Tips Tuesday – DIY SEO Workshops, Big Email Changes, Strategic Shorts Use
Tips this week include:
- DIY SEO Workshops start this week
- Gmail changes for 2026
- Enforced email security
- Instagram justifies more AI Slop in feeds
- Will OpenAI buy Pinterest?
- Are we seeing the end of social dominance?
- YouTube adds Shorts filter
- How I strategically use Shorts – and when not to use them
It’s been a super short news week as folks return and recoup from the holidays.
So, we’re keeping it light today too.
Happenings Around Here
I’m glad the news is brief so that I didn’t have as much reading to do this past week.
I was at my desk at 8:00 am on January 1st and I barely left it until 6:30 pm.
And it has been like that every day since, including weekends.
First of the month is always heavy, and now coupled with first of the year admin work.
Plus, December and January are heavy months for client work, and I have triple the number of projects open that I normally carry a month.
My tech-neck symptoms returned late last week, so I’ve been super mindful about taking more breaks and doing my exercises.
Have you hit the ground running for 2026 too? Lots of my clients have with ramping up their content efforts, getting into video, and starting new product income streams.
Let’s go!!!!!!!!
SEO Tips
DIY SEO Workshops Start This Week
We’re going back to basics for the first few workshops this year in the DIY SEO course.
We’ll start with Technical SEO to ensure all is well with our sites, and that all SEO bots can easily crawl it without issue.
And then we’re going to have a deep look into one particular SEO crawler that is feeding info to several AI platforms.
After that, we’ll do a deep dive into our content to see how we can maximize it for both AI and Google.
Join us!!!
FYI, if you’re a site audit Hub client or in the Webmaster Training, look for your discount on your member dashboard. Some of you may have dropped out over the years, but now is the best time to jump back in.
Email Tips
Gmail Changes for 2026
Gemini is Google’s AI assistant, and all Google account holders now have it, not just those who have a paid Workspace account.
Gemini AI has already been available in Gmail for Workspace clients for a while.
But now it is in all Gmail accounts, free and paid.
Google just announced new features for Gemini in your inbox for 2026.
I run my whole back office on Workspace, and I turned all AI stuff off a while back on that account.
I suggest you look into whether you want Gemini to be scanning your emails and docs and such too, as it is on by default now.
Enforced Email Security
Remember a couple of years ago when I reported that email clients Google (Gmail), Yahoo, and Microsoft (Outlook) were requiring stricter security on email?
They wanted everyone to add 2 additional DNS records for DKIM and SPF.
Eventually all of the popular list service providers like MailerLite, FloDesk, and MailChimp started offering easier ways to add those records too, but too often their wizards borked the DNS records you already had for your email client. They are better now, but some still aren’t 100% accurate.
Well, Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft are now enforcing that new rule.
They are no longer delivering emails that don’t have the extra records. They don’t even go to the spam inbox anymore. The email client simply rejects them.
No warnings, no notifications, nothing.
For the last few years, my clients have been using an SMTP plugin for sending emails from their site, which is properly authenticated with their domain-related email address – like @blogaid.net.
And they have had all of their email security DNS records properly set up for a few years now too, even prior to the big 3 email client providers announcing the requirement.
And now we’re double checking the DNS records for the email list services too, just to be doubly sure they are correct, as most of my clients set those up themselves, even before they came to me.
FYI, most email list services contacted their users a couple of years ago to add these new records, so most folks have already made the updates. We’re just double checking to be sure of it.
Who You Follow Matters
I heard one guy screaming in a pro SEO group I follow that hardly anyone knows about this DNS records change.
Yeah, among pro SEOs, I guess that is true. They don’t know much about online security.
But webmasters and marketing folks have known about it for at least 2 years, and helped their clients prepare.
THIS is why it matters who you follow. And I’m glad you’re here with me to help you stay way ahead of these curves.
Promotion Tips
Instagram Justifies More AI Slop
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has recently tried to assure the platform’s users why more AI Slop in their feeds is a good thing. That’s because his boss, Zuck, has spent billions creating AI tools for Meta so that users can generate this crap, and entertain other users, all in an effort to keep them on the platform longer.
Andrew Hutchinson, over at Social Media Today, has a scathing op ed about how AI Slop is ruining the platform, and he bops Mosseri for having no spine about it too.
Showing Up as Real is Key
I’m seeing this all over the internet from every marketing guru.
More AI Slop means that showing up as a real person is key to your success now.
Platform users are getting jaded, and fast, on figuring out what’s real and what isn’t and what was mass produced by AI and what is coming from a real person who cares.
For my money, nothing beats in-person video to prove that you’re a human who is invested in your follower’s success.
Will OpenAI Buy Pinterest?
The rumors are everywhere.
But the motivation for OpenAI buying Pinterest may not be what you think.
The nice folks at Social Media Today have an insightful post on what OpenAI may really be after with a Pinterest purchase.
It’s all about the data.
And, it’s about what I’ve been saying for a solid year now – the whole internet is becoming one big shopping mall.
There’s money in that switch for you – are you paying attention and taking advantage of it?
Are We Seeing the End of Social Dominance?
This is not a rumor.
The data doesn’t lie.
Use of social media is on the decline.
The big platforms are losing current users and not replacing them with new ones fast enough.
The over-abundance of AI Slop is starting to contribute to that decline.
What most social platforms have forgotten is the social part.
We’re not there to just be entertained. We’re there to connect.
And when folks rarely see posts from those they follow, then there’s not much point in being on the platform.
Again, this is where showing up as a real person is going to help you.
This is also why podcasting and video is having a resurgence.
It’s why TikTok is still viable – and is one of the few platforms not losing users.
Video Tips
YouTube Adds Shorts Filter
I don’t know what the thinking is here.
YouTube added Shorts as a way to compete with TikTok.
And then YouTube added ways to create AI Slop.
And then YouTube beefed up their video editor to help folks make Shorts.
And now YouTube has added a filter to allow folks to stop seeing Shorts. Wait! What?
Here’s the news from The Verge – but you may not be able to read it without a subscription.
And here’s a post on Reddit about it, which has more info than most articles I’ve seen.
YouTube has also removed a way to filter by most recent, which was particularly helpful to me, when I’m trying to find the latest news and tutorials on what I research.
How I Strategically Use Shorts
I’m being strategic in my use of Shorts.
For my new YT channel, I made 46 of them that have 1 tip each. And every one of them links to the longer-form video that uses that technique. I also actively promote that link in the video itself, telling folks to click over to the longer one.
That strategy works – but only for a little while.
The initial promotional lifespan of a Short is, well, short ;-) I get a blast for about a week, and then it trails off.
I was hoping that they would be shown in the Shorts recommended section when anyone searched for that type of tip.
But you may recall that I reported about a month ago that pro video SEOs now have data that clearly shows YouTube is pretty much burying a Short after 30 days.
So, 30 days after all of my current Shorts on my new YT channel finish publishing, I may very well take them down and run them on a schedule again. We’ll see.
For my Heartwood Art channel, I’ve already told you that I will not be making my tips videos as Shorts. I believe these will get good traffic and I get paid more if they are not a Short. It’s a long strategy, not a flash in the pan promotional strategy.
But Shorts will remain a promotional strategy for me – across all platforms that show videos.
I’m not too worried about YouTube burying the after 30 days as that’s longer than they get shown on any other platform.
