SEO
Cancel culture and what brands should be doing

30-second summary:
- Social media platforms allow anyone to publicly call out people and brands when they did or said something offensive or abusive
- Cancel culture is public outrage targeting an individual celebrity or a brand for their public statements or actions
- How do you keep your brand safe from being canceled in 2022 and beyond?
- If you were affected by cancel culture, how do you control the damage and recover your brand image? Let’s find out!
In 2021, major celebrities and brands like J.K Rowling, Ellen DeGeneres, Netflix, L’Oréal, and McAfee faced the wrath of netizens due to their actions, either intentional or unintentional – this was cancel culture in full throttle. People want to hold brands and celebrities accountable (at least for most of it) and marketers need to acknowledge that it is here to stay.
According to PEW research, 58 percent of U.S. adults say in general, calling out others on social media is more likely to hold people accountable. While there are various shades to cancel culture, I dive into understanding the crux of this phenomenon and what brands need to do to safeguard their reputation and identity online.
Source: PEW Research Center
What is “cancel culture”?
Cancel culture is the contemporary movement of expressing public disapproval of someone’s public statement or action.
When canceling refers to a brand, people are basically encouraging the public to stop buying from them. Canceling means boycotting a brand.
Obviously, social media provides a perfect platform for the cancel culture, giving anyone a voice and the means to unite people around one common outrage.
The idea of cancel culture is controversial.
On one hand, it raises a lot of legal questions. Public shaming goes back to the concept of public square trials when an individual could have been punished without their guilt being proved.
On the other hand, cancel culture is considered to be an important tool in achieving social justice.
How to keep your brand safe?
1. Develop thorough communication policies
Anyone who can publicly speak or publish content on your behalf should follow strict rules as to what they can or cannot say, which topics to avoid, who to alert of public feedback, etc.
This document is referred to as a communication policy.
It is helpful if the company’s executives are following that document as well because in many cases CEOs cause all the trouble.
For example, American University has a very detailed marketing and communication policy listing all kinds of rules their employees need to follow when sending email newsletters, posting on social media channels, and using third-party content, like pictures and videos.
Here are their communication guidelines for posting on social media – this will give you a sample of what your brand’s communication policy can look like.
-
Think twice before posting: Privacy does not exist in the world of social media. Consider what could happen if a post becomes widely known and how it may reflect on both the poster and the University… If you are unsure about posting something or responding to a comment, ask your supervisor for input.
- Strive for accuracy: Get the facts straight before posting them on social media.
- Be respectful: Understand that content contributed to a social media site could encourage comments or discussion of opposing ideas.
- On personal sites: Identify your views as your own.
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Photography and comments: Do not post any comment or picture involving an AU employee, volunteer or student without their express consent.
A communication policy is not something you can build in a day. It should tackle different scenarios, provide policies for different channels and explain clear steps on:
Set up your policy as an internal and searchable knowledge base to be able to expand it as you discover new and new situations and processes.
2. Avoid controversy (if you can)
As a founder and member of society, you may be tempted to use your public image and following to support what you feel is right and fair.
It may come at a high cost, so think twice before you do so.
Your public words may end up working against your brand and cause a crisis your team may be unprepared to handle.
When in doubt, keep silent.
Yet, it is getting increasingly harder to remain neutral
In today’s polarized world customers often demand their brands take one side and publicly define their stance. We’ve seen this happen in front of our eyes when Coca-Cola and McDonald’s were both forced to leave the Russian market after what seemed like a silent hesitation.
In many cases, silence is not an option. These days, remaining neutral means being complicit, and not many brands can afford that.
When confronted with the need to react to a political climate, consider taking an action over releasing a statement. A report claims that customers tend to be more forgiving to brands that took action instead of trying to please their audience with empty talk.
In other words, instead of condemning any side, start a fundraiser or donate money to the cause you’re supporting. At this point, whatever you say may backfire on you but at least action will be respected.
3. Admit and own up to your mistakes
While cancel culture may seem really scary, we see lots of examples of brands recovering from any crisis by simply apologizing.
If your company is facing public outrage
Arrange a meeting with your employees and discuss whether you may have been mischarged in your previous statement and what is the best way to address the accusations.
If you don’t feel you did anything wrong, your PR, communications, and legal teams may have a different opinion, so listen to them.
If your case seems bad enough and the accusations are mounting rapidly, consider hiring a crisis manager. In some cases, you need an outside perspective.
4. Invest in a sub-brand
For years we’ve been giving the same advice over and over again: Don’t create multiple brands. Focus on one.
Well, the recent years of an immediate cancellation threat over a possible clumsy public reaction have clearly demonstrated one thing: Your (personal) brand may be ruined within a day.
Of course, most brand names may be restored with enough reputation management efforts but it can take months for the public to forgive mistakes and become loyal again.
In this climate, having another brand name to lean on in case of a possible reputation crisis seems like a good idea.
We’ve seen lots of examples of a new brand name saving a business
To name a few, we’ve seen Rowling take on another pen name to continue writing, and McAfee changing its name to Intel Security to distance the company from its founder. There are numerous other case studies proving one definitive point: You may have invested your life into building a strong brand but it remains vulnerable, especially now that your brand’s cancellation may go viral.
Even if you are a small business or an independent entrepreneur, consider setting up an anonymous digital entity earlier to start building up your organic visibility. If anything happens to your main brand, you will have a backup to switch your focus on.
Worst-case scenario, your sub-brand will be never used but you will be able to use the site rankings to drive additional sales and leads.
5. Prioritize data privacy and security is a must
Privacy and security remain the biggest threat to any brand’s welfare. Even giants like Google Plus were forced to shut down after their data leak became public.
Cyberattacks may cause your customers to lose money and identity, which is very hard to overcome. It is especially dangerous in B2B marketing because it often involves working with a lot of sensitive data.
Create a healthy culture of security within your business for all your employees to be aware of data security protocols and protect customers’ private data.
Conclusion
We live in interesting times when everyone has a voice and we are still learning how to live in a world where any argument can go public and become viral. It is both scary and exciting to navigate these unknown waters but the good old “hope for the best, get ready for the worst” is almost always a good strategy. Good luck!
Ann Smarty is the Founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter @seosmarty.
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SEO
Google Updating Cryptocurrency Advertising Policy For 2024

Google published an announcement of upcoming changes to their cryptocurrency advertising policies and advises advertisers to make themselves aware of the changes and prepare to be in compliance with the new requirements.
The upcoming updates are to Google’s Cryptocurrencies and related products policy for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. The changes are set to take effect on January 29th, 2024.
Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts are financial products that enable investors to trade shares in trusts holding substantial amounts of digital currency. These trusts provide investors with equity in cryptocurrencies without having direct ownership. They are also an option for creating a more diversified portfolio.
The policy updates by Google that are coming in 2024 aim to describe the scope and requirements for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. Advertisers targeting the United States will be able to promote these products and services as long as they abide by specific policies outlined in the updated requirements and that they also obtain certification from Google.
The updated policy changes are not limited to the United States. They will apply globally to all accounts advertising Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts.
Google’s announcement also reminded advertisers of their obligation for compliance to local laws in the areas where the ads are targeted.
Google’s approach for violations of the new policy will be to first give a warning before imposing an account suspension.
Advertisers that fail to comply with the updated policy will receive a warning at least seven days before a potential account suspension. This time period provides advertisers with an opportunity to fix non-compliance issues and to get back into compliance with the revised guidelines.
Advertisers are encouraged to refer to Google’s documentation on “About restricted financial products certification.”
The deadline for the change in policy is January 29th, 2024. Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts advertisers will need to pay close attention to the updated policies in order to ensure compliance.
Read Google’s announcement:
Updates to Cryptocurrencies and related products policy (December 2023)
SEO
SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore In 2024

Most SEO trends fade quickly. But some of them stick and deserve your attention.
Let’s explore what those are and how to take advantage of them.
If you give ChatGPT a title and ask it to write a blog post, it will—in seconds.
This is super impressive, but there are a couple of issues:
- Everyone else using ChatGPT is creating the same content. It’s the same for users of other GPT-powered AI writing tools, too—which is basically all of them.
- The content is extremely dull. Sure, you can ask ChatGPT to “make it more entertaining,” but it usually overcompensates and hands back a cringe version of the same boring content.
In the words of Gael Breton:
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use AI to write entire articles. They’ll be boring as heck. Instead, use it as a creative sparring partner to help you write better content and automate monotonous tasks.
For example, you can ask ChatGPT To write an outline from a working title and a list of keywords (which you can pull from Ahrefs)—and it does a pretty decent job.
Prompt:
Create an outline for a post entitled “[working title]” based on these keywords: [list]
Result:


When you’ve written your draft, you can ask to polish it in seconds by asking ChatGPT to proofread it.


Then you can automate the boring stuff, like creating more enticing title tags…


… and writing a meta description:


If you notice a few months down the line that your content ranks well but hasn’t won the featured snippet, ChatGPT can help with that, too.
For example, Ahrefs tells us we rank in position 3 for “affiliate marketing” but don’t own the snippet.


If we check Google, the snippet is a definition. Asking ChatGPT to simplify our definition may solve this problem.


In short, there are a near-infinite number of ways to use ChatGPT (and other AI writing tools) to create better content. And all of them buck the trend of asking it to write boring, boilerplate articles from scratch.
Programmatic SEO refers to the creation of keyword-targeted pages in an automatic (or near automatic) way.
Nomadlist’s location pages are a perfect example:


Each page focuses on a specific city and shares the same core information—internet speeds, cost, temperature, etc. All of this information is pulled programmatically from a database and the site gets an estimated 46k monthly search visits in total.


Programmatic SEO is nothing new. It’s been around forever. It’s just the hot thing right now because AI tools like ChatGPT make it easier and more accessible than ever before.
The problem? As John Mueller pointed out on Twitter X, much of it is spam:
I love fire, but also programmatic SEO is often a fancy banner for spam.
— I am John – ⭐ Say no to cookies – biscuits only ⭐ (@JohnMu) July 25, 2023
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use programmatic SEO to publish insane amounts of spam that’ll probably get hit in the next Google update. Use it to scale valuable content that will stand the test of time.
For example, Wise’s currency conversion pages currently get an estimated 31.7M monthly search visits:


This is because the content is actually useful. Each page features an interactive tool showing the live exchange rate for any amount…


… the exchange rate over time…


… a handy email notification option when the exchange rates exceed a certain amount…


… handy conversion charts for popular amounts…


… and a comparison of the cheapest ways to send money abroad in your chosen currency:


It doesn’t matter that all of these pages use the same template. The data is exactly what you want to see when you search [currency 1] to [currency 2]
.
That’s probably why Wise ranks in the top 10 for over 66,000 of these keywords:


Looking to take advantage of programmatic content in 2024 like Wise? Check out the guide below.
People love ChatGPT because it answers questions fast and succinctly, so it’s no surprise that generative AI is already making its way into search.
For example, if you ask Bing for a definition or how to do something basic, AI will generate an answer on the fly right there in the search results.




In other words, thanks to AI, users no longer have to click on a search result for answers to simple questions. It’s like featured snippets on steroids.
This might not be a huge deal right now, but when Google’s version of this (Search Generative Experience) comes out of beta, many websites will see clicks fall off a cliff.
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t invest too much in topics that generative AI can easily answer. You’ll only lose clicks like crazy to AI in the long run. Instead, start prioritizing topics that AI will struggle to answer.
How do you know which topics it will struggle to answer? Try asking ChatGPT. If it gives a good and concise answer, it’s clearly an easy question.
For example, there are hundreds of searches for how to calculate a percentage in Google Sheets every month in the US:


If you ask ChatGPT for the solution, it gives you a perfect answer in about fifty words.


This is the perfect example of a topic where generative AI will remove the need to click on a search result for many.
That’s probably not going to be the case for a topic like this:


Sure. Generative AI might be able to tell you how to create a template—but it can’t make one for you. And even if it can in the future, it will never be a personal finance expert with experience. You’ll always have to click on a search result for a template created by that person.
These are the kinds of topics to prioritize in 2024 and beyond.
Sidenote.
None of this means you should stop targeting “simple” topics altogether. You’ll always be able to get some traffic from them. My point is not to be obsessed with ranking for keywords whose days are numbered. Prioritize topics with long-term value instead.
Bonus: 3 SEO trends to ignore in 2024
Not all SEO trends move the needle. Here are just a few of those trends and why you should ignore them.
People are using voice search more than ever
In 2014, Google revealed that 41% of Americans use voice search daily. According to research by UpCity, that number was up to 50% as of 2022. I haven’t seen any data for 2023 yet, but I’d imagine it’s above 50%.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
75% of voice search results come from a page ranking in the top 3, and 40.7% come from a featured snippet. If you’re already optimizing for those things, there’s not much more you can do.
People are using visual search for shopping more than ever
In 2022, Insider Intelligence reported that 22% of US adults have shopped with visual search (Google Lens, Bing Visual Search, etc.). That number is up from just 15% in 2021.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Much like voice search, there’s no real way to optimize for visual search. Sure, it helps to have good quality product images, optimized filenames and alt text, and product schema markup on your pages—but you should be doing this stuff anyway as it’s been a best practice since forever.
People are using Bing more than ever before
Bing’s Yusuf Mehdi announced in March 2023 that the search engine had surpassed 100M daily active users for the first time ever. This came just one month after the launch of AI-powered Bing.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Bing might be more popular than ever, but its market share still only stands at around ~3% according to estimates by Statcounter. Google’s market share stands at roughly 92%, so that’s the one you should be optimizing for.
Plus, it’s often the case that if you rank in Google, you also rank in Bing—so it really doesn’t deserve any focus.
Final thoughts
Keeping your finger on the pulse and taking advantage of trends makes sense, but don’t let them distract you from the boring stuff that’s always worked: find what people are searching for > create content about it > build backlinks > repeat.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter X.
SEO
Mozilla VPN Security Risks Discovered

Mozilla published the results of a recent third-party security audit of its VPN services as part of it’s commitment to user privacy and security. The survey revealed security issues which were presented to Mozilla to be addressed with fixes to ensure user privacy and security.
Many search marketers use VPNs during the course of their business especially when using a Wi-Fi connection in order to protect sensitive data, so the trustworthiness of a VNP is essential.
Mozilla VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN), is a service that hides (encrypts) a user’s Internet traffic so that no third party (like an ISP) can snoop and see what sites a user is visiting.
VPNs also add a layer of security from malicious activities such as session hijacking which can give an attacker full access to the websites a user is visiting.
There is a high expectation from users that the VPN will protect their privacy when they are browsing on the Internet.
Mozilla thus employs the services of a third party to conduct a security audit to make sure their VPN is thoroughly locked down.
Security Risks Discovered
The audit revealed vulnerabilities of medium or higher severity, ranging from Denial of Service (DoS). risks to keychain access leaks (related to encryption) and the lack of access controls.
Cure53, the third party security firm, discovered and addressed several risks. Among the issues were potential VPN leaks to the vulnerability of a rogue extension that disabled the VPN.
The scope of the audit encompassed the following products:
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for macOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Linux
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Windows
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for iOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Androi
These are the risks identified by the security audit:
- FVP-03-003: DoS via serialized intent
- FVP-03-008: Keychain access level leaks WG private key to iCloud
- VP-03-010: VPN leak via captive portal detection
- FVP-03-011: Lack of local TCP server access controls
- FVP-03-012: Rogue extension can disable VPN using mozillavpnnp (High)
The rogue extension issue was rated as high severity. Each risk was subsequently addressed by Mozilla.
Mozilla presented the results of the security audit as part of their commitment to transparency and to maintain the trust and security of their users. Conducting a third party security audit is a best practice for a VPN provider that helps assure that the VPN is trustworthy and reliable.
Read Mozilla’s announcement:
Mozilla VPN Security Audit 2023
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