SEO
How To Target Multiple Cities Without Hurting Your SEO

Can you imagine the hassle of finding an electrician if every Google search returned global SEO results?
How many pages of search results would you have to comb through to find a beautician in your neighborhood?
On the other hand, think of how inefficient your digital marketing strategy would be if your local business had to compete with every competitor worldwide for clicks.
Luckily, Google has delivered a solution for this issue through local SEO.
By allowing you to target just the customers in your area, it’s a quick and easy way to give information about your business to the people who are most likely to patronize it.
But what if you have multiple locations in multiple cities?
Is it possible to rank for keywords that target multiple cities without hurting your local SEO?
Of course, it is.
But before you go running off to tweak your site for local searches, there’s one caveat: If you do it wrong, it can actually hurt you. So, it’s important to ensure you do it correctly.
It’s a bit more complex than regular old search engine optimization, but never fear – we’re here to guide you through the process.
Follow the instructions below, and you’ll rank in searches of all your locales before you know it. Ready to get started?
Why Is Local SEO Important?
If local SEO can potentially “hurt” you, why do it at all? Here are two good reasons:
Local SEO Attracts Foot Traffic
Imagine you’re out of town for a cousin’s wedding.
On the night before the big day, you’re in your hotel room when you crave a cheese pizza.
You pick up your phone and Google … what?
“Pizza?”
I don’t think so.
No, you’re probably going to Google a location-specific keyword, like [best pizza in Louisville].
When you get the results, you don’t say, “good to know,” and then head off to sleep.
No. Instead, you take the action that drove the search in the first place. In other words, you pick up your phone and order the pizza.
Or you get up, take a taxi, and dine out at that spectacular pizzeria.
And you’re not the only one doing this.
In fact, every month, searchers visit 1.5 billion locations related to their searches.
And you’re not the one in a million person who’s doing a local search, either.
Nearly 46% of Google searches have local intent.
That’s huge!
So, the next time you’re thinking of skipping local SEO, think again.
It could actually be your ticket to getting that random out-on-vacation dude to check out your pizza place. (Or beauty salon. Or hardware store – you get the point.)
Local SEO Ranks You Higher On Google
We’re all well-informed on the SEO KPIs you should track to rank on Google.
Two of these are:
- Clicks to your site.
- Keyword ranking increases.
With local SEO, you hit both of these birds with one stone. Note that it’s based on the searcher’s location distance/relevance to the business.
City Pages: Good Or Bad For SEO?
Long ago, in the dark ages of SEO, city pages were used to stuff in local keywords to gain higher rankings on Google.
For example, you’d create a page and write content on flower delivery.
Then, you’d copy your content onto several different pages, each one with a different city in the keyword.
So, a page for [flower delivery in Louisville], [flower delivery in Newark], and [flower delivery in Shelbyville], each with the exact same content.
As tends to be the case, it didn’t take long for Google to notice this spammy tactic.
When it rolled out its Panda Update, it made sure to flag and penalize sites doing it.
So, city pages can hurt your SEO and penalize your site.
This brings us to…
How Do I Optimize My Business For Multiple Locations On Google?
1. Use Google Business Profile
Remember, Google’s mission is to organize and deliver the most relevant and reliable information available to online searchers.
Its goal is to give people exactly what they’re looking for.
This means if they can verify your business, you’ll have a higher chance of ranking on the SERPs.
Enter Google Business Profile.
When you register on Google Business Profile, you’re confirming to Google exactly what you offer and where you’re located.
In turn, Google will be confident about sharing your content with searchers.
The good news is Google Business Profile is free and easy to use.
Simply create an account, claim your business, and fill in as much information as possible about it.
Photos and customer reviews (plus replying to reviews) can also help you optimize your Google Business Profile account.
2. Get Into Google’s Local Map Pack
Ever do a local search and get three featured suggestions from Google?
You know, like this.
Yes, these businesses are super lucky.
Chances are that searchers will pick one of them and look no further for their plumbing needs. Tough luck, everyone else.
Of course, this makes it extremely valuable to be one of the three listed in the Local Map Pack. And with the right techniques, you can be.
Here are three things you can do to increase your chances of making it to one of the three coveted slots:
Sign Up For Google Business Profile
As discussed in the previous point, Google prioritizes sites it has verified.
Give Google All Your Details
Provide Google with all your information, including your company’s name, address, phone number, and operating hours.
Photos and other media work splendidly, too. And remember, everyone loves images.
Leverage Your Reviews
The better your reviews, the higher your chances of being featured on Google’s Local Map Pack.
3. Build Your Internal Linking Structure
Did you know that tweaking your internal linking structure will help boost your SEO?
Sure, external links pointing to your site are great.
But you don’t control them. And getting them takes a bit of work. If you can’t get them yet, internal linking will help you:
- Improve your website navigation.
- Show Google which of your site’s pages is most important.
- Improve your website’s architecture.
All these will help you rank higher on Google and increase your chances of discovery by someone doing a local search.
4. Build Your NAP Citations
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number.
Generally, it stands for your business information online.
The first place you want your NAP on is your website.
A good rule of thumb is to put this information at the bottom of your homepage, which is where visitors expect to find it.

It’s also great to list your business information on online data aggregators.
These aggregators provide data to top sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Microsoft Bing.
Here are some of the big ones you shouldn’t miss.
Listing your website on all the top aggregators sounds tedious, but it’s worthwhile if you want to get a feature like this.

Important note: Make sure that your NAPs are consistent throughout the web.
One mistake can seriously hurt your chances of getting featured on Google’s Local Map Pack or on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.
5. Use Schema Markup
Sometimes called structured data or simply schema, schema markup on your website can significantly affect your local SEO results.
But if you’re not a developer, it can look intimidating.
Don’t worry – it’s not as difficult to use as you might think.
A collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Yandex, and Microsoft, Schema.org was established in 2011 to establish a common vocabulary between search engines.
While it can be used to improve the appearance of your search result, help you appear for relevant queries, and increase visitor time spent on a page, Google has been very clear that it does not impact search rankings.
So, why are we talking about it here? Because it does improve the chances of your content being used for rich results, making you more eye-catching and improving click-through rates.
On top of that, the schema provides several different property options relevant to local SEO, allowing you to select relevant schema categories.
By selecting Schema.org/bakery for your cupcake shop, you’re helping search engines better understand the topic of your website.
After you’ve selected the right category, you need to select the sub-properties to ensure validation. This includes the business name, hours, the area served, etc.
The Schema.org/areaServed on the local landing page should always match the service areas set up in a Google Business Profile, AND your local landing page should mention those same towns in its on-page content.
For a full list of required and recommended schema properties and information on validating your structured data, read this article. Using a plugin, you can also find more information about Schema markup for WordPress.
6. Optimize Your Site For Mobile
If you wake up in the middle of the night to find your bathroom flooding with water from an exploded faucet, do you:
- Run to your laptop and do a local search for the best emergency plumber.
- Grab your phone and type “emergency plumber” into your Chrome app.
If it’s 3 a.m., chances are you chose No. 2.
But here’s the thing.
People don’t only choose their smartphones over their computers at 3 a.m.
They do it all the time.
Almost 59% of all website traffic comes from a mobile device.

As usual, Google noticed and moved to mobile-first indexing.
All this means your site has to be optimized for mobile if you want to rank well on Google, especially for local SEO.
Here are six tips on making your website mobile-friendly:
- Make sure your website is responsive and fits nicely into different screen sizes.
- Don’t make your buttons too small.
- Prioritize large fonts.
- Forget about pop-ups and text blockers.
- Put your important information front and center.
- If you’re using WordPress, choose mobile-friendly themes.
Bonus Tip: Make Your Most Important City Pages Unique
If you want to name all the cities in a region you serve, just list them on the page – you don’t need an individual page for each city to rank in most cases.
To make the pages different, write original content for each area or city.
Which means it’s up to you.
You can simply list all the cities you serve on one page.
Or you can go ahead and create individual pages for each city.
When you take this step, make sure each page’s content is unique.
And no, I don’t mean simply changing the word “hand-wrestling” to “arm-wrestling.”
You need to do extra research on your targeted location, then go ahead and write specific and helpful information for readers in the area.
For example:
- If you’re a plumber, talk about the problem of hard water in the area.
- If you’re a florist, explain how you grow your plants in the local climate.
- If you’re into real estate, talk about communities in the area.
Here’s an excellent example from 7th State Builders.
Adding information about a city or town is also a great way to build your client’s confidence.
A OnePoll survey conducted on behalf of CG Roxane found 67% of people trust local businesses – by identifying your understanding of the situations and issues in a locale, you’re insinuating that you’re local – even if you have multiple locations spread throughout the country.
They’ll see how much you know their area and trust you to solve their area-specific problems.
Important note: Ensure this information goes on all variations of your website.
With Google’s mobile-first index in place, you don’t want to fall in the rankings simply because you failed to optimize for mobile.
5 Tools To Scale Your Local SEO
What if you have 100s of locations? How do you manage listings for them?
Here are some tools to help you scale your local SEO efforts.
Ready To Target Local SEO?
Hopefully, I’ve made it very clear by this point – local SEO is important. And just because you’re running multiple locations in different cities doesn’t mean you can’t put it to work for you.
How you go about that is up to you. Do you want to create one landing page for each location? Or do you want to list all your locations on the same page?
Whatever you choose, be aware of the power of local SEO in attracting customers to your neighborhood.
Just make sure you’re doing it correctly. If, after reading this piece, you’re still unsure what steps to take, just imagine yourself as a customer.
What kind of information would you be looking for?
What would convince you that your business is perfect for their needs?
There’s a good chance location will be one of the driving factors, and the best way to take advantage of that is with local SEO.
More Resources:
Featured Image: New Africa/Shutterstock
SEO
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
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.
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