Tips Tuesday – DIY SEO Workshops, Interest Media, WP Predictions

Tips this week include:

• DIY SEO Workshops start soon
• GSC adds weekly and monthly views
• GSC adds AI powered reports
• Do faces on video thumbnails help?
• YouTube leaves Billboard chart reporting – how this affects you
• Meta Creator Page vs Business Page notifications
• Is “Interest Media” the new thing?
• Less is more with ads
• Why one agency is moving to fewer ads now
• Why you need to run fewer ads
• WordPress predictions for 2026
• Verified bots at Cloudflare Issue
• All hands on deck for site security

Welcome to New Year’s week, y’all.

If it weren’t for Tips Tuesday, I wouldn’t know what day it was. Have you lost track too?

SEO Tips

DIY SEO Workshops Start Soon

I’m in the process of finalizing the first workshops we’ll be doing in the DIY SEO course.

We’ll start around the 2nd week of January.

We’re going back to basics, including Technical SEO, which includes exploring the new features in Google Search Console and Yoast SEO.

And we’ll do a deep dive series on AI SEO too that will include a look at the content on our sites and how we can format things to be cited by AI Search.

Come join us!!!

GSC Adds Weekly and Monthly Views

Google Search Console is rolling out new time frame choices for weekly and monthly views.

That’s going to make it a LOT easier to see the impact of your promotional efforts, as well as seeing when seasonal posts start taking off too.

GSC Adds AI Powered Reports

Digging into GSC reports is a pain. 

To help with that, they are rolling out a beta on AI Powered Reports.

We’ll have a look at this deeper in the DIY SEO course.

But I can tell you that they still don’t hold a candle to the EZ Metrix reports that I created for me and my clients.

Video SEO Tips

Do Faces on Thumbnails Help?

The nice folks over at Search Engine Journal dug into the hotly-debated topic of whether putting your face on your video thumbnail got more clicks or not.

I suggest you read the whole article because there are differences per niche.

But, the short answer is both ways of doing thumbnails performed the same, in general.

YouTube Leaves Billboard Chart Reporting

Y’all, this is huge! And it’s not just about the music industry either.

Streaming is how most musicians get paid – but as I reported last week about podcast streaming pay, that money is super low compared to folks watching on ad-supported video platforms like YouTube.

For music, Billboard is using a VERY outdated system for charting hits. They weigh non-ad supported streaming services higher than ad-supported.

Well, that means views on YouTube don’t really count for much when it comes to listing the top 100 hits.

YouTube has been in negotiation with Billboard for over a year, but Billboard won’t budge.

So, YouTube has decided to stop sending their streaming data to Billboard.

This is happening at the same time more and more creators are pulling out of streaming services like Spotify.

Everybody is tired of low pay.

It’s All About the Money

I reported last week about why I’m being super strategic where I will place my relaxing music videos, should I decide to do them again, on YouTube and I’m not even bothering with other streaming platforms for a podcast or such.

I’m doing this for the money.

If you’re doing video – no matter what kind – some platforms just don’t pay enough to make them worthwhile. Spotify is getting to be one of them.

Social Media Tips

Meta Creator Page vs Business Page

Did you get a notification from Meta about maybe switching between a Business and Creator type page?

Lots of folks did.

And it looks like you can now switch between these types every 7 days.

I went through these settings with my DIY SEO course peeps earlier this year, as we were setting up our Meta Business Suite accounts.

Each of them have different tools and perks, so it’s important to set the page up in the way that best suits your needs.

I have some of mine set to Creator so that I can get paid for those Reels.

Is “Interest Media” the New Thing?

Organic reach on some social media platforms is at an all-time low.

That has a LOT to do with them being swamped with AI-generated posts, and more ads.

Meta is, by far, the worst offender.

Honestly, I think they have totally forgotten why we joined Facebook and Instagram – it was to keep in touch with our friends, family, and interest groups.

Well, they may be paying attention to our interests now more than ever.

See this post titled The Death of Organic Reach from the nice folks at Social Media Examiner.

It’s an interview (video and transcript) with Mari Smith about how we need to shift our focus to “Interest Media” to draw in new viewers.

While the focus of this interview is on video, I believe the info holds true no matter what type of media you are publishing.

So, go see/read the post no matter what.

And here’s a shorter TikTok with Gary V saying the same thing.

It’s time to pay attention to Interest Media.

Monetization Tips

Less is More with Ads

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been saying this for 15 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Less ads means more money.

Every one of my clients who listened to my advice and severely reduced the number of ad placements that they allowed on each post doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled their revenue.

Every Single One!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s because viewers only see 3-4 ads as they scan through a post anyway. More clutter doesn’t make for more revenue. And it certainly doesn’t make for more subscribers or good SEO.

Well, now Mediavine has finally decided that the strategy of less ads is true too.

They have developed an Optimized Ad Experience that helps you strategically place fewer ads for bigger returns.

Why the Move to Fewer Ads Now?

In their post (above), Mediavine says that everyone, including site owners, viewers, and ad buyers have long wanted fewer ads per post so that each ad that appeared had better view time.

Well, WTF Mediavine?

If everyone has long wanted it, why have you waited so long to deliver it?

I’ve already told y’all why.

In last week’s Tips Tuesday, I told you where the big ad money is going – video. And I told you where that ad budget money is coming from – pulling out of advertising on written content.

So, don’t be fooled to think that this is a change of “quality over quantity” as MV states.

This is the ONLY way that they can keep an ad agency, and their publishers afloat.

More money for each ad, with a promise of it being strategically placed in one of the 3-4 ad placements that I mentioned earlier, is the only viable way of getting seen and paid anyway.

Do It

If you run ads on your site, by all means reduce them.

And if you’re with Mediavine, get into this new program to help you figure out best placement for highest revenue.

For anyone who has not already followed my advice with ad reduction, I think you will be shocked to see that your revenue doesn’t go down with fewer ads.

And your visitors might just stick around on your post longer without all of that clutter too!!!!!!!!

WordPress Tips

WordPress Predictions for 2026

I’m totally agreeing with this WordPress panel discussion that was hosted by the folks at The WP Minute.

There are likely big changes in store for WP this coming year.

Even if you don’t watch the discussion, at least jump over to read the takeaway summary and see what might be coming.

I honestly believe the entire trajectory of WP will change next year.

Some of it most definitely should change. And some of those changes may make for a bumpy road.

I’ll be keeping close tabs on all of it.

And you better believe that I’ll be keeping my site audit Hub clients and webmasters well ahead of the curves.

Security Tips

Verified Bots at Cloudflare Issue

I told y’all something fishy was going on at Cloudflare with their bot security.

And it started in October.

They rolled out some sort of change to the Bot Fight Mode that made it block some bots that are on their Verified Bots list – these are the good bots we want.

SlickStream is one of those good-guy bots that is getting blocked.

And I’ve been jumping up and down with Cloudflare for over a month now about it – and for them to check what other Verified bots that they are blocking.

They’ve told me to add a custom Skip rule for it, and when even that didn’t work, I got super bullish with them, saying how entirely unacceptable this is to webmasters, site owners, and makers of those bots that took the time to get Verified.

What are we supposed to do – check monthly to see which good-guy bots are getting blocked and make rules for them? No!!! Just no!!!!!!

The issue has finally been escalated to engineering and I hope we have a remedy soon.

All Hands on Deck for Site Security

Okay, yes, I’ve been raising cain with Cloudflare over this verified bot issue because it has cost me a lot of work over the last month and half – and cost the SlickStream folks a lot too – and the views and revenue loss for my clients who use SlickStream.

But, the fact is that Cloudflare has had all hands on deck for the last half of this year with trying to combat all of the new attack vectors that have opened due to hackers using AI to find vulnerabilities and make it so easy for them to launch DDoS attacks.

I have long said that I would not be able to sleep without being on the Pro plan at Cloudflare, and that is true now more than ever.

I appreciate all they do to protect us, even when they bork something.

If you are on the free version of Cloudflare, you’re not getting the extra protection you need these days.

For my clients, let me know when you upgrade, as there are a few new settings I need to configure for you. It will only take a few minutes.