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Marketers love a good line graph that goes up and to the right, but with overwhelming data, graphs alone can’t communicate complex data effectively. A good data display should do more than convey information – it should reveal insights, guide decisions, and prioritize actions. In 2025, marketing data must evolve from reporting to storytelling, because effective charts don’t just show data; they help us understand what it means and what to do next. Why traditional reporting is no longer good enough One of the most common formats for SEO and PPC reporting is the classic, tried-and-true line graph. Even Google – in Search Console and Google Ads – defaults to using this format because it’s easy to understand at a glance. But as any digital marketer knows, a drop in traffic simply isn’t useful unless we know: Which keyword or campaign dropped off. Why it happened. How we can fix it. This kind of helpful information can’t be conveyed through a line. Similarly, long spreadsheets and tables of keyword-level data have been ubiquitous in the last decade, but to what extent do they help you decide your strategy? And how often do they confuse or mislead clients and stakeholders with too much information? 3-point data visualization checklist As you put together your deck or dashboard for internal or external use, here’s a checklist to help you determine whether the visuals you include are worth the pixels they take up. 1. What question is this visual answering? It’s easy to display data just because it’s available. But effective marketers choose visuals based on the question they’re answering. Some questions I often use data visualization to explore: From what source/medium is traffic dropping, and when did it start? Which content drives conversions versus just clicks? What keywords or topics are we overinvesting in without sufficient ROI? Where are the gaps in our sales funnel or content coverage? 2. What story are these visuals telling? Stories show cause and effect. If they only listed events, they’d read like a history book. Your data shouldn’t just show what happened – it should explain why. One chart rarely tells the full story. Say I start with a line graph showing a drop in paid traffic from a non-branded campaign. That highlights a potential issue but doesn’t explain what caused it, when it started, or how it affected results. Without that context, your audience is left guessing or misinterpreting. Like a good story, your data should follow a structure: Setup. Conflict. Climax. Resolution. Each visualization should contribute by providing context, introducing the problem, and leading to insight or a solution. 3. What decision or hypothesis is this data visualization story leading me toward? If you’re unsure of the next step after looking at your data, your audience will be, too. You may not always land on a conclusive next step like “invest in this market segment.” Still, your next step should be clear – whether that’s digging deeper to test a theory or gathering more data to add context. Dig deeper: Looker Studio reporting: 6 do’s and don’ts for search marketers Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Better marketing data visualizations to use Word clouds Word clouds help you group and rank like terms and keywords to identify: Gaps for your brand or your competitors. Cannibalization risks. Even themes for future campaigns. This specific word cloud ranks keywords by frequency, making it easy to spot dominant themes (like “email,” “automation,” and “CRM”) and supporting terms for content ideation, SEO audits, or campaign planning. It’s also a great way to visualize keyword overlap or gaps between your site and a competitor’s. Heatmap formatting A simple way to make your data tables showcasing multiple metrics more effective in communicating a conclusion. In the example below, we plotted the click-through rate against the average position to help identify underperforming creatives. Heatmaps that visualize click-through rate by average ad position for multiple creatives like this one make it easy for A/B testers to identify which creatives are underperforming despite high placement. In a calendar setting, you can also use heat mapping to help show fluctuations around seasonality or events. These can be especially helpful when presenting month-over-month data. A calendar-style heatmap showing traffic fluctuations by day and/or week can help quickly highlight blips or trends related to seasonality, campaign launches, or day-of-week performance shifts. Time decay waterfalls Some assets lose efficacy over time, and a visual that shows how much engagement declines makes it easier to know when to refresh or retire them. You can break down assets by category, channel, or campaign. In this example, the big red bars quickly highlight which content pieces are experiencing major traffic loss compared to pieces that show minimal loss year over year. The clearly stacked traffic loss visuals of the Time Decay Waterfall chart help you quickly interpret which content should be prioritized for updates, rewrites, or removals. Scatterplots Another great way to show the takeaways between multiple metric comparisons at a glance. Consider showing the relationship between a keyword’s search volume and estimated difficulty, with your current rank for said keyword, to help identify low-difficulty, high-volume keywords that could be lucrative opportunities for new content. Quickly identify high-potential opportunities and low ROI time-sinks with a Scatter Plot comparing volume, competition, and current rankings. Funnel charts Most often used in sales, a funnel chart is useful anytime you have a sequence of events where data decreases after each stage. This can apply to: Email series. Customer paths across your sit. Customer onboarding. Paid campaigns across platforms. User journeys across touchpoints. Funnel charts are perfect for showing conversion drop-offs at each stage of a journey, identifying quickly where optimization efforts could have the greatest impact. Great for campaign performance, CRO audits, and stakeholder presentations. Fewer figures, more insight It’s important to report, analyze, and communicate what your data really means. A great data chart can help your team win additional budget, shift to a more successful strategy, or save a cross-channel campaign. A poor one can lead your clients and stakeholders to reach false conclusions and walk away confused and anxious. Next time you’re tasked with presenting data, don’t simply default to the line graph. Instead, dive into the “why”, design your charts to answer specific questions, and tell the story behind the numbers, so people walk away saying, “Oh, now I get it.” Dig deeper: 7 reports SEO and PPC can use to help each other succeed View the full article

The 250 top mortgage originators in 2025 brought in high volumes despite less than ideal conditions. Check back in the following days for 150-51, the top 50 and the final full list, with further cuts of the data to be published thereafter. View the full article

Saving up to retire takes decades of planning (and sometimes sacrifice), not to mention a steady income that allows you to put that money aside. Not everyone makes it to the finish line; in 2024, close to 5% of people with 401(k) plans took a hardship withdrawal, pulling money from their future to solve immediate financial needs. If you’re not yet 59½ years old (and don’t qualify for one of the exceptions allowed by the IRS) this can be a costly decision, though, because in addition to paying taxes on the withdrawal (which is considered income), you’ll be slapped with a 10% penalty. But if you need to access your retirement funds a little early, there’s a way to do it without incurring the penalty—but it does come with some potential downsides. Substantially Equal Periodic Payments“Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SEPP) is a method that allows individuals to withdraw funds from their retirement accounts before reaching the age of 59½ without incurring the typical 10% early withdrawal penalty imposed by the IRS,” says Sarah Daya, Executive Director of Wealth Planning and Advice at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. “It could be a good option for individuals who are retiring early, or if you’re facing unexpected financial challenges and you need additional income to support yourself.” A SEPP involves setting up annual distributions from a qualifying retirement account (like an IRA or a 401(k)—although you can’t use a 401(k) at a current employer) over a period of five years, or until the account holder turns 59½. That’s where the “substantially equal” part comes in—a SEPP isn’t a one-time distribution, it’s a schedule of more or less equal distributions over a period of time. “The IRS has specific guidelines for how the SEPP is calculated and offers three methods for calculation that you can choose from,” Daya says: The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Method, which calculates the annual payment by dividing the account balance by your life expectancy based on the IRS’s tables; the annual payment is recalculated each year and can change from year to year. The Fixed Amortization Method, which calculates the payment by amortizing—in other words, distributing payments from—the account balance over a specified number of years, based on your life expectancy and a chosen interest rate; these payments remain the same from year to year. The Fixed Annuitization Method, which calculates the payment by dividing the account balance by an annuity factor based on a chosen interest rate and your life expectancy; the annual payment amount stays the same each year. Which method is best for you depends on your specific financial needs. SEPP downsidesIf a SEPP seems like a magical way to tap that nest egg without penalties, Daya cautions that there are some downsides. “A SEPP lacks flexibility,” she says. “You cannot change the payment amount or the schedule once you start—once you start a SEPP, you must continue withdrawals for at least five years or until you reach age 59 ½, whichever is longer. Changing the payment schedule or stopping the withdrawals before the five-year period ends can result in penalties.” Another consideration is taxes, which you will have to pay on the distributions like you would on any income. And SEPPs aren’t easy to figure out, even if you handle a lot of your own finances and do your own taxes. “Calculating the SEPP payment amount is very complex,” Daya says. “You should consider working with a financial professional to help you meet all of the IRS’s compliance rules.” Perhaps the most important consideration is the effect a SEPP will have on Future You. “Making early withdrawals through a SEPP can reduce the amount of funds available for their later retirement years,” Daya says. Every dollar you take today is a dollar you won’t have when you officially retire. The SEPP optionSetting up a SEPP can be a good idea if you are retiring early and need access to your funds for your living expenses. If you have no other income or the income you do have is insufficient, a SEPP can bridge the gap between today and official retirement. And if you need regular income over a long period of time due to an unexpected financial challenge, a SEPP might be a good way to provide that. But the inflexibility, cost to your future, and tax bill means a SEPP should be a kind of last-resort solution. “They are not for short-term emergency expenses,” Daya says. “A SEPP is a way to provide a consistent income stream over five or more years. Everyone’s financial situation is different, and whether a SEPP makes sense for you will depend on a number of personal factors.” View the full article

Time is running short for customers of Joann. That’s because in just a few more days, the beloved fabrics and crafts retailers will have closed 255 locations across America. And by the end of next month, all its locations will be shuttered for good. Here’s what you need to know about April’s round of Joann stores closing, including the locations of the closing stores and the dates they are expected to close. Why is Joann’s closing? Like many once-ubiquitous large retail chains, Joann Inc. has faced years of financial struggles that have only gotten worse thanks to rising inflation, consumers cutting back on discretionary spending, and the increased prevalence of people preferring to shop online. For Joann, its financial burdens became too much, and the company decided to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, its second bankruptcy in less than a year. As part of that bankruptcy process, its assets were sold off, and all of its around 800 stores are being liquidated. Which Joann’s stores are closing in April? A total of 255 Joann stores are closing in April, according to a spokesperson for GA Group, the asset firm that took control of Joann after its bankruptcy. (The list was reported earlier by USA Today.) Those stores have been running liquidation sales all month, and as those sales conclude, the stores will be shut for good. In fact, the closing dates for many of those stores have already passed. But more than 100 locations are expected to close their doors today. Joann’s store closing list and dates Below is a list of the Joann stores that are closing in April 2025. The closing dates are listed in parentheses. GA Group has confirmed the list and dates with Fast Company. (In addition to this list, Joann still has more than 500 locations that will continue operating into next month.) Alaska Anchorage University Center AK (04/23/2025) Soldotna Soldotna Plaza AK (04/27/2025) Alabama Tuscaloosa Freestanding AL (04/27/2025) Florence Cox Creek Plaza AL (04/28/2025) Montgomery Eastchase Market SC AL (04/28/2025) Arkansas Jonesboro University Plaza AR (04/25/2025) No Little Rock Lakewood Village AR (04/26/2025) Little Rock Shackleford Crossing AR (04/27/2025) Fort Smith Fort Smith Marketplace AR (04/28/2025) Arizona Casa Grande Tri Valley Plaza AZ (04/25/2025) Green Valley Sahuarita Plaza AZ (04/27/2025) Tucson Oracle Wetmore AZ (04/28/2025) Phoenix Arcadia Fiesta SC AZ (04/28/2025) California Bakersfield Ming Retail Center CA (04/24/2025) Eureka Harris Street CA (04/25/2025) Corte Madera Tamal Vista Blvd. CA (04/25/2025) Yuba City Raley’s Center CA (04/26/2025) Sonora Sonora Crossroads CA (04/26/2025) Alhambra Costco Plaza CA (04/26/2025) Riverside Riverside Plaza CA (04/26/2025) La Verne La Verne Plaza CA (04/26/2025) National City Bay Plaza S/C CA (04/26/2025) La Canada Foothill Blvd. CA (04/27/2025) Woodland Westgate S/C CA (04/28/2025) Jackson Grocery Outlet SC CA (04/28/2025) San Mateo South El Camino Real CA (04/28/2025) Redwood City Peninsula Boardwalk CA (04/28/2025) Morgan Hill Tennant Station S/C CA (04/28/2025) Long Beach Los Coyotes Centers CA (04/28/2025) Colorado Pueblo Pueblo Mall CO (04/27/2025) Connecticut Clinton Clinton Commons S/C CT (04/26/2025) Brookfield Shop Rite Plaza CT (04/26/2025) Hamden Hamden Mart S/C CT (04/28/2025) Florida Spring Hill Lakewood Plaza FL (04/24/2025) Miami Flagler Park Plaza FL (04/24/2025) Hollywood Hollywood Blvd FL (04/24/2025) Pembroke Pines 11251 Pines Blvd. FL (04/24/2025) Wellington Shoppes at Isla Verde FL (04/24/2025) Port Richey Home Depot Plaza FL (04/26/2025) Estero Coconut Pointe FL (04/26/2025) Miami The Greenery FL (04/26/2025) Plantation The Fountains FL (04/26/2025) Margate Margate Shopping Center FL (04/26/2025) Vero Beach Century Town Center FL (04/26/2025) Fort Walton Beach Mariner Plaza FL (04/28/2025) Destin Shoppes at Paradise Key FL (04/28/2025) Tampa Market Square at Tampa Palms FL (04/28/2025) Venice Venice Village FL (04/28/2025) Miami JOANN Fabrics Plaza FL (04/28/2025) Pompano Beach Pompano Marketplace FL (04/28/2025) Boynton Beach Riverwalk Shopping Plaza FL (04/28/2025) West Palm Beach Northlake Commons FL (04/28/2025) Sanford Town Center Plaza FL (04/28/2025) Georgia Warner Robins Willow Lake Crossing GA (04/19/2025) Newnan Newnan Pavilion GA (04/23/2025) Macon Shoppes at River Crossing GA (04/24/2025) Fayetteville Fayette Pavilion GA (04/26/2025) Brunswick Golden Isles Plaza GA (04/26/2025) Cumming Lakeland Plaza GA (04/27/2025) Conyers Conyers Plaza GA (04/27/2025) Duluth Pleasant Hill Square GA (04/28/2025) Douglasville Douglas Corners S/C GA (04/28/2025) Iowa Mason City Willow Creek Crossing IA (04/28/2025) Muscatine Muscatine Mall IA (04/28/2025) Illinois Galesburg Eagle Center IL (04/24/2025) Crestwood Rivercrest Centre IL (04/25/2025) Mchenry Shops At Fox River IL (04/26/2025) Joliet Joliet Commons IL (04/26/2025) Wheaton Danada Square West S/C IL (04/26/2025) Champaign Champaign Town Center IL (04/26/2025) Quincy Quincy Mall IL (04/27/2025) Carbondale University Plaza S/C IL (04/27/2025) Freeport Freeport Shopping Center IL (04/28/2025) Niles Four Flaggs S/C IL (04/28/2025) Norridge Norridge Marketplace IL (04/28/2025) Sterling Sterling Lincoln Center IL (04/28/2025) Lombard High Point Centre IL (04/28/2025) Chicago Jo!co Square IL (04/28/2025) Peru Peru Mall IL (04/28/2025) Bourbonnais Bradley Commons IL (04/28/2025) Mattoon Cross County Mall IL (04/28/2025) Danville Village Mall IL (04/28/2025) Indiana Columbus Eastbrook Plaza IN (04/24/2025) Michigan City Lake Park S/C IN (04/25/2025) Bedford Town Fair Center IN (04/26/2025) Jasper Germantown Center IN (04/27/2025) Plymouth Pilgrim Place S/C IN (04/27/2025) Angola Angola Plaza IN (04/27/2025) Marion Five Points Mall IN (04/27/2025) Richmond Wal-Mart Plaza IN (04/27/2025) Vincennes Vincennes Plaza IN (04/28/2025) Indianapolis Washington Plaza IN (04/28/2025) South Bend Broadmoor Plaza IN (04/28/2025) Kansas Lawrence Park Plaza KS (04/26/2025) Salina Central Mall KS (04/28/2025) Kentucky Elizabethtown Towne Centre KY (04/26/2025) Ashland Ashland Towne Center KY (04/26/2025) Owensboro Owensboro Towne Center KY (04/27/2025) Glasgow Barren River Plaza KY (04/28/2025) Corbin Trademart Shopping Center KY (04/28/2025) Louisana Slidell Village at Northshore LA (04/16/2025) Shreveport Bayou Walk Shopping Center LA (04/26/2025) Alexandria Power Center LA (04/28/2025) Gretna Westside North Shopping Center LA (04/28/2025) Massachusetts Methuen Village Mall MA (04/24/2025) North Dartmouth Dartmouth Town Ctr MA (04/26/2025) Leominster Mall at Whitney Field MA (04/28/2025) Hyannis Christmas Tree Promenade MA (04/28/2025) Hadley Hampshire Mall MA (04/28/2025) Maryland Greenbelt Beltway Plaza Mall MD (04/24/2025) Prince Frederick Fox Run Shopping Center MD (04/26/2025) Lavale Lavala Plaza S/C MD (04/28/2025) Annapolis Annapolis Plaza MD (04/28/2025) Brandywine Brandywine Crossing MD (04/28/2025) Maine Auburn Auburn Plaza ME (04/28/2025) Michigan Essexville Majestic Square MI (04/23/2025) Adrian Southland Plaza MI (04/24/2025) Alpena Bear Point Plaza MI (04/25/2025) Burton Courtland Center MI (04/26/2025) Big Rapids Ferris Commons MI (04/27/2025) Lapeer Lapeer S/C MI (04/27/2025) Chesterfield Waterside Market Place MI (04/27/2025) Ann Arbor Oak Valley Center MI (04/27/2025) Holland Felch Street Plaza MI (04/28/2025) Petoskey Bear Creek Plaza MI (04/28/2025) Fort Gratiot Twenty-Fourth Avenue MI (04/28/2025) Grosse Pointe Grosse Pointe Farms MI (04/28/2025) Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Village Sq MI (04/28/2025) Allen Park Independence Market Place MI (04/28/2025) Minnesota Hibbing Irongate Mall MN (04/26/2025) Hutchinson Hutchinson Mall MN (04/26/2025) Faribault Faribo West Mall MN (04/26/2025) Bemidji Paul Bunyan Mall MN (04/28/2025) Willmar Kandi Mall MN (04/28/2025) Shakopee Dean Lakes MN (04/28/2025) Missouri Jefferson City Capital Mall MO (04/26/2025) Washington Phoenix Center MO (04/27/2025) Saint Joseph Hillcrest Plaza MO (04/28/2025) Crystal City Twin City Plaza MO (04/28/2025) Mississippi Southaven Southaven Town Center MS (04/28/2025) Tupelo Big Oaks Crossing MS (04/28/2025) Jackson The Junction MS (04/28/2025) Montana Butte Butte Plaza Mall MT (04/28/2025) Helena Shopko Plaza MT (04/28/2025) North Carolina Hendersonville Blue Ridge Mall NC (04/19/2025) Goldsboro Berkley Mall NC (04/24/2025) Rocky Mount Sutters Creek Crossing NC (04/26/2025) Mooresville Mooresville Consumer Square NC (04/26/2025) North Dakota Bismarck Gateway Mall ND (04/22/2025) New Hampshire West Lebanon Target Plaza NH (04/22/2025) Seabrook Seacoast S/C NH (04/26/2025) Belmont Belknap Mall S/C NH (04/28/2025) Hooksett Hooksett Village Shops NH (04/28/2025) New Mexico Santa Fe Plaza Princessa S/C NM (04/26/2025) Las Cruces Pan America Plaza NM (04/28/2025) Nevada Carson City Carson Mall NV (04/26/2025) Elko Elko Junction NV (04/28/2025) New York Malone K-Mart Plaza NY (04/24/2025) Clifton Park Village Square NY (04/24/2025) Olean Tops Plaza NY (04/26/2025) Rochester JOANN / Petsmart Plaza NY (04/26/2025) Watertown Arsenal Plaza NY (04/26/2025) Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie Plaza Mall NY (04/26/2025) Middletown Dunning Farms S/C NY (04/26/2025) Lakewood Chautauqua Mall NY (04/28/2025) Niagara Falls Niagara Square NY (04/28/2025) Cortland Riverside Plaza NY (04/28/2025) Kingston Kingston Plaza NY (04/28/2025) West Babylon Great South Bay S/C NY (04/28/2025) Ohio Evendale Village Crossing OH (04/23/2025) Springfield Springfield Plaza S/C OH (04/24/2025) Heath Park Plaza OH (04/24/2025) Akron Tri-County Plaza OH (04/24/2025) Fremont Potter Village OH (04/26/2025) Lima Lima Center OH (04/26/2025) Dayton Shiloh Springs Plaza OH (04/26/2025) Chillicothe Zane Plaza OH (04/26/2025) St. Clairsville Ohio Valley Mall OH (04/26/2025) Niles Boulevard Centre at Eastwood Mall OH (04/26/2025) Marietta Lafayette Center OH (04/27/2025) Defiance Northtowne East OH (04/28/2025) Findlay Former Home Depot OH (04/28/2025) Hamilton Indian Springs Shopping Center OH (04/28/2025) New Philadelphia New Towne Mall OH (04/28/2025) Sandusky Crossings at Sandusky OH (04/28/2025) East Liverpool St Clair Plaza OH (04/28/2025) Steubenville Hollywood City Center OH (04/28/2025) Oklahoma Shawnee Shawnee Mall OK (04/26/2025) Stillwater Bradford Plaza OK (04/28/2025) Oregon Mcminnville Mcminnville Town Ctr OR (04/24/2025) The Dalles Cascade Square OR (04/26/2025) North Bend Pony Village Mall OR (04/26/2025) Warrenton Un-Named Shopping Center OR (04/28/2025) Beaverton Canyon Place OR (04/28/2025) Klamath Falls Je!erson Square OR (04/28/2025) Pennsylvania Belle Vernon Tri-County Plaza PA (04/24/2025) Indiana Regency Mall PA (04/24/2025) Altoona Pleasant Valley S/C PA (04/24/2025) Bridgeville Great Southern S/C PA (04/26/2025) Butler Pullman Square PA (04/26/2025) Johnstown University Park S/C PA (04/26/2025) State College Suburban Plaza PA (04/26/2025) Wayne Gateway S/C PA (04/26/2025) Glen Mills Concordville Town Center PA (04/26/2025) Lebanon Cedar Crest Sq S/C PA (04/26/2025) Pittsburgh Southland Four Seasons PA (04/28/2025) Meadville South Park Plaza PA (04/28/2025) Du Bois Dubois Mall PA (04/28/2025) Pottstown The Shops at Coventry PA (04/28/2025) Springfield Marple Crossroads PA (04/28/2025) Selinsgrove Susquehanna Valley Mall PA (04/28/2025) South Carolina Charleston Ashley Crossing SC (04/24/2025) Anderson Market Place Shopping Center SC (04/26/2025) Columbia Northpointe Commons SC (04/28/2025) Florence Florence Mall SC (04/28/2025) South Dakota Brookings University Mall SD (04/28/2025) Tennessee Jackson The Columns TN (04/26/2025) Johnson City Johnson City Plaza TN (04/26/2025) Tullahoma Northgate Mall TN (04/27/2025) Sevierville Governors Crossing TN (04/27/2025) Kingsport Kingsport Shopping Center TN (04/28/2025) Knoxville Harvest Park Shopping Center TN (04/28/2025) Texas New Braunfels Interstate Plaza TX (04/26/2025) Houston Copperfield Crossing TX (04/26/2025) Rockwall The Plaza At Rockwall TX (04/26/2025) Abilene Park Central Shopping Center TX (04/26/2025) San Antonio City Base Landing TX (04/28/2025) Mesquite Marketplace at Towne Centre TX (04/28/2025) Odessa Chimney Rock TX (04/28/2025) Virginia Lynchburg River Ridge Mall VA (04/23/2025) Christiansburg New River Valley Center VA (04/24/2025) Martinsville Village of Martinsville VA (04/26/2025) Culpeper Dominion Square VA (04/26/2025) Hampton Riverdale Plaza VA (04/26/2025) Warrenton Warrenton Center VA (04/28/2025) Vermont Barre Central Vermont Shopping Cente VT (04/26/2025) Rutland Town Green Mountain S/C VT (04/28/2025) Washington Port Angeles Port Angeles Plaza WA (04/26/2025) Kent Kent Hill Plaza WA (04/26/2025) East Wenatchee Valley Mall Parkway WA (04/26/2025) Seattle Nw 57Th Street WA (04/28/2025) Renton Northeast Sunset Blvd. WA (04/28/2025) Moses Lake Town Center WA (04/28/2025) Clarkston Gateway Square WA (04/28/2025) Wisconsin Marshfield Marshfield Center WI (04/22/2025) Pewaukee Silver Nail S/C WI (04/23/2025) Plover Crossroads Commons WI (04/25/2025) Marinette Pine Tree Mall WI (04/25/2025) Watertown Rivers Edge Mall WI (04/25/2025) Beaver Dam Heritage Village WI (04/28/2025) Fond Du Lac Forest Plaza WI (04/28/2025) Cudahy Packard Plaza WI (04/28/2025) West Virginia Beckley Raleigh Mall WV (04/28/2025) Parkersburg Memorial Bridge Plaza WV (04/28/2025) Wyoming Rock Springs White Mountain Mall WY (04/28/2025) View the full article

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

Google uses its search engine data and signals to help train its Gemini AI models, we learned from documents from the DOJ deposition testimony. Although, we kind of knew that when Google launched SGE, they told us they used Google Search's core ranking systems to help identify high-quality sites (although, it didn't seem like they did...).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

Microsoft Bing is testing placing a "more videos" section in the Bing Copilot answers. Recently we covered how Bing placed images and video links but this implementation makes more sense.View the full article

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

Last December, we reported how Google was showing a payments option section in the retailer/merchant knowledge panel. Google is now testing a clearer version of it, while adding shipping and return information to the payments section.View the full article

Apple has made some updates to its Applebot documentation, primarily explaining the difference between the normal Applebot crawler and the Applebot-Extended crawler. To be clear, Applebot-Extended is not new, Apple introduced it about a year ago but Apple wanted to clarify how blocking Applebot-Extended impacts Applebot, if at all.View 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