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The U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran has thrust the Strait of Hormuz once again into the crosshairs of a geopolitical conflict. Iran has ground to a halt nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, shutting down a critical path for the world’s flow of oil. Attacks on commercial ships and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from carrying oil, gas and other goods through the passage. That’s also led to cuts from some of the world’s largest producers, because their crude has nowhere to go. This is hardly the first time the Strait of Hormuz has been weaponized. Ship seizures and past fighting in the region have raised alarm for commercial ships, at times severely disrupting their ability to sail through. Iran has also repeatedly threatened to close the strait in response to sanctions and other tensions over the years, but stopped short of cutting off traffic entirely. Even with the bulk of traffic halted amid the current war, dozens of vessels have still managed to cross the waterway, according to maritime and trade data platforms. While Iran and Oman both have territory in the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow shipping channels are viewed as international waters through which all ships can travel. Still, Tehran holds significant influence over the passage through its nearby military presence and control of key islands in the area. The latest clash, now in its third week after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran and killed its supreme leader, has resulted in major consequences for energy markets: Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil traveled through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and strains on supply have sent fuel prices soaring. Here are some others instances when traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted or threatened. 1980s: Iran-Iraq ‘Tanker War’ During a deadly, 8-year-long war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, both sides attacked tankers and other vessels in and nearby the Strait of Hormuz, using naval mines to shut down traffic at points. The U.S. also got involved in the so-called Tanker War — with the Navy even fighting a one-day battle against Iran in 1988, and later shooting down an Iranian commercial airliner that it mistook for a fighter jet, killing 290 people. The strait didn’t close completely. And during the war, U.S. ships also escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect them against Iranian attacks. Still, the passageway became incredibly dangerous and shipping was disrupted. 2011–2012: Iran threatens closure during nuclear sanctions At the end of 2011 and into 2012, Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to new sanctions from the West over its nuclear development program. The European Union began enforcing a ban on purchases of Iranian oil — and the U.S. similarly targeted the country’s energy sector while also barring transactions with Iran’s central bank. That later prompted other countries to buy less Iranian oil. But Iran walked back some of those threats, and its government did not end up closing the Strait of Hormuz. Still, the turbulence and shifts in supply brought swings in oil prices. Brent crude — the international standard — was trading above $100 in December 2011 and for much 2012, peaking at more than $126 per barrel in March 2012, before cooling some later in the year. 2018: More closure threats after US withdraws from nuclear accord In May 2018, during his first term in office, U.S. President Donald The President withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear accord with Iran and began to restore sanctions. Despite some waivers, The President vowed to eventually cut off all Iranian oil exports. In response, then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani repeated threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. But again, Iran did not end up closing the strait. And despite some volatility throughout the year, with particular production pressure on OPEC producers, Brent ended the year trading at nearly $54 a barrel, down from about $75 a barrel when The President declared the U.S. would be withdrawing in May 2018. 2019-2025: Ship seizures and attacks The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels near the strait that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker in 2021. Tehran denied involvement at the time. Regardless, such hostilities strained insurance rates and raised fears for shipping companies. Meanwhile, Iran seized a handful of vessels in the waterway, including several foreign oil tankers it alleged were carrying smuggled fuel at the end of just last year, per state media. The country also captured a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship in 2024 and took two Greek tankers and held them for months in 2022, among other seizures. The strait nonetheless remained open throughout. June 2025: 12-day war between Israel and Iran Fears about a possible Strait of Hormuz closure also piled up during last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran, particularly after the U.S. entered the conflict with bombings on three Iranian nuclear and military sites. But Iran did not close the strait, and oil didn’t see lasting price surges. Despite prices jumping some in the early days of the conflict, oil actually saw a notable sell-off as traders doubted the likelihood of attacks on crude shipments. By the war’s end, Brent was trading below $67 a barrel, a few dollars less than it was beforehand. —Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP Business Writer View the full article

Measures for banks would weaken one of the main regulatory guardrails against a financial crisisView the full article

Despite bullish jobs data, yields surged post-FOMC, with three possible wave theory outcomes ahead, according to the head of correspondent business development at AD Mortgage. View the full article

Ethics, creativity, critical thinking and the future of learning in an AI-powered world. Student-Led Conversations With Harshita Multani Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

Ethics, creativity, critical thinking and the future of learning in an AI-powered world. Student-Led Conversations With Harshita Multani Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

Multi-location brands are investing heavily in content. But more content doesn’t automatically mean more growth. I keep seeing the same issue. Each individual location has a blog, and they all cover the same topics. Same keywords. Same structure. Same search intent. The goal is local visibility, but the result is often internal competition and diluted authority. Building an effective content strategy for multi-location brands requires clarity around roles. What should live at the corporate level to build authority, and what should stay local to drive relevance and conversions? Without that alignment, brands risk competing with themselves instead of winning in search. Where the strategy breaks down Most multi-location content issues aren’t intentional. They’re often the result of growth without a clear content framework, or simply too many cooks in the kitchen without overall governance. Corporate teams are focused on building brand authority and scaling marketing efforts. At the same time, local teams or franchisees want content that answers their customers’ questions and lives on their own site, rather than sending users elsewhere. The assumption is simple: more content equals more visibility. However, without clear ownership or strategic keyword targeting, overlap becomes inevitable. Similar topics are published across multiple URLs, and over time, this creates internal competition rather than building authority for the entire site. What type of content belongs at corporate In general, corporate should own the content that applies to the brand as a whole and build authority at scale. This includes blog content that targets broader informational queries and answers user questions, no matter where users are located. Educational resources, industry insights, and evergreen topics perform best when consolidated in one place rather than duplicated across multiple URLs. Core service, product, and line-of-business pages should also be centralized. These pages define what the brand offers and typically remain consistent across markets. While location pages can reference and support this foundational content, they often don’t need to be recreated at the local level unless they differ between locations. Brand-level content, such as company history, leadership, mission, and differentiators, should also sit at the corporate level. These elements reinforce credibility and should be standardized across the organization. Dig deeper: Local content playbook: From service pages to jobs-to-be-done pages Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with What type of content belongs at the local level When it comes to local content, focus on what’s relevant to that specific market. This includes geo-specific content such as: Location landing pages with unique, customized copy. Localized metadata. Location-specific FAQs, relevant structured data (e.g., reviews, LocalBusiness). In some cases, region-specific service variations. On location pages specifically, there are additional opportunities to highlight uniqueness: Location-specific testimonials and reviews. Team bios. Owner messages or stories. Events or awards. Community partnerships. Descriptive content about the location or service area. Location-specific imagery. These elements can live on a single, well-built location page or expand into a microsite structure (pages living under a subfolder) when it makes sense for the business. Remember, the goal of these pages is to strengthen relevance, target geo-modified and local intent queries, and ultimately drive conversions. One common concern with location pages is duplicate content. The question often becomes, how much duplicate content is acceptable? Instead of focusing on a percentage of unique versus shared content, teams should focus on what’s most useful for the user. Typically, content that doesn’t need to be unique across every location includes: Brand boilerplates. Core service lists. Service or product descriptions. Standard calls to action. Legal disclaimers. Navigation. Trust signals. Dig deeper: Local SEO sprints: A 90-day plan for service businesses in 2026 Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Common SEO risks of a faulty content strategy When content production lacks clear governance, it can lead to a range of issues that affect organic visibility and crawl efficiency. Over time, this can cause inconsistent rankings, diluted authority, and missed opportunities to convert traffic into leads. Keyword cannibalization Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages across a site target the same keywords and search intent. Instead of strengthening rankings, those pages end up competing against each other in search results, and, in some cases, may not get indexed at all. For multi-location brands, this often happens when individual locations publish similar blog content. For example, a plumbing brand might have multiple location pages with blogs, each posting a blog post titled “Tips to fix a leaky faucet,” creating several URLs targeting the same informational query. A more strategic approach is to consolidate that topic into a single, strong corporate-level post. This would allow the brand to serve as the authoritative source, build backlinks, answer users’ questions effectively, and strengthen the site’s overall credibility. Google choosing the ‘wrong page’ When multiple pages on a website are targeting the same or overlapping keywords, search engines have to determine which one to rank, and sometimes it’s not the page you intended. On a multi-location site, that may mean a local blog ranks nationally for a topic that would be better suited to live on the corporate site and build broader brand authority. While the page may be relevant to the query, it may not guide users clearly to the next step, leading to customer confusion or bounces. It may also cause users who aren’t in-market to leave the site after absorbing the information because there’s no clear next step for them, or because they only see information about services in Austin, Texas, while they’re located in Cleveland, Ohio. Instead, consolidating authority on a single, well-ranking page that clearly directs users to take action, whether that means finding their nearest location or submitting a form, would be more beneficial for the brand and users. Crawl inefficiencies Publishing multiple blog posts on the same topic, especially when the answer doesn’t vary by location, can result in duplicate or low-value content. While these pages may be regularly crawled due to internal linking, they often never make it into the index. At scale, this can become a bigger issue, especially for sites with many locations that publish similar informational topics. For a site with dozens or hundreds of locations, having similar blog posts across those locations can create crawl bloat, where search engines may spend time and resources crawling repetitive or low-impact URLs rather than more high-impact pages. Diluted link equity When similar content exists across multiple URLs, backlinks and internal links are split among pages instead of consolidating authority on a single strong page. Rather than building momentum around a single piece of content, link equity is distributed across competing versions. For multi-location brands, this can weaken overall ranking potential. Consolidating authoritative content at the corporate level allows links, authority, and trust signals to compound, strengthening the entire domain and supporting location pages more effectively. Dig deeper: The local SEO gatekeeper: How Google defines your entity Creating a plan: How corporate and local can work together After defining roles, move to governance. Multi-location brands need a shared plan for ownership, keyword targeting, and team collaboration. Before new content gets created, the right questions need to be asked, such as: Is this topic location- or region-specific, or is it broader for any consumer? Would publishing this for only one location add value to those specific customers? Would publishing it across multiple locations make sense? Who should own the keyword? The brand or a specific location? Who does it make sense for the information to come from? Clear keyword mapping and a centralized content calendar can prevent overlap before it starts. When teams understand their roles, content supports overall growth instead of competing internally. Content collaboration also creates opportunities to strengthen E-E-A-T signals for the site as a whole. Corporate can cover broader educational topics while drawing on real expertise and experience from local teams. For example, a roofing company might want to write a post about how often homeowners should replace their roofs. The topic is universal. However, the answer could vary by region due to factors such as the material used in that area or the weather. The blog could include quotes from franchise owners or team members across different regions to provide insights into regional factors, such as heat and humidity in the South versus harsh winter weather in the North. This would allow corporate to own the topic and give locations the opportunity to provide their unique expertise and experiences. Plus, linking to relevant location pages can reinforce context and create stronger internal linking throughout the site. Another option would be to create a local hub within the blog. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Volume isn’t always the right strategy Search may be changing, but many of the fundamentals remain the same. High-quality, well-structured content that genuinely helps users is what earns visibility. With Google’s AI Overviews and large language models pulling from authoritative sources, content that clearly answers questions and reflects real expertise is even more valuable. Pages created solely to scale across multiple locations — without adding unique value — are unlikely to perform consistently, and can even hurt a site in the long run. Content shouldn’t be treated as a volume game. More pages alone won’t drive growth. What matters is planning, ownership, and alignment. When corporate and local teams build a shared content strategy, it helps turn content into a growth driver rather than just more pages on a site. View the full article

Career disruption is accelerating across the economy—and few people have navigated it more boldly than Maryam Banikarim. The former CMO of Univision, Gannett, and Hyatt, and host of The Messy Parts podcast, Banikarim shares hard-won wisdom about C-suite politics, and what it means to ultimately bet on yourself. Growing up in Iran during the time of revolution, Banikarim offers a unique perspective on the current Middle East conflict—and her determined search for hope amid the chaos. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. Let’s start with The Messy Parts, because first of all, I love that word, messy. I feel like creativity is messy, growth is messy. We have plans, but life is really what happens when your plan didn’t work out. Have you always been drawn to messy? I think I never knew anything but messy. I’m a kid who grew up in a revolution. My mom and dad went to college in Boston and left me behind with my grandmother in Iran when I was 3, which most people think is really traumatic, but what else did I know? I had a father who drowned windsurfing when I was a sophomore in college. I only know messy. But what I also learned as a result is how to pick myself back up pretty quickly. And I think the sooner you learn that, the easier it gets. Not that we want people to have complicated journeys, but I do think you develop this muscle memory that, while it may be hard, you learn that it’s going to be OK. And sometimes the mess is the opportunity, too. It’s finding the opportunity in the mess. A hundred percent. Bloomberg talks about having started Bloomberg as a result of being fired. When people step away or pause, whether by choice or by somebody else’s choice, what ends up happening is that you have to decompress and deal and find a pathway. I had a job that I took at Ammirati Puris Lintas. It’s not even on my résumé. I took that job, and a week in I knew, oh, things were not good here. And that was terrifying. But if I hadn’t walked away from that job, I wouldn’t have had a pivot in that moment that really became transformative for my career after that. It’s easy to see that in retrospect, but when it was happening and I was like, “Oh my effing God,” yeah, that didn’t feel so good. Yeah, but it’s hard to walk away from things, especially if you’re someone who’s like, “No, I’m a successful person. I get things done. I solve problems. Why can’t I solve this one?” I’m a professional problem solver. That’s generally what I say people in the world of business are. The hardest thing for me is sitting still. When that pause comes, it’s a real moment of identity shift, because I remember leaving Hyatt and taking a year and a half off, and literally, to a person, they would be like, “She’s the former global CMO of Hyatt,” as if somehow I had no value outside of that title. I had headhunters who called me who said, “Don’t wait too long because you’re not going to be able to go back in.” There’s so much anxiety that’s placed on you when you pause, again, whether it’s by choice or not. And I think for people who are successful enough to get to that level, yeah, your identity is completely intertwined because you had to make sacrifices in order to be able to get there. I know when I left Fast Company, where I had been for 11 years, it was a long time. And I did have this sense of, what is my relevance? Where do I go next? And you do feel a little lost. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to be when I grow up. I don’t know where this journey is going to take me, but each thing leads you to the next thing. And so I think that belief that it will work out, even though it seems easy to say, is actually pretty much true. I would say that is the throughline among all the people who’ve come on. Now, some of them will tell you, “Live your purpose.” Some of them tell you don’t live your purpose. There’s a lot of competing ideas. But the one thing I will say is grit, resilience—they work hard, and they learn over time that even though they have these bumps, which are inevitable, it somehow works itself out. You mentioned your upbringing in Iran. What do you make of it? Do you still have family there that you’re in touch with? Yes, I still have family there. My aunt and her husband are still there. I left when I was 11, in fifth grade, at the end of fifth grade. And for sure, that was, I think, the beginning of a feeling of non-belonging in a way, because you were extracted in the middle of your life from the world that you knew. I have felt numb pretty much since then in some ways. I remember when the Women, Life, Freedom movement broke out, there was this song called “Baraye,” which actually won a Grammy that year. When that song played for the first time, something in me broke and I cried. I don’t think I’d cried the entire time. For me, I was a kid as the revolution heated up. We had more and more kids who were being pulled out of school. We had teachers who left. We had martial law. My father was under house arrest, but as a kid, oddly, I found it exciting. And so I had an American teacher. She did current events, and I remember at the end of the year she said to my mom, “Your daughter is going to become a journalist.” And as they were killing all the journalists, my mom said to her, “That is a fate worse than death.” But I think it’s hard not to look on. Obviously, there are a lot of civilians being impacted, not just in Iran, but also in all the other places where bombs are being dropped. There’s no question that this has been a government that’s terrorized its own people. I think there’s a sense of, we’re going to burn it to the ground before we give up. So you worry about where the end is. I don’t think anybody who knows what’s happened in terms of the repression and really the aggression with which they’ve put down any kind of protest would be sad that things change, but I do think we’re going to experience a high cost in what you call unintended casualties. Out of all this, you have been a very creative person yourself, as a marketer and otherwise. I remember during the pandemic, you threw yourself into championing New York City at a time when the city seemed scary and at risk, and you rallied people in the arts and outdoor performances. And you put together The Longest Table, which was this sort of block-long dining table in Manhattan to fuel connection. Now you’ve started a community called The Interval for executives in transition. Is there something that you feel connects those things? The throughline is belonging. I think for me, as a kid who lost her sense of belonging, not only creating belonging for myself—which I really did by joining and doing, that’s how I found belonging. I was like, “I’m willing to help and get involved.” But also helping others find belonging for themselves. Nobody needs to repeat middle school, I say. I think we can all relate to that emotion. I think that matters. In the world of business, when you step away, again, by choice or not, there is this incredible moment of vulnerability. And I think what’s amazing about The Interval is that you find a group that is willing to support you without judgment. I remember when I left Hyatt, my son said to me, “Mom, you’re the busiest unemployed person I know.” And I think motion was my default. I think there are so many different ways to live your life. For me, The Longest Table, which is a nonprofit, has been a way to reinvent myself, to just give back in a different way. And honestly, I’m in a place to be able to do that now. View the full article

In many ways, the macOS is the ideal platform to support visual project management. Here, we've gathered the best project management software for Mac-based teams. The post 10 Best Project Software for Mac Users in 2026 appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

Federal regulators issued proposals Thursday to implement the final elements of the Basel III accords, adjust the Global Systemically Important Bank surcharge and implement standardized approaches for risk-weighted assets. The changes would reduce capital requirements for banks of all sizes affected by the rules. View the full article

Alibaba’s net income fell 66% year-over-year (YOY) for 2025’s fourth quarter while it invested heavily in AI. In total, net income dropped from 46.4 billion Chinese yuan ($6.8 billion) to 15.6 billion Chinese yuan ($2.27 billion). The downturn is one of multiple disappointments in the Chinese technology giant’s latest financial results, announced Thursday, March 19. Alibaba also reported a 71% decrease in diluted earnings per share YOY. Higher cloud revenue, but not high enough Even Alibaba’s revenue, which rose 2% YOY, failed to meet expectations. The company reached 284.8 billion Chinese yuan ($41.4 billion) in revenue for quarter four, falling short of Wall Street’s predicted 290.7 billion Chinese yuan ($42.3 billion), according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. As of publication, U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) were down more than 4% in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock is down more than 13% in 2026 so far. The small revenue increase was led by the company’s Cloud Intelligence Group, which rose 36% YOY. “Alibaba Cloud continues to lead the market, attracting more customers to onboard our comprehensive AI + cloud products and services, including high-performance networking, distributed storage, cloud operating system, and services for model training and inference,” the company stated in its release. Competing for global AI dominance Alibaba has worked to position itself as a competitor to U.S.-based AI companies. In October, Alibaba Cloud launched its second data center in Dubai as part of a pledge to invest 380 billion yuan ($55.3 billion) in AI and cloud infrastructure over three years. It has also developed its own chips in response to uncertainty around Nvidia’s chip sales to China. Despite today’s earnings miss, the company says it remains committed to funding AI growth. “This quarter, Alibaba maintained strong investments across our core pillars of AI and consumption. AI is and will continue to be one of our primary growth engines,” Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu stated in the company’s financial report. “Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to drive growth on both enterprise AI and consumer AI fronts, powered by our full-stack AI capabilities spanning foundation models, cloud infrastructure, and proprietary chips, alongside deep integration with our broader ecosystem.” View the full article

Retail loyalty cards are programs designed to encourage customer loyalty by rewarding repeat purchases. When you sign up, you provide personal information and receive a unique identifier that tracks your purchases. With each transaction, you earn points that can be redeemed for discounts or exclusive offers customized to your shopping habits. This system not only improves your shopping experience but additionally provides retailers with insights into your buying behavior, raising questions about the broader impact of these programs. Key Takeaways Retail loyalty cards are programs that reward customers with points for repeat purchases, enhancing customer loyalty and encouraging sales. Customers enroll by providing personal information and receive a unique identifier to track their points and rewards. Points earned can be redeemed for discounts, free items, or exclusive offers tailored to individual shopping habits. Effective loyalty programs utilize multi-channel promotion and simplified enrollment to increase participation and engagement among consumers. Success is measured through key performance indicators (KPIs), such as enrollment and redemption rates, to optimize program effectiveness. What Are Retail Loyalty Cards? Retail loyalty cards are strategic tools used by businesses to cultivate customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. These cards, which include store rewards cards and store membership cards, are issued by retailers to provide customers with incentives and rewards based on their purchasing behavior. By using retail loyalty cards, you can accumulate points with each purchase, which can later be redeemed for various rewards once you reach a specific threshold. Popular examples include Starbucks Rewards, Sephora Beauty Insider, and Walgreens Balance Rewards, each customized to meet the unique preferences of their customers. Retail loyalty cards not only benefit you by offering rewards but in addition help retailers track customer habits, allowing them to refine their offerings. Ultimately, these programs play an essential role in enhancing brand loyalty, contributing to increased customer retention and overall sales revenue for businesses. How Do Retail Loyalty Cards Work? When you participate in a retail loyalty program, you typically start by enrolling and providing some personal information. After that, you receive a unique identifier, like a card or app ID, which tracks your purchases and points. Here’s how it works: Points Accumulation: You earn points for every purchase, which can be redeemed for rewards or discounts once a threshold is met. Customized Promotions: Retailers analyze your shopping behavior to offer personalized recommendations, enhancing your shopping experience. Multi-Channel Earning: You can earn and redeem points in-store, online, or via mobile apps, providing greater flexibility. Data Insights: Retailers utilize loyalty card data to understand purchasing habits, enabling targeted marketing strategies. Through these mechanisms, retail loyalty cards encourage deeper engagement and aim to increase your overall shopping satisfaction as well as benefiting the retailer’s sales strategies. Benefits of Retail Loyalty Cards for Customers Retail loyalty cards provide you with exclusive rewards and discounts that improve your shopping experience. By accumulating points with each purchase, you can redeem them for valuable offers customized to your preferences. Moreover, these programs often personalize promotions based on your shopping habits, making your experience more relevant and enjoyable. Exclusive Rewards and Discounts As you shop, loyalty cards can greatly improve your experience by offering exclusive rewards and discounts personalized to your preferences. These programs provide various benefits that enrich your shopping experience, including: Points for every purchase that can be redeemed for discounts or free items. Personalized discounts customized to your shopping habits, making you feel valued. Early access to sales and exclusive products, ensuring you don’t miss out on deals. Additional perks like birthday gifts and tiered rewards, encouraging repeat purchases. Participating in loyalty programs not only boosts your savings but furthermore deepens your relationship with your favorite brands, leading to a more engaging shopping experience. Enjoy the advantages that come with your loyalty! Personalized Shopping Experience Enhancing your shopping experience goes beyond just discounts and rewards; it lies in the personalized service that loyalty cards provide. When you join a loyalty program, you receive customized offers and discounts based on your purchasing behavior. Research shows that 91% of consumers prefer brands that offer personalized recommendations, which makes shopping more enjoyable. Loyalty card members often gain exclusive promotions, early access to sales, and rewards that align with their preferences, encouraging repeat purchases. Retailers analyze your shopping habits to create targeted marketing strategies, enhancing relevance. Many programs feature tiered rewards systems, offering increasingly valuable perks as your spending grows. Examples of Popular Retail Loyalty Card Programs Loyalty card programs have become a staple in the retail environment, offering consumers a way to earn rewards during shopping. Here are some popular programs that illustrate how they work: Starbucks Rewards: Earn stars for every purchase, redeemable for free items and personalized offers through their app, boosting engagement. Sephora’s Beauty Insider: A tiered points system allows members to earn rewards, including birthday gifts and exclusive access to products based on spending levels. Walgreens’ myWalgreens: This program offers cash rewards, personalized coupons, and health activity tracking, aiming to promote repeat business. Kroger Plus Card: Enjoy discounts on groceries, fuel points, and customized offers based on shopping history, making it valuable for grocery shoppers. These programs not only reward purchases but additionally encourage customer loyalty by providing customized benefits that improve the overall shopping experience. When Should Retailers Implement Loyalty Card Programs? Retailers should consider launching loyalty card programs during peak sales periods to capitalize on increased foot traffic and customer interest. Implementing these programs can likewise serve as a strategic response to market competition, helping you stand out in a crowded marketplace. Peak Sales Periods Implementing a loyalty card program during peak sales periods can greatly improve customer engagement and drive repeat purchases. Timing is essential, so consider these key moments: Holidays: Launch your program during festive seasons when shopping spikes. Major Shopping Events: Align your program with events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday to capture high traffic. New Product Releases: Use heightened interest in new offerings to encourage sign-ups and participation. Sales Promotions: Encourage customers to spend more by linking loyalty rewards to special promotions. Market Competition Response In today’s competitive environment, launching a loyalty card program can be a strategic move to set your business apart and retain customers. Retailers should consider implementing these programs when facing increasing competition or market saturation. Doing so helps differentiate your brand and keeps customers engaged. Timing is vital; launching during peak sales periods or major product launches can maximize customer interaction. Furthermore, loyalty programs allow you to build customer databases, important for effective customer relationship management (CRM). How Can Customers Sign up for a Retail Loyalty Card? Signing up for a retail loyalty card can be a straightforward process, whether you prefer to do it in-store, online, or through a mobile app. Here’s how you can typically get started: Choose Your Method: Decide if you want to sign up at the store, on the retailer’s website, or via their mobile app. Provide Basic Information: You’ll usually need to enter your name, email address, and phone number to create your account. Enroll at Checkout: Many retailers allow you to sign up during making a purchase, making it convenient to join on the spot. Enjoy Immediate Rewards: Some loyalty programs offer instant discounts, bonus points, or rewards for signing up, which can improve your shopping experience. Strategies for Retailers to Enhance Loyalty Card Effectiveness To improve the effectiveness of retail loyalty cards, retailers should focus on streamlining the enrollment process and promoting the program across various channels. Simplifying registration can boost participation, as 57% of consumers abandon loyalty programs because of complex sign-up procedures. Leveraging multiple platforms—like in-store displays, online ads, and social media—helps increase visibility and taps into the 92% of people who trust recommendations from friends. Additionally, personalizing offers using customer data can greatly improve satisfaction since 91% of consumers prefer customized experiences. Providing rewards that can be earned and redeemed across shopping channels, similar to Starbucks Rewards, encourages a seamless experience. Finally, measuring success through defined KPIs, like enrollment and redemption rates, can lead to a 25% revenue increase with data-driven strategies. Strategy Benefits Simplify enrollment process Increases participation Multi-channel promotion Improves visibility and trust Personalize offers Boosts customer satisfaction Track KPIs Enhances revenue and strategy Frequently Asked Questions How Does a Loyalty Card Work? A loyalty card works by allowing you to earn points for every purchase you make at participating retailers. When you shop, you present your card or app login, which tracks your purchases. As you accumulate points, you can redeem them for discounts or rewards once you reach a specific threshold. These programs often provide personalized offers and promotions based on your shopping habits, enhancing your overall shopping experience and encouraging repeat business. What Is the Main Purpose of a Store’s Loyalty Card? The main purpose of a store’s loyalty card is to encourage you to shop more frequently by offering rewards, discounts, or exclusive promotions. By using these cards, retailers can gather data on your buying habits, allowing them to tailor marketing efforts to your preferences. This strategy not only improves your shopping experience but likewise builds brand loyalty, making you more likely to return, thereby reducing customer churn and boosting sales for the business. What Are the Disadvantages of a Loyalty Card? Loyalty cards can have several disadvantages. You might find yourself overspending to reach rewards, which could negate any savings. Furthermore, many consumers abandon these programs because of their complexity. There are likewise concerns about data privacy, as sharing personal information can lead to distrust. Finally, if you don’t shop frequently, you may feel excluded from benefits, creating a perception of unfairness among occasional shoppers. Comprehending these downsides can influence your participation. What Is the Purpose of a Loyalty Program in Retail? A loyalty program in retail serves to improve customer retention by rewarding repeat purchases with incentives like discounts and special offers. You benefit by receiving rewards that encourage you to shop more frequently. These programs additionally help businesses gather valuable data on your preferences and spending habits, which they use to tailor marketing efforts. In the end, loyalty programs aim to increase your lifetime value as a customer as well as differentiating the brand from competitors. Conclusion In conclusion, retail loyalty cards are crucial tools for both customers and retailers. They encourage repeat business by allowing customers to earn points on purchases, which can be redeemed for rewards. Retailers gain valuable insights into shopping behaviors, enabling targeted marketing. By implementing effective loyalty programs, businesses can improve customer satisfaction at the same time driving sales. As a customer, signing up for a loyalty card can lead to significant savings and personalized offers customized to your shopping preferences. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are Retail Loyalty Cards and How Do They Work?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Well-written guides are no longer enough. This analysis shows why AI visibility now depends on publishing irreplaceable context. The post The Content Moat Is Dead. The Context Moat Is What Survives appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

President Donald The President is facing perhaps the most daunting question of the war with Iran, one that could define his time in office: Will he put U.S. troops on the ground in Iran to secure some 970 pounds of enriched uranium that Tehran could potentially use to build nuclear weapons? The President has offered shifting reasons for launching the war, but he has been consistent in articulating that a primary objective in joining Israel in the military action is ensuring that Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon.” The president has been more circumspect about how far he’s willing to go to follow through on his pledge to destroy Iran’s weapons program once and for all, including seizing or destroying the near-bomb-grade nuclear material that Iran possesses. Much of it is believed to be buried under the rubble of a mountain facility pummeled in U.S. bombings The President ordered last June that he had claimed “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program. It’s a risky, complicated project that many nuclear experts say cannot be done without a sizable deployment of U.S. troops into Iran, a dangerous and politically fraught operation for the Republican president, who has vowed not to entangle the U.S. in the sort of extended and bloody Middle East conflicts that still loom large on America’s psyche. At the same time, lawmakers and experts remain concerned that if Iran hard-liners emerge from the fighting, they’ll be more motivated than ever to build nuclear weapons as they look to deter the U.S. and Israel from future military action, a dynamic that makes taking control of Iran’s enriched uranium even more critical. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program. Some lawmakers, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they remain deeply fearful that the president has put the nation on a path that will require putting troops inside Iran for what he called The President’s confused and chaotic objectives. “Some of the objectives that he continues to espouse simply cannot be achieved without a physical presence there — securing the uranium cannot be done without a physical presence,” said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Meanwhile, Republican allies of The President stress that there are plans in place to deal with the enriched uranium. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, on Wednesday cited “a number of plans that have been put on the table.” He declined to elaborate. Others acknowledged the complications of deploying troops into Iran. “No one has given me a briefing on how you would do it without boots on the ground,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It doesn’t mean you can’t. But no one’s ever briefed me about it.” Scott added it’s not tenable to allow the stockpile to remain: “I think it would be helpful to get rid of it.” The President and his advisers are rigidly obtuse Nearly three weeks into a conflict that’s left hundreds of people dead, tested longtime alliances and brought pain to the global economy, The President and his top advisers have been rigidly obtuse about their deliberations over Iran’s uranium stockpile. “I’m not going to talk about that,” The President said last week when asked about the enriched uranium. “But we have hit them harder than virtually any country in history has been hit, and we’re not finished yet.” Later that day, during an appearance in Kentucky, The President appeared to claim the strikes had already neutralized the threat. “They don’t have nuclear potential,” he said. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters earlier this week that the administration sees no point in telegraphing “what we’re willing to do or how far we’re willing to go” while asserting “we have options, for sure.” Experts say it’s doable but won’t be easy Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during The President’s first term, said that seizing or destroying the enriched uranium is certainly doable, if the president decides to go that route. The U.S. and Israeli forces have been making strides toward creating the conditions — namely, establishing total air superiority — that would allow for special operations forces operators, who are trained in blowing up centrifuges and dealing with nuclear material, to conduct such an operation if the president decides to go that route. To be certain, a troops-on-the-ground effort is expected to be far more complicated than other recent high-profile, lightning-strike insertion operations, such as the January capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro or the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, Goldberg said. And the likely need to remove rubble to get to the canisters of enriched uranium adds another layer of complexity, because it would require heavy construction equipment. “But if you actually own the airspace and you can have close air support and drones and everything else up in the sky for pretty wide perimeter, presumably you could do a lot,” said Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi told reporters in Washington this week that the assumption is much of the enriched uranium remains in the trio of Iranian nuclear sites bombarded last year by the U.S. “The impression we have … is that it hasn’t been moved,” said Grossi, adding that a bulk of the material is beneath the rubble at Iran’s Isfahan facility while lesser amounts are at the Natanz and Fordow facilities that were destroyed in last year’s American strikes. Testifying before a Senate committee on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in her prepared remarks said that the U.S. attacks on Iran had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and buried underground facilities. Gabbard said the U.S. has been monitoring whether Iran’s leaders will try to restart its nuclear program but said that they have not tried to rebuild their nuclear enrichment capability. She added that the clerical authority overseeing Iranian government has been degraded in Israel’s strikes on its leadership but remains intact. Brandan Buck, a senior foreign policy fellow at the Cato Institute, said that an effort to extract or dilute the enriched material would likely take more than 1,000 troops at each Iranian site and would take time to complete. On the other hand, not acting to secure the enriched uranium also comes with risk. Should Iran’s hard-liners remain in power, and with enriched material, they will now have greater motivation to build a nuclear weapon. “The President has put himself between a rock and a hard place,” Buck said. “Throughout this, he has had maximalist aims, but he’s wanted to maintain minimal effort in order to keep the costs low.” Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Matthew Lee and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. —Aamer Madhani and Seung Min Kim, Associated Press View the full article

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Small businesses that need a steady stream of marketing images, product visuals, and short-form video may be getting a more practical set of AI tools to work with. Adobe said it is expanding Firefly with new custom models, broader access to third-party AI models, stronger editing tools, and a new conversational interface designed to help users move from idea to finished asset faster. The update matters for small business owners because it targets one of the biggest day-to-day bottlenecks in marketing: producing consistent creative content without hiring a full in-house team. Adobe framed the announcement as part of a broader shift in how generative AI fits into creative work. In the company’s words, “The creative process is now evolving into more fluid AI-powered workflows where creators generate, refine and shape ideas into work that is uniquely theirs.” Adobe added, “Increasingly, they want to guide that process more naturally: using conversational AI controls to explore, iterate and develop ideas in real time.” For small businesses, that pitch lands at a time when owners and lean marketing teams are under pressure to publish more content across more channels. A restaurant may need seasonal social graphics, menu photos, and local video ads. An online retailer may need product shots in multiple formats. A service company may need branded illustrations, campaign visuals, and updated web images. Adobe is betting that Firefly can help those businesses create more assets with less manual rework. The biggest practical change is the public beta launch of Firefly custom models. Adobe said the feature lets users train a model on their own images so it can generate content in a specific house style. The company said the models are optimized for three areas: illustration styles, recurring characters, and photographic looks. That could make the feature especially useful for small brands that already have a recognizable visual identity but struggle to maintain it as they scale content production. Adobe described the appeal this way: “Custom Models are especially powerful for three types of creative work: • Illustration styles, where stroke weight, fills and color consistency matter • Characters, where the same character needs to appear consistently across scenes • Photographic styles, where a specific visual look needs to repeat across many images.” The company also said the tools “help preserve details like stroke weight, color palettes, lighting and character features across generations, so you can explore new creative directions without losing visual consistency.” That consistency could solve a common small business problem. Many owners use AI tools to save time, then find the output looks different from post to post, campaign to campaign, or platform to platform. A custom model trained on a company’s own assets could help a local brand keep its product photography style, mascot, or illustration approach more uniform across Facebook ads, email campaigns, web banners, and printed materials. Adobe also said those models are private by default. For small businesses that care about protecting brand assets, unpublished product images, or proprietary campaign concepts, that may be one of the more important details in the announcement. A business owner deciding whether to use generative AI often wants more than speed; they want to know whether the system will keep internal creative materials separate from public-facing outputs. Adobe is also widening the range of models available inside Firefly. The company said the platform now includes more than 30 models, including systems from Adobe, Google, OpenAI, Runway, and Kling. Adobe’s position is that users should be able to generate with one model, refine with another, compare results, and continue editing in one place rather than jumping between separate tools. For a small business audience, that matters less as a technical milestone and more as a workflow issue. Owners rarely have time to test a half-dozen AI platforms independently. A single workspace that offers multiple model options may reduce switching costs, shorten the trial-and-error process, and help teams choose the right output for a specific task, whether that means a photorealistic product image, a stylized ad graphic, or a short promotional video. Adobe said, “Firefly brings these models together in a single creative environment. It’s the only place where you can generate with one model, refine with another, compare outputs and continue editing using Adobe’s professional creative tools.” The company also said it is “currently offering unlimited video and image generations using a vast range of models available in Adobe Firefly,” and pointed users to its Firefly promotions and plans for more details. Adobe’s new editing features may be the most immediately useful part of the release for businesses that care more about finished output than AI experimentation. The company said Quick Cut can turn raw footage into a structured first cut in minutes. It also said Firefly now makes it easier to add or remove objects, extend scenes, and fine-tune generated visuals. That kind of integration could help smaller teams create workable first drafts without outsourcing every revision. A retailer could turn a rough product demo into a cleaner social clip. A contractor could remove distractions from a job-site image before posting it online. A boutique agency serving small business clients could create more variations for pitches and ads without rebuilding every asset from scratch. Adobe said, “Generation and editing are fully integrated, so you can move from idea to draft, and from draft to refinement, without breaking your flow.” That emphasis on reducing friction is likely to resonate with smaller firms that often handle content creation between other tasks rather than as a standalone department. The release also points to a longer-term shift: conversational AI inside creative software. Adobe said it is introducing agentic AI assistants across products including Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat, and expanding access to Project Moonlight, a private beta interface that works across Adobe apps. Adobe described Moonlight as a system that can understand a user’s style and help turn chat-based instructions into creative work. For small business owners, the promise is straightforward. Instead of learning every tool in detail, a user may be able to describe the result they want and then adjust from there. That could lower the skill barrier for founders and staff members who need usable content but are not trained designers or video editors. Still, small businesses may want to weigh a few issues before treating this as a plug-and-play solution. Training a custom model requires a solid set of owned images and a clear visual identity, which some younger businesses may not have yet. More AI-generated output also creates a review burden: someone still needs to check brand accuracy, factual accuracy, and overall quality. And while Adobe is promising more control, businesses may need time to learn which model works best for which job, especially if they want consistent results under tight deadlines. Even with those caveats, Adobe’s update suggests generative AI is moving beyond novelty and closer to the daily realities of running a business. Owners do not just need images from prompts. They need repeatable workflows, brand consistency, faster revisions, and tools that fit into real marketing calendars. Adobe’s latest Firefly push appears aimed squarely at that need, giving small businesses another sign that AI creative tools are maturing from experiments into operational software. This article, "Adobe Expands Firefly AI Tools With Small Businesses in Mind" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

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Trailers of two of Hollywood’s most anticipated upcoming movies came out this week. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Dune: Part Three and Marvel Studios’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered a day apart. But what’s most interesting is the marketing strategy behind the trailers—in which promos and short clips of the trailers were released ahead of the full trailers. On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery hosted a livestreamed event on the official Dune account on TikTok. It featured director Dennis Villeneuve and some of the cast talking about the upcoming movie to a live audience before airing the trailer, which was simultaneously revealed at the end of the stream before being rolled out on other platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Videos with the star-studded cast—including Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Javier Bardem—urging fans to watch the trailer circulated online, and were later shared from the Warner Bros. Discovery and IMAX social accounts. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios released the official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Wednesday. But the day before, Tom Holland announced on Instagram that he and the studio were “doing something that has never been done before” and that “some of our greatest fans are going to help us release pieces of” the trailer. Holland tagged an Instagram account of a fan in Peru, who shared a two-second clip from the trailer featuring Spider-Man swinging through the air holding someone. That fan then tagged another fan in Ohio, who shared a separate bite-sized clip from the trailer. Throughout the day, fans from different parts of the world tagged each other, showing different seconds-long clips before the full trailer debuted the next day. This isn’t the first time that Marvel Studios has released its trailers in a non-traditional way. In December, the studio premiered four different trailers for Avengers: Doomsday during theatrical showings of Avatar: Fire and Ash. It was the only way that fans could access the trailers immediately, since they weren’t officially released online until a few days later. Short cuts Trailers have historically served as a marketing tool for films, but sharing microclips from trailers to get fans excited about trailers themselves seems to be a new marketing trend all on its own. It’s certainly a sign of the times, especially as short-form content and microdramas become even more popular while the attention spans of a generation weaned on TikTok get shorter. But it’s also indicative of the fluctuating nature of the theatrical business. While box office numbers have gone up since the pandemic, they have not reached pre-pandemic levels. The North American box office grossed $9 billion last year, which is above the numbers of 2020, but still low compared to the years prior. Marvel movies also continue to see a downturn at the box office, while AMC Theatres recently announced its plans to shut down several “underperforming” locations across the United States after a decline in attendance. Networks and streaming services have already played around with releasing bite-sized clips of its shows on social media to get users to watch full seasons of its shows. The movie industry, meanwhile, has long accepted that it needs social media to promote its new movies, whether that means hiring TikTok creators to make fan trailers or creating viral moments to grab attention. But as studios and theater chains desperately try to reach young fans on social media, generating more hype around movie trailers might be the next thing they’re experimenting with to actually get audiences into theaters. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition wired gaming controller is down to $54.99 on Woot right now, which is the lowest price it has ever hit. It usually goes for around $99.99 on Amazon, and even previous deals didn’t dip below about $59, according to price trackers. If you’re a Prime member, you get free shipping, while others pay an extra $6. This deal is live for 12 days or until stock runs out, and Woot only ships within the contiguous U.S. Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition Wired gaming controller $54.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $45.00 Get Deal Get Deal $54.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $45.00 This is essentially the same controller as the Wolverine V3 Pro, minus the wireless battery. That means it’s wired only, using a long 10-foot cable. For PC setups, that’s rarely a problem—in fact, it’s part of the appeal. The controller supports a 1000Hz polling rate, which only works over a wired connection, and it’s built for players who care about responsiveness. Inputs feel sharp and clicky, more like a high-end gaming mouse than a standard controller. You also get six extra programmable buttons, which can make a real difference in games where reaction time matters. In something like a fast-paced shooter, mapping reload or weapon swap to a rear button can shave off just enough time to feel noticeable. The Hall Effect sticks are designed to avoid drift over time, and the textured grips help during longer sessions. All said, it feels solid in hand, though slightly heavier than you might expect. Where it falls short depends on how you plan to use it. This is not a living-room controller. There’s no wireless option, no Bluetooth, and no flexibility if you like to game from the couch. The customization also leans on Razer’s software, which you’ll need to download to remap buttons or enable that 1000Hz mode. It works well and lets you create profiles for different games, but it does add an extra step. You also can’t tweak everything, like the main button layout or D-pad. Still, if you mostly play on PC and want something that feels closer to a competitive tool than a casual controller, this deal makes a strong case. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Sony WH1000XM6- Best Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones — $398.00 (List Price $459.99) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $35.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Indoor Cam Plus (2025) — $39.99 (List Price $59.99) Fire TV Stick 4K Max Streaming Player With Remote — $34.99 (List Price $59.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

The Visibility Governance Maturity Model (VGMM) is about something most SEO programs lack: clear ownership, documented processes, and decision rights that keep your work from being undone by teams who don’t understand it. So how do you actually score that? Each domain uses a bank of governance questions tailored to the business. They’re not about how SEO is executed. They’re not about tools. And they’re not an audit. What VGMM questions are designed to reveal VGMM questions go to managers and the C-suite — the people who should know about governance but often don’t. Meanwhile, you (the SEO practitioner) actually know whether standards are documented, whether QA is in place, and whether processes exist. VGMM diagnoses organizations where SEO knowledge lives in practitioners’ heads, rather than in documented, governed processes. If VGMM surveyed only practitioners, it would measure whether you know what to do (you do). But governance maturity measures whether the organization can sustain capability when you’re on vacation, when you get promoted, or when you leave. Questions go to managers because governance gaps show up as: “I don’t know the answer to that.” “I’d have to ask Sarah.” “We used to have a process, but it’s not enforced anymore.” “Each team does it differently.” “That’s documented somewhere, I think?” When managers can’t answer governance questions, that’s the signal. It means processes aren’t institutionalized. Dig deeper: Why most SEO failures are organizational, not technical Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with The SPOF reality check Single point of failure (SPOF) questions can cap your organization at Level 2 maturity until they’re resolved. Here are some examples of SPOF question: “If [key person] left tomorrow, could the organization maintain SEO standards without them?” “Is SEO knowledge documented in a way that’s transferable to new team members?” “Are there at least two people who understand how [critical system] works?” Right now, you’re probably the SPOF. You’re the person who knows where all the bodies are buried, how the redirects work, why that weird canonical setup exists, and what breaks if someone changes X. That feels like job security. It’s actually a job prison. When VGMM identifies you as an SPOF: Leadership realizes your knowledge needs to be documented. You get resources to create documentation. You get approval to train other people. You get your own tools, training, and conference budgets. (Yay!) Your expertise becomes institutional, not personal. You can take a vacation without disasters. The organization can’t move past Level 2 until SPOF conditions are cleared. This forces leadership to address hero-dependency. How domain scores become VGMM score Each domain model (SEOGMM, CGMM, WPMM, etc.) produces a maturity score based on its own question bank. Here’s how they roll up: Step 1: Domain assessment Each domain asks 30-60 governance questions tailored to that area. Questions are behavior-based, not opinion-based: “Do you think SEO standards are important?” (opinion) “Are SEO standards documented and approved by [role]?” (behavior) Step 2: Weighted scoring Answers are weighted based on impact. Not all governance failures are equal: Missing documentation = lower weight. No ownership for critical decisions = higher weight. SPOF identified = can cap maturity level regardless of other scores. Step 3: SPOF constraint If SPOF conditions exist, the domain score maxes out at Level 2 (emerging) even if other governance is strong. You can’t be structured (Level 3) when capability depends on one person. Step 4: Domain aggregation Domain scores average into the overall VGMM score with adjusted weighting based on: Your industry (ecommerce weights performance governance higher). Your business model (SaaS weights content governance higher). Your complexity (international weights workflow governance is higher). Step 5: Final maturity level The overall VGMM score maps to maturity levels: Level 1 (0-30%): Ad hoc/unmanaged Level 2 (31-50%): Aware/emerging Level 3 (51-70%): Structured/defined Level 4 (71-90%): Integrated/coordinated Level 5 (91-100%): Optimized/sustained Why questions change between models Domain questions adapt to the maturity model being used. SEOGMM questions focus on: Technical SEO governance (schema, redirects, crawl management). Content optimization standards. Performance monitoring and alerts. LVMM questions focus on: Location data governance across distributed sites. Google Business Profile management and ownership. Review response workflows and accountability. NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency IVMM questions focus on: Market-specific SEO governance across countries. Translation workflow and quality controls. Local compliance and regulatory requirements. Cross-market coordination and escalation. Same governance principles, different operational contexts. An ecommerce company doesn’t need LVMM. A restaurant chain with 500 locations absolutely does. Dig deeper: SEO’s future isn’t content. It’s governance Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Why you can’t (and shouldn’t) compare scores VGMM scores are internal quality metrics, not competitive benchmarks. A 62% score doesn’t mean you’re ahead of another organization at 58%. Here’s why. Weighting varies by business model Ecommerce company: Performance governance weighted 30%. Information publisher: Content governance weighted 35%. Service company: Workflow governance weighted 25%. Domain combinations vary by organization Organization A: SEOGMM + CGMM + WPMM + IVMM (international). Organization B: SEOGMM + CGMM + WPMM + LVMM (multi-location). Not comparing apples to apples. Organizational context changes what scores mean Startup at 45% with 10 people = impressive, mature for size. Enterprise at 45% with 500 people = serious governance gaps. Strategic priorities shape the score Organization prioritizing organic visibility: SEOGMM weighted higher. Organization focused on technical debt: WPMM weighted higher. The only meaningful comparison is your organization against itself over time: Q1 2025: 42% (Level 2) Q3 2025: 58% (Level 3) ← Progress Q1 2026: 61% (Level 3) ← Sustained improvement Use VGMM to answer: Are we improving quarter over quarter? Which domains are holding us back? Where should we invest in governance? Are SPOF conditions getting resolved? Don’t use VGMM to answer: Are we better than Competitor X? What’s the industry average score? Should we publicize our score? What VGMM scoring means for you As an SEO practitioner, this scoring approach protects you. You’re not being blamed When governance assessment reveals gaps, managers are answering questions about organizational capability. They’re not evaluating your individual performance. The assessment asks, “Does the organization have documented standards?” not “Is the SEO person doing a good job?” SPOF detection is your escape hatch When SPOF questions flag that the organization depends entirely on you, leadership sees it as an organizational risk — not as proof you’re valuable. They can’t move to Level 3 until they fix it, which means resources for documentation, training, and knowledge transfer. Weighted scoring highlights systemic issues When content governance scores low, but SEO governance scores high, it shows other domains aren’t holding up their end. This redirects leadership attention to where governance actually needs strengthening. Progress tracking shows your impact When your organization moves from Level 2 to Level 3 over two quarters, you have concrete evidence that governance investments are working. This isn’t “traffic went up 15%,” it’s “organizational capability improved measurably.” Dig deeper: SEO execution: Understanding goals, strategy, and planning See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The difference between hero work and sustainable SEO VGMM’s scoring approach is designed to: Diagnose organizational capability gaps without blaming individuals. Make your implicit knowledge visible as institutional risk. Force leadership to address hero-dependency. Track progress in ways that make governance investments defensible to finance. The assessment focuses on whether the organization can sustain your work without you. That’s the difference between being an indispensable hero (exhausting) and being a strategic professional whose expertise is institutionalized (sustainable). View the full article

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The used-car e-commerce platform Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA) is planning to do something it has never done before: split its stock. If completed, the move will significantly reduce the per-share price of CVNA stock, without affecting the company’s total value. But first, it needs to be approved by shareholders. Here’s what you need to know about Carvana’s proposed stock split. What is a stock split? A stock split is a mechanism by which a company can increase or decrease the number of its shares by dividing those shares or combining them. There are two types of stock splits: a forward split and a reverse split. A forward split is the most common, and the type that Carvana is proposing. In a forward split, an individual share is divided into additional shares, reducing the value of each share. A forward split is usually just referred to as a “stock split.” On the other side of the coin, you have a reverse split. These are less common than forward splits. In a reverse split, multiple existing shares of a stock are combined into a single share, making each new share more valuable because there are fewer of them. While both types of splits change the value of a single share, they do not inherently affect the company’s overall market cap. This is because the total number of new shares and their new stock price still equals the same sum as the former number of shares and their price. For example, take an imaginary company, XYZ, with 1,000 outstanding shares each worth $100. The total value of the company, its market cap, is thus $100,000. But then XYZ decides to split its shares by a factor of 10-to-1. This increases the company’s 1,000 outstanding shares to 10,000, yet because there are now 10 times more shares, each share is worth 10 times less, so the company’s market cap remains $100,000. How much is Carvana splitting the stock by? Carvana has announced that it intends to split its stock 5-to-1. Last week, the company said that its board had approved the split at that ratio. That means that once the split takes place, there will be five times as many CVNA shares outstanding as there were before the split. However, since there will be five times as many shares, the post-split share price of CVNA stock will be five times lower than its pre-split price. When do Carvana’s shares split? It’s important to note that Carvana’s share split isn’t guaranteed. While the company’s board has approved the split, shareholders still need to vote on the move. If shareholders also approve the split, the company’s stock split will proceed. In a release announcing the proposed split, Carvana said that shareholders will be able to vote on the stock split at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders on May 5, 2026. If they approve the split, investors who own Class A and Class B common stock will receive an additional four CVNA shares for every share they currently own after the closing bell on Wednesday, May 6. When markets reopen on Thursday, May 7, CVNA shares will begin trading at their new split-adjusted price. What will Carvana’s new split-adjusted stock price be? That’s unknowable for now because no one knows what Carvana’s stock price will be seven weeks from now when the adjusted price would kick in. For now, all we can say for certain is that, if shareholders approve the split, the split-adjusted price will be one-fifth of the pre-split price. Currently, CVNA stock is trading at around $290 per share. Assuming CVNA trades at that price at the close of markets on May 6, Carvana’s post-split stock price would open at around $58 per share on May 7. Why is Carvana splitting its stock? Given that stock splits don’t change the fundamental value of the company—or inherently make existing investors any richer—many wonder what the benefit of a stock split is. The greatest benefit to a forward stock split is that it lowers the cost of buying into the company for new investors. This is especially true for retail investors who may not have hundreds each month to sink into a new stock. If a person only has about $150 a month to invest in the market, Carvana, at its current share price of around $290, is unaffordable for them. But if CVNA shares are suddenly at $58 each, that same investor could scoop up at least a few shares. And if enough retail investors do this, it could actually help boost the overall stock price—triggering a wave of fresh investment in the company’s shares. Another reason companies typically split their shares is to make them more affordable for the company’s own employees, who often participate in employee stock purchase plans (ESPP). If a company’s share price is lower, employees can get more shares via their ESPP contributions. This often increases employee loyalty within the company and can be a motivating factor in their work. After all, if you own shares in the company you work for, you want that company to do as well as possible so those shares continue to rise. Indeed, when announcing the proposed stock split, Carvana chief financial officer Mark Jenkins said, “This is the first split in Carvana’s history, and we believe it achieves the important goal of keeping our stock accessible to all of our team members.” How have Carvana’s shares performed in 2026? CVNA shares have had a rough start to 2026. While the company’s share price climbed to over $480 in January, it has since seen a massive decline. The stock took its greatest hit this year in February after Carvana reported its Q4 2025 earnings. While the company did achieve net revenue growth of 58% to $5.6 billion, it missed hard on adjusted EBITDA, which came in at $511 million. As a result, the company’s stock price fell nearly 16% in one day. Since then, CVNA shares have continued to be hit, largely due to a relatively bearish market for growth stocks, especially after America’s attack on Iran and the ongoing economic uncertainty. Yesterday, CVNA shares fell nearly 7.5% to $291.17. Year-to-date, CVNA shares are now down 31% as of yesterday’s close. Yet, over the past 12 months, Carvana has performed remarkably well. Since this time last year, CVNA shares have risen nearly 75%. View the full article

Global energy prices soared Thursday after Iran attacked two oil refineries in Kuwait and a key natural gas facility in Qatar that can supply one-fifth of the world’s liquified natural gas. The attacks added to fears the energy crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic may be longer and more extensive than feared, with lasting damage to oil and gas production. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose nearly 6% to $113.77 per barrel, up from less than $73 per barrel on the eve of the war. U.S. benchmark crude was less affected by the latest attacks in the Middle East, rising less than 1% to $96.26 per barrel. The European TTF benchmark for natural gas prices traded 17% higher on Thursday and has doubled in the past month. The Iranian attack hit the Ras Laffan terminal for shipping out liquefied natural gas in Qatar. Qatar normally supplies some 20% of the world’s consumption of LNG, which can be carried by ship. The facility shut down after a drone attack. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most tanker traffic also left the gas with nowhere to go. If the disruptions from Iran’s attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors’ energy infrastructure keep oil and gas prices high for long, they could create a debilitating wave of inflation for the global economy. Markets on Wall Street slipped before the opening bell. Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell a 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures dipped 0.3%. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve opted to leave its benchmark interest rate alone and projected just one more quarter-point cut this year due to ongoing elevated inflation and uncertainty about the ramifications the Iran war will have on the global economy. Prices for gold and silver also tumbled, dragging down major mining stocks with them. Gold fell 4% to $4,697 an ounce, while silver slipped 8.7% to $70.80. Most industrial metals also saw their prices fall. Shares in miners Hecla and Newmont slid 7.8%, while Freeport-McMoRan fell 4.6%. Markets in Europe and Asia were getting hit much harder than U.S. markets. Germany’s DAX lost 2.4% by midday, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.7% and Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 2.1%. In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.4% to 53,372.53 as the Bank of Japan also opted to keep its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.75%, citing the war with Iran as one factor. In its monetary policy statement the BOJ said that “in the wake of increased tension in the Middle East, global financial and capital markets have been volatile and crude oil prices have risen significantly; future developments warrant attention.” Higher oil prices are a heavy burden for Japan, which like South Korea and Taiwan depends on imports of most raw materials for industries that rely heavily on oil and its derivatives. The Kospi in Seoul lost 2.7% to 5,763.22. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slipped 2% to 25,500.58, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.4% to 4,006.55. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.7% to 8,497.80 and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.9%. In India, which has also suffered from shocks to supplies of oil and gas, the Sensex lost 2.7%. “The combination of higher oil, rising U.S. yields, and a stronger dollar is acting as a macro wrecking ball across Asian assets and currencies,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. Business Writer Matt Ott reported from Washington. —Elaine Kurtenbach and David McHugh, AP Business Writers View the full article

“I have no idea if this is what they want me to do. I barely get any feedback.” This is a statement I often hear from leaders in my coaching calls, even those at a senior level. When these leaders were early in their careers, there was more frequent guidance and coaching on what success looked like for them and if their work met expectations. However, research by Amy Edmondson shows that the higher you rise in an organization, the less feedback you tend to receive, which can make it feel like you’re losing reassurance. In coaching calls with my clients, we often discover how reliant they were on their leader’s affirmation, and that this recognition served as motivation. In addition to getting less feedback from leaders, as your level of influence increases, transparency can decrease. Authority bias can take over as direct reports put their leaders on a pedestal and withhold critical feedback, assuming that their leader knows best or fearing the repercussions of sharing a divergent opinion. As you rise, there are simply fewer people in the organization who can guide you on your next steps. Here are some strategies you can leverage to get better feedback at work. ASK FOR ADVICE INSTEAD OF FEEDBACK People sometimes hesitate to give feedback, but most people love giving advice. A phrase I often use is this: “I’d love some advice on what I can try next time to make this meeting agenda clearer and more actionable for our group.” Recent research finds that framing the ask as advice rather than “feedback” helps reviewers focus on future-oriented, tangible suggestions instead of only dwelling on past performance. NURTURE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY To create an environment where your team feels comfortable sharing advice or feedback, you can model vulnerability (this signals that it’s safe for others to take interpersonal risks). You can also explicitly invite input and questions from everyone (for instance, “What could we improve here?”) and respond in ways that reinforce openness (like thanking people for their honesty). In addition, you can also call out where you saw yourself needing improvement. This might sound like, “I noticed I started rambling at the end of that meeting. Where could I have shortened my message for better clarity?” AVOID VAGUE QUESTIONS Vague requests, like asking, “How can I improve this?” can lead to insubstantial or equally vague responses. Instead, focus on clearly defining your goal and ask for advice on how to do a better job reaching that goal. For example, instead of saying, “I want to improve my presentation skills,” you can instead lead with, “I want to improve my presentation flow for clarity and brevity.” It can also be helpful to set the purpose before you make the request. This means sharing why you want the feedback (for example, to be more influential in asking for resources for our team) and how you’ll use it. This can help people frame their thoughts in a way that moves you closer to your goal. If they have a shared interest in your outcome, this also incentivizes them to give you helpful input. BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR CIRCLE Leaders often end up surrounded by similar perspectives (people who think like them or report to them), which reduces the likelihood of honest challenge. If your current circle is limited, try exploring your industry or professionally affiliated groups. Because of the shared common interest in the type of work you do, this is a great place to foster connection. You can do this by participating in conferences, meet-ups, or even online forums. Ask them to challenge your viewpoints or provide evidence from their experience that contradicts your viewpoints. As you rise in the organization, your relationships with your colleagues to get work done can also be just as important as the relationship with your leader. This is especially true at executive levels when you often need resources from your peers’ teams to accomplish your own projects. To nurture these relationships, you can schedule recurring 1:1s with peers that allow them to also raise topics of importance. Another great way to build these relationships is to set up collaborative coworking sessions where advice naturally flows as you work alongside them. As you gain more visibility, seniority, and decision-making ownership in your organization, feedback will flow differently to you. You have to cultivate it intentionally, with clarity and from a new circle of sources. View the full article