quality images or videos. These will help grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to swipe through the entire carousel.

It’s important to choose visuals that have exceptional clarity and decent resolution, though you should also bear in mind that recent trends show audiences value authenticity over perfection.

Here’s an example of a carousel from Airbnb that leverages beautiful imagery to pique the attention of audiences.

You should also consider using consistent color schemes or filters. This will help create a cohesive sense of visual unity across the entire carousel and make sure your brand is present in the content.

In short, you want the carousel to feel like an experience, not just a collection of pictures.

Your Instagram carousel plan should also include the type of visuals you want to showcase in it.

Will you only have product images and videos? Would lifestyle shots, behind-the-scenes footage, or user-generated content (UGC) be more effective?

Another option is to mix up the type of content in each carousel to keep things interesting and varied.

You could alternate between videos and images and try out different approaches, but the key here is to choose visuals that align with your brand message and resonate with your audience.

Once you’ve selected your content, you can think more about the composition of the carousel itself and how you’ll order it. You might want to experiment with different layouts, such as grids or collages, to create a unique and striking post.

Finally, keep the context of your post in mind. Instagram users scroll quickly through their feeds, so you’ll need bold, bright colors or to incorporate text or graphics that interrupt this habit and stop them long enough to swipe and consume the content.

Text Overlays, Captions, And Music

Text, captions, and now even music are important aspects of creating engaging and effective Instagram carousel content.

These components work together to convey your message, build excitement around your products or services, and encourage your audience to take action.

Captions

First, keep your captions concise and engaging. You want to capture attention quickly and communicate your message efficiently, so use short, punchy sentences and clear language. If it makes sense, include some emojis to catch people’s eye.

Second, consider the tone of your captions and how they align with your brand identity.

If your brand is playful and lighthearted, your captions should be the same: fun, humorous language. Use an informative and educational tone if your brand is more serious or professional.

Third, use your captions to contextualize the story or experience you present in your images. This will help bring your audience along for the journey and encourage them to engage with your brand.

Finally, include a call to action (CTA) to increase engagement and drive more traffic to your website or other digital channels.

This could be as simple as encouraging your audience to swipe through the carousel, asking them a question, or prompting them to visit your website for more information.

Text Overlays

Your use of text goes beyond captions. Text overlays can be highly effective in adding context and additional information and can enhance the visual impact of your carousels.

Here are a few tips:

  • Choose a legible and visually pleasing font that matches your brand aesthetic. Remember that users will be viewing it on small mobile screens.
  • Keep your text concise and to the point. Instagram users scroll quickly through their feeds, so your text needs to be easy to digest and understand.
  • Only include essential information and ensure that each overlay only has one job. For example, to provide more information about a product or provide context to a narrative.
  • Ensure that overlay text doesn’t obscure important parts of your images and is visually balanced with the other elements in your carousel.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking of text overlays as extra ad space, however. Use them strategically to add value to your content.

For example, you may want to use text overlays to provide additional context or details about your products or services or a CTA that encourages your audience to engage with your brand.

Music

A newer feature to the platform, adding music to Instagram carousels has become a dynamic way to enhance engagement with your content.

We know that music can evoke emotions, set the tone, and add another layer of storytelling to your content. However, it bears mentioning that business accounts are typically more restricted in the songs that they can use.

Here are a few tips for effectively adding music to your carousels:

  • Choose music that aligns with the theme or message of the content within your carousel.
  • Leverage music that reflects your brand’s personality and tone.
  • Where possible, utilize music that can enhance the narrative of your carousel.
  • If you’re (legally) able to, engage your audience by including songs that are trending or popular.

By thoughtfully integrating elements like text, captions, and music, you can take your Instagram carousels to a whole new level and significantly enhance their performance and engagement.

Design Instagram Carousels With Mobile In Mind

Instagram is primarily a mobile app, so you must prep and design your content for mobile users.

If you’re designing an Instagram carousel featuring a long infographic, for example, break it down into several slides so that it’s easier for your audience to view on a mobile screen. You might also need to use larger text or adjust the font size.

But it’s more than that.

You should consider the quality of the images you’re using and how they will appear to a mobile viewer. Make sure that the resolution and specs fit with Instagram’s guidelines and that the details of the image will be viewable on mobile.

You may even want to consider arrows, buttons, ribbons, or other elements that run off the right side of the image to push users from one image to the next.

Conclusion

Once you’ve posted your Instagram carousel, engage with your followers by prompting them to like, comment, or share your post.

Encourage them to leave comments or questions about the product they see or the story you’ve presented.

Just remember to respond to these comments promptly and continue the conversation by answering questions or addressing concerns.

And if you follow the tips we’ve provided for you here, there will be many of them!

More resources:

Featured Image: Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 9 2024
The 6 Best AI Content Checkers To Use In 2024 via @sejournal, @annabellenyst

Today, many people see generative AI like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others as indispensable tools that streamline their day-to-day workflows and enhance their productivity.

However, with the proliferation of AI assistants comes an uptick in AI-generated content. AI content detectors can help you prioritize content quality and originality.

These tools can help you discern whether a piece of content was written by a human or AI – a task that’s becoming increasingly difficult – and this can help detect plagiarism, and ensure content is original, unique, and high-quality.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the top AI content checkers available in 2024. Let’s dive in.

The 6 Best AI Content Checkers

1. GPTZero

Screenshot from GPTZero.me, July 2024

Launched in 2022, GPTZero was “the first public open AI detector,” according to its website – and it’s a leading choice among the tools out there today.

GPTZero’s advanced detection model comprises seven different components, including an internet text search to identify whether the content already exists in internet archives, a burstiness analysis to see whether the style and tone reflect that of human writing, end-to-end deep learning, and more.

Its Deep Scan feature gives you a detailed report highlighting sentences likely created by AI and tells you why that is, and GPTZero also offers a user-friendly Detection Dashboard as a source of truth for all your reports.

The tool is straightforward, and the company works with partners and researchers from institutions like Princeton, Penn State, and OpenAI to provide top-tier research and benchmarking.

Cost:

  • The Basic plan is available for free. It includes up to 10,000 words per month.
  • The Essential plan starts at $10 per month, with up to 150,000 words, plagiarism detection, and advanced writing feedback.
  • The Premium plan starts at $16 per month and includes up to 300,000 words, everything in the Essential tier, as well as Deep Scan, AI detection in multiple languages, and downloadable reports.

2. Originality.ai

Screenshot from Originality.ai, July 2024

Originality.ai is designed to detect AI-generated content across various language models, including ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Gemini Pro, Claude 3, Llama 3, and others. It bills itself as the “most accurate AI detector,” and targets publishers, agencies, and writers – but not students.

The latter is relevant because, the company says, by leaving academia, research, and other historical text out of its scope, it’s able to better train its model to hone in on published content across the internet, print, etc.

Originality.ai works across multiple languages and offers a free Chrome extension and API integration. It also has a team that works around the clock, testing out new strategies to create AI content that tools can’t detect. Once it finds one, it trains the tool to sniff it out.

The tool is straightforward; users can just paste content directly into Originality.ai, or upload from a file or even a URL. It will then give you a report that flags AI-detected portions as well as the overall originality of the text. You get three free scans initially, with a 300-word limit.

Cost:

  • Pro membership starts at $12.45 per month and includes 2,000 credits, AI scans, shareable reports, plagiarism and readability scans, and more.
  • Enterprise membership starts at $179 per month and includes 15,000 credits per month, features in the Pro plan, as well as priority support, API, and a 365-day history of your scans.
  • Originality.ai also offers a “pay as you go” tier, which consists of a $30 one-time payment to access 3,000 credits and some of the more limited features listed above.

3. Copyleaks

Screenshot from Copyleaks.com, July 2024

While you’ve probably heard of Copyleaks as a plagiarism detection tool, what you might not know is that it also offers a comprehensive AI-checking solution.

The tool covers 30 languages and detects across AI models including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude – and it automatically updates when new language models are released.

According to Copyleaks, its AI detector “has over 99% overall accuracy and a 0.2% false positive rate, the lowest of any platform.”

It works by using its long history of data and learning to spot the pattern of human-generated writing – and thus, flag anything that doesn’t fit common patterns as potentially AI-generated.

Other notable features of Copyleaks’ AI content detector are the ability to detect AI-generated source code, spot content that might have been paraphrased by AI, as well as browser extension and API offerings.

Cost:

  • Users with a Copyleaks account can access a limited number of free scans daily.
  • Paid plans start at $7.99 per month for the AI Detector tool, including up to 1,200 credits, scanning in over 30 languages, two users, and API access.
  • You can also get access to an AI + Plagiarism Detection tier starting at $13.99 per month.

4. Winston AI

Screenshot from GoWinston.ai, July 2024

Another popular AI content detection tool, Winston AI calls itself “the most trusted AI detector,” and claims to be the only such tool with a 99.98% accuracy rate.

Winston AI is designed for users across the education, SEO, and writing industries, and it’s able to identify content generated by LLMs such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, Google Gemini, Claude, and more.

Using Winston AI is easy; paste or upload your documents into the tool, and it will scan the text (including text from scanned pictures or handwriting) and provide a printable report with your results.

Like other tools in this list, Winston AI offers multilingual support, high-grade security, and can also spot content that’s been paraphrased using tools like Quillbot.

One unique feature of Winston AI is its “AI Prediction Map,” a color-coded visualization that highlights which parts of your content sound inauthentic and may be flagged by AI detectors.

Cost

  • Free 7-day trial includes 2,000 credits, AI content checking, AI image and deepfake detection, and more.
  • Paid plans start at $12 per month for 80,000 credits, with additional advanced features based on your membership tier.

5. TraceGPT

Screenshot from plagiarismcheck.org, July 2024

Looking for an extremely accurate AI content detector? Try TraceGPT by PlagiarismCheck.org.

It’s a user-friendly tool that allows you to upload files across a range of formats, including doc, docx, txt, odt, rtf, and pdf. Then, it leverages creativity/predictability ratios and other methods to scan your content for “AI-related breadcrumbs.”

Once it’s done, TraceGPT will provide results that show you what it has flagged as potential AI-generated text, tagging it as “likely” or “highly likely.”

As with many of the options here, TraceGPT offers support in several languages, as well as API and browser extension access. The tool claims to be beneficial for people in academia, SEO, and recruitment.

Cost

  • You can sign up to use TraceGPT and will be given limited free access.
  • Paid plans differ based on the type of membership; for businesses, they start at $69 for 1,000 pages, and for individuals, it starts at $5.99 for 20 pages. Paid plans also give you access to 24/7 support and a grammar checker.

6. Hive Moderation

Screenshot from hivemoderation.com, July 2024

Hive Moderation, a company that specializes in content moderation, offers an AI content detector with a unique differentiator. Unlike most of the other examples listed here, it is capable of checking for AI content across several media formats, including text, audio, and image.

Users can simply input their desired media, and Hive’s models will discern whether they believe them to be AI-generated. You’ll get immediate results with a holistic score and more detailed information, such as whether Hive thinks your image was created by Midjourney, DALL-E, or ChatGPT, for example.

Hive Moderation offers a Chrome extension for its AI detector, as well as several levels of customization so that customers can tweak their usage to fit their needs and industry.

Pricing:

  • You can download the Hive AI Chrome Extension for free, and its browser tool offers at least some free scans.
  • You’ll need to contact the Hive Moderation team for more extensive use of its tools.

What Is An AI Content Checker?

An AI content checker is a tool for detecting whether a piece of content or writing was generated by artificial intelligence.

Using machine learning algorithms and natural language processing, these tools can identify specific patterns and characteristics common in AI-generated content.

An important disclaimer: At this point in time, no AI content detector is perfect. While some are better than others, they all have limitations.

They can make mistakes, from falsely identifying human-written content as AI-generated or failing to spot AI-generated content.

However, they are useful tools for pressure-testing content to spot glaring errors and ensure that it is authentic and not a reproduction or plagiarism.

Why Use An AI Content Detector?

As AI systems become more widespread and sophisticated, it’ll only become harder to tell when AI has produced content – so tools like these could become more important.

Other reasons AI content checkers are beneficial include:

  • They can help you protect your reputation. Say you’re publishing content on a website or blog. You want to make sure your audience can trust that what they’re reading is authentic and original. AI content checkers can help you ensure just that.
  • They can ensure you avoid any plagiarism. Yes, generative AI is only getting better, but it’s still known to reproduce other people’s work without citation in the answers it generates. So, by using an AI content detector, you can steer clear of plagiarism and the many risks associated with it.
  • They can confirm that the content you’re working with is original. Producing unique content isn’t just an SEO best practice – it’s essential to maintaining integrity, whether you’re a business, a content creator, or an academic professional. AI content detectors can help here by weeding out anything that doesn’t meet that standard.

AI content detectors have various use cases, including at the draft stage, during editing, or during the final review of content. They can also be used for ongoing content audits.

AI detectors may produce false positives, so you should scrutinize their results if you’re using them to make a decision. However, false positives can also help identify human-written content that requires a little more work to stand out.

We recommend you use a variety of different tools, cross-check your results, and build trust with your writers. Always remember that these are not a replacement for human editing, fact-checking, or review.

They are merely there as a helping hand and an additional level of scrutiny.

In Summary

While we still have a long way to go before AI detection tools are perfect, they’re useful tools that can help you ensure your content is authentic and of the highest quality.

By making use of AI content checkers, you can maintain trust with your audience and ensure you stay one step ahead of the competition.

Hopefully, this list of the best solutions available today can help you get started. Choose the tool that best fits your resources and requirements, and start integrating AI detection into your content workflow today.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Sammby/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 1 2024
Video Advertising Metrics & Brand Advertising With Greg Jarboe via @sejournal, @theshelleywalsh

Last week Greg Jarboe wrote an article for SEJ covering insights from the 2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report which was the second part of a two-part report.

The first part reported that overall spending on digital video advertising in the U.S. is projected to grow 16% and that in the last four years, the share of ad spend has shifted to 52% of the total market share in the U.S.

US Digital video ad revenues are expected to reach $63 billion in 2024.

From the second part of the report, what stood out was the shift in measurement metrics for video from reach to business outcomes. According to Cintia Gabilan, IAB’s VP of the Media Center:

“But now business outcomes are the most important metrics to assess success, with reach and frequency coming in second. However, measurement is not yet where it needs to be. Two-thirds of buyers cite issues across nine key areas of measurement.”

Alphabet (Google) has also just announced their quarterly earnings – and out of this was the insight that Brand advertising – rather than direct response is driving YouTube revenue.

To discuss this and to throw insight into why this is important and why he was “shocked” about these changes, I reached out to Greg to get his thoughts.

Greg started out as a director of corporate communications in the 90s when websites were called “new media.”

And, he has worked with video marketing since the mid-2000s. He has followed the development and uptake of video in online marketing and SEO for the last 15 years.

Why Video Advertising Metrics Have Shifted

I asked Greg why he was shocked that brand advertising is driving YouTube revenue and then, why he was shocked about the shift in video advertising metrics.

Greg said,

“I’ve been following this trend for at least 15 years, if not longer, and it was one of those things where I wondered how come nobody else saw this.

Too many American brands and agencies were still hung up on the television era and all the metrics they used were just fine for measuring TV reach and frequency.

They might have occasionally layered in a bit of engagement if they were sophisticated because they knew online video allowed for likes, shares, or comments. But they were mostly using what I would call marketing outputs to measure their success.

Back then, a few of us Pioneers were saying no, focusing on business outcomes. But, that sort of advice wasn’t being taken up very often. Now, suddenly, a majority of brands and agencies are using business outcomes to measure success.

My theory is that a majority are now using the ability in YouTube to set your business goal for your video ad campaign. Amongst the available settings are awareness and consideration, website traffic, leads, or sales.

So, if you let artificial intelligence say ‘okay, if that’s your goal then here’s where we want to display your video ad’, then you are focusing on business outcomes. Not because you have taken advice about making that choice, but because you’re allowing AI to give you the best practice and make that choice for you.

I’m shocked that people are finally doing the right thing, but I’m suspicious that they don’t know they’re doing the right thing or why. They are simply taking advantage of the new AI capabilities that Google is rolling out.”

Why Video Advertising Revenue Is Shifting To Brand Advertising

I then asked Greg to explain why brand advertising is shifting more revenue to YouTube.

Greg said,

“Connected Television (CTV) has basically swept aside linear TV, and more than half of the ad dollars have now moved to CTV. When you’re advertising on CTV, your goal is awareness or consideration. This shift is probably as big as the advent of mobile advertising was 15 or more years ago.

Connected Television is now shifting ad dollars. What this means is that a lot of advertisers, both on the client and agency sides, are now using AI to steer money that used to go from terrestrial TV to YouTube. YouTube has huge reach in the UK as well as the US, and that’s brand advertising.”

The conversation shifted to TikTok, which is now dominant among emerging demographics like Gen Z. If it doesn’t become outright banned in the US, TikTok is going to continue to have a growing influence over audiences.

I asked Greg, how we can start to embrace this shift in measurement metrics for TikTok? How can we apply business outcomes to TikTok?

Greg responded by saying,

“TikTok shared research, that highlighted the buyer journey as a loop rather than a straight line. Everyone knows the customer journey is not a straight line, but TikTok emphasized the looping process, including discovery and consideration phases.

Too many marketers still work with the metaphor of the sales funnel, which was invented in 1924. The customer journey does not travel straight down a funnel; it loops.

SEOs and content marketers must understand where the customer needs to find their content during discovery and evaluation modes.

This means creating content that captures interest and builds a relationship over time until the customer decides to do business with them.”

I asked Greg,

“How can SEOs and content marketers produce the kind of content needed for this process?”

His response was that this was hard. He went on to say that digital marketers need to unlearn what they have learned, and that’s really hard for marketing professionals to do because it’s not how things worked last year.

Greg said,

“But it’s not last year anymore. The really good agencies, brands, marketers, SEOs, and others are constantly adapting.

One of the things I learned when writing my book, “YouTube and Video Marketing,” is that the landscape changes constantly. I had to go back and revise early chapters before I could turn back to writing later chapters.”

Greg’s final advice was to avoid using books as a source of learning:

“The book publishing process is too slow; any book you pick up is probably already outdated. Stick to fresh information from online industry news publishers to stay updated.”

Unlearn Everything You Knew Before And Learn Again

If video advertisers are inadvertently selecting the goals for their campaigns through AI, or if they are actively making that choice, video advertising is finally shifting to be focused on business outcomes.

It appears that the industry might be moving away from the historical influence of television-era metrics and becoming more sophisticated with their measurement.

What marketers need to consider is that everything they have relied on previously is now changing. What worked last year is no longer working.

We are seeing this across the entire spectrum of SEO and online marketing with everything in flux as the influence of AI integrates and becomes established.

The advice is to unlearn what you relied on before and learn again and don’t rely on outdated information.

Everything is changing faster than it can be printed so make sure you turn to sources that are as up-to-date as possible.

Thank you to Greg Jarboe for offering his opinion and being my guest on IMHO.

More resources:  

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Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jul 22 2024
Trending Content Output Compared In ChatGPT, Gemini, And Claude via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

“Should we use ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to create trending content?”

That’s a good question – and one that I’m frequently asked when teaching a live class about engaging audiences through content.

You might mistakenly assume that instructors are supposed to answer questions like that. But my colleagues and I do something different.

We give our students relevant assignments that provide them with the opportunity to discover the answers to good questions for themselves.

This test-and-learn approach is something that you can also apply within your own company, agency, or team. Want to know which generative AI model to use to create trending content?

Well, conduct a test and compare the output.

Write Concise Descriptions Of The Most Emotionally Engaging Video Ads Of Euros 2024

You already know how to use Google Trends to identify search terms or topics that are trending now. In fact, many journalists use this free tool to get story ideas.

Over the long Fourth of July weekend, I used Google Trends and saw that the topic “Euros 2024” ranked No. 1 in Trending Searches with more than 1 million queries.

Next, I decided to avoid using OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5 for my tests. Why? Because it’s the most popular generative AI model, which means that your competitors are probably using it, too.

That means the content that this tool creates is less likely “to provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results,” as Google’s long-standing advice recommends.

ChatGPT Output

So, I explored the custom versions of ChatGPT and selected Write For Me by puzzle.today.

Why? Because it ranked No. 1 in the Writing category. The tool also claimed it would help me “write tailored, engaging content with a focus on quality, relevance and precise word count.”

I want to create better content, not just content that is different from what everyone else is creating. So, I asked Write For Me to “write concise descriptions of the most emotionally engaging video ads of Euros 2024.”

Here’s what this generative AI tool produced:

1. Unity Through Football

 “A diverse group of children from different European countries come together on a pristine football pitch. As they play, the camera captures their joy and camaraderie, transcending language and cultural barriers. The ad concludes with a montage of professional players joining the children, emphasizing football's power to unite nations and foster friendship.”

2. Legacy of Legends

 “The ad begins with black-and-white footage of iconic moments from past Euros, highlighting legendary players. It transitions to vibrant, modern clips of current stars recreating these moments, symbolizing the passing of the torch. A heartfelt narration speaks to the continuity of dreams and the legacy carried by each generation.”

3. Homecoming

 “A montage of fans traveling from various parts of Europe to the host country, capturing their excitement and anticipation. Emotional reunions with fellow fans, old friends, and family members create a sense of belonging and community. The ad closes with a panoramic shot of a stadium filled with cheering supporters, underscoring the tournament's role in bringing people together.”

4. The Dream Begins

 “The ad follows a young aspiring footballer practicing tirelessly, inspired by their favorite Euros moments. Interspersed with clips of professional matches, it shows the child's journey from local games to a stadium filled with fans. The message is clear: dreams start small but can lead to greatness, encouraging viewers to pursue their passions.”

5. Heartbeat of the Game

 “This ad features a rhythmic sequence of football-related sounds: the thud of a ball, cheers from the crowd, and the whistle of the referee. These sounds build into a symphony, interspersed with clips of players’ intense focus and emotional celebrations. The heartbeat sound underscores the passion and excitement of the Euros, resonating with fans’ own emotions.”

6. From Streets to Stadiums

 “Children playing football in urban alleys, rural fields, and makeshift pitches across Europe are showcased. Their raw passion and joy are mirrored by professional players in grand stadiums, blurring the lines between dreams and reality. The ad concludes with a powerful message: football belongs to everyone, from the streets to the grandest arenas.

Now, it’s perfectly clear why video ads with these descriptions would be emotionally engaging, but it is frustratingly unclear which brands are running these ads during Euros 2024.

So, I’d have to do some double-checking to make sure that ChatGPT isn’t hallucinating.

Gemini Output

Next, I gave Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard) the same prompt. Here’s what this generative AI model produced:

1. Adidas: "Hey Jude" (Most Engaging)

 “This ad features rising England star Jude Bellingham alongside football legends like David Beckham and Frank Lampard. It taps into positive emotions by showcasing the passing of the torch and the enduring spirit of the game.”

2. Irn-Bru: "Get to Germany"

 “This ad, likely using humor, aims to create positive feelings and excitement around the Euros being held in Germany.”

3. Budweiser: "Bring it Home"

“This ad uses a patriotic theme, likely aiming to inspire viewers and evoke a sense of national pride for their team's chance to win the Euros.”

It’s perfectly clear which brands are running the most emotionally engaging video ads of Euros 2024, but it’s still unclear which methodology Gemini is using to make this selection.

So, I’d still have to do more due diligence to discover that it’s probably recent articles and posts about new research from DAIVID.

Claude Output

I asked Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet to “write concise descriptions of the most emotionally engaging video ads of Euros 2024.” Here’s what this generative AI tool replied:

“I apologize, but I don't have access to specific information about video ads from Euro 2024, as my knowledge cutoff is in April 2024, and I can't browse the internet for current information.”

 “I can, however, offer some general thoughts on what makes emotionally engaging soccer/football ads:”

“Underdog stories of players or teams overcoming adversity.”
“Nostalgic montages showcasing historic Euro moments.”
“Depictions of passionate fans and their connection to the sport.”
“Inspirational messages about unity and international cooperation.”
“Cinematic recreations of iconic goals or plays.”

 “If you'd like me to expand on any of these concepts or discuss emotionally engaging sports ads in general, I'd be happy to do so. For accurate information about Euro 2024 ads, I'd recommend checking official UEFA sources or recent sports media coverage.”

Well, Claude’s honesty is admirable. But its knowledge cutoff means that I shouldn’t use this generative AI model for content about fairly recent trends.

Write Short Captions For The Funniest Photos From The 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

For my second test, I used the Google autocomplete feature to confirm that the phrase, [Nathan’s hot dog eating contest], was a trending search term.

Then, I asked each of the three generative AI tools to “write short captions for the funniest photos from the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.”

ChatGPT Output

Here’s what Write For Me generated:

“Captions for Funniest Photos from the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest:”

"When you realize you're only halfway through your 50 hot dogs."
"Eyes on the prize: the ketchup bottle!"
"Training for this by swallowing my pride daily."
"When the bun hits you harder than the hot dog."
"Mustard not? I mustered up the courage!"
"New strategy: inhale, don’t chew."
"Hot dogs: 10, Dignity: 0."
"When you think it’s the last dog but it’s not."
"The face you make when you beat your personal best... by 1 dog."
"Calories don’t count if you don’t chew, right?"

Okay, I admit that many of these captions are funny. But it’s difficult to tell if they belong to actual photos or if this custom version of ChatGPT hallucinated the entire list.

And don’t get me started on getting permission to use any photos that exist. Of course, I could always use DALL-E 3 to turn the text above into images.

Gemini Output

Next, I gave Gemini the same assignment. Here’s what it generated:

1. Mustard Mishap: "Someone's about to be redecorated in yellow!" (Photo of a competitor with mustard splattered all over their face).

2. Relish the Moment: "This is what pure competitive joy looks like." (Photo of a competitor mid-devour with a look of intense concentration and relish dripping down their chin).

3. Bun Bungee: "Is that a hot dog or a bungee jumper? Defying the laws of physics, one frankfurter at a time." (Photo of a competitor with a hot dog halfway down their esophagus).

4. Fountain of Fury: "Looks like someone forgot their manners! (But they're probably winning.)" (Photo of a competitor with a spray of water and ketchup erupting from their mouth).

5. Doggy Downtime: "Even champions gotta rest sometimes. (Just don't let Joey Chestnut see this.)" (Photo of a competitor slumped back in their chair with a belly full of hot dogs).”

Um, okay. These are also funny captions.

But it’s hard to know if they go with actual photos that were posted on July 4, 2024, without using Google Images to conduct a series of relevant searches. And that still doesn’t give me permission to use them even if they do exist.

[Note, these responses were generated a few days before Google announced their support for labelling AI-generated images.]

Claude Output

Then, I asked Claude 3.5 Sonnet to “write short captions for the funniest photos from the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.” Here’s what it replied:

“I apologize, but I don't have access to specific photos from the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, as my knowledge cutoff is in April 2024. Additionally, I can't generate, produce, edit, manipulate or create images.”

 “However, I can suggest some hypothetical humorous captions that might be appropriate for funny moments at a hot dog eating contest:”

"When the hot dogs fight back"
"Regretting that 50th hot dog"
"Mid-contest nap: Expert level achieved"
"Ketchup everywhere... except on the hot dogs"
"When you realize it's only been 2 minutes"
"The face of a champion... or indigestion"
"Spectators' faces: Equal parts horror and awe"
"When the bun-to-dog ratio is all wrong"
"Competitive eating: Where table manners go to die"
"That moment you question all your life choices"

 
“Remember, these are fictional captions for imaginary photos. For accurate information about the 2024 contest, you'd need to check official sources or news reports from after the event.”

Once again, Claude gets high marks for being honest about its limitations.

But unless I want to select some of these hypothetical humorous captions and use them as prompts in Adobe Firefly, then I need to use one of the other options.

Write A 400-Word Blog Post About The Top Omni Channel Retailing Trends Of 2024

For my third test, I used SparkToro to research the audience of 5,000 to 6,000 people who search for the keyword [customer retention] each month.

I used SparkToro’s trending keywords feature to analyze the search terms that have risen in popularity among searchers for “customer retention” over the last quarter.

Then, I selected the trending keyword, “omni channel retailing trends,” for this test.

ChatGPT Output

When I asked Write For Me to “write a 400-word blog post about the top omni channel retailing trends of 2024,” here’s what this generative AI tool produced:

Top Omnichannel Retailing Trends of 2024

 “As we move into 2024, the landscape of retail continues to evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer expectations. Omnichannel retailing, which integrates various shopping channels into a seamless customer experience, remains at the forefront of this evolution. Here are the top omnichannel retailing trends to watch out for in 2024.”
 
1. Enhanced Personalization Through AI and Data Analytics
“In 2024, personalization goes beyond just using the customer’s name in emails. Retailers are leveraging advanced AI and data analytics to offer hyper-personalized shopping experiences. By analyzing consumer behavior, preferences, and purchase history, retailers can tailor recommendations, promotions, and content to individual customers. This level of personalization enhances customer satisfaction and increases conversion rates.”
 
2. Seamless Integration of Physical and Digital Channels 
“The line between online and offline shopping continues to blur. In 2024, more retailers are perfecting the integration of physical and digital channels. Innovations like in-store augmented reality (AR) mirrors, smart fitting rooms, and mobile app functionalities that enhance in-store experiences are becoming standard. Additionally, services like click-and-collect and in-store returns for online purchases are expected to become more streamlined and widespread.”
 
3. Expansion of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) 
“Mobile commerce continues to grow as consumers increasingly use their smartphones for shopping. Retailers are optimizing their mobile websites and apps to provide faster, more intuitive, and secure shopping experiences. Features like one-click purchasing, mobile wallets, and personalized push notifications are becoming essential components of mobile strategies.”

 4. Social Commerce Revolution 
“Social media platforms are transforming into powerful retail channels. In 2024, social commerce, where shopping experiences are embedded within social media, is set to explode. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are enhancing their shopping functionalities, allowing users to discover, browse, and purchase products without leaving the app. Influencer marketing and user-generated content continue to drive this trend, making social media a critical part of omnichannel strategies.”
 
5. Sustainable and Ethical Retailing
“Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainability and transparency from the brands they support. In response, retailers are incorporating sustainable practices and ethical sourcing into their omnichannel strategies. This includes offering eco-friendly products, reducing packaging waste, and providing transparency about product origins and manufacturing processes. Brands that can effectively communicate their sustainability efforts through all channels will gain a competitive edge.”
 
6. Voice Commerce and Conversational AI 
“Voice-activated shopping and conversational AI are becoming more prevalent. With the rise of smart speakers and virtual assistants, consumers are using voice commands to search for products, place orders, and track deliveries. Retailers are integrating voice commerce capabilities into their omnichannel strategies to enhance convenience and improve customer engagement.”
 
Conclusion 
“In 2024, the retail industry is embracing these omnichannel trends to create more cohesive and engaging shopping experiences. By focusing on personalization, integrating physical and digital channels, leveraging mobile and social commerce, prioritizing sustainability, and adopting voice commerce, retailers can stay ahead in a competitive market. These trends highlight the importance of flexibility and innovation in meeting the evolving needs of modern consumers.”

Um, okay. This is 498 words long. This content seems designed for publication at the beginning of the year.

The blog post is missing citations from reliable sources, credible quotes, and relevant statistics, as Roger Montti’s article, “Researchers Discover How To SEO For AI Search,” noted back on Dec. 18, 2023.

So, it’s not as bad as a first draft. But I would hope that writers would learn by using this custom version of ChatGPT that they need to craft something a little bit better.

Gemini Output

Next, I asked Gemini to tackle the same assignment. Here’s what this generative AI tool produced:

The Future of Shopping: Top Omnichannel Retail Trends in 2024
 
“The retail landscape is ever-evolving, and 2024 is no exception. Consumers today expect a seamless shopping experience, regardless of whether they're browsing online, visiting a physical store, or interacting with a brand on social media. This is where omnichannel retail thrives. By creating a unified experience across all touchpoints, retailers can build stronger customer loyalty and drive sales.”
 
“Let's delve into the top omnichannel retail trends shaping the industry in 2024:”

 1. The Rise of the Data-Driven Experience:
 “With the demise of third-party cookies, retailers are focusing on collecting and utilizing first-party customer data. This data allows for real-time personalization across all channels. Imagine receiving targeted email promotions based on your recent in-store purchases, or seeing personalized product recommendations on a brand's app. Advanced analytics will not only personalize marketing efforts but also optimize search functionalities and product merchandising on e-commerce platforms.”

 2. AI Takes Center Stage: 
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the retail experience. AI-powered chatbots can answer customer queries 24/7, recommend products based on browsing history, and even assist with in-store tasks. Generative AI can create personalized marketing content at scale, while AI-driven sales automation streamlines processes for both retailers and customers.”
 
3. The Blur Between Physical and Digital: 
“The lines between online and offline shopping are continuing to blur. We're seeing a rise in ‘phygital’ experiences, such as augmented reality (AR) apps that allow customers to virtually try on clothes or visualize furniture in their homes. In-store kiosks can facilitate online purchases and allow for easy returns or exchanges. Additionally, ‘showrooming,’ where customers browse in-store and then purchase online, necessitates seamless product availability and pricing across channels.”
 
4. Social Commerce Takes Off: 
“Social media platforms are no longer just for browsing; they're becoming powerful shopping destinations. ‘Live shopping’ experiences with influencers showcasing products are gaining traction, while social media platforms are integrating smoother buying functionalities within their apps. User-generated content and social proof will continue to influence purchasing decisions, making social media a crucial touchpoint in the omnichannel journey.”

 5. Personalization Beyond Products: 
“The future of omnichannel retail goes beyond just product recommendations. Retailers are focusing on creating personalized experiences that cater to individual customer preferences. This could involve offering flexible delivery options, loyalty programs with tiered benefits, or the ability to curate in-store shopping experiences through appointments or personalized product selections.”

Conclusion: 
“In today's competitive retail environment, omnichannel isn't just a trend; it's a necessity. By embracing these trends and prioritizing a data-driven, personalized approach, retailers can not only survive but thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of commerce.”

Well, the headline is better and it’s 433 words long, which is closer to what I’d asked for. But this blog post is also missing citations from reliable sources, credible quotes, and relevant statistics.

So, I hope writers would learn the same lesson by using Gemini that they learned using a custom version of ChatGPT: It’s not bad, but a human with experience and expertise can do better.

Claude Output

Finally, I asked Claude 3.5 Sonnet to “write a 400-word blog post about the top omni channel retailing trends of 2024.” Here’s what this generative AI tool produced:

Top Omnichannel Retailing Trends Shaping 2024
 
“As we navigate through 2024, the retail landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Omnichannel strategies have become more crucial than ever, with consumers expecting seamless experiences across all touchpoints. Let's explore the key trends defining omnichannel retailing this year.”
 
1. AI-Powered Personalization: “Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how retailers understand and cater to individual customer preferences. In 2024, we're seeing more sophisticated AI algorithms that analyze customer data across channels to deliver hyper-personalized recommendations, offers, and experiences.”
 
2. Augmented Reality Integration: “AR is bridging the gap between online and offline shopping. Retailers are leveraging AR technology to allow customers to virtually try on clothes, visualize furniture in their homes, or explore products in detail before making a purchase decision.”
 
3. Social Commerce Acceleration: “Social media platforms are increasingly becoming direct sales channels. Retailers are optimizing their presence on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, enabling in-app purchases and creating shoppable content that seamlessly integrates with users' social experiences.”
 
4. Sustainable and Ethical Omnichannel Practices: “Consumers are more environmentally conscious than ever. Retailers are responding by implementing sustainable practices across their omnichannel operations, from eco-friendly packaging to transparent supply chains and ethical sourcing information available across all channels.”
 
5. Voice Commerce Integration: “With the growing adoption of smart speakers and voice assistants, retailers are optimizing their digital presence for voice search and enabling voice-activated purchases, adding another dimension to the omnichannel experience.”
 
6. Phygital Experiences: “The blend of physical and digital experiences, or ‘phygital,’ is gaining traction. Retailers are creating innovative in-store digital touchpoints and bringing elements of the physical store experience to online platforms.”
 
7. Unified Customer Data Platforms: “Retailers are investing in advanced customer data platforms that consolidate information from all channels, providing a single view of the customer and enabling more cohesive marketing and service strategies.”

8. Flexible Fulfillment Options: “The line between online and offline continues to blur with the expansion of services like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), curbside pickup, and same-day delivery. Retailers are optimizing their logistics to offer customers maximum flexibility.”

9. Subscription-Based Models: “More retailers are incorporating subscription services into their omnichannel strategies, providing regular product deliveries or exclusive access to content and experiences across multiple platforms.”
 
10. Advanced Analytics for Real-Time Insights: “Retailers are leveraging advanced analytics tools to gain real-time insights into customer behavior across channels, allowing for quick adjustments to inventory, pricing, and marketing strategies.”
 
“As these trends show, the future of retail lies in creating cohesive, customer-centric experiences that seamlessly blend online and offline touchpoints. Retailers who successfully adapt to these omnichannel trends will be well-positioned to thrive in the dynamic retail environment of 2024 and beyond.”

Claude’s content is 443 words long, which is longer than Gemini’s, but shorter than the custom version of ChatGPT. And Claude generated 10 trends, while ChatGPT generated six, and Gemini generated five.

But just like the other generative AI tools, Claude’s blog post is missing citations from reliable sources, credible quotes, and relevant statistics.

So, Claude is also good at creating a rough draft. But I’d hope that writers would learn by using ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude that they shouldn’t become a tool of their tools.

AI Is Not Going To Take Your Job

A year ago, Jensen Huang, the founder, president, and CEO of Nvidia, said,

“AI is not going to take your job. The person who uses AI is going to take your job.”

Well, a year later, we’ve learned by comparing the content output generated by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude that it’s still smarter to use generative AI tools to brainstorm or create a good first draft.

Then, use your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) to add emotionally engaging videos, eye-catching photos, citations from reliable sources, credible quotes, and relevant statistics to your content.

Why? Because this is the best way to provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results.

More resources:  

Featured Image: jomel alos/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jul 12 2024
11 Copyscape Alternatives To Check Plagiarism via @sejournal, @annabellenyst

Are you certain that the content you’re publishing on your website is 100% original?

Steering clear of plagiarism is a top priority for content creators, educators, businesses, and others in order to maintain credibility and avoid legal issues – among other things.

While Copyscape has long been one of the most well-known and popular options for plagiarism checking, the range of available tools has expanded significantly, with various features designed to meet people’s unique needs.

In this article, we will cover the basics of plagiarism – what it is, why you should check for it, how to check, and what to do if someone plagiarizes your content – before highlighting some of the top alternatives to Copyscape, helping you keep your content unique and valuable.

What Is Plagiarism? 

Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s work, whether words or ideas, and present it as your own without proper attribution.

Plagiarism can range from directly copying someone’s work to closely paraphrasing something without acknowledging the source. Sometimes, it’s purposeful, while other times, the perpetrator might not even realize they’re doing it.

Regardless of intent, plagiarism is a widespread problem that is difficult to combat – but the first step is detecting it.

Why It’s Important To Check For Plagiarism

The consequences of plagiarism can be severe – you can lose credibility, harm your reputation, and even face legal repercussions.

Here are a few reasons why it’s essential to check for (and avoid) plagiarism:

  • Prevent legal problems. Engaging in plagiarism or copyright infringement can expose you to a range of potential legal issues.
  • Maintain your reputation. Trust is vital. But why should audiences trust you if you’re stealing somebody else’s work? Checking for plagiarism is crucial to preserving your reputation and trust with your audience or customers.
  • Preserve your SEO efforts. Google and other search engines are actively trying to crack down on plagiarism and will penalize any plagiarized content. This can hurt your website’s ranking and visibility.

How You Can Check For Plagiarism

There are a handful of different ways to check for plagiarism, including:

  • Manual checks. This is precisely what it sounds like: manually reviewing content for plagiarism by cross-checking text using search engines and academic databases. If you’re examining a small chunk of text, this can work, but it can get unwieldy fast.
  • Use alerts. It’s possible to create your own plagiarism checker by setting up Google Alerts. Simply enter your content into the search query field and let Google know how frequently you want it to alert you of copied content. While not a totally accurate or complete method, it can be effective at times.
  • Monitoring services. You can use existing tools that help flag unauthorized use of your content. They do so by scanning the internet and leveraging algorithms to detect plagiarized content.
  • Online plagiarism checker tools. Software and tools designed specifically to analyze content and run a comprehensive check for plagiarism.

While checking text for direct plagiarism is one thing, identifying paraphrased content or ideas is much more complicated.

And while we will highlight many useful tools in this article, it’s worth remembering that no tool is perfect.

With the sheer amount of content available and more being produced and published every second, it’s nearly impossible to complete a full check. Hence, why plagiarism is an ongoing issue.

What To Do If Someone Plagiarized Your Content

So, what do you do if you discover that somebody else has plagiarized your content? Here are a few steps you can take:

  • Collect evidence. Take screenshots, make notes, and save any URLs as proof of the offense.
  • Contact the perpetrator. As we mentioned earlier, sometimes, plagiarism can be an innocent mistake. No matter the situation, we recommend contacting the offending party and requesting that they either remove your content or label it with the proper attribution.
  • File a complaint. If that doesn’t work, you can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown complaint, which will send notice to the service provider (e.g., Google or web hosting companies) to remove the content or face legal liability.
  • Seek legal advice. If the case is particularly egregious, or the above steps fail, you can consider speaking with a legal professional.

Top 11 Plagiarism-Checking Alternative Tools To Copyscape

1. Grammarly

Screenshot of Grammarly's Free Plagiarism Checker page, showing a text box for uploading or pasting text to scan for plagiarism and writing issues. Screenshot from Grammarly.com, June 2024

While most people know Grammarly for its spelling and grammar check capabilities, it also offers a useful plagiarism checker tool.

Grammarly’s free plagiarism checker will compare your text (up to 10,000 characters) against academic databases and billions of webpages, then give you an immediate report that lets you know whether it found any plagiarized content.

As a helpful bonus, it will also flag if it finds problems with grammar, spelling, punctuation, conciseness, readability, word choice, or other writing issues.

If you want to take it a step further, Grammarly offers a Premium version of the tool with more advanced capabilities. The paid version will highlight specific sentences of concern, include source information, give you deeper writing feedback, and even allocate your text an “overall originality score.”

Cost

  • Free version available with limited plagiarism detection as well as basic grammar, spelling, etc. checks.
  • Premium Grammarly membership starts at $12/month and includes advanced plagiarism detection.

2. Plagiarisma

Screenshot of Plagiarisma homepage showing a text box for URL input, file upload options, and various supported languages icons. The page includes detailed information about the tool and highlights its effectiveness.Screenshot from Plagiarisma.net, June 2024

If you’re looking for a plagiarism checker that works in several languages, look no further than Plagiarisma. It supports 190+ languages and offers both free and paid versions.

Users can enter text into Plagiarisma in a variety of ways, including uploading documents, entering URLs, or pasting text directly into the tool. Once you’ve shared your copy, it will check it against sources like books, websites (you can choose between Google and Bing as your search engine of choice), and academic papers.

With the free version, users can run plagiarism checks up to three times in one day. You can also upgrade to a Premium membership for access to more features, including a Synonymizer (which helps you leverage synonyms to recreate sentences), a Similarity Checker (which compares documents for similarity), and unlimited access to plagiarism checks.

Cost

  • Free version with up to three plagiarism checks per day.
  • Premium membership starts at $5/month and offers unlimited plagiarism checks and more advanced features.

3. ProWritingAid

Screenshot from ProWritingAid.com, June 2024

Similar to Grammarly, ProWritingAid is an AI-powered writing assistant tool that analyzes your copy and suggests areas for improvement. It also offers a helpful plagiarism checker – and while there is no free version, it’s still reasonably affordable.

According to ProWritingAid, its plagiarism detection tool can compare your text (up to 2,000 words) against billions of sources, both online and offline, including databases, periodicals, and websites.

It will flag directly copied content and give similarity percentages to show areas needing improved paraphrasing or citation.

You can use ProWritingAid’s online editing tool to conduct your check or leverage its Microsoft Word Add-In.

Unlike some other tools, you pay for ProWritingAid based on the number of checks you want to conduct versus a monthly or yearly subscription – so that is worth noting, and might be a benefit if you only have a specific number of documents you need to look at.

Cost

  • No free version.
  • Pricing starts at $10 for 10 checks, $40 for 100 checks, $120 for 500 checks, and $200 for 1,000 checks.

4. Plagiarism Checker

Screenshot of Plagiarism Checker tool showing a text box to insert text, options to check plagiarism via URL, and buttons for grammar checking, paraphrasing, and various other settings.Screenshot from Plagiarism-Checker.me, June 2024

Plagiarism Checker is a fairly straightforward plagiarism detection tool that’s both free and easy to use. If you need a quick and simple option, this is worth checking out.

It boasts a simple user interface and allows users to insert their text directly into the web-based editor, share a URL, or upload a document. You can even denote a URL you want it to exclude, which is a helpful feature if there are particular pages on your site that you want to ignore for now.

Plagiarism Checker scans your text against blogs, websites, and academic papers to detect plagiarism, which it delivers as a percentage. It’s compatible with Mac, Windows, and Android, and supports multiple file formats, including .rtf, .pdf., .docx, .odt, and txt.

Note that there is a limit of 1,000 words per check. The tool also includes a grammar checker and word counter, and you can download the reports it gives you.

Cost

5. CopyGator

Screenshot of CopyGator website explaining how it helps monitor and track content feeds.Screenshot from CopyGator.com, June 2024

CopyGator is a free service designed to help bloggers and content creators monitor and detect duplicate versions of their content on other blogs or websites.

It works by monitoring your website’s RSS feed to see whether content has been republished elsewhere – and automatically notifying you if it finds plagiarism or quotations.

There are two different options for using CopyGator:

  • Image badge: By copying and pasting some code into your site, you can add a CopyGator image badge to your blog that will monitor your feeds for you. When you want to run a check, simply click the badge. If it turns red, CopyGator has detected plagiarized versions of your content.
  • RSS feed: Your other option is to input an RSS feed directly into CopyGator’s tool and ask it to watch the feed. It will create your own custom overview page where you can get updates.

Cost

6. PlagScan

Screenshot from PlagScan.com, June 2024

PlagScan is quite a robust plagiarism detection tool most commonly used by academic institutions and professional writers. One thing to note upfront: There is no free version of this tool.

PlagScan compares your text to a massive database of websites, academic resources, and journals to find plagiarism and compiles a report to help you understand the results.

You’ll receive a PlagLevel score, which summarizes the level of duplicate text found within a document, as well as colored highlighting for possible plagiarism:

  • Red for direct matches.
  • Blue for potentially altered copy.
  • Green for correctly cited text.

With PlagScan, you get a list of sources that match your document to help you with proper citation. You can also compare two documents side-by-side to find similarities. It works with most file types, and your data is protected.

Cost

  • No free version.
  • PlagScan uses a prepaid pricing model based on the number of words/pages. Pricing starts at $6.5 for 6,000 words/24 pages.

7. CopyLeaks

Screenshot of the CopyLeaks Plagiarism Detector homepage, displaying highlighted text sections within an example showing potential plagiarized content. Various partner logos are visible below the displayed text.Screenshot from CopyLeaks.com, June 2024

CopyLeaks is a more sophisticated plagiarism detection tool than many of the options used on this list, making it a popular choice for businesses, educational institutions, and individuals around the world.

According to CopyLeaks, it uses “advanced AI” to detect instances of plagiarism across over 100 languages, including paraphrasing, plagiarism in programming code, and even AI-generated plagiarism. Each scan checks content against 60 trillion websites, more than 16,000 journals, over 1 million internal documents, and 20+ code data repositories.

The tool has a very user-friendly interface, allowing you to choose from different types of files you might want to scan – text, documents, code, URLs, etc. You can also use the “compare” option to compare two documents or URLs to each other.

Another handy feature within CopyLeaks is the ability to schedule recurring scans so that it will automatically check for duplicate content on a regular basis. It also offers easy and flexible API integration,

Cost

  • Free trial available.
  • Paid plans start at $8.99/month for up to 1,200 credits (equal to 300,000 words). For $13.99/month, you’ll get access to both the plagiarism detection and AI content detection tools in one.

8. Plagium

Screenshot of Plagium's plagiarism detection interface, featuring options for quick search, deep search, and file search with pricing details below. Screenshot from Plagium.com, June 2024

Plagium is a good choice if you’re looking for an easy and cost-effective plagiarism checker. It uses a simple web-based text box and offers both “quick search” and “Deep Search” functions, the latter of which is basically a term for a closer check and the ability to scan large documents.

A quick search is free and allows up to 500 characters – though the website appears to indicate that the number of quick searches is capped. In order to use the Deep Search feature, you’ll need to create an account – and these searches start at $0.08/page using Plagium’s credits system.

As a member, you’re able to upload different types of documents – such as PDFs – and Plagium also integrates with Google Drive and offers a Google Docs Add-on.

Cost

  • Free quick search up to 500 characters.
  • Paid plans start at $9.99/month for over 143,000 characters, with options for prepaid plans if that is more your speed.

9. Dupli Checker

Screenshot from DupliChecker.com, June 2024

Need a free, easy-to-use plagiarism checker that’s available in up to seven languages and accepts a variety of file formats? Dupli Checker could be for you.

Dupli Checker’s simple interface makes it easy to scan your documents for plagiarism. You can paste directly into the website or upload files from your computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive. Like other tools in this list, you can also share a URL you’d like the tool to check, and up to five URLs you want it to exclude.

The tool promises 100% privacy – meaning it doesn’t save any of your documents – and summarizes your results in a report that highlights duplicate copy, gives you a percentage rating, and offers more features like grammar issues.

Cost

  • Free version with up to 1,000 words per search.
  • Paid plans start at $10/month for increased searches, higher word limits, and other advanced features.

10. Quetext

Screenshot from quetext.com, June 2024

Quetext has become a popular plagiarism detection tool, and for good reason. It’s dependable and user-friendly, with some handy little features to help you spot plagiarism in your documents.

How does it work? You just enter your text into the web-based browser box and click “Check for plagiarism.” Quetext then uses its DeepSearch™ Technology (a machine-learning algorithm) to scan your text against billions of internet sources and spot plagiarism.

It provides you with a report that includes a plagiarism score and both exact matches and near matches to other existing text.

It highlights the latter using its ColorGrade™ feedback feature, which uses different colors to highlight exact match copy vs. “fuzzy” matches (or close matches) – a valuable tool for spotting plagiarism that might have otherwise flown under the radar.

It also offers a “Cite Source” feature, which helps you produce citations across Chicago, MLA, and APA formats.

Cost

  • Free version available, which includes up to 500 words, a website citation generator, and a citation assistant.
  • Paid tiers start at $8.80/month, which includes 100,000 words per month and a range of other advanced features.

11. PlagTracker

Screenshot from Plagtracker.com, June 2024

PlagTracker is an online, web-based plagiarism detector that bills itself as “the most accurate plagiarism checking service.” The tool lists students, teachers, publishers, and site owners as its intended users, and it checks text against over 14 billion webpages and “more than 20 million academic works.”

Using PlagTracker is pretty straightforward. Users upload a document into the tool, which scans it and then returns a detailed report that shows what percentage of their document is plagiarized and highlights specific sections with sources.

It supports multiple languages –English, German, French, Romanian, Spanish, and Italian – making it a versatile tool. PlagTracker has a 5,000-word limit for free users, though you can pay for a Premium membership for unlimited access.

Cost

  • Free version is available with a 5,000-word limit.
  • Premium subscription starts at $7.49/month for unlimited volume and other advanced features.

The Best Plagiarism Detection Tools On The Market

And there you have it: Copyscape is by no means the only option for plagiarism detection tools.

Those listed above are great alternatives that cater to a wide range of use cases, whether you’re looking for a cheap and easy solution or an all-in-one AI-powered writing assistant.

If you’re a content creator of any kind, you must produce work that’s original and unique – and these tools can help you do just that.

However, always remember that these tools are far from perfect; you should have other checks and balances in place to ensure the quality of your work.

Avoiding plagiarism will protect your credibility and reputation and ultimately drive more traffic to your website. Not to mention, it’ll keep you out of trouble.

More resources: 

Featured Image: VectorMine/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jun 5 2024
Your Guide To Dominating Local Search Marketing via @sejournal, @meetsoci

This post was sponsored by SOCi. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

As a marketer, you may feel like the ground is shifting under your feet with so many changes in the world of search. From Google’s recent announcement to release AI Overviews to all U.S. users to OpenAI revealing GPT-4o, there’s a lot to keep up with.

How will these changes impact your search efforts? Do you need to shift your search strategy?

We have the answers for you and more!

In this blog, we’ll explain how search marketing has changed, what this means for your brand, and share tactics to improve your online visibility. At the end, we’ll also introduce our new game-changer for local search management.

Let’s get into it!

The Evolution Of Search Marketing

As search evolves, many marketers are worried about their brand remaining visible online. While AI-generated search experiences are so new, we do know that now isn’t the time to make any drastic changes to your search marketing strategies.

You can test how your brand appears in generative AI (genAI) results (what we’ve dubbed GAIRs), but there’s no reason to sound an alarm — at least not yet.

Today, nearly three-quarters of consumers conduct local searches at least once a week. Similarly, in the U.S., over 800 million monthly searches contain some variation of “near me,” and more than 5 million keywords are related to “near me.”

Focusing on conventional local SEO efforts is the best way for your brand to ensure its visibility in traditional and GAIRs.

Local SEO for businesses with multiple locations involves incorporating a local SEO strategy for each business location. A multi-location SEO strategy, when done correctly, will boost your local search rankings, help you gain local customers, and improve brand awareness.

If your business doesn’t have multiple locations, you can still follow the tactics below to ensure your business is visible to your target audience in your specific area.

5 Ways To Improve Your Online Visibility

Now that you understand how search has evolved and the importance of local SEO, let’s dive into five local SEO tactics your brand can leverage to boost online visibility.

1. Claim & Optimize Local Listings

Local listings are online profiles of local businesses. They appear on search engines, local directories, and platforms like Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, Bing, and Facebook.

To increase your visibility on Google and beyond, your brand must claim local listings across all major local directories and remove duplicate listings.

Additionally, you need consistent and accurate information across all listings. At a minimum, your local listings should include the following information:

  • Name, address, and phone number (NAP) citations.
  • Business categories. (Example: Sushi restaurant)
  • Business hours, especially during holidays and major events
  • Products and services your business offers.
  • Links to your website and social media profiles.
  • Attributes. (Example: Curbside pickup or wheelchair-accessible seating)
  • High-quality photos and videos.

After optimizing your local listings, you can focus on your local pages.

2. Create Local Pages For Each Location

A local page, sometimes called a local landing page, is a web page you create for an individual store location or franchisee. It’s similar to local listings but lives on your site rather than an external directory like Yelp or Google.

Your multi-location business might have dozens or hundreds of local pages, each containing specific information about that store and the surrounding area.

Local pages should contain most of the business information found on your local listings. However, they’re also high-conversion pages. Therefore, they should also contain calls to action (CTAs) such as “order now” buttons or promotional sales and discounts.

Well-designed and optimized local pages can help your business appear high in local organic search results. As mentioned, these higher rankings often lead to more conversions and business for your stores!

3. Leverage A Store Locator

Store locators are similar to local pages. A store locator is a web page that lists all of your local stores or third-party dealers that sell your products.

Store locators help move website visitors through the customer journey by displaying valuable location information and unique details about each store. They make it easier for customers to purchase online and to contact or visit local stores.

Well-optimized and compatible store locators and local pages will help improve:

  • Local search rankings.
  • Website traffic and online conversions.
  • Analytics, such as where visitors are searching and coming from.

4. Implement An Online Reputation Management Strategy

While reputation management might not be something you’d consider when you think of improving your online visibility, you’d be surprised. According to local SEO experts, high numerical Google ratings are the sixth highest ranking factor in Google’s local pack and finder. At the same time, the quantity of native Google reviews (with text) is the eighth ranking factor.

A high quantity and quality of reviews don’t just affect local search rankings — they also impact conversion rates. According to our State of Google Reviews research report, an increase in one full star on a Google Business Profile (GBP) corresponds with a 44% increase in conversions.

To improve your reputation management strategy and gain more reviews:

  1. Respond to existing reviews in a personalized manner to show customers you value their feedback.
  2. Utilize social media to encourage customer feedback, ratings, and reviews.
  3. Make leaving a review accessible! Include links to your GBP on your website and in emails.
  4. Monitor the feedback that your business receives from reviews and make adjustments accordingly.

5. Create Unique Content

Generating localized content for your local pages, website, and listings is also essential. You want to ensure that your localized content optimizes and targets specific areas.

For instance, if you’re targeting the keyword “sporting goods store Seattle,” you want to update your URL, title tag, meta description, and headings with locally relevant keywords.

You should also leverage local images, including photos of your stores and products. Remember to include geo-targeted meta descriptions, alternative text, and descriptions within your images.

Types of local content your brand can create include but are not limited to:

  • Blogs.
  • Surveys.
  • Infographics.
  • Whitepapers.
  • Social media content.
  • Neighborhood guides.
  • User-generated content. (UGC)

For a more in-depth look at what it takes to improve your brand’s local SEO strategy, download our Top 10 Things You Should Be Doing in Local SEO Now guide!

How SOCi Can Help

Now that you understand what goes into creating a solid local search strategy, it’s time to boost your brand’s visibility. As marketers, you get how crucial search marketing is, but let’s be real, coming up with a plan to roll it out on a big scale is easier said than done.

That’s where SOCi comes in! We’ve built SOCi for more than a decade to ensure multi-location businesses rank well on local search and social media platforms, can create engaging content, and have the ability to manage each location’s online reputation.

We’ve enhanced our CoMarketing Cloud with SOCi Genius, an AI automation layer to help automate all of your daily localized marketing tasks. As part of SOCi Genius, we recently released Genius Search, a game-changer in search marketing!

As the newest innovation within the CoMarketing Cloud, Genius Search transcends traditional listings management by offering a dynamic, data-driven local search strategy that aligns with evolving consumer behaviors and market trends.

Genius Search uses the top data signals, such as reviews, search keywords and volume, weather, holidays, and others to deliver monthly AI-powered recommendations that can be accepted with the click of a button. Once accepted, these optimizations instantly improve your business listings’ rankings to directly relate to each location’s community.

It’s time to level up your local search strategy, and SOCi is here to help. Request a personalized demo today for more insight on Genius Search and our other Genius products!

Ready to start optimizing your website? Sign up for SOCi and get the data you need to deliver great user experiences.

Try SOCi For Free

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by SOCi. Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments