After what felt like an endless wave of platform updates and controversies in April, May has so far been a little lighter. However there are still some updates from the ongoing TikTok vs the US Government saga, a perplexing new Gen AI kid on the block, plus updates from Google and Meta to take a look at.
TikTok Strikes Back
While the US Government is attempting to either shut down or force ByteDance to divest TikTok, it appears the platform is not going down without a fight. Essentially, it feels singled out (they aren’t wrong on that), that the ban is unconstitutional, and are taking action accordingly.
In a word, Yikes.
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In other TikTok news this week, it has said that it will call out and flag AI-generated videos, even if they were created on other platforms. If you’re reading this you probably know authentic content > Gen-AI content, but an important case study nonetheless.
Perplexed by Perplexity?
I’ve been reading a little bit in the last few weeks about a new search/Gen AI kid on the block: Perplexity. It’s designed to blend the search capabilities of Google with the ‘conversational ease’ of AI tools such as Chat GPT, meaning a far more comprehensive user experience than currently offered by search.
Valued at $1bn, a lot of people are betting big on it. Whether or not it achieves the same mainstream success as ChatGPT remains to be seen, but the broader lessons are the same; it’s key to ensure your website content is authentic and high quality, as it will likely inform searches related to your brand.
Google Gets Tough
Google has begun to enforce its site reputation abuse policy, with (in this case) manual actions against certain websites.
High-profile sites like CNN, USA Today, and LA Times have seen their subdomains or sections, especially those hosting low-quality third-party content like coupon directories, either deranked or delisted from search results. This targets content that aims to exploit a site’s search ranking without genuinely being a part of the main website.
An example of this is where a well-known news site allows a third-party to use a subdomain to offer discount vouchers. Relatively unlikely you’d be exploiting this, but another sign that Google is clamping down on ‘low quality’ content’.
Further Reading
In case you aren’t already doing this, Search Engine Journal has pulled together a handy guide to use Chat GPT to help guide and improve your keyword research.
Meta is (finally!) testing cross posting from Instagram to Threads.
This popped up in my feed this week and seems useful, although I haven’t had the chance to put it into practice yet – How to Create an Email List and use it for SEO.
And finally, quite a fun piece from Social Media Today making the case that marketers need to focus more on using social media to entertain.
That’s it for another week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues.
If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!