SEO

First Input Delay – A Simple Explanation via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Published

2 years ago

August 10, 2021

First Input Delay (FID) is a user experience metric that Google uses as a small ranking factor.

This article offers an easy-to-understand overview of FID to help make sense of the topic.

First input delay is more than trying to please Google. Improvements to site performance generally lead to increased sales, ad revenue, and leads.

What is First Input Delay?

FID is the measurement of the time it takes for a browser to respond to a site visitor’s first interaction with the site while the site is loading. This is sometimes called Input Latency.

An interaction can be tapping a button, a link, or a keypress, and the response given in response. Text input areas, dropdowns, and checkboxes are other kinds of interaction points that FID will measure.

Scrolling or zooming do not count as interactions because there’s no response expected from the site itself.

The goal for FID is to measure how responsive a site is while it’s loading.

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The Cause of First Input Delay

First Input Delay is generally caused by images and scripts that download in a non-orderly manner.

This disordered coding causes the web page download to excessively pause, then start, then pause. This causes unresponsive behavior for site visitors attempting to interact with the web page.

It’s like a traffic jam caused by a free-for-all where there are no traffic signals. Fixing it is about bringing order to the traffic.

Google describes the cause of input latency like this:

“In general, input delay (a.k.a. input latency) happens because the browser’s main thread is busy doing something else, so it can’t (yet) respond to the user.

One common reason this might happen is the browser is busy parsing and executing a large JavaScript file loaded by your app.

While it’s doing that, it can’t run any event listeners because the JavaScript it’s loading might tell it to do something else.”

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How to Fix Input Latency

Since the root cause of First Input Delay is the disorganized download of scripts and images, the way to fix the problem is to thoughtfully bring order to how those scripts and images are presented to the browser for download.

Solving the problem of FID generally consists of using HTML attributes to control how scripts download, optimizing images (the HTML and the images), and thoughtfully omitting unnecessary scripts.

The goal is to optimize what is downloaded to eliminate the typical pause-and-start downloading of unorganized web pages.

Why Browsers Become Unresponsive

Browsers are software that complete tasks to show a web page. The tasks consist of downloading code, images, fonts, style information, and scripts, and then running (executing) the scripts and building the web page according to the HTML instructions.

This process is called rendering. The word render means “to make,” and that’s what a browser does by assembling the code and images to render a web page.

The individual rendering tasks are called threads, short for “thread of execution.” This means an individual sequence of action (in this case, the many individual tasks done to render a web page).

In a browser, there is one thread called the Main Thread and it is responsible for creating (rendering) the web page that a site visitor sees.

The main thread can be visualized as a highway in which cars are symbolic of the images and scripts that are downloading and executing when a person visits a website.

Some code is large and slow. This causes the other tasks to stop and wait for the big and slow code to get off the highway (finish downloading and executing).

The goal is to code the web page in a manner that optimizes which code is downloaded first and when the code is executed, in an orderly manner, so that the web page downloads in the fastest possible manner.

Don’t Lose Sleep Over Third-Party Code

When it comes to Core Web Vitals and especially with First Input Delay, you’ll find there is some code over you just can’t do much about. However, this is likely to be the case for your competitors, as well.

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For example, if your business depends on Google AdSense (a big render-blocking script), the problem is going to be the same for your competitor. Solutions like lazy loading using Google Ad Manager can help.

In some cases, it may be enough to do the best you can because your competitors may not do any better either.

In those cases, it’s best to take your wins where you can find them. Don’t sweat the losses where you can’t make a change.

JavaScript Impact on First Input Delay

JavaScript is like a little engine that makes things happen. When a name is entered on a form, JavaScript might be there to make sure both the first and last name is entered.

When a button is pressed, JavaScript may be there to tell the browser to spawn a thank you message in a popup.

The problem with JavaScript is that it not only has to download but also has to run (execute). So those are two things that contribute to input latency.

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If a big JavaScript file is located near the top of the page, that file is going to block the rest of the page beneath it from rendering (becoming visible and interactive) until that script is finished downloading and executing.

This is called blocking the page.

The obvious solution is to relocate these kinds of scripts from the top of the page and put them at the bottom so they don’t interfere with all the other page elements that are waiting to render.

But this can be a problem if, for example, it’s placed at the end of a very long web page.

This is because once the large page is loaded and the user is ready to interact with it, the browser will still be signaling that it is downloading (because the big JavaScript file is lagging at the end). The page may download faster but then stall while waiting for the JavaScript to execute.

There’s a solution for that!

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Defer and Async Attributes

The Defer and Async HTML attributes are like traffic signals that control the start and stop of how JavaScript downloads and executes.

An HTML attribute is something that transforms an HTML element, kind of like extending the purpose or behavior of the element.

It’s like when you learn a skill; that skill becomes an attribute of who you are.

In this case, the Defer and Async attributes tell the browser to not block HTML parsing while downloading. These attributes tell the browser to keep the main thread going while the JavaScript is downloading.

Async Attribute

JavaScript files with the Async attribute will download and then execute as soon as it is downloaded. When it begins to execute is the point at which the JavaScript file blocks the main thread.

Normally, the file would block the main thread when it begins to download. But not with the async (or defer) attribute.

This is called an asynchronous download, where it downloads independently of the main thread and in parallel with it.

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The async attribute is useful for third-party JavaScript files like advertising and social sharing — files where the order of execution doesn’t matter.

Defer Attribute

JavaScript files with the “defer” attribute will also download asynchronously.

But the deferred JavaScript file will not execute until the entire page is downloaded and rendered. Deferred scripts also execute in the order in which they are located on a web page.

Scripts with the defer attribute are useful for JavaScript files that depend on page elements being loaded and when the order they are executed matter.

In general, use the defer attribute for scripts that aren’t essential to the rendering of the page itself.

Input Latency is Different for All Users

It’s important to be aware that First Input Delay scores are variable and inconsistent. The scores vary from visitor to visitor.

This variance in scores is unavoidable because the score depends on interactions that are particular to the individual visiting a site.

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Some visitors might be distracted and not interact until a moment where all the assets are loaded and ready to be interacted with.

This is how Google describes it:

“Not all users will interact with your site every time they visit. And not all interactions are relevant to FID…”

In addition, some users’ first interactions will be at bad times (when the main thread is busy for an extended period of time), and some user’s first interactions will be at good times (when the main thread is completely idle).

This means some users will have no FID values, some users will have low FID values, and some users will probably have high FID values.”

Why Most Sites Fail FID

Unfortunately, many content management systems, themes, and plugins were not built to comply with this relatively new metric.

This is the reason why so many publishers are dismayed to discover that their sites don’t pass the First Input Delay test.

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But that’s changing as the web software development community responds to demands for different coding standards from the publishing community.

And it’s not that the software developers making content management systems are at fault for producing products that don’t measure up against these metrics.

For example, WordPress addressed a shortcoming in the Gutenberg website editor that was causing it to score less well than it could.

Gutenberg is a visual way to build sites using the interface or metaphor of blocks. There’s a widgets block, a contact form block, and a footer block, etc.

So the process of creating a web page is more visual and done through the metaphor of building blocks, literally building a page with different blocks.

There are different kinds of blocks that look and behave in different ways. Each individual block has a corresponding style code (CSS), with much of it being specific and unique to that individual block.

The standard way of coding these styles is to create one style sheet containing the styles that are unique to each block. It makes sense to do it this way because you have a central location where all the code specific to blocks exists.

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The result is that on a page that might consist of (let’s say) twenty blocks, WordPress would load the styles for those blocks plus all the other blocks that aren’t being used.

Before Core Web Vitals (CWV), that was considered the standard way to package up CSS.

Since the introduction of Core Web Vitals, that practice is considered code bloat.

This is not meant as a slight against the WordPress developers. They did a fantastic job.

This is just a reflection of how rapidly changing standards can hit a bottleneck at the software development stage before being integrated into the coding ecosystem.

We went through the same thing with the transition to mobile-first web design.

Gutenberg 10.1 Improved Performance

WordPress Gutenberg 10.1 introduced an improved way to load the styles by only loading the styles that were needed and not loading the block styles that weren’t going to be used.

This is a huge win for WordPress, the publishers who rely on WordPress, and of course, the users who visit sites created with WordPress.

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Time to Fix First Input Delay is Now

Moving forward, we can expect that more and more software developers responsible for the CMS, themes, and plugins will transition to First Input Delay-friendly coding practices.

But until that happens, the burden is on the publisher to take steps to improve First Input Delay. Understanding it is the first step.

Citations

Chrome User Experience Report

PageSpeed Insights

Chrome Dev Tools Lighthouse

Google Search Console (Core Web Vitals report)

Optimize First Input Delay

First Input Delay

User-centric Performance Metrics

GitHub Script for Measuring Core Web Vitals

Searchenginejournal.com

SEO

4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

Published

8 hours ago

December 11, 2023

Max

4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

In a significant leap in large language model (LLM) development, Mistral AI announced the release of its newest model, Mixtral-8x7B.

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:5546272da9065eddeb6fcd7ffddeef5b75be79a7&dn=mixtral-8x7b-32kseqlen&tr=udp%3A%2F%https://t.co/uV4WVdtpwZ%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%https://t.co/g0m9cEUz0T%3A80%2Fannounce

RELEASE a6bbd9affe0c2725c1b7410d66833e24

— Mistral AI (@MistralAI) December 8, 2023

What Is Mixtral-8x7B?

Mixtral-8x7B from Mistral AI is a Mixture of Experts (MoE) model designed to enhance how machines understand and generate text.

Imagine it as a team of specialized experts, each skilled in a different area, working together to handle various types of information and tasks.

A report published in June reportedly shed light on the intricacies of OpenAI’s GPT-4, highlighting that it employs a similar approach to MoE, utilizing 16 experts, each with around 111 billion parameters, and routes two experts per forward pass to optimize costs.

This approach allows the model to manage diverse and complex data efficiently, making it helpful in creating content, engaging in conversations, or translating languages.

Mixtral-8x7B Performance Metrics

Mistral AI’s new model, Mixtral-8x7B, represents a significant step forward from its previous model, Mistral-7B-v0.1.

It’s designed to understand better and create text, a key feature for anyone looking to use AI for writing or communication tasks.

New open weights LLM from @MistralAI

params.json:
– hidden_dim / dim = 14336/4096 => 3.5X MLP expand
– n_heads / n_kv_heads = 32/8 => 4X multiquery
– “moe” => mixture of experts 8X top 2 👀

Likely related code: https://t.co/yrqRtYhxKR

Oddly absent: an over-rehearsed… https://t.co/8PvqdHz1bR pic.twitter.com/xMDRj3WAVh

— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) December 8, 2023

This latest addition to the Mistral family promises to revolutionize the AI landscape with its enhanced performance metrics, as shared by OpenCompass.

Mixtral-8x7B: 4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

What makes Mixtral-8x7B stand out is not just its improvement over Mistral AI’s previous version, but the way it measures up to models like Llama2-70B and Qwen-72B.

mixtral-8x7b performance metrics compared to llama 2 open source ai models

It’s like having an assistant who can understand complex ideas and express them clearly.

One of the key strengths of the Mixtral-8x7B is its ability to handle specialized tasks.

For example, it performed exceptionally well in specific tests designed to evaluate AI models, indicating that it’s good at general text understanding and generation and excels in more niche areas.

This makes it a valuable tool for marketing professionals and SEO experts who need AI that can adapt to different content and technical requirements.

The Mixtral-8x7B’s ability to deal with complex math and coding problems also suggests it can be a helpful ally for those working in more technical aspects of SEO, where understanding and solving algorithmic challenges are crucial.

This new model could become a versatile and intelligent partner for a wide range of digital content and strategy needs.

How To Try Mixtral-8x7B: 4 Demos

You can experiment with Mistral AI’s new model, Mixtral-8x7B, to see how it responds to queries and how it performs compared to other open-source models and OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Please note that, like all generative AI content, platforms running this new model may produce inaccurate information or otherwise unintended results.

User feedback for new models like this one will help companies like Mistral AI improve future versions and models.

1. Perplexity Labs Playground

In Perplexity Labs, you can try Mixtral-8x7B along with Meta AI’s Llama 2, Mistral-7b, and Perplexity’s new online LLMs.

In this example, I ask about the model itself and notice that new instructions are added after the initial response to extend the generated content about my query.

Screenshot from Perplexity, December 2023 mixtral-8x7b perplexity labs playground

While the answer looks correct, it begins to repeat itself.

Screenshot from Perplexity Labs, December 2023 mixtral-8x7b errors

The model did provide an over 600-word answer to the question, “What is SEO?”

Again, additional instructions appear as “headers” to seemingly ensure a comprehensive answer.

Screenshot from Perplexity Labs, December 2023 what is seo by mixtral-8x7b

2. Poe

Poe hosts bots for popular LLMs, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and DALL·E 3, Meta AI’s Llama 2 and Code Llama, Google’s PaLM 2, Anthropic’s Claude-instant and Claude 2, and StableDiffusionXL.

These bots cover a wide spectrum of capabilities, including text, image, and code generation.

The Mixtral-8x7B-Chat bot is operated by Fireworks AI.

Screenshot from Poe, December 2023 poe bot for mixtral-8x7b firebase

It’s worth noting that the Fireworks page specifies it is an “unofficial implementation” that was fine-tuned for chat.

When asked what the best backlinks for SEO are, it provided a valid answer.

Screenshot from Poe, December 2023 mixtral-8x7b poe best backlinks response

Compare this to the response offered by Google Bard.

Mixtral-8x7B: 4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

Screenshot from Google Bard, December 2023 Mixtral-8x7B: 4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

3. Vercel

Vercel offers a demo of Mixtral-8x7B that allows users to compare responses from popular Anthropic, Cohere, Meta AI, and OpenAI models.

Screenshot from Vercel, December 2023 vercel mixtral-8x7b demo compare gpt-4

It offers an interesting perspective on how each model interprets and responds to user questions.

Screenshot from Vercel, December 2023 mixtral-8x7b vs cohere on best resources for learning seo

Like many LLMs, it does occasionally hallucinate.

Screenshot from Vercel, December 2023 mixtral-8x7b hallucinations

4. Replicate

The mixtral-8x7b-32 demo on Replicate is based on this source code. It is also noted in the README that “Inference is quite inefficient.”

Screenshot from Replicate, December 2023 Mixtral-8x7B: 4 Ways To Try The New Model From Mistral AI

In the example above, Mixtral-8x7B describes itself as a game.

Conclusion

Mistral AI’s latest release sets a new benchmark in the AI field, offering enhanced performance and versatility. But like many LLMs, it can provide inaccurate and unexpected answers.

As AI continues to evolve, models like the Mixtral-8x7B could become integral in shaping advanced AI tools for marketing and business.

Featured image: T. Schneider/Shutterstock

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SEO

OpenAI Investigates ‘Lazy’ GPT-4 Complaints On Google Reviews, X

Published

1 day ago

December 10, 2023

Max

OpenAI, the company that launched ChatGPT a little over a year ago, has recently taken to social media to address concerns regarding the “lazy” performance of GPT-4 on social media and Google Reviews.

Screenshot from X, December 2023 OpenAI Investigates ‘Lazy’ GPT-4 Complaints On Google Reviews, X

This move comes after growing user feedback online, which even includes a one-star review on the company’s Google Reviews.

OpenAI Gives Insight Into Training Chat Models, Performance Evaluations, And A/B Testing

OpenAI, through its @ChatGPTapp Twitter account, detailed the complexities involved in training chat models.

Screenshot from X, December 2023 chatgpt openai a/b testing

The organization highlighted that the process is not a “clean industrial process” and that variations in training runs can lead to noticeable differences in the AI’s personality, creative style, and political bias.

Thorough AI model testing includes offline evaluation metrics and online A/B tests. The final decision to release a new model is based on a data-driven approach to improve the “real” user experience.

OpenAI’s Google Review Score Affected By GPT-4 Performance, Billing Issues

This explanation comes after weeks of user feedback about GPT-4 becoming worse on social media networks like X.

Idk if anyone else has noticed this, but GPT-4 Turbo performance is significantly worse than GPT-4 standard.

I know it’s in preview right now but it’s significantly worse.

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) November 8, 2023

There has been discussion if GPT-4 has become “lazy” recently. My anecdotal testing suggests it may be true.

I repeated a sequence of old analyses I did with Code Interpreter. GPT-4 still knows what to do, but keeps telling me to do the work. One step is now many & some are odd. pic.twitter.com/OhGAMtd3Zq

— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) November 28, 2023

Complaints also appeared in OpenAI’s community forums.

Screenshot from OpenAI, December 2023 openai community forums gpt-4 user feedback

The experience led one user to leave a one-star rating for OpenAI via Google Reviews. Other complaints regarded accounts, billing, and the artificial nature of AI.

Screenshot from Google Reviews, December 2023 openai google reviews star rating

A recent user on Product Hunt gave OpenAI a rating that also appears to be related to GPT-4 worsening.

Screenshot from Product Hunt, December 2023 openai reviews

GPT-4 isn’t the only issue that local reviewers complain about. On Yelp, OpenAI has a one-star rating for ChatGPT 3.5 performance.

OpenAI is now only 3.8 stars on Google Maps and a dismal 1 star on Yelp!

GPT-4’s degradation has really hurt their rating. Hope the business survives.https://t.co/RF8uJH1WQ5 pic.twitter.com/OghAZLCiVu

— Nate Chan (@nathanwchan) December 9, 2023

The complaint:

Screenshot from Yelp, December 2023 yelp openai chatgpt review

In related OpenAI news, the review with the most likes aligns with recent rumors about a volatile workplace, alleging that OpenAI is a “Cutthroat environment. Not friendly. Toxic workers.”

Screenshot from Google Reviews, December 2023 google review for openai toxic workers

The reviews voted the most helpful on Glassdoor about OpenAI suggested that employee frustration and product development issues stem from the company’s shift in focus on profits.

openai employee review on glassdoor

Screenshots from Glassdoor, December 2023 openai employee reviews

This incident provides a unique outlook on how customer and employee experiences can impact any business through local reviews and business ratings platforms.

Screenshot from Google, December 2023 openai inc google business profile local serps google reviews

Google SGE Highlights Positive Google Reviews

In addition to occasional complaints, Google reviewers acknowledged the revolutionary impact of OpenAI’s technology on various fields.

The most positive review mentions about the company appear in Google SGE (Search Generative Experience).

Screenshot from Google SGE, December 2023 Google SGE response on OpenAI

Conclusion

OpenAI’s recent insights into training chat models and response to public feedback about GPT-4 performance illustrate AI technology’s dynamic and evolving nature and its impact on those who depend on the AI platform.

Especially the people who just received an invitation to join ChatGPT Plus after being waitlisted while OpenAI paused new subscriptions and upgrades. Or those developing GPTs for the upcoming GPT Store launch.

As AI advances, professionals in these fields must remain agile, informed, and responsive to technological developments and the public’s reception of these advancements.

Featured image: Tada Images/Shutterstock

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SEO

ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

Published

2 days ago

December 9, 2023

Max

ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

ChatGPT Plus subscriptions and upgrades remain paused after a surge in demand for new features created outages.

Some users who signed up for the waitlist have received invites to join ChatGPT Plus.

Screenshot from Gmail, December 2023 ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

This has resulted in a few shares of the link that is accessible for everyone. For now.

Found a hack to skip chatGPT plus wait list.

Follow the steps
– login to ChatGPT
– now if you click on upgrade
– Signup for waitlist(may not be necessary)
– now change the URL to https://t.co/4izOdNzarG
– Wallah you are in for payment #ChatGPT4 #hack #GPT4 #GPTPlus pic.twitter.com/J1GizlrOAx

— Ashish Mohite is building Notionpack Capture (@_ashishmohite) December 8, 2023

In addition to the invites, signs that more people are getting access to GPTs include an introductory screen popping up on free ChatGPT accounts.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023 ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

Unfortunately, they still aren’t accessible without a Plus subscription.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023 chatgpt plus subscriptions upgrades paused waitlist

You can sign up for the waitlist by clicking on the option to upgrade in the left sidebar of ChatGPT on a desktop browser.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023 ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

OpenAI also suggests ChatGPT Enterprise for those who need more capabilities, as outlined in the pricing plans below.

Screenshot from OpenAI, December 2023 ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites

Why Are ChatGPT Plus Subscriptions Paused?

According to a post on X by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, the recent surge in usage following the DevDay developers conference has led to capacity challenges, resulting in the decision to pause ChatGPT Plus signups.

we are pausing new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups for a bit 🙁

the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience.

you can still sign-up to be notified within the app when subs reopen.

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 15, 2023

The decision to pause new ChatGPT signups follows a week where OpenAI services – including ChatGPT and the API – experienced a series of outages related to high-demand and DDoS attacks.

Demand for ChatGPT Plus resulted in eBay listings supposedly offering one or more months of the premium subscription.

chatgpt plus accounts selling ebay for a premium 🫡🇺🇸 https://t.co/VdN8tuexKM pic.twitter.com/W522NGHsRV

— surya (@sdand) November 15, 2023

When Will ChatGPT Plus Subscriptions Resume?

So far, we don’t have any official word on when ChatGPT Plus subscriptions will resume. We know the GPT Store is set to open early next year after recent boardroom drama led to “unexpected delays.”

Therefore, we hope that OpenAI will onboard waitlisted users in time to try out all of the GPTs created by OpenAI and community builders.

What Are GPTs?

GPTs allow users to create one or more personalized ChatGPT experiences based on a specific set of instructions, knowledge files, and actions.

Search marketers with ChatGPT Plus can try GPTs for helpful content assessment and learning SEO.

Two SEO GPTs I’ve created for assessment + learning 👀👇

1. Content Helpfulness and Quality SEO Analyzer: Assess a page content helpfulness, relevance, and quality for your targeted query based on Google’s guidelines vs your competitors and get tips: https://t.co/LsoP2UhF4N pic.twitter.com/O77MHiqwOq

— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) November 12, 2023

2. The https://t.co/IFmKxxVDpW SEO Teacher: A friendly SEO expert teacher who will help you to learn SEO using reliable https://t.co/sCZ03C7fzq resources: https://t.co/UrMPUYwblH

I hope they’re helpful 🙌🤩

PS: Love how GPT opens up to SO much opportunity 🤯 pic.twitter.com/yqKozcZTDc

— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) November 12, 2023

There are also GPTs for analyzing Google Search Console data.

oh wow. I think this GPT works.

Export data from GSC comparing keyword rankings before and after an update and upload it to ChatGPT and it will spit out this scatter plot for you.

It’s an easy way to see if most of your keyword declined or improved.

This site was impacted by… pic.twitter.com/wFGSnonqoZ

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) November 9, 2023

And GPTs that will let you chat with analytics data from 20 platforms, including Google Ads, GA4, and Facebook.

Google search has indexed hundreds of public GPTs. According to an alleged list of GPT statistics in a GitHub repository, DALL-E, the top GPT from OpenAI, has received 5,620,981 visits since its launch last month. Included in the top 20 GPTs is Canva, with 291,349 views.

Weighing The Benefits Of The Pause

Ideally, this means that developers working on building GPTs and using the API should encounter fewer issues (like being unable to save GPT drafts).

But it could also mean a temporary decrease in new users of GPTs since they are only available to Plus subscribers – including the ones I tested for learning about ranking factors and gaining insights on E-E-A-T from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.