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Here are a few examples from a finished project I’ve already created using this method. The first example is an executive summary, providing a brief overview of the analysis. And here, ChatGPT performs keyword overlap and keyword gap analyses. You…Read more ›View the full article

Learn how to successfully manage international PPC campaigns with multiple agencies, avoid common pitfalls, and balance global consistency with local market needs. The post Navigating The Complexities Of International PPC Working With Agencies appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

You’d think we all have enough stress in our lives already, but for some reason we still love those heart-pumping thrillers—whether the quiet, suspenseful kind or the big action spectacles. It might be that the things that get our hearts racing in real life are in the realm of “oh no, this medical bill,” making a spy movie, a heist-gone-wrong scenario, or even a dark kidnapping story a good vehicle for vicarious (and comparatively cheap) thrills. Regardless, here are the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix, with a variety of tones that run from mildly tense to extremely dark. Rebel Ridge (2024) If you hadn't previously considered "civil forfeiture" as a fit subject for a tense action thriller, that might be about to change; Aaron Pierre stars as Terry Richmond, a former Marine, who cycles into the cycles into Shelby Springs, Louisiana with cash on hand to post bail for his cousin (held on a misdemeanor charge) and some extra to buy the truck they'll need for work. He's knocked off his bike and the cops claim the cash (a real thing that absolutely happens), forcing Terry into a position where he will have to prove in court that his money is not involved in criminal activity. The clock is ticking, though, and his cousin is about to be shipped off to a prison where he'll be a target as an informant. On the side of justice? Terry's fists—he's a close-quarters combat expert and he's more than capable of taking on some corrupt small-town cops. You can stream Rebel Ridge here. Woman of the Hour (2023) Anna Kendrick (also the director) stars as Sheryl Bradshaw, a real-life contestant on the TV game show The Dating Game. In and of itself, not terribly thrilling, except that Bradshaw was a guest on an episode with Rodney Alcala (played here by Daniel Zovatto), even winning a date with the "successful photographer" who was, in reality, in the middle of a string of serial murders and rapes. The movie alternates between their two stories until they collide on the set of the popular TV show, and later as Bradshaw meets Alcala for their planned date. You can stream Woman of the Hour here. The Net (1995) Time has caught up to The Net in many ways, in that elements that seemed wildly implausible in 1995 are commonplace now (ordering pizza over the internet, for example, was absolutely science fiction back in the day). And, while the aesthetics are often dated to the point of goofiness, the movie's overall premise holds up: Sandra Bullock plays Angela Bennett, a software systems analyst who gets involved in a tangled web (pun kinda intended) of intrigue when she's given a disk with links to a criminal conspiracy lead by Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam). Computers are all-powerful here—erasing her life, crashing planes, bringing down politicians, etc.—in ways they weren't in 1995 but definitely are now. You can stream The Net here. Fair Play (2023) A throwback (complimentary) erotic thriller, Fair Play is an effective slow burner that builds toward a fairly shocking final act. Phoebe Dynevor is Emily Meyers, who's pretty happy for her secret boyfriend Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) when she hears that he might be getting a promotion at the ultra-cutthroat hedge fund where they both work. When she gets the new job instead? Let's just say that Luke is less enthusiastic, kicking off a series of power games that lead first to illegality, then to violence. You can stream Fair Play here. Revelations (2025) Writer/director Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) heads this more grounded police thriller, involving the intersecting lives of a quiet, shy pastor (Ryu Jun-yeol) and a traumatized police detective who's only recently been transferred to a violent crimes unit—just in time to lead the hunt for a truly nasty serial kidnapper. This time, it's one of Pastor Min-chan's congregation who's been taken, and the ensuing hunt leads to a crisis if faith for the minister, and then a growing conviction that God's will is for him to be an instrument of divine retribution. You can stream Revelations here. Spiderhead (2022) While Joseph Kosinski’s Netflix original Spiderhead didn’t make quite the splash of his mega blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, it does make for a smart thriller with sci-fi overtones. Chris Hemsworth plays Steve Abnesti, who oversees a prison program in which prisoners receive less oversight and reduced sentences in exchange for serving as test subjects for a variety of pharmaceuticals. Supposedly, this is the project of some benevolent geniuses who just want to improve humankind, but you might not be surprised to learn (if you’ve ever lived in our world) that a pharmaceutical conglomerate has a lot more to do with it. The experiments grow increasingly manipulative and even deadly, with solid performances from Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett as two of the prison’s inmates. You can stream Spiderhead here. Society of the Snow (2023) You might be familiar with the true story of the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team lost in the Andes following a plane crash—the incident has been the subject of multiple documentaries and two previous dramas, including Frank Marshall's 1993 Alive. This is probably the best take on the tragedy, a thoughtful and tastefully thrilling drama. Director J. A. Bayona emphasizes both the heart-stopping physical perils faced by the team, and the spiritual toll their survival takes on them. You can stream Society of the Snow here. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) When nursing assistant Ruth (a fabulous Melanie Lynskey) comes home to find that she’s been burglarized, she sets out with her neighbor (Elijah Wood) to get her stuff back, and get revenge, in the most incompetent manner possible. As a vigilante farce, it nearly reaches Coen-brothers levels of absurdity, but it hits a lot of those beats while alternately challenging and confirming our worst instincts about our fellow humans. You can stream I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore here. The Pale Blue Eye (2022) This brooding mystery is a compelling (and twisty) tale that plays fast and loose with history, even as it conjures up a chilly and brooding atmosphere. Christian Bale plays a retired and troubled detective teaming up with a young West Point cadet you might have heard of: his name’s Edgar Allen Poe, and he’s played here by Harry Melling, who’s great. The two team up to solve a case involving dead students and creepy occult signifiers. You can stream The Pale Blue Eye here. Runaway Jury (2003) Gene Hackman's third John Grisham adaptation (and his penultimate film overall) isn't quite the movie The Firm is, but it's still an effective legal thriller. Hackman plays shady, conniving jury consultant Rankin Fitch, going head-to-head with Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) as key figures in the trial of a gun manufacturer. Complicating matters is the presence on the jury of Nick Easter (John Cusack) who, with the help of girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz), plans to manipulate the jury in such a way that he'll have a multimillion dollar payout coming his way. You can stream Runaway Jury here. Trap (2024) Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is a pretty cool dad in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see a very cool Taylor Swift-ish pop star in concert. We quickly learn, though, that Cooper is a hunted serial killer, and that the FBI knows that "The Butcher" will be at the concert, even if they don't know exactly who it is. Of such premises are fun thrillers made, as Cooper has to try to escape the pop concert while somehow making sure his daughter gets to enjoy the show. You can stream Trap here. Delicious (2025) The thrills here are more psychological, but the movie is no less intense for it. A German family strikes a young woman on the road during a protest en route to their beautiful villa in Provence. Rather than let that ruin an otherwise perfectly delightful vacation, they take the young woman in and hire her on as domestic help; each family member has their own motive for wanting her around, and they will, each of them, come to deeply regret their choices (shades of Parasite) by the final act. You can stream Delicious here. Doi Boy (2023) Sorn (Awat Ratanapintha), fleeing conscription and violence in his native Myanmar, flees to Thailand, living in poverty as an illegal immigrant. With little money and fewer legal rights, he becomes a dancer and sex worker at the title's gay club, being one of the few ways he can make money. When Covid shuts down the club, Sorn gets an offer from one of his customers, Ji, a cop charged with quietly silencing activists—if Sorn will help capture and disappear a human rights activist, Ji will promise a passport and legal status. Director Nontawat Numbenchapol is best known for his award-winning documentaries, and brings a scrupulously realistic approach to this tense drama. You can stream Doi Boy here. The Killer (2023) Michael Fassbender plays the titular (nameless) hitman, a fastidious and ruthless killer who is suffering from the fallout of the first mistake of his career—accidentally shooting the wrong person, whoops—as his carefully managed life begins crumbling faster than he can shore it up. Very unlike his previous Netflix original, Mank, this is about as close as Fincher gets to a pure action thrill ride. You can stream The Killer here. Bird Box (2018) This Netflix original had a cultural moment way back in 2018, riding the success of A Quiet Place with a story about creatures YOU MUST NOT LOOK AT. Sandra Bullock leads an impressive cast that includes John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, Lil Rel Howery, and BD Wong in a post-apocalypse in which the only way to survive is with a blindfold and, perhaps, a stylish puffer jacket. You can stream Bird Box here. Cam (2018) Director Daniel Goldhaber (the upcoming How to Blow Up a Pipeline) teamed up with writer Isa Mazzei, who based this Black Mirror-esque story partly on her own memoir. Madeline Brewer (Orange is the New Black) plays online sex worker Alice Ackerman, aka Lola_Lola, who once night discovers there’s another Lola out there—a cam girl who’s identical to Alice in appearance and general vibe, but whose willingness to go further puts her out in front in terms of viewership. It’s a horror movie with a lot to say about the dehumanization of sex workers, with a great central performance from Brewer. You can stream Cam here. The Guilty (2021) It’s not quite up to the standard of the Danish original, but this American remake of a 2018 film is still excellent. Director Antoine Fuqua is joined by screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) in the film starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe Baylor, an LAPD officer who’d been busted down to 911 dispatcher for initially unspecified errors in judgment. He gets a call from a panicked woman that leads him to make some dramatic decisions, not all of them good. An exercise in pure suspense, the contained movie very much rests on Gyllenhaal’s shoulders, though a few famous names show up via voiceover. You can stream The Guilty here. Shimmer Lake (2017) This crime drama begins on a Friday, with Andy (Rainn Wilson) hiding in his basement while his wife stalls his brother Zeke (Benjamin Walker), who’s also the sheriff. Andy, on the run with a bag of money, will be dead before the day’s out, but we’re going backwards here: writer/director Oren Uziel’s narrative then takes us to Thursday, and each previous day subsequently, until we understand how everyone wound up where they are. You can stream Shimmer Lake here. Gerald’s Game (2017) Set almost entirely in an isolated cabin in the woods, this Stephen King adaptation involves a single immobilized character for much of its running time. Director Mike Flanagan, nevertheless, manages to craft a taut, suspenseful story about a married woman (Carla Gugino) trapped in a remote cabin when her husband played by Bruce Greenwood, dies after having handcuffed her to the bed. Increasingly delirious, she’s forced to face not only her past trauma, but the hungry dog that keeps sniffing around. You can stream Gerald's Game here. Lou (2022) Lou (Allison Janney) is a quiet loner on Orcas Island in 1986; she’s also landlady to Hannah (Jurnee Smollett). Lou has just come by to tell Hannah that the rent is due when she learns that Hannah’s daughter has been kidnapped by the girl’s father, an ex-Green Beret and war criminal. Fortunately for Hannah, Lou has some very John Wick-esque secrets regarding her past, making her an unexpectedly good ally against the kidnapper. You can stream Lou here. Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) Continuing from the British crime series starring Idris Elba, but also a movie you can watch on its own, the film finds disgraced, imprisoned former DCI John Luther taunted by a serial killer (Andy Serkis) who, he’s pretty sure, can only be stopped if Luther busts out of jail and hunts him down. If you watched the series, this is an essential follow-up. If you haven’t, it’s a perfectly good time to find out why Elba is doing the morally gray detective thing better than anyone, maybe ever. You can stream The Fallen Sun here. Creep (2014) Mark Duplass (The Morning Show) co-writes and stars alongside director/co-writer Patrick Brice in this sly spin on the found-footage genre. Filmmaker Aaron (Brice) answers an ad from Josef (Duplass) who says he wants to document his life for the benefit of his unborn child. Things start off normal enough, but then Josef's requests keep getting more and more bizarre, and Aaron's car keys go missing. The slightly comedic vibe, at least at the outset, only serves to make the whole affair more unsettling. You can stream Creep here. Fractured (2019) This is a solid example of that type of thriller in which one person realizes someone has disappeared, and everyone else acts like that person was never around at all. (If it's not quite a sub-genre, it's definitely a thing.) After an accident at an exposed construction site, Ray (Sam Worthington) takes his family to the hospital, then dozes off in the waiting room. Big mistake: When he wakes up, they're gone, and the hospital has no idea what he's talking about. If it isn't entirely original, it's still a fun and creepy mystery. You can stream Fractured here. Emily the Criminal (2022) Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is a deeply relatable character: She went to an expensive school, and finds herself saddled with a mountain of debt. A relatively minor criminal record has made it hard for her to get a good-paying job. When given a chance to learn all about credit card fraud, the potential benefits are too good to turn down—which is approximately when things go wrong, and get violent. And then we find out exactly what Emily is capable of. Plaza is so brilliant here as the anti-hero that it’s a little hard not to cheer her on. You can stream Emily the Criminal here. The Paramedic (2020) Mario Casas stars here as Ángel, the title’s paramedic—not the greatest guy, really, and one who takes souvenirs from the people he helps, either to sell or to keep. An accident sees him lose the use of his legs, and his turmoil and rage don’t turn him into a better person, but instead sees him letting loose on a world he blames for pretty much everything. In particular danger is the girlfriend who left him. It’s a standard horror/thriller setup, but Casas is impressively compelling in his transformation from run-of-the-mill jerk to complete monster. You can stream The Paramedic here. The Gray Man (2022) The Russo brothers took a break from Avengers movies for this other blockbuster—at a cost of around $200m, it’s not like they decided to do a quiet indie drama. Ryan Gosling plays spy Sierra Six, whose latest mission involves taking out a fellow agent. He’s soon on the run from a corrupt agency boss (played by Regé-Jean Page), and helped and hindered by a supporting cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, and Alfre Woodard. Sierra Six doesn’t make much of an impression as a character, but the Russos know how to craft an action spectacle, and this one kicks up the action early on, and never really slows down. You can stream The Gray Man here. I Care a Lot (2020) Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson might be the worst character on this list, which is saying a lot. She’s a con artist who specializes in convincing courts to grant her guardianship of old people who, she says, can’t take care of themselves. She then drains their bank accounts at her leisure. It’s all going great (for her) until she fucks with the wrong senior: in this case, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), who looks like the ultimate score. It turns out that she’s the mom of a scary Russian mobster (Peter Dinklage), and things escalate from there. The tone here is satirical to the point of comedy, but it’s both tense and satisfying to see the screws turn on Marla. You can stream I Care a Lot here. Hold the Dark (2018) Jeffrey Wright plays Russell Core, a writer and wolf expert summoned by Riley Keogh's Medora Slone to investigate the disappearance of three small kids in rural Alaska. Not all the locals are convinced that wolves are to blame—or, at least, that it was just wolves. The return of Medora's husband (Alexander Skarsgård) from Iraq only complicates the mystery further. If you've seen director Jeremy Saulnier's previous feature Green Room, you'll have a sense of the dark tone and grimy aesthetic in store for you. You can stream Hold the Dark here. The Occupant (2020) Advertising executive Javier Muñoz (Javier Gutiérrez) once lived with his family in an ultra-posh apartment, but they simply couldn't afford it once he lost his job. Reduced circumstances have them in a tiny rental in a less-than-coveted neighborhood of Barcelona—but there's this set of spare keys, you see, and Javier can't help but go and scope out his old home and the new family that lives there. His interest quickly turns to an obsession with getting his old place back—though in fairness, none of his actions seem all that wild given today's real estate market. You can stream The Occupant here. Carry-On (2024) Action thriller Carry-On starts off at the airport (naturally) and on Christmas Eve—I'm already tense. Taron Edgerton is TSA agent Ethan Kopek, who's blackmailed into allowing Jason Bateman to smuggle a very dangerous package onto a flight (and yet I can't get through with my belt). Having allowed the package through, Kopek is determined to stop the man (known only as The Traveller) from carrying out his plan. You can stream Carry-On on here. A Simple Favor (2018) The darkly comedic tone makes this one bit lighter than many of the other films on this list, but it's all the more twisted for it. It all starts when mommy blogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) makes friends with, and unwisely confides in, Emily (Blake Lively), a PR director and mother of her son's schoolmate. Then Emily disappears, Stephanie sleeps with Emily's husband (Henry Golding), and the lurid secrets that Stephanie spilled start to come to light under shocking circumstances. It's all lot of fun, and boasts some genuinely wild twists. You can stream A Simple Favor here. View the full article

WordPress offers two primary content types: Pages and Posts. Choosing the right format for your content can improve your website’s organization, user experience, and even SEO. But how do they differ – and when should you use one over the other? Let’s break it down. WordPress Pages Pages are best suited for static, “evergreen” content – information that doesn’t change frequently and forms the foundation of your website. Typical examples include: Home page. About us. Services or products. Contact page. Key features: Not time-sensitive. Not included in RSS feeds. Do not use categories or tags by default (can be implemented with plugins). Can be organized into parent/child hierarchies for structured navigation. Ideal for top-level and permanent site architecture. Best use case: A business site or portfolio that emphasizes stable content and custom navigation. Dig deeper: 12 WordPress site settings that are critical to your SEO success WordPress Posts Posts are designed for timely, blog-style content. They are dynamic and are often used for: News updates. Articles or tutorials. Announcements. Case studies or opinion pieces. Key features: Time-based and organized chronologically. Appear natively in RSS feeds. Use categories, tags, and authors. Automatically appear in archive pages (e.g., category or date archives). Can be featured on the homepage with the “latest posts” setting. Best use case: A blog, news site, or resource hub with frequent updates. At-a-glance comparison FeaturePagesPostsIntended UseEvergreen/static contentTimely/blog contentCategories & TagsNot supportedFully supportedAuthor AttributionTypically hiddenCommonly shownRSS FeedExcludedIncludedParent/Child StructureSupported via categoriesNot natively (categories can simulate this)SEO PotentialEqual for both; structure mattersCustom StylingFully customizableFully customizable Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Updated recommendations for site structure My standard advice is: Use Pages for permanent content. Use Posts for news/blog-style content. However, based on site architecture and scale, my advice now has more nuance. Recommended best practice If you’re building a new site or undergoing a major redesign, consider the dominant content type to guide your structure. For sites with mostly evergreen content: Use Pages only. Organize content using parent/child relationships. Great for structured menus and consistent navigation. For content-heavy, regularly updated sites: Use Posts only. Utilize categories, tags, and authors for organization. Enables better filtering, search, and automated feeds. Dig deeper: SEO pros and cons of HubSpot vs. WordPress vs. Webflow Why this matters Too many WordPress sites suffer from poor content organization: Mixed use of pages and posts with no clear logic. All content lumped into the site root. Difficult-to-maintain navigation structures. While both pages and posts are treated as content by search engines, a well-structured site: Improves user experience. Boosts crawlability and SEO. Makes long-term maintenance easier. Should you rebuild your existing site? Only if: You’re undergoing a redesign, theme change, or content audit. You’re seeing issues with SEO, navigation, or content discoverability. Otherwise, don’t fix what isn’t broken. Use the above as a guide for new content or structural improvements. Final thoughts Ultimately, Pages and Posts are tools – and which one you choose should depend on your content goals. Keep things consistent, structure your site logically, and avoid mixing similar content types across both formats. Don’t forget to update the Permalink settings after setting up your organization. Categorizing is only one step in the process. Without this critical step, your structure won’t appear as you intend. Tip: Always think about your visitors (first!) and search engines will navigate your site. Logical content grouping will benefit both. Dig deeper: Top 9 WordPress technical SEO issues to address View the full article

A National Mortgage News/Snapdocs survey of 100 lenders found 90% use some form of what could be considered a digital closing, up from 74% two-years ago. View the full article

The state has largely solved for the industry's biggest concerns but the broader secondary mortgage market could still have some additional responsibilities. View the full article

Electricity network said it had activated plans to restore supplyView the full article

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Nearly 20 years ago, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen published The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, his groundbreaking work about why successful companies often lose their way. But CEOs still struggle with one of the book’s central lessons, which is that companies need to disrupt themselves. “Companies certainly know more about disruption than they did in 1995, but I still speak and write to executives who haven’t firmly grasped the implications of the theory,” Christensen told former Harvard Business Review editor and Inc. columnist Karen Dillon in an interview published shortly after his death in 2020. “The forces that combine to cause disruption are like gravity—they are constant and are always at work within and around the firm. It takes very skilled and very astute leaders to be navigating disruption on a constant basis.” New paths and challenges Indeed, even after leaders make the difficult decision to shed traditional and reliable revenue streams to invest in new products and services, executing such transitions can take years. Such lags can test the patience of investors and other stakeholders, especially when there’s no guarantee that the new business model will succeed. Just ask Michael Weening, president and CEO of Calix, Inc., which took 13 years to transform itself from a networking gear maker into a software and managed services company for rural broadband providers. The company was founded in 1999, at a time when startups and enterprises alike were rushing into the lucrative business of making gear to power the internet. (Remember when Cisco Systems was the most valuable company in the world?) But a decade later, enterprises started to change the way they were deploying technology, moving to cloud-based solutions that began to minimize the need for companies to maintain their own computing equipment. Calix leaders saw the change coming and began laying the groundwork for an entirely new approach in 2012—one that reimagined the company as a software and cloud company for rural broadband service providers. The company hired Weening from cloud trailblazer Salesforce in 2016 to help with the transition. However, a year later, the company’s annual loss had widened to more than $80 million from $27 million on revenue of about $450 million as Calix realigned the business to focus on investments in its software business. The market cap fell to $275 million, about two-thirds of its value at the time of its 2010 initial public offering. Staying the course Weening credits Carl Russo, Calix’s founder and chairman, with having the patience to weather losses. He says: “The founder was the largest shareholder, who could in essence say to the market, ‘We’re making these massive investments because if we don’t do this, we’re going to turn into a low-margin commodity business.’” In addition to making changes to Calix’s core business model and business infrastructure, Weening and his leadership team had to bring in new talent, resulting in restructuring costs for severance and termination benefits. Another big challenge was convincing Calix’s clients, the rural broadband operators, to embrace Calix’s new offering. Rather than selling them gear for their fiber optic networks, Calix wanted to offer a cloud and software platform—with a host of fully integrated managed services, some of which the broadband companies could then sell to their consumers and business customers. For example, Calix customers can sell residential customers a subscription to Bark, a social media-monitoring service for parents. “They’re great at construction; they’re great at reliability and running a network, but this new world of broadband is around experiences,” Weening says. “How do you teach them how to be sales and marketing- and experience-orientated?” Weening drew on his experiences leading customer success at Salesforce to develop resources and training to help Calix clients take advantage of its products and services. New outcomes—a decade later The transformation is starting to pay off. The company in 2023 made Fortune’s list of the 100 fastest-growing companies of the year based on growth in revenue, profits, and stock returns. The company reported lower revenue and losses in 2024 but recently reported first-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Calix’s market capitalization is about $2.4 billion. Ask Weening what he thinks about disrupting Calix now, having gone through a 13-year transformation: He and the company say transformation is ongoing, and he says he relies on his customers to keep innovation on track. “You can never get arrogant,” he says. “You always have to be listening. We have 10 advisory customer boards. And if you’re not arrogant, everyone will tell you where you suck.” He also offers a reminder of why so many companies resist tackling the innovator’s dilemma, even when they understand the risks of inaction. “This,” he says, “is not for the faint of heart.” How does your company navigate disruption? Has your company faced the innovator’s dilemma? How do you, in Christensen’s words, navigate disruption on a constant basis? Send your stories and anecdotes to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I’d like to share your examples in a future newsletter. Read more: innovator’s dilemma Why companies fail to innovate. An excerpt from The Innovator’s Dilemma Basecamp founder Jason Fried talks to Clayton Christensen How Steve Jobs solved the innovator’s dilemma View the full article

Link building is often 40% of an SEO budget – sometimes more in competitive industries. But here’s the problem: most companies aren’t calculating ROI before building links. That’s a fast way to burn through your budget without knowing what you’re getting in return. If you spend $5,000, $10,000, or even $50,000 a month on link building, you should know what kind of return to expect. This guide will show you how to calculate link building ROI before sending a single outreach email. We’ll cover how to assess a page’s revenue potential, estimate the cost of link building, and determine whether the investment pays off. You’ll know exactly how to forecast ROI, avoid overspending, and prioritize the pages worth investing in. But first, a little about me. I’m Travis Bliffen, CEO of Stellar SEO – an Inc. 5000-ranked link building agency. Since 2012, we’ve built 25,000+ backlinks in over 100 industries and helped clients drive millions in revenue through search traffic. After 13 years in SEO, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, and I’ve spoken to many companies that learned the hard way after wasting money on low-quality link campaigns. This guide will help you avoid that. If you’re serious about results, effective link building starts with ROI modeling, whether you are doing it for your brand or using a white label link building service to fulfill your agency’s needs. Why page value comes first in link building strategy Before you consider how many links a page needs, you have to determine whether it’s worth building links in the first place. A solid ROI starts with a page that has real revenue potential. Start by estimating the monthly search volume for your target keywords using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush. Then, apply an estimated click-through rate (CTR) based on where you expect the page to rank. Finally, multiply your estimated traffic by your conversion rate and the value of each lead or sale. For example: A service page ranking in the Top 3 could drive 1,000 monthly visits. At a 3% conversion rate and $500 per lead, that’s $15,000 in potential monthly revenue. That’s the foundation. If the revenue isn’t there, no number of backlinks will make it worth the investment. Key metrics to determine link competitiveness Once you’ve determined a page’s earning potential, it’s time to examine the competition. This will help you determine how many high-quality backlinks you’ll need. Focus on these key metrics: Number of referring domains linking to top-ranking pages. Domain Authority (Moz), Domain Rating (Ahrefs), or Trust Flow (Majestic). Relevance of linking domains to your industry. Variety and natural use of anchor text. Look at the top 3 to 5 ranking competitors. You can estimate how many links you’ll need and determine if your content is as good or better. How many links do you need? Like finding the best link building service, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on your current authority, how strong your competitors are, and the quality of your content. But with the data you’ve gathered, you can come up with a solid estimate. For example: If the top page has 50 links and you have 10, you might need 30 to 40 strong links to compete. If your domain is more authoritative, you may need fewer. If your content is weak or new, you’ll probably need more. This data-backed estimate is more helpful than someone promising “10 links a month” without context. Building links strategically vs. tactically Chasing quick wins or buying cheap placements might work for a while, but real ROI comes from strategy. That means choosing the right pages to promote, using anchors that match search intent, and using links from relevant, trusted websites. When your link strategy supports your business goals, it becomes a growth tool rather than just another SEO checkbox. Breaking down link building costs by tier Not all backlinks are created equal, and they don’t all cost the same. Here’s a simple breakdown by link tier: Tier 1: DA/DR 70 and up, niche relevant, editorial placements – $750 to $1,250+ Tier 2: DA/DR 50 to 69, moderately relevant – $400 to $600 Tier 3: DA/DR 30 to 49, less authority but relevant – $250 to $399 Most campaigns use a mix. You can estimate your total cost based on how many links you need. Let’s say you need 25 links: 5 Tier 1 = $4,000 10 Tier 2 = $3,500 10 Tier 3 = $3,000 Total Investment: $10,500 Why high quality backlinks matter in ROI modeling Calculating ROI is not about how many links your competitors have – it’s about how many valuable links they have. If you base your link budget on raw link counts, you will overspend, chase junk, or both. Here’s how we approach it: Start with the top-ranking pages for your target keywords and pull their backlink profiles using tools like Ahrefs. Eliminate low-value links from the analysis. That includes obvious spam, sitewide footers, irrelevant blog networks, and low-trust placements. We don’t judge quality by DR alone. Context matters. For example, a DR 20 link from a local business directory may be worth including if it’s topically and geographically relevant. Segment what’s left into link tiers based on strength and relevance. This gives us a realistic average cost per link and an accurate target count. This filtering step is key. It ensures you’re only modeling ROI based on links worth replicating – links with the potential to pass authority and move rankings. Bad links inflate your projections and waste your budget. A clean, screened link profile leads to smarter forecasting, more efficient budgeting, and a better chance of hitting your goals. How to calculate link building ROI Now that you’ve estimated the page’s revenue and your total link building cost, it’s time to do the math. ROI = (Annual Page Value – Link Building Cost) / Link Building Cost Example: If a page has $60,000 in yearly potential and you spend $10,000 on link building, your ROI is: ($60,000 – $10,000) / $10,000 = 5.0, or 500% Link building isn’t a quick win, but with the right execution, you can break even in a few months and keep earning long after the links are live. How to maximize the ROI of link building Once you know the ROI potential, the next step is to increase your return without increasing your budget. Here’s how: Conversion optimization: Turn clicks into conversions Getting traffic is just the start. Improving your layout, CTAs, load time, and trust elements can dramatically boost the number of visitors who become leads or customers. Even a small conversion rate increase can double your ROI – no extra links required. Content enhancements: Make pages easier to rank You’ll need more links to compete if your content is weak or poorly structured. You can rank with fewer links and hold your position by improving your content’s depth, formatting, and relevance. Anchor text planning: Use links more effectively Smart anchor text helps you rank faster and avoid penalties. Mix branded, partial match, exact match, and generic anchors. Plan your link profile to look natural and stay aligned with your strategy. Link building content strategy: Use linkable assets to support money pages You don’t have to point to every link on a service page. Supporting content (e.g., guides, stats pages, blog posts) can attract great links and boost your main pages through internal linking. A good content strategy supports both SEO and conversions. What to look for in a link building agency Not every agency is built the same. If you’re spending thousands per month, make sure your link building agency: Creates a custom strategy for your business. Manually vets prospects. Prioritizes quality over quantity. Can explain the “why” behind every link they build. At Stellar SEO, we’ve built our reputation doing this. Common mistakes that kill ROI Most failed campaigns don’t fail because of Google – they fail because of bad planning. Here’s what to avoid: Not calculating ROI before you start. Buying cheap, irrelevant, or low-quality links. Building links to pages that don’t convert. Working with link builders who focus on volume, not results. If your agency can’t explain how and when your investment will pay off, it’s time to reevaluate. The long-term value of building domain authority When you build links, you’re strengthening your entire domain. That means: Future pages will rank faster with fewer links. Your site becomes more stable and less affected by algorithm updates. You can target more competitive keywords with confidence. The longer you invest in link building efforts, the more valuable each link becomes. Link building is a calculated investment, not a gamble Link building doesn’t have to be a mystery. With the correct data and a smart plan, you can make confident decisions that generate strong returns. Before starting your next campaign, ask: Is this page valuable enough to rank? How many links will it take to get there? What will those links cost? How long until I break even? If you’re unsure how to answer those questions, that’s where we come in. At Stellar SEO, we help brands build smart, scalable link building campaigns with ROI in mind from day one. Whether you’re spending $5,000 or $50,000 monthly, we’ll help you get more from every link – and every dollar. Ready to build a campaign that pays for itself? Let’s talk. View the full article

The US and Europe have fundamentally different views on the threat from Russia and the protection of democracyView the full article

LLMs don’t need schema; they need structure. Learn how to format your content for visibility in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. The post How LLMs Interpret Content: How To Structure Information For AI Search appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Kyiv says it secured concession from The President administration not to use proceeds for past military aidView the full article

Getting a sense of the scale of social media platforms can be tricky. While tech companies often share self-serving metrics—like monthly active users or how likely users are to buy products after engaging with brands—they rarely offer a true sense of their platforms’ enormity. But a new study published in Cornell University’s preprint server arXiv aims to change that by quantifying TikTok’s scale over a single day—claiming to be among the first to grasp the platform’s full scope. It also offers insight into what people are watching, how much content is being uploaded, and who is posting it. “The motivation is using this social media data to better understand society,” says Jürgen Pfeffer, one of the study’s coauthors and chair of computational science at the Technical University of Munich. The researchers reverse-engineered how TikTok assigns video IDs to gather their data, eventually capturing what they believe to be at least 99% of all posts from a single hour on April 10, 2024—around five million videos. They also sampled one minute from every hour across a 24-hour span between April 9 and 10. The entire process took five months. Among the team’s findings was the sheer scale of TikTok activity. They estimated 117 million videos were uploaded on that single day. Roughly one in five featured children, based on estimates from an age classification engine the team trained. Videos posted precisely at the 0th second of each minute significantly outperformed others—suggesting timing tricks might influence the algorithm. However, Pfeffer notes this could be due to professional creators scheduling their posts, who are also more likely to achieve success. About a fifth of the videos were deleted within seven months, hinting at large-scale moderation or user regret. The average video was approximately 20.5 seconds long and was viewed between 2,250 and 2,500 times—depending on whether the data came from the hour-long slice or the one-minute-per-hour sample. Pfeffer was also surprised to find that TikTok engagement peaked twice daily. Around 4 a.m. UTC (11 p.m. EST), uploads surged to nearly six million videos per hour, reaching a similar peak again around 1 p.m. UTC (8 a.m. EST). The researchers attributed these spikes to global usage cycles, as morning users in Asia overlapped with late-night uploaders in the U.S., and vice versa later in the day. The team also grouped popular videos into thematic clusters. Among the most common were “images with colorful backgrounds and graphics” and “selfies with fashionable outfits and watermarks.” Less frequent themes included “political commentary on police operations in Pakistan” (0.025% of all videos) and “camouflaged military soldier images,” which accounted for 0.06% of the content. View the full article

We’re facing a career confidence crisis. Work is changing fast, yet many employees feel stuck. At LinkedIn, our data shows workforce confidence has dropped to a five-year low, and only 15% of employees say their manager has supported them with career planning in the past six months. Managers can play a big role in righting the ship—helping employees build the new skills they need to stay relevant and develop into future leaders. But this requires a fundamental shift: transforming them from task-overseers to coaches developing talent and sparking the best ideas from their teams. There are some key steps any company can take now to develop a culture of coaching that starts with your managers—but extends well beyond them. Start to develop your managers as coaches If you want your managers to become coaches, that starts by coaching your coaches. Just like elite athletes rely on coaches to reach peak performance, managers also need coaching to unlock their full potential. Coaching is a skill that needs to be intentionally developed. Executives are starting to grasp this opportunity. Nearly 80% of global CHROs agree their managers in the future will spend less time managing tasks and more time coaching teams. Leading companies are doubling down on this already. For instance, IBM supports first‑ and second‑line managers to grow through targeted programs, assessments, and skill-aligned badges. Manager Impact, for example, is an interactive learning experience that coaches new managers on how to lead with confidence, create meaningful employee experiences, and navigate real-world leadership challenges. Managers who complete these programs achieve significantly higher employee engagement scores, says IBM.  Coca-Cola is taking similar steps to grow managers into coaches by implementing rigorous leadership assessments to select the right people for leadership roles, and then providing cohort-base development to set those people managers up for success as coaches. They’ve seen notable upticks in how employees are rating their managers, as well as a boost in overall employee satisfaction. Taking the time to develop your managers into coaches is key to helping employees get “unstuck” and supercharging growth across the business. Plus, providing managers with the tools and support they need to excel in their roles improves their own retention and engagement, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits the entire organization. Consider making professional 1:1 coaching an employee benefit It’s important to recognize your teams are operating through a moment of historic work change. By 2030, we expect 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change, with AI emerging as a catalyst. To keep pace, your people need more support. Training managers to coach is essential, but they can’t do it alone. That’s why more companies are bringing in independent career coaches who offer specialized guidance on complex workplace challenges, like navigating difficult workplace relationships, managing career transitions, or developing crucial interpersonal skills that AI can’t replicate. Kearney, a business consulting firm and LinkedIn Top Company for 2025, has taken this approach by offering a six-month individualized coaching program and practice rotations designed to accelerate consultant growth. And at LinkedIn, we recently made the decision to offer every single employee, regardless of their job function or seniority level, an opportunity to work directly with an independent career coach. This investment in personalized development is already showing promising results, with 97% of our employee participants saying they feel more confident in their ability to navigate their careers after coaching. Scale personalized coaching in new ways with the help of AI There is no replacement for one-on-one coaching from a trusted adviser, but that person can’t be there for you 24/7, which is where AI tools can round out your strategy. While many leaders are focused on AI’s impact on productivity, AI for coaching is emerging as the next frontier, with more companies experimenting and seeing early gains. We’re seeing firsthand how more organizations are tapping into our AI-powered coaching features in LinkedIn Learning, with companies like Gates Foundation and Thomson Reuters actively using our new coaching tool to help their managers practice new skills. Companies are already saying this is helping their employees better prepare for that difficult conversation or high stakes presentation. Building a strong culture of coaching will always be rooted in human expertise, but it can be complemented and scaled to new heights with the help of technology. The most valuable skill we can cultivate today isn’t technical—it’s teaching our people how to learn continuously in a rapidly changing world, building resilience that no economic shift or technological disruption can shake. By investing in coaching, you’re not just developing skills—you’re unleashing the uniquely human potential that will define success in the AI era and beyond. View the full article

Aiman al-Mudaifer was appointed last year following increasing scrutiny of futuristic planView the full article

In the lower Manhattan neighborhood of NoHo, the crowded area around Lafayette Street was once called Gasoline Alley because of the many auto shops and gas stations housed there. While New York is still crowded with cars, gas stations in Manhattan are now more rare (there are none today in Gasoline Alley, only one left in all of lower Manhattan.) But off of Lafayette, there’s a new kind of space-inspired gas station that reveals the future of fuel—a future in which we power vehicles across land, air, and sea with CO2 instead of fossil fuels. The Fuel Store is an immersive concept store by AirCo, a Brooklyn-based startup that turns captured CO2 and hydrogen into synthetic fuels. Most people don’t think about their fuel all that much, or don’t know that there are options other than fossil-fuel derived gas. The Fuel Store is meant to introduce people to AirCo’s technology, and paint a possible future where CO2 powers everything from motocross bikes to jets to spaceships. Previously called Air Company, AirCo has turned captured CO2 into all sorts of consumer products, including vodka, hand sanitizer, and perfume, since it was founded in 2017. In 2024, AirCo raised $69 million in a Series B round, and the company also has a $65 million contract with the Department of Defense; its raised over $100 million in total, according to Pitchbook. With just under 120 employees, it’s lab and R&D operations are located in Brooklyn. Recently its been focusing on fuel, because that’s an industry where it can have substantial impact. “It’s one of the hardest industries traditionally to decarbonize,” says cofounder and CEO Gregory Constantine. Transportation is the largest contributor to the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 28% of all direct emissions. Globally, aviation alone counts for 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. AirCo instead uses CO2—a greenhouse gas—as a feedstock. It combines that CO2 with hydrogen to create fuels through a process that runs on renewable energy. Though AirCo declined to share how much CO2-derived fuel it currently produces, it does have partnerships with multiple companies for the use of its sustainable aviation fuel, called Airmade. In 2022, JetBlue signed an intent to purchase 25 million gallons of Airmade over five years, and Virgin Atlantic signed an intent to purchase up to 100 million gallons over 10 years. The company has also has partnerships with Boom Supersonic, and the U.S. Department of Defense. For the government, AirCo has worked on projects for land, air, and sea transportation. The Fuel Store showcases these different developments. When you first walk in, you see a shiny chrome gas station in the center of the room—an AirCo branded awning over sleek, futuristic pumps. A motocross bike is attached to one pump, meant to represent the freedom to “roam,” just like how AirCo’s fuels can be made either in remote locations or in cities. Along the walls are a series of products designed to tell different aspects of AirCo’s story, and the future of fuel the company envisions. On one shelf are hard-shell suitcases decorated with modern travel stickers, one of which reads, “My plane is on an air-based diet.” The climate impact of transportation has led to some “travel shaming,” Constantine says, but he adds that travel is a part of life. Through its work making sustainable aviation, AirCo is making travel less objectionable, he says. Next to the suitcases are vintage Air Force bomber jackets, adorned with new AirCo patches. In April, AirCo fuel partnered with the Air Force for the first-ever unmanned flight powered by CO2-derived jet fuel. AirCo’s synthetic fuels are 100% compatible with current aircrafts, unlike hydrogen, which requires new engine designs. On the other side of the store are life vests made of recycled signal flags, a nod to the company’s successful tests with the Navy to use Airmade for marine vessels. (These tests powered boats while also emitting less visible smoke in the exhaust.) The signal flags themselves mean “urgent” and “full speed,” echoing the company’s perspective on its mission to decarbonize fuel. Above the life vests are dry bags made from upcycled sails, an ode to how sailboats, powered by air, were once the dominant form of sea travel—and how air, through AirCo’s CO2 fuel, could power future marine vessels. Objects like the motocross bike, a mini toy AirCo fuel truck, and vintage Army T-shirts screen-printed with an image of a Polaris MRZR tactical vehicle—which AirCo successfully powered with its CO2-derived fuel through tests at West Point—showcase AirCo’s fuel use on land. And finally, the Fuel Store also hints at AirCo going into space. One wall features a conceptual Mars helmet and workwear suit. These imagine a future where the red planet’s atmosphere—which is 95% CO2—could be harvested to power spacecrafts, rovers, and habitats. AirCo also has a long-running partnership with NASA. “A lot of the work that we do with groups like NASA is to try to prove out that we can produce a fuel not only here on Earth made from CO2 but potentially, in the long-term future, up on Mars, so that we can bring astronauts back,” Constantine says. AirCo also created bacon, egg, and cheese space food, a nod to the classic New York City sandwich and the company’s home base. Each of these products has tags that explain their connection to AirCo’s larger story. Though these items won’t be for sale at the Fuel Store, they will be available via auction online after the concept store’s run is over. That auction will help fund AirCo’s research and development. Visitors will be able to purchase AirCo merch like T-shirts, socks, and some of the stickers that appear on the luggage (including ones that read “honk if you love unlimited feedstocks” and “Make love, not CO2”). The Fuel Store will be open to the public from April 30th to May 3rd at 55 Great Jones Street, New York. Constantine hopes the concept store is able to shed light on AirCo’s technology, and the hopeful future it envisions. “Educating people about the future is a tricky challenge, but it can be an inspirational one,” he says. The origins of fuel, and these new technologies like fuel made of CO2, can be foreign to people, but the store puts them in an immersive world full of that technology’s use cases. “What we’ve tried to do here,” Constantine adds, “ is to show what the future can look like in a way that others haven’t been able to do.” View the full article

In 2017, Uber’s executive team reached a critical turning point. The world saw headlines about leadership changes, valuation drops, and cultural upheavals. Beneath the noise, however, lay a deeper issue. It wasn’t rogue culture or aggressive expansion. It was misalignment at the very top. An all-too-familiar scenario had taken root: Executives were operating in silos. They weren’t facing challenges to key decisions, and they overlooked red flags. The result? A $20 billion valuation adjustment and a leadership overhaul that forced Uber to rethink how alignment works at the highest levels. And that’s where the real story begins. Instead of crumbling, Uber recalibrated. The company realigned its leadership, rebuilt trust, and restructured cultural processes. The company turned misalignment into an opportunity for transformation. Today, it stands as a case study in how great organizations use misalignment as a catalyst for growth. These challenges aren’t unique to Uber. Misalignment is present in companies of all stages and sizes. Unfortunately, many teams don’t realize it until it’s too late. What leads to misalignment Most executive teams think they’re aligned. But the data says otherwise. Only 18% strongly agree their teams consistently demonstrate the behaviors that define true alignment—like communication, integrity, accountability, and follow-through. This gap between perception and reality is where organizations lose their edge. You can’t build alignment out of assumptions or beliefs. It requires discipline. If leaders aren’t actively testing for alignment, they simply hope it exists. Misalignment doesn’t happen loudly. It doesn’t announce itself from the center stage. Instead, it creeps in during everyday interactions. A CFO notices a financial red flag but assumes someone else will address it. A CMO defends their budget so fiercely it hinders collaboration. Or a CEO shares a vision for the future, unaware their team is nodding in agreement while quietly disengaging. These moments don’t feel like failures. But that’s what makes them dangerous. The cost of misalignment Misalignment is more than an internal struggle, it’s an existential threat. In our work with executives across industries like healthcare, technology, government, and finance, the following patterns typically lead to misalignment: Conflict avoidance: Leaders sidestep difficult conversations, allowing minor issues to grow into major problems. Transactional meetings: Discussions lack depth and critical debate, reducing meetings to routine updates instead of platforms for innovation. Superficial trust: Leaders hesitate to ask for help, fearing it signals weakness, while their teams avoid raising strategic concerns out of distrust or fear. Team disengagement: When trust diminishes, team members stop challenging one another and wait for top-down directives, turning from proactive problem-solvers into task-oriented executors. These issues are not failures of leadership competency. They are symptoms of false alignment, which is the consequence of overlooking the need for deliberate cohesion. Signs your executive team is out of sync Think your team is aligned? Consider the following questions: Does alignment depend entirely on your CEO? If your team waits for top-down answers, it isn’t aligned. Are your meetings mostly informational updates? If real collaboration happens only in smaller groups, trust is lacking. Are silos the norm? If asking for help feels risky, your leaders are functioning as individuals, not as a team. Is constructive conflict avoided or punished? If problem-solving debates feel unsafe, innovation is stalling. If any of these scenarios resonate, your team isn’t just underperforming—it’s likely holding itself back, forfeiting innovation and strategic agility. What great executive teams do differently You can’t build alignment in the boardrooms. It’s built-in moments—the way leaders interact, debate, and trust each other. Aligned teams outperform their peers, not because alignment is easy but because it is deliberate. In our experience, companies need to take a two-step approach to fix misalignment: Step 1: Work on internal issues Elevate trust. Companies need to treat trust as a mission-critical value. Facilitate open discussions where executives can address challenges without fear of retaliation. Establish feedback loops and accountability. Integrate structured feedback mechanisms to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Embed professional development. Prioritize coaching and mentorship to make learning and growth central to your team’s strategy. Path 2: Bring in outside experts Executive coaches act as mirrors, revealing blind spots, building trust, and uniting teams before fractures lead to failure. They provide the safe space needed for honest discussions and alignment. A CEO’s Final Test: Are You Aligned? Finally, great leaders don’t assume alignment, they test it. If you want to know whether your team is truly aligned, ask your executives—privately and anonymously—to rate your team’s trust, collaboration, engagement, and alignment on a scale from 1 to 10. Compare the results. If the scores vary wildly or skew low, your team isn’t aligned, it’s merely coexisting. Start to think about how you can fix it. Remember, misalignment isn’t just an operational challenge, it’s a threat to your organization’s survival. View the full article

I am hearing reports that the Google Search Console API and tools that use the API, including Big Query exports, bulk exports and third party tools, are stuck with data from April 22nd but nothing sooner. It seems like there is something stuck in the data pipes within the API.View the full article

Every hour, the McDonald’s in Hong Kong’s crowded Admiralty Station sees more than 1,200 people bustle through its golden arches to grab a coffee or a burger. That’s one customer every three seconds. It’s the second-busiest McDonald’s in the world and the most-frequented restaurant in Asia—and now, it’s getting a makeover. To celebrate 50 years of McDonald’s in Hong Kong, the Admiralty Station has been renovated for the first time in 10 years. The design takes inspiration from the subway station itself, using a clever new installation to set a mood, evoke the excitement of travel, and, crucially, keep foot traffic moving through the bustling restaurant. It also takes a tentative step away from the millennial gray branding that’s dominated new McDonald’s locations over the past several years, embracing a slightly more nostalgia-powered look. The Millennial gray-ification of McDonald’sThe new Admiralty Station McDonald’s design was led by the Sydney-based design agency Landini Associates. Back in 2015, Landini Associates also spearheaded “Project Ray,” an all-encompassing McDonald’s rebrand named for Ray Kroc, the businessman widely credited with turning McDonald’s from a small hamburger stand into a fast-food corporation. Project Ray included rethinking the chain’s interiors, modernizing its graphic design, and even changing employees’ uniforms, all in a bid to “make McDonald’s cool again” and re-attract millennials to the brand. The first Project Ray redesign originally debuted at Admiralty Station, introducing a sleeker, more minimalist McDonald’s model accented with concrete, glass, and stainless steel—quite the contrast to the bright red-and-yellow stores customers might remember from the ’80s and ’90s. Landini Associates’ idea of a modern McDonald’s quickly caught on at other locations in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, and more. “The energetic environments that have been the signature for McDonald’s are now replaced with a simpler, calmer, and more classic feel,” Mark Landini, creative director of Landini Associates, told Architectural Products of Project Ray in 2023. Ten years on, Project Ray is still expanding to new McDonald’s restaurants. Still, the concept’s millennial gray-ification of McDonald’s has perhaps become a bit of a relic of the mid-2010s, when many fast-food restaurants began stepping back from expressive design for a more standardized fast-casual look. In contrast, over the past several months, McDonald’s has been more broadly embracing its fans’ nostalgia for its ’80s and ’90s marketing, bringing back brand characters like Grimace, CosMc, and Uncle O’Grimacey. Landini Associates’ updated Admiralty Station, which it’s calling a “Ray-Naissance,” seems to lean into this new tack by incorporating a bit more color, energy, and a few classic callbacks into its design. McDonald’s of the futureWhen visitors enter the new Admiralty Station McDonald’s, they’ll first be greeted with a gigantic, modernized version of the original golden arches, complete with a few subtle nods to the iconic branding of the very first McDonald’s restaurants. “As customers rise from the station below, they’re welcomed by a reflective double-canopy entrance—a contemporary homage to McDonald’s original roofline and a nod to Ray Kroc’s classic design,” a press release on the redesign reads. “Now framed by glowing feature walls in McDonald’s signature yellow, aimed at creating an unmissable beacon—just like the earliest restaurants once were.” Past this bright yellow entryway is the new restaurant’s defining feature: a 70-foot-long curving digital screen called the “Mood Engine.” Shape-wise, it’s a bit reminiscent of the subway trains themselves, and its moving images also build on the idea that it’s a fantastical continuation of the station’s transit. According to the press release, it “pulses with curated animations, dynamic color transitions, and playful bursts of McDonaldland characters,” bringing in a bit of the classic McDonald’s character that might’ve been missing in the previous design. To be clear, the new Admiralty Station McDonald’s is a far cry from the fast-food restaurants of the ’80s, when McDonaldland characters abounded. The concept is clearly intended for customers of the future, including a fast-service lobby filled with digital kiosks that can serve those 1,200 customers per hour; a first-of-its-kind McCafé Bar space made entirely from recycled plastic; tabletops made with 100% recycled laminate pulp and coffee grounds; and a fully LED lighting system intended for energy efficiency (that includes the Mood Engine wall.) Still, the design provides a sneak peek into what McDonald’s might look like several years from now: slightly brighter, more personalized, and tied to the company’s roots. “Our original design for Ray has proven its intent, to be a classically neutral and long-lasting space,” Landini said in the press release. “This ‘Ray-Naissance’ can now shift from calm to energetic, playfully branded to locally nuanced. . . . Like a chameleon, it responds to its environment.” View the full article

Efficiency standards for home appliances were once the conversational equivalent of beige—neutral, but aggressively uninteresting. But as political polarization has deepened, dishwashers, laundry machines, showerheads, and other household staples have begun to take on a new charge. With Republicans now in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, rules that quietly save Americans money on utility bills while conserving energy and water are suddenly at risk. Earlier this month, President Donald The President doubled down on his long-standing complaint about low-flow showerheads taking too long to clean his “beautiful hair.” He ordered his administration to repeal a rule, revived by the Biden administration, that aimed to save water by restricting flow from the fixtures. A White House fact sheet promised the order would undo “the left’s war on water pressure” and “make America’s showers great again.” It’s part of a growing movement targeting efficiency standards—last year, House Republicans passed bills including the “Refrigerator Freedom Act” and “Liberty in Laundry Act,” though neither succeeded in the Democratic-led Senate. Now in charge of both houses of Congress, Republicans have already passed a resolution to repeal a recent energy-efficiency standard for gas-powered tankless water heaters, which awaits The President’s signature. Efficiency standards used to have bipartisan support. But today, many Republican politicians see restrictions on gas stoves, refrigerators, and laundry machines as symbols of Democratic interference with people’s self-determination. That’s the idea The President advanced when he signed an executive order targeting efficiency standards for home goods and appliances “to safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose.” The message echoes talking points from industry groups that have an interest in keeping homes hooked up to natural gas for stoves and water heaters. “This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen efficiency standards thrust into the culture wars,” said Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which advocates for stricter energy-efficiency legislation. “But President The President has put that into overdrive.” The push for more efficient appliances began in response to the fuel shortages sparked by the 1973 oil crisis. Republican President Gerald Ford signed the bipartisan Energy Policy and Conservation Act in 1975, laying the groundwork for the government to set standards on household appliances. But state laws for more efficient appliances came first, forcing manufacturers to navigate a patchwork of rules. So Congress set nationwide efficiency standards for water heaters, air conditioners, dishwashers, and many other household appliances with the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act in 1987, signed by another Republican president—Ronald Reagan. Congress continued to expand those standards with bipartisan support in 1992, 2005, and 2007. In total, the Department of Energy now oversees standards for about 60 categories of appliances and other equipment in homes and businesses, spanning toilets to commercial refrigerators. In January, the pre-The President Department of Energy estimated that these rules, taken together, saved the average U.S. household about $576 a year on their bills. They also cut national energy use by 6.5% and water consumption by 12%, making them a key tool for addressing climate change and drought. Voters are broadly supportive of energy-saving policies, with 87% of Americans polled by Consumer Reports in March agreeing that new home appliances should be required to meet a minimum level of efficiency—including 82% of Republicans. “People aren’t clamoring for products that needlessly waste energy and money,” deLaski said. Despite broad popularity, there have been flare-ups of pushback and public outrage against efficient appliances dating back to the 1980s. Reagan actually vetoed the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, saying it restricted “the freedom of choice available to consumers who would be denied the opportunity to purchase low-cost appliances,” the year before he signed it. In a 1996 episode of Seinfeld, Jerry, Kramer, and Newman were so fed up with the new low-flow showerheads in their building, they resorted to buying black-market Yugoslavian models from the back of a truck. Another culture war brewed over energy-efficient LED light bulbs in the 2010s as older, incandescent models began to be phased out, with Tea Party Republicans declaring that light bulb choice was a matter of personal liberty. Matthew Burgess, an environmental economist at the University of Wyoming, said that efficiency rules are most likely to become a cultural flashpoint when people see them directly affecting their lives. “People do notice the flow of their showerheads,” he said. “People do notice whether their stove is gas or electric.” Some of the political tension over appliances resulted from ambitious changes, he said, such as when Berkeley, California, tried to ban gas connections in new buildings in 2019. “I think that there’s an impression on parts of the right, that’s not totally wrong, that elements in the climate community, and on the left, and in certain segments of the Democratic Party want to tell them what to do and what not to do in their households,” Burgess said. Yet the fossil fuel industry has also influenced the conversation: There’s been a coordinated campaign to highlight the narrative of “consumer choice” for gas appliances in particular, according to Emilia Piziak, a senior analyst at InfluenceMap, a climate think tank. Last year, for instance, the American Gas Association filed a court brief challenging Biden-era Department of Energy efficiency rules on furnaces and water heaters, arguing that Congress “wanted consumers to have the freedom to choose the energy type they prefer.” “These industry groups and gas utilities, they are working together,” Piziak said. “They’re very effective at showing up and driving that messaging home.” The “freedom to choose” narrative has also been echoed by The President officials. One of the top priorities of The President’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, is to “promote affordability and consumer choice in home appliances.” The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers told Grist that while it supports the efficiency standards process, it wants changes. “The rulemaking process and analysis should focus more on consumer impact, specifically regarding affordability and product choice,” the association said in a statement. “Any standard that is developed should have real, measurable benefits for the consumer.” Though high-efficiency appliances tend to be more expensive upfront, they can save households thousands of dollars on bills over the long term. And deLaski argued that efficiency standards also deliver other benefits to consumers. “Today’s high-efficiency products, whether we’re talking about light bulbs or clothes washers or showerheads, perform as well and in many cases better than the inefficient products that they’ve replaced,” he said. While the Energy Policy and Conservation Act prevents the government from weakening efficiency standards for appliances that have already been set, deLaski said he’s concerned that the The President administration is looking for a way around that. “I think all the standards are at risk of being undercut, circumvented, not enforced,” he said. Recently, Republicans have been targeting the efficiency rules set in place at the end of the Biden administration. Because of the Congressional Review Act, Congress can review and repeal a regulation issued in the last 60 legislative days—a period that extends back into last summer—with a simple majority vote. So far, Republicans have not only voted to repeal efficiency standards for gas water heaters under this rule, but also commercial refrigeration equipment and walk-in coolers for restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery stores. The efficiency rules passed under the Biden administration alone would save households $107 each year over the next two decades, according to an estimate from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, and collectively save business owners $2 billion each year. These recent moves by Republicans show that what started as a battle over “consumer choice” has expanded into a larger attack on efficiency as an objective. “I don’t think walk-in coolers are in the culture war,” deLaski said. “The attempt to push to eliminate these commonsense standards is really broad, not just about showerheads or refrigerators or dishwashers.” This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here. View the full article

To most visitors, Hoboken’s ResilienCity Park might look like a normal (if rather upscale) park, complete with a large lawn for lounging, a playground, a basketball court, and an athletic field. But hidden in plain sight, the park has another purpose: keeping two million gallons of rainwater off of Hoboken’s streets by storing them in a giant underground tank. The park—and others like it—is one of the main ways that Hoboken has transformed from a city devastated by Hurricane Sandy to one that, today, tends to recover from major rain within a matter of hours. Now, experts think New York City could use parks to follow Hoboken’s lead as extreme weather continues to worsen the city’s flood risk. According to a study published today by Rebuild by Design, an organization dedicated to using design solutions to solve complex urban problems, 70% of NYC parks will be flooded by 2100. The report comes on top of another recent study from the Regional Plan Association (RPA), which found that, by 2070, as many as 82,000 housing units in and around NYC could be lost due to flooding by 2040, and the number could double to 160,000 by 2070. Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, believes that Hoboken’s example could help NYC protect both its parks and its housing by turning green spaces into a form of storm management. How Hoboken’s parks keep its streets dry In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded 80% of Hoboken, took out its power grid for two weeks, and cost the city $110 million in damages. In a recent talk shared to Rebuild by Design’s YouTube, Caleb Stratton, the city’s chief resilience officer, said that it was “a wake-up call for the city of Hoboken.” The following year, Rebuild by Design was started as a design competition to promote resilience in regions that had been affected by Sandy. At the time, Chester says, cities were blindsided by both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy: “We didn’t really understand resilient infrastructure as we do now,” she says. That was especially true for Hoboken—which, despite its coastal location and long history of flooding, had almost no flooding mitigation infrastructure in place, Chester says. Hoboken’s proposed rain resilience project was one of Rebuild by Design’s six winning submissions, and over the last decade or so, the city has used more than $660 million from various sources including the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the state of New Jersey, and FEMA to implement new flooding protection measures. Hoboken’s flooding resilience project includes several different levers. To keep floodwaters out, it’s building a 9,000-foot-long series of preventative seawalls, gates, and levies. It’s also updating its sewer system with more flood pumps to move water out of storage quicker during heavy rain. And, it’s keeping streets dry by increasing above and below ground water storage. That’s where resiliency parks come in. So far, Hoboken has completed construction of three resiliency parks and a series of waterfront parks, with several more parks currently under construction. Each of these parks uses green infrastructure on its surfaces—like pervious pavers and rain gardens—which funnel water underground into holding tanks, keeping it out of the crowded sewer system and preventing overflows. The ResilinCity Park, the largest of the existing parks, can hold two million gallons of water, enough to collect runoff from 20 surrounding blocks during a notable rain event (typically defined as more than a half inch of water falling in a 24-hour period), Chester says. A large chunk of that water is kept in the park’s underground tank, while some is held in other clever ways—like a sunken basketball court with a capacity to hold more than 100,000 gallons. In all, the existing parks can hold a total of 4.2 million gallons of water. “It’s different from green infrastructure, because green infrastructure is on top of the park, and that stops the park from flooding. This is pumps and storage that stops the entire neighborhood from flooding,” Chester says. “We’re really interested in doing this all over New York City and in any urban areas where there are neighborhood parks, because if you’re a couple blocks away from a park, that park could be the storage option for your community and keep the floodwaters out of your basements and out of your streets.” Rebuild by Design’s data shows that, in 2022 and 2023, Hoboken’s new rain resilient infrastructure led to an 88% reduction in flooding events. In practice, that meant that across 121 storms, noticeable flooding only occurred 14 times. In September 2023, when Hurricane Ophelia led to thigh-deep water in Brooklyn and flooded subway cars in NYC, Hoboken was noticeably dry. Projects like these—which plan not just for seawater flooding, but also for excessive rainfall—are increasingly important as climate change ushers in rising sea levels, and as record-warm ocean temperatures lead to more intense annual storm seasons. According to the RAP’s recent analysis, NYC’s existing infrastructure is not prepared to account for the coming decades of flooding damage, which is expected to impact as many as 1.6 million New Yorkers by 2040. Chester thinks resiliency parks could be the first step toward preparing the city for what’s ahead. Why NYC’s parks could help keep residents safe from flooding Rebuild by Design’s new NYC park analysis maps all of the city’s 2,385 parks based on their current and future flood risk. Users can search the interactive map to view the parks in their own neighborhood, or filter for today’s flood risk and flood risk by 2100. The map is also color-coded based on FEMA’s social vulnerability index (or the susceptibility of social groups to the adverse impacts of natural hazards) and the heat vulnerability index, as parks provide the added benefit of reducing urban heat. The tool shows that 38% of parks are currently in flood zones—a number that’s expected to surge to 70% by 2100. While these statistics may seem alarming, Chester sees them as an opportunity. “We’ve mapped all of the floodplain in New York City and parks to see where [resiliency parks] could potentially be a solution,” Chester says. “We were able to show that 38% or 900 parks in New York City are currently on top of a flood plain. Interesting. Then if you look to the 2100 flood plain, it’s 70% of parks. That’s when we were like, ‘Oh my goodness. This could be really incredible to be thinking about this on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.’” Of all of NYC’s parks, Chester’s team has identified 177 sites that would benefit the most from a resilient makeover, based on both their flood risk and heat vulnerability. To make this happen, Chester says, the parks would have to be fully rebuilt to construct underground tanks that would pump water off of nearby streets, like the ResilienCity example—which “is why we need to start now,” she adds. “If every time the parks department upgraded a park, they rebuilt it this way, we could have a major headstart in addressing flooding across NYC neighborhoods,” Chester wrote in a follow-up email to Fast Company. “All of Hoboken’s flood infrastructure was built in the past decade (after Sandy.)” These parks are, admittedly, a major investment. ResilienCity, for example, cost $80 million, while the smaller Southwest Resiliency Park (which can hold about 200,000 gallons of water in its cistern) cost $12 million. However, Chester explains, pitching resiliency parks as flood protection can help to draw in new streams of federal and state funding. “Parks manage 14% of the City’s land, but only about 0.6% of the City budget over the past 40 years, far below the national standard of 1–2% allocation of a municipality’s budget,” the Rebuild by Design interactive map page reads. “Parks offer immense potential to draw down federal and state funds, including programs from FEMA, HUD, and state funding. If the City were to recognize parks as vital infrastructure—as it does highways—and properly invest in upgrading and maintaining its parks, these public spaces could protect and save lives and save billions of dollars.” For now, Rebuild by Design’s NYC proposal is just that. But Chester believes that, if Hoboken could implement successful resilient infrastructure in just a decade, there’s no reason that other cities can’t do it themselves. “We’ve been working on this for a little while now, but like, it’s such an incredible model for urban areas nationally, because a majority of urban areas have neighborhood parks, and they’re these smaller areas that can be doing a lot more things,” Chester says. “None of these parks existed in Hoboken before, and Hoboken is not a city with a lot of money.” View the full article

Google's updated guidance clarifies that Google-Extended does not affect search inclusion, nor is it a ranking signal The post Google Updates Gemini/Vertex AI User Agent Documentation appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Once upon a time, back in 1995, BYD was a little-known battery maker. Today, it is the world’s largest electric vehicle producer after surpassing Tesla in global sales in 2024. This rise reflects a relentless focus on automation and vertical integration. It controls every part of its supply chain. It makes its own batteries, with features unmatched in the industry, even mining raw materials like lithium. Its factories are robotic wonders that run about 97% on their own, building a never-ending stream of cars better than Western equivalents at lower price points. And it also transports its own cars across the world with its own fleet of ships specially designed to carry automobiles. The latest is also the biggest ship of its kind on the planet: The BYD Shenzhen, which just sailed to Brazil on its first assignment. This colossal ship was designed to carry just wheeled cargo, what is technically called a roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel. Unlike typical container ships, where vehicles are packed into boxes and containers, Ro-Ro ships allow cars to be driven directly onto decks via ramps, making loading and unloading faster. They are way more efficient to operate than regular transport ships because each minute shaved from loading and unloading translates into big financial savings for the company. As BYD’s general manager, Wang Junbao, pointed out at the Shenzhen’s delivery ceremony, “Its efficient loading system and advanced protective technologies for stable and low-carbon logistics will be pivotal to [the company’s] globalization strategy.” What’s so special about BYD’s ship? At 721-feet long—nearly twice the length of a soccer field—the Shenzhen is the largest car carrier by capacity, holding 9,200 vehicles across 16 decks. According to the company, the ship’s design prioritizes efficiency and sustainability. It uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel engines, which burn LNG, a cleaner alternative to traditional marine diesel. LNG cuts sulfur oxide emissions by 99% and nitrogen oxides by 85%, aligning with stricter environmental regulations in markets like Europe. The Shenzhen also features anti-fouling paint, a coating that reduces drag by preventing marine organisms from sticking to the hull, improving fuel efficiency by up to 8%. It also employs shaft generators, devices that convert excess engine power into electricity, reducing reliance on polluting diesel generators. While BYD hasn’t fully detailed its proprietary box-type battery packs onboard, their inclusion hints at efforts to electrify auxiliary systems, further lowering emissions. Hefei Why BYD built this giant BYD’s decision to invest in ships stems from its explosive growth. The company sold about 455,000 vehicles in 2019, surging to approximately 740,000 units in 2021 and more than doubling in 2022 to 1.9 million. This growth strained existing logistics networks. Knowing where it’s heading, BYD announced it would invest $687 million to build its own seven-ship Ro-Ro fleet. Third-party shipping costs were skyrocketing, with daily charter rates hitting $150,000 per vessel in 2024. For context, leasing a single ship for a month could cost $4.5 million. The company estimates that per-vehicle shipping expenses drop 30% to 40% with its own fleet, saving up to $1.4 billion annually. “BYD plans to deploy seven car carriers over the next two years to address the shortage of shipping capacity for automobile exports,” Wang Chuanfu, the company’s founder and chairman, said last year. It has three more to go, including Shenzhen‘s twin, the BYD Changsha, which will be launched soon. No doubt the company will need it. Overseas shipments surged 124% year over year to 133,361 vehicles in Q1 2025, and the company is set to export 800,000 vehicles across the world this year. Such exponential growth—which analysts believe will continue in the double digits for years to come—is why the company plans to make even more vessels. By 2026, BYD’s seven-ship fleet aims to move more than one million vehicles yearly (or 83,300 per month, equivalent to nine Shenzhen trips). That’s one car shipped every 30 seconds, if you want an even more impressive figure. BYD is not the only company that does this, even while it has the biggest ship for now. Its strategy mirrors a broader shift among Chinese automakers. SAIC Motor, China’s second-largest automaker, operates 31 ships through its logistics arm, Anji Logistics, including the 7,600-vehicle SAIC Anji Sincerity. Unlike BYD, SAIC transports cars for multiple brands, including its rivals. But BYD’s fleet will be reserved mainly for its own vehicles, out of pure necessity. Globally, Hyundai Glovis—Hyundai’s logistics subsidiary—manages 60 ships and has just ordered a dozen 10,800-vehicle LNG-powered carriers. While larger, Glovis serves third parties like Toyota and Volkswagen. Legacy automakers rely on partnerships with shipping firms, a model BYD avoids, seeking instead to control every aspect of the production chain (the technology, the level of automation, the quality, and the price) to crush the competition. It’s hard to imagine the beleaguered Tesla or any other Western manufacturer matching this kind of vertical integration. The massive BYD Shenzhen is yet another reminder that the race for EV supremacy may already have a winner. View the full article

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If you’re not on TikTok, you may not have heard of Aaron Parnas. But for many young people across the U.S., he’s a prominent political news source, with over 3.5 million followers on TikTok and just under one million on Instagram. Parnas isn’t the only TikToker Gen Z and Gen Alpha turn to for news. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of adults regularly getting news from TikTok nearly quintupled—with adults under 30 leading the surge. Who is Aaron Parnas? After starting college at 14, Aaron Parnas completed his degree at 18 and graduated from George Washington University Law School at 21 in 2020. That same year, Parnas transitioned from Republican to Democrat. He is the son of Lev Parnas and detailed both his family’s political experiences and his personal journey in the memoir The President First. Outside of TikTok, Parnas has worked as a securities litigation attorney and a Democratic digital strategist. He first gained traction online by posting legal content during the pandemic. In 2022, he pivoted to covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sharing pro-Ukrainian stories from his relatives living there. His account quickly blew up, gaining 1.2 million followers in just a few weeks. TikTok as a News Platform TikTok is increasingly becoming a news platform, where users watch influencers summarize news stories and topics—“giving you the TL;DR in a way,” Parnas said. Parnas and others are often able to post as soon as news breaks. “I’ll post 20 times a day if I have to,” he told the Daily Voice. For example, Parnas was among the first to report on President Zelenskyy’s March 5, 2022, call with U.S. lawmakers, during which Zelenskyy requested more resources and suggested it could be the last time they saw him alive. Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s Shift in Media Habits According to the Pew Research Center, 39% of adults under 30 regularly get news from TikTok. However, less than 1% of the accounts users follow are journalists or traditional news outlets. Instead, young people are turning to social media influencers like Parnas. “A lot of [his followers] say they don’t go to CNN, FOX or MSNBC,” he said. Parnas believes Gen Z and Gen Alpha are “disenchanted” with legacy news media. He argues that traditional journalism’s dedication to neutrality can be a turnoff, and that younger audiences are more open to editorializing and personal opinions from news sources. TikTok also makes space for diverse perspectives to be heard—such as those of Parnas’s Ukrainian relatives. Challenges of TikTok News Consumption Parnas credits his ability to post quickly to the fact that he operates solo and doesn’t need to go through multiple layers of approval. Still, his “goal is to spread accurate information.” “I would never consider myself an investigative journalist by any means,” Parnas said in an interview. Instead, he views himself as a news aggregator who shares information from verified sources with his followers. He acknowledges that legacy media remains important due to its superior sourcing and fact-checking. However, not all TikTok influencers prioritize accuracy. The platform lacks a system to prevent the spread of misinformation—whether it’s unverified claims, personal (and possibly uninformed) opinions, biased interpretations, or outright fabrications. Parnas describes the relationship between traditional journalists and TikTok creators as a “double-edged sword.” While creators help traditional reporting reach younger audiences by repackaging it for social platforms, the original journalists often don’t get the credit they deserve. As a result, many young users may struggle to recognize what trustworthy journalism actually looks like. View the full article