Dec 28 2024
Matt Mullenweg: What Drama Can I Create In 2025? via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg started a Reddit discussion in the r/WPDrama subreddit asking what kind of drama he can create in 2025, sparking an avalanche of responses that subsequently generated a spinoff discussion about one of his responses to another Redditor.

The public r/WPDrama subreddit was created in October 2024 as a place to discuss the fallout from Mullenweg’s conflict with WP Engine. It currently has over 1,300 members.

Mullenweg And Drama

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the WordPress CMS (Content Management System), was involved in a self-described “nuclear” war with WP Engine in the latter half of 2024. The conflict has generally caused a negative backlash against Mullenweg and has led to a call for a restructuring of the governance of the open source WordPress project by Joost de Valk (co-founder of the Yoast SEO Plugin).

So it was somewhat surprising that he showed up on Reddit asking what further drama could he stir up in 2025. The post was provocatively titled: What drama should I create in 2025?

His intent for the post was not about creating actual drama but rather it was about what changes could be made to WordPress. The post title appeared to be a tongue in cheek but provocative choice for the Reddit discussion.

Mullenweg posted:

“I’m very open to suggestions. Should we stop naming releases after jazz musicians and name them after Drake lyrics? Eliminate all dashboard notices? Take over any plugins into core? Change from blue to purple?

I think we can brainstorm together and come up with way better things than I could on my own. ☺️ Also, Merry Christmas!”

His discussion starter generated nearly 600 responses, seemingly all of them negative.

The moderator of the subreddit pinned their response to the top of the discussion, which partially reads:

“I have a fantastic idea for some drama we can get up to. Why don’t we create a charitable foundation governing our open source software product, instead of our for-profit company. Why don’t we also operate our main website as its own separate entity, with employees and volunteers provided by yet another entity. Then, why dont we have all of these entities take action against one of our competitors and their entire customer base, refusing to do business with any customers until they stop working with our competitor. Why don’t we ban ALL of those people from our services, and try to compel them to use our service instead?”

That pretty much set the tone for the entire discussion.

ryanduff answered Matt’s question with:

“You should log off and find a good therapist”

Matt Mullenweg responded:

“Hi Ryan, freelance WordPress developer. I’m glad that WordPress and WooCommerce have been tools that have provided you some utility and economic benefit in the past, and hopefully again in the future. Your profile notes your strong religious belief, I’d ask before you post something like this again you ask: WWJD?”

WWJD is an acronym for “What Would Jesus Do?” Redditors responded with riffs on that comment.

His response received 85 downvotes, representing the displeasure and unpopularity of his post with other Redditors. One of the responses to his WWJD post referenced the federal judge who granted WP Engine’s request for a preliminary injunction.

They posted:

“What would Judge (Araceli Martínez-Olguín) do? We’ll see.”

Another Redditor responded:

“Maybe you should ask yourself WWJD (What Would Joost Do)”

That branch of the discussion went completely off the rails with various suggestions of what Mullenweg should do and spawned a standalone discussion titled, “Is Matt low-key threatening or attempting to intimidate this r/WPDrama user?”

That spinoff discussion spawned responses such as this one:

“He either thinks it’s funny, likes the attention, or is so far gone psychologically it doesn’t event register in his mind that your / our views matter at all. I’d guess it’s a combination of all of the above.

The best thing we can all do is break from WP completely and withdraw all volunteering, all financial interactions, cut using it, stop recommending it, and use something else for clients, or use a fork.

He was enjoying being a bully before he picked on WP Engine and now is losing the plot as they say and hopefully Joost can start his own fork that will finally be supported and marketed well enough to get going or can arrange some kind of ouster of spoiled baby MM.”

Matt Mullenweg’s Response To The Negativity

The response to his discussion was overwhelmingly negative. Nevertheless Mullenweg ended his participation by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

He posted:

“I’m signing off for the night, it’s time for family movie time. Thank you for the conversation everyone. 🙂 I really do enjoy talking with people on the internet, even if we don’t always agree, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to share their perspective. Forums like this is how I got my start as a teenager. If you think Reddit is spicy, you should have seen Usenet and IRC back in the day! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and very happy new year.”

That relatively upbeat post received seven down votes.

Read the entire discussion here:

What drama should I create in 2025?

Featured Image by Shutterstock/STILLFX

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Dec 28 2024
Google Says Temporal Anomalies Affect Googlebot Crawl via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about Googlebot crawling and the completeness of the snapshot. The person asking the question received a response that touched on edge cases and temporal anomalies in crawling.

A Googlebot “screenshot” refers to a representation of what a web page looks like to Googlebot.

What a web page looks like depends on how it renders the page after executing JavaScript, loading CSS and downloading necessary images.

Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool gives an idea of what a web page looks like to Google. This tool helps publishers and SEOs understand how Google “sees” a web page.

Question About Knowing What Googlebot “Sees”

The person asking the question was talking about Googlebot screenshots. What they apparently meant was the rendered page as Googlebot itself sees it.

This is the question the Redditor asked:

“Is the Googlebot screenshot a complete picture of what Google can see?”

They later clarified with the following answers to questions:

“How can I know what google see in my article? …I want to know what Googlebot see in my website.”

Is Googlebot Screenshot A Complete Picture?

Returning to the original question of whether the “Googlebot screenshot a complete picture of what Google can see,” Google’s John Mueller offered the following answer.

“For the most part, yes. But there are some edge cases and temporal anomalies. Tell us more about what you’re trying to check.”

Mueller’s response acknowledges that the Googlebot screenshot represents what Google sees when it crawls a page.

Temporal Anomalies In Googlebot Screenshot

The person asking the question referred to a Googlebot screenshot as what Googlebot “sees” when it visits a web page. That also seems to be the context of Mueller’s answer.

Mueller’s answer referred to temporal anomalies which could be a reference to temporary issues at the time the web page was crawled that could have effected what resources were downloaded and consequently affected how the web page looked to Googlebot in that moment.

Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool also provides a snapshot that shows a live preview of how a web page appears to Google. It’s a good way to check if everything is rendered by Google the way it’s supposed to look.

Read the discussion on Reddit:

Is the Googlebot screenshot a complete picture of what Google can see?

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Sammby

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Dec 27 2024
Google’s December 2024 Updates: Final Results via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google launched two updates in December that rolled out in succession like waves carrying happy surfers to the beach and a tsunami to the unlucky few. Many SEOs who braced for SERP drama were met with a surprising impact.

Facebook Groups: The Update Was Good!

A common theme in Facebook and forum posts is that the Google Update had a positive effect that resulted in many sites hit by previous sites were returning to life all by themselves. One person reported that a number of their dormant affiliate sites suddenly awakened and were attracting traffic. Then there were some random SEOs taking credit for de-ranked client sites returning to the SERPs, leading me to wonder if they also take credit for their clients losing rankings in the first place…

Black Hat Response To Google’s Update

The forums on Black Hat World (BHW) generally provide an indicator of how much hurt Google’s updates are handing out. Some members of BHW forum were posting about how their sites were coming back.

One member posted:

“This new update is the first update in past years for my websites to grow 🙂 For now, traffic has increased 100%+ and keeps going up…”

Another one echoed that post:

“For me it is going good for 2 days. Hope not to be bad…”

A third member shared:

“My website ranking returned today after 9 months from March update. So seams the keywords and links showing again for first time since. I was affected by the march and thought it wouldn’t recover ever again hopefully this December update once finished rolling out my site won’t be removed again”

And yet another one shared a similar experience:

“My dead website is starting to pick up keywords on ahrefs, increasing impressions on search console, but still no major change regarding traffic.”

There was one outlier who shared that their financial site lost rankings likely due to having been built on expired domains (though it’s easy to imagine other reasons).

Among the celebratory sharing was this outlier post from someone whose glass is half empty:

“Lots of sites got tanked including 3 of mine.”

Overall there was a positive tone to the black hat forum members sharing their actual experiences with Google’s December updates. That fits the pattern of what was being shared in Facebook groups, that the December updates were bringing some sites back from whatever algorithm hits they suffered in previous updates.

Then There Is The X Response.

On X, every Google update announcement is met by a large amount of comments about how big brands are the winners, spam sites are dominating the SERPs (which contradicts the first complaint), and that Google is destroying small businesses. These kinds of commments have been around for decades, from before X/Twitter. The defining characteristic of these kinds of remarks are that they are general in nature and don’t reflect anything specific about the update, they’re just venting about Google.

The response to Google’s update announcement on X was predictably negative. I’m not being snarky when I say the responses are predictably negative, that’s literally the consistent tone for every update announcement that Google makes on X.

Representative posts:

Google is destroying small businesses:

“…How is it possible every update since September 23 has destroyed the traffic of small/medium publishers while boosting corp websites that put out top 10s trash content.”

Google updates consistently benefit Reddit:

“Just call it what it is: The Gift More Traffic to Reddit Update #94”

And the Google destroyed my business post:

“I used to work independently, writing blogs and earning a decent income. I even believed I would never need a traditional job in my life. But thanks to Google, which wiped out my websites one after another, I’m now left with no income, no motivation and no job. Thank you Google”

Again, I am not minimizing the experiences of the people making those posts. I am just pointing out that none of those posts reflect experiences specific to the December Google updates. They are general statements about Google’s algorithms.

There are some outliers who were posting that the update was big but the same people say that for every update. Although 2024 was a year of massive change, those outlier posts have been consistent from well before 2024. I don’t know what’s going on there.

Google’s Core Algorithm Update: What Happened?

It feels clear that Google dialed back something in the algorithm that was suppressing the rankings of many websites. It’s been my opinion that Google’s algorithms that determine if a site is “made for search engines” has been overly hard on expert sites by people whose poor understanding of SEO resulted in otherwise high quality sites laden with high traffic keywords, sometimes showing exact matches to keywords shown in People Also Asked. That, in my opinion results in a “made for search engines” kind of look. Could it be that Google tweaked that algorithm to be a little more forgiving of content spam just as it’s forgiving for link spam?

Something to consider is that this update was followed by an anti-spam update, which could be an improved classifier to catch the spam sites that may have been set loose by the core algorithm update, while leaving the expert sites in the search results.

What About 2025?

Google’s CEO recently stated that 2025 would be a year of major changes. If the two December updates are representative of what’s coming in the future it could be that the heralded changes may not be as harsh as the series of updates in 2024. We can hope, right?

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Dec 26 2024
Major Outage Hits OpenAI ChatGPT via @sejournal, @martinibuster

ChatGPT Search is down for users worldwide, becoming unresponsive at approximately 11 AM EST. Down detectors and reports on social media reflect that many users cannot access the site. OpenAI is reporting a major outage.

Major Outage At OpenAI

OpenAI is reporting a major outage is hitting it’s ChatGPT, API, and SORA services. The issue is described by OpenAI as caused by an upstream provider. Upstream provider is a vague description that can be compute-related on Microsoft’s side or a network related service.

Screenshot Of  Official ChatGPT Outage Status

OpenAI Sora Is Only Partially Affected

The major outage has hit both ChatGPT and the API but OpenAI’s Sora service is only partially affected.

Screenshot Shows Severity Of Outage

The major outage has hit both ChatGPT and the API but OpenAI’s Sora service is only partially affected.

The outage began by at least 11 AM and the problem was identified 18 minutes later. OpenAI continues to work on a solution an hour later.

This is a developing event and this article will be updated as more information becomes available.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong

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Dec 24 2024
Track Santa With NORAD & Google For Christmas Eve 2024 via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

It’s Christmas Eve, excitement fills the air as children around the world eagerly await Santa Claus’s arrival.

The waiting is over and the inevitable questions start:

“Where is Santa?”

“Do you think he’s in our neighborhood yet?”

This year, the original Santa tracker from NORAD will help you to track Santa’s whereabouts as he starts his night shift at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and heads to New Zealand and Australia.

And Google also continues its tradition with an interactive website and mobile app so users can follow Old Saint Nick’s journey as he delivers presents worldwide until he finishes in South America.

NORAD Santa Tracker: A Holiday Tradition

For over 65 years, the NORAD Santa Tracker has helped families follow Santa’s whereabouts.

The NORAD Santa Tracker began in 1955 when a misprinted phone number in a Sears advertisement directed children to call NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), instead of Santa.

Colonel Harry Shoup, the director of operations, instructed his staff to give updates on Santa’s location to every child who called.

NORAD continues the tradition to this day.

Screenshot from: noradsanta.org/en/, December 2024.

How To Track Santa With NORAD

  1. Visit the NORAD Santa Tracker website.
  2. On Christmas Eve, the live map will display Santa’s current location and next stop.
  3. For a more traditional experience, call the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline at 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to speak with a volunteer who will provide you with Santa’s current location.
  4. Follow NORAD’s social media channels for regular daily updates.

This year, NORAD has added an AI chatbot called Radar to help you get the latest updates.

The Evolution of Google’s Santa Tracker

Since it launched in 2004, Google’s Santa Tracker has changed and improved. The team uses this project to try out new technologies and make design updates. Some of these new features, like “View in 3D,” are later added to other Google products and services.

What’s In The 2024 Google Santa Tracker

This year’s collection includes games like Elf Ski and Penguin Dash, alongside creative activities such as Santa’s Canvas and the coding-focused Code Lab.

Young learners can explore global cultures through the Translations activity, while classic favorites like Present Bounce and Snowball Storm deliver pure holiday fun.

The centerpiece remains the actual Santa tracking feature, which uses a playful mapping interface to “follow” Santa’s journey across the globe.

Complete with arrival times and destination information, it creates an engaging way for families to build anticipation on Christmas Eve.

Screenshot from: santatracker.google.com, December 2024.

How to Use the Google Santa Tracker

  1. Visit the Google Santa Tracker website or download the mobile app for Android devices.
  2. On Christmas Eve, the live map will show Santa’s current location, the number of gifts delivered, and his estimated arrival time at your location.
  3. Explore the map to learn more about the 500+ locations Santa visits, with photos and information provided by Google’s Local Guides.

Extra Features & Activities

Beyond games, the platform showcases detailed animated environments ranging from cozy kitchens where elves prepare holiday treats to snowy outdoor scenes filled with winter activities.

The experience is wrapped in Google’s characteristic bright, cheerful art style, with colorful illustrations that bring North Pole activities to life.

For parents seeking both entertainment and educational value during the holiday season, Google Santa Tracker offers a free, accessible way to channel children’s excitement into engaging activities.

Whether practicing basic coding concepts or learning holiday traditions from around the world, kids can explore while counting down to Christmas.

To All, A Good Night

As you wait for Santa this Christmas Eve, you can choose Google’s interactive features or enjoy the nostalgic feel of NORAD’s tradition.

Happy holidays from all of us at Search Engine Journal!

Featured Image: alphaspirit.it/Shutterstock

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Dec 23 2024
Microsoft Launches Multi-Format Campaigns for Audience Ads via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Following on the footsteps of Performance Max campaigns, Microsoft Ads launched multi-format campaigns for Audience Ads.

This new feature allows advertisers to create a single campaign that seamlessly integrates various ad formats, including native, display, and online video ads.

Upon its launch, multi-format campaigns for Audience ads are available globally and now the default selection when creating a new Audience ads campaign.

Benefits of Multi-Format Campaigns

The new campaign type comes with several advantages to advertisers, including:

  • More cohesive campaign management: You now only need one audience ads campaign for different ad formats across display, native, and video. Previously, you would’ve needed to set up different campaigns for each ad format.
  • Easier budget management: You can manage and optimize your campaign budget across the different ad formats all within one campaign.
  • Continued flexibility: The ability to create separate campaigns for different ad formats still exists, giving your account the flexibility it needs to optimize according to its goals.

How to Set Up A Multi-Format Campaign

In order to use multi-format campaigns, you need to choose a campaign objective of either of the following:

  • Drive conversions
  • Generate leads
  • Build brand awareness
Microsoft Ads goal selection during campaign creation.Screenshot taken by author, December 2024.

Then, you’ll choose “Audience” as the campaign type.

Microsoft Audience Ads selection.Screenshot taken by author, December 2024

During the campaign creation process, you can select the different types of ad formats. You can choose just one, or all three ad formats depending on your assets and your goals.

Setting up different ad formats in Microsoft multi-format campaigns.Screenshot taken by author, December 2024

After creating your first ad format, you’ll scroll down to the bottom and either select “continue” or “Save and create another ad” to create the additional ad formats within the same campaign:

Create multiple ad formats in Microsoft Audience ads campaign.Screenshot taken by author, December 2024

After creating all your ad formats, you’ll follow the remainder of the typical campaign steps, like:

  • Targets and locations
  • Budgets and bid strategies
  • Ad group settings

Create A More Cohesive Campaign To Drive Results

This update reflects Microsoft Ads’ commitment to evolving its platform to meet the needs of modern advertisers.

By offering a streamlined, flexible solution for combining ad formats, Microsoft makes it easier for advertisers to reach their audiences across diverse channels without the complexity of managing multiple campaigns.

It’s especially helpful for advertisers with smaller budgets that want to use Audience ads, but don’t have the budget to set up three different campaigns just to use each ad format.

For advertisers looking to maximize efficiency and deliver cohesive messaging across native, display, and video ads, multi-format campaigns provide an innovative solution.

Will you be giving multi-format campaigns a try in 2025?

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Dec 23 2024
Google Reveals Top Searches Of 2024 via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has released its annual “Year in Search” report, highlighting the top trending searches, news, people, entertainment, and more that captured the world’s attention in 2024.

Based on Google search data, the report offers a glimpse into the topics, events, and figures that defined the year.

Here’s an overview of top trending searches worldwide and a breakdown of U.S.-specific trends.

Global Top Trending Searches 2024

Overall Searches

Globally, the top trending searches were dominated by major sporting events.

The Copa América soccer tournament topped the list, followed by the UEFA European Championship and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cricket tournament.

  1. Copa América.
  2. UEFA European Championship.
  3. ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
  4. India vs. England.
  5. Liam Payne.

News

In the news category, the U.S. presidential election was the most searched topic worldwide, surpassing interest in the Olympic games, which came in third.

Excessive heat and Hurricane Milton also drove significant search interest, ranking as the second and fourth top global news events.

  1. U.S. Election.
  2. Excessive heat.
  3. Olympics.
  4. Hurricane Milton.

Entertainment

In entertainment, veteran comedian and actor Katt Williams topped the global list of most searched actors. Rising stars like Ella Purnell and Hina Khan also earned spots in the top five.

Highly anticipated sequels dominated movie searches, with “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and “Dune: Part Two” ranking as the top three.

Top Actors:

  1. Katt Williams.
  2. Pawan Kalyan.
  3. Adam Brody.
  4. Ella Purnell.
  5. Hina Khan.

Top Movies:

  1. Inside Out 2.
  2. Deadpool & Wolverine.
  3. Saltburn.
  4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
  5. Dune: Part Two.

United States Top Trending Searches 2024

Overall Searches

  1. Election.
  2. Donald Trump.
  3. Connections.
  4. New York Yankees.
  5. Kamala Harris.

People

  1. Donald Trump.
  2. Kamala Harris.
  3. JD Vance.
  4. Joe Biden.
  5. Catherine, Princess of Wales.

Entertainment

Actors:

  1. Katt Williams.
  2. Jacob Elordi.
  3. Glen Powell.
  4. Jeremy Allen White.
  5. Shane Gillis.

Musicians

  1. Usher.
  2. Diddy.
  3. Kendrick Lamar.
  4. Drake.
  5. Justin Timberlake.

Sports

Sports fans worldwide were captivated by boxer Mike Tyson, the second most searched athlete globally behind Algerian karate champion Imane Khelif.

Sixteen-year-old soccer phenom Lamine Yamal also made the top five, reflecting the growing buzz about the young star.

Among sports teams, American franchises dominated, with the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Celtics ranking in the top five for global searches.

However, interest in soccer was evident, with Inter Miami CF and German club Bayer Leverkusen also making the list.

Athletes:

  1. Mike Tyson.
  2. Imane Khalif.
  3. Simone Biles.
  4. Scottie Scheffler.
  5. Jake Paul.

Teams:

  1. New York Yankees.
  2. Los Angeles Dodgers.
  3. New York Mets.
  4. Boston Celtics.
  5. Minnesota Timberwolves.

Digital Culture & Gaming

In gaming, the massively multiplayer life sim Connections was the most searched game globally, followed by the creature-capturing open-world adventure Palworld.

The trends point to gamers’ desire for connection and imaginative escapism.

Games:

  1. Connections.
  2. Strands.
  3. Infinite Craft.
  4. Palworld.
  5. Sprunki.

Lifestyle Trends

Aesthetics:

  1. Mob wife aesthetic.
  2. Nancy Meyers aesthetic.
  3. Pillow face aesthetic.
  4. Brat aesthetic.
  5. Decora aesthetic.

Food & Recipes

Olympic-themed chocolate muffin recipes topped global food-related searches, while the traditional Chinese treat tanghulu came in second. Dubai chocolate bar rounded out the top five, showcasing an international palate.

  1. Olympic chocolate muffins.
  2. Tanghulu.
  3. Tini’s mac and cheese.
  4. Mama Kelce’s cookie.
  5. Dense bean salad.

Popular Locations (Google Maps)

When it came to getting out and about, Google Maps searches showed Central Park in New York as the most searched-for park in the world, while the British Museum topped the list of museums.

For sports venue searches, Madison Square Garden led the pack.

Top U.S. Hiking Areas:

  1. Dater Mountain Nature Park, Sloatsburg, NY.
  2. Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, OR.
  3. Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO.
  4. Looking Glass Falls, Asheville, NC.
  5. Diamond Head Crater Trailhead, Honolulu, HI.

Music Trends

Google’s “Hum to Search” feature, which identifies songs based on audio clips, revealed that people around the world were eager to locate catchy tunes like “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone and “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga.

The sea shanty “Wellerman” also had a global resurgence.

Most Hummed Songs:

  1. Beautiful Things – Benson Boone.
  2. Axel F – Crazy Frog
  3. Wellerman – Santiano.
  4. Past Lives – Slushii.
  5. Too Sweet – Hozier.

A Snapshot Of 2024 Through Search

Google’s Year in Search 2024 reflects what connected people worldwide over the past year.

Key highlights include the World Cup, travel, a renewed love for nature, and virtual adventures. Common themes are sports, entertainment, connection, and comfort.

We’ll be watching to see what people search for in 2025 and beyond.

For a complete overview of this year’s search trends, visit Google’s Year in Search mini-site.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Daniel Pawer/Shutterstock

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Dec 22 2024
Study: ChatGPT & AI Tools Gain Ground In Search Market via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A new study by Previsible reveals significant changes in search behavior, with AI language models (LLMs) gaining traction as referral traffic sources.

The analysis of over 30 websites shows Perplexity and ChatGPT emerging as alternatives to traditional search engines.

David Bell, co-founder of Previsible, believes this indicates Google’s growth is at a standstill:

“Google is basically plateaued and has begun to have its search dominance degraded. The reason being is that people are starting to use ChatGPT, Claude, Co-pilot, Bing, all these different experiences to better solve their search intent.”

Here are some key points from the study. While it doesn’t provide a complete picture, it offers the best information available right now.

Key Findings

Referral Traffic

The study found that Perplexity and ChatGPT command approximately 37% of LLM referral traffic, while CoPilot and Gemini follow with 12-14% each.

Notably, the finance sector dominates LLM-driven traffic, accounting for 84% of all referrals analyzed.

In a video walkthrough of the study, Bell explains:

“Finance, in particular, has an outsized increase in traffic from language models. This could be due to Perplexity and other language models having integrations or relationships with different platforms that allow more direct access to users.”

Content Distribution

The study reveals that blog posts receive 77.35% of LLM referral traffic, followed by:

  • Homepage visits (9.04%)
  • News content (8.23%)
  • Guides (2.35%)

“Informational content still matters in the age of AI search,” Bell noted. However, he advises focusing on conversion rate optimization (CRO) and user journey, as product pages do not surface prominently in language models.

According to the study, product pages receive less than 0.5% of LLM referral traffic, suggesting challenges for ecommerce strategies.

Looking Ahead

LLM referral traffic currently represents 0.25% of total traffic for the most impacted sectors, though the study notes significant growth rates.

In the last 90 days of the study, Previsible found:

  • 900% growth in ChatGPT referrals for the events industry
  • 400%+ growth in ChatGPT traffic for e-commerce and finance sectors
  • Consistent growth across all models except CoPilot

Bell explains what this could mean for websites:

“If you extrapolate out, if you average all of these out, let’s say roughly 200% growth in organic or AI traffic every 90 days for the next 12 months, it can be up to 20% of overall traffic to a website.”

🚨 Free Tool Alert 🚨

Previsible has created a free Looker Studio dashboard to help businesses track website traffic from Language Learning Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Co-pilot, Gemini, and Claude.

You can select your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) account and a date range to view data.

The dashboard shows:

  • Organic Sessions: Total organic sessions during the selected time.
  • Total LLM Sessions: Number of sessions from LLMs, with percentage breakdowns.
  • LLM Traffic Over Time: A line graph showing LLM traffic trends, with separate lines for each LLM.
  • LLM Traffic by Landing Page: A table of top landing pages from LLM traffic, including sessions, percentages, average time on page, and comparison to site averages.

How This Helps

By analyzing this data, you can:

  • Assess the impact of LLMs on your traffic compared to organic traffic.
  • Identify which LLMs drive the most traffic and adjust your content.
  • Track LLM traffic growth over time and adapt your strategies.
  • Discover popular landing pages among LLM users and improve them for engagement.
  • Compare time spent by LLM users on each page to the site average to identify areas for improvement.

In Summary

Here are three key takeaways from the study:

  • Finance websites are seeing the strongest LLM referral activity, with blog content receiving the majority of visits
  • Product pages rarely surface in LLM results, suggesting the need for adjusted e-commerce strategies
  • Growth rates are significant, potentially reaching 20% of total traffic within a year if current trends continue

When looking at these trends, it’s important to keep a balanced approach to getting traffic and optimizing your strategies.

Don’t pursue AI traffic if it could hurt your sales.

AI language models are becoming new sources of website traffic. However, they currently make up only about 0.25% of overall traffic in the sectors that are most affected.

It will be interesting to see how this number changes by next year.

Featured Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock

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Dec 21 2024
Google Offers To Loosen Search Engine Deals In Antitrust Response via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has submitted its proposal to address the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit, which accuses the company of monopolistic practices in search.

Google disagrees with the court’s initial decision and plans to appeal. However, as part of the legal process, Google and the DOJ must present remedy proposals.

Background

In October 2020, the DOJ and several state attorneys general sued Google for breaking antitrust laws to maintain its control over search services and advertising.

In September 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the DOJ.

The DOJ demands that Google sell Chrome, which it argues strengthens Google’s search dominance.

Additionally, the Justice Department suggested Google sell Android if other solutions fail to restore competition.

Google’s Defense

Google has condemned the DOJ’s proposal, labeling it a “radical interventionist agenda.”

Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs, argued that the remedies would “break a range of Google products” and result in “unprecedented government overreach.”

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s VP of Regulatory Affairs, stated that the case concerns contracts, not broader competition issues.

The company believes its success comes from having better products and innovative ideas rather than engaging in unfair competition.

Google stated in its filing:

“People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to.”

DOJ’s Demands

The Justice Department’s proposal seeks extensive structural changes, including:

  • Mandatory sale of the Chrome browser
  • Possible sale of Android
  • Prohibition of exclusive agreements
  • Mandatory data sharing with competitors
  • Enhanced oversight through a technical committee

Google’s Remedies Proposal

Google’s proposal focuses on search distribution agreements with browsers and device manufacturers.

Here are the key points:

  1. Browser Agreements: Browser companies like Apple and Mozilla would be allowed to negotiate multiple default search engine agreements across different platforms.
  2. Android Contracts: Device makers would have greater freedom to preload multiple search engines and Google apps independently
  3. Oversight and Compliance: A compliance monitoring system would be implemented

Next Steps

A remedies hearing is scheduled for April, at which time Google will appeal the court’s ruling.

Google argues its proposal meets the court’s findings about search contracts, while the DOJ seeks more extensive changes.

This case outcome could impact the search engine market and Google’s business model as we know it.

Featured Image: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock

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Dec 21 2024
Yoast Co-Founder Calls For WordPress Leadership Change – Mullenweg Resists via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Joost de Valk, co-founder of the Yoast SEO plugin, called for a change in WordPress governance that removes Mullenweg as the sole decision maker, offering to lead the transition to a more democratic and diverse board that is representative of WordPress stakeholders. Matt Mullenweg disagreed.

Critique Of Mullenweg’s Leadership

Joost says that he was prompted to speak out after Matt Mullenweg’s decision to pause WordPress services over the holidays which inadvertently caused an issue with WordCamp registrations, forcing Joost to open a GitHub ticket to fix the problem. The holiday pause made it clear to Joost one-person control of the WordPress project had become problematic.

Mullenweg’s leadership style was called into question, with Joost characterizing him as a Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) whose rule was no longer benevolent. He cited Mullenweg from an interview where he states he doesn’t identify as a dictator and suggested the phrase “enlightened leader.” Joost scoffed at the idea, stating that many in the WordPress community would disagree with the self-description of “enlightened leader.”

WordPress Community Lacks Democracy

The blog post notes the irony the WordPress Project’s mission is to democratize publishing but the WordPress project itself far from democratic, essentially controlled by one person. He expressed the belief that the current governance structure doesn’t allow for diversity of opinions and that his restrictive control over the WordPress trademark is stifling growth.

Screenshot Of WordPress’s Mission Statement

On the lack of diversity of opinions he writes:

“You need many voices, many ideas, many backgrounds. You need to embrace diversity. Unfortunately, those with ideas that don’t follow the same direction as our current leader, are being shut down, quite a few even banned…”

One of the changes Joost proposes is a loosening of Mullenweg’s grip on the WordPress trademark to allow for more growth:

“The WordPress trademark is given to the public domain or otherwise dealt with in such a way that every company can freely say that they do ‘WordPress hosting’, ‘WordPress support’ etc. Not just because that’s the right thing to do in my mind, but because doing so means we allow growth of the terms and the concepts.”

Joost’s Role and Vision For Change

Lastly, Joost volunteers to lead the change at WordPress so that it becomes a truly democratic foundation with a governing board representing all the stakeholders.

He writes:

“Taking back the commons means that we try to hear every voice, be considerate of all the different use cases of that commons and bring us all forward.

…I’m here, and willing to lead through this transition.”

Among the changes that Joost proposes is a “federated” WordPress repository, a way for multiple plugin and theme directories can curate reviews and addition which then update to the other directories, decentralizing the official WordPress theme and plugin repositories.

He expects to enter discussions with others sometime in the middle of January 2025 to come up with a plan for how to move forward.

Mullenweg Rejects Joost’s Proposals

Matt Mullenweg commented on Joost’s blog post, offering a passive-aggressive dismissal of everything he proposed. His comment was veiled in politeness while handing out indirect criticism and a recommendation that Joost should leave the WordPress community.

These parts of Mullenweg’s response suggest that Joost should start his own community outside of WordPress:

“I think this is a great idea for you to lead and do under a name other than WordPress… There’s really no way to accomplish everything you want without starting with a fresh slate…”

Here is Mullenweg’s full response:

“I think this is a great idea for you to lead and do under a name other than WordPress. There’s really no way to accomplish everything you want without starting with a fresh slate from a trademark, branding, and people point of view.”

The Internal Struggle Is Already Happening

If Mullenweg resists change, an internal struggle within the WordPress community seems inevitable. In fact, momentum for this has already begun; a group of WordPress contributors recently signed an open letter seeking governance reform.

The open letter was written by:

  • “Core committers and contributors
  • Make/WordPress team elders and contributors
  • Others serving in various community roles”

They wrote:

  • “We object to the status quo, and believe the WordPress project’s current internal operating structure threatens the health and sustainability of the project and its community.
  • We object to the continued opaqueness of the WordPress governance model.
  • We object to one person, Matt Mullenweg, controlling all official infrastructure, including the project’s website, email systems, support forums, core, plugin, and theme repositories, update systems, security tools, communication channels, and other technical assets.
  • We object to major decisions being made without community input, advice, or support.”

Change is coming. Joost’s proposal is a way to accomplish that change in a manner that protects the core principles and community of the WordPress open source project.

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