Tips Tuesday – AI Generated Content, YouTube Shorts, Google Page Experience

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• Content Revamp How-To workshop is this week
• Why evergreen content is king on YouTube
• New tutorials for the Video SEO Booster course
• Our first ever masterminds are scheduled for BB Hub members
• What’s going on with Ezoic?
• Monetization alternatives to ads
• Mediavine ad speed settings
• How Astra continues to be tone deaf
• Phase 1 of Google’s Page Experience with Core Web Vitals is out
• Why what you see in Search Console is lying to you
• How to get real speed help
• Whether or not you want to shoot for a position zero feature in Google Search or not
• The best AI content generation tools and why I suggest you check them out
• Is AI generated content your friend or foe?

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Spill the Beans Livestream tonight

Do join us live tonight at 8pm ET / 5pm PT on the BlogAid Facebook Page. We spill the beans on this week’s news, breaking stories for the day too, and special info just for those who watch. And the replay is available here on this Tips Tuesday post later too. But the live party is so much more fun.

Replay

Who I Help

All BlogAid posts and tutorials are intended to assist business-minded, hands-on bloggers and webmaster designers who are serious about making money and who want to stay up-to-date with site changes.

BlogAid Happenings

I’m thrilled to report that we’ve had another slow site tech week with no fires to put out.

And that means I was able to be super productive at my desk and have all kinds of goodies for you.

Content Revamp How-To Workshop this week

We are coming to our last live pre-scheduled workshop for the year in the DIY SEO course.

In recent weeks we have been doing a series for making a content revamp strategy plan, including how to do a content audit and thinking through what to do with each post as far as rework or delete or republish – and how to do all of those things so you won’t create a negative SEO impact for your site.

We’re all about improving our SEO, right?

And this week’s workshop is all about the how-to of implementing that plan in ways that are good for your site’s disk space and your SEO.

And we will be at this for the rest of the year, as it takes time to put that plan into motion, especially if you have an older, established site with lots of existing content, or even if you have a new site and now know how to create content silos that are big winners for your SEO.

Made first post since Nov on Heartwood Art

Last week I celebrated making my first post on Heartwood Art since November!

That’s my woodworking site.

It was for how to make the cuts to create geometric shelving.

This seems to be a huge mystery thing for so many woodworkers, so I thought it would be a great tutorial for search both on Google and YouTube.

It was also my first YouTube video where I included affiliate links, as there were so few tools involved. So, we’ll see how that works.

Right now I make about $30/mo from Amazon links, and for the most part folks are purchasing items related to what the post is about, so that’s great.

Evergreen Content is King on YouTube

Despite the fact that I’m not constantly making new content for Heartwood Art, my new subscriber rate and watchtime for that YouTube channel continues to significantly increase.

And my site visitor analytics continues to climb too.

Eventually it is going to eclipse BlogAid.

This is the power of evergreen content at work.

And if I am not constantly posting new tutorials for BlogAid, it tanks on both Google Search and YouTube, which it has been doing for the past 2 years.

So, my big plan for BlogAid’s content revamp is to continue to delete that outdated content and start making new tutorials that have videos.

SEO is WAY harder to do on non-evergreen content site, like I have here for BlogAid. But it does get me new followers, and that seeds my paying client list for next year when they come in for a site audit or one of my courses.

Video SEO Booster new tutorials

YouTube is REALLY pushing their new Shorts feature and viewers are eating them up – to the tune of millions of views.

In fact, they are so hot that YouTube has created all manner of analytics and other features for them.

I’m in the process of finalizing a new YouTube Shorts section in the Video SEO Booster course.

That includes a setting for how to turn off the ability to make a Short from one of your longer videos.

Folks, YouTube is paying creators BIG money to encourage them to make Shorts. And you don’t want who knows who making snippets out of your longer videos. So, this is a big deal for anyone who has a YouTube channel.

I’m also updating a few of my regular YouTube tutorials for more details on what to check in your process as you upload a new video.

I hope to have all of these tutorials completed this week and will be launching the course just as soon as they are ready, and it won’t be long!!!

Masterminds schedule for BB Hub members

My site audit clients who are in the BB Hub member area will soon be enjoying a new mastermind series for the summer.

The first one will be on Instagram as it is hot, hot, hot for brands and several of my clients are getting sponsorship invitations.

So, we’re going to have a look at what they are doing, plus get tips on how to use Instagram in our first mastermind on July 1st.

Then on July 8 we’ll be doing a mastermind on making a contingency plan and actually getting everything on paper.

And then the rest of our mastermind schedule will evolve around ecommerce and making money from your own products. I’ll have more details on that for you later.

I am SUPER excited to host these sessions!!!! It’s just one more way we can all benefit from the power of our awesome village.

That’s all the happenings around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips.

Ads and Site Speed Tips

What’s really going on with Ezoic?

I want you to make money with your site. 

I also want to help you avoid expensive pitfalls that cost you money – that includes anything that is a bad user experience as well as security issues.

What I’m seeing with the Ezoic ad agency falls into both of those categories.

Ezoic has always been known as one of the less desirable ad agencies. And the only reason they are popular is due to their low barrier of entry. They even run specials to get new partners with zero traffic requirements. 

And such sites are not going to attract high-dollar ad spends either, so that should let you know all you need to know about the quality of their ads.

It is well known that the way Ezoic had been delivering those ads would tank your site speed too.

I heard a rumor that the folks who run a huge blogger course finally told Ezoic that they were going to drop their endorsement if Ezoic if it didn’t address those speed issues.

So, Ezoic made some sort of change to how they speed up your site and everything about it sounds super fishy to me.

The worst part is that you have to run your DNS, which is your domain name server, through them

Oh hell no!!!

And whatever they are doing with your site code is the same sort of trickery used by NitroPack.

Sure, it may result in a better speed score, but it’s hidden trickery.

There is nothing about this I can endorse doing.

For now, all of my site audit clients are removing Ezoic if they were using that agency when they initially got their site audit. They are waiting until they qualify for Mediavine or such. They just aren’t getting paid enough from the junky ads from Ezoic to make it worth keeping, especially with such a fishy setup that ties my hands from being able to fully secure your site, much less make it any faster.

Monetization alternatives

I totally understand the desire, or even need to start getting paid for all the content you’ve been creating.

I also totally understand how trying to monetize too quickly can actually delay you making real money, as a slow site with junky ads is actually going to turn traffic away.

And, I understand that blogging for ads is the slowest monetization route.

That’s exactly why me and my peeps are doing these summer masterminds which will help everyone move away from this model as their primary revenue source.

I’m serious when I say that I want to help you make money and I think the blogging for ad traffic bubble is popping. 

There are better ways to do this. Let’s get you there.

Mediavine ad speed settings

Mediavine has always done a good job of making their ads load in such a way as to not cause too many speed issues on your site.

And they have been continually improving those methods too.

I recently discovered that many of my site audit clients have been turning on some settings via their Mediavine setup without letting me know.

Folks, we are in a partnership to make your site fast and secure.

You already have a lot of speed and security tweaks on your site.

Anything else that you add to your site has to be coordinated with the things you already have.

Please do not just turn other stuff on without checking in about it first and giving us time to do testing.

Fortunately, I don’t think any of the speed tweaks added by MV have conflicted with anything yet, but I need to know exactly what they’ve done so I can help you coordinate with it in the future.

That’s especially true due to the way they code things, which very often does not play well with anything else in the WordPress Universe.

It’s so bad with both their Trellis theme and the Grow plugin, that I had to speak out about it last year.

I’m not saying not to go with MV products.

I am saying to be super careful about just jumping on anything that others say may speed up your site without any consideration for what you already have on your site.

And if you are a site audit client, be sure to let me know about it so we can properly vet it together first.

Theme Tips

Astra continues to be tone deaf

In a recent Tips Tuesday you may recall that I was thrilled that the Astra folks reached out to me and my webmasters to do a beta of their upcoming major releases.

The problem is that they only gave us a week’s notice and none of us were able to fit it into our schedule.

Right after that 3.5 release they came out with 3.6, which is another major release just one week later, with no beta testing invitation at all.

Not only did they do major releases for the Astra theme, but also Astra Pro, which gives you more styling options, as well as the Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg plugin.

That’s way too much change at once. And here’s why.

I have no idea if there are bugs in any of these releases because none of us have done them yet.

That’s because Astra has become really bad about issuing buggy releases that don’t just cause minor issues, they break our sites.

So, we are not inclined to want to do all of these updates together.

Maybe they are getting better, maybe not. All I know is that they have already released 3.6.1 within days of releasing 3.6. So that tells me that bugs were encountered immediately.

I like Astra. I want them to do well.

But I’m losing confidence in them from the pattern they have established of shooting us, and themselves, in the foot over and over.

That started with them pushing Elementor Pro over their own Astra Pro product, and over Gutenberg.

And then they included the Gutenberg plugin in their Starter Theme package.

And now they are remaining tone deaf to qualified folks who want to help them release tested updates that don’t break sites.

And this is the main reason why I’m leaning toward Kadence as the theme of choice these days.

It’s a good product that is remaining stable and making smart choices for their future growth.

I’m not kicking Genesis or Astra to the curb by saying this.

I’m just saying that I’m tired of being scared to update the site I have on Astra, and tired of being wary of what they may roll into a product that makes it evident they are tone deaf to both our needs and what’s happening with WordPress.

There’s being leading edge, and then there’s being so far ahead in your own cubicle that you’re completely out of touch. 

And that’s where I feel Astra is – out of touch with the WordPress world, and still mostly deaf to those who are trying to help reel them back in.

We will stick with them and continue to give them chances to turn this around, as they come to realize that folks like me and my webmasters are the ones who help influence what themes folks use. And when we start steering folks another way, maybe they will get the message. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to come to that.

SEO Tips

Phase 1 of Google’s Page Experience with Core Web Vitals is now out

Google completed rolling out the first phase of their new Page Experience algorithm on June 12. 

This phase includes Core Web Vitals.

Google didn’t tell us about the rollout until June 15. It took 10 days, which means that it started on June 2.

Another segment of the Page Experience algo will hit in August.

Rankings should not fluctuate much on high authority content, but may jump around on less authoritative content. If that happens, don’t expect to recover until after the August update.

READ: Core Web Vitals: What You Need to Know and Do for details.

What you see in Google Search Console is lying to you

The Core Web Vitals and Page Experience sections of Google Search Console is the last place you want to look for clues about improving your site’s metrics.

It is based on the CRUX report, which is feedback from Chrome users who visit your site.

Then the 75% mark of what is returned from those users is the average that Google uses to determine what’s going on with your site.

The report only updates every 28 days.

So, anything you are seeing in GSC is what was going on with your site a month ago.

And it varies too much to give you any real indication of what’s going on with your site.

Let’s say you have a whole bunch of folks with crappy slow internet connection visit your site one day. GSC is going to report everything on your site has issues.

Then a whole bunch of folks who are plopped down on their couch with their phone connected to their speedy wifi visit your site. Suddenly the report reverses and everything is fine with your site.

And that’s with you making no changes.

Get real speed test help

The fact is, speed and Core Web Vitals are just one of many factors that Google uses to determine the ranking of your content.

NOTHING about speed will overturn a high rank on authoritative content that closely matches the searcher intent.

Watching the speed related reports in GSC is a complete waste of your time.

You will not watch it regularly over a long enough period to gather the data like Google does. Nor will you analyze that data the way Google does.

All you will get is a false sense that everything is either fine or toast.

Instead, get a site audit with a pro who looks at this stuff every single day and who knows how to properly run multiple testers and who knows how to decipher and piece together the clues each one of those testers gives you, and then combines them with other data found in the whole site audit to get to the bottom of what is causing issues and can make a real plan for getting those issues resolved without any sort of trickery that will bite you in the butt and fail later.

Otherwise you are wasting your time, throwing darts in the dark with your guesses, and maybe doing things to your site that will be even more costly to remove and then fix in a good way.

Or, you may be tempted to hire someone who uses all manner of trickery that will be even more costly to remove later, especially given the fact that you have zero clue what they did.

I offer a “done with you” service. You will know exactly what the issues are and exactly what needs to be done to fix them. And you’ll know how to cooperate with those fixes to keep your site fast.

And as far as I know, I’m the last person standing who offers that type of service.

My BB Hub members, who are site audit clients that are getting all the extra perks and info that I don’t release to the public, receive the equivalent of a $100/mo maintenance package of info and tutorials to DIY the non-techie stuff so their sites stay fast and secure between audit checkups.

There is no such thing as once-and-done with speed and security. And that’s another way you might be getting ripped off with a service like that. The tweaks they did have to be maintained else they will bite you in the butt later.

I know this because that’s exactly the type of service some of my competition offers. And the breaks were so frequent that they had to close the one-off service and make it monthly maintenance members only so they could constantly tweak what they did.

And my clients who came to me after trying those services can testify that what I’m saying is true too. 

And they are making and saving more money now.

That is the bottom line of all of it, right?

That’s what I’m here to help you do!!!

Video SEO Tips

Do You Really Want a Zero-Click Ranking in Google?

Getting featured in position zero at the top of page 1 in Google Search used to our SEO dream.

But now, featured snippets like that are not resulting in a click over to our site.

In fact, this post from the Content Marketing Institute says that position zero placements are getting 65% less clicks than they used to.

Now, while that may be true for written content, it certainly isn’t true for videos.

You most definitely do want your YouTube video to be featured in position zero.

Most often you will get a click, even if it is to your YouTube channel.

If nothing else, you will gain watch time for your video, and that’s going to help with your YouTube rankings even more.

So, how do you get your video to be featured at the top of page 1 in Google?

That’s exactly what I teach you in the Video SEO Booster course.

And I’ll give you a hint. It’s based on the written content in your video description, including how you make Chapters. And that’s based on the original storyboard you make for both your video and your blog post. You get a double perk from the way I show you how to create that content!

Blogging Tips

The Best AI Content Generation Tools

In recent Tips Tuesdays you’ve heard me mention AI (Artificial Intelligence) and how it is now impacting our sites.

Last week I mentioned AI content generators and how they have radically improved.

Well, the nice folks over at Blogging Pro actually tested a few of the popular AI content generators that are publicly available.

What they found is that the generators perform pretty well for short-form content. But heavy human editing is needed for longer form content.

Here’s my take on it, and invitation to you.

Try one – or try them all.

Let them spin up some short-form content for you.

It may give you a fresh take on your own content generation.

We all have a “voice” that we write in. Maybe some AI generated content will inspire you in ways that give you a creative burst of energy.

And your readers will enjoy that enthusiasm too!

So, maybe the AI content is not worthwhile to use directly. But maybe it can be an inspiration machine for you.

AI Generated Content: Friend or Foe?

The nice folks over at the Content Marketing Institute also have a good overview of what AI content generators can and can’t help you with, including specific examples.

One of those examples was a non-profit agency that used AI to help them find new ways to say the same thing over and over and make it fresh.

The first thing that came to mind for me when I read that was getting help with generating a landing page or sales page. Those things can be super repetitive. 

They also suggest that it’s great as an idea machine to get you started with your writing.

Sometimes sitting and staring at that blank page is the most intimidating part of the whole process. 

And maybe AI can help you overcome that hurdle.

And do let us know what your AI content generation experience was like if you try it. Leave a comment here or anywhere you see this post online.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

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Be sure to visit BlogAid.net for more tips and resources and I’ll see you online.