Tips Tuesday – Instagram Reels, LLM Optimization, Vibe Coded Website SEO

Tips this week include:

• Working on an Instagram strategy
• How long should an Instagram Reel be – with data
• Why to do brutal editing
• Use trending music
• Product videos
• Cloudflare – new Security Dashboard
• Multiple new Webmaster tutorials
• Vibe coded websites make fast SEO junk
• Is being more productive a good thing?
• Is LLM Optimization any different than regular SEO?
• What works for AI SEO
• Why you should always log out of websites
• Why to close open browser tabs
• Gemini privacy update

DIY SEO Everywhere Happenings

Working Out Our IG Strategy

We had such a GREAT Instagram SEO mastermind last week in the DIY SEO Everywhere course!!!!

Google is crawling IG in a big way and we talked about what they are gleaning and using.

The session also included discussing what type of account is best as well as how to earn directly from Instagram, as things have changed with those and new account types and opportunities have become available.

And we sorted out strategies to use for posts, carousels, Reels, and Stories too.

We’ll be taking this week off from live sessions to give everyone time to develop their strategies and get a workflow going.

Video Tips

How Long Should an Instagram Reel Be?

The nice folks at Blogging Wizard share data on how they determined the optimal length of a Reel.

It’s about 1 minute.

Even though Reels can now be up to 3 minutes long, maybe that length should be reserved for YouTube Shorts, as longer ones still tend to do okay there.

Brutal Editing

This weekend I started chopping up my 2 longer Halloween decor from scrap wood videos. The first one was 3 minutes, but I think I took too much time verbally explaining things.

I took out the voice part and got super brutal with the editing, including speeding up some sections like crazy.

And it worked!!!!

I got the video just under a minute and did a wee bit of voiceover in a couple of places.

Trending Music

But, I also added back in my own music and now I’m thinking I want to remove that and use whatever spooky music/sounds are available on each platform that I plan to upload to, as those will be trendy now.

Product Video

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had made a PDF of line drawings to go with these new scrap wood videos.

Well, I split up the cover and used the middle section to rotate through some of the actual painted blocks.

It’s only :20 seconds but I think it makes for a great product video.

FYI, product videos on Etsy are limited to :15 seconds. I’m not selling there, but that gave me the idea for how long it needs to be.

Cloudflare Tips

New Security Dashboard

Cloudflare has been testing a new look for the Security settings section.

And now the new Dashboard is being rolled out as the default to most account owners.

I’m making all of my new tutorials for my Webmaster Training members using the new dashboard.

And I updated my publicly available tutorial on How to Find and Whitelist Your IP Address in Cloudflare too. For now, I put notes above the video with screenshots.

Multiple New Webmaster Tutorials

As I’ve mentioned in several recent Tips Tuesdays, I’ve been digging deep into the high bot hits I’m seeing in site audits.

I’ve been testing several new security measures in Cloudflare for over a month now.

And new tutorials have been released in the Webmaster Training course.

They include a major update to the bots we want to block, including from all of the major SEO agencies that crawl our sites to give metrics to our competitors who are paying for their service.

Uh, no thank you!! That’s not something I want chewing up my hosting resources!!

SEO Tips

Vibe Coded Websites Make Fast SEO Junk

There is a new tool called Cheeeck that you can use to scan your site for SEO issues.

The owner tested it on 100 vibe-coded websites. It was no surprise that they created all kinds of junk that would bork your SEO to high heaven.

I’ve seen the same thing on Webflow websites as well as others like Wix and Weebly, though those last 2 are not as bad as the vibe coded ones.

Folks, creating a site in 5 minutes is not the point.

Creating a site that is technically and securely sound, that gets found, read, and acted upon is the point.

FYI, the Cheeeck tool is not free to use, but you can pay for it by the week or the month if you just want short-term access.

AI SEO Tips

Is Being More Productive a Good Thing?

There are a bunch of folks I’ve followed for years. They usually had a few posts a week and then one weekly newsletter that they emailed to me.

But since AI came on the scene, I now see 10-12 posts a week and multiple emails from them.

Most all of the extra content is spun off the one idea they had for the week.

Honestly, I don’t have time to read all the extra fluff.

So, while you may feel great about how much more content you can create with AI, ask yourself if it’s just diluting your message and wearing out your audience.

And watch your metrics.

Are you getting more engagement and conversions?

That’s the real measure of your extra productivity.

Is LLM Optimization Any Different than Regular SEO?

The answer is no, not at this point.

Go read this post from team Yoast about LLM Optimization.

Scroll down to the section on Key LLM SEO optimization techniques.

Everything there is the same, regular SEO things I’ve been teaching for years, with examples, in the DIY SEO Everywhere course.

And I think they are off base with what they recommend in the Bonus LLM Optimization section.

The fact is, there is not a single AI that is using LLM. And there is no standard.

So, be mindful of that when you read SEO advice that is just trying to use the new buzz words and acting like what they are telling you has any widespread data to back it up.

What Does Work for AI SEO

I turned the DIY SEO Everywhere course on its head this year to ensure that my peeps get max eyeballs on their content.

Same ole same ole ain’t gonna work now.

And you will have to look outside of regular Google Search for eyeballs too.

That includes what we’re doing with all of the Instagram masterminds and video and doubling down on Pinterest.

We’re also tracking all of the AI bots to see what they are crawling and then watching our metrics to see what folks are hitting on from those AI chatbots too.

Security Tips

Always Log Out

Whenever you use a site that requires you to log in, including your own website, be sure to log out when you’re done.

If you don’t, there will be an active cookie state left open.

Close Tabs

Many times when doing a Zoom meeting where the client shares their screen, I see that they have at least 15 browser tabs open.

Close anything that you are not actively using.

For one, those tabs are constantly refreshing, which chews up bandwidth and slows everything down for you.

And second, if you’re still logged into some of them, you’re opening a security hole. If malicious code had been executed in the browser, it could definitely impact other tabs that are open.

Gemini and Privacy

I received an email from Google that they are rolling out a new Temporary Chat feature to Gemini. 

It will only hold the data for 72 hours and will not be made available to train their AI on.

Personally, I’d like to just turn it off everywhere until I want to use it. That’s especially true with my emails.

This is also why I have always made secured docs for clients to share logins and such too. We don’t send that stuff through email, or Zoom, or apps either.