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How to Reclaim Your Keyword Data

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How to Reclaim Your Keyword Data

In Google Analytics, when you see “(not provided)” instead of the queries that led searchers to your website, this means Google is covering organic keywords data in the interest of protecting the privacy of searchers.

"(not provided" listed in a table on GA

But no worries, this doesn’t mean you have configured your Google Analytics wrong or your data is lost. In this article, we’ll cover two solutions to the “not provided” problem and some tips on how to use your newly acquired keyword data:

Sidenote.

At the time of writing, Google Analytics 4, the successor of Universal Analytics, by default doesn’t show any organic keywords (or the “not provided” token) in the Acquisition report. To solve this problem, you can use the same solutions shown in this article.

Solution 1. Use Google Search Console (free tool)

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google designed to monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in the search results. On top of revealing organic queries that led to your website, you can use GSC to find and fix technical errors, submit sitemaps, see backlinks, and more.

To see your organic keywords data, you need to set up the tool. You can learn how to do this in our guide to setting up GSC.

Now, let’s see what type of data you will find in GSC. We’ll start with the main reason why you’d want to use GSC: You can see your organic keywords in the Performance report, which you’ll find here:

"Performance" tab to access Performance report

Once your data becomes available, you will see your keywords in the Queries tab located in the bottom panel:

List of queries under Queries tab

Here’s what this data means:

  • Top queries refer to Google Search queries (i.e., keywords) that generated impressions of your website. This means whenever your website’s URL shows up in Google’s search results (this can be web search, image search, video search, or Google News), the keyword that caused that impression will be reported here.
  • Clicks are the number of clicks coming to your website’s URL from organic search results. Note this excludes paid Google Ads search results. Any click that takes the user outside of the search results is considered a click. And when someone clicks a link to a page, returns to the SERP (search engine results page), and then clicks on that page again, it counts only as one click.
  • Impressions are the number of times any URL from your website appeared in the search results. Note this does not necessarily imply the searcher has seen your website. This just means it has been displayed.

It may take a while for Google to start showing your data. But the good news is once your data is in, you’ll see up to 16 months of retroactive data.

Sidenote.

While GSC offers insight into the queries that led searchers to your website, it doesn’t show the entire data. The first limitation is that Google doesn’t show very rare queries (performed only by a few users; Google calls those “anonymous queries”). Secondly, GSC will only show you up to 1,000 keywords in its interface.

Other tabs in the Performance report will show you clicks and impressions for:

  • URLs of pages that were entered coming from the SERPs.
  • Countries where the search came from.
  • The type of device on which the search was performed.
  • Grouped data for specific types or features of search results (Search Appearance tab). This data is reserved for search results other than typical blue links, such as recipe galleries, review snippets, videos, how-to results, and more.
  • Dates (shown in Pacific Time Zone).

And so here it is. The first solution to “not provided” keywords is as simple as setting up GSC and waiting for your data to come in. But before we get into the second solution, let’s see what other things Google offers in the Performance report.

Starting from the top, we have the filters.

Filters in Performance report

They allow you to display only data that meets certain criteria. By default, you can filter by search type and date. Additionally, the “Search type” filter allows you to compare sources:

2 text fields to add in sources

You can also turn on additional filters for a particular query, page, country, or device.

Dropdown showing additional filters

Below the filters, you have the overview panel with another set of filters and a graph that dynamically displays the data set in filters and plotted against time. These filters also affect the data shown in the Keyword report. So if you tick the CTR filter, CTR data will be shown next to “Clicks” and “Impressions”:

CTR and Position data in a table

Since we’ve already touched on clicks and impressions, let’s see what CTR (click-through rate) and average position are about:

  • CTR is the percentage of organic impressions that result in a click.
  • Average position is the average position of your site in the search results based on the site’s highest position whenever it appears in a search.

It’s worth noting that Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 users can integrate GSC data into Analytics to see all data in one tool.

To integrate your Google Universal Analytics with GSC, make sure you set up both services for the same property. Then access your Google Analytics and:

  1. Choose your property (i.e., website you want to see data for).
  2. Go to the Admin panel.
  3. In the Product Linking section, choose All products.
  4. Look for “Search Console” and click Link Search Console.
  5. Follow the steps in the setup wizard to connect your GSC data with Universal Analytics data.
Admin tab in GA sidebar

To integrate your Google Analytics 4 with GSC, make sure you have set up both services for the same property. Then access your Google Analytics and:

  1. Choose your property (i.e., website you want to see data for).
  2. Go to the Admin panel.
  3. In the Product Linking section, choose Search Console Linking. If you don’t see that option yet, you may need to wait a few days; this is as the integration feature is still on the rollout.
  4. In the Search Console linking panel, click Link.
  5. Follow the steps in the setup wizard to connect your GSC data with Google Analytics 4 data.
Admin tab in GA sidebar

That’s it for unlocking your organic keywords data in Google Analytics with the help of Search Console—our first solution. But that is not the end of your options for working with organic keywords. This brings us to the second solution for “not provided.”

Solution 2. Use Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free tool)

As already mentioned, GSC has its limitations, with the most important being the 1,000-keyword limit. If you need to work around this limit, you can consider an SEO tool like Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT).

It is our free tool that allows you to improve your website’s SEO performance and get more traffic from search. AWT has four main advantages over GSC when it comes to organic keywords. It shows you:

  1. All known keywords. No 1000-keyword limit here.
  2. SEO metrics for pages and keywords.
  3. A depersonalized SERP snapshot with competitive data.
  4. SERP features for every keyword.

Also, the data concerning your website is available starting from the time our web crawler discovers and crawls your website. This means that with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, you can access historical data older than 16 months (which is Search Console’s limit).

So let’s see how AWT works. Once you set it up, click on the “Organic keywords” widget in the project overview…

"Organic keywords" widget in AWT

… and you will be directed to the Organic keywords report:

Organic keywords report results for Ahrefs' blog

By default, you will be presented with the following data (from left to right):

  • Keywords that searchers used to find your website—your solution to the “not provided” problem.
  • SF stands for SERP Features that appear in search results for a keyword.
  • Volume shows the number of average monthly searches for a keyword.
  • Keyword Difficulty (KD) gives an estimate of how hard it is to rank in the top 10 organic search results for a keyword on a 100-point scale.
  • Cost Per Click (CPC) shows the average price that advertisers pay for each ad click in paid search results for a keyword.
  • Traffic shows an estimation of the monthly organic search traffic that your target gets from a given keyword.
  • Change (next to Traffic) refers to the change in traffic between your selected dates.
  • Position is the top-ranking position of your target for a keyword.
  • Change (next to Position) refers to the change in position between your selected dates.
  • URL refers to the URL that is ranking in search results for a keyword.

Next to the URL data are two nifty tools that display competitive data about your keywords. The first one with the “line chart” icon shows the position history of the URL or URLs ranking for a keyword:

Line chart showing position history

The second one shows you a depersonalized SERP overview for a keyword. Also, it allows you to view historical SERPs for a keyword.

SERP overview for keyword "affiliate marketing"

Above your keyword data, there are filters you can use to display data that meets certain criteria, such as the country where the keyword comes from, position in SERP, search volume, or search for a particular keyword.

Filters in Organic keywords report

As seen in the above screenshots, there’s a lot you can do with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Here, we’re only showing a fragment of the functionality related to organic keywords. In the video below, we go through other features that can help you in SEO and share how to set up the tool.

https://youtu.be/ipTk-qGrNlc         

So there you have it—two different solutions to the “not provided” problem. Both are free to use. So go ahead and try them both without any commitments. You can even run them in parallel.

In fact, if you already have GSC up and running, it’s easier to set up Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, as you can verify your property in it using GSC. On top of that, you can see the GSC data overview right in AWT.

Line chart showing key data, e.g., total clicks and impressions

One last thing worth knowing about these solutions is they display data using different sources. Google displays data from its own services, and Ahrefs aggregates data from multiple sources.

3 tips on how to use keyword data

Knowing which organic keywords bring traffic to your website is great. This is because you can use that knowledge to improve your SEO and grow your organic traffic. Here are three quick ideas to do that. Note that we will be using both GSC and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.

1. Optimize pages with underperforming keywords

Underperforming keywords are those keywords where you don’t rank in positions #1 or #2. The reason being most people click one of the first two search results. And if you’re not one of those results, you’ll miss out on a lot of organic traffic.

SERP overview showing Ahrefs' organic traffic is around 1.2K, lesser than top-ranking pages that get 3-4K

Ranking #6 for a competitive keyword is really good, but that position gives us less than half of the organic traffic that higher-ranking pages get.

To find your underperforming keywords using Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, access your Organic keywords report by clicking on the “Organic keywords” widget in the project overview. Once in the report, set the country you want to see data for. Also, set the Position filter to “3.”

Dropdown option to set Position filter

In a flash, you will get a list of keywords that rank in position #3 or lower. These are the keywords that are underperforming.

List of underperforming keywords

Now you can browse through that list to create a shortlist of pages for optimization. A good practice is to use the SERP tool to see who ranks above you in the SERPs. That way, you can gauge the probability of outranking them. To illustrate, there is little chance for us to outperform Google for the keyword “google keyword planner.”

SERP overview for keyword "google keyword planner"

As for the optimization itself, here are a few ideas on what you can do:

2. Optimize pages with low CTR but high keyword ranking

If you remember from the previous sections, CTR is the percentage of organic impressions that result in a click to your website.

Generally, a page with a high ranking on the SERP should analogically have a high CTR. This is as people tend to click search results with high rankings. And the higher the CTR, the higher the traffic to your site.

But in some cases, pages ranking high can have a lower than average CTR. With the help of GSC, you can quickly find these pages, analyze the cause of their performance, and see if there’s a way to improve CTR.

To do this, go to the Performance report in GSC. Tick the Average CTR and the “Average position” filters. Then filter for keywords with average rankings below 3.1. This way, you will see pages that you already rank for in the top three.

Position filter set to 3.1

Now sort the report by CTR in ascending order. Then look for keywords with lots of impressions but low CTR. Here’s an example of such a keyword.

Keyword "diy seo" with around 7.2K impressions but CTR is 2.1%

As you can probably guess, for position #3 in the SERP, the CTR here should be way higher. Meaning, we’re somehow missing out on a lot of potential traffic that could go to our article on DIY SEO.

In the case of this keyword, the cause of low performance can be seen just by analyzing the SERP. Our webpage, though ranking high, is “buried” under ads, a featured snippet, a video carousel, and a People Also Ask box. Those elements of the SERP probably get the most attention from searchers.

Google SERP showing many elements above Ahrefs' article

So a viable solution, in this case, is to try and optimize our article on DIY SEO to win a featured snippet.

3. Find easy keywords to rank for 

As you may know, a single page can rank for hundreds of keywords. (We even did a study on this subject.) Some of the keywords can even cause a page to be ranked unintentionally. This means Google can associate a webpage with a keyword even if you haven’t specifically targeted the keyword with a page.

When that happens, this is a sign you should create new content optimized for that “unintentional” keyword. If so, you could get more traffic than what you currently receive. And the lower the KD, the easier it is generally to create content that will rank high.

You can look for low-difficulty keywords using the KD metric in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Just open the Organic keywords report and put something low like “20” in the KD filter. Then sort the results by volume to spot opportunities with the highest potential. Here’s an example from a blog on web design:

Low-difficulty keyword "tinder ui" in Organic keywords report

As you can see, the “tinder ui” keyword has a high search volume. But it doesn’t bring any traffic to the page that ranks for it because of the low position in the SERP. However, creating new, dedicated content targeting that keyword could help the blog rank higher and get additional organic traffic.

Final thoughts  

In this article, we’ve seen two different solutions for incomplete keyword reports in Google Analytics (both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4). Both Search Console and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools will provide insight into the organic keywords that brought people to your website and/or made your website appear in the SERPs.

But if you want to go beyond just knowing what your organic keywords are, I recommend keeping both of those free tools running in parallel. This way, you will have access to more data and can spot more opportunities for growth, as shown in the three SEO tips above.

And if you’re serious about growing organic traffic, tools like GSC and AWT are simply must-haves.

Want to learn more than just the SEO tactics mentioned here? Head to our complete guide on SEO.

Got questions? Ping me on Twitter.




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The Best Times To Post On Social Media In 2024

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The Best Times To Post On Social Media In 2024

Marketers worldwide know the importance of having a solid social media marketing strategy – and a key part of this is finding the best times to post on social media.

The old adage ‘timing is everything’ holds especially true in the world of social media, where the difference between a post that fades into obscurity and one that goes viral can often be just a matter of when it was shared.

With an always-growing array of social platforms hosting billions of users worldwide, it has never been more challenging to stand above the noise and make your voice heard on social.

To determine the best times to post on social media in 2024, we reviewed original data from leading social media management tools.

It’s important to note that the data from these sources present a variety of findings and suggestions, which underscore the fact that social media is an ever-evolving landscape. The most crucial thing is understanding the behavior of your own target audience.

Let’s dive in.

The Best Times To Post On Social Media

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Tuesday and Wednesday 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Monday 12 p.m. EST
CoSchedule Friday, Wednesday, and Monday (in that order) 7 p.m. Local
  • Best times to post on social media: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  • Best days to post on social media: Monday and Wednesday.
  • Worst days to post on social media: Saturday and Sunday.

Determining an ideal time for posting on social media in general is complicated, as each platform is different, with unique users, features, and communities.

When deciding which social media platforms to focus on, you should think carefully about your brand’s target audience and overarching goals.

If you’re looking to reach a network of professionals, LinkedIn might be a good fit; if your brand is hoping to speak to Gen Z consumers, you might consider TikTok or Snapchat.

This explains why – when analyzing data from Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and CoSchedule on the best overall times to post on social media – we can draw some similarities but also see a variety of recommendations.

Weekdays emerge as a clear winner. CoSchedule and Sprout Social both highlight Wednesday as a good day, with Hootsuite and CoSchedule also highlighting Mondays as a strong day for engagement.

The most common time range among the sources is in the morning to mid-afternoon, with CoSchedule providing some very specific suggestions for post-timing.

Both CoSchedule and Sprout Social agree on avoiding Saturdays and Sundays.

The Best Times To Post On Facebook

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Monday to Thursday 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Monday and Tuesday 1 p.m. EST
CoSchedule Friday, Wednesday, and Monday (in that order) 9 a.m. Local
  • Best times to post on Facebook: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • Best days to post on Facebook: Weekdays.
  • Worst day to post on Facebook: Sunday.

Facebook remains the most used social media platform in the world, with the largest advertising market share (16%).

While it’s experienced a shift in user demographics over recent years – now catering to older users – its popularity continues to climb, and its potential as a brand marketing tool cannot be disputed.

Regarding the best times to post on Facebook, all of our sources agree that weekdays are best. Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and CoSchdule all name Monday as a great day to engage on Facebook, along with calling out various other days of the week.

There is a general consensus that Sundays should be avoided.

The sources vary in their suggestions for optimal time slots, but generally speaking, early to mid-morning seems to be the most popular selection.

The Best Times To Post On YouTube

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
SocialPilot Sunday 2-4 p.m. EST
HubSpot Friday and Saturday 6-9 p.m. Local
  • Best times to post on YouTube: 2-4 p.m. on weekdays and 9-11 a.m. on weekends.
  • Best days to post on YouTube: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
  • Worst day to post on YouTube: Tuesday.

As the second most visited site in the world and the second most used social platform globally, YouTube offers an unparalleled opportunity for brands and individuals to connect with audiences through video.

And with its continued expansion – by introducing features like YouTube Shorts, initiatives like expanding the ways creators can get paid on the platform, and its increasing popularity as a search engine – the platform shows no signs of slowing.

YouTube is no longer just a video-sharing site; it’s a robust marketing tool that empowers businesses to raise brand awareness and drive meaningful engagement.

Finding recent data on the best times to post on YouTube proved harder than for some other channels, so these recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.

While HubSpot suggests Friday and Saturday are the strongest days to publish on YouTube, SocialPilot specifically calls out Sunday as the most engaging day – so it’s worth experimenting with all three.

SocialPilot doesn’t specifically name the worst day, but according to HubSpot, you’d be wise to steer clear of Tuesday.

Both sources suggest the afternoon as an effective time for posting during the week. SocialPilot specifies that publishing in the mornings on weekends (9-11 a.m.) is effective, so this is important to bear in mind.

The Best Times To Post On Instagram

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Tuesday and Wednesday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Wednesday 2 p.m. EST
HubSpot Saturday 6-9 p.m. Local
CoSchedule Wednesday, Friday, and Tuesday (in that order)

9 a.m. Local

Later Monday 4 a.m. Local
  • Best times to post on Instagram: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Best day to post on Instagram: Wednesday.
  • Worst day to post on Instagram: Sunday.

From its origins as a photo-sharing platform, Instagram has evolved into one of the most popular social media networks in the world – and an indispensable marketing tool.

With billions of users – 90% of whom are following at least one business – Instagram has become a powerful engine for ecommerce, brand awareness, and community-building.

As a leader in the social media space, Instagram constantly provides new formats and features for users to try out – from Reels to Stories, user quizzes and polls, and more.

We consulted a handful of sources to determine the top posting times for Instagram and came away with a mixed bag of answers.

Wednesday appears to take the cake as the most consistently recommended day, with CoSchedule, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite all suggesting it.

Generally, our sources seem to lean towards weekdays as being strongest for Instagram engagement – with the exception of HubSpot, which recommends Saturday.

In terms of timing, the morning to midday hours seem to be your best bet, especially around 8 a.m. through 1 p.m. HubSpot and Later provide times that significantly differ from other sources, which suggests that effectiveness can vary based on audience and content type.

The Best Times To Post On TikTok

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Tuesday and Wednesday 2-6 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Thursday 10 p.m. EST
SocialPilot Tuesday and Thursday 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. EST
HubSpot Friday 6-9 p.m. Local
  • Best time to post on TikTok: Inconclusive.
  • Best day to post on TikTok: Tuesday.
  • Worst day to post on TikTok: Inconclusive.

While it’s a relative newcomer to the fold, TikTok has quickly become one of the most beloved social platforms worldwide – and is drawing brands in increasing numbers.

With the average user spending nearly 54 minutes on the app daily, it’s hard to beat the hold that TikTok has among audiences. By optimizing your presence there, you can stand to generate some impressive returns on your marketing efforts.

So, what’s the best time to post on TikTok? The jury is out on this one – and it may take extra experimentation on your part to find the sweet spot that engages your audience.

Tuesday seems to rise to the top among the sources we consulted, with Wednesdays and Thursdays also getting recommendations. Generally speaking, it looks like midweek is a good time to test out your TikTok content, but there are plenty of discrepancies in the data.

While HubSpot named Friday as the best day, it also highlighted that Saturdays and Thursdays are strong for B2B brands, and Saturdays and Sundays work well for B2C brands.

Sprout Social found Sunday to be the worst performing day, while Monday and Tuesday are the worst days, according to HubSpot.

We also find a mix of recommended time slots, from early morning to mid-afternoon and also evening being suggested.

The Best Times To Post On Snapchat

Snapchat, the pioneer of ephemeral social media content (and the inspiration behind Instagram Stories), provides unique opportunities to reach younger demographics.

It differs from other platforms in how it works and the type of content that engages there. Snapchat typically centers around showcasing real-time experiences and authentic behind-the-scenes content versus polished marketing content.

This makes Snapchat an advantageous yet often underutilized tool in digital marketing. But it should not be overlooked, especially given that the platform continues to innovate.

While we have seen 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. cited as the best times to post on Snapchat in various secondary sources around the internet, we have found no recent original data to either confirm or refute this.

Given this, we would recommend testing out different times and days based on the behaviors and lifestyles of your target audience and then iterating based on your results (which is what you should be doing across the board, regardless!)

The Best Times To Post On Pinterest

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Wednesday to Friday 1-3 p.m. Local
HubSpot Friday 3-6 p.m. Local
CoSchedule Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (in that order)

8 p.m. Local

  • Best times to post on Pinterest: 3-6 p.m.
  • Best day to post on Pinterest: Friday.
  • Worst day to post on Pinterest: Sunday.

Pinterest, once thought of as a simple inspiration board-style site, has today become a crucial player in the world of ecommerce.

Businesses can leverage Pinterest to showcase their products and drive conversions, but also to grow and expand brand awareness and sentiment.

Success on Pinterest can be found through sharing brand-specific imagery, optimizing for mobile, and appealing to your audience’s sense of aspiration and inspiration.

Friday, alongside other weekdays, is consistently mentioned as a strong day among our sources. On the other end, Sunday is commonly named as the least effective day for posting on Pinterest.

When it comes to the most fruitful posting time on the platform, it appears that the late afternoon to early evening, specifically around 3-6 p.m., is optimal for best engagement.

The Best Times To Post On X (Twitter)

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Tuesday to Thursday 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Monday and Wednesday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. EST
CoSchedule Wednesday, Tuesday, and Friday (in that order) 9 a.m. Local
HubSpot Friday and Wednesday (in that order) 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Local
  • Best times to post on X (Twitter): 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
  • Best days to post on X (Twitter): Wednesday and Friday.
  • Worst day to post on X (Twitter): Sunday.

X (formerly known as Twitter) has long been a place for marketers to connect and engage with their audience, join trending conversations, and build community.

The real-time nature of X (Twitter) differentiates it from other social platforms and allows for spur-of-the-moment and reactionary marketing moves. And with CEO Elon Musk’s big plans for the app, it’s undoubtedly a space to watch.

When looking for the top days to post among the sources we consulted, Wednesday and Friday are most often mentioned – with Sprout Social specifying Tuesday through Thursday.

Hootsuite nominates Monday and Wednesday as the top days, proving that weekdays reign supreme on X (Twitter).

Like many other platforms, Sunday seems to be the least effective day for post-engagement.

Looking for the best times to post on X (Twitter)?

Late morning, from around 9 a.m. to noon, seems to be the most recommended time – though, as always, this will differ based on your specific audience and the type of content you are sharing.

We always recommend testing and experimenting to see what works for you.

The Best Times To Post On LinkedIn

Source Day Of Week Time To Post
Sprout Social Tuesday to Thursday 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Local
Hootsuite Monday 4 p.m. EST
CoSchedule Thursday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (in that order) 10 a.m. Local
HubSpot Monday, Wednesday, and Tuesday (in that order) 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Local
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn: Weekends.

Though first and foremost a platform for professionals, LinkedIn has picked up steam in recent years, becoming a hub of engagement and a frontrunner among social media networks.

It’s also an essential tool for businesses that want to reach business executives and decision-makers, as well as potential candidates.

Done right, LinkedIn content can go a long way in building a public perception of your brand and providing deep value to your target audience.

Digging into the data, we can see that weekdays provide the biggest opportunities for engagement on LinkedIn, which is hardly surprising. Tuesdays through Thursdays are often mentioned as the top days, with Mondays also highlighted by Hootsuite and HubSpot.

All of our sources agree that weekends are less effective for LinkedIn posts.

If you’re searching for the right time, you might try your hand at posting from late morning to mid-afternoon, based on what these sources discovered.

But (and not to sound like a broken record) your results may differ based on your brand, niche, target audience, and content.

What Is The Best Time For You To Post On Social Media?

Finding the best times to post on social media requires a delicate blend of testing, experimentation, and personal analytics.

And it never hurts to start your journey with industry insights like the ones we’ve covered in this article.

By aligning your content strategy with your target audience and trying out different posting strategies – taking into account these recommended time slots – you will be able to determine what works best for you and significantly enhance your social media presence and engagement.

Sources of data, November 2023.

All data above was taken from the sources below.

Each platform conducted its own extensive research, analyzing millions of posts across various social networks to find the times when users are most engaged.

Sources:

  • Sprout Social analyzed nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles.
  • Hootsuite analyzed thousands of social media posts using an audience of 8 million followers. For its Instagram updates, it analyzed over 30,000 posts.
  • CoSchedule analyzed more than 35 million posts from more than 30,000 organizations.
  • SocialPilot studied over 50,000 YouTube accounts and over 50,000 TikTok accounts to compile its data. 
  • Later analyzed over 11 million Instagram posts.
  • HubSpot surveyed over 1,000 global marketers to discern the best times to post on social media. For its Instagram-specific data, it partnered with Mention to analyze over 37 million posts.

More resources: 


Featured Image: Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock

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Google Updating Cryptocurrency Advertising Policy For 2024

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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)

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SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore In 2024

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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:

ChatGPT's outline for a blog post. Pretty good!ChatGPT's outline for a blog post. Pretty good!

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

ChatGPT proofreading my content and making it betterChatGPT proofreading my content and making it better

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

ChatGPT writing enticing title tagsChatGPT writing enticing title tags

… and writing a meta description:

ChatGPT writing a meta descriptionChatGPT 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.

Ahrefs showing featured snippets that we don't own, despite ranking in the top 3Ahrefs showing featured snippets that we don't own, despite ranking in the top 3

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

ChatGPT rewriting a definition and making it betterChatGPT rewriting a definition and making it better

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:

Example of a page from NomadListExample of a page from NomadList

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.

Estimated monthly search traffic to NomadListEstimated monthly search traffic to NomadList

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:

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:

Estimated monthly search traffic to Wise's currently conversion pages (insane!)Estimated monthly search traffic to Wise's currently conversion pages (insane!)

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

The interactive currently conversion tool on Wise's pagesThe interactive currently conversion tool on Wise's pages

… the exchange rate over time…

The exchange rate over time graph on Wise's pagesThe exchange rate over time graph on Wise's pages

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

The email notification option on Wise's pagesThe email notification option on Wise's pages

… handy conversion charts for popular amounts…

The handy conversion charts on Wise's pagesThe handy conversion charts on Wise's pages

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

The useful comparison table on Wise's pagesThe useful comparison table on Wise's pages

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:

Wise's keyword rankings for currency conversion pagesWise's keyword rankings for currency conversion pages

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.

Bing's search results for "definition of mental health"Bing's search results for "definition of mental health"
Bing's search results for "how to add drop down list in google sheets"Bing's search results for "how to add drop down list in google sheets"

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:

Estimated monthly search volume for "google sheets percentage formula" via Ahrefs' Keywords ExplorerEstimated monthly search volume for "google sheets percentage formula" via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

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

ChatGPT's answer to the Google Sheets percentage calculation formulaChatGPT's answer to the Google Sheets percentage calculation formula

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:

Example of a topic that AI shouldn't impact too muchExample of a topic that AI shouldn't impact too much

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.



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