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A new campaign launches today against AI’s sticky fingers on copyrighted material. The Human Artistry Campaign’s “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” movement launches today with over 800 signatories. Those include many Hollywood actors, including Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as well as writers such as Jodi Picoult and Roxane Gay, and musicians like Cyndi Lauper and They Might be Giants. The campaign has a simple message: “Stealing our work is not innovation. It’s not progress. It’s theft—plain and simple.” Many record labels, news outlets, and other creative entities have partnered with AI companies in recent years, despite—or possibly in response to—their propensity to mine copyrighted materials. Creatives have fought (and continue to fight) for protections, such as in the lengthy Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes in 2023. ​However, the Stealing Isn’t Innovation campaign isn’t against AI, it just wants creatives to be part of the process. “A better way exists—through licensing deals and partnerships, some AI companies have taken the responsible, ethical route to obtaining the content and materials they wish to use,” the letter reads. “It is possible to have it all. We can have advanced, rapidly developing AI and ensure creators’ rights are respected.” The Stealing Isn’t Innovation campaign will promote itself through ads on social media and in news publications. Creatives in the U.K. have taken comparable action The latest campaign focuses on American creators and takes a bit of a nationalist stance in its opening line: “America’s creative community is the envy of the world and creates jobs, economic growth, and exports.” But artists across the U.K. have launched similar movements in response to AI’s access to copyrighted material, including a law that would require creatives to opt out of letting AI use their work. In February 2025, the “Make It Fair” campaign ran in hundreds of publications to raise awareness of the threat of AI to creative industries. The same month saw over 1,000 musicians, from Kate Bush to The Clash, release a silent album titled Is This What We Want?—with the 12 tracks spelling out: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.” In May, creatives across industries took action again. In an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, everyone from Elton John to Kazuo Ishiguro voiced their opposition to the proposed copyright law. The U.K. government is set to issue policy proposals on the matter in mid-March. View the full article

Anxiety about costs and affordability is particularly high among Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians, even at a moment when economic stress is widespread, according to a new poll. About half of Asian American and Pacific Islander adults said they wanted the government to prioritize addressing the high cost of living and inflation, according to the survey from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted in early December. In comparison, a December AP-NORC poll found that about one-third of U.S. adults overall rated inflation and financial worries as the most pressing problems. The findings indicate that this small but fast-growing group is not persuaded by President Donald The President’s attempts to tamp down worries about inflation and defend his tariffs. Even when considering partisanship, AAPI Democrats and Independents — and even AAPI Republicans — are at least slightly more likely than those groups overall to mention inflation and costs. Concern about costs has risen among AAPI adults since last year, when about 4 in 10 AAPI adults said they wanted the government to focus on this issue. Like Americans overall, AAPI adults have also become more focused on health care issues over the past year. The poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, whose views are usually not highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes and lack of linguistic representation. Jayakumar Natarajan, a 56-year-old manager for a major tech company living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is rethinking his goal of retiring at 60 because of climbing costs in basic goods and health care. He can afford to live the way he wants for now, but is considering delaying retirement or moving outside the U.S., where prices are lower. The cost of health care is very much on his mind. “I think it will really make a big difference in the way I think about retirement planning,” he said. AAPI adults are worried about rising costs Inflation and affordability loom large for AAPI adults, even compared to other economic concerns, the survey found. About 2 in 10 AAPI adults mentioned housing costs or jobs and unemployment as priorities for the government to work on in the coming year, which was generally in line with Americans overall. Balancing financial obligations has become especially challenging for people living in high-cost areas, where a steady salary may not cover a growing family. Kevin Tu, 32, and his wife recently reached two milestones — buying a new home outside of Seattle in Lynnwood, Washington, and expecting their first child. The couple works full time and Tu also has a math tutoring business, but he is still nervous about what will happen after the baby arrives. “I’m trying to figure out how to balance possible part-time day care with our mortgage, with cost of living,” said Tu, who is Taiwanese American. Black, Hispanic and AAPI adults were more apt than white adults to bring up unemployment, jobs and housing costs as priorities, the surveys found. Part of what may explain AAPI adults’ increasing worry about everyday costs is the largest AAPI adult populations reside in states and major metropolitan cities with higher costs of living and higher rent, such as California and New York. While tariffs have impacted American consumers across the board, they have a particularly strong effect on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who prefer certain imported goods such as food and clothing. Karthick Ramakrishnan, AAPI Data executive director and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, recalls how last year, some AAPI shoppers were going to ethnic grocery stores and “stockpiling” ahead of tariffs kicking in. “When it comes to costs for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, it’s just not cost of general market groceries but ethnic market groceries,” Ramakrishnan said. “It’s something visible to them and potentially causing anxiety and worry.” Health care is also a priority for AAPI adults Some 44% of AAPI adult also want the government to prioritize health care in the coming year. That’s not meaningfully different from among U.S. adults overall, emphasizing Americans’ renewed focus on the issue after a year of health care cuts. Srilasya Volam, a 25-year-old business consultant in Atlanta said that some of her family members have embarked on ” medical tourism ” trips as a result of high U.S. health care costs, a practice of traveling to other countries for more cost-effective medical procedures. “It’s cheaper for us to get a flight ticket and go to India and have a medical procedure and come back than it is to have that done here,” she said. “When I was younger, we would just go to India and we’d be like, now that we’re here, let’s do everything: the dental checkups, every checkup. It’s a lot more cost effective.” The poll found that about 6 in 10 AAPI adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health care costs increasing in 2026, which is roughly in line with U.S. adults overall. Falling confidence in the government’s ability to make progress The survey found that AAPI adults are less confident in the government’s ability to make progress on the important issues facing the country than they were just after the 2024 election. About 7 in 10 AAPI adults say they are “not at all” or just “slightly confident” that the government will make progress on key issues, up from 60% at the end of 2024. Dissatisfaction with the The President administration may be a factor. And while the economy is top of mind, other factors could be feeding the fear that the government won’t change things for the better this year. Ernie Roaza, a 66-year-old retired geologist in Tallahassee, Florida, is a first generation immigrant to the U.S. from South Korea, where he grew up under a dictatorship. He worries that The President is doing “everything that dictators do,” adding, “I’ve seen it before. It’s almost laughable, but it’s scary at the same time.” He remains optimistic that the country will get through it. “This administration will make things worse,” Roaza said. “But in every administration we’ve had, there are hills and valleys. We’re in the valleys right now.” The poll of 1,029 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders was conducted from Dec. 2-8, 2025, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI Panel, designed to be representative of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points. —Terry Tang and Linley Sanders, Associated Press View the full article

Decode energy signals & stay sharp even when you're running low. Accounting ARC With Liz Mason and Donny Shimamoto Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

Decode energy signals & stay sharp even when you're running low. Accounting ARC With Liz Mason and Donny Shimamoto Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Apple to have two different releases of Siri and Apple Intelligence, powered by Google Gemini...View the full article

The SEO versus GEO debate has dominated industry discourse over the past year. New acronyms appear weekly, sentiment swings quickly, and even trusted voices often contradict positions they held just months earlier. That volatility isn’t happening at the edges of the industry. It’s coming from a small group of highly visible SEO influencers whose framing of AI-era search shifts in response to news cycles, platform announcements, and branding pressure. To understand how widespread – and how unstable – this discourse has become, we analyzed how 75 leading SEO influencers discuss AI-driven search on LinkedIn. The goal wasn’t to decide which acronym would win. It was to measure consistency, sentiment, and volatility in how influential practitioners describe the same underlying shift in discovery. Working with Search Engine Land’s Danny Goodwin, we examined all 2025 LinkedIn posts from these influencers that referenced AI-related SEO terms, including GEO, AIO, AISEO, AEO, LLMO, SXO, and ASO. Using VADER sentiment analysis, we scored each post on a -1 to +1 scale and measured volatility as the standard deviation of sentiment over time. All data was anonymized to preserve relational patterns without exposing individuals. ‘SEO’ is still the most commonly used LinkedIn headline – even as AI terms dominate posts In 2025, industry leaders were passionate about debating AI-era search terms in their LinkedIn posts, but they weren’t comfortable rebranding their personal LinkedIn “headlines” (highlighted below) using the same terminology. According to our data scrape, 43% of SEO thought leaders include “SEO” in their LinkedIn headline, compared to 21% who reference “AI” and just 3% who reference “GEO.” Mind the gap. We’re not doing a large-scale rebranding from SEO to GEO because AI brand visibility is still largely reliant on the most effective SEO strategies we’ve all deployed for the past decade: Well-structured, persona- and buyer-journey-led content hubs Brands need to invest in on-site content hubs that answer real FAQs and conversational queries rooted in buyer intent. Your content depth across the full journey – awareness (e.g., education around solutions to pain points), consideration (e.g., proof in testimonials and case studies), and decision stage (e.g., comparison charts) – creates compounding value for users and stronger entity signals for AI search and algorithms alike. Off-site authority signals that establish your brand as a trusted entity Publish original research, expert commentary, and definitive explainers that earn mentions from authoritative, widely cited sources, including: Mainstream news outlets. Niche-relevant publishers. Leading podcasters. Engaged Reddit communities. These signals expand your digital footprint, strengthen entity recognition, and reinforce brand trust. Use audience intelligence tools like SparkToro to identify the platforms, communities, and topics your digital PR strategy should prioritize. Dig deeper: The origins of SEO and what they mean for GEO and AIO Three new AI search terms lead the pack, and optimism is higher than you’d expect While industry leaders aren’t scrambling to update their LinkedIn headlines (quite yet), their LinkedIn posts reveal which three terms are starting to gain traction: 63% of industry leaders reference AIO (AI optimization), with 77% of their posts having a positive sentiment. 59% reference GEO (generative engine optimization), 82% positive. Our data visualization below compares both adoption frequency (how many leaders reference each term in their LinkedIn posts) and sentiment (how positively those terms are framed in each post). Over 70% of posts using AI-related search terms carry a positive tone. That matters, because sentiment is often a leading indicator of adoption. When optimism collapses, usage follows. That’s not what we’re seeing here. When we step outside of our industry influence analysis into the broader SEO community debate, we see that AEO, LLMO, and AIO resonate more with general audiences, but GEO stands out for its consistency – 82% positive among SEO thought leaders and nearly identical sentiment across the broader LinkedIn population. SEO remains the industry’s foundation, but a year of discourse makes one thing clear: this isn’t fragmentation – it’s an emerging platform in its naming and strategy-formation phase. The real negotiation isn’t about acronyms. It’s about how we describe brand visibility when answers are synthesized, not ranked. The takeaway? Don’t over-optimize your digital marketing engine around any single term, strategy, or platform. Build timely, value-driven content for your audience, then repurpose it across the channels where they already engage. That’s how brands survive platform churn, especially in a digital ecosystem littered with once-hyped platforms like Vine, Google+, and Clubhouse. Dig deeper: What is AI, actually, and how is it affecting SEO? Nomenclature volatility is the discourse signal hiding in plain sight The most eye-opening stat from our research is that fewer than one-third of thought leaders have maintained consistent usage of AI-related SEO terminology and sentiment over the past year. Drilling into the data, we found: 35% of thought leaders show positive sentiment toward AI-related search terms, but lack consistency. Only just over one-third land in the quadrant that’s both positive and stable. Visibility and volatility often move together. Trust and consistency do, too – but in the opposite direction. The issue isn’t whether leaders are right or wrong. It’s how often their framing shifts in response to news cycles, platform announcements, or viral discourse. We measured this by mapping sentiment against volatility. The result wasn’t a clean divide; it was a scatter plot. This is the uncomfortable truth: the loudest voices are not always the most reliable ones. And in an era where guidance shapes budgets, roadmaps, and careers, that distinction matters. Leaders who maintain measured optimism – grounded in data, tempered by experience – send a different signal than those who swing from hype to skepticism with every update. Dig deeper: Why every AI search study tells a different story The key takeaway: This isn’t a strategy reset, it’s an emerging search platform Effective content marketing, digital PR, and technical SEO establish the foundational strategies for driving cross-channel brand visibility online. AI is simply a platform modifier, much like social media, not a replacement for the strategies that already work. Our data shows this isn’t an industry confused about what to do. It’s an industry negotiating how to describe a rapidly evolving discovery system. That negotiation is normal at this stage. What isn’t – and what erodes trust – is volatility: leaders changing their framing faster than shared understanding can form. Terms like AEO, LLMO, and AIO may gain traction with general audiences, but they fragment quickly among experienced practitioners. GEO stands out precisely because it doesn’t. It maintains consistent sentiment across both practitioners and non-practitioners, acting as a stable explanatory bridge while the execution layer continues to mature. For marketers, the lesson is straightforward: don’t build a strategy around whatever acronym or platform is trending this quarter. Build your brand’s digital footprint around timeliness marketing principles: Produce content that delivers real value to your target market. Repurpose and syndicate that content across the platforms where your audience already engages online. Earn citations, engagement, and trust signals that compound across search, social, and AI-driven systems. In an era where answers are synthesized, not ranked, the most credible voices won’t be the first to coin the next label. They’ll be the ones who remain coherent long enough for the industry to converge. And that consistency, not speed, is what ultimately compounds into trust, visibility, and results. The top 75 SEO thought leaders we analyzed focused on tenured agency owners and directors, industry speakers, and consultants, including: Aleyda Solis Amanda Farley Amanda Natividad Andrew Holland Andrew Prince Andy Crestodina Areej AbuAli Barry Schwartz Beth Nunnington Brett Tabke Brie E. Anderson Britney Muller Bruce Clay Celeste Gonzalez Christian Hustle Cindy Krum Connor Gillivan Crystal Carter Cyrus Shepard Dana DiTomaso Danielle Stout Rohe Danny Ashton Danny Goodwin Darren Shaw Dave Davies Derek Perkins Eli Schwartz Eric Enge Fabrice Canel Felipe Bazon Garrett French Garrett Sussman Gisele Navarro Greg Gifford Ian Lurie James Brockbank James Wirth Jane Hunt Jesse McDonald Jordan Koene Joy Hawkins Kathryn Hawkins Kelsey Libert Kristin Tynski Lee Elliott Lidia Infante Lily Ray Loren Baker Marc Sirkin Mark Rofe Mark Traphagen Martha van Berkel Matt McGee Melissa Popp Michael Buckbee Michael King Michelle Robbins Mordy Oberstein Neil Patel Nick Eubanks Nick LeRoy Noah Learner Paddy Moogan Patrick Reinhart Paul Aaron Norris Paxton Gray Rand Fishkin Ray Grieselhuber Ross Hudgens Ross Simmonds Samantha Torres Steven J. Wilson Tony Wright Vanessa Raath Wil Reynolds View the full article

President Donald The President on Thursday inaugurated his Board of Peace to lead efforts at maintaining a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, insisting that “everyone wants to be a part” of the body that could eventually rival the United Nations — despite many U.S. allies opting not to participate. In a speech at the World Economic Forum, The President sought to create momentum for a project to map out a future of the war-torn Gaza Strip that has been overshadowed this week, first by his threats to seize Greenland, then by a dramatic retreat from that push. “This isn’t the United States, this is for the world,” he said, adding, “I think we can spread it out to other things as we succeed in Gaza.” The event featured Ali Shaath, the head of a new, future technocratic government in Gaza, announcing that the Rafah border crossing will open in both directions next week. That’s after Israel said in early December it would open the crossing, which runs between Gaza and Egypt, but has yet to do so. Shaath, an engineer and former Palestinian Authority official from Gaza, is overseeing the Palestinian committee set to govern the territory under U.S. supervision. The new peace board was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the ceasefire, but it has morphed into something far more ambitious — and skepticism about its membership and mandate has led some countries usually closest to Washington to take a pass. The President tried not to let those not participating ruin his unveiling party, saying 59 countries had signed onto the board — even though heads of state, top diplomats and other officials from only 19 countries plus the U.S. actually attended. He told the group, ranging from Azerbaijan to Paraguay to Hungary, “You’re the most powerful people in the world.” The President has spoken about the board replacing some U.N. functions and perhaps even making that entire body obsolete one day. But he was more conciliatory in his remarks on the sidelines of the forum in the Swiss alps. “We’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations,” The President said, even as he denigrated the U.N. for doing what he said wasn’t enough to calm some conflicts around the globe. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that some countries’ leaders have indicated they plan to join but still require approval from their parliaments, and the The President administration says it has also gotten queries about membership from countries that hadn’t been invited to participate yet. Why some countries aren’t participating Big questions remain, however, about what the eventual board will look like. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is still consulting with Moscow’s “strategic partners” before deciding to commit. The Russian president on Thursday is due to host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks in Moscow. Others are asking why Putin and other authoritarian leaders had even been invited to join. Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said her country wasn’t signing on “because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues.” “And we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine,” she told the BBC. Norway and Sweden have indicated they won’t participate, after France also said no. French officials stressed that while they support the Gaza peace plan, they were concerned the board could seek to replace the U.N. as the main venue for resolving conflicts. Canada, Ukraine, China and the executive arm of the European Union also haven’t committed. The President calling off the steep tariffs he threatened over Greenland could ease some allies’ reluctance, but the issue is still far from settled. The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin plans to discuss his proposal to send $1 billion to the Board of Peace and use it for humanitarian purposes during his talks with Abbas. But it noted that the use of those assets will require the U.S. action to unblock them. Board grew out of ceasefire proposal The idea for the Board of Peace was first laid out in The President’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan and even was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he’s agreed to join, after his office has earlier criticized the makeup of the board’s committee tasked with overseeing Gaza. Months into the ceasefire, Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians continue to suffer the humanitarian crisis unleashed by more than two years of war. And violence in Gaza, while not at the same level as before the October ceasefire and hostage deal was agreed on, continues. Key to the truce continuing to hold is the disarming of Hamas, something that the militant group that has controlled the Palestinian territory since 2007 has refused to do and that Israel sees as non-negotiable. The President on Thursday repeated his frequently mentioned warnings that the group will have to do so or face dire consequences. He also said the war in Gaza “is really coming to an end” while conceding, “We have little fires that we’ll put out. But they’re little,” and they had been “giant, giant, massive fires.” Iran protests loom in the background The President’s push for peace also comes after he threatened military action this month against Iran as it carried out a violent crackdown against some of the largest street protests in years, killing thousands of people. The President, for the time being, has signaled he won’t carry out any new strikes on Iran after he said he received assurances that the Islamic government would not carry out the planned hangings of more than 800 protesters. But The President also made the case that his tough approach to Tehran — including strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June last year — was critical to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal coalescing. Iran was Hamas’ most important patron, providing the group hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid, weapons, training and financial support over the years. Zelenskyy meeting The President also spoke behind closed doors for about an hour with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrived Thursday in Davos. The President called the discussion “very good” but announced no major breakthroughs and said the pair didn’t discuss many European nations shunning the Board of Peace. The President’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Moscow for talks. Still, the Republican president has for months struggled to get Zelenskyy and Putin to agree to terms to end their nearly 4-year-old war, and he continues to express frustration about it. “We hope it’s going to end,” The President told reporters after his meeting with Zelenskyy. —Josh Boak, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert, Associated Press View the full article

A new paper tests how LLMs select content, and Duane Forrester translates the findings into a practical framework you can validate yourself. The post When Platforms Say ‘Don’t Optimize,’ Smart Teams Run Experiments appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

The latest craze in the fitness world—from gym culture, to nutrition planning, to recovery protocols— is hyper-personalized optimization. But is there really a benefit to at-home microbiome tests that reveal the optimal diet for your gut bacteria? How about a device that tells you whether you're burning carbs or fat with each breath? Personalized fitness advice used to be largely limited to factors like height and weight, but now you might have a Whoop, Oura, or Apple Watch wearable tracking your track heart rate variability, skin temperature, blood oxygen, and so much more. Continuous glucose monitors, once reserved for diabetics, are now worn by biohackers and CrossFit enthusiasts trying to optimize their carb timing. On the one hand, the appeal of having unprecedented insight into your body's unique needs is understandable. On the other, there's a looming shadow behind all this data: As the metrics multiply, so does the potential for anxiety. When every workout, meal, and bedtime becomes a referendum on dozens of competing data points, decision fatigue is likely to set in. And as your algorithms suggest targeted interventions for every perceived deficiency, someone else—likely a giant corporation getting fat off of user data—is profiting. The question looms larger with each new device metric: Does more data actually lead to better health outcomes? More data isn't always betterYour wearable spits out a sleep (or stress) report every morning. How is this data serving you? "Metabolic testing, biomechanics, and body composition are all forms of objective data that can be pretty powerful when collected in validated settings and interpreted by professionals who understand physiology and adaptation," says Lekshmi Kumar, a performance physiologist at Boston-based Human Powered Health. But consumer devices, while improving, exist in a different category: "Consistent research has bolstered consumer-facing tools and significant improvements have been made over the past several years. But they're still not considered substitutes for professional-grade assessments," Kumar says. In other words, for a lot of bio-hacking endeavors, there’s a major gap between the numbers you see and their potential real-life applications. Kumar sees three critical prerequisites for data to actually improve outcomes: data quality, proper context, and accurate interpretation. "Absent these, we often see expensive and excessive supplementation, conflicting recommendations, and decision fatigue," she says. The real danger, she says, isn't the data itself—it's the illusion of expertise it creates. Hyper-personalized data might add unnecessary confusionMany direct-to-consumer tests lack the clinical validation of their medical-grade counterparts. Interpretation of the data is frequently automated, missing nuance that a trained professional might catch. And the recommendations often trend toward more—more supplements, more tracking, more intervention—rather than identifying changes that might actually move the needle. It's a hard truth that no wellness product actually cares more about your health than its company's profits. Perhaps the most insidious cost of hyper-personalization is less financial, and more psychological: When every metric matters, decision-making becomes paralyzing. Should you work out today even though your HRV is down? Is that meal worth the glucose spike? Did last night's 6.5 hours of sleep doom today's training session? The constant feedback loop can transform exercise from a joyful practice into an optimization problem to be solved. This isn’t the first time I’ve pointed out the trappings of wellness culture. The internal compass—how do I actually feel?—gets drowned out by all the external data streams. Ironically, the tools meant to “empower” can instead create dependency, where you can’t trust their own bodily sensations without technological confirmation. Does hyper-personalization actually work? When implemented thoughtfully (with quality data, proper interpretation, and professional guidance), personalized approaches can obviously aid you in optimizing training, recovery, and nutrition in ways generic programs cannot. Elite athletes have long used sophisticated testing—VO2 max assessments, lactate threshold testing, motion capture analysis—to gain advantages, however marginal. As these tools become more accessible, it makes sense their benefits can extend beyond the professional realm. But accessibility without expertise? That’s a different matter. Consider two hypothetical people concerned about their fitness: Person A tracks sleep quality, HRV, resting heart rate, blood oxygen, skin temperature, glucose levels, and workout strain—but lacks a framework to understand how these metrics interact, or what to do when they conflict. Person B follows a simple evidence-based program: strength training three times per week, 30 minutes of cardio on alternate days, eight hours of sleep, and a balanced diet with adequate protein. Even absent all that data, Person B will likely see better results and experience far less angst about their health. Again, there are the economic incentives to consider too. Companies profit from selling more tests, more devices, more subscriptions, and more supplements. The business model depends on convincing consumers they need increasingly granular data to achieve their goals. This creates an environment where the answer to "what should I track?" is almost always "more than you're tracking now," regardless of whether the additional data actually serves you. When personal health tracking actually makes sense"The biggest gains won't come from chasing every single flashy metric," says Kumar. "They'll come from identifying the variables that matter most to the specific individual, and working with a credentialed professional who can assist in translating the information into meaningful takeaways and actions." What does smart, targeted tracking look like in practice? Here are scenarios where specific metrics can genuinely help: For a runner struggling with fatigue: Tracking HRV and resting heart rate can reveal when you're not recovering adequately between training blocks. If these metrics trend downward over weeks, it's a signal to dial back intensity or add rest days—something that matters far more than monitoring glucose fluctuations after breakfast. For someone with persistent digestive issues: A food diary paired with symptom tracking (not necessarily a microbiome test kit) can help identify genuine patterns. Working with a registered dietitian to systematically eliminate or reintroduce foods provides actionable insights, unlike a $200 test suggesting you eat more fermented foods. For someone desperate to improve sleep: Use your gadgets to track total sleep time and sleep consistency. That matters more than obsessing over REM percentages. Focus on establishing a regular pre-sleep routine and measuring whether you feel rested, rather than achieving some algorithm's "optimal" sleep score. For the lifter hitting a plateau: Remember that linear gains are for beginners. Instead of stressing over daily scale readings, focus on your training log tracking progressive overload and consider following these tips. You'll notice a patter here: Each tracking approach is targeted, time-bound, and directly connected to a specific goal or problem—not a fruitless pursuit to optimize every single thing all the time. The bottom lineIn a culture obsessed with optimization, it’s getting harder and harder to cut through the noise. But maybe your goal shouldn’t be to track everything. As hyper-personalization continues its ascent, think about how you’re engaging with every new tool. The wisest approach may be a picky one: choosing one or two key metrics that align with specific goals. Because more information isn't automatically better, and consumer tools have real limitations, and that the human body is beautifully, frustratingly complex—not exactly reducible to a dashboard of numbers. View the full article

The totals are in for 2025, and it's been a great year for measles. According to the CDC, the number of cases of the disease identified in the US has risen from 285 in 2024 to 2,144 in 2025, the highest number of measles cases since 1990. We've already seen at least 171 measles cases in the first two weeks of 2026. As you'd probably guess, experts pin the rise in measles to lower vaccination rates. I covered a number of vaccination and measles myths in this column months ago, but there is a new spin on measles that seems to be gaining some traction: A lot of people think contracting measles is good for your heath. “There’s a lot of studies out there that show that if you actually do get the wild infection, you’re protected later. It boosts your immune system later in life against cancers, atopic diseases, cardiac disease, etc.,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services secretary said in a recent Fox interview. Online, there are posts like this one from a chiropractor's Instagram page, using a clip from The Brady Bunch to argue that contracting measles and other diseases "prepares a child’s immune system for a long-term resiliency to chronic problems like cancers and heart disease." Others point to news stories like this from CNN to bolster claims that measles fights cancer. Can measles fight cancer?There is no evidence that measles infection can protect against cancer. Full stop. But whether measles can treat cancer is a little more complex. There is a small grain of truth here, but it's wrapped in a lot of misconceptions. The most basic is the meaning of the word "measles." Oncolytic virus therapy uses genetically altered viruses, including the measles virus, to target cancer cells. A modified version of the measles virus was used successfully to treat a specific kind of cancer and boost immune response to the cancer. Mayo Clinic researchers report that one patient's incurable cancer went into remission, thanks to the virus. "But that's totally a therapeutic application of viruses, completely different than what happens with natural infections," said John Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in an interview, so it's not “measles cures cancer," it’s “scientists weaponize a virus under controlled conditions." The bottom line: The wild measles virus is a dangerous pathogen, not a cancer cure. Not only that, but part of the reason the virus therapy worked so well on the patient CNN covered was because she had been vaccinated for measles, so if genetically modified measles ever end up being used as cancer treatment, it's better to have been vaccinated than not. Does contracting measles prevent heart disease?One study in Japan found an association between measles and mumps infections and a lower risk of death from atherosclerotic heart disease. But critics have pointed out that this research relies on self-reporting within a pre-vaccine population. Given the virulence of measles, all of the people in the survey would likely have been exposed to measles as children even if they didn't remember it, so it's hard to draw any conclusions from this study. Does contracting measles boost your immune system?While being infected with the disease will likely result in being immune to measles afterwards, it harms your immune system as a whole. A 2019 study from Harvard Medical School published by Science, found that the measles virus can cause "immune amnesia," the wiping out of up to three-quarters of antibodies protecting against other infections like the flu or the bacteria that cause pneumonia. "The measles virus is like a car accident for your immune system,” Harvard University geneticist Stephen Elledge, the senior author of the Science study, told The Los Angeles Times. "If your child gets the measles and then gets pneumonia two years later, you wouldn’t necessarily tie the two together. The symptoms of measles itself may be only the tip of the iceberg,” said the study’s first author, Dr. Michael Mina. Meanwhile, we have extremely strong evidence that the measles vaccine doesn't cause a general weakening of the immune system—note, for example, the dramatic reductions in childhood deaths from other diseases in places where measles immunization programs are introduced. After measles vaccinations began in the United States in the 1960s, deaths from diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea were cut by half, and in populations where infectious diseases are more common, the reduction in mortality has been up to 80 percent. Playing devil's advocate on measlesLet's assume critics are right, for the sake of argument. Even if contracting measles in childhood makes you less likely to get heart disease later in life and gives you a stronger immune system, it would still make sense to get immunized instead of infected. Measles is a serious disease. Regardless of any future benefit, contracting measles is deadly in up to three of every 1,000 cases. About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions, hearing loss, and intellectual disability. Vaccination for measles, on the other hand, is very safe. The most serious side effects come from severe allergic reactions, and that happens about in a one in a million doses. The measles vaccine generates immunity without the risk of encephalitis, without immune amnesia, and without gambling a child’s life on a hypothetical future payoff. If measles exposure truly primes the immune system in some beneficial way, vaccination captures the immune response while stripping out the damage. No matter how generous you are to the "infection is good" argument, infection is a dangerous and inefficient way to get there. View the full article

Five things that any business can do to increase authoritativeness and earn more links The post Five Things To Do That Will Increase Authoritativeness And Earn Links appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

A survey of 4,000+ CEOs from 95 countries finds 56% haven't seen revenue or cost benefits from AI. The post 56% Of CEOs Report No Revenue Gains From AI: PwC Survey appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Last month, Spotify announced "Prompted Playlist," a new feature the company claimed let users "steer the algorithm." This was a bold—if not vague—claim, to be sure, but it was backed by everyone's favorite tech trend of the last three years: AI. The pitch was that Spotify would let subscribers use the company's AI models to better control their listening experience, so long as they lived in the country of New Zealand. That's a very small slice of Spotify's very large user base. Luckily for those of us in the United States and Canada, Prompted Playlist is expanding to our side of North America. Spotify announced the move today, Jan. 21: Now, Premium subscribers in any of these three countries can access the feature, if they want to hand over the playlist reigns to Spotify's machine learning models. What is Prompted Playlist?Prompted Playlist is Spotify's AI-powered tool that lets you use natural language to create custom playlists. The idea is, rather than look for songs to add to a playlist, you tell Spotify's AI what you're in the mood to listen to, and it adds songs automatically for you. That can include genres and existing songs, but also ideas, deeper descriptions, and, for lack of a better word, vibes. To understand what I mean, here are some of the suggested prompts Spotify suggests you try: "Make me a playlist of songs I’ve saved to my Library (playlists or Liked Songs) that I either haven’t played yet or have only listened to once. The goal is to round up those songs I found, saved, and then totally forgot to revisit. Give me a chance to finally hear what I’ve been missing." "What are the first tracks I ever listened to on Spotify? Order them by the very first track I ever streamed - with date and time - and keep going." "Knowing what I listen to today, make me a playlist of songs from 2016 that match my current taste, mixing the biggest tracks from that year with songs that feel timeless now." "Make me a playlist to help me learn Spanish, with clear vocals and easy-to-follow lyrics. Mix popular Spanish-language songs with slower tracks that make it easier to catch the words, and include music that reflects different Spanish-speaking cultures to keep it engaging." Spotify says that Prompted Playlist takes your existing listening history into account as well. While you and a friend might give Spotify's AI the same prompt, in theory, you should each receive different playlists, since the AI will make adjustments based on the music you like and don't like. You also don't have to wonder why the AI put a specific song in the playlist: Each track starts with a "quick one-liner" that explains why Spotify chose it in the first place. I could see that being either insightful, or extremely annoying. The thing is, Spotify has rolled out a feature like this before, appropriately dubbed "AI Playlist." Lifehacker's David Nield covered it in September of 2024, and catching up on that feature, it sounds pretty similar to Prompted Playlist. AI Playlist isn't actually going away now that Prompted Playlist is here: Spotify tells me that these are two separate features, and that the major differences are that Prompted Playlist factors in your entire Spotify listening history, going back to your first song, as well as real-time information about "trends, charts, culture, and history" in the industry today. You can also schedule playlists if you like, so the mix refreshes every day or week, something you can't do with AI Playlist. From my seat, it also seems like Prompted Playlist is designed to handle more complex prompts, as well. While the company advertised AI Playlist as a way to build playlists from prompts like "upbeat pop music for my road trip," the company's suggested Prompted Playlist prompts are much more intricate, and include multiple levels of instruction for the AI. Perhaps part of that is the result of improvements in the technology over the past year and half. How to try Spotify's Prompted PlaylistPrompted Playlist is launching as a Premium-only feature, so if you don't pay for Spotify, you unfortunately can't access it. If you do have a Premium account, you'll need to head to Spotify, tap "Create," then choose "Prompted Playlist." As explained above, from here, you can describe what kind of playlist you want the tool to make. From here, you'll be able to set how often it refreshes (if it refreshes at all). If you're not happy with the results, you can choose "Edit Prompt" to adjust it. You can share the playlist with friends, but know that Spotify will adjust the playlist to match their listening histories instead. View the full article

Four hundred support tickets last month. Twelve variations of the same feature request. Three lost deals because competitors have a capability that isn’t mentioned anywhere relevant. NPS comments mentioning the same pain point repeatedly. The PM knows about these patterns. Engineering does not. Product feedback lives in support tools, sales CRMs, feedback platforms, and survey results. Engineering work lives in Jira. The gap between where feedback arrives and where work gets done means customer voice gets lost in translation. By the time a feature request becomes a Jira ticket, the original context (the frustration, the use case, the competitive pressure) has been stripped away. Syncing product feedback to development is not just about creating tickets from feature requests. It is about maintaining the customer context that helps engineering make better decisions and build better products. This guide covers how to connect feedback sources to development workflows, what information should flow between them, and how to maintain the voice of the customer from initial feedback through shipped feature. Where product feedback lives Customer feedback arrives through multiple channels, each with its own tools and workflows. Support tickets Support tools like Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk capture customer problems daily. Some are bugs. Some are confusion about existing features. Some are requests for capabilities that do not exist. Connecting Zendesk to Jira is one way to bridge support and development. Support feedback is high-signal because it represents real problems customers are experiencing right now. The challenge is volume: distinguishing feature-worthy requests from one-off complaints requires systematic review. Sales conversations Sales CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot capture competitive losses, feature gaps that stall deals, and requests from prospects. Understanding how HubSpot and Salesforce work together is often the first step in consolidating this feedback. Sales feedback is strategic because it connects to revenue, but it can be biased toward high-value prospects rather than overall user needs. Sales feedback often lives in call notes, opportunity fields, or dedicated “lost deal” tracking. Extracting actionable product insight requires someone to review and synthesize. Feedback platforms Dedicated feedback tools like Productboard, Canny, and UserVoice aggregate feature requests and allow customers to vote on priorities. These platforms are designed for product feedback, making them cleaner sources than support or sales tools. The challenge is coverage: not all customers use feedback platforms. Active users who engage with voting tools may not represent your broader user base. Surveys and NPS Survey tools like Delighted, SurveyMonkey, and Typeform capture broader customer sentiment. NPS comments often reveal patterns that individual tickets or requests miss. Survey feedback is useful for identifying themes but is often too abstract for direct action. “Make the product easier to use” is valid feedback but does not translate directly to a Jira ticket. Direct user research User interviews, usability testing, and customer advisory boards generate rich qualitative feedback. This feedback has deep context but low volume. Research insights often live in documents, recordings, or research repositories. Getting these insights into development workflows requires intentional synthesis. Why feedback fails to reach engineering Despite abundant feedback sources, engineering teams often lack customer context. Several patterns explain why. PMs as translators The PM often becomes the sole conduit between feedback and development. Feedback arrives in various tools. The PM reads it, synthesizes it, and writes Jira tickets. Engineering sees the tickets but not the original feedback. This works when feedback volume is low and the PM has time for thorough synthesis. It breaks when feedback exceeds what one person can process or when the PM is unavailable. Context lost in handoff Even when feedback reaches Jira, context is often stripped away. A support ticket with a paragraph of customer frustration becomes a one-line feature request. The original emotion, use case, and business context disappear. Engineers who see “Add export to PDF” without context may implement something that technically meets the requirement but misses the customer need. Feedback stays in silos Support feedback stays in Zendesk. Sales feedback stays in Salesforce. Survey results stay in Delighted. Each team sees their slice of customer voice, but nobody sees the complete picture. When the same request appears in multiple channels, each instance is handled separately. The pattern that would elevate a request to priority is invisible because the data lives in different systems. Delayed or missing feedback loop When a requested feature ships, the original requesters are rarely notified. Support does not know to tell customers that their issue was addressed. Sales does not know to revisit lost deals. The feedback loop is broken. This failure has compound effects: customers think their feedback went into a void, reducing future engagement. Teams lose validation of whether solutions actually solved the problem. Building a feedback-to-development pipeline Connecting feedback to development requires intentional infrastructure. Step one Create a central place where feedback from all sources can be reviewed together. This might be: A dedicated feedback tool: Productboard, Canny, or similar tools are designed for this purpose. Feed data from other sources into the feedback tool. A shared project or database: If you do not use dedicated feedback tooling, a Notion database, Airtable base, or even a well-structured Google Sheet can consolidate feedback. Your PM tool: If you manage product work in Asana, Monday, or similar, create a project or view dedicated to incoming feedback. The goal is visibility into all feedback in one place, regardless of where it originated. Step two Raw feedback often lacks the context that makes it actionable. Enrichment adds: Customer information: Who is this customer? What plan are they on? How long have they been a customer? What is their use case? Business context: What is the revenue impact? Is this related to churn risk or expansion opportunity? How many customers have requested this? Related feedback: Are there other requests for the same thing from different sources? Link related items together. Some enrichment can be automated through tool integrations. Other enrichment requires manual review. Establish a process for who adds context and when. Step three Feedback that has been consolidated and enriched needs to connect to where engineering works. Create links, not copies: When a feedback item becomes development work, link them rather than copying content. The link maintains the connection so context stays accessible. Preserve original context: The Jira ticket should link back to the original feedback, support tickets, or sales notes. Engineers can dig into context when they need it. Sync status bidirectionally: When development work progresses, feedback sources should reflect that progress. When a feature ships, the original feedback item should show completion. Integration platforms with two-way sync can sync feedback tools with Jira, maintaining connections between customer requests and development work. When a Productboard feature links to a Jira epic, status flows between them automatically. Step four When development work ships, notify the original requesters. Automatic notifications: Some feedback tools can notify customers when their requested features ship. Configure these where available. Support team enablement: When feedback originated from support tickets, inform the support team so they can reach out to affected customers. Sales team enablement: When feedback originated from lost deals or stalled opportunities, inform the sales team so they can revisit those conversations. Public changelog: Announce shipped features in a way that customers who submitted feedback can discover. Link to the original feedback themes that drove development. Closing the loop builds customer trust in the feedback process and provides validation that solutions address actual needs. What information should flow between feedback and development Not all feedback details need to reach engineering, and not all development details need to reach feedback sources. From feedback to development Customer problem statement: What is the customer trying to accomplish? What is preventing them? Use case and context: How does this fit into the customer’s broader workflow? What would success look like? Severity and frequency: How painful is this problem? How many customers are affected? Is it blocking or annoying? Business impact: Is this causing churn? Blocking sales? Affecting expansion? Original language: Include direct quotes from customer feedback. The specific words customers use reveal nuance that paraphrasing loses. From development to feedback Status updates: Is work planned? In progress? Complete? Customers and internal teams should see progress. Scope decisions: If the implementation differs from the request, explain why. “We addressed the core use case but deferred the advanced options” is useful context. Timeline information: When is the feature expected to ship? Manage expectations appropriately. Shipped notification: When work is complete, close the loop explicitly. What doesn’t need to be shared Technical implementation details: How engineers build something is not relevant to feedback sources. Internal prioritization debates: The reasoning behind priority decisions can be shared selectively, but internal deliberation does not need to sync automatically. Every comment and update: Status changes matter; routine comments on development tickets do not need to flow back to feedback tools. Maintaining feedback quality over time Feedback-to-development pipelines degrade without ongoing attention. Regular feedback triage Establish a cadence for reviewing incoming feedback. Weekly review sessions work best for most teams. During triage: Review new feedback since last session Add enrichment and context Link related items Identify high-priority patterns Archive or deprioritize low-value feedback Periodic pattern analysis Beyond individual items, look for patterns across feedback sources. Common themes: What requests appear repeatedly across channels? Segment analysis: Do enterprise customers request different things than SMB customers? Trend analysis: What is requested more now than six months ago? What has declined? Pattern analysis informs roadmap priorities and reveals opportunities that individual feedback items miss. Feedback source health checks Periodically audit each feedback source: Is data flowing? If a previously active source has gone quiet, investigate why. Is data quality maintained? If enrichment has become spotty, address the process gap. Are sources balanced? If feedback is dominated by one channel, you may be missing perspectives from others. Integration maintenance As tools evolve, integrations can break or drift from intended behavior. Monitor sync status: Check that data is flowing as expected. Address errors promptly. Review field mappings: When either system adds new fields, evaluate whether mappings should expand. Test periodically: Create test feedback items and verify they flow through the system correctly. Feedback-to-development best practices Make customer voice visible to engineering Engineers build better products when they understand customer problems directly, not just through PM interpretation. Share customer quotes in sprint planning. Include feedback links in Jira tickets. Invite engineers to customer calls occasionally. The more engineering understands who they are building for, the better their decisions. Preserve the “why” through development From initial feedback through shipped feature, the “why” should remain visible. Every story should connect to the customer problem it addresses. When an engineer opens a ticket, they should be able to understand: who requested this, what problem they had, why it matters. This context improves implementation decisions. Measure feedback loop effectiveness Track metrics that indicate whether the feedback loop is working: Time from feedback to development: How long does it take for a valid request to become development work? Feedback-to-ship time: How long from initial request to shipped feature? Notification rate: What percentage of feedback requesters are notified when their request ships? Customer satisfaction with resolution: Do customers feel their feedback was addressed? These metrics reveal whether the feedback pipeline is efficient or bottlenecked. Balance responsiveness with strategy Not every piece of feedback deserves immediate development action. Some feedback conflicts with product strategy. Some requests come from non-representative users. Some problems have better solutions than what customers request. A good feedback system captures everything, prioritizes strategically, and responds thoughtfully, not reactively. Get (and keep) everyone in sync Product development without customer feedback is guessing. Customer feedback without development connection is theater. The pipeline that connects them turns customer voice into shipped features that solve real problems. If you are ready to connect your feedback sources to engineering workflows, see how Unito helps product and engineering teams stay aligned. View the full article

You know that sinking feeling when you look at your organic traffic dashboard and see – nothing exciting. The line’s flat, and you’re dreading the conversation with your boss about why your SEO investment isn’t “working.” Here’s the thing: flat traffic doesn’t mean failure anymore. Some of the most successful SEO campaigns I’ve worked on recently had underwhelming traffic numbers but delivered incredible business results. Let me show you why that’s not necessarily a bad thing and how to communicate it effectively. Why flat traffic isn’t the red flag it used to be Last year, one of our clients in the home services space experienced organic traffic that had not only plateaued but had actually declined over the previous six months. Their CEO was getting antsy. But here’s what the traffic chart wasn’t showing: Conversion rates from organic visitors had jumped 10%. Total leads from our SEO efforts had increased by 8% year over year. This isn’t an isolated case. It’s the new normal, and AI Overviews are the biggest reason why. Google’s AI Overviews now synthesize answers directly in search results, pulling from multiple sources to give users what they need without requiring a click. When someone searches “best project management software for small teams,” Google doesn’t just show a list of links anymore. It generates a comprehensive answer right there on the SERP. Your content might be fueling that answer, but you’ll never see the click in your analytics. This creates a fundamental attribution problem. Organic click-through rates featuring Google AI Overviews dropped by 61% since mid-2024. Meanwhile, zero-click searches rose from 25% of searches five years ago to 58.5% in 2024, and by mid-2025, we had reached 65%. AI Overviews now appear in roughly 16% of all queries. Here’s what we are dealing with. Your SEO might be working beautifully, with your content being cited and synthesized in AI-generated answers, but you have almost no direct way to measure it. Someone reads your insights in an AI Overview, remembers your brand, and converts three weeks later through a direct visit or branded search. That’s not a failure of SEO. It’s a success that you simply can’t attribute back to organic. With almost 65% of all searches now ending without a click to any external website, obsessing over traffic volume in this environment is like judging a restaurant by how many people walk past it, rather than how many become paying customers. Dig deeper: AI search is growing, but SEO fundamentals still drive most traffic Rethinking traffic as your primary KPI The shift that needs to happen: Organic traffic should no longer be your primary KPI. It’s not that traffic doesn’t matter. It’s that it no longer tells the complete story of organic performance. When AI Overviews expose users to your brand without generating clicks, that influence shows up elsewhere. Direct traffic increases? That might be people who discovered you through an AI-generated answer and typed your URL directly. Branded search volume climbing? Same thing. These downstream effects are real SEO wins, but they’ll never appear in your organic traffic report. This means your reporting needs to expand. Track organic traffic, yes, but alongside direct traffic trends, branded search volume, and assisted conversions. The user who first encountered your brand in an AI Overview and converted two weeks later through a direct visit still started their journey with search. Your SEO made that happen. If your organization is still laser-focused on traffic growth as the primary success metric, you have two options: Educate stakeholders on why that’s an incomplete picture. Adjust your strategy to target keywords less impacted by AI Overviews. That means shifting focus toward middle-of-funnel (MOFU) and bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) terms. Keywords like “[product] or [solution] pricing,” “[product] vs. [competitor],” or “best [solution] for [specific use case]” are less likely to trigger AI Overviews than broad informational queries. They also have lower search volume, but the visitors they attract are far more valuable. Someone searching “what is a CRM” is just learning. Someone searching “Salesforce vs. HubSpot for mid-size companies” is actively evaluating options. There are trade-offs with this approach: MOFU and BOFU keywords typically have less volume than top-of-funnel informational terms. But if traffic is the metric your stakeholders care about most, these terms give you a better shot at delivering clicks while also driving qualified leads. Why fewer clicks can actually be a good sign When your content appears in AI Overviews or featured snippets, you’re getting brand exposure without the corresponding click spike. Users see your expertise; they just don’t need to click through to get their answer. Visibility and traffic are separating in what’s being called “the great decoupling,” impressions are rising while clicks fall. Your content can build significant visibility and authority without driving proportional traffic. Dig deeper: How to better measure LLM visibility and its impact Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. What to look at when traffic stops telling the full story If traffic isn’t the main event anymore, what should you actually watch? Here are the metrics that reveal real SEO performance: Revenue per visitor (RPV) from organic traffic: If your organic traffic generates $2.50 per visitor instead of $1.80 from six months ago, your SEO is crushing it. Traffic might be flat, but profitability is up. Conversion rate by landing page: Segment your organic traffic by entry pages. You might discover traffic is shifting toward higher-converting pages, exactly what you want. Keyword rankings for high-intent terms: Track positions for keywords indicating purchase readiness: “buy,” “pricing,” “vs [competitor],” “best [product category].” Movement here matters more than rankings for broad informational terms. Share of voice in AI Overviews and featured snippets: Tools like Semrush show when your content gets cited in AI-powered results. This visibility drives brand awareness even without clicks. Lead quality scores. If you’re B2B, track not just the number of organic leads but their qualification scores. Ten highly qualified leads beat 50 unqualified ones. Here’s a practical example. I track a client whose organic sessions dropped 12% year-over-year, but their organic-to-SQL conversion improved 28%. Their cost per acquisition from organic search fell significantly, making SEO their most efficient channel. Dig deeper: 12 new KPIs for the generative AI search era How to explain this shift without sounding defensive The tricky part isn’t understanding this shift; it’s communicating it to stakeholders who still think SEO equals traffic growth. Lead with business outcomes first Don’t start with “Well, traffic is flat but…” Instead, open with “Our organic revenue is up 23% this quarter because our SEO strategy is targeting higher-intent users.” Use industry context The majority of all webpages receive no traffic from Google. Maintaining visibility already puts you in successful territory. Frame flat traffic as stability in a competitive landscape. Show the quality shift Present side-by-side data. For instance “Six months ago, organic traffic averaged 2 pages per session and 45% bounce rate. Now it’s 3.2 pages per session and 28% bounce rate. We’re attracting more engaged users.” Here’s a script I use: “Our SEO strategy has evolved to match how search engines operate today. Instead of optimizing for maximum clicks, we’re optimizing for maximum business value. The result is fewer but more qualified visitors who convert at higher rates.” When executives push back, I sometimes ask, “Would you rather have 10,000 visitors who browse and leave, or 5,000 visitors who request demos and become customers?” The answer reframes the entire conversation around business value. When flat traffic is actually a problem Let me be clear: flat or declining traffic isn’t always good news. Here’s how to tell the difference: Declining keyword rankings across the board: If traffic is flat but rankings are dropping, you likely have a problem, possibly due to technical issues, content quality problems, or algorithm penalties. Flat traffic with flat or declining conversions: Traffic staying steady while conversions drop suggests audience quality is declining. Engagement metrics getting worse: Climbing bounce rates and dropping session duration alongside flat traffic mean users aren’t finding value. Losing share of voice to competitors: If competitors are gaining visibility while yours stays flat, you’re falling behind. Flat traffic is positive when accompanied by improved conversions or stronger competitive positioning. It’s problematic when it masks declining relevance. Dig deeper: LLM optimization in 2026: Tracking, visibility, and what’s next for AI discovery Redefining what ‘working SEO’ means Working SEO in 2026 means aligning revenue, not maximizing traffic. Your organic channel should generate qualified leads, drive conversions, and make a measurable contribution to business growth. Here’s my framework for evaluating SEO success: Revenue metrics: Cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value, return on investment from organic traffic. Visibility metrics: Share of voice across all SERP features, not just traditional rankings. Quality metrics: Engagement rates, conversion rates, lead qualification scores. “Future-proofing” metrics: Performance in AI interfaces and emerging search platforms. The SEO industry has been through similar transitions before, and this won’t be the last. The sooner you adjust your expectations and metrics, the better positioned you’ll be to succeed, and to confidently explain why that flat traffic line might actually be a sign of revenue-focused optimization. View the full article

Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 1,667 feet (508 meters), Taipei 101 dominates the skyline. The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. On Saturday morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo style — without ropes or protective equipment. And Netflix will broadcast it — live. The event’s announcement has drawn both excitement and trepidation, as well as some concerns over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavor on live broadcast. Many have questioned Honnold’s desire to continues his free-solo climbs now that he’s a married father of two young girls. Known for his legendary ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, documented in “Free Solo,” Honnold is intent on pushing the limits of climbing around the world. “When you look at climbing objectives, you look for things that are singular,” Honnold told The Associated Press late last year. “Something like El Capitan where it’s way bigger and way prouder than all the things around it.” Something like Taipei 101. How to free solo a skyscraper Honnold won’t be the first climber to ascend the skyscraper, but he will be the first to do so without a rope. French rock climber Alain Robert scaled the building on Christmas Day in 2004, as part of the grand opening of what was then the world’s tallest building. He took nearly four hours to finish, almost twice as long as what he anticipated, all while nursing an injured elbow and battered by wind and rain. Honnold, who has been training for months, doesn’t think his climb will be hard. He’s practiced the moves on the building and spoke with Robert on his climbing podcast. “I don’t think it’ll be that extreme,” Honnold said. “We’ll see. I think it’s the perfect sweet spot where it’s hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb.” The building has 101 floors, with the hardest part being the 64 floors comprising the middle section — the “bamboo boxes” that give the building its signature look. Divided into eight, each segment will have eight floors of steep, overhanging climbing followed by a balcony that Honnold would be able to rest on. The “Skyscraper Live” broadcast will be on a 10-second delay and begin Friday evening for viewers in the U.S. James Smith, an executive with event producer Plimsoll Productions, said he consulted safety advisers almost immediately after he first spoke with Honnold about attempting the climb. Smith works with a risk management group for film and TV called Secret Compass, which has supported productions in filming penguins in Antarctica and helping Chris Hemsworth walk across a crane projecting from an Australian skyscraper’s roof, alike. Smith and Honnold will be able to communicate throughout the event. They’ll have cameramen positioned inside the building, various hatches and places to bail during the climb and four high-angle camera operators suspended on ropes. “These people all know Alex. They trust Alex. They’re going to be close to him throughout the whole climb,” Smith said. “They’re going to get us kind of amazing shots, but they’re also there just to keep an eye on him, and if there’s any problems, they can kind of help.” The production has also commissioned professional weather forecasters to provide updates leading up to climb day. There’s currently a small chance of light rain in the morning, Smith said. Ultimately, if conditions are bad, Honnold won’t climb. At his local gym, Taiwanese rock climber Chin Tzu-hsiang said he’s grown up always looking up at the Taipei 101 and wondering if he could climb it. Honnold is a household name among rock climbers even in Taiwan, and Chin said he has students who have only been climbing for a year or two who are excited to watch. Based on watching Honnold in his other climbs, Chin said he trusts him to prepare for the challenge and not to recklessly take risks. “For Alex Honnold to finish the climb, it’s like he’s helping us fulfill our dream,” Chin said. Ethical considerations and responsibility The novelty and risk involved in the climb are almost built for television. “This will be the highest, the biggest urban free solo ever,” Smith said. “So we’re kind of writing history and those events, I think, have to be broadcast and watched live.” Those same factors are crucial when discussing the ethics of the climb, according to Subbu Vincent, director of media and journalism ethics at Santa Clara University. It’s important that Honnold has a “back-off clause” and the production aspect of the event doesn’t increase the risk he’s already taking, Vincent said. One action that Vincent believes is crucial is using a delay in the live broadcast so it can be stopped immediately if something goes wrong. “I don’t think it’s ethical to proceed to livestream anything after,” Vincent said. Taipei 101 officials declined to comment and Secret Compass did not respond to interview requests. Another consideration is the influence Honnold may have on impressionable youth who may feel more emboldened to take risks after watching him climb, a debate that has existed since Evel Knievel’s televised daredevil stunts. Many climbers have died from free-soloing, including an 18-year-old rock climber from Texas who fell last June in Yosemite. A trend called “roof-topping” — where people gain access to the tops of skyscrapers, often illegally, to take photos of themselves dangling from the edge — has also led to several deaths. Jeff Smoot, who authored the book “All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing,” shares those concerns. But what the general public might not understand is that embracing risk has always been a significant part of climbing culture, he said. Smoot began climbing in the 1970s watching legendary climbers like John Long and John Bachar free-solo regularly. “From the public’s perspective, this is thrill-seeking. From the climber’s perspective, it’s a meditative art form,” Smoot said. When he first heard Honnold would be ascending Taipei 101 without ropes, Smoot had questions — why do it at all, why do it without ropes, why film it live? But, he concluded, “If it wasn’t dangerous, would people want to watch?” Associated Press journalist Simina Mistreanu contributed reporting. —Jaimie Ding and Taijing Wu Associated Press View the full article

Buc-ee’s, the popular, Texas-based mega gas station chain will be opening its first-ever locations in: Nebraska, Ohio (April 2026), Wisconsin (2027), North Carolina (2027), Arizona (June 2026), Arkansas (June 2026), Louisiana (2027), and Kansas (2027), according to multiple local news reports. When reached by Fast Company for confirmation, the chain had “no comment.” Founded in 1982, Buc-ee’s, which has a cult-like following, is known for its large scale gas stations and convenience stores, which include, as Fast Company previously reported, numerous gas pumps (more than 100 in some locations), award-winning bathrooms, and a fan-favorite BBQ brisket sandwich. (Its merch is even sold at Walmart.) In recent years, the chain has expanded across the southeastern U.S. from its home base in Texas, spanning west to east from Kentucky to South Carolina. Buc-ee’s, which currently lists some 69 locations nationwide, if you include their car washes, are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the company holds the record for the world’s largest convenience store, which is in Luling, Texas, and is a sprawling, 75,593 square feet. The chain plans to open a fourth store in Florida, which, upon opening, will then be the chain’s largest one to date, with 76,245 square feet, including: 120 gas pumps, 18 charging states, and more than 700 parking locations, according to AL.com (Alabama.com). Buc-ee’s, a privately held company, was one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the dining category in 2024. List of Buc-ee’s locations and opening dates in 8 new states Here is a list of Buc-ee’s locations opening in new states, and their opening dates, according to local news reports: Arizona: Goodyear, southeast corner of Bullard Avenue and Interstate 10 (opening June 2026) Arkansas: Benton, just off I-30 (opening September 2026) Kansas: Louisiana: Nebraska: North Carolina: Ohio: Wisconsin: View the full article

When considering the best customer care strategy, it’s crucial to focus on a customer-centric approach that aligns with both service standards and business goals. This involves comprehending customer needs and leveraging technology, such as AI and CRM systems, for personalized interactions. Furthermore, setting measurable objectives can help track performance and make necessary adjustments. What specific steps can you take to improve your customer care strategy and guarantee it effectively meets expectations? Key Takeaways Understand customer needs through surveys and analytics to tailor your service strategy effectively. Set SMART goals to ensure your customer care efforts align with business objectives and track progress. Foster a customer-centric culture that prioritizes personalized interactions, enhancing loyalty and satisfaction. Implement omnichannel communication for seamless support on customers’ preferred platforms. Utilize technology like AI and CRM systems to streamline processes and provide personalized service experiences. Understanding Customer Service Strategy When you think about a customer service strategy, consider it a detailed plan that outlines how your organization will meet customer needs as it aligns with broader business goals. A well-crafted customer care strategy serves as a blueprint, establishing service standards, goals, and performance metrics to guarantee effective support. To develop this strategy, you must understand customer needs and preferences through surveys and analytics, as this insight improves satisfaction and loyalty. Incorporating technology like AI and omnichannel communication can greatly enhance efficiency and personalize interactions, making customers feel valued. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals is crucial for tracking the effectiveness of your strategy. Regularly gathering and acting on customer feedback allows your business to adapt and respond to evolving expectations and market dynamics, ensuring your customer care strategy remains pertinent and effective over time. The Importance of a Customer-Centric Approach A customer-centric approach is crucial for businesses aiming to thrive in today’s competitive environment. Research shows that 70% of customers make purchase decisions based on service quality, underscoring the need for exceptional customer support services. When you prioritize customer-centricity, you’re more likely to cultivate loyalty; 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions that reflect their preferences. By focusing on customer satisfaction, you can markedly reduce churn rates, as poor service is the leading cause for customers discontinuing purchases. Furthermore, a customer-centric culture amplifies loyalty and drives profitability, with organizations reporting higher long-term growth. Continuous engagement and comprehension of customer needs are imperative; 76% of consumers express frustration when experiences don’t align with their expectations. Steps to Develop an Effective Strategy Developing an effective customer care strategy involves several key steps that can greatly improve your organization’s ability to meet customer expectations. Start by comprehending customer needs and preferences through surveys and analytics; this guarantees your strategy aligns with their expectations. Next, set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that guide your customer service efforts and align with broader business objectives. Defining a consistent brand voice for customer interactions across all channels improves recognition and trust. It’s likewise essential to establish omnichannel communication strategies, allowing you to meet customers on their preferred platforms and provide seamless support. Finally, utilize technology like CRM systems and AI tools to streamline support processes, improve personalization, and boost overall efficiency in delivering customer service meaning. Integrating Technology for Enhanced Service Integrating technology into your customer care strategy can greatly improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. By utilizing AI-powered chatbots, you can offer instant, 24/7 customer support, effectively addressing routine inquiries and boosting response times. Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allows you to track customer interactions and preferences, leading to more personalized service experiences. Furthermore, adopting omnichannel communication strategies guarantees customers can reach you through their preferred platforms, creating a seamless service experience. Advanced analytics tools can analyze customer behavior, enabling you to tailor interactions and engage proactively based on individual preferences. In addition, automation technologies streamline processes, increasing productivity and allowing your human agents to concentrate on more complex customer issues. This not only improves service quality but also boosts overall customer satisfaction. Measuring Success and Adapting Strategies Measuring the success of your customer care strategy is essential for ensuring it meets the needs of your clients effectively. You can assess this through various metrics like Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which gauges satisfaction with specific interactions, and Net Promoter Score (NPS), which evaluates long-term loyalty by measuring the likelihood of customers recommending your brand. Furthermore, the Customer Effort Score (CES) helps you understand how easy it’s for customers to fulfill their needs during interactions, highlighting any friction points. Regularly analyzing customer feedback data allows you to identify trends and areas for improvement, ensuring your strategies evolve with customer expectations. Adapting your approach based on real-time data enables you to proactively address concerns, enhancing service delivery and nurturing loyalty. Continuous evaluation, including staff training and development, remains essential for maintaining a competitive edge and aligning with the customer support definition that emphasizes effective and responsive service. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Customer Service Strategy? The best customer service strategy focuses on clear service standards and performance metrics. You should implement omnichannel support to engage customers on their preferred platforms, ensuring accessibility. Personalization is key; aim to tailor interactions based on individual preferences since 71% of consumers prefer this approach. Incorporate AI technologies, like chatbots, for efficient 24/7 support. Finally, continuously track customer feedback and satisfaction metrics to refine your strategies and build long-term loyalty. What Are the 4 C’s of Customer Care? The 4 C’s of Customer Care are Clarity, Consistency, Compassion, and Communication. You need clarity to guarantee customers understand your processes, which minimizes confusion. Consistency builds trust, as reliable service influences purchasing decisions. Compassion involves empathizing with customers, enhancing their loyalty. Finally, effective communication is essential for addressing inquiries quickly and accurately, contributing to a positive experience. Together, these elements create a foundation for exceptional customer service that can drive satisfaction and retention. What Are the 3 P’s of Customer Care? The 3 P’s of customer care are People, Process, and Product. People refers to well-trained representatives who resolve issues with empathy and skill. Process encompasses the systems and protocols that guarantee consistent and efficient customer interactions. Finally, Product highlights the importance of offering quality goods or services that meet customer expectations. What Are the 4 P’s of Service Strategy? The 4 P’s of service strategy are essential for delivering effective services. First, the Product refers to the service itself, which must meet customer needs. Next, Price involves setting a competitive cost that reflects the service’s value. Place focuses on the delivery method, ensuring customers can access the service easily. Finally, Promotion entails communicating the service benefits clearly to attract customers and stand out in a competitive market, enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Conclusion In conclusion, the best customer care strategy centers around comprehending and prioritizing customer needs during aligning with your business goals. By adopting a customer-centric approach, integrating technology, and setting measurable objectives, you can improve service delivery. Continuously measuring success and adapting your strategies based on feedback will help you cultivate loyalty and satisfaction among your customers. In the end, a commitment to exceptional service is crucial for reducing churn and driving long-term growth in your organization. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is the Best Customer Care Strategy?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When considering the best customer care strategy, it’s crucial to focus on a customer-centric approach that aligns with both service standards and business goals. This involves comprehending customer needs and leveraging technology, such as AI and CRM systems, for personalized interactions. Furthermore, setting measurable objectives can help track performance and make necessary adjustments. What specific steps can you take to improve your customer care strategy and guarantee it effectively meets expectations? Key Takeaways Understand customer needs through surveys and analytics to tailor your service strategy effectively. Set SMART goals to ensure your customer care efforts align with business objectives and track progress. Foster a customer-centric culture that prioritizes personalized interactions, enhancing loyalty and satisfaction. Implement omnichannel communication for seamless support on customers’ preferred platforms. Utilize technology like AI and CRM systems to streamline processes and provide personalized service experiences. Understanding Customer Service Strategy When you think about a customer service strategy, consider it a detailed plan that outlines how your organization will meet customer needs as it aligns with broader business goals. A well-crafted customer care strategy serves as a blueprint, establishing service standards, goals, and performance metrics to guarantee effective support. To develop this strategy, you must understand customer needs and preferences through surveys and analytics, as this insight improves satisfaction and loyalty. Incorporating technology like AI and omnichannel communication can greatly enhance efficiency and personalize interactions, making customers feel valued. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals is crucial for tracking the effectiveness of your strategy. Regularly gathering and acting on customer feedback allows your business to adapt and respond to evolving expectations and market dynamics, ensuring your customer care strategy remains pertinent and effective over time. The Importance of a Customer-Centric Approach A customer-centric approach is crucial for businesses aiming to thrive in today’s competitive environment. Research shows that 70% of customers make purchase decisions based on service quality, underscoring the need for exceptional customer support services. When you prioritize customer-centricity, you’re more likely to cultivate loyalty; 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions that reflect their preferences. By focusing on customer satisfaction, you can markedly reduce churn rates, as poor service is the leading cause for customers discontinuing purchases. Furthermore, a customer-centric culture amplifies loyalty and drives profitability, with organizations reporting higher long-term growth. Continuous engagement and comprehension of customer needs are imperative; 76% of consumers express frustration when experiences don’t align with their expectations. Steps to Develop an Effective Strategy Developing an effective customer care strategy involves several key steps that can greatly improve your organization’s ability to meet customer expectations. Start by comprehending customer needs and preferences through surveys and analytics; this guarantees your strategy aligns with their expectations. Next, set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that guide your customer service efforts and align with broader business objectives. Defining a consistent brand voice for customer interactions across all channels improves recognition and trust. It’s likewise essential to establish omnichannel communication strategies, allowing you to meet customers on their preferred platforms and provide seamless support. Finally, utilize technology like CRM systems and AI tools to streamline support processes, improve personalization, and boost overall efficiency in delivering customer service meaning. Integrating Technology for Enhanced Service Integrating technology into your customer care strategy can greatly improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. By utilizing AI-powered chatbots, you can offer instant, 24/7 customer support, effectively addressing routine inquiries and boosting response times. Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allows you to track customer interactions and preferences, leading to more personalized service experiences. Furthermore, adopting omnichannel communication strategies guarantees customers can reach you through their preferred platforms, creating a seamless service experience. Advanced analytics tools can analyze customer behavior, enabling you to tailor interactions and engage proactively based on individual preferences. In addition, automation technologies streamline processes, increasing productivity and allowing your human agents to concentrate on more complex customer issues. This not only improves service quality but also boosts overall customer satisfaction. Measuring Success and Adapting Strategies Measuring the success of your customer care strategy is essential for ensuring it meets the needs of your clients effectively. You can assess this through various metrics like Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which gauges satisfaction with specific interactions, and Net Promoter Score (NPS), which evaluates long-term loyalty by measuring the likelihood of customers recommending your brand. Furthermore, the Customer Effort Score (CES) helps you understand how easy it’s for customers to fulfill their needs during interactions, highlighting any friction points. Regularly analyzing customer feedback data allows you to identify trends and areas for improvement, ensuring your strategies evolve with customer expectations. Adapting your approach based on real-time data enables you to proactively address concerns, enhancing service delivery and nurturing loyalty. Continuous evaluation, including staff training and development, remains essential for maintaining a competitive edge and aligning with the customer support definition that emphasizes effective and responsive service. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Customer Service Strategy? The best customer service strategy focuses on clear service standards and performance metrics. You should implement omnichannel support to engage customers on their preferred platforms, ensuring accessibility. Personalization is key; aim to tailor interactions based on individual preferences since 71% of consumers prefer this approach. Incorporate AI technologies, like chatbots, for efficient 24/7 support. Finally, continuously track customer feedback and satisfaction metrics to refine your strategies and build long-term loyalty. What Are the 4 C’s of Customer Care? The 4 C’s of Customer Care are Clarity, Consistency, Compassion, and Communication. You need clarity to guarantee customers understand your processes, which minimizes confusion. Consistency builds trust, as reliable service influences purchasing decisions. Compassion involves empathizing with customers, enhancing their loyalty. Finally, effective communication is essential for addressing inquiries quickly and accurately, contributing to a positive experience. Together, these elements create a foundation for exceptional customer service that can drive satisfaction and retention. What Are the 3 P’s of Customer Care? The 3 P’s of customer care are People, Process, and Product. People refers to well-trained representatives who resolve issues with empathy and skill. Process encompasses the systems and protocols that guarantee consistent and efficient customer interactions. Finally, Product highlights the importance of offering quality goods or services that meet customer expectations. What Are the 4 P’s of Service Strategy? The 4 P’s of service strategy are essential for delivering effective services. First, the Product refers to the service itself, which must meet customer needs. Next, Price involves setting a competitive cost that reflects the service’s value. Place focuses on the delivery method, ensuring customers can access the service easily. Finally, Promotion entails communicating the service benefits clearly to attract customers and stand out in a competitive market, enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Conclusion In conclusion, the best customer care strategy centers around comprehending and prioritizing customer needs during aligning with your business goals. By adopting a customer-centric approach, integrating technology, and setting measurable objectives, you can improve service delivery. Continuously measuring success and adapting your strategies based on feedback will help you cultivate loyalty and satisfaction among your customers. In the end, a commitment to exceptional service is crucial for reducing churn and driving long-term growth in your organization. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is the Best Customer Care Strategy?" was first published on Small Business Trends 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 Bose Ultra Open Earbuds don't block out the world—they sit just outside your ears and let everything in. Traffic noise, conversations, the doorbell—all of it stays audible while your music plays alongside it. That makes these earbuds a better match for people who move around outdoors or just don’t like feeling sealed off. Right now, a certified refurbished pair in White Smoke is $125.99 on Woot. That’s a noticeable drop from the roughly $179 (refurbished) price on Amazon, where a brand-new pair still lists for $299. Bose handles the refurbishment directly, includes all original accessories, and backs the earbuds with a one-year manufacturer's warranty. Shipping is free for Prime members, with a $6 fee for everyone else, and the deal runs for nine days or until it sells out. Bose Ultra Open Earbuds $125.99 at Woot $299.00 Save $173.01 Get Deal Get Deal $125.99 at Woot $299.00 Save $173.01 Each earbud clips onto your ear using a flexible silicone band instead of resting inside your ear canal. Once you find the right fit (which may take a few tries), you should find them surprisingly stable. Runners and walkers will appreciate that they stay put without squeezing or irritating the ears, and with IPX4 water resistance, they can handle sweat and light rain, which is enough for most daily use. The earbuds support Bluetooth 5.3 with AptX Adaptive, so Android users get a small audio edge over iPhone users, but connection quality is solid across the board. Battery life averages about 7.5 hours per charge and stretches to roughly 27 hours with the case. Sound quality is better than most open-style earbuds manage. Vocals come through cleanly, highs stay sharp, and the midrange has enough body to keep music from sounding hollow. Deep bass is where you feel the compromise. It’s there, but it doesn’t hit hard, which is most noticeable with bass-heavy genres. For podcasts, calls, and casual listening, though, the tuning feels balanced and easygoing. According to this PCMag review, the earbuds sound best around 70 percent volume, where detail stays intact without distortion. If you want high-quality, open-ear audio and don't mind a little trial-and-error with the fit, this is one of the better ways to try Bose’s latest without paying full price. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $399.00 (List Price $429.00) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — (List Price $24.99 With Code "FTV4K25") Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $149.99 (List Price $219.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

A Payroll Management System is a software tool that automates the process of calculating employee wages, taxes, and deductions. It integrates time and attendance data, ensuring accurate payroll processing during compliance with legal regulations. This system not only simplifies administrative tasks but additionally provides transparency and builds trust within the workforce. Comprehending its core functions and benefits can greatly improve your organization’s payroll efficiency. But what should you consider when selecting the right system? Key Takeaways A Payroll Management System automates the calculation of employee wages, deductions, and tax withholdings for compliance with regulations. It integrates with time and attendance systems to ensure accurate wage calculations based on hours worked or salary. The payroll process consists of pre-payroll, calculations, and post-payroll phases for organized and compliant payroll management. Compliance requires timely filing of forms and accurate reporting of federal, state, and local taxes to avoid penalties. Payroll management software enhances efficiency, guarantees accurate deductions, and provides employee self-service options for better engagement. Definition of a Payroll Management System A payroll management system is an vital software solution that automates the complex processes involved in calculating employee wages, deductions, and tax withholdings. This system integrates seamlessly with time and attendance systems, ensuring that the hours worked are accurately reflected in wage calculations, which greatly reduces the risk of errors. In payroll management in HR, maintaining compliance with federal and state payroll regulations is critical. A payroll management system helps organizations meet their legal obligations to employees and government agencies effectively. You can operate these systems manually, use in-house software, or outsource to third-party providers, offering you flexibility based on your business needs and size. Importance of Payroll Management Grasping the importance of payroll management is vital for your organization’s success. It not only improves employee engagement by ensuring timely and accurate compensation, but it furthermore guarantees compliance with regulatory requirements, helping you avoid hefty fines. Moreover, organized financial records from effective payroll management support smooth audits and strategic decision-making, ensuring your business remains on solid ground. Employee Engagement Enhancement Although many factors contribute to employee engagement, an effective payroll management system plays a crucial role in enhancing this aspect of the workplace. By ensuring timely and accurate wage payments, it nurtures trust and loyalty among staff. When employees receive clear pay statements and have access to self-service portals, it increases transparency regarding their compensation, leading to higher satisfaction levels. Accurate payroll management likewise prevents wage claims and disputes, helping maintain a positive workplace environment. Furthermore, streamlined payroll processes reduce administrative burdens on HR, allowing them to focus more on employee relations and engagement initiatives. This ultimately develops a more motivated workforce, as employees feel valued and confident in the company’s commitment to their rights and wellbeing. Regulatory Compliance Assurance Effective payroll management doesn’t just improve employee engagement; it also plays a significant role in ensuring regulatory compliance. A payroll management system helps you stay on track with various regulations by: Automatically calculating and withholding federal, state, and local taxes, minimizing the risk of costly penalties. Maintaining accurate payroll records to support compliance with federal and state payroll recordkeeping laws, essential for audits. Alerting you to changes in payroll regulations and tax laws, preventing potential legal issues. Ensuring accurate payroll processing, which helps avoid wage claims from employees, thereby promoting trust and satisfaction. Financial Record Organization When managing payroll, organizing financial records is vital for maintaining an effective and compliant business operation. A payroll management system accurately tracks employee wages, hours worked, and deductions for each pay period, ensuring timely and precise compensation. It maintains detailed records of these transactions, which are important for complying with federal and state tax regulations, helping you avoid penalties from incorrect filings. Additionally, payroll systems provide transparent pay statements to employees, detailing gross pay, deductions, and net pay, which cultivates trust within your workforce. Core Functions of a Payroll Management System When you think about a payroll management system, it’s crucial to understand its core functions. It efficiently calculates wages based on hours worked or salary agreements, manages tax withholdings to guarantee compliance, and maintains accurate records for all employee payments. Wage Calculation Processes A payroll management system plays a crucial role in accurately calculating employee wages, as it not just tracks the hours worked for hourly employees but also applies salary agreements for those on a fixed salary. This guarantees precise compensation based on the pay period. Key components of wage calculation processes include: Tracking hours worked and overtime to determine total pay. Applying salary agreements for fixed salary employees. Processing various deductions, such as taxes and Social Security. Maintaining compliance with legal requirements through detailed records. Tax Withholding Management Effective wage calculation naturally leads to the need for efficient tax withholding management, a core function of any payroll management system. This system automates the calculation and withholding of federal, state, and local taxes, ensuring compliance with regulations as it minimizes penalties. It accurately tracks employee tax information, such as exemptions from Form W-4, and provides real-time updates on tax law changes for timely adjustments. Furthermore, it generates necessary tax forms like W-2s and files them with government agencies on your behalf, reducing your administrative burden. Here’s a quick overview of key aspects: Function Description Tax Calculation Automates federal, state, and local taxes Exemption Tracking Tracks employee exemptions and requests Compliance Updates Provides real-time tax law changes Form Generation Creates and files W-2s automatically Administrative Relief Reduces manual processes and errors Record Maintenance Compliance Maintaining accurate records is essential for any payroll management system, as it guarantees compliance with labor laws and provides fundamental data for financial reporting. Here are key aspects of record maintenance compliance: Comprehensive Records: The system tracks employee wages, hours worked, deductions, and tax withholdings. Retention Periods: It retains payroll records for at least three years, as mandated by the IRS and regulatory agencies. Detailed Pay Statements: Employees receive pay stubs that include gross pay, deductions, and net pay, ensuring transparency per state laws. Automatic Updates: The software updates with changes in tax regulations, maintaining compliance and preventing penalties. Calculating Employee Wages Calculating employee wages involves several key components that secure accuracy and compliance with labor regulations. For hourly employees, the payroll management system tracks hours worked, whereas for salaried employees, it applies salary agreements to determine compensation. This guarantees you pay employees accurately based on their agreed terms. The system likewise incorporates various deductions, such as federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare, along with any additional benefits or garnishments. Automated wage calculations minimize errors, enhancing payroll accuracy and reducing the risk of costly penalties. Processing Payroll Taxes Processing payroll taxes is an essential part of the payroll management system that requires careful attention to detail. As an employer, you need to guarantee accurate calculations and timely payments to avoid penalties. Here’s what you should keep in mind: Mandatory Contributions: Payroll taxes include federal, state, and local income taxes, plus Social Security and Medicare taxes. Accurate Calculations: Always use current tax rates to calculate the correct amount to withhold from employees’ wages. Timely Payments: Submit payroll taxes to the appropriate government agencies on time to prevent costly penalties. Required Returns: File necessary forms, such as Form 941, which reports withheld income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes, typically on a quarterly basis. Utilizing a payroll management system can automate these processes, reducing human error and guaranteeing compliance with changing tax regulations, ultimately saving you time and avoiding hefty fines. Ensuring Compliance With Regulations When managing payroll, ensuring compliance with regulations is essential to protect your business from costly penalties. A robust payroll management system automatically calculates and withholds taxes, whereas maintaining detailed records that meet documentation standards for audits. Staying informed about changes in local laws helps you adapt quickly, avoiding legal issues and ensuring smooth operations. Regulatory Compliance Importance Regulatory compliance is crucial in payroll management, as failing to adhere to established laws can lead to significant financial penalties and reputational damage for your organization. In 2023, the IRS assessed $8.5 billion in civil penalties for non-compliance, emphasizing the importance of maintaining accurate payroll practices. Here are key aspects of compliance you should consider: Guarantee accurate withholding and reporting of federal, state, and local taxes. Keep up with evolving labor laws, such as wage and hour regulations. Use payroll systems to maintain organized records for audits and retention timelines. Leverage regular updates and alerts in payroll software to adapt to tax regulation changes. These steps will help you protect your organization from legal risks and nurture employee trust. Documentation and Recordkeeping Standards Accurate documentation and recordkeeping standards form the backbone of effective payroll management and help guarantee compliance with regulations. To meet federal and state payroll recordkeeping laws, you must maintain organized records of employee wages, hours worked, and tax withholdings. It’s vital to keep payroll records for at least three years, which should include time cards, pay rates, and deductions from paychecks. Proper documentation helps prevent wage claims and guarantees timely tax deposits and filings, as poor recordkeeping can lead to penalties. Implement secure electronic recordkeeping methods to protect sensitive information while guaranteeing easy access for audits. Finally, regularly update and audit payroll records to adapt to changing regulations and avoid potential legal issues. Methods of Payroll Management Selecting the right method for payroll management is vital for any business, as it directly impacts efficiency and compliance. There are several methods to evaluate: Manual Processing: This method is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially for larger teams. Payroll Management Software: Automating calculations and integrating with time and attendance systems, this option reduces administrative burdens and guarantees compliance with tax laws. Outsourcing Payroll: By leveraging third-party expertise, you can minimize administrative responsibilities, though this may come with higher costs. Hybrid Approach: Combining in-house software for routine payroll with outsourced services for specialized tasks, like international payroll, offers flexibility and scalability. Each method has unique benefits and drawbacks. It’s important to assess your business size, budget, and specific needs to select the most suitable payroll management option. Phases of the Payroll Management Process Comprehending the phases of the payroll management process is vital for guaranteeing that employee compensation is handled efficiently and accurately. The process consists of three main phases: pre-payroll, calculations, and post-payroll. In the pre-payroll phase, you gather and verify employee data, including hours worked and any necessary adjustments, to prepare for payroll processing. This step sets the foundation for an accurate payroll cycle. During the calculations phase, you compute gross pay, apply deductions such as taxes and benefits, and determine net pay before disbursement. This guarantees that all financial obligations are met correctly. The post-payroll phase involves reconciling payroll records, depositing withheld taxes with government agencies, processing payments, and providing employees with pay statements for transparency. Adhering to defined policies and local regulations throughout each phase is vital to maintain accurate recordkeeping and prevent penalties associated with payroll errors. Benefits of Using Payroll Management Software Have you ever wondered how payroll management software can transform your business operations? This technology offers several key benefits that can improve efficiency and accuracy in payroll processing: Time Savings: Automating wage calculations can speed up processing by up to 80%, reducing manual errors considerably. Tax Compliance: The software guarantees accurate deductions for federal, state, and local taxes, helping you avoid costly penalties. Employee Self-Service: With self-service portals, employees can access their payslips, tax documents, and leave balances, enhancing transparency and satisfaction. Data Analytics: Payroll systems generate detailed reports and analytics on payroll trends, aiding informed financial decision-making. Additionally, cloud-based solutions offer scalability and support remote access without incurring extra infrastructure costs. Choosing the Right Payroll Management System Choosing the right payroll management system is vital for optimizing your business’s payroll processes. Start by evaluating the provider’s reputation through customer reviews, case studies, and support availability. This research helps guarantee reliability and quality service. Next, consider security features like data encryption and multi-factor authentication to protect sensitive employee information and comply with data protection regulations. It’s also important that the payroll system can integrate seamlessly with your existing software solutions, such as HR and accounting systems, to avoid data duplication and improve efficiency. Assess the scalability of the system to accommodate future business growth and changes in employment contracts or labor regulations. Finally, examine the reporting capabilities, including compliance reports and payroll trends, which facilitate informed decision-making and strategic planning within your organization. Taking these factors into account will help you choose a payroll management system that meets your specific needs. Integrating Payroll Management With Other Systems Integrating payroll management with other systems is essential for streamlining your business operations and improving overall efficiency. By doing so, you can boost accuracy and reduce manual entry. Here are some key benefits: Seamless Data Sharing: Connect your payroll system with ADP to maintain accurate employee records effortlessly. Automated Time Tracking: Sync payroll software with time and attendance systems to guarantee precise wage calculations and compliance with labor regulations. Financial Integration: Link with Intuit for automatic posting of payroll expenses, simplifying financial reporting and record-keeping. Custom Workflows: Utilize APIs to integrate with other business software, allowing you to create customized workflows that improve operational efficiency. The Evolution of Payroll Management As businesses evolve, so too does the payroll management environment, shifting from manual, paper-based processes to sophisticated automated software solutions. Historically, payroll was often seen as a back-office function, but it’s now recognized as a strategic driver of trust and employee engagement. This transformation highlights the significance of efficient payroll operations. Today, payroll systems incorporate artificial intelligence, enabling personalized pay statements and enhancing fraud detection. Companies like SAP have developed intelligent payroll systems, such as SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, which streamline processes and guarantee compliance with local regulations. As your business grows and globalizes, adopting payroll systems that adapt to diverse employment laws becomes essential. These systems additionally provide real-time insights into compensation trends, making them indispensable tools for modern organizations. This evolution reflects a broader trend of integrating technology into core business functions, eventually improving operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. How ADP Supports Payroll Management When businesses seek effective payroll management solutions, ADP stands out by offering an extensive suite of tools designed to simplify the payroll process. Here are key features that improve payroll management: Automated Wage and Tax Calculations: This streamlines payroll processing, greatly reducing administrative burdens. User-Friendly Self-Service Applications: Employees can access their payroll information easily, improving transparency and engagement. Diverse Payment Options: ADP supports paycheck, direct deposit, and pay card options, catering to various employee preferences. Tax Compliance Management: The platform handles tax withholding and payments, guaranteeing compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Additionally, ADP’s robust reporting capabilities help businesses maintain compliance and manage payroll-related documentation effectively. Frequently Asked Questions How Does a Payroll Management System Work? A payroll management system works by collecting employee data, such as hours worked and salary information. It calculates gross pay for each pay period, ensuring accuracy. The system automatically deducts taxes and other withholdings according to applicable regulations, minimizing errors. It generates pay statements for employees, offering transparency about their earnings and deductions. Furthermore, it maintains detailed records, crucial for audits and compliance, and may integrate with time and attendance software for efficiency. What Are the 4 Control Objectives of a Payroll System? The four control objectives of a payroll system are fundamental for effective management. First, you need accurate wage calculations to guarantee employees are paid correctly. Second, compliance with tax regulations is critical to avoid potential penalties. Third, protecting sensitive employee data, such as Social Security numbers, is necessary through robust security measures. Finally, timely payment processing keeps employees satisfied, making sure they receive their wages on schedule without delays. What Are the Two Goals of a Payroll System? A payroll system has two main goals: first, it guarantees accurate calculation and distribution of employee wages, factoring in hours worked, salary agreements, and necessary deductions. Second, it maintains compliance with tax laws by correctly withholding taxes and making timely payments to government agencies. What Are the Three Types of Payroll? There are three main types of payroll: manual payroll management, payroll software, and outsourced payroll services. In manual payroll, you use spreadsheets to track payments, which works well for smaller businesses. Payroll software automates calculations and record-keeping, making it more efficient for medium to large companies. Outsourced payroll services involve third-party providers managing payroll tasks, ensuring compliance as you focus on your core operations. Each option caters to different business needs. Conclusion In conclusion, a Payroll Management System is crucial for automating wage calculations and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. By streamlining processes, it minimizes administrative tasks during maintaining accurate records, which helps build trust within the workforce. Choosing the right system and integrating it with existing software can further improve efficiency. As payroll management continues to evolve, comprehending these systems allows organizations to adapt and enhance their payroll processes, eventually leading to timely and accurate employee compensation. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Payroll Management System and How Does It Function?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A Payroll Management System is a software tool that automates the process of calculating employee wages, taxes, and deductions. It integrates time and attendance data, ensuring accurate payroll processing during compliance with legal regulations. This system not only simplifies administrative tasks but additionally provides transparency and builds trust within the workforce. Comprehending its core functions and benefits can greatly improve your organization’s payroll efficiency. But what should you consider when selecting the right system? Key Takeaways A Payroll Management System automates the calculation of employee wages, deductions, and tax withholdings for compliance with regulations. It integrates with time and attendance systems to ensure accurate wage calculations based on hours worked or salary. The payroll process consists of pre-payroll, calculations, and post-payroll phases for organized and compliant payroll management. Compliance requires timely filing of forms and accurate reporting of federal, state, and local taxes to avoid penalties. Payroll management software enhances efficiency, guarantees accurate deductions, and provides employee self-service options for better engagement. Definition of a Payroll Management System A payroll management system is an vital software solution that automates the complex processes involved in calculating employee wages, deductions, and tax withholdings. This system integrates seamlessly with time and attendance systems, ensuring that the hours worked are accurately reflected in wage calculations, which greatly reduces the risk of errors. In payroll management in HR, maintaining compliance with federal and state payroll regulations is critical. A payroll management system helps organizations meet their legal obligations to employees and government agencies effectively. You can operate these systems manually, use in-house software, or outsource to third-party providers, offering you flexibility based on your business needs and size. Importance of Payroll Management Grasping the importance of payroll management is vital for your organization’s success. It not only improves employee engagement by ensuring timely and accurate compensation, but it furthermore guarantees compliance with regulatory requirements, helping you avoid hefty fines. Moreover, organized financial records from effective payroll management support smooth audits and strategic decision-making, ensuring your business remains on solid ground. Employee Engagement Enhancement Although many factors contribute to employee engagement, an effective payroll management system plays a crucial role in enhancing this aspect of the workplace. By ensuring timely and accurate wage payments, it nurtures trust and loyalty among staff. When employees receive clear pay statements and have access to self-service portals, it increases transparency regarding their compensation, leading to higher satisfaction levels. Accurate payroll management likewise prevents wage claims and disputes, helping maintain a positive workplace environment. Furthermore, streamlined payroll processes reduce administrative burdens on HR, allowing them to focus more on employee relations and engagement initiatives. This ultimately develops a more motivated workforce, as employees feel valued and confident in the company’s commitment to their rights and wellbeing. Regulatory Compliance Assurance Effective payroll management doesn’t just improve employee engagement; it also plays a significant role in ensuring regulatory compliance. A payroll management system helps you stay on track with various regulations by: Automatically calculating and withholding federal, state, and local taxes, minimizing the risk of costly penalties. Maintaining accurate payroll records to support compliance with federal and state payroll recordkeeping laws, essential for audits. Alerting you to changes in payroll regulations and tax laws, preventing potential legal issues. Ensuring accurate payroll processing, which helps avoid wage claims from employees, thereby promoting trust and satisfaction. Financial Record Organization When managing payroll, organizing financial records is vital for maintaining an effective and compliant business operation. A payroll management system accurately tracks employee wages, hours worked, and deductions for each pay period, ensuring timely and precise compensation. It maintains detailed records of these transactions, which are important for complying with federal and state tax regulations, helping you avoid penalties from incorrect filings. Additionally, payroll systems provide transparent pay statements to employees, detailing gross pay, deductions, and net pay, which cultivates trust within your workforce. Core Functions of a Payroll Management System When you think about a payroll management system, it’s crucial to understand its core functions. It efficiently calculates wages based on hours worked or salary agreements, manages tax withholdings to guarantee compliance, and maintains accurate records for all employee payments. Wage Calculation Processes A payroll management system plays a crucial role in accurately calculating employee wages, as it not just tracks the hours worked for hourly employees but also applies salary agreements for those on a fixed salary. This guarantees precise compensation based on the pay period. Key components of wage calculation processes include: Tracking hours worked and overtime to determine total pay. Applying salary agreements for fixed salary employees. Processing various deductions, such as taxes and Social Security. Maintaining compliance with legal requirements through detailed records. Tax Withholding Management Effective wage calculation naturally leads to the need for efficient tax withholding management, a core function of any payroll management system. This system automates the calculation and withholding of federal, state, and local taxes, ensuring compliance with regulations as it minimizes penalties. It accurately tracks employee tax information, such as exemptions from Form W-4, and provides real-time updates on tax law changes for timely adjustments. Furthermore, it generates necessary tax forms like W-2s and files them with government agencies on your behalf, reducing your administrative burden. Here’s a quick overview of key aspects: Function Description Tax Calculation Automates federal, state, and local taxes Exemption Tracking Tracks employee exemptions and requests Compliance Updates Provides real-time tax law changes Form Generation Creates and files W-2s automatically Administrative Relief Reduces manual processes and errors Record Maintenance Compliance Maintaining accurate records is essential for any payroll management system, as it guarantees compliance with labor laws and provides fundamental data for financial reporting. Here are key aspects of record maintenance compliance: Comprehensive Records: The system tracks employee wages, hours worked, deductions, and tax withholdings. Retention Periods: It retains payroll records for at least three years, as mandated by the IRS and regulatory agencies. Detailed Pay Statements: Employees receive pay stubs that include gross pay, deductions, and net pay, ensuring transparency per state laws. Automatic Updates: The software updates with changes in tax regulations, maintaining compliance and preventing penalties. Calculating Employee Wages Calculating employee wages involves several key components that secure accuracy and compliance with labor regulations. For hourly employees, the payroll management system tracks hours worked, whereas for salaried employees, it applies salary agreements to determine compensation. This guarantees you pay employees accurately based on their agreed terms. The system likewise incorporates various deductions, such as federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare, along with any additional benefits or garnishments. Automated wage calculations minimize errors, enhancing payroll accuracy and reducing the risk of costly penalties. Processing Payroll Taxes Processing payroll taxes is an essential part of the payroll management system that requires careful attention to detail. As an employer, you need to guarantee accurate calculations and timely payments to avoid penalties. Here’s what you should keep in mind: Mandatory Contributions: Payroll taxes include federal, state, and local income taxes, plus Social Security and Medicare taxes. Accurate Calculations: Always use current tax rates to calculate the correct amount to withhold from employees’ wages. Timely Payments: Submit payroll taxes to the appropriate government agencies on time to prevent costly penalties. Required Returns: File necessary forms, such as Form 941, which reports withheld income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes, typically on a quarterly basis. Utilizing a payroll management system can automate these processes, reducing human error and guaranteeing compliance with changing tax regulations, ultimately saving you time and avoiding hefty fines. Ensuring Compliance With Regulations When managing payroll, ensuring compliance with regulations is essential to protect your business from costly penalties. A robust payroll management system automatically calculates and withholds taxes, whereas maintaining detailed records that meet documentation standards for audits. Staying informed about changes in local laws helps you adapt quickly, avoiding legal issues and ensuring smooth operations. Regulatory Compliance Importance Regulatory compliance is crucial in payroll management, as failing to adhere to established laws can lead to significant financial penalties and reputational damage for your organization. In 2023, the IRS assessed $8.5 billion in civil penalties for non-compliance, emphasizing the importance of maintaining accurate payroll practices. Here are key aspects of compliance you should consider: Guarantee accurate withholding and reporting of federal, state, and local taxes. Keep up with evolving labor laws, such as wage and hour regulations. Use payroll systems to maintain organized records for audits and retention timelines. Leverage regular updates and alerts in payroll software to adapt to tax regulation changes. These steps will help you protect your organization from legal risks and nurture employee trust. Documentation and Recordkeeping Standards Accurate documentation and recordkeeping standards form the backbone of effective payroll management and help guarantee compliance with regulations. To meet federal and state payroll recordkeeping laws, you must maintain organized records of employee wages, hours worked, and tax withholdings. It’s vital to keep payroll records for at least three years, which should include time cards, pay rates, and deductions from paychecks. Proper documentation helps prevent wage claims and guarantees timely tax deposits and filings, as poor recordkeeping can lead to penalties. Implement secure electronic recordkeeping methods to protect sensitive information while guaranteeing easy access for audits. Finally, regularly update and audit payroll records to adapt to changing regulations and avoid potential legal issues. Methods of Payroll Management Selecting the right method for payroll management is vital for any business, as it directly impacts efficiency and compliance. There are several methods to evaluate: Manual Processing: This method is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially for larger teams. Payroll Management Software: Automating calculations and integrating with time and attendance systems, this option reduces administrative burdens and guarantees compliance with tax laws. Outsourcing Payroll: By leveraging third-party expertise, you can minimize administrative responsibilities, though this may come with higher costs. Hybrid Approach: Combining in-house software for routine payroll with outsourced services for specialized tasks, like international payroll, offers flexibility and scalability. Each method has unique benefits and drawbacks. It’s important to assess your business size, budget, and specific needs to select the most suitable payroll management option. Phases of the Payroll Management Process Comprehending the phases of the payroll management process is vital for guaranteeing that employee compensation is handled efficiently and accurately. The process consists of three main phases: pre-payroll, calculations, and post-payroll. In the pre-payroll phase, you gather and verify employee data, including hours worked and any necessary adjustments, to prepare for payroll processing. This step sets the foundation for an accurate payroll cycle. During the calculations phase, you compute gross pay, apply deductions such as taxes and benefits, and determine net pay before disbursement. This guarantees that all financial obligations are met correctly. The post-payroll phase involves reconciling payroll records, depositing withheld taxes with government agencies, processing payments, and providing employees with pay statements for transparency. Adhering to defined policies and local regulations throughout each phase is vital to maintain accurate recordkeeping and prevent penalties associated with payroll errors. Benefits of Using Payroll Management Software Have you ever wondered how payroll management software can transform your business operations? This technology offers several key benefits that can improve efficiency and accuracy in payroll processing: Time Savings: Automating wage calculations can speed up processing by up to 80%, reducing manual errors considerably. Tax Compliance: The software guarantees accurate deductions for federal, state, and local taxes, helping you avoid costly penalties. Employee Self-Service: With self-service portals, employees can access their payslips, tax documents, and leave balances, enhancing transparency and satisfaction. Data Analytics: Payroll systems generate detailed reports and analytics on payroll trends, aiding informed financial decision-making. Additionally, cloud-based solutions offer scalability and support remote access without incurring extra infrastructure costs. Choosing the Right Payroll Management System Choosing the right payroll management system is vital for optimizing your business’s payroll processes. Start by evaluating the provider’s reputation through customer reviews, case studies, and support availability. This research helps guarantee reliability and quality service. Next, consider security features like data encryption and multi-factor authentication to protect sensitive employee information and comply with data protection regulations. It’s also important that the payroll system can integrate seamlessly with your existing software solutions, such as HR and accounting systems, to avoid data duplication and improve efficiency. Assess the scalability of the system to accommodate future business growth and changes in employment contracts or labor regulations. Finally, examine the reporting capabilities, including compliance reports and payroll trends, which facilitate informed decision-making and strategic planning within your organization. Taking these factors into account will help you choose a payroll management system that meets your specific needs. Integrating Payroll Management With Other Systems Integrating payroll management with other systems is essential for streamlining your business operations and improving overall efficiency. By doing so, you can boost accuracy and reduce manual entry. Here are some key benefits: Seamless Data Sharing: Connect your payroll system with ADP to maintain accurate employee records effortlessly. Automated Time Tracking: Sync payroll software with time and attendance systems to guarantee precise wage calculations and compliance with labor regulations. Financial Integration: Link with Intuit for automatic posting of payroll expenses, simplifying financial reporting and record-keeping. Custom Workflows: Utilize APIs to integrate with other business software, allowing you to create customized workflows that improve operational efficiency. The Evolution of Payroll Management As businesses evolve, so too does the payroll management environment, shifting from manual, paper-based processes to sophisticated automated software solutions. Historically, payroll was often seen as a back-office function, but it’s now recognized as a strategic driver of trust and employee engagement. This transformation highlights the significance of efficient payroll operations. Today, payroll systems incorporate artificial intelligence, enabling personalized pay statements and enhancing fraud detection. Companies like SAP have developed intelligent payroll systems, such as SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, which streamline processes and guarantee compliance with local regulations. As your business grows and globalizes, adopting payroll systems that adapt to diverse employment laws becomes essential. These systems additionally provide real-time insights into compensation trends, making them indispensable tools for modern organizations. This evolution reflects a broader trend of integrating technology into core business functions, eventually improving operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. How ADP Supports Payroll Management When businesses seek effective payroll management solutions, ADP stands out by offering an extensive suite of tools designed to simplify the payroll process. Here are key features that improve payroll management: Automated Wage and Tax Calculations: This streamlines payroll processing, greatly reducing administrative burdens. User-Friendly Self-Service Applications: Employees can access their payroll information easily, improving transparency and engagement. Diverse Payment Options: ADP supports paycheck, direct deposit, and pay card options, catering to various employee preferences. Tax Compliance Management: The platform handles tax withholding and payments, guaranteeing compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Additionally, ADP’s robust reporting capabilities help businesses maintain compliance and manage payroll-related documentation effectively. Frequently Asked Questions How Does a Payroll Management System Work? A payroll management system works by collecting employee data, such as hours worked and salary information. It calculates gross pay for each pay period, ensuring accuracy. The system automatically deducts taxes and other withholdings according to applicable regulations, minimizing errors. It generates pay statements for employees, offering transparency about their earnings and deductions. Furthermore, it maintains detailed records, crucial for audits and compliance, and may integrate with time and attendance software for efficiency. What Are the 4 Control Objectives of a Payroll System? The four control objectives of a payroll system are fundamental for effective management. First, you need accurate wage calculations to guarantee employees are paid correctly. Second, compliance with tax regulations is critical to avoid potential penalties. Third, protecting sensitive employee data, such as Social Security numbers, is necessary through robust security measures. Finally, timely payment processing keeps employees satisfied, making sure they receive their wages on schedule without delays. What Are the Two Goals of a Payroll System? A payroll system has two main goals: first, it guarantees accurate calculation and distribution of employee wages, factoring in hours worked, salary agreements, and necessary deductions. Second, it maintains compliance with tax laws by correctly withholding taxes and making timely payments to government agencies. What Are the Three Types of Payroll? There are three main types of payroll: manual payroll management, payroll software, and outsourced payroll services. In manual payroll, you use spreadsheets to track payments, which works well for smaller businesses. Payroll software automates calculations and record-keeping, making it more efficient for medium to large companies. Outsourced payroll services involve third-party providers managing payroll tasks, ensuring compliance as you focus on your core operations. Each option caters to different business needs. Conclusion In conclusion, a Payroll Management System is crucial for automating wage calculations and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. By streamlining processes, it minimizes administrative tasks during maintaining accurate records, which helps build trust within the workforce. Choosing the right system and integrating it with existing software can further improve efficiency. As payroll management continues to evolve, comprehending these systems allows organizations to adapt and enhance their payroll processes, eventually leading to timely and accurate employee compensation. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Payroll Management System and How Does It Function?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

India is the world's second-largest Internet connectivity market with more than 1 billion users. The post India finally releases lower 6 GHz band to indoor Wi-Fi operations, opening up the band to a potential billion users appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

The continent must strive to disentangle itself from the USView the full article

2026 is already shaping up to be a brutal year for GameStop (NYSE: GME) stores. This month, nearly 500 locations have been marked for closure. The shutterings come as GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen doubled down on the company and bought another half a million shares in GME stock. Here’s what you need to know. GameStop is closing hundreds more stores Over the past year, it seems that GameStop has had one primary focus: reducing costs by shuttering stores. At the beginning of 2025, the video game chain had around 2,325 locations in the United States. But by December, it had shuttered 590 of them. The same month, the company announced plans to close a “significant number of additional stores” during its 2025 fiscal year. GameStop’s financial 2025 ends on January 31. As Fast Company previously reported, at the beginning of this month, customers and social media users reported that their local GameStop stores were showing signs of imminent closure, but at the time, it was not known how many locations were shutting down. Now, Ohio’s WKYC Studios has assembled a list of the stores it says are closing. That list, which you can see below, is based on GameStop’s store location tool, which marks hundreds of locations as closed. The list includes more than 470 locations across 43 states. Fast Company has reached out to GameStop to confirm the closures. Why is GameStop closing stores? GameStop isn’t unique in its decision to close stores. Over the past several years, brick-and-mortar retailers of all stripes have shuttered locations. Many of these chains are dealing with the same problems that have led to GameStop’s store closures. Those problems include declining store foot traffic as customers shift their buying habits online, rising operating costs for physical stores, and weakening consumer spending. But as a video game-focused retailer, GameStop faces a unique challenge, too. Over the past decade, video games have gone from physical items you need to buy on disk to being distributed digitally for download or streaming over the internet. This shift to digital delivery of video games has cut out the video game retailer as a middleman. With customers now able to buy video games directly on their consoles and have them downloaded in minutes, there is no longer a need to trek to a video game store to buy a physical copy. How is GameStop stock performing? It’s impossible to talk about GameStop without talking about its stock (NYSE: GME). That’s because GME was one of the original meme-stock poster boys. Back in 2021, during the height of the meme stock craze, retail investors poured their money into GME, sending the stock soaring. At one point, GME was trading over $120 per share. But in the years since, the stock has declined as meme stock frenzy subsided. Over the past twelve months, the stock has fallen by around 21%. GME stock closed at $21.69 per share on Wednesday. However, this week the stock received a bit of a boost. As Investing.com reported, GME stock rose by about 4% after market close on Tuesday after it was revealed that GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen bought an additional 500,000 shares in the company. This share purchase increases Cohen’s ownership of the company’s outstanding stock to about 9.2% and suggests that GameStop’s CEO is optimistic about the share price’s future potential. List of GameStop stores closing According to WKYC Studios, the following GameStop locations are closing: Alabama Birmingham – River Ridge, 4507 Riverview Pkwy. Hartselle – Hartselle Plaza, 1199 Highway 31 NW Mobile – Airport Boulevard Center, 3691 Airport Blvd. Opelika – Gateway Commons, 3000 Pepperell Pkwy. Troy – Troy Plaza, 1410 Highway 231 S. Arkansas Batesville – Eagle Mountain Center, 17 Eagle Mountain Blvd. Little Rock – Mabelvale Plaza, 10215 Mabelvale Plaza Drive West Memphis – Service Road West Memphis, 65 S. Service Road Arizona Bullhead City – Bullhead City Shopping Center, 2840 Highway 95 Flagstaff – Woodlands Village, 2700 S. Woodlands Village Lake Havasu – Shops at Lake Havasu, 5601 Highway 95 N Mesa – Superstition Springs Mall, 6555 E. Southern Ave. Phoenix – Desert Sky Esplanade, 7515 W. Encanto Blvd. Phoenix – Happy Valley Towne Center, 2501 W. Happy Valley Road Phoenix – Maryvale Plaza, 5215 W. Indian School Road Phoenix – Village Plaza, 12611 N. Tatum Blvd. Tucson – Campbell Plaza, 2910 N. Campbell Ave. Tucson – Eastpointe Marketplace, 6970 E. 22nd St. California Auburn – Willow Creek S/C, 2799 Grass Valley Highway Bakersfield – Panama Ln Bakersfield, 2200 Panama Lane Bell – Bell Gardens Marketplace, 6939 Eastern Ave. Canoga Park – Topanga Plaza Mall, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd. Capitola – Brown Ranch Market, 2555 Clares St. Coachella – Coachella Gateway, 49255 Grapefruit Blvd. Compton – Gateway Towne Center, 200 Towne Center Drive Corona – Corona Crossing, 2620 Tuscany St. Culver City – Venice and Overland, 3855 Overland Ave. Davis – 4625 2nd St. Emeryville – BridgeCourt Emeryville, 3980 Hollis St. Escondido – Escondido Promenade, 1250 Auto Park Way Fresno – First and Shields, 3235 N. 1st St. Gardena – Manhattan and Crenshaw, 15900 Crenshaw Blvd. Gilroy – Pacheco Pass, 890 Renz Lane Hayward – Skywest Commons, 1159 W. A St. Inglewood – 3550 W. Century Blvd. Inglewood – Marketplace at Hollywood Park, 3351 W. Century Blvd. Lancaster – Eastside Town Center, 44421 20th St E. Lemon Grove – Lemon Grove Shopping Center, 7048 Broadway Livermore – Vintner Square, 1418 First St. Madera – Madera Commons, 2180 W. Cleveland Ave. Mission Viejo – Mission Viejo Mall, 236 The Shops At Mission Viejo Oroville – Las Plumas Plaza, 1124 Oro Dam Blvd. Palm Springs – South Sunrise Way, 425 S. Sunrise Way Palmdale – The Marketplace Palmdale, 39450 10th St. W Petaluma – Washington Square, 365 S. McDowell Blvd. Pleasant Hill – Pleasant Hill Shopping Center, 2360 Monument Blvd. Pleasanton – Stoneridge Mall, 1384 Stoneridge Mall Road Porterville – Porterville Marketplace, 1276 W. Henderson Ave. Redwood City – Woodside Central, 2527 El Camino Real Rohnert Park – Rohnert Plaza, 4645 Redwood Drive Sacramento – Folsom Boulevard, 1420 65th St. Sacramento – Meadowview and Freeport, 1441 Meadowview Road San Bruno – Tanforan, 1150 El Camino Real San Diego – Loma Square, 3357 Rosecrans St. San Fernando – Workman Street, 801 S. Workman St. San Jose – Westgate Mall, 1546 Saratoga Ave. San Leandro – Fashion Faire Place, 15100 Hesperian Blvd. San Pedro – Park Plaza, 980 N. Western Ave. Santa Fe Springs – Gateway Plaza, 10635 Carmenita Road Santa Rosa – Santa Rosa Plaza Mall, 1029 Santa Rosa Plaza Selma – Garden Vineyard, 3352 Floral Ave. Spring Valley – Spring Valley Shopping Center, 8626 Jamacha Blvd. Stockton – Lower Sacramento Center, 7910 Lower Sacramento Road Van Nuys – Patomac Plaza, 6800 Balboa Blvd. Ventura – Pacific View Ventura Mall, 3301 E. Main St. Watsonville – Main St. Watsonville, 1441 Main St. Woodland – Yolo Polo Plaza, 1780 E. Main St. Yuba City – Yuba City Marketplace, 1070 Harter Pkwy. Colorado Aurora – Hoffman Heights, 757 Peoria St. Aurora – Quincy Place Shops, 16891 E. Quincy Ave. Broomfield – Flatiron Crossing Mall, 1 W. Flatiron Crossing Drive Colorado Springs – The Citadel Mall, 750 Citadel Drive Fort Collins – Front Range Village, 2842 Council Tree Ave. Fort Collins – Magnolia St Fort Collins, 1275 E. Magnolia St. Loveland – Denver Ave Loveland, 1389 Denver Ave., Loveland Connecticut Enfield – Enfield Square Mall, 90 Elm St. Lisbon – Crossroads at Lisbon, 193 River Road Newington – Newington Shopping Center, 2997 Berlin Turnpike Stratford – Stratford Square, 411 Barnum Ave. Waterbury – Brass Mills Mall, 495 Union St. Delaware Bear – Governors Square, 1015 Governors Place Dover – Dover Mall Food Court, 3084 Dover Mall Wilmington – Kirkwood Plaza, 4345 Kirkwood Highway Florida Clearwater – Clearwater Mall, 2723 Gulf to Bay Blvd. Coral Springs – Maplewood Plaza, 1158 N. University Drive Deland – Gibbs Plaza, 1697 N. Woodland Blvd. Deltona – Shoppes of East Deltona, 121 Howland Blvd. Destin – Island Palm Shoppes, 16055 Emerald Coast Pkwy. Fort Myers – Cypress Woods, 9390 6 Mile Cypress Pkwy. Fort Myers – Gulf Coast Town Center, 10021 Gulf Center Drive Jacksonville – Lem Turner Road Jacksonville, 12001 Lem Turner Road Lake Worth – Lantana Plaza, 5780 S. Jog Road Leesburg – US Highway 441 Leesburg, 10300 US Highway 441 Margate – Lakewood Shopping Center, 5499 W. Atlantic Blvd. Miami – Aventura Mall EB Games, 19575 Biscayne Blvd. Middleburg – Plantation Crossing, 1545 Branan Field Road Mulberry – Church Ave Mulberry, 6751 N. Church Ave. Naples – Market Center, 9960 Business Circle Ocoee – Ocoee Commons, 10576 W. Colonial Drive Orlando – Lake Fredrica Shopping Center, 3916 S. Semoran Blvd. Palatka – Palatka Center, 850 S. Moody Road Pensacola – Creighton Commons, 2620 Creighton Road Port Richey – US Highway 19 N Port Richey, 8605 US Highway 19 N. Sanford – Seminole Center, 3715 S. Orlando Drive Sebring – Lakeshore Mall, 901 US 27 North Summerfield – 178th Place Summerfield, 11275 SE 178th Place Sunrise – Sawgrass Mills Mall, 12801 W. Sunrise Blvd. Tampa – Citrus Park Shopping Center, 8502 Citrus Park Drive Georgia Alpharetta – North Point Mall, 1198 North Point Circle Atlanta – Chamblee Village, 1841 Chamblee Tucker Road Atlanta – Howell Mill, 1801 Howell Mill Road NW Atlanta – Lenox Square Mall, 3393 Peachtree Road NE Augusta – Southpointe Plaza, 3209 Deans Bridge Road Cartersville – Shops at Main Street, 455 Cherokee Place Columbus – Peachtree Mall, 3131 Manchester Expressway Cumming – Cumming Marketplace, 1060 Market Place Blvd. Dublin – Dublin Commons, 2421 Highway 80 West Hartwell – Hartwell Station, 115 Walmart Drive Locust Grove – Bill Gardner Pkwy Locust Grove, 4959 Bill Gardner Way McDonough – McDonough Square, 1144 Highway 20 W. Snellville – Pharrs Village, 1830 Scenic Highway N Stone Mountain – Stone Mountain Festival, 1925 Rockbridge Road Tucker – Cofer Crossing, 4363 Lawrenceville Highway Idaho Nampa – East Franklin Road Nampa, 5681 E. Franklin Road Post Falls – Plaza at Post Falls, 710 N. Cecil Road Illinois Addison – Rohlwing Road Addison, 1074 N. Rohlwing Road Alton – Alton Corners, 317 Homer Adams Pkwy. Chicago – Cermak and Western, 2336 W. Cermak Road Chicago – Gateway Center, 1751 W. Howard St. Cicero – Cicero Marketplace, 3017 S. Cicero Ave. Decatur – Decatur Marketplace, 4641 E. Maryland St. Dekalb – Northland Plaza, 2564 Sycamore Road Geneva – Randall Square, 1492 S. Randall Road Hodgkins – Quarry Outlot, 9404 Joliet Road Homewood – Park Palace Plaza, 17925 Halsted St. Joliet – Jefferson St. Joliet, 2410 W. Jefferson St. McHenry – McHenry Town Center West, N. 2445 Richmond Road New Lenox – New Lenox Retail Center, 2344 E. Lincoln Highway Orland Park – Lakeview Plaza, 15864 S. LaGrange Road Round Lake Beach – Mallard Creek Shopping Center, 716 E. Rollins Road Shorewood – Joliet Commons, 1530 IL Route 59 South Elgin – South Elgin Commons, 478 Randall Road Tinley Park – Tinley Park Plaza, 16205 Harlem Ave. Indiana Carmel – Clay Terrace, 14405 Clay Terrace Blvd. Evansville – Evansville Pavilion, 6401 E. Lloyd Expressway Greenfield – Greenfield Crossing, 1905 Melody Lane Indianapolis – College Park, 3269 W. 86th St. Kendallville – North Street Kendallville, 2517 E. North St. Merrillville – 80th Ave Merrillville, 2623 E. 80th Ave. Munster – Calumet Center, 7971 Calumet Ave. New Castle – South State Road 3 New Castle, 3187 S. State Road 3 Newburgh – High Pointe Drive Newburgh, 8680 High Pointe Drive Noblesville – Town and Country, 16763 Clover Road Saint John – St. Johns Square, 9939 Wicker Ave. South Bend – Erskine Village, 1290 E. Ireland Road Terre Haute – Honey Creek Mall, 3401 S. U.S. Highway 41 Iowa Des Moines – Southdale Des Moines, 5126 SE 14th St. Iowa City – Highway 1W Iowa City, 1011 Highway 1W Waterloo – Crossroads Mini, 1515 Flammang Drive Kansas Shawnee Mission – Shawnee Station, 16310 W. 65th St. Topeka – Wanamaker Shopping Center, 1725 SW Wanamaker Road Wichita – 29th and Rock, 3000 N. Rock Road Kentucky Alexandria – Village Green Center, 6807 Alexandria Pike Berea – Shops at Berea, 222 Brenwood St. Campbellsville – Campbellsville Bypass, 726 Campbellsville Bypass Danville – Danville Manor, 1560 Hustonville Road Florence – Florence Mall, 2028 Florence Mall Harlan – Woodland Plaza, 2370 S. U.S. Highway 421 Hazard – Daniel Boone Plaza, 82 Daniel Boone Plaza Hopkinsville – Fort Campbell Boulevarde, 4156 Fort Campbell Blvd. Lawrenceburg – 1004 Bypass N. Lawrenceburg, 1004 Bypass N. Louisville – Southland Terrace, 3925 7th Street Road Morehead – Kroger Center Morehead, 252 Kroger Circle Nicholasville – Main Street Nicholasville, 1020 N. Main St. Paducah – Kentucky Oaks Mall, 5101 Hinkleville Road Paintsville – Mayo Plaza, 431 N. Mayo Trail Louisiana Baton Rouge – O’Neal Lane Shopping Center, 2060 O’Neal Lane Broussard – Sugarcrest Center, 219 Saint Nazaire Road Covington – River Chase, 69240 Highway 21 Crowley – Odd Fellow Road Crowley, 725 Odd Fellows Road Houma – Southland Mall Houma, 5953 W. Park Ave. La Place – Belle Terre Plaza, 150 Belle Terre Blvd. Leesville – Leesville Plaza, 2414 S. 5th St. Monroe – Pecanland Mall, 4700 Milhaven Road Morgan City – Bayou Vista Plaza, 1079 Highway 90 E New Iberia – New Iberia Shopping Center, 1002 Jefferson Terrace Blvd. New Orleans – St. Andrew St. New Orleans, 520 Saint Andrew St. Ruston – Eagle Plaza, 1407 Eagle Drive Sulphur – Sulphur Plaza, 541 N. Cities Service Highway Maine Topsham – Topsham Crossing, 127 Topsham Fair Mall Road Maryland Baltimore – Parkside Shopping Center, 5114 Sinclair Lane Baltimore – Perring Plaza, 1991 E. Joppa Road Ellicott City – St. Johns Plaza, 9159 Baltimore National Pike Essex – Middlesex Center, 1228 Eastern Blvd. Gambrills – Village at Waugh Chapel, 2626 Chapel Lake Drive Salisbury – The Commons, 2717 N. Salisbury Blvd. Severna Park – Severna Park Marketplace, 543 Ritchie Highway Westminster – Town Mall, 400 N. Center St. Massachusetts Brookline – Coolidge Corners, 271 Harvard St. Chestnut Hill – Shops at Chestnut Hill, 199 Boylston St. East Longmeadow – Heritage Park Plaza, 428 N. Main St. Hadley – Mountain Farms, 325 Russell St. Holyoke – Holyoke At Ingleside, 50 Holyoke St. Lunenburg – Lunenburg Crossing, 317 Massachusetts Ave. Malden – Broadway Plaza, 44 Broadway Methuen – Merrimac Plaza, 184 Haverhill St. North Dartmouth – Dartmouth Town Center, 400 State Road Raynham – Shaws Plaza, 300 New State Highway Stoughton – R.K. Plaza, 1334 Park St. Waltham – Waltham Gateway, 1019 Trapelo Road Westfield – Westfield Shops, 431 E. Main St. Michigan Ann Arbor – Cranbrook Village, 878 W. Eisenhower Pkwy. Caledonia – Gaines Marketplace, 1825 Marketplace Drive SE Canton – Crossroads Village, 47160 Michigan Ave. Chesterfield – Chesterfield Commons, 34830 23 Mile Road Clinton Township – Clinton Pointe, 33822 S. Gratiot Ave. Commerce Township – Commerce Marketplace, 1721 Haggerty Highway Grand Blanc – Grand Blanc Town Center, 6309 Dort Highway Kentwood – Woodland Mall, 3169 28th St. SE, Kentwood Lansing – Delta Plaza, 5451 W. Saginaw Highway Lansing – Eastwood Town Center, 2908 Town Center Blvd. Lansing – Marketplace at Delta, 619 N. Marketplace Blvd. Northville – Northville Village Center, 17945 Haggerty Road Owosso – Riverwood Crossing, 1565 E. Main St. Rochester Hills – Hampton Village Center, 2781 S. Rochester Road Shelby Township – Shelby Creek, 12185 23 Mile Road, Shelby Township Sturgis – Centerville Road Sturgis, 69823 S. Centerville Road Troy – Midtown Square, 1333 Coolidge Highway Minnesota Brooklyn Park – Jolly Lane Shopping Center, 7655 Jolly Lane Owatonna – Owatonna Commons, 1100 W. Frontage Road Rochester – Rochester Crossing, 3780 Marketplace Drive NW Mississippi Biloxi – Shoppes at Poppes Ferry, 2404 Pass Road Clinton – Hammett Crossing, 1011 Hampstead Blvd. Corinth – Corinth Commons, 2201 Virginia Lane Greenville – South Rivers Market, 1831 Highway 1 S. Grenada – Grenada Plaza, 1550 Jameson Drive Picayune – Pearl River Plaza, 230 Frontage Road Vicksburg – Vicksburg Plaza, 2301 Iowa Ave. Missouri Creve Coeur – Heritage Place, 12589 Olive Blvd. Independence – Independence Commons, 19130 E. 39th St. S. Independence – Market Place Shopping Center, 4201 S. Noland Road Jennings – Plaza on the Boulevard, 8025 W. Florissant Ave. Kansas City – West Port Landing, 906 Westport Road Lebanon – Lebanon Marketplace, 1810 S. Jefferson Ave. Maplewood – Maplewood Commons, 1821 Maplewood Commons Drive Raytown – Raytown Gregory Square, 9203 E. State Route 350 St. Joseph – St. Joseph Plaza, 3302 S. Belt Highway St. Joseph – Shoppes at North Plaza, 5301 N. Belt Highway St. Louis – South County Center, 134 S. County Center Way Sikeston – South Pointe Center, 1213 S. Main St. Nebraska Papillion – Market Pointe Shopping Center, 8540 S. 71st Plaza Nevada Fallon – Fallon Plaza, 2163 W. Williams Ave. Las Vegas – Rainbow Plaza, 947 S. Rainbow Road Las Vegas – Tropicana and I-25, 5130 S. Fort Apache Road New Hampshire Claremont – Claremont Market, 367 Washington St. Concord – Fort Eddy Plaza, 44 Fort Eddy Road Epping – Epping Crossing, 25 Fresh River Road Gilford – Lake Shore Road Gilford, 1458 Lake Shore Road Plaistow – Stateline Plaza, 4 Plaistow Road Salem – Rockingham Mall, 92 Cluff Crossing Road Somersworth – Tri City Plaza, 176 Tri City Plaza West Lebanon – Upper Valley Shopping Center, 250 Plainfield Road New Jersey Bayonne – South Cove commons, 205 Lefante Way Deptford – Deptford Landing, 2000 Clements Bridge Road Newark – Newark Shopping Center, 786 Broad St. North Bergen – Tonelle Avenue, 2100 88th St. Rockaway – Rockaway TownSquare, 301 Mount Hope Ave. Somerdale – Evesham Ave Somerdale, 711 Evesham Ave. Somers Point – Ocean Heights, 15 Bethel Road South Plainfield – Hadley Shopping Center, 4959 Stelton Road Succasunna – Roxbury Mall, 275 State Route 101 E New York Amsterdam – Amsterdam Commons, 4930 State Highway 30 Bronx – Westchester Shopping Center, 1030 Westchester Ave. Brooklyn – Bensonhurst Shopping Center, 6713 18th Ave. Brooklyn – Bensonhurst, 2141 86th St. Brooklyn – Fulton Street and Flatbush, 465 Fulton St. Brooklyn – Gateway Center Brooklyn, 470 Gateway Drive Brooklyn – Pitkin Avenue, 1622 Pitkin Ave. Buffalo – University Plaza, 3500 Main St. Depew – Transit Losson Wegmans Center, 4960 Transit Road Evan Mills – Johnson Road Evans Mills, 26445 Johnson Road Herkimer – EFK Plaza, 320 E. State St. Hudson – 424 Fairview Ave. Ithaca – Meadows Square, 324 Elmira Road Jamaica – Jamaica Avenue, 163-08 Jamaica Ave. Johnstown – Johnstown Mall, 222 N. Camrie Ave. Lockport – Transit Road Lockport, 5716 S. Transit Road Middletown – Galleria At Crystal Run, 1 N. Galleria Drive Monticello – Monticello Mall, 36 Thompson Square Mall Plattsburgh – Champlain Centre Mall, 60 Smithfield Blvd. Poughkeepsie – 44 Plaza Shopping Center, 47 Burnett Blvd. Poughkeepsie – Poughkeepsie, 2001 South Road. Ridgewood – Myrtle Avenue, 5720 Myrtle Ave. Rochester – Eastridge Plaza, 705 E. Ridge Road Rosedale – Five Towns Shopping Center, 25301 Rockaway Blvd. Valley Stream – Green Acres Mall, 1120 Green Acres Mall Victor – Victor Crossing, 400 Commerce Drive Webster – Webster Square, 950 Ridge Road West Nyack – Palisades Center Mall, 4322 Palisades Center Drive White Plains – The Westchester, 125 Westchester Ave. Yonkers – Cross County Center, 3 Xavier Drive North Carolina Albermarle – Albermarle Shopping Center, 723 Leonard Ave. Burlington – Holly Hills Mall, 309 Huffman Mill Road Charlotte – The Galleria, 1824 Galleria Blvd. Charlotte – Village at Whitehall, 8951 S. Tryon St. Charlotte – Wilkinson Crossing, 3220 Wilkinson Blvd. Durham – New Hope Commons, 5408 New Hope Commons Drive Durham – South Square, 3415 Westgate Drive Gastonia – Samarth Plaza, 117 N. Myrtle School Road Greensboro – Four Seasons Town Center, 311 Four Seasons Town Center Greensboro – Shoppes at Wendover Village, 4203 W. Wendover Ave. Mocksville – Cooper Creek Drive Mocksville, 191 Cooper Creek Drive Monroe – Monroe Mall, 2115 W. Roosevelt Blvd. Murphy – US 19 Murphy, 2320 US 19 Raleigh – New Burns Commons, 4531 New Bern Ave. Raleigh – Triangle Town Center Mall, 5959 Triangle Town Blvd. Wilmington – Mayfaire Town Center, 6858 Main St. Wilmington – Pamlico Plaza, 560 Pamlico Plaza North Dakota Fargo – Central Marketplace, 1801 45th St. S Ohio Bellefontaine – Bellefontaine Square, 2228 S. Main St. Bryan – Main Street Bryan, 1243 S. Main St. Cambridge – Cambridge Shopping Center, 61267 Southgate Road Canton – Canton Centre Mall, 4328 Tuscarawas St. W Canton – Carousel Plaza, 3016 Atlantic Blvd. NE Chardon – Meadowlands Town Center, 255 Meadowlands Drive Chillicothe – North Bridge Street, 950 N. Bridge St. Cleveland Heights – Severence Town Center, 3582 Mayfield Road Columbus – Graceland Shopping Center, 5057 N. High St. Dublin – Sawmill Square, 7646 Sawmill Road Fairfield Township – Bridgewater Falls, 3417 Princeton Road Fairview Park – Westgate Shopping Center, 3101 Westgate Huber Heights – Sulphur Grove, 7746 Brandt Pike Lakewood – Lakewood Marketplace, 14869 Detroit Ave. Marietta – Rivers Edge Marietta, 227 Captain D. Seeley Mia Drive Marysville – Colemans Crossing, 653 Colemans Crossing Sidney – Michigan Street Sidney, 2260 Michigan St. Toledo – Monroe Street Market, 5333 Monroe St. Troy – Troy Towne Center, 1847 W. Main St. Wauseon – Airport Highway Wauseon, 482 Airport Highway Oklahoma Glenpool – Waco Ave Sapulpa, 12154 S. Waco Ave. Oklahoma City – Belle Isle Station, 1841 Belle Isle Blvd. Oklahoma City – Silver Springs Point, 7640 NW Expressway Sand Springs – Cimmeron Plaza, 430 W. Wekiwa Road Oregon Corvallis – Corvallis Market Center, 1580 NW 9th St. Hermiston – Hermiston Plaza, 892 S. Highway 395 Pennsylvania Beaver Falls – Chippewa Town Center, 200 Chippewa Town Center Collingdale – Creekside Plaza, 1207 MacDade Blvd. Easton – William Penn Plaza, 3087 William Penn Highway Gilbertsville – Douglass Town Center, 173 Holly Road Harrisburg – Paxton Town Center, 5125 Jonestown Road Harrisburg – Union Square, 3875 Union Deposit Road Hazle Township – Hazel Marketplace, 741 Airport Road Indiana – Southtowne Plaza, 3100 Oakland Ave. Lehighton – Carbon Plaza, 1241 Blakeslee Blvd. Drive E Mechanicsburg – Silver Springs Commons, 6520 Carlisle Pike Monaca – Brodhead Road Monaca, 3942 Brodhead Road New Castle – Union Square, 2519 W. State St. Philadelphia – Mayfair Shopping Center, 6420 Frankford Ave. Pittsburgh – Montour Church Plaza, 312 McHolme Drive Quakertown – Trainers Corner, 210 N. West End Blvd. Reading – Exeter Commons, 4611 Perkiomen Ave. Richboro – Crossroads Plaza, 800 Bustleton Pike Selinsgrove – Susquehanna Valley, 1 Susquehanna Valley Mall Drive Shippenburg – Shippen Towne Center, 210 S. Conestoga Drive Springfield – Marple Cross Roads, 400 S. State Road Warminster – Center Point Place, 892 W. Street Road West Chester – West Goshen Town Center, 1115 W. Chester Pike Willow Grove – Willow Grove Park Mall, 2500 W. Moreland Road Wyomissing – Berkshire Mall, 1665 State Hill Road South Carolina Columbia – Killian Road Supercenter, 327 Killian Road Columbia – Shoppes at Woodhill, 6080 Garners Ferry Road Greenville – White Horse Commons, 6134 White Horse Road Hartsville – Retail Row Hartsville, 1211 Retail Row Lancaster – University Shops, 933 Lancaster Bypass W Moncks Corner – Moncks Corner, 505 Highway 52 North Augusta – Knox Avenue North Augusta, 1229 Knox Ave. North Charleston – North Rivers Town Center, 7250 Rivers Ave. North Charleston – Shoppes at Centre Pointe, 4950 Centre Pointe Drive Orangeburg – North Road Plaza, 2843 North Road Rock Hill – Rock Hill Galleria, 2391 Dave Lyle Blvd. Seneca – Applewood Shopping Center, 290 Applewood Center Place Spartanburg – Spartanburg Corners, 200 Dawn Redwood Drive Tennessee Clarksville – Riverpoint Shopping Center, 2351 Madison St. Cordova – Germantown Parkway Cordova, 465 N. Germantown Pkwy. Franklin – Cool Springs Mall, 1800 Galleria Blvd. Greeneville – Shops in Greeneville, 3793 E. Andrew Johnson Highway Hermitage – H.G. Hill Center, 4469 Lebanon Pike Jackson – South Highland Avenue Jackson, 2103 S. Highland Ave. Johnson City – Shoppes on West Mark, 3101 W. Market St. Lawrenceburg – Lawrenceburg Shopping Center, 2136 N. Locust Ave. Lenoir City – Franklin Center, 875 Highway 321 N. Memphis – Park Cosmorama, 5043 Park Ave. Murfreesboro – College Central, 2866 S. Rutherford Road Nashville – Jackson Downs Shopping Center, 3133 Lebanon Pike Savannah – Riverboat Plaza, 1800 Wayne Road Shelbyville – Main St. Shelbyville, 1854 N. Main St. West Memphis – Service Road West Memphis, 650 S. Service Road Texas Allen – The Village at Allen, 170 E. Stacy Road Arlington – Little School Road Shops, 1245 N. Little School Road Austin – Ben White Payload Center, 500 E. Ben White Blvd. Balch Springs – Lake June Plaza, 12209 Lake June Road Boerne – Menger Crossing, 1375 S. Main St. Cedar Park – Lakeline Plaza, 11066 Pecan Park Blvd. Conroe – Conroe Center, 1231 N. Loop 336 W Corpus Christi – Padre Island Drive, 1805 S. Padre Island Drive Corsicana – Corsicana Marketplace, 3811 W. Highway 31 Dallas – Glen Oaks Crossing, 4787 Vista Wood Blvd. El Paso – Alameda Town Center, 9411 Alameda Ave. El Paso – Fountains at Farah, 8889 Gateway West Blvd. Fort Worth – Clifford Retail, 301 Clifford Center Drive Garland – Ridgewood Village, 2930 S. 1st St. Houston – Beechnut Street Houston, 10100 Beechnut St. Houston – Bellaire Gessner Center, 8880 Bellaire Blvd. Houston – Market at Uvalde, 13706 East Freeway Houston – Market Square, 13341 Westheimer Road Houston – Oxford Plaza, 10407 North Freeway Houston – Royal Oaks, 11807 Westheimer Road Houston – Wayside Shopping Center, 900 S. Wayside Drive Huntsville – Ravenwood Village, 245 Interstate 45 N Irving – MacArthur Park, 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd. Lake Jackson – Lake Jackson Shopping Center, 121 Highway 332 W La Marque – LaMarque Crossing, 6408 Interstate 45 Laredo – Laredo Crossing Shopping Center, 4415 S. Zapata Highway Leon Valley – 5601 Bandera Road Lubbock – 7th St Lubbock, 1803 7th St. Magnolia – Westwood Village, 33020 FM 2978 Road Mansfield – Mansfield Crossing, 1301 E. Debbie Lane Marble Falls – Highland Lakes, 2400 US Highway 281 McKinney – Lake Forest Crossing, 4100 S. Lake Forest Drive Mesquite – Town East Mall, 2050 Town East Mall Mission – Shary Plaza, 808 S. Shary Road Palmhurst – Palmhurst Shopping Center, 4416 N. Conway Ave. Paris – Paris Corners, 3842 Lamar Ave. Saginaw – Cross Pointe Shopping Center, 1453 N. Saginaw Blvd. San Antonio – Alamo Quarry Market, E. 255 Basse Road San Antonio – Blanco Road, 7117 Blanco Road San Antonio – Huebner Oaks Center, 11745 W. Interstate 10 San Antonio – Northwoods Phase III, 1742 N. Loop 1604 E San Antonio – Walzem Plaza, 5366 Walzem Road Sephenville – Stephenville Shopping Center, 2811 W. Washington St. Sulphur Springs – Sulphur Springs Corners, 1707 S. Broadway St. Terrell – Terrell Corner, 1888 W. Moore Ave. Tyler – State Highway 64 Tyler, 3842 State Highway 64 W Watauga – Watauga Town Crossing, 8004 Denton Highway Utah Centerville – Centerville Marketplace, 621 W. Marketplace Drive Vermont Rutland – Rutland Plaza, 144 Shopping Plaza Road Williston – Maple Tree Place, 31 Hawthorne St. Virginia Alexandria – Kingstowne Towne Center, 5965 Kingstowne Towne Center Chantilly – South Riding Market Square, 25050 Riding Plaza, Dulles – Dulles Town Center, 21100 Dulles Town Circle Henrico – Staple Mill Road Henrico, 9085 Staple Mill Road King George – Consumer Row King George, 16418 Consumer Row Richmond – Broad and Bowe Center, 1500 W. Broad St. Richmond – Northpark Shopping Center, 8131 Brook Road Richmond – Shops at Stratford Hill, 7017 Forest Hill Ave. South Boston – Shops at Tri Rivers, 3459 Old Halifax Road Sterling – Dulles 28 Centre, 22000 Dulles Retail Plaza, Virginia Beach – Parkway Plaza, 869 Lynnhaven Pkwy. Williamsburg – Cedar Valley Shopping Center, 810 E. Rochambeau Drive Woodbridge – Smoketown Station, 13277 Worth Ave. Washington Bothell – Downtown Bothell, 18827 Bothell Way NE College Place – Meadowbrook Plaza, 1605 SE Meadowbrook Blvd. Federal Way – Federal Way Marketplace, 34512 16th Ave. S Kennewick – Canyon Lakes Center, 4008 W. 27th Ave. Kirkland – Totem Lake, 12525 Totem Lake Blvd. NE Lakewood – Lakewood Town Center, 5605 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. SW Lynnwood – 165th Street Crossing, 1402 164th St. SW Redmond – Bear Creek Village, 17128 Redmond Way Tacoma – Westgate South, 2315 N. Pearl St. West Virginia Bridgeport – Meadowbrook, 2399 Meadowbrook Mall Hurricane – Hurricane Marketplace, 270 Progress Way Logan – Fountain Place, 131 Prosperity Lane Morgantown – Shoppers World, 250 Retail Circle Wisconsin Beloit – Milwaukee Road Shopping Center, 2787 Milwaukee Road La Crosse – Valley View Mall, 3800 State Road 16 Milwaukee – Midtown Center, 4131 N. 56th St. View the full article