Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 42 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
ICYMI Wednesday: A secret about page views, and the difference between two key GA4 dimensions.
Contents
I. ‘Helpful Content Update’ 2.0 is Underway
II. Instagram Acknowledges ‘Shadowbans’
III. The Bot That Takes Our Jobs Might Finally Be Here
IV. Continuous Scrolling Comes to Desktop Search
V. Another Step Toward De-Botting Twitter
VI. Trend Reports Abound (But Are They Useful?)
VII. You Can Schedule Your Valentine’s Reels Now
I. ‘Helpful Content Update’ 2.0 is Underway
Google search’s second “helpful content update” in the last five months is underway.
This one began Monday and is expected to take “up to two weeks.”
Google Search's helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.
🛠 Why does this matter? I have harped on this repeatedly, but it’s worth reviewing:
Google algorithm updates are typically a positive thing for those creating “original, helpful content written by people for people.”
That means less aggregation and more original, quality writing.While AI tools are rapidly improving (see No. II) – and many people claim to have success ranking with them – the safest path forward is having an actual person write your content
Search updates are not “penalties.” If you see traffic go down during or shortly after an algorithm update, it may mean your content is not as closely aligned with the new “standard.” But it’s not a “penalty” – or “manual action” – which is something completely different
Monitor your organic Google referral traffic during this (and any other) update(s). Stays the same or increases? Great! Goes down? Time to investigate, starting with Search Console and Google Analytics 4.
•
II. Instagram Acknowledges ‘Shadowbans’
For months, if not years, users have complained about their content being “shadowbanned” on Instagram.
Shadowbanning is when, without your knowledge (at least at first), your posts aren’t distributed to other users.
For example, if you have 1,000 followers and you post a Reel that’s only seen by 70 people in a week, when your posts are Reels are typically seen by 10,000 people, that post may have been shadowbanned.
This is obviously an issue, especially when it comes to reaching accounts that don’t follow you in places like the Explore tab.
Now, without using that word, Instagram has acknowledged the practice while providing solutions to combat it.
To find out whether your post is “eligible to be recommended to non-followers,” go to Settings > Account > Account Settings.
From there, Instagram will tell you three things:
If your account’s content can be recommended
If not, the related issues
How to fix the issues
This feature is available for professional accounts.
🛠 Why does this matter? With the TikTok-ification of Instagram, the Explore tab has become a key way for accounts to be discovered by new users, and therefore organically increase follower counts.
Obvious benefit: Think going viral with a Reel and pulling in hundreds of new followers that will then be much more likely to see your content in the future.
When your content is shadowbanned, though, it’s nearly impossible to grow your account organically.
Going forward, if one of your Reels (or other posts) gets significantly less reach than usual, go to your Account Status tab and make sure you still see this message to confirm you weren’t shadowbanned:
•
III. The Bot That Takes Our Jobs Might Finally Be Here
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but people are doing some incredible (and useful) things with ChatGPT, the AI chatbot created by Open AI.
(This is the same company that created DALL•E.)
Check out this thread for some interesting uses:
🛠 Why does this matter? I tried to get some cheap lunch recommendations while we’re in Copenhagen. (That’s why this newsletter is a day late – sorry, we’re on vacation!)
The results were mostly unhelpful but still impressive:
Then I copied and pasted the text of this entire newsletter and asked for some help with the subject line. (As you can see, I didn’t take ChatGPT’s advice.)
If you enter the Twitter thread pasted above, you’ll see that the bot is capable of formulating an entire SEO strategy, even if it is a bit basic.
Keep in mind that this tool is in its earliest stages, and by its very nature (the way I understand AI), will only improve over time.
While I’m avidly anti-AI when it comes to letting a bot do all your creative work without any refinement, I do think this could be a useful tool for generating ideas and saving time, depending on the task.
If you play around with the tool and find any interesting uses, I would love to hear about them.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Gerick News(letter) to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.