YouTube + child safety: Is the service doing enough?

It has been a challenging month for YouTube.

As we recently reported, fresh concerns over child safety on the service came to light back on 17^th February.

In a video published to the site, vlogger Matt Watson details how the service is being exploited by paedophiles who were using comment sections under innocuous videos of children to leave sexually provocative messages, to communicate with each other, and to link out to child pornography.

Of course, journalists and news sites were quick to level criticism at YouTube. Many pointed out that this wasn’t the first time child safety on the service has been called into question. Others were critical that its methods for safeguarding children were too ‘whack-a-mole’ in their approach.

And then came the actions of the advertisers – with Nestle, AT&T and Epic Games (creator of Fortnite) all pulling their ads from the service.

So how has YouTube responded? Is it doing enough?

Memo directly sent to advertisers

On 20^th February YouTube sent out a memo to brands advertising on the service.

It detailed the ‘immediate actions’ it was taking to ensure children are safe in light of the recent allegations from Watson. These included suspending comments and reporting accounts to the NCMEC.

The memo reiterated that child safety is YouTube’s No. 1 priority, but also admitted there was more work to be done.

It laid out a roadmap of tweaks and improvements, including better improving the service’s ability to find predatory comments (set to be implemented this month) and potentially changing how ads are placed on channels.

Changes to Community Guidelines strikes system – are these related?

In a potentially related move, YouTube also announced via a recent blog post that it was going to make changes to its Community Guidelines.

The changes – which came into force on 25^th February – include a warning for users the first time their content crosses the line.

YouTube says: ‘Although the content will be removed, there will be no other penalty on the channel. There will be only one warning and unlike strikes, the warning will not reset after 90 days.’

The ‘three strike’ system still exists but is stricter and more straightforward. Now a first strike results in a one-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content to the service. Previously, first strikes just resulted in a freeze on live-streaming.

A second strike in any 90-day period will result in a two-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content. Ultimately, a third strike in any 90-day period will result in channel termination.

That YouTube has taken this opportunity to address its creator community directly is interesting.

The Guardian has reported that the fallout from Watson’s video resulted in a number of prominent YouTube users criticizing him, rather than the service. Their reasoning was that it was overreactive and a deliberate attempt to drive advertisers away.

Additionally, a report at ABC News shed light on stories from creators who have been the victims of false claims and extortion attempts by bad actors who promise to remove strikes only after they’ve received payment via PayPal or BitCoin.

With this in mind, we can see that YouTube have been quite diplomatic in how they’ve rolled this Community Guideline change out. Imposing stricter penalties against a backdrop of better transparency and simpler rules is quite laudable.

Further questions over safety since

In the wake of Watson’s video, further news stories have emerged which relate directly and indirectly to child safety on YouTube.

On 24^th February, pediatrician Free Hess exposed that some children’s videos available on YouTube Kids had hidden footage detailing how to commit suicide spliced into them (as reported at The Washington Post).

Additionally, on 25^th February the BBC reported that the service was stopping adverts being shown on channels which showed anti-vaccination content.

And the past couple days, widespread internet concern has raged over “The Momo Challenge,” a supposed challenge encouraging minors to do dangerous / potentially self-harming acts.

However, this morning The Atlantic reported that this has been a digital hoax. And that it has followed similar cycles as the so-called Blue Whale challenge, teens eating toxic Tide Pods, and the cinnamon challenge — all of which were found to have no reported deaths/injuries associated.

And yesterday, YouTube tweeted this:

We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.

— YouTube (@YouTube) February 27, 2019

The company has also just updated their Creator Blog with a post titled, “More updates on our actions related to the safety of minors on YouTube.”

In it, they summarize “the main steps we’ve taken to improve child safety on YouTube since our update last Friday.”

These steps include:

1. Disabling comments on videos featuring minors
2. Launching a new comments classifier
3. Taking action on creators who cause egregious harm to the community

It does seem that they are moving quickly to remedy the problems. But I think anyone would agree — they’ve had quite the month.

So the challenge is certainly ongoing…

All this does highlight the difficulty YouTube has in keeping all its millions of viewers, creators, and advertisers safe and happy.

We know the service is constantly updating its algorithm across its search function and its recommendations in order to give users better – more trustworthy – content.

We can also be quite sure that there has been a fair amount of activity in protecting minors on the service since 2017 when unsuitable content featuring Disney and Marvel characters was being found to be available on YouTube Kids. This timeframe is in line with the aforementioned memo which assures that the service has been working hard to improve in this regard for the past 18 months.

I’m not sure it’s entirely fair, then, to call YouTube’s approach to safeguarding children a ‘whack-a-mole approach’ or one which only sees the site take action when the instances gain media attention.

The sheer amount of content and users on the service is so massive, it depends on the community to produce the content and – at times – to monitor how it is used. In this instance, a user flagged an issue up and YouTube worked very quickly indeed. The service is always improving. But changes, tweaks, and improvements are not always newsworthy. The same can be said for Google.

Yes, there is more to be done. As online video continues to boom and the creator community continues to grow, we can expect issues to arise.

But I think it is unlikely that YouTube wouldn’t be proactive here. After all, its very existence depends on having great videos, trustworthy content, a safe community of users who are having a positive experience on the site, and an ecosystem where advertisers want to be.

The post YouTube + child safety: Is the service doing enough? appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

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Can AI Replace Your Boss?

Smart managers are the backbone of any business – but when leadership is running on empty, things can start falling through the cracks. When tasks begin piling up and managers’ attention is pulled in every direction, AI tools can step in to help.

Leadership roles in departments from payroll to administration services face up to 96% chance for computerization in the near future. But automation overhaul isn’t exactly a new concept; retail workers, service industry staff and everything in between has fallen risk to AI-replacement. Why should managerial work be any different? Machines can gather information, analyze the data, learn from past events, and most importantly, recommend solutions in the same way a human manager could, albeit much faster. But reliance on such programs doesn’t necessarily mean we are without responsibility; too much pressure on automation can lead to disastrous outcomes.

For Amazon, this took form in their “state of the art” hiring AI that was built to help fast-track the hiring process. With already over 600,000 employees on payroll, hiring is a big job for Amazon and this AI algorithm was expected to change the game. Until it didn’t. In order to teach the algorithm, it was fed ten years worth of resumes to identify successful hiring patterns. The previously male-dominated industry was evident in these successful hires and as development continued, the algorithm began to pick up on the pattern of gender discrimination. By 2018, the program was scrapped as the AI began penalizing resumes including the word “women” and filtering out listings of all-female colleges.

Hiring is perhaps one of the most personal and one of the most difficult of all business operations, especially for small business. Today, over half of small businesses use some form of tech to help move along recruiting, but smart leaders know there’s no substitute for a meaningful, in-person interview. The takeaway for automated management and its imitations is along a similar vein to AI in any other position – it simply lacks the human touch. So when office managers and project managers are spending their creative energies on mundane and repeatable tasks, they cannot away lead their team effectively. Here’s the AI that changes everything.

AI gives us a great opportunity to truly “work smarter, not harder.” Products specifically designed to reshape office management, like Managed By Q, turn regular tasks into a localized and cohesive platform. In this program, managing scheduling from maintenance to interviews is a snap, employees may submit requests with minimal workflow interruptions, and booking, communication, and billing are handled on a single place. Project management standards get a new look as well with AI tools that help break up even the most complicated projects into simple, easily achievable tasks. iCEO is one such platform that not only helps keep traditional employees on task and in communication but also communicated with freelancers and gig workers to manage progress that keeps everyone on the same page.

More than four in five businesses believe they could benefit from bringing in better tech, but that’s only half the battle. In spite of this, one in five businesses thinks it’s just too much of a hassle to buy and implement new tech. Here’s where to start. This infographic details the powerful new tools of the trade for managers, how they are helping us lead our teams better, refocusing daily operations, and finally giving us the time to concentrate on what matters. Will AI replace your manager? Let us know in the comments.

Source: MBA Central

The post Can AI Replace Your Boss? appeared first on WebProNews.

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The ultimate guide to UTM tagging

Google Ads’ Average Position Metric is Going Away

Earlier this week, Google announced they plan to sunset the average position metric. While this change won’t take place until September 2019, it’s still a major announcement that has a lot of search marketers worried. After all, average position is one of the main metrics that advertisers look at when making manual bid adjustments and assessing visibility and position on the SERP.…

The post Google Ads’ Average Position Metric is Going Away appeared first on Seer Interactive.

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Paying It Forward with Five for the Future

Excitement fills the air as we make our way toward another company-wide Five for the Future day tomorrow, March 1, 2019. Since 2014, WebDevStudios has passionately participated in Five for the Future, a WordPress initiative created to encourage agencies like ours to dedicate 5% of company time back to this open-source project and its community.

I think a good rule of thumb that will scale with the community as it continues to grow is that organizations that want to grow the WordPress pie (and not just their piece of it) should dedicate 5% of their people to working on something to do with core — be it development, documentation, security, support forums, theme reviews, training, testing, translation or whatever it might be that helps move WordPress mission forward.

-Matt Mullenweg

Our last participation in Five for the Future took place on February 1st. You can see below what sort of tasks we tackled and challenges we accomplished. Be sure to follow the hashtag #5ftf on Twitter tomorrow to keep up with our contributions in real time.

You can participate, too. Read this blog post for ways to get involved with #5ftf. Paying it forward leads to good karma and benefits everyone. Plus, it just feels good! We hope you join us.

 

It’s #5FTF at WDS today… and I’m working on finishing a fun project management blog post! https://t.co/XpY5uDFxqV

— Cristina Holt (@cristinaholt416) February 1, 2019

It’s another #5FTF here at @webdevstudios – what question do you have about running a #WordPress meetup or #WordCamp in your city? Ask away!

— Meagan Hanes (@mhanes) February 1, 2019

Getting my OOP on for #5FTF @webdevstudios / @maintainn. Updating my Auto Update Settings Manager plugin for people who don’t have support but want more control over the WordPress Auto Update process.

— Chrispian H. Burks (@chrispian) February 1, 2019

Sprucing up #Giphenberg (https://t.co/SXMod9qzHN) and #wd_s (https://t.co/5rtWqQ8avs) for today’s #5FTF at @webdevstudios!

— Corey M Collins (@coreymcollins) February 1, 2019

Today is #5ftf day at @webdevstudios! I’m working on fixing an internal React app that helps facilitate presentation submission and selection for our Lunch & Learns, which in turn helps our team rehearse eventual WordCamp talks!

— Jeremy Ward (@_jmichaelward) February 1, 2019

Here it is: WP-Strava 1.7.0 https://t.co/W9zFaHG8Mq Now with pace support thanks to @sebastianerb and some bug fixes care of @webdevstudios #5ftf @Strava

— Justin Fœll (@justinfoell) February 1, 2019

Finally got my WDS Coding Standards setup to work with composer! #5ftf @webdevstudios

— Eric Fuller (@ericpfuller) February 1, 2019

For the tail end of my #5ftf time yesterday, I contributed to the WordPress plugin for the #indieweb

— Michael Beckwith (@tw2113) February 3, 2019

Up until 5am last night working on wpkickstart, hopefully a release out today! https://t.co/EGEGq29m6b still #5ftf ing…

— Aubrey Portwood (@aubreypwd) February 3, 2019

The post Paying It Forward with Five for the Future appeared first on WebDevStudios.

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February 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

Since 2005, our mission at Practical Ecommerce has been to publish independent content — articles, seminars, podcasts — that helps online merchants. What follows are the most popular articles that we published in February 2019 ...

The post February 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.

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Conversational Marketing Closes the Gap Between B2C and B2B, Says Drift Marketing VP

The Best Paid and Organic Search Channels for 2019

As we enter another year, updating our marketing for emerging trends must take precedence. Today I will be looking at where to place your funnels to take advantage of both the best paid and organic search channels.

How many lead avenues do you need and where are your best opportunities? How do you adjust to the 2019 marketing landscape when modern consumer behavior is constantly changing? Let’s dive in.

How Many Is too Many Channels?

The first thing to look at is whether it’s possible to spread yourself too thin. Often, marketers try to tackle every lead avenue in a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” strategy. Is it possible to establish a presence in too many, or too few, search channels?

The first step in your strategy to increase organic search traffic is to determine where you’re stepping from — that is, where does your business stand today? Should improving your existing content take precedence?

Free Bonus Download: Get our free SEO guide for 20 easy tactics that can skyrocket your rankings, even in a competitive niche! Click here to download it for free right now!

We’ve helped Fortune 500 companies, venture backed startups and companies like yours grow revenues faster. Get A Free Consultation

My Case Study: Single Grain

As an example, when I started out with Single Grain, we only had 4,000 visits per month on our blog. When I took over, my first goal was to focus on creating better content. That’s it. No Facebook Ads, no Google AdSense. Just better, longer-form content.

It’s easy to forget that content is king. It’s not just a cliché. All the marketing proverbs surrounding content are true, and before even establishing a single funnel, it’s important to reach a point where your content is ready for the primetime.

The thing is, focusing on content first has key advantages. If you don’t have an audience yet, it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to make mistakes. Dust yourself off, learn, and understand that the damage done is minimal. Would you rather make mistakes with an audience of a couple thousand or your dream audience of a couple hundred thousand?

The more obvious advantage is that once you’ve really nailed your processes, you can be more efficient. Your content creation can go on autopilot to an extent. Your business has built up a sort of high metabolism, and you can focus on marketing much more easily.

It’s like how riding a bicycle can become second nature. You don’t really need to exert a lot of thought and effort into it once you’ve mastered it.

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Establishing a presence in search channels without strong content isn’t like riding a bike for the first time; it’s more like trying to ride a bike you haven’t put together yet.
Click To Tweet

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Don’t Neglect the Less Exciting Basics

Before searching for new marketing channels for direct traffic, be aware that what people longed for in 2018 is still largely missing: personal connection in almost every social channel.

Everyone is inundated with constant notifications and search ads from the myriad networks, both professional and casual. Therefore, forget about analytics, digital marketing channels and organic marketing for a second. Instead, understand that taking the time to cut through the noise with campaigns that are unique with something that says “I paid attention to you” works.

Yes, I’m talking about a cold email marketing strategy. In today’s world, however, they might as well be called warm emails. Carefully crafting a message that is unique and offers something special is increasingly important in order to distinguish yourself from all the formulaic marketing.

This is something I did when I was in my mid-20s when I was first setting up shop. I’d spend 20 or 30 minutes doing an analysis on a website I wanted to collaborate with. After 20 or 30 minutes a day—do the math—I was tired. But people opened them back then and we got clients.

If you don’t think that works even better today than it did for me when I was young, you’re not paying attention to modern trends. Despite being more connected than ever with social media, people feel more disconnected. This is not only a prime opportunity, but an unusual case of an old tactic becoming more and more valuable over time.

Of course, this kind of marketing strategy takes time, but it’s a natural step after your content is solid. It’s also a great way to begin networking if you feel that, no matter how well you’re performing, your business is missing those special connections. Besides, even a successful business should never stop shooting for the stars.

Learn More:

• How to Use Personalization to Increase the Impact of Email Marketing
• How to Get More Responses From Cold Emails
• 9 Cold Email Case Studies with Great Reply Rates
• Cold Email Templates that Get Responses
• The 8 Best Outbound Sales Automation Tools for Cold Emailing

Establishing Your Channels, The Free Way

Let’s say that everything I talked about above checks out for you: you’ve got a solid content creation machine going, and you’re doing the old tactics like cold emails that are more important than ever. What’s next?

First, forget about the platform itself, per se. Your first goal is to establish a community. In doing so, you need to find the best platform for you to engage viewers in discussions about your product.

The Addictive Nature of Facebook Groups

For most, the best platform is going to be Facebook Groups for a key reason: they’re engaging. People love interacting with Facebook Groups because they offer a component that’s largely missing from the rest of the site, and that’s the ability to talk with others connected by a common bond.

Most of the time, people interact with people they already know on Facebook, but Groups are different. Here’s why:

• Free Advertising. Not only are they naturally engaging, but Facebook understands this and right now Groups are experiencing heavy promotion. Their algorithms have been tweaked to push Groups to the top of user feeds.
• Start Out Unique. How do you get an audience?

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If I were starting from scratch, the most novel way to build an audience would be to use Facebook Live in tandem with Facebook Ads.
Click To Tweet

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You can even target those who viewed your Live video to draw them back in. Getting eyes on a Live video is relatively inexpensive, and people love video. The liveness adds a sense of urgency.

• Self-Perpetuation. It will take a few months of interaction on your part, but eventually, your group will self-perpetuate. Users will interact with each other, share content, and so on — all in your controlled environment.
• Capturing Data. I know what you’re thinking: you want control over the platform. That’s okay. Once your Group is full of an engaged audience, you can focus on capturing data through webinars or other sources. Redirect them to websites with free content in exchange for an email. Whatever works for you.

Free Bonus Download: Get our free SEO guide for 20 easy tactics that can skyrocket your rankings, even in a competitive niche! Click here to download it for free right now!

We’ve helped Fortune 500 companies, venture backed startups and companies like yours grow revenues faster. Get A Free Consultation

YouTube Live: Same Story, Different Platform

What do Facebook and YouTube have in common? They’re both eager to build a wide moat around their user base. Even though YouTube is fundamentally built on video content, like Facebook it promotes live content to keep itself fresh.

What does this mean for you? It means that, first of all, the algorithms that drive search on YouTube are prioritizing live content, giving you an automatic edge.

Look at it this way: if you’re going to make video content, just do it live. What do you have to lose? Virtually any video that could be done for your business could be done live.

Likewise, advertising for live videos is extraordinarily cheap right now. Spend a minimum of $50 on each live video. Just like Facebook Live, you can retarget viewers later to get subscriptions from them.

Dive Deeper: How to Use Live Video (Facebook & Instagram) to Grow Your Business

The Limits of Legacy: How Long Will Facebook and YouTube Matter?

Live video content on both networks is incredibly important for 2019, but be sure to capture as much user data as possible. No one can foretell when a network will experience a downturn.

That said, it is more likely with Facebook (and, by extension, Instagram) than with YouTube. YouTube is owned by Google, and YouTube is second only to Google Search by search volume.

Regardless, your ultimate goal is to capitalize on current trends, get what you need, and grow your business. Use that growth to nourish all your platforms.

Learn More:

• The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Advertising in 2019
• How to Grow Your YouTube Subscribers Without Spending a Ton of Money
• How to Work with YouTube Influencers to Grow Your Business
• A Step-by-Step Checklist For a Successful YouTube Ad Campaign
• YouTube Analytics: How to Understand & Measure Your Progress

Other Search Channels for 2019

While Facebook and YouTube are top choices due to their big push for organic traffic to your live content, there are several other great routes worth exploring.

Podcasts

The statistics behind how people are interacting with podcasts are amazing:

• 80% of listeners listen to all or most of each podcast episode
• People listen to an average of seven shows per week — that’s one a day!
• 26% of people listen to podcasts at least every month
• Podcast listeners subscribe to an average of 6 shows

Combine the loyalty of listeners, the addictive nature of podcasts, and explosive growth in popularity, and you’ve got one heck of an opportunity. There are many serious advantages here.

Eager Audience

It’s easy to promote podcasts, simply because content typically comes out weekly. Most shows last an hour or less. This leaves consumers actively looking for new content.

Captive Audience

Whether listening to a podcast in the car during a commute (22% of people listen to a podcast while driving) or putting it on to clean the house, listeners are much more captive than they would be with other forms of media. A YouTube video is one click away from losing a pair of eyeballs, but podcast listeners listen passively while doing other things.

Superb Demographics

While podcast demographics don’t skew enough from the general population to be inaccessible to anyone, there are some key takeaways about podcast demographics that should excite many business owners:

• 45% of monthly podcast listeners boast an income of over $75k, compared to 35% for the general population
• 27% of podcast listeners in the U.S. have a college degree, compared to 19% for the general population
• 94% of podcast listeners are on social media, compared to 81% of the general population
• 69% agree that podcast ads inform them of new services and products
• Podcast listeners follow brands and companies on social media more than the general population
• Podcast listeners are more likely to subscribe to streaming services — meaning they’re less exposed to TV or radio advertising

Clearly, the explosive growth of podcasts represents a unique opportunity if seized upon before the market becomes oversaturated.

Learn More:

• The Ultimate Guide to Podcast Advertising
• Why I Decided to Start Podcasting
• How We Built the Growth Everywhere Podcast to 109,000 Listens per Month
• Podcast Advertising: What You Need To Know

Cross-Leverage Your Content for Superior Results

Luckily, creating a podcast isn’t that difficult. After all, I’ve already suggested using live video, so creating a podcast is as simple as polishing up your transcript. Alternatively, you can write your podcast first, and then use that as the foundation for your live videos, allowing you to speak more naturally if you’re not used to speaking live.

For inspiration, check out my Growth Everywhere podcast and my Marketing School podcast (with Neil Patel).

Crowdsourcing

The gig economy has become a buzzword, and with more and more emphasis, everyone is turning to sites like Upwork, a freelance platform, to make their search for job fulfillment easier and more standardized. It works for large companies looking to cut costs, and it works for small companies who don’t have an HR department.

Depending on what your service or product is, find ways to take advantage of the gig economy. If you’re just starting out, it makes perfect sense to undercut the competition. It’s a kick-down-the-door approach that immediately makes you stand out.

Don’t forget that when we talk about search, sites like these host a massive amount of data that can be difficult for engines like Google to find. They’re their own shielded ecosystem in a sense, and anyone on these sites is bypassing Google anyway.

This is no small drop in the bucket, either. Looking at Upwork alone, there are 12 million registered freelancers along with five million clients. Business is done on the site to the tune of $1 billion.

That’s a whole group of professionals who aren’t using Google for their professional needs unless they have to. Why would they? They have a vast network right where they conduct business, and whatever social media network they’ve developed from this.

Free Bonus Download: Get our free SEO guide for 20 easy tactics that can skyrocket your rankings, even in a competitive niche! Click here to download it for free right now!

We’ve helped Fortune 500 companies, venture backed startups and companies like yours grow revenues faster. Get A Free Consultation

Learn More:

• 9 Effective SEO Techniques to Drive Organic Traffic in 2019
• How to Optimize Your Brand for Search Engines
• How to Understand Searcher Intent and Use It to Boost SEO Rankings
• Search vs. Social: Why Social Media Still Matters in the SEO Landscape

Putting It all Together

What hasn’t changed from one year to the next is the need to always assess where your business stands. The needs of an entrepreneur fresh out of school with no experience will be very different from a 10-year-old company seeking to adapt their practices.

The greener you are, the more you’ll have to earn experience before you have things to talk about and share. It’s not easy but bear in mind that you’re not the first. Everyone — literally everyone — has been there before.

Existing businesses need to balance their strategies. 2019 is shaping up to be an interesting year, with old players like Facebook and YouTube dominating trends, but the gig economy and interesting factors like podcasting are rising like glaciers on the horizon. It’s doubtful that we’ll see a digital version of old analog forms of work and entertainment sink major platforms, but the desire to connect with others legitimately grows ever stronger despite our being smack-dab in the middle of the “social media age.”

In 2019, the successful business is one that masters a social media presence with legitimate content and the warmth customers crave.

The post The Best Paid and Organic Search Channels for 2019 appeared first on Single Grain.

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How to dominate Google News search in 2019

A few weeks ago, Google published a blog post on its webmaster blog sharing some tips on how to get more success in Google News search in 2019. 

2019 will be a hard fight against fake news as fake news outlets are increasing with time. Along with some social media platforms, Google is also responsible for the spreading of fake and misleading news. If you are running a clickbait rich site with a lot of crappy content, you may encounter Google’s punishment this year.

Generally, Google looks at these five factors when ranking news articles:

• Freshness
• Diversity
• Rich textual content
• Originality of content
• User preferences for topics or publishers

To succeed in 2019 your news content should be original, authoritative, and should provide timely news information.

Six important tips for news content

1. Articles’ headlines should be clear. Keep it in the H1 tag. Headlines should be a minimum of 10 characters, between two and 22 words.
2. Use proper time and date. Show clear and visible time and date below the title and above the article. Use structured data.
3. Be transparent in your content. Fake news is a major problem on the internet, especially from the last American presidential election. Google will try to scan out fake news content in 2019. Best practice for this time is to create a very user-friendly site, not something crappy with lots of pop-ups and ads. Add detailed information, mention sources, make it authoritative.
4. Don’t be deceptive in your content. Don’t mislead. Misleading information in the content can ban you from Google.
5. Secure your website’s every page with HTTPS. A website that uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)  confirms a secure connection between the browser and user. It protects users’ sensitive information. For a news site, it is a very good search signal.
6. Don’t participate in link spam to increase your ranking. Don’t buy links.

The five ‘w’s

To write your news content, you can use this popular news writing formula. Ask yourself the five ‘w’ questions and answer them all in your first paragraph of news content. The main aim is to provide a lot of information in the first paragraph.

Internet readers have a small attention span and most people scan the content, instead of line by line reading. This is especially true for news.

Write your first paragraph answering these questions.

1. Who?
2. What?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why?

Use proper nouns in the headline

Generic nouns will not get as much attention as proper nouns in Google search. Use proper names of brands, organizations or of people related to your news in the headlines. If you can creatively use proper names where other news outlets are not, you will get a huge advantage in the Google News search.

Graphics, images and video content

Use graphics, images, and videos on your news content to explain your news or to provide more information. Google loves this. With engaging videos and graphics, you can attract more readers, and make your content more shareable.

But before sharing your multimedia follow the guidelines of Google.

Beware the sensational, exceptional, negative, and current (SENC)

SENC is sensational, exceptional, negative, and current events, which is a general definition of current news. But, if you follow this definition to produce your news, they will not be authentic or convey real helpful information.

Shocking, scandalous things can be viral, but these types of sensational news should not be your priority.

If you prioritize only exceptional things, your content will become misleading.

Current news is full of recency bias. The present most recent things, without much in-depth and background information. But every recent event has a root in something old and slow systematic change. In your news content, you should present the actual root cause as much as possible to make the content more authoritative. It will earn you good links and build your brand.

Your news should be foundational not sensational.

On publishing breaking news, you should not be in a hurry to publish it faster than your competitors. Instead, before publishing the content, ask yourself what new information your article will provide that is not found elsewhere.

Pay less attention to CTR, dwell time, and other UX signals on the landing page

According to recent AMA of Gary Illyes, Google webmaster trends analyst:

“RankBrain is a PR-sexy machine learning ranking component that uses historical search data to predict what would a user most likely click on for a previously unseen query. It is a really cool piece of engineering that saved our butts countless times whenever traditional algos were like, e.g. “Oh look a ‘not’ in the query string! Let’s ignore the hell out of it!”, but it’s generally just relying on (sometimes) months’ old data about what happened on the results page itself, not on the landing page. Dwell time, CTR, whatever Fishkin’s new theory is, those are generally made up crap. Search is much more simple than people think.”

This thread from a couple weeks ago caused quite a stir. Perhaps we distract ourselves too much from the “simplicity” of what is actually search?

Ps — what are your thoughts on RankBrain and UX? Leave a comment below!

Muradul Islam is a Business Analyst at WeDevs. He can be found on Twitter @muradt20.

The post How to dominate Google News search in 2019 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

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How to Find Seed Keywords and Explore Topic Clusters

Creating a short list of seed keywords is fundamental to search engine optimization, content marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. But for some marketers, the task of identifying seed keywords isn't clear.

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How to Write Headlines That Get Your Brand What It Wants [Checklist]

Counting headlines is an antiquated skill. But the sentiment should live on: Writing a headline that best fits its environment is what makes it great. Follow this checklist for headlines that work for your audience and your brand. Continue reading →

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How to get started with data-driven attribution in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is used by more than 28.8 billion websites since its inception in 2005. And many have attempted to find a ‘one size fits all’ approach as far as attribution models are concerned.

While this is admirable in and of itself, it also goes against the very nature of Google Analytics. After all, the USP of the service is to customize reports according to your requirements. So why should attribution models be any different?

What is attribution?

Before we dive in any further, however, you must understand what we mean by attribution. In Google Analytics, the term attribution can mean lots of things, from giving credit for visiting the website to completing a particular activity, from a campaign to a kind of source. Attribution is mainly used for conversions and sessions.

Data-driven attribution

Now, attribution models can be of various kinds, but the one generating a lot of buzz lately is data-driven attribution. Rather than a traditional model, this algorithmically-generated model is exclusive to customers of Google Analytics 360 which offers an easy way to provide personalized experiences to your customers. Plus, you need to meet these two parameters across a period of 28 days:

• 400 conversions of every type with a minimum of two interactions in every conversion.
• 10,000 paths on your site, which is akin to 10,000 site users. However, a single user can create numerous navigational paths.

The standout feature of data-driven attribution is how it considers the touch points of the users before the start of the conversion process. The Model Explorer Tool reports these touch points. The data is then reviewed.

The data-driven attribution model serves as a baseline model in Google Analytics, enabling you to create new personalized attribution model. Create the new data-driven attribution model to share conversion credit with multiple touch points along the path of conversion before the implementation of personalized credit rules.

Use the data-driven attribution model to analyze both, the non-conversion and conversion path information. The latter is data gathered from visitors who were not converted by your site while the former is collected from the ones who did convert. A unique aspect of the data-driven attribution model is how it changes weekly.

Why does the data-driven attribution model work?

Understand that this model offers credit to the conversions of various touch points or marketing channels according to what they contributed in the conversion process. The touch point or marketing channel that offers the most assistance receives the most amount of credit for conversions, irrespective of whether it’s the initial touch, the middle touch, or the last touch. The rest of the touches or channels receive credit as per what they contributed during the conversion process.

As the task of assigning conversion credits depends on the latest conversion information rather than the touch point positions, the attribution becomes data-driven. This not only eliminates the need to assign random conversion credit to numerous touch points or channels but also explains why the entire model is called the data-driven attribution model.

Make it a point to remember that the validity of data-driven attribution lasts for a certain period of time since the model changes along with the conversion information.

What your business needs to implement the DDA (Data-Driven Attribution) model?

Never think for a second that an algorithm-based attribution model such as this one can be implemented by every business. First, meet and maintain various strict requirements, and only then can your business handle the data-driven attribution model.

1. Access to a Google Analytics 360 account

Unless you have a Google Premium or Google Analytics 360 account, you cannot use the data-driven attribution model.

2. High-quality data and its availability

Always remember that your DDA model’s strength rests on the information you submit. So a poor entry will beget poor results.

Now, the problem is, most organizations might be able to download and install Google Analytics 360, but they stumble hard when it comes to figuring out how to benefit from the service.

What’s more? Even though they have the resources to hire experienced analysts, they cannot always create and maintain large volumes of quality data gathered from different data sources.

Thus, the insights received from the DDA model are likely misleading, flawed, and unusable.

3. Compatibility of KPIs and goals

The KPIs and goals you select for your business need to align across organizations and marketing channels. Otherwise, the data-driven attribution model does not work. So, if the primary Twitter campaign target is to improve site sales, then your Facebook campaign goal should also be the same.

4. Conversion tracking

Set goals in Google Analytics Premium to monitor conversions as well as ecommerce. Using this conversion information, Google Analytics generates the data-driven attribution for your business, irrespective of whether you are permitted to use it or not.

5. Importance of meeting and maintaining the minimum conversion threshold

Be certain that the Google Analytics Premium view to be generated meets the minimum conversion threshold. Also, know that it doesn’t matter if your Google Analytics’ view meets the minimum conversion threshold once; it does not allow for continued DDA analysis in Google Analytics. Make sure the minimum conversion threshold is maintained.

6. Minimum conversion threshold for every type of conversion

The Google Analytics view you’ve selected must not only meet the minimum conversion threshold for every type of conversion; it needs to be maintained as well. Each kind of conversion generates its own DDA model, and it’s always possible that the generated DDA model works for certain conversions but not all.

If you’ve implemented data-driven attribution and the generated model does not work for that conversion, then GA is going to flash a warning sign right above the attribution model reports.

Valuate your organic search channel with the DDA model

Open the ‘Model Comparison Tool’. Begin a comparison between the ‘last non-direct click’ and ‘data-driven’ model and the ‘last interaction model’.

It is best to select the ‘last interaction’ model as it is the basic model for Google Analytics’ multi-channel funnel reports. The ‘Last non-direct click’ works since it is the basic model for non-multi-channel funnel reports. Finally, choose the ‘data-driven’ model rather than ‘time decay’ because:

• The former not only analyzes the details from the Google Analytics account but other linked accounts as well, such as Google Ads, Doubleclick Campaign Manager, etc.
• The DDA model uses an algorithm to assign credit to conversions, which is more reliable than credits given through the ‘Time Decay’ attribution and/or manual conversion.

Check the column labeled ‘% change in conversions (from ‘Last Interaction’) to find ‘organic search’

Use this report to measure the percentage by which organic search conversion changed from the previous interaction model to the data-driven model. In this case, you can see that it is 22.66 percent. This means if the DDA model is used to offer organic search conversion credits, the process will yield 22.66 percent more credits. So, the last click model undervalues organic search by 22.66 percent.

Once you’re done, download the DDA model into an excel sheet by simply clicking the button marked ‘Download the full model’ to the above right side of the ‘Model explorer tool’.

Concluding remarks

Choose the data-driven attribution model in Google Analytics to implement it for your business and experience the benefits. There are lots of other attribution models available but this model is in a league of its own.

The post How to get started with data-driven attribution in Google Analytics appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

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Link building for bloggers

As your blog grows, the situations you’re dealing with seem to become harder. Whoever says blogging is for the lazy, has not dealt with optimization for search engines, the ever-changing algorithms of Facebook and Instagram, the best practices of Pinterest or the ever dreaded link building.

What is link building?

Link building means, in short, that you’re getting links from other websites to your own blog. It helps your posts to rank. Link building is not an easy task, as you are depending on third parties to link to your website. And not only that, you don’t want a link from every website. Spammy websites or websites that have little to do with your niche, are not valuable at all. I’ve tried link building, the holistic SEO way, and will share my experiences here. If you want to learn more about this, read this article Marieke wrote about link building from a holistic SEO perspective.

Asking for relevant links

To get relevant backlinks, you should know the websites you would like to get a backlink from. Send them a polite email requesting to place a link to your content, if it’s relevant to their audience as well. Please note that often, you will not get a reply at all. To improve your chances of getting a link to your website, your content should really be unique. Trying to get a link for a blogpost that is extremely basic and could’ve been written by anyone, is less likely to succeed than when you provide some very good content: content people can only find on your website. If you, for example, are a planner guru or the nation’s funniest mom blogger, it’s way easier to get a link to your website than if you just started out.

Facebook Groups

Do your hands get sweaty by the idea of having to email your fellow bloggers to ask for links? Fear not! Luckily, there are a lot of Facebook Groups, where bloggers post they might be working on a blog post that, for example, collects the best recipes for Easter, the best bullet journal tips or something different. You can often drop your link in the comments if you’ve written about the topic requested and with a little bit of luck, you’ll be featured in a blog post. It depends on your country which Facebook groups could be suitable, so ask your fellow bloggers or look around on Facebook.

Guest blogging

Another option to get links to your website, is through guest blogging for other blogs. Often, blogs are looking for input from fellow bloggers and in return will let you link to your own content. You’ll not only get a link to your website from a relevant website, you’ll get attention from the readers of that particular blog as well. Visit your favorite blogs and check to see if they accept guest submissions. They’ll usually mention this on their contact page or their collaboration page. Please note that a website could have certain guidelines before they accept your guest blog. It has to be unique content, but it also has to be in line with that website.

Do your thing

Link building for bloggers can be hard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When you’re already working on optimizing your posts, finding your voice and creating original blog posts, you might not want to add another massive project to your list. Because that is what link building is: it is not something you do just once. That’s why I’ve decided to quit my attempts at link building. I find it removes the focus from my blog entirely and turns into a popularity contest, at least in my mind. Not only that, I am not someone who finds it easy to reach out to other bloggers to request links in their content.

Instead, I’ve decided to focus on my own website and on helping others. I’ve found that I’ve received backlinks whenever I give a talk at a conference or after I helped someone with their website. This is not something that I take for granted, but when it happens, I realize why I’ve spent a few hours helping a blogger out with a bug on her website. For me, this means that I stay true to my own beliefs without having to focus on an entire strategy that is not my thing. And I found out that this is a link building strategy in itself: it helps my reputation as a blogger in the Dutch community. Find whatever works for you. And if you are actively building links, could you tell me your strategy?

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5G Will Enable the Industrial Revolution

We’ve been talking about 5G for a very long time and now the opportunity is really here, says Kathrin Buvac, President and CSO of Nokia Enterprise. “We’ve said for a number of years that 5G will enable the Industrial Revolution.” Buvac added. “It’s clear that 5G has to be a lot more than mobility services. When I talk with enterprise customers I really do believe that these productivity gains that are spoken about are real. Operational efficiencies, process automation, all the way to dark factory operations to full autonomy, that is really what’s coming.”

Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), discusses how 5G will enable the Industrial Revolution at the Bloomberg CEO Forum at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

5G Will Enable the Industrial Revolution

We’ve been talking about 5G for a very long time and now the opportunity is really here. We’ve said for a number of years that 5G will enable the Industrial Revolution. It’s clear that 5G has to be a lot more than mobility services. When I talk with enterprise customers I really do believe that these productivity gains that are spoken about are real. Operational efficiencies, process automation, all the way to dark factory operations to full autonomy, that is really what’s coming.

Before we go to the deep depths of 5g technology I think they’re really two things. One is the convergence of IT and OT technologies. Enterprises need to bring their enterprise IT services and the operations technology together. That is not so easily done. The other thing is digital. Think about Amazon and Netflix and what they’ve done transforming physical goods, books into eBooks, and DVDs into streaming. That will not be possible unfortunately with Industry 4.0, meaning we cannot digitize a crane or a truck in a mine. That’s just not possible.

Industrial Digital Twins Powered Via 5G

What we will do is create digital copies of the big machines or robots. That is what we call the digital twins. What that has to do with 5G technology is that it all starts in connecting these sensors, these machines, these robots, these devices, the co-workers in the factories, in the minds, and in the energy networks. That is where ultimately we will need 5G technology because of the big promise of lower latencies or higher bandwidth capacity, etc.

I think there are a few geographies that are leading the industrial automation. I would say from our standpoint it’s clearly the US. It is clearly Germany where car manufacturing and many manufacturing opportunities are coming. It’s Japan and it’s a few other geographies across the globe that are really leading the pack right now in terms of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that we have to look into.

The Industrial Opportunity is Striking

One thing that is striking me is the industrial opportunity. Over 15 million industrial sites will be deployed in the next decade. We have today 6.5 to 7 million base stations deployed in LTE worldwide. So it’s more than double the number of industrial sites that we somehow all together need to deploy to enable IoT. How are we going to do that?

There is the issue of spectrum availability. We have to be super creative, whether that is shared license, CBRS, 3.5, large scale carrier subleasing spectrum, and making money through that. It’s so critical and that also determines which country, which geography, which enterprise customer will go first. Industrial devices will just not be as quickly available as the smartphone’s which will be made available this year. There is still a lag.

5G Is a Complete Redefinition of the Network

5G is a complete redefinition of the network. We have all discussed AI, edge, and cloud. But we have to bridge now for a couple of years for enterprise customers as we take them to 5G. The question is really because enterprise customers want to leverage productivity gains now, not tomorrow, like yesterday. The question is really how do we do that? Can we potentially provide private wireless networks, with the help of our telco customers, to enterprises that can then just be a software upgrade to 5G? We would do this while we deploy industrial sites today based on LTE technology.

Enterprise customers are wired a little bit differently than us consumers. think about uplink video. We’re just so used to down-linking from tablets as consumers. We need a lot of uplink capacity if we use email or if we browse. If for a millisecond the network doesn’t work it bothers us, but it’s not the end of the world. But we need six nines reliability in the network in order to make sure we have the unmanned vehicles in the mines or the robots and the factories running precisely with that accuracy. A lot of work is needed still to get the 5G networks where they need to be, but it’s really exciting times to build that infrastructure.

>> Watch the full Bloomberg CEO Forum discussion.

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Shopify Excelled in 2018, Attracted More Merchants

Operating in the shadow of online marketplaces and located in Ottawa Canada, Shopify — an ecommerce platform provider — does not get as much attention as it should. A $41 billion business, Shopify is the choice of approximately 820,000 online merchants in 175 countries, growing from 600,000 in 2018.

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The Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Mega Guide

The 3 Best Copywriting Formulas for Email Marketing

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a recipe to follow when it came to writing your emails? A recipe that not only sparks interest among your subscribers, but also encourages them to complete a call-to-action? You can! Many marketers use copywriting formulas, which are proven structures to help you write all your copy faster and with greater likelihood of success. Copywriting formulas provide a starting point to help you organize your message for the most persuasive impact. It’s how you turn so-so copy into killer copy, and convert subscribers into buyers. Take a look at three tried-and-true copywriting formulas that are optimal for email marketing, below. You can also use them on your social media feeds or in blog headlines, too! That way, you reach your audience no matter where they are.

Copywriting Formulas for Email Marketing

Formula 1: F-A-B

You understand your product or service from the inside out, but it can be tough to communicate all the important details about it in an email or two. Plus, you run the risk of losing your reader’s interest if you drone on too long about your product features. Yes, it’s important to explain the features of your product — but where the magic happens is when you connect those features with the advantages and benefits they bring to your customers. With the F-A-B formula (which stands for Features, Advantages, Benefits), you can touch on your product’s bells and whistles, but you focus on why a person would find your product beneficial. Here’s the breakdown:

• Feature: Briefly explain the elements of your product. Keep it short and sweet.
• Advantages: Highlight why these features are unique and how they can make a difference in your customer’s business, life, etc.
• Benefits: Showcase the value of your product and how it can solve your customer’s problems.

The emphasis is on why your product’s features are great and how they can help your customers rather than dissecting each feature ad naseaum. So, how can you implement this formula? It might look something like this:

{Insert feature} will help you {insert advantage} so you can {insert benefit}

Example of F-A-B in a Tweet: Our wireless Smart Robot Vacuum will clean your pet’s hair off floors and carpets, so you don’t have to spend time chasing down hairballs.

These same principles can be used in subject lines or stretched out to serve as body copy. For the latter, you may expand on the advantage and benefits in multiple paragraphs to really drive the value home.

Formula 2: P-A-S

It may not come as a surprise that P-A-S made our list, but it’s a tried-and-true copywriting formula that works for just about every scenario. In fact, marketing legend Dan Kennedy calls it the most reliable sales formula ever invented. Let’s take a look at how it works:

• Problem: State your audience’s issue.
• Agitator: Agitate the problem by talking about why it’s a problem in the first place.
• Solution: Solve your audience’s issue by presenting your product or service as the solution.

This copywriting formula works best if you focus on the "A" aspect. To “agitate,” you need to stir up all the negative emotions attached to their problem. Make the reader squirm in their seat. Get inside their head. And just before they’re ready to scream “Enough!”, present them with a solution (your product or service!). (Not sure what your audience’s "P" — a.k.a. their biggest problem — is? Here’s a great guide to finding your subscribers’ biggest pain point.) Here’s how you could use it: State a problem: Got pet hair all over your carpet or floor? Agitate the problem: More pet hair means more time sweeping your floors. You're already busy enough. Do you really want to spend all this extra time cleaning when you could be doing other things? (Like napping or reading or watching Netflix.) Present the solution: Or you could control your pet hair problem with our new Smart Robot Vacuum. Just charge it, turn it on, and get back to your day. Like the F-A-B formula, the P-A-S formula translates well on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or in headlines because of its directness. Using this same example, you could send a Tweet that says:

Pet hair everywhere? Spending more time cleaning up pet hair means less time for the things you want to do — like napping or watching Netflix. You could spend time sweeping every day, or you could let our Smart Robot Vacuum clean it up FOR you.

The P-A-S formula is excellent for subject lines, but it’s also a fast and easy way to explain your value proposition in a quick way. Many email marketing geniuses use this formula in their own emails. Here’s an example from Paula Rizzo, an AWeber user and a TV producer who has an entire side business called The List Producer. Through this business, she helps customers stay organized with various checklists and courses. Subscribers who sign up for Rizzo’s email below have stated they’re feeling a lack of control in their digital world. Their inbox is overflowing and they can’t keep up! In her first email, Rizzo welcomes her new subscriber, tells them a little bit about her business, and then launches into agitating their problem. The agitation section is shown below: Then, Rizzo hits the reader with a solution: a paid course “Take Back Your Inbox: Stop Drowning in Unread Messages, Respond Quicker and Finally Achieve Inbox Zero.” (Check out all that’s included in her $47 course.)  

Formula 3: A-I-D-A

A-I-D-A is arguably one of the most-used copywriting tactics of all. First, here’s what it stands for:

• Attention: Catch the reader’s eye.
• Interest: Pique their interest with a compelling setup.
• Desire: Make them crave the thing you’re offering.
• Action: Tell them how to get the thing.

This is a classic formula for selling, so it makes sense to deploy it in an email environment where you want readers to take action and move from their inboxes to the next stepping stone in the conversion path. Here’s how you could use it: Attention: No matter how much you love your pet, there’s probably one thing that drives you nuts. Interest: Pet hair is a never-ending battle (and it’s one you’re always losing). Right? Desire: Smart pet owners know it doesn’t have to be that way. The Smart Robot Vacuum is always on top of hairballs (so you don’t have to be). Action: Click here to get 20% off your purchase today only! With a simple, actionable setup that solves problem and reduces a customer’s pain points, this formula is a sales-driving machine not only in emails, but also on landing pages and in video scripts.

Stretch it out!

You can use these copywriting formulas in one email — or you can expand it over a series of automated emails. For instance, with P-A-S, you could use it over the following 5-email series: Email 1: Introduce the reader’s biggest pain point Email 2: Agitate the problem Email 3: Really get in there! Agitate the problem some more. Start to hint that there may be a solution for their issue... Email 4: Offer the solution — your product or service! Email 5: If the reader doesn’t convert, you can offer a coupon or special incentive to buy. Digital marketer gurus like Amy Porterfield, Henneke Duistermaat, and Jeff Walker have used similar email series when they launch a new online course or product.

Additional copywriting tips

Once you find a copywriting formula that works best for you, keep these tips in mind as you begin writing. Avoid jargon Using words that your customer may not understand is a quick way to lose their interest. Make sure they understand your message and what value you can provide them. Nail the subject line It’s been said a million times, but it rings true. Having a solid subject line that piques the interest of your subscribers will ensure the email content you worked so hard to create has a chance to be seen. Be sure to deploy A/B testing to find your strongest option. Related: 6 Email Split Tests You Can Set Up in 1 Minute Be conversational Being personable with your copy is a great way to engage with your customers and show them that there are real humans behind your brand. Conversational tones not only make your brand sound more relatable, but it’ll ensure your customers understand what you’re saying, too. For more email copywriting advice, check out our full list of copywriting tips.

Formulas save time and maximize ROI

Copywriting formulas are an excellent way to make sure you communicate your message clearly and present it in a way that will be most receptive to your audience. Different formulas work for various products and messages, so keep testing and tracking what you learn from each formula use. Ready to see a greater ROI on your email marketing? Sign up for AWeber today or contact a Customer Solutions member. (Our team is available 24/7 at our Pennsylvania headquarters!)

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Forecasting Marketing Data At Scale

Written By Annmarie Stockinger & Lindsay Stecklein

What if we told you that you can make informed decisions using forecasts for the most common business predicaments? And what if we sweetened the deal by saying you could have the answers to these questions constantly at your beck and call?…

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Why Done is Better Than Perfect is Now a Broken and Unworkable Philosophy

Facebook’s mantra for developers has long been “Move Fast and Break Things.”

This idea of doing something, even if it’s not ideal was also adopted by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, who serves as the tech Oprah for millions of people. Her version of the slogan is “Done is Better than Perfect.”

In the startup and “personal brand” worlds, the premise of “just ship it” is dogma so universally embraced that it joins the “hustle” mantra to form the twin peaks of self-actualization.

Even acknowledged genius Seth Godin advocated for releasing work with known flaws. In his book Poke the Box, Godin urged readers to behave more like computer programmers, shipping out minimum viable products and improving them in real time. In this way, at least when he wrote the book in 2010/2011, Godin was aligned with the Facebook approach of anything goes, as long as it goes.

And in those days — just 8 or 9 years but seemingly a lifetime ago — customers were wandering around in slack-jawed wonderment, giddy about all the new innovations that improved their lives.

In 2010 alone, Facebook passed Google to become the most-visited website, making social networking fully mainstream.

The iPad was launched, creating a whole new computing category.

Foursquare got popular, kicking off the notion of location-based personalization.

Microsoft Kinect appeared for the Xbox 360, taking the “your body is the controller” trend up a level after it was created by Nintendo’s Wii.

The Apple app store took off, ushering in a whole new way to get software and media.

Netflix became the #1 app for iPhone in 2010, making portable streaming viable for all.

Groupon was Time Magazine’s #2 iPhone app for 2010, popularizing the daily deals business model.

In short, technology and customer experience advances were MASSIVE in this period, with meaningful shifts in consumer computing, connectivity, and entertainment.

And in this period, a philosophy of “Done is Better Than Perfect” may have added up. The public was justifiably blown away by the scope and scale of these advances, so if the Kinect was a little buggy or the app store was hard to figure out — whatever. It’s worth fighting the frustration to get access to something that has a fundamental impact on how you interact with others or spend time.

Today, however, the scope and scale of the advances are primarily in the “same but more” and “same, but a little better” category. Bigger TVs. Faster streaming. Some AR/VR frosting on the same, old cake. A paradox of choice at every turn. Even what is billed as “new” isn’t all that “new” these days.

And for their part, it’s vastly more difficult to shock and awe consumers today. All the amazing advances of the recent past have raised the bar again and again and again such that customer expectations are higher than ever and continue to escalate.

I vividly remember when the Taco Bell restaurant in my town went to 24-hours-a-day. It was like a magic trick performed with refried beans and a talking Chihuaha. Now, everything is 24-hours-a-day, and I couldn’t care less. I expect it now.

When Zappos popularized free, two-way shipping? We throw around the term “game-changer” with regularity, but that actually altered the fabric of e-commerce, forever. Today, most online stores offer free, two-way shipping. They can’t NOT do it, because consumers expect it.

This is the yoke of customer experience, and why CX optimization is so hard in companies. CX is one of the only elements of business where consumer expectations go up and up and up. What was a remarkable customer experience three years ago is commonplace today.

Simultaneously, the long-running economic expansion has also helped shape how and why customers buy. When times are bad, price becomes the primary criterion. But when times are good, consumers take other attributes into account when making a decision. And these days, customer experience is a driving factor in more, and more, and more purchases.

Research from Walker suggests that customer experience will be the deciding factor in a MAJORITY of B2B purchases by next year.

A research study from PwC shows that 75% of Americans say customer experience is an important factor in their buying decisions.

Further, consumers will pay up to a 16% price premium for a great experience.

And, 63% of consumers say they’d provide more, personal data in exchange for better CX.

In this present-day era, where consumers are making decisions that are significantly dictated by customer experience, how in the world do you justify putting a product or service into the marketplace that is knowingly less than great?

The whole idea of “Done is Better Than Perfect” is that speed trumps quality. But today, if you make that trade-off, you are strategically and purposefully sacrificing customer experience for nimbleness. That may accomplish corporate goals. and may help you cross some parking lot items off your next 2-week product dev sprint, but it does NOT serve the customer.

Right now — and at least until the economy turns markedly worse — customers want it ALL. They want it fast, and they want it great. To give them something less than your best because you’ve convinced yourself that okay is adequate as long as you’re moving fast is counter-cyclical at best, and ritual business suicide at worst.

The entire wheelbarrow of startup culture thinking that prioritizes progress over making the customers’ job easier has merit when consumers are genuinely delighted that your new thing finally exists (even imperfectly). But those days are long past. And thus, until further notice, it’s time to put a giant fork in “Done is Better Than Perfect” and similar claptrap, for they are well and truly past their prime.

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