SEO

7 Things You Need To Know About The Digital Services Act (DSA)

Published

2 years ago

April 28, 2022

7 Things You Need To Know About The Digital Services Act (DSA)

The EU Commission announced recently that Parliament and Member States had come to a “swift political agreement” on the proposed Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA aims to protect internet users by establishing an “unprecedented new standard” for online platforms that will see companies such as Google, Meta (Facebook), and Twitter held accountable for illegal and harmful content.

What’s more, the DSA will force online platforms to share how their algorithms work, put processes in place to remove illegal goods and content quickly, and crack down on users who spread misinformation.

Just what is the Digital Services Act, when does it come into effect, and what does it mean for platforms and the people who use them – including digital marketers?

Here’s what you need to know right now about the DSA.

1. What Is The Digital Services Act?

At present, the DSA is a proposed piece of legislation that the EU Commission first brought forward on December 15, 2020.

That proposal came with two associated proposals. In that first announcement, the Commission stated:

“The Commission has proposed today an ambitious reform of the digital space, a comprehensive set of new rules for all digital services, including social media, online market places, and other online platforms that operate in the European Union: the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.”

The Digital Markets Act is designed to ensure a level playing field between businesses and came into effect in March.

According to the European Commission, the overarching goals of the DSA, on the other hand, are to:

Better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online.
Establish robust transparency and a clear accountability framework for online platforms.
Foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness within the single market.

In short, this new legislation will hold search engines, social media networks, and marketplaces accountable for policing content on their sites.

2. When Does The DSA Take Effect?

As of publication, the European Parliament and EU Member States have agreed to move the proposal forward.

Now, it is subject to review by two co-legislators.

According to the April 23 media release,

“Once adopted, the DSA will be directly applicable across the EU and will apply fifteen months or from 1 January 2024, whichever later, after entry into force.”

Online platforms and search engines classified as “very large” (those that reach 45 million users or more in the EU) will be subject to the terms of the DSA even sooner, four months after their designation.

3. Which Online Platforms Will Need To Comply?

The legislation defines digital services as “a large category of online services, from simple websites to internet infrastructure services and online platforms.”

All digital services that conduct business in the EU are subject to the DSA, regardless of where the business is established – even small and micro companies (although the regulations are tailored to size).

Small- to mid-sized digital services make up 90% of impacted businesses in the EU and will be exempt from the most costly regulations.

The types of digital services subject to this legislation include:

online marketplaces
social networks
content-sharing platforms
app stores
online travel platforms
accommodation platforms
intermediary services such as internet providers and domain registrars
cloud and web hosting services
collaborative economy platforms

The DSA also applies to “gatekeeper” platforms, defined as those with “a systemic role in the internal market that function as bottlenecks between businesses and consumers for important digital services.”

Platforms that reach 45 million users or more in the EU – those classified as “very large” – will also need to assess the risks their systems pose to public interests, fundamental rights, public health, and security.

These platforms will have to demonstrate that they are using appropriate risk management tools and take measures to protect the integrity of their services and prevent manipulation by bad actors.

Google currently enjoys 92.04% of the EU’s search engine market share and will be subject to the highest level of regulation.

With its 309 million daily active users in Europe, Facebook also qualifies as “very large” for the purposes of the DSA.

Other platforms and social networks that surpass the 45 million EU user benchmark include:

Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Apple
Spotify
Microsoft
Amazon

Documents released to Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Global Witness due to freedom of information requests to the European Commission and the Swedish government show there has been heavy lobbying by Big Tech at each stage of the DSA’s journey from the Commission to Council and Parliament.

“New self-declared lobby data shows that during this period Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all increased their spending on EU lobbying,” CEO reports.

“Combined, the Big Tech firms spent more than 27 million euros in just one year. All five companies upped their budgets, but the biggest increase by far was Apple, which nearly doubled its lobbying expenditure,” they added.

Surveillance advertising, user tracking, and behavioral targeting were reportedly among the most contentious issues.

4. Okay, But What Does The DSA Actually Do?

The Commission states that the Digital Services Act will:

“…create horizontal rules to ensure accountability, transparency and public oversight around how online platforms shape the information space in which our societies thrive.”

At its core, the DSA is a regulatory framework that will impose rules around how platforms:

moderate content,
advertise,
and use algorithmic processes.

That last point could become massively inconvenient for major search engines, such as Google and social/advertising platforms like Meta, as they will have to explain to users how their algorithms work.

Under the DSA, digital services face steep fines – up to 6% of their annual turnover – for noncompliance.

5. What Are Digital Services Companies Required To Do?

Obligations for intermediary services such as IPs and domain registrars include:

Transparency reporting
Requirements on terms of service due account of fundamental rights
Cooperation with national authorities
Points of contact and, where necessary, legal representative

Hosting services are obliged to follow the above, as well as “notice and action and obligation to provide information to users” and reporting criminal offenses to authorities.

The regulations become more onerous for online platforms, which are required to follow the above obligations and also incorporate:

Complaint and redress mechanism and out of court dispute settlement
Trusted flaggers
Measures against abusive notices and counter-notices
Transparency of recommender systems
User-facing transparency of online advertising

Additionally, the regulations ban online platforms from targeting ads to children and prohibit targeting based on particular characteristics of users.

There are special obligations for marketplaces, including vetting the credentials of third-party suppliers and compliance by design. They are subject to random checks.

Very large online platforms – Meta, Google, et al. – must comply with all of the above and are also responsible for:

Risk management obligations and crisis response
External & independent auditing, internal compliance function, and public accountability
User choice not to have recommendations based on profiling
Data sharing with authorities and researchers
Codes of conduct
Crisis response cooperation

6. So What’s This About Algorithms?

One of the impacts of stronger public oversight of online platforms that reach more than 10% of the EU population (approximately 45 million people) is this:

“…transparency measures for online platforms on a variety of issues, including on the algorithms used for recommendations.”

Another section notes that the DSA will ensure that researchers have access to key data from the largest search engines to inform their understanding of how online risks evolve.

According to official documentation, countries are the first line of defense in the DSA, with enforcement falling on the Commission.

7. What Does This Mean For Online Advertising?

The gatekeeping of large online platforms has become problematic in that it hampers competition and leaves SMEs and startups at a disadvantage, the Commission reports.

Small businesses and organizations are dependent on large platforms for the moderation of communications and content rankings.

Because gatekeeper platforms such as Google and Facebook hold the keys to accessing the consumer data generated by these activities, SMEs and startups end up in direct competition with gatekeepers who use their data to serve their own interests (such as selling targeting back to those very SMEs).

The DSA will partially level the playing field by making the internal workings of advertising and ranking algorithms more transparent.

Meanwhile, its sister legislation, the Digital Markets Act, will compel gatekeeper platforms to give small businesses access to certain data.

The Commission promises that these two acts will ensure a safer, more accountable online environment for all.

Featured image: Shutterstock/Vector Image Plus

Sources:
Europe fit for the Digital Age: new online rules for platforms, European Commission
Big Tech’s last minute attempt to tame EU tech rules, CorporateEurope.org
The Digital Services Act: ensuring a safe and accountable online environment, European Commission

SEO

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

Published

1 hour ago

April 24, 2024

Max

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

ChatGPT is a game changer in the field of SEO. This powerful language model can generate human-like content, making it an invaluable tool for SEO professionals.

However, the prompts you provide largely determine the quality of the output.

To unlock the full potential of ChatGPT and create content that resonates with your audience and search engines, writing effective prompts is crucial.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the art of writing prompts for ChatGPT, covering everything from basic techniques to advanced strategies for layering prompts and generating high-quality, SEO-friendly content.

Writing Prompts For ChatGPT

What Is A ChatGPT Prompt?

A ChatGPT prompt is an instruction or discussion topic a user provides for the ChatGPT AI model to respond to.

The prompt can be a question, statement, or any other stimulus to spark creativity, reflection, or engagement.

Users can use the prompt to generate ideas, share their thoughts, or start a conversation.

ChatGPT prompts are designed to be open-ended and can be customized based on the user’s preferences and interests.

How To Write Prompts For ChatGPT

Start by giving ChatGPT a writing prompt, such as, “Write a short story about a person who discovers they have a superpower.”

ChatGPT will then generate a response based on your prompt. Depending on the prompt’s complexity and the level of detail you requested, the answer may be a few sentences or several paragraphs long.

Use the ChatGPT-generated response as a starting point for your writing. You can take the ideas and concepts presented in the answer and expand upon them, adding your own unique spin to the story.

If you want to generate additional ideas, try asking ChatGPT follow-up questions related to your original prompt.

For example, you could ask, “What challenges might the person face in exploring their newfound superpower?” Or, “How might the person’s relationships with others be affected by their superpower?”

Remember that ChatGPT’s answers are generated by artificial intelligence and may not always be perfect or exactly what you want.

However, they can still be a great source of inspiration and help you start writing.

Must-Have GPTs Assistant

I recommend installing the WebBrowser Assistant created by the OpenAI Team. This tool allows you to add relevant Bing results to your ChatGPT prompts.

This assistant adds the first web results to your ChatGPT prompts for more accurate and up-to-date conversations.

It is very easy to install in only two clicks. (Click on Start Chat.)

Screenshot from ChatGPT, April 2024

For example, if I ask, “Who is Vincent Terrasi?,” ChatGPT has no answer.

With WebBrower Assistant, the assistant creates a new prompt with the first Bing results, and now ChatGPT knows who Vincent Terrasi is.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

You can test other GPT assistants available in the GPTs search engine if you want to use Google results.

Master Reverse Prompt Engineering

ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for reverse engineering prompts because it generates natural and engaging responses to any given input.

By analyzing the prompts generated by ChatGPT, it is possible to gain insight into the model’s underlying thought processes and decision-making strategies.

One key benefit of using ChatGPT to reverse engineer prompts is that the model is highly transparent in its decision-making.

This means that the reasoning and logic behind each response can be traced, making it easier to understand how the model arrives at its conclusions.

Once you’ve done this a few times for different types of content, you’ll gain insight into crafting more effective prompts.

Prepare Your ChatGPT For Generating Prompts

First, activate the reverse prompt engineering.

Type the following prompt: “Enable Reverse Prompt Engineering? By Reverse Prompt Engineering I mean creating a prompt from a given text.”

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

ChatGPT is now ready to generate your prompt. You can test the product description in a new chatbot session and evaluate the generated prompt.

Type: “Create a very technical reverse prompt engineering template for a product description about iPhone 11.”

Reverse Prompt engineering via WebChatGPT

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

The result is amazing. You can test with a full text that you want to reproduce. Here is an example of a prompt for selling a Kindle on Amazon.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {product), capture the writing style and the length of the text :
product =”

Reverse prompt engineering: Amazon product

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

I tested it on an SEJ blog post. Enjoy the analysis – it is excellent.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {text}, capture the tone and writing style of the {text} to include in the prompt :
text = all text coming from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bard-training-data/478941/”

Reverse prompt engineering an SEJ blog post

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

But be careful not to use ChatGPT to generate your texts. It is just a personal assistant.

Go Deeper

Prompts and examples for SEO:

Keyword research and content ideas prompt: “Provide a list of 20 long-tail keyword ideas related to ‘local SEO strategies’ along with brief content topic descriptions for each keyword.”
Optimizing content for featured snippets prompt: “Write a 40-50 word paragraph optimized for the query ‘what is the featured snippet in Google search’ that could potentially earn the featured snippet.”
Creating meta descriptions prompt: “Draft a compelling meta description for the following blog post title: ’10 Technical SEO Factors You Can’t Ignore in 2024′.”

Important Considerations:

Always Fact-Check: While ChatGPT can be a helpful tool, it’s crucial to remember that it may generate inaccurate or fabricated information. Always verify any facts, statistics, or quotes generated by ChatGPT before incorporating them into your content.
Maintain Control and Creativity: Use ChatGPT as a tool to assist your writing, not replace it. Don’t rely on it to do your thinking or create content from scratch. Your unique perspective and creativity are essential for producing high-quality, engaging content.
Iteration is Key: Refine and revise the outputs generated by ChatGPT to ensure they align with your voice, style, and intended message.

Additional Prompts for Rewording and SEO:
– Rewrite this sentence to be more concise and impactful.
– Suggest alternative phrasing for this section to improve clarity.
– Identify opportunities to incorporate relevant internal and external links.
– Analyze the keyword density and suggest improvements for better SEO.

Remember, while ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it’s essential to use it responsibly and maintain control over your content creation process.

Experiment And Refine Your Prompting Techniques

Writing effective prompts for ChatGPT is an essential skill for any SEO professional who wants to harness the power of AI-generated content.

Hopefully, the insights and examples shared in this article can inspire you and help guide you to crafting stronger prompts that yield high-quality content.

Remember to experiment with layering prompts, iterating on the output, and continually refining your prompting techniques.

This will help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of SEO.

More resources:

Featured Image: Tapati Rinchumrus/Shutterstock

SEO

Measuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey

Published

21 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Max

Measuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey

Understanding the impact of your content at every touchpoint of the customer journey is essential – but that’s easier said than done. From attracting potential leads to nurturing them into loyal customers, there are many touchpoints to look into.

So how do you identify and take advantage of these opportunities for growth?

Watch this on-demand webinar and learn a comprehensive approach for measuring the value of your content initiatives, so you can optimize resource allocation for maximum impact.

You’ll learn:

Fresh methods for measuring your content’s impact.
Fascinating insights using first-touch attribution, and how it differs from the usual last-touch perspective.
Ways to persuade decision-makers to invest in more content by showcasing its value convincingly.

With Bill Franklin and Oliver Tani of DAC Group, we unravel the nuances of attribution modeling, emphasizing the significance of layering first-touch and last-touch attribution within your measurement strategy.

Check out these insights to help you craft compelling content tailored to each stage, using an approach rooted in first-hand experience to ensure your content resonates.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or new to content measurement, this webinar promises valuable insights and actionable tactics to elevate your SEO game and optimize your content initiatives for success.

View the slides below or check out the full webinar for all the details.

SEO

How to Find and Use Competitor Keywords

Published

1 day ago

April 23, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Competitor keywords are the keywords your rivals rank for in Google’s search results. They may rank organically or pay for Google Ads to rank in the paid results.

Knowing your competitors’ keywords is the easiest form of keyword research. If your competitors rank for or target particular keywords, it might be worth it for you to target them, too.

There is no way to see your competitors’ keywords without a tool like Ahrefs, which has a database of keywords and the sites that rank for them. As far as we know, Ahrefs has the biggest database of these keywords.

How to find all the keywords your competitor ranks for

Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Enter your competitor’s domain
Go to the Organic keywords report

The report is sorted by traffic to show you the keywords sending your competitor the most visits. For example, Mailchimp gets most of its organic traffic from the keyword “mailchimp.”

Since you’re unlikely to rank for your competitor’s brand, you might want to exclude branded keywords from the report. You can do this by adding a Keyword > Doesn’t contain filter. In this example, we’ll filter out keywords containing “mailchimp” or any potential misspellings:

Filtering out branded keywords in Organic keywords report

If you’re a new brand competing with one that’s established, you might also want to look for popular low-difficulty keywords. You can do this by setting the Volume filter to a minimum of 500 and the KD filter to a maximum of 10.

Finding popular, low-difficulty keywords in Organic keywords

How to find keywords your competitor ranks for, but you don’t

Go to Competitive Analysis
Enter your domain in the This target doesn’t rank for section
Enter your competitor’s domain in the But these competitors do section

Hit “Show keyword opportunities,” and you’ll see all the keywords your competitor ranks for, but you don’t.

You can also add a Volume and KD filter to find popular, low-difficulty keywords in this report.

How to find keywords multiple competitors rank for, but you don’t

Go to Competitive Analysis
Enter your domain in the This target doesn’t rank for section
Enter the domains of multiple competitors in the But these competitors do section

Competitive analysis report with multiple competitors

You’ll see all the keywords that at least one of these competitors ranks for, but you don’t.

Content gap report with multiple competitors

You can also narrow the list down to keywords that all competitors rank for. Click on the Competitors’ positions filter and choose All 3 competitors:

Selecting all 3 competitors to see keywords all 3 competitors rank for

Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Enter your competitor’s domain
Go to the Paid keywords report

This report shows you the keywords your competitors are targeting via Google Ads.

Since your competitor is paying for traffic from these keywords, it may indicate that they’re profitable for them—and could be for you, too.

You know what keywords your competitors are ranking for or bidding on. But what do you do with them? There are basically three options.

1. Create pages to target these keywords

You can only rank for keywords if you have content about them. So, the most straightforward thing you can do for competitors’ keywords you want to rank for is to create pages to target them.

However, before you do this, it’s worth clustering your competitor’s keywords by Parent Topic. This will group keywords that mean the same or similar things so you can target them all with one page.

Here’s how to do that:

Export your competitor’s keywords, either from the Organic Keywords or Content Gap report

Paste them into Keywords Explorer
Click the “Clusters by Parent Topic” tab

For example, MailChimp ranks for keywords like “what is digital marketing” and “digital marketing definition.” These and many others get clustered under the Parent Topic of “digital marketing” because people searching for them are all looking for the same thing: a definition of digital marketing. You only need to create one page to potentially rank for all these keywords.

Keywords under the cluster of "digital marketing"

2. Optimize existing content by filling subtopics

You don’t always need to create new content to rank for competitors’ keywords. Sometimes, you can optimize the content you already have to rank for them.

How do you know which keywords you can do this for? Try this:

Export your competitor’s keywords

Paste them into Keywords Explorer
Click the “Clusters by Parent Topic” tab
Look for Parent Topics you already have content about

For example, if we analyze our competitor, we can see that seven keywords they rank for fall under the Parent Topic of “press release template.”

Our competitor ranks for seven keywords that fall under the "press release template" cluster

If we search our site, we see that we already have a page about this topic.

Site search finds that we already have a blog post on press release templates

If we click the caret and check the keywords in the cluster, we see keywords like “press release example” and “press release format.”

Keywords under the cluster of "press release template"

To rank for the keywords in the cluster, we can probably optimize the page we already have by adding sections about the subtopics of “press release examples” and “press release format.”