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SMART goals are a helpful way to turn your ideas and to-dos into actionable plans for the near and far future, but they're not always the best approach. If you work on a larger team or need to track highly ambitious, long-term goals, for example, SMART might not be the best method to turn to. Other goal-tracking methods, like FAST and PACT, may be a better fit. You'll need to start by familiarizing yourself with these alternate methods, but once you do, you'll see that they are more tailored to specific needs and might just be your best bet. When should you use SMART goals?SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—that's what the acronym spells out. When you make them, you make sure your goal sticks to all five of those requirements, usually writing it out in a sentence like this: “By the end of the month, I will have aced three practice quizzes to prepare for my chemistry test.” It’s specific because it says what you’re going to do and why, measurable because you’re setting an amount of quizzes and expected grade on each, achievable because it can reasonably be done, relevant because it has to do with a pressing need, and time-bound because it’s related to a forthcoming deadline. Because they're so customizable, SMART goals are used by students, workers, and anyone who needs to break down their to-do list into manageable action items, but they can be limiting for the same reasons they work so well on an individual level. For example, they can be too specific to be broadly applicable, so if you have to do the same sort of task at work every month, you’ll redo the SMART goal every time instead of creating a process to follow. They’re also not ideal for collaboration because while you can share a SMART goal with others, it doesn’t leave much room to be concise and authoritative about who needs to do what to reach the goal. When FAST goals make senseThe first helpful SMART goal alternative is the FAST goal, which is especially useful if you’re in a position to lead or delegate, but is generally good for teams overall. FAST stands for the following: Frequent discussions Ambitious scope Specific measurements Transparent When using SMART goals, you analyze your desired end result through the lens of how achievable it is and when you’ll have it done. With a FAST goal, you’re looking less at the elements that define the final product and more at how you will collaborate to get there. FAST goals enable teams to adapt and evolve as the project goes on because they require frequent discussions and transparency about what the ambitious goal is and how its success will be defined. Still, you need to have a plan in place to follow the FAST goal, since it is a little vague. What are "frequent" discussions, for instance? You need to hammer that out with the team and set a goal dictating what frequent means and how you'll conduct those meetings. Say your team at work has to build a report for the end of the quarter. You already know when it’s due, so you don’t need to incorporate timeliness, like you would with a SMART goal. Instead, consider the task through the FAST lens, setting up regular times to meet and discuss it and creating clear communication channels so everyone can stay on the same page. The success of the project might be measured by manager feedback, client response, the enhancement of processes, or increases in sales; you need to define early on what “success” will look like, but staying communicative and transparent will help—and will enable you to make the end goal ambitious. Here, I'd recommend incorporating a single source of truth, or SSOT. That's essentially a folder everyone has access to that includes every resource anyone might need. For the hypothetical project of the end-of-quarter report, your SSOT might include monthly reports, a template for the bigger report, contact information for clients whose data will appear on the report, and so on. The first document in the SSOT should be one outlining the FAST goal by setting requirements for the frequent discussions, detailing the scope, defining the specific measurements of success, and, by its nature, being transparent. When to use PACT goalsPACT goals, like FAST goals, focus more on the process of achieving a desired result than the measurements of the result itself. Here’s what PACT stands for: Purposeful Actionable Continuous Trackable Like a SMART goal, PACT works well if you’re tackling something on your own, but it is more process-driven. Let’s say your goal is to get in shape. With a SMART goal, you might have to define it like, “By the first day of summer, I will have worked out for five hours per week, lost 20 pounds, and increased my muscle mass by 5%.” It’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, but once you write that down, you’re on your own fighting your way to the finish line. A PACT goal might look more like, “To get in better shape and improve my health, I will work out five times a week and monitor my weight loss and muscle gain using my smart scale.” Instead of being time-bound, this approach takes the process itself into consideration—but also incorporates purposefulness, reminding you why you’re doing what you’re doing. You still take actions and track metrics, but the goal is rooted in purpose and relies on continuity, not a defined end result. Keeping the purpose front and center is important, as it helps you stay motivated and reminds you of what you’re really working toward. If you’re building a report at work, you can get caught up in the absolutism of knowing this is your assigned task and you have to do it, which can lead to losing sight of why you're actually toiling. If you bear in mind that you’re building the report so your company can bring in more clients or enhance internal operations, you remember that this could lead to more business, accolades, or even a raise for you. Tracking your progress is also key to staying motivated and moving toward an end goal, even if it isn’t as rigidly defined as a SMART goal might be. Again, you'll need a document that outlines all this. Think of it like a mission statement and stick it in the SSOT. Here, it might be like, "Our team will compile the report by each dedicating one hour of time to it a day for the next month, inputting our work hours and achievements into the attached spreadsheet, and meeting every Friday to discuss progress." View the full article

The creator of a wildly successful website shares their secrets to how it all happened. The post Secrets Of A Wildly Successful Website appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We are seeing some big movement and volatility in the Google Search results again, this one kicking up more yesterday, November 12th. This may be a continuation of the ongoing Movember update, which I covered over the weekend. But there has been a lot of chatter over the past day or so, and some of the tools spiked over the past 24 hours.View the full article

Google has been testing its AI advisor in Google Ads and Analytics since 2023, there were some bugs throughout that testing, promoted the test to the top menu and then Google renamed it Ads Advisor in August. Now, Google announced Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor is rolling out English-language accounts globally in early December.View the full article

Google has updated the review snippet documentation to explain that site owners should avoid using multiple ways of indicating what's being reviewed, the search company announced. This is to make it clear about how nesting in reviews and aggregate ratings are interpreted and handled by Google Search.View the full article

Google has documented a new user agent, a user-triggered fetcher, named Google-Pinpoint. "The Google-Pinpoint fetcher requests individual URLs that Pinpoint users specified as sources for their personal collections of documents," Google posted in its updated documentation.View the full article

Did you know that even a one-second delay in page loading speed can cause up to 11% fewer page views? That’s right, you might have the best content strategy and a solid plan to drive traffic, but visitors won’t stay long if your site lags. Page speed is one of the biggest factors in keeping users engaged and converting. In this guide, we’ll uncover the most common causes of slow websites and explore proven ways to boost website performance. Whether your site feels sluggish or you simply want to make it faster, these insights will help you identify what’s holding it back and how to fix it. Table of contents What do we mean by ‘website performance’ and why is it important for you? Understanding the web page loading process Key causes that are causing your website to slow down How to measure page speed and diagnose performance issues Speed up, but with purpose What do we mean by ‘website performance’ and why is it important for you? Website performance is all about how efficiently your site loads and responds when someone visits it. It’s not just about how fast a page appears; it’s about how smoothly users can interact with your content across devices, browsers, and locations. In simple terms, it’s the overall quality of your site’s experience that should feel fast, responsive, and effortless to use. When your page loading speed is optimized, you’re not only improving the user experience but also setting the foundation for long-term website performance. Here’s why it matters for every website owner: Fast-loading sites have higher conversion rates and lower bounce rates Attention spans are notoriously short. As the internet gets faster, they’re getting shorter still. Numerous studies have found a clear link between the time it takes a page to load and the percentage of visitors who become impatient while waiting. By offering a fast site, you encourage your visitors to stay longer. Not to mention, you’re helping them complete their checkout journey more quickly. That helps improve your conversion rate and build trust and brand loyalty. Think of all the times you’ve been cursing the screen because you had to wait for a page to load or were running in circles because the user experience was atrocious. It happens so often, don’t be that site. A fast page improves user experience Google understands that the time it takes for a page to load is vital to the overall user experience. Waiting for content to appear, the inability to interact with a page, and even noticing delays create friction. That friction costs time, money, and your visitor’s experience. Research shows that the level of stress from waiting for slow mobile results can be more stressful than watching a horror movie. Surely not, you say? That’s what the fine folks at Ericsson Research found a few years back. Improving your site speed across the board means making people happy. They’ll enjoy using your site, make more purchases, and return more frequently. This means that Google will view your site as a great search result because you are delivering high-quality content. Eventually, you might get a nice ranking boost. Frustration hurts your users and hurts your rankings It’s not just Google – research from every corner of the web on all aspects of consumer behavior shows that speed has a significant impact on outcomes. Nearly 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their willingness to buy (unbounce) 20% of users abandon their cart if the transaction process is too slow (radware.com) The BBC found that they lost an additional 10% of users for every additional second their site took to load These costs and site abandonment happen because users dislike being frustrated. Poor experiences lead them to leave, visit other websites, and switch to competitors. Google easily tracks these behaviors (through bounces back to search engine results pages, short visits, and other signals) and is a strong indicator that the page shouldn’t be ranking where it is. Google needs fast sites Speed isn’t only good for users – it’s good for Google, too. Slow websites are often inefficient. They may load too many large files, haven’t optimized their media, or fail to utilize modern technologies to serve their page. That means that Google has to consume more bandwidth, allocate more resources, and spend more money. Across the whole web, every millisecond they can save, and every byte they don’t have to process, adds up quickly. And quite often, simple changes to configuration, processes, or code can make websites much faster with no drawbacks. That may be why Google is so vocal about its education on performance. A faster web is better for users and significantly reduces Google’s operating costs. Either way, that means that they’re going to continue rewarding fast(er) sites. Improving page speed helps to improve crawling for search engines Modern sites are incredibly wieldy, and untangling that mess can make a big difference. The larger your site is, the greater the impact page speed optimizations will have. That not only impacts user experience and conversion rates but also affects crawl budget and crawl rate. When a Googlebot comes around and crawls your webpage, it crawls the HTML file. Any resources referenced in the file, like images, CSS, and JavaScript, will be fetched separately. The more files you have and the heavier they are, the longer it will take for the Googlebot to go through them. On the flip side, the more time Google spends on crawling a page and its files, the less time and resources Google has to dedicate to other pages. That means Google may miss out on other important pages and content on your site. Optimizing your website and content for speed will provide a good user experience for your visitors and help Googlebots better crawl your site. They can come around more often and accomplish more. Page speed is a ranking factor Google has repeatedly said that a fast site helps you rank better. It’s no surprise, then, that Google has been measuring the speed of your site and using that information in its ranking algorithms since 2010. In 2018, Google launched the so-called ‘Speed Update,’ making page speed a ranking factor for mobile searches. Google emphasized that it would only affect the slowest sites and that fast sites would not receive a boost; however, they are evaluating website performance across the board. In 2021, Google announced the page experience algorithm update, demonstrating that page speed and user experience are intertwined. Core Web Vitals clearly state that speed is an essential ranking factor. The update also gave site owners metrics and standards to work with. Of course, Google still wants to serve searchers the most relevant information, even if the page experience is somewhat lacking. Creating high-quality content remains the most effective way to achieve a high ranking. However, Google also states that page experience signals become more important when many pages with relevant content compete for visibility in the search results. Google mobile-first index Another significant factor in page speed for ranking is Google’s mobile-first approach to indexing content. That means Google uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking. This approach makes sense as we increasingly rely on mobile devices to access the internet. In recent research, Semrush found out that 66% of all website visits come from mobile devices. To compete for a spot in the search results, your mobile page needs to meet Core Web Vitals standards and other page experience signals. And this is not easy at all. Pages on mobile take longer to load compared to their desktop counterparts, while attention span stays the same. People might be more patient on mobile devices, but not significantly so. Take a look at some statistics: The average website loading time is 2.5 seconds on desktop and 8.6 seconds on mobile, based on an analysis of the top 100 web pages worldwide (tooltester) The average mobile web page takes 15.3 seconds to load (thinkwithgoogle) On average, webpages on mobile take 70.9% longer to load than on desktop (tooltester) A loading speed of 10 seconds increases the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing by 123% compared to a one-second loading speed (thinkwithgoogle) All the more reasons to optimize your website and content if your goal is to win a spot in the SERP. Understanding the web page loading process When you click a link or type a URL and press Enter, your browser initiates a series of steps to load the web page. It might seem like magic, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot happening in just a few seconds. Understanding this process can help you see what affects your page loading speed and what you can do to boost website performance. Google’s site speed documentation The process of loading a page can be divided into three key stages: Network stage This is where the connection begins. When someone visits your site, their browser looks up your domain name and connects to your server. This process, known as DNS lookup and TCP connection, enables data to travel between your website and the visitor’s device. You don’t have much direct control over this stage, but technologies like content delivery networks (CDNs) and smart routing can make a big difference, especially if you serve visitors from around the world. For local websites, optimizing your hosting setup can still help improve overall page loading speed. Server response stage Once the connection is established, the visitor’s browser sends a request to your server asking for the web page and its content. This is when your server processes that request and sends back the necessary files. The quality of your hosting, server configuration, and even your website’s theme or plugins all influence how quickly your server responds. A slow response is one of the most common issues with slow websites, so investing in a solid hosting environment is crucial if you want to boost your website’s performance. One popular choice is Bluehost, which offers reliable infrastructure, SSD storage, and built-in CDN support, making it a go-to hosting solution for many website owners. Browser rendering stage Now it’s time for the browser to put everything together. It retrieves data from your server and begins displaying it by loading images, processing CSS and JavaScript, and rendering all visible elements. Browsers typically load content in order, starting with what’s visible at the top (above the fold) and then proceeding down the page. That’s why optimizing the content at the top helps users interact with your site sooner. Even if the entire page isn’t fully loaded yet, a quick initial render can make it feel fast and keep users engaged. Key causes that are causing your website to slow down While you can’t control the quality of your visitors’ internet connection, most slow website issues come from within your own setup. Let’s examine the key areas that may be hindering your site’s performance and explore how to address them to enhance your website’s performance. Your hosting service Your hosting plays a big role in your website’s performance because it’s where your site lives. The speed and stability of your host determine how quickly your site responds to visitors. Factors such as server configuration, uptime, and infrastructure all impact this performance. Choosing a reliable host eliminates one major factor that affects speed optimization. Bluehost, for example, offers robust servers, reliable uptime, and built-in performance tools, making it a go-to hosting choice for anyone serious about speed and stability. Your website theme Themes define how your website looks and feels, but they also impact its loading speed. Some themes are designed with clean, lightweight code that’s optimized for performance, while others are heavy with animations and complex design elements. To boost website performance, opt for a theme that prioritizes simplicity, efficiency, and clean coding. Large file size From your HTML and CSS files to heavy JavaScript, large file sizes can slow down your website. Modern websites often rely heavily on JavaScript for dynamic effects, but overusing it can cause your pages to load slowly, especially on mobile devices. Reducing file sizes, compressing assets, and minimizing unnecessary scripts can significantly improve the perceived speed of your pages. Badly written code Poorly optimized code can cause a range of issues, from JavaScript errors to broken layouts. Messy or redundant code makes it harder for browsers to load your site efficiently. Cleaning up your code and ensuring it’s well-structured helps improve both performance and maintainability. Images and videos Unoptimized images and large video files are among the biggest causes of slow websites. Heavy media files increase your page weight, which directly impacts loading times. If your header image or hero banner is too large, it can delay the appearance of the main content. Optimizing your media files through compression, resizing, and Image SEO can dramatically improve your website’s speed. Too many plugins and widgets Plugins are what make WordPress so flexible, but adding too many can slow down your site. Each plugin adds extra code that your browser needs to process. Unused or outdated plugins can also conflict with your theme or other extensions, further reducing performance. Audit your plugins regularly and only keep the ones that truly add value. Absence of a CDN A content delivery network (CDN) helps your website load faster for users worldwide. It stores copies of your site’s static content, such as images and CSS files, across multiple servers located in different regions. This means that users access your site from the nearest available server, reducing loading time. If your audience is global, using a CDN is one of the easiest ways to boost website performance. Redirects Redirects are useful for managing URLs and maintaining SEO, but too many can slow down your site. Each redirect adds an extra step before reaching the final page. While a few redirects won’t hurt, long redirect chains can significantly affect performance. Whenever possible, try to link directly to the final URL to maintain consistent page loading speed. For WordPress users, the redirect manager feature in Yoast SEO Premium makes handling URL changes effortless and performance-friendly. You can pick from redirect types such as 301, 302, 307, 410, and 451 right from the dashboard. Since server-side redirects tend to load faster than PHP-based ones, Yoast lets you choose the type your stack supports, allowing you to avoid slow website causes and boost website performance. A smarter analysis in Yoast SEO PremiumYoast SEO Premium has a smart content analysis that helps you take your content to the next level! Get Yoast SEO Premium »Only $118.80 / year (ex VAT) How to measure page speed and diagnose performance issues Before you can improve your website performance, you need to know how well (or poorly) your pages are performing. Measuring your page speed helps you identify what’s slowing down your website and provides a direction for optimization. What is page speed, really? Page speed refers to how quickly your website’s content loads and becomes usable. But it’s not as simple as saying, ‘My website loads in 4 seconds.’ Think of it as how fast a visitor can start interacting with your site. A page might appear to load quickly, but still feel slow if buttons, videos, or images take time to respond. That’s why website performance isn’t defined by one single metric — it’s about the overall user experience. Did you know? There is a difference between page speed and site speed. Page speed measures how fast a single page loads, while site speed reflects your website’s overall performance. Since every page behaves differently, measuring site speed is a more challenging task. Simply put, if most pages on your website perform well in terms of Core Web Vitals, it is considered fast. Core metrics that define website performance Core Web Vitals are Google’s standard for evaluating how real users experience your website. These metrics focus on the three most important aspects of page experience: loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Improving them helps both your search visibility and your user satisfaction. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes for the main content on your page to load. Aim for LCP within 2.5 seconds for a smooth loading experience Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Replaces the older First Input Delay metric and measures how quickly your site responds to user interactions like taps, clicks, or key presses. An INP score under 200 milliseconds ensures your site feels responsive and intuitive Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Tracks how stable your content remains while loading. Elements shifting on screen can frustrate users, so keep CLS below 0.1 for a stable visual experience How to interpret and improve your scores Perfection is not the target. Progress and user comfort are what count. If you notice issues in your Core Web Vitals report, here are some practical steps: If your LCP is slow: Compress images, serve modern formats like WebP, use lazy loading, or upgrade hosting to reduce load times If your INP score is high: Reduce heavy JavaScript execution, minimize unused scripts, and avoid main thread blocking If your CLS score is poor: Set defined width and height for images, videos, and ad containers so the layout does not jump around while loading If your TTFB is high: Time to First Byte is not a Core Web Vital, but it still impacts loading speed. Improve server performance, use caching, and consider a CDN Remember that even small improvements create a noticeable difference. Faster load times, stable layouts, and quicker interactions directly contribute to a smoother experience that users appreciate and search engines reward. Tools to measure and analyze your website’s performance Here are some powerful tools that help you measure, analyze, and improve your page loading speed: Google PageSpeed Insights Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that provides both lab data (simulated results) and field data (real-world user experiences). It evaluates your page’s Core Web Vitals, highlights problem areas, and even offers suggestions under ‘Opportunities’ to improve load times. Google Search Console (Page Experience Report) The ‘Page Experience’ section gives you an overview of how your URLs perform for both mobile and desktop users. It groups URLs that fail Core Web Vitals, helping you identify whether you need to improve LCP, FID, or CLS scores. Lighthouse (in Chrome DevTools) Lighthouse is a built-in auditing tool in Chrome that measures page speed, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. It’s great for developers who want deeper insights into what’s affecting site performance. WebPageTest WebPage Test lets you test how your website performs across various networks, locations, and devices. Its ‘waterfall’ view shows exactly when each asset on your site loads, perfect for spotting slow resources or scripts that delay rendering. Chrome Developer Tools (Network tab) If you’re hands-on, Chrome DevTools is your real-time lab. Open your site, press F12, and monitor how each resource loads. It’s perfect for debugging and understanding what’s happening behind the scenes. A quick checklist for diagnosing performance issues Use this checklist whenever you’re analyzing your website performance: Run your URL through PageSpeed Insights for Core Web Vitals data Check your Page Experience report in Google Search Console Use Lighthouse for a detailed technical audit Review your WebPageTest waterfall to spot bottlenecks Monitor your server performance (ask your host or use plugins like Query Monitor) Re-test after every major update or plugin installation Speed up, but with purpose As Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘There is more to life than increasing its speed.’ The same goes for your website. While optimizing speed is vital for better engagement, search rankings, and conversions, it is equally important to focus on creating an experience that feels effortless and meaningful to your visitors. A truly high-performing website strikes a balance between speed, usability, accessibility, and user intent. When your pages load quickly, your content reads clearly, and your navigation feels intuitive, you create more than just a fast site; you create a space where visitors want to stay, explore, and connect. The post From slow to super fast: how to boost site speed the right way appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

Google has confirmed it is testing a feature to import campaigns and assets from X and other social networks into your Google Ads campaign. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, confirmed this on LinkedIn yesterday. View the full article

Google will be updating its Unacceptable phone number policy on December 10, 2025 and that update is causing some anxiety for some advertisers. The policy update says that "phone numbers found to be associated with fraudulent activity or with a history of policy violations are unacceptable."View the full article

Two ways to significantly boost the success of brand mention and link building campaigns The post Overcoming Skepticism In Brand Mention And Link Building Campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

TfL says changes needed to ensure scheme remains effective at managing trafficView the full article

Your pennies are now collector’s items. The last penny was minted Wednesday at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, spelling the end of America’s longest-running coin design. More than Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it’s sculptor and medalist Victor David Brenner’s profile of Abraham Lincoln on the humble penny that’s actually believed to be the most-reproduced piece of art in the history of the world: the U.S. Mint estimates some 300 billion pennies remain in circulation. And even though no new pennies will be minted, the coin will remain legal tender—good news for those inclined to give a penny, take a penny at their local gas station. The penny’s rise to government-issued pop art status begins in 1793 when the Mint’s first one-cent coin went into circulation. That first copper coin showed an image of a long-haired woman representing liberty, a design element that was mandated by law. The Coinage Act of 1792 required coins have an “impression emblematic of liberty,” though it was later changed, paving the way for Lincoln to be featured. The design of the reverse side of the first one-cent coins in 1793 showed a chain of 15 links representing the 15 states in the Union at the time, but the links were swapped out for a wreath in later coins because the chains were misinterpreted for symbolizing slavery, according to the Mint. The Mint says early coins from before 1909 showed personifications of liberty in the form of a woman rather than showing U.S. presidents in part because some lawmakers thought putting the head of state on a coin was too similar to the U.K. where the monarch is pictured on currency. Wiki Commons In 1909, then-President Teddy Roosevelt marked the occasion of Lincoln’s 100th birthday by putting his likeness on the penny. Roosevelt selected the rendering by Brenner, a Jewish, Lithuanian immigrant who was then considered one of the best relief artists in the country, and who had designed a bas-relief of Lincoln based on a photo by Mathew Brady. It was the first time a President’s likeness appeared on a U.S. coin. Since Lincoln took over, the reverse or “tails” side of the penny has rotated through different designs, including an image of the Lincoln Memorial by Frank Gasparro from 1959 to 2008. After that, the Mint introduced four designs representing Lincoln’s life in 2009 for his 200th birthday, like a log cabin, followed by the “Union Shield” to symbolize Lincoln preserving the Union in 2010. The Mint says the cost of producing a single penny has risen from 1.42 cents in 2015 to 3.69 cents in 2025, and President Donald The President said in February he asked the Treasury Department to stop producing new pennies. With the billions of pennies still in circulation, it will be some time before Brenner’s famed Lincoln portrait will completely be history. Even if you melted down every penny on Earth, you couldn’t get rid of it, because in 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover took one to Mars. View the full article

Denying reality is one of the most persistent, successful strategies in Donald The President’s playbook. It helped him inject ambiguity into an electoral defeat in 2020, dismiss his surging unpopularity more broadly, and contend he never said things he actually said on live television. Some aspects of reality, however, are simply undeniable, such as the amount of money in one’s bank account and how far it will go at the supermarket. Nevertheless, since Democratic politicians like Zohran Mamdani won big on November 4 with a message of affordability, The President has been falsely insisting America has seldom been more affordable than it is right now. It’s a messaging strategy that may prove an even bigger miscalculation than The President’s galactically fuzzy tariff math. “The reason I don’t want to talk about affordability is because everybody knows that it’s far less expensive under The President than it was under Sleepy Joe Biden,” The President said on November 7 during a summit with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The president has also insisted recently that “every price is down,” “gas is nearly $2,” and energy and inflation are both “way down.” It should go without saying, of course, that none of this is true. And even some of the president’s historically reality-challenged supporters are taking notice. High prices are getting harder to hide Grocery prices are up, with record costs for beef and coffee. Gas prices are hovering around $3, having not come close to $2 since March 2020. Electricity bills are up 11%, and inflation in October 2025 was at 3%—up from 2.6% a year prior. Also, while The President keeps touting Walmart’s reduced price on its Thanksgiving dinner this year, he refuses to acknowledge the sale is due to the company including less food in this year’s meal and a higher proportion of products from its Great Value private brand compared to name brands. (When an NBC reporter asked The President about this discrepancy, he dismissed her question as “fake news.”) As the high-spending holiday season approaches, and as people prepare to watch their health insurance premiums rise, it’s only going to get harder for The President to maintain his sunny economic forecast without his supporters noticing the thunderstorms just outside their own financial window. It might temporarily help The President’s case that due to the government shutdown the U.S. will have to wait a while to get fresh economic data. Still, plenty of other economic indicators abound. The labor market appears to be weakening amid slow job growth and massive layoffs. Consumer sentiment has slumped to its lowest levels since mid-2022—around the time inflation hit a 40-year high under Biden. The share of first-time homebuyers has fallen to a record low of 21% this year. Even The President’s Treasury secretary, billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, conceded “There are sectors of the economy that are in recession,” which may or may not have earned him a private tongue-lashing for the ages. And one economic indicator that should especially concern the president is the uncharacteristically adversarial interview he faced on Fox News this week. A new angle from Ingraham Laura Ingraham is typically one of The President’s staunchest defenders on the network, where there is steep competition for the title. On November 10, though, she pushed back against the president’s claim that the economy is “as strong as it’s ever been,” asking why people are anxious about it if that’s the case. Elsewhere, she questioned the wisdom of his recent move to raise the 30-year mortgage to a 50-year one, and threw shade at the constellation of chintzy gold nonsense now festooning the Oval Office, asking whether it came from Home Depot. Before getting too carried away with the significance of this interview, it should be noted that Ingraham went right back to vehemently defending The President hours later. Not all The President supporters will likely have their concerns as easily assuaged, though. It would be one thing if The President simply deflected blame for high costs in 2025. He could trot out any flavor of low-effort spin pinning high electricity bills and persistent inflation on those dastardly Democrats, whose unfair and possibly illegal shutdown wrecked an otherwise perfect economy. But doing so would mean acknowledging that his vast and sundry collection of campaign promises about bringing down prices have gone largely unfulfilled. Faced with the prospect of accountability, he is instead once again denying reality. As of November 11, for instance, the White House was boasting about positive economic data cherry-picked from the inaugural DoorDash State of Local Commerce Report, citing its four-item “Breakfast Basics Index” with the mic-drop confidence of total vindication. People of all political stripes will occasionally swallow lies from their leaders like bitter pills, but sticker shock tends to be spin-proof. Although the economic outlook was indeed rosy for Biden in 2024, the former president had a hard time conveying as much to people hit hard by inflation. The reality in grocery stores looked a lot different than what some economic forecasters were reading in the tea leaves, giving plenty of single-issue voters a case of cognitive dissonance. But if Biden faced a vibecession, The President could be fomenting a real one. The gulf has widened between what the administration is saying and what people are experiencing—and The President’s cratering approval ratings suggest that those feelings are bipartisan. Whenever The President finally switches gears from denying reality to casting blame, some of his cash-strapped supporters won’t buy it. Believing the president might be something they literally can’t afford to do. View the full article

As AI transforms how users search for information online, we all face a new challenge: ensuring our content is visible and impactful within emerging AI platforms. While traditional SEO tactics remain crucial, brands must also embrace AI SEO to truly excel. By optimizing content for AI systems, brands can ensure they stand out in AI-generated responses and large language models (LLMs) like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT. Ninety percent of businesses are concerned about losing SEO visibility as AI reshapes search, according to a recent survey. The same report also found that 61.2% of businesses plan to increase their SEO budgets due to the growing influence of AI. However, many are unsure which strategies to prioritize. To navigate this evolving landscape, it’s essential to focus on five key factors that can significantly enhance your AI search visibility. These five factors are well-established industry “pillars” of technical AI SEO and will be crucial for optimizing your content and standing out in the AI-driven search ecosystem. 5 key factors to focus on to boost visibility in AI search results 1. Content retrievability: Ensure AI can find your content Content retrievability refers to how easily AI systems can find, extract, and attribute information from your content. In simple terms, it measures how discoverable your content is by AI crawlers and indexing systems. If AI systems can’t access or accurately extract your content, it will never show up in generative answers. Without visibility in these AI-powered search results, your brand may miss a significant opportunity for engagement and increased visibility. Content that is easily retrievable ensures AI systems can pull relevant data, making your content more quotable and impactful in response generation. To improve content retrievability: Use semantic chunking to group related ideas together. Structure your pages with clear headings, concise bullet points, and organized sections. Optimize multimodal content, such as images and videos, to enhance discoverability by AI systems. Pages with implemented schema markup have 40% higher click-through rate than those without, according to a study by Schema App. Additionally, multimodal optimization is becoming increasingly crucial as AI systems evolve to understand and process a variety of content formats. Source: Example of video schema markup using Clip properties 2. Content alignment: Speak the language of AI Content alignment focuses on how well your content matches the way people ask questions in AI-powered search environments. AI systems favor content that provides clear, direct answers to users’ questions, especially those that align with conversational queries. If your content doesn’t align with how people naturally phrase their queries, in a conversational manner, it may not be included in generative search results. Structuring your content to reflect common user queries increases the likelihood that AI will use your content in response generation. To improve content alignment: Include direct answers or summaries at the beginning of your pages to provide AI with a quick, quotable response. Use a conversational tone and mirror the natural language of your target audience. Maintain consistent terminology and definitions to reduce ambiguity and improve AI comprehension. Informational content is most likely to trigger AI Overviews, according to a recent study by Semrush: 88.1% of queries that trigger an AI Overview are informational. Source: Semrush AI Overviews study 3. Competitive differentiation: Stand out from the crowd Competitive differentiation measures the uniqueness and value of your content compared to that of your competitors. In the AI search ecosystem, your content must offer something distinct, whether it’s new data, unique insights, or a fresh perspective on a topic. AI systems aim to provide the most relevant and valuable information to users. If your content echoes what competitors are already saying, AI has no reason to highlight your brand over theirs. To stand out, your content must offer a unique value proposition that fills gaps competitors may have missed. To improve competitive differentiation: Focus on presenting unique data or case studies that others don’t cover. Provide fresh perspectives, industry insights, or expert opinions that make your content stand out. Create content that answers niche questions that your competitors have overlooked. In a recent AI SEO report, the Content Marketing Institute found that 22% of B2B marketers characterize the success of their content marketing as extremely or very successful. These top performers most often attribute their success to understanding their audience. Source: Content Marketing Institute Study 4. Authority signals: Build trust with AI systems Authority signals are markers that demonstrate the credibility and trustworthiness of your content. AI systems want to trust that content is from reliable, authoritative sources. These signals typically include source citations, verifiable credentials, and consistent, quality content from trusted authorities. Without authority signals, even highly insightful content may be overlooked in favor of competitors that have more established trust with AI systems. By building authority signals, you position your brand as the go-to source that AI systems can trust and confidently cite in generative results. Examples: Include consistent, authoritative source citations (e.g., from reputable publications, academic studies, or industry experts). Showcase your company’s credentials, certifications, and other markers of authority. Gain backlinks and media mentions to enhance your brand’s overall credibility. The top results in Google had at least three times more backlinks than positions 2-10, according to a recent study from Backlinko. This highlights the importance Google places on authority in the top position in search engine results. Backlinko Study shows how pages with more backlinks rank above those with fewer backlinks 5. Entity mapping: Connect the dots for AI Entity mapping refers to how effectively your content enables AI systems to understand the relationships between key entities – such as people, products, organizations, or concepts – within your content. AI systems build knowledge graphs to map these entities, and content that clearly identifies and links them helps AI understand the larger context of your information. Unlike traditional search engines, AI systems rely on knowledge graphs to build context and meaning. If your content doesn’t clearly identify entities or their relationships, it risks being overlooked. Strong entity mapping ensures your content fits seamlessly into AI’s understanding of the world, making it more likely to be surfaced in AI-driven answers. To increase entity mapping: Explicitly name and link key entities (e.g., people, products, organizations) within your content. Use consistent terminology to describe entities across all your content. Build a semantically related internal linking strategy to strengthen connections between related entities. In a controlled experiment comparing two identical websites for a fictional company, one implemented comprehensive schema markup and the other did not. ChatGPT demonstrated that the site with schema markup outperformed its counterpart by 30% in AI-driven retrieval and citation quality. AI visibility goes beyond traditional SEO In the era of AI-driven search, your brand’s visibility and influence in AI-generated results are crucial. By optimizing for five key factors – content retrievability, content alignment, competitive differentiation, authority signals, and entity mapping – you can ensure your brand remains discoverable and stands out. As AI continues to accelerate in search, partnering with the right SEO agency will be crucial for staying visible in 2026 and beyond. An agency with a strong foundation in traditional SEO, coupled with proven strategies and a framework for AI SEO, will ensure your brand not only adapts to the changing landscape but leads the charge. With AI transforming the way users find information, working with experts who understand both traditional SEO and AI SEO will be key to sustaining your competitive edge and securing long-term visibility. View the full article

How do you explain the laws of physics to a toddler? A new children’s book, titled Simple Machines Made Simple, wants to demystify mechanical engineering for kids as young as a year old. It recently beat its Kickstarter goal by 700%—raising more than seven times its target. It will be available to ship early next year. But Simple Machines Made Simple isn’t your typical picture book. Instead of drawings, the book features working models that kids can interact with, like spinning a wheel, sliding a knob up an inclined plane, and pushing a wedge into a block that splits into two. The kids may not graduate with a physics degree, but they might come away with a curiosity for the world around them. “Maybe they can’t explain it, but it starts to build intuition for how things work,” says Chase Roberts, a computer engineer who created the book. Roberts, who spent the better part of a decade making phone apps, moved away from technology in 2021 to more tangible objects that can teach kids basic and useful skills. His first book, Computer Engineering for Babies (2021), used buttons and LEDs to explain to kids how computers “think” by teaching them basic logic gates like NOT, AND, OR, and XOR. The sequel, Computer Engineering for Big Babies (2023), swapped buttons for rocker switches and introduced more LEDs to challenge slightly older readers. Roberts was planning a third sequel when he caught one of his three young children catapulting cereal off a spoon one morning. The idea for a book about mechanical engineering was born. Book vs. machine Sooner or later, our children will find out they can learn how something works by simply prompting ChatGPT or asking Gemini. What, then, is the point of teaching them how pulleys or wedges or even computers work? For Roberts, it’s about instilling fundamental skills from a young age. “We still learn to add and multiply even though we have calculators,” he says. “My kids in elementary school are learning how to multiply and divide on paper because we’ve decided it’s still important.” To help both kids and parents look for “simple machines” in their everyday lives, Roberts has included examples for each machine in the book. Wheels appear in scooters, roller skates, and pizza slicers. Escalators and ramps are nothing but inclined planes. Shovels, knives, and axes act as wedges. “Being able to play with these machines, all together in one place, we’re giving it a name and drawing attention to how magical they are,” he says. “It’s pretty amazing that we figured out these ways to leverage the world. There’s this [lever] you can’t turn, but if we add a huge rod to it, it’s not that hard.” Making engineering fun Roberts’s books appear to have struck a chord. “I get emails from people all the time saying ‘This is my daughter’s favorite book,’” he says, even though his actual target audience is less the kids but the adults who buy the books for them. More often than not, his target audience is made up of engineers. In fact, Computer Engineering for Babies went viral after Roberts posted about the book on Reddit, specifically the Arduino subreddit, where people discuss everything related to the popular microcontroller that Roberts used in his first book. “I thought, Those are my people. If anybody’s going to appreciate it, it’s these guys.” According to Roberts, his books tend to resonate with engineers not only because they speak the same language but also because they manage to repackage complex systems into something fun that engineers can finally share with their kids. As it turns out, the best way to teach kids how things work is to play with them. View the full article

WordPress 6.9 will introduce the new Abilities API which makes it possible for advanced integration of AI through plugins and themes. The post Why WordPress 6.9 Abilities API Is Consequential And Far-Reaching appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Data is an omnipresent facet of modern existence, yet the current discourse around it is often too technical, academic, and inaccessible to the average person. Speak Data, the book I’ve just published with my coauthor Phillip Cox, emerges from more than 15 years of living and working with data, both as designers and as human beings. Instead of a textbook or how-to manual for designers, we imagined a more accessible exploration of the human side of data, enlivened by the perspectives of experts and practitioners from many disciplines—from medicine and science to art, culture, and advocacy. In an era when we are all talking about AI, the climate crisis, surveillance and privacy, and how technology shapes our choices, we wanted to reframe data not as something cold or distant, but as something deeply personal: a tool we (as human beings) can wield to understand ourselves and the world better. The book explores what we call Data Humanism, an approach that brings context, nuance, narrative, and imperfection back to the center of how we collect, design, and communicate data. In this excerpt, organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant reflects on how we interpret and communicate data, especially in moments of uncertainty, and why stories and emotions are just as essential to understanding information as statistics themselves. Adam Grant is the Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management and Professor of Psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Yet that impressive title barely covers the full breadth of his activities. Adam is an academic researcher, an award-winning teacher, a best-selling author, a podcaster, and a public intellectual. He’s interested in big human topics like motivation, generosity, rethinking, and potential. He’s also the author of six books, including the best-selling Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. In this conversation, Adam talks about learning lessons from the pandemic; datum versus data; and how abstract numbers can lead to very real human outcomes. As a psychologist studying organizational behavior, data is a tool that you use every day. What do you think people get wrong about data the most? People often have a very hard time accepting data that challenge their intuition or experience. I always want to tell them that if the evidence disagrees with your experience, you shouldn’t immediately say the data are wrong. It might be that you’re an outlier, that your experience is not representative, and the data are actually revealing a trend that you simply don’t fit. A lot of my work relates to how people interpret social science research, because that’s where I confront the general public. One thing I see a lot is people reading a study and then figuring, well, that study was done with a sample of only a few thousand people in this industry or that country, and dismissing the results because of that. This is basic confirmation bias and desirability bias. You shouldn’t trust your personal opinion over rigorous evidence gathered across many people. In an article you wrote for The Guardian, you describe arguing with a friend on the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. You wrote, “I had fallen victim to what psychologists call binary bias. It’s when we take a complex spectrum and oversimplify it into two categories. If we want to have better arguments, we need to look for the shades of grey.” This is more or less what you’re talking about. With all that in mind, what is the utility of data? The analogy I use is medicine. Today we have evidence-based medicine, but once upon a time, medical professionals tried to solve problems via bloodletting and lobotomies. Thanks to randomized controlled trials and careful longitudinal studies, we now have much safer and more reliable treatments. With evidence-based medicine, people are living longer and are healthier. So now look at how we interpret data from medicine. If you were to summarize all the randomized controlled trials of the average effect of ibuprofen on pain reduction and express the findings in the form of a correlation from -1 to +1, most people would think the correlation would be 0.7 or 0.8. After all, we have a lot of Advil in the world. But in actuality, an analysis showed that the average correlation was 0.14. That’s shockingly low to a lot of people, but the fact that it’s a small effect doesn’t mean it’s insignificant. That’s the first lesson: Patterns in data do not have to be large to be consequential. You play that effect out over millions and millions of people, and a lot of people will benefit. And that benefit will be widely distributed. Secondly, the treatment doesn’t have the same effect on everyone. There are contingencies. So instead of asking whether Advil is effective, we want to ask: For whom is it effective? When is it effective? This question of when and for whom allows us to look at the data and say: This is real, but only under certain circumstances. Now we need to know how widespread those circumstances are. This is real for some people. What are the commonalities of those people? The last lesson from medicine is that what’s effective evolves over time. The problems we’re trying to treat can change. We need to update our evidence and ask: What are the best available data on any given question or for solving a given problem? Is there a reason why what was true 10, 20, 30 years ago may not apply today? I would still rather base my opinions on strong evidence that’s old than no evidence at all, but we need to keep an eye on how things evolve as our contexts change. Exactly. What’s the context? What are the nuances? Data is a snapshot in time. Tomorrow, or in a month, things might be different. Especially when we see data represented in a very definite and defined way, we assume it has absolute power to always represent a situation. This became a problem during the pandemic, of course. I think the biggest pandemic takeaway regarding the role of data is that experts and public officials did a remarkably terrible job communicating about uncertainty and contingency. I should have known it was going to happen. Chapter 8 in my book Think Again, which I wrote before the pandemic, was about how you don’t lose trust when you say, “More research needs to be done,” or “Here are the initial conclusions, but there are conditions under which they may not hold,” or “Here is what our initial trials suggest. Once we’ve done more trials, we’ll update our conclusions.” And let people know what that process looks like and how the scientific research is not only done, but accumulated. This is probably the most useful thing I’ve said to a friend of mine who is very skeptical about vaccines after three-plus years of debate. He would say to me, “One study says this and one study says the opposite!” My response is that you shouldn’t weigh both sides equally. You should weigh strong evidence more heavily than weak evidence. We need to be much more nuanced in how we communicate. We need to clarify where there’s uncertainty. We need to highlight where there are contingencies. We need to be as open about what we don’t know as about what we do know. One of the things we saw during COVID-19 is that source credibility dominates message credibility. People will believe a weak argument from someone they trust much more readily than a strong argument from someone they don’t trust. One of the ways you become a trusted source is by very clearly admitting your uncertainty, showing intellectual humility, and expressing doubt where appropriate. I hope we don’t have to keep relearning that lesson over and over again. What’s your personal definition of data? Data are information gathered through systematic and rigorous observation. We love that you say data are. To us as well, data is plural. A datum, or a data point, is one piece of information. Data are the collections of those observations. To change the subject slightly, you’ve spoken in the past about the relative power of data versus stories to influence people and change minds. This is also something we think a lot about in our work. When do you think a really powerful statistic is appropriate, versus when a human story is going to be more effective? And when can they be combined? It’s a false dichotomy to say they can’t be combined. My point of view on the responsible use of stories is that we should start with the data and then find stories that illuminate the data. Stories are often more effective at evoking emotion. They allow us to distance ourselves from our own perspectives a bit. In addition to immersing ourselves in the narrative, they immerse us in a character. We get transported into stories, and we tend to experience them more than we evaluate them. Sometimes that can make people less rigorous in scrutinizing data, and that becomes a problem when the stories aren’t guided by data. The more surprising data are, the more likely they are to capture attention. If you have data that challenge people’s intuition, you’re much more likely to pique their curiosity. But you have to be careful, because, as the sociologist Murray Davis wrote in his classic paper “That’s Interesting!,” people are intrigued when you challenge their weakly held intuitions, whereas they get defensive when you question their strongly held intuitions. So there’s nuance there. From a visual perspective, we try to anchor stories in more aggregated data, but then disaggregate them by pulling out a couple of data points that can explain the context. By doing this in a narrative way, it can become more accessible, like a plot of a book. That’s really fascinating. Another way to tell a story about data is to start with what people would expect, then lead them to overturning their assumptions. People often find that journey revealing and enlightening, and it can become an emotional arc. Yet another thing I’ve learned is to present a surprising result and then ask people how they would explain it. It opens their minds quite a bit: they generate reasons they find persuasive, and thus become active participants in the dialogue. Instead of preaching your view or prosecuting theirs, you engage them in the process of thinking like a scientist and generating hypotheses. I quite enjoy that. View the full article

Social media was never just a one-way broadcast channel. A holistic social media strategy includes creating useful, entertaining content and building a community. But you can’t connect with your audience if you’re not responding to comments, ignoring direct messages (DMs), and skipping brand mentions. If you’re here, you already understand why engagement matters. Most creators and small business owners struggle with: Lack of time to reply and engageScattered notifications on multiple platformsAbsence of systems makes engaging feel overwhelmingThat’s where social media engagement tools come in. They help you stay on top of your notifications across channels, collaborate with your internal team members, and participate in brand-related conversations without drowning in manual effort. In this article, we’ll explore 11 social media engagement tools designed to help you stay connected with your audience — consistently and seamlessly — no matter how busy you get. The best social media engagement tools: 1. Community in Buffer — Best social media engagement tool for creators and small businesses 2. Sprout Social — Best social media engagement tool for detecting unusual spikes 3. NapoleonCat — Best social media engagement tool for customer service 4. Manychat — Best social media engagement tool for automating direct messages 5. Sked Social — Best social media engagement tool for agencies 6. Eclincher — Best social media engagement tool for inbox analytics 7. Agorapulse — Best social media engagement tool for responding to ad comments 8. BrandBastion — Best social media engagement platform for multilingual comment moderation 9. Siftsy — Best social media engagement platform for getting insights on your comment section 10. Hootsuite — Best social media engagement platform for enterprise companies 11. CommentGuard — Best social media engagement platform for comment moderation on Facebook and Instagram 1. Community in BufferBest social media engagement tool for creators and small businessesFree plan/trial: Free plan available for up to 3 social media channels. Price: Plans begin at $6/month/channel. Buffer is a social media management tool designed to make engagement feel calm and manageable rather than chaotic and overwhelming. Community, Buffer's engagement dashboard, has all the key features you’d need: You get an alert for all the comments on your posts You can save replies to answer frequently asked questionsYou can filter comments based on unanswered, newest, or oldestYou can choose to reply to comments natively or directly using BufferYou can engage with your audience on the go using the Buffer mobile appYou can manage conversations across multiple social networks, including Threads, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook, and InstagramBonus: Buffer is one of the only social media management platforms that has habit-building features to boost engagement. You get a ‘comment score’ that tracks your consistency and speed over a period of time — ensuring you make social media engagement a ritual. Buffer’s AI assistant picks up on your voice to help you respond to your audience more efficiently, without losing that human touch. The AI assistant also helps you get comment insights to practice sentiment analysis. You can ask the AI to spot: If your posts are attracting new commentersWhich posts are sparking the most conversationWhat topics are getting an emotional reaction from your audienceMy favorite feature is the ability to create a new post from one of your comments. Often, engaging with your audience sparks content ideas and you can turn those ideas into posts directly from Buffer. It’s social listening in action, but a lot smoother and faster than the manual way. Of course, Buffer is about more than engagement — it’s an all-in-one social media marketing tool that helps you schedule posts, track performance, collaborate with your team members, build your link-in-bio page, and so much more. And it has a free version (with affordable paid plan options), so you aren’t creating a hole in your pocket in exchange for smoother, faster social media management. ✨ Get Buffer at no cost today. 2. Sprout SocialBest social media engagement tool for detecting unusual spikesImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 30-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $199/month. Sprout Social, like Buffer, is a full-fledged social media management tool. It’s best suited for large companies because of its price and features. In its engagement features, what stands out is the real-time alerts — it pings you when there’s been an unusual spike in brand mentions. This can come in handy to maintain brand image and detect a potential crisis before it blows up. Apart from this, the platform lets you enhance your responses to customers using its AI features. You can adjust the tone to be more friendly, professional, longer, or shorter. Its AI assistant can also help you summarize consumer sentiment and prioritize important interactions where you need to respond more urgently. Sprout Social also integrates with review websites, including the Apple App Store, Yelp, Google My Business, and Salesforce Service Cloud. This means you can use one software to ensure customer satisfaction across multiple channels. You can even create team reports to understand how quickly your support reps are responding to queries raised via social media. All of these engagement capabilities are in addition to access to social media metrics, the ability to schedule posts across platforms, practice social listening, and even run influencer marketing campaigns. The drawback is because of its cost and extensive feature set, Sprout Social is not a right fit for creators or small teams — it’s best for enterprise orgs that want to run various kinds of digital marketing campaigns using a single tool. 3. NapoleonCatBest social media engagement tool for customer serviceImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 14-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $89/month for two users and five social media profiles. NapoleonCat can help you schedule posts, analyze social media performance, and create reports. But where it truly shines is the customer service area. If you handle a ton of customer concerns on social media platforms, this might be the best tool to manage them. For starters, it has a dedicated social media CRM so you have all the historical customer conversations in one place. You or your team members can add internal notes, comments, and relationship sentiment to add the full context in a jiffy. This feature alone can help you significantly boost your brand reputation. Beyond this, NapoleonCat also aces sentiment analysis, has a unified inbox, and scalable collaboration features. The only drawback is its supplementing features (creating social media posts, built-in analytics, etc.) might not suffice as a one-stop social media management tool. Try NapoleonCat for free. 4. ManychatBest social media engagement tool for automating direct messagesImage sourceFree plan/trial: Free plan available for up to 1,000 chats. Price: Plans start at $15/month for up to 500 chats and increase as your number of DMs grows. Ever saw one of those posts where creators ask their audience to comment “link” or something specific to receive a free resource? Manychat helps automate those direct messages for creators and businesses. Currently, Manychat supports only three social media platforms: Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook Messenger. It’s also available for messaging tools like WhatsApp and Telegram. Manychat isn’t a traditional social engagement tool; it helps you do some very specific tasks. But it’s an excellent software you can add to your tech stack to increase engagement. It prevents comments and DMs from piling up and acts as your support rep 24/7. You can also use this tool to auto-reply to incoming messages that ask FAQs. It’s really simple to set up DM automations, too — you can get it up and running in just a few clicks. Try Manychat for free. 5. Sked SocialBest social media engagement tool for agenciesImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 14-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $59/month for three social media accounts. Sked Social is designed for agencies managing multiple brands across various social channels. Yes, it has a single inbox for all comments, DMs, and brand mentions. But it also has excellent collaborative tools, allowing you to check in with your clients before responding to anything you’re unsure about. You can assign tasks to different team members, tag stakeholders for approval, and leave internal comments. The best part is it has unlimited seats for each plan. So, even if you’re a small agency, you can add unlimited team members to your account. In addition to its community management features, Sked Social also has agency-friendly workflows to schedule social media posts, get detailed analytics, practice social listening, and conduct competitive analysis. Each feature has built-in approval systems that help you collaborate smoothly with internal team members and external clients. My favorite feature is storing user-generated content (UGC) received via tagged posts or brand mentions directly in your Sked Library. Collecting UGC becomes so much easier. Try Sked Social for free. 6. EclincherBest social media engagement tool for inbox analyticsImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 14-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $149/month for ten social media profiles (but only one brand) and one user. Eclincher is another agency-friendly tool, but its specialty is inbox analytics. It’d be more suited for teams or agencies that need detailed analytics on their inbox performance. The Inbox Report in Eclicher gives data like: Response time, bifurcated by each team memberNumber of incoming messages in your inbox per dayCompleted vs. open items in your inbox per dayBusiest time for your inboxYou can further filter this data to get granular analytics. For example, you can compare how many messages you get for each social channel you’re on to see which network’s DMs are the most active. Similarly, you can bifurcate team performance by completed time vs. first response time. There’s a lot more when you dive in there. Apart from advanced inbox analytics, Eclincher also has a unified inbox to help you respond to DMs more quickly and effectively. The only con is the tool doesn’t have these in-depth analytics for the comment section. You can also use this tool for complete social media management — create a content calendar and schedule posts, run social media campaigns, and track overall performance. But Eclincher’s price makes it a better fit for agencies managing multiple accounts. Try Eclincher for free. 7. AgorapulseBest social media engagement tool for responding to ad commentsImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 30-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $99/user/month. Agorapulse is a social media management software that can do a host of tasks, but it’s one of the few tools I found that can help you respond to ad comments across multiple social channels — specifically, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. When you reply to ad comments with links, you can also use UTM tracking to ensure accurate attribution of clicks and sales. If you’re running ads on social media, it’s crucial to track conversations surrounding those paid advertisements — especially negative comments, as they can hurt your overall performance. Using Agorapulse combines all comments (organic or paid) under one roof, so nothing falls through the cracks. Note that Agorapulse can display comments under ads, but it can’t measure your ad’s performance overall. You’ll still need a third-party tool for that. Try Agorapulse for free. 8. BrandBastion Best social media engagement platform for multilingual comment moderationImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 15-day free trial. Price: Not publicly available. Imagine going viral and being unable to keep track of comments — not just because of the volume, but because your post has reached a different corner of the globe. BrandBastion can prove extremely useful in ensuring your comment section remains clean and aligned with your values. BrandBastion has a proprietary AI technology built on millions of social conversations and trained across 109 languages. It can detect nuance, context, sarcasm, and subtlety within your comment section without you lifting a finger. What also stood out for me was their agency model. You can partner with them to practice social engagement on your behalf using the same tool. Another notable offering is their outbound engagement service — BrandBastion practices trend tracking for your industry, allowing you to participate in relevant social conversations while they’re still popular. Book a demo with BrandBastion. 9. SiftsyBest social media engagement platform for getting insights on your comment sectionImage sourceFree plan/trial: Not publicly available. Price: Not publicly available. Siftsy is a social engagement tool specifically built for your comment section. All you have to do is upload a CSV file with your social media posts or drop a link. The tool will then analyze the comments to find what customers love, complain about, and want more of. There are various use cases of this tool: You can use it when one of your product-related posts goes viral to understand buyer sentimentYou can use it for social listening and market research to dissect key themes in your comment sectionYou can use it to analyze influencer content — understand how their audience interacts with them and what they say about your productsSocial media managers can also export the insights they get using Sitfsy for social media reporting. Maybe you wouldn’t need a recurring subscription of Siftsy, but you can use it once every quarter (or after specific campaigns) to deeply analyze your comment section. Book a demo with Siftsy. 10. HootsuiteBest social media engagement platform for enterprise companiesImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. Paid plans have a 30-day free trial. Price: Plans start at €99/user/month. Hootsuite is a well-known social media management tool. It can be your ultimate tool to implement a complex social media strategy, if you have the budget. Like Manychat, it can help you create DM automation workflows to engage your audienceThe customer support features are quite close to NapoleanCat, minus the extensive CRMIts in-built social listening features can help you find truly useful content ideas and understand audience sentimentThe Streams feature can help you stay on top of trending topics and monitor brand mentions, even if someone doesn’t tag youThe disadvantages are that Hootsuite has a steep learning curve — you’ll need some time to get the hang of all the features. Cost is another big factor. Most creators or small businesses don’t need so many functionalities regularly — it’s much more affordable to stitch together different tools as and when you need them. Most of Hootsuite’s best features are also tucked away in the highest tier plan. That said, if you’re an enterprise org that needs one tool to do it all and you have the budget for Hootsuite, go for it. Try Hootsuite for free. 11. CommentGuardBest social media engagement platform for comment moderation on Facebook and InstagramImage sourceFree plan/trial: No free plan. All paid plans have a 7-day free trial. Price: Plans start at $29/month including 5,000 comments. CommentGuard is a moderation tool specifically for Facebook pages and Instagram. It has a unified inbox where you can see all the comments you’ve received on your post. The tool automatically hides comments containing profanity. You can also customize the topics you don’t want to display in your comment section. It also has a few engagement-specific features like saved replies, AI-assisted responses, and setting up FAQs. If you work with an assistant or have multiple team members, you can add them at no extra cost and provide them with custom access. CommentGuard is a great choice if you want a tool specifically for comment moderation. But it’s limited to only two social channels as of writing this article (Facebook and Instagram). If these are your primary platforms and you’re spending too much of your time moderating comments, this tool is a great choice. Try CommentGuard for free. Your audience is waitingLet’s be honest, you didn’t start creating content on social media to post, ghost, and drown in notifications. No, you began this journey in hopes of building a genuine connection with your audience and finding your tribe. But it’s challenging (and overwhelming!) to do that as you grow and start managing multiple networks simultaneously. Engagement tools help you reclaim your time while increasing the quality of your engagement. No better win-win, if you ask me. If you’re a creator or a social media manager of a small business, it’s worthwhile choosing an all-in-one, affordable tool that can help check off multiple tasks from your to-do list. Instead of juggling various tools together, you can power your whole strategy using just one software. Buffer, for example, is an excellent social media management tool that’s user-friendly and not heavy on the pocket. Its community hub will become a place you’d want to come back to. Replace the chaotic notification and DM mess with a calm, central hub to manage all your social media efforts. Get started with the free plan today. View the full article

Fed Gov. Stephan Miran has spent his short tenure at the central bank arguing that disinflation in housing and immigration reforms will tamp down inflation in the near term. But other economists say the timing, degree and context of those effects is very much in question. View the full article

Motivation comes and go, but consistency is what will get you the results. That’s a principle I’ve tried to live by for as long as I can remember. For the most part, it has served me pretty well. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that being consistent while being unmotivated can be energy draining. And when mental and physical energy is lacking, it can be difficult to be consistent. Earlier this year, I found myself in a bit of a motivation rut. I’d had a very busy six months of work. As a freelancer, this is something that I’m definitely grateful for and don’t take for granted. When things started to slow down for a little bit, I figured that I would finally have the headspace to get started on some side projects and goals that had been brewing in my head. Yet despite being excited about them all, I struggled to find the energy (and motivation) to take consistent action. Identifying the source After a little bit of introspection, I suspected that two things were getting in my way. First, my emotional attachment to the goals gave me too many excuses not to start. I wanted my side projects to succeed, so I could find all sorts of reasons as to why it just wasn’t quite the right time to start. And this led to the second point: I struggled to break down the goals into smaller steps, because I couldn’t stop ruminating on what might happen if the first step didn’t work out. The solution was simple. I needed to be less emotionally invested in the outcome, and take those small steps consistently. But what’s simple isn’t always easy. After years of writing and editing about productivity, I’ve learned that sometimes you need to take the long way to get somewhere. In the past, I experienced many flow-on benefits from taking on a challenging and scary physical goal. So I committed to training for my first boxing fight. Establishing a routine and confidence The fight I signed for required me to commit to a 12-week training camp, where I trained alongside other fighters of similar level (which in my case, is extremely novice as I’d only started boxing seriously for about six months prior). For the first four weeks, I didn’t have the energy to do anything else beyond training and my freelance work. It took a little bit of time to get my body and mind to adapt to the physical load, dial in my nutrition, and understand how to recover. All so I can do it all over again the next day. But halfway through the training camp, my mind and body started to adapt. I noticed that I started to have more mental energy to work towards the side projects I’d been putting off. First, I was able to break down my goals into tiny, little, doable steps. Once I did that, I could finally start to take small actions. I also stopped overthinking about what would happen. The flow-on effects of setting a low-stakes goal I was familiar with the concept of habit-stacking, a term that means stacking new behaviors to existing habits. For example, say you have a habit of eating dinner at 6 p.m. You can “stack” going for a walk after your meal if you wanted to add some more physical activity to your day. But I wondered whether there was a similar rationale when it comes to goal-stacking. I was especially curious about the impact that setting a low-stakes goal can have on working towards a higher stakes one. Dr. Gina Cleo, habit researcher and author of The Habit Revolution, said that there is. “When we take on a low-stakes goal, like training for a boxing match or learning a new skill just for fun, it can reignite our sense of agency,” she says. “We experience progress, mastery, and momentum in one domain, which spills over into others.” “This happens because success triggers a release of dopamine, the brain’s motivation and reward chemical. Once that circuit is active, it improves focus, confidence, and willingness to take on challenges elsewhere. So a seemingly small or playful goal can become a catalyst for renewed energy and drive in the areas that feel ‘heavier’ or higher-pressure,” she goes on to say. The power of taking small actions The idea of mastery in boxing feels a long, long way away. But as a novice fighter, I’m acutely aware of every incremental and tiny progress. I’m still a few weeks away from my fight, but stacking a series of small improvements week by week has triggered a sense of momentum. I could then leverage that to take action in other parts of my life, like starting my side projects. Dr. Cleo explains, “Progress creates what psychologists call a ‘success loop.’ As you start ticking off small wins, your brain registers that you’re capable, and that confidence fuels motivation for other goals.” It was a powerful reminder that sometimes, all it takes is a series of small actions to trigger bigger ones. This is a practice that Leo Shen, engineering graduate turned elite amateur boxer (and my boxing coach), implements in his own life. For him, the foundational goal is finding small ways to control your environment. That might mean putting your running shoes and socks by your bed so that it’s easier to go for a run. Or it could look like eating a nutritious breakfast that nourishes you so you’ll continue to do the same for lunch and dinner. He says, “You create the environment where you’re more likely to be disciplined, and then everything falls into place. Once you control the environment, then it becomes a habit. You have to stack the dominoes before you can push them over.” Building a strong foundation Pursuing a challenging physical goal has forced me to do exactly that—control my environment so that I can train and recover to the best of my ability. In turn, those healthy practices have given me the mental and physical energy to make small progress on my professional goals. I know that regardless of what happens on fight night, I’ve built a foundation and a routine that I can rely on. And as a result, I’ll have the energy (and motivation) to take consistent action towards something that once felt too overwhelming to start. View the full article

College across the country may soon start seeing a much older demographic roaming their campuses. According to a report from the higher education publication Best Colleges, at least 84 public or nonprofit colleges have announced they would merge or close over the past five years. Almost half of those are outright closures, as small colleges struggle to keep up with rising costs amid falling enrollment. In many instances, the shuttering of a college means the mothballing of its campus. But while some campuses are being left idle with no future plans, a growing number are finding new life in the form of senior living facilities. That doesn’t mean just moving seniors into old dorm buildings. Some adaptation projects are showing that college campuses have room and opportunity for building reuse and building redesign to accommodate the special needs of senior residents. “College sites are absolutely prime because they have a slightly larger scale, they have infrastructure running to them, and they have open space that can be utilized,” says Sargent C. Gardiner, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, who has worked on multiple college campus adaptation projects. One of the firm’s most recent projects is the Newbury of Brookline, a luxury senior living community in Massachusetts built from and around the former buildings of Newbury College, which shuttered in 2019. Located just outside Boston, the campus centered around a historic mansion and had been used by the college since the early 1980s. Now, that historic mansion has been joined by a newly constructed six-story building that holds 159 units of independent, assisted, and memory care living facilities for seniors. Amenities include an indoor saltwater pool, a fitness center, art rooms, and a rooftop bar. Operated by Kisco Senior Living, the Newbury of Brookline has monthly rents that start at $10,000. This project is part of a trend in higher education, particularly at smaller colleges, which are turning to real estate development as a way of buttressing their bottom line, or, in the case of closed colleges, finding entirely new lives. In dozens of projects across the country, colleges are turning over parts of their campuses for redevelopment as housing, and often senior housing. Old buildings, new use On the campus of the State University of New York’s Purchase College, a new senior living facility recently opened that includes 174 independent living apartments, 46 villas, 36 assisted-living residences, and 32 memory care suites. In Denver, the closed Johnson & Wales University is now home to 154 units of affordable housing. More are likely on the way. Wells College in Aurora, New York, closed in June and one of the proposals for the property includes housing. Meanwhile, senior housing is also on the table for the campus of the College of Saint Rose, in Albany, New York, which closed in 2024. On the campus of the former Newbury College, Gardiner says the project was carefully designed to fit into the campus and mesh with the existing facilities. It was also important to blend the architecture with the surrounding community, which has many historic buildings and classical building styles. “There are a lot of people embedded in the neighborhood that really care about the neighborhood, and really care about the architectural character. They don’t want to see it ruined,” Gardiner says. “It was very clear from the very beginning that they needed somebody that could talk the talk of regional architectural languages.” Robert A.M. Stern Architects, one of the foremost classical architecture firms in the U.S., has deep experience designing new buildings that fit their context. But while the central building of the former college campus is a historic mansion, the site itself has been a college for decades. That gave the architects the leeway to design a building with the look and feel of the historic structures in the area, but at a more institutional scale. Uniquely, the building is much taller than its neighbors. “The central portion of it rises to six stories, which is unheard of in many senior living areas, especially in a suburban neighborhood,” says Gardiner. “But going up was the key to this project.” It was able to accommodate a significant amount of units while preserving open space and a stand of old growth trees. “That allowed the project to just nestle in and sort of feel like it was always here,” Gardiner says. The height also opened up another unique amenity for the project, creating room for a rooftop deck attached to the building’s bar, where residents can go for an evening drink and take in views of downtown Boston in the distance. All of this—along with its tony location—is why there’s such a relatively high price point for residences at the Newbury of Brookline. It’s part of the appeal and the business logic of turning a former college into this new sort of campus. But the concept won’t work just anywhere, Gardiner says. A big campus far removed from urban amenities or, importantly, good healthcare, may not pencil out as well as a campus that’s better connected or even in a city center. “The green acre sites may get gobbled up by some other use,” he says. “It’s these in-between, irregular sites where you can sort of squeeze the caulking in.” As more colleges in these areas struggle to survive, this kind of rebirth may be just what their campuses, and older adults, need. 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Jack Schlossberg announced he’s running for Congress. And instead of using his last name in his campaign logo, the 32-year-old—born John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg—is using the nickname he shares with his famous grandfather, John F. Kennedy. Schlossberg’s “Jack for New York” logo underlines the “New” in the city’s name in red as if to emphasize a new generation. A red “12” appears in small print at the top right of “New York” to indicate he’s running to represent Manhattan’s 12th District in the U.S. House. Schlossberg tagged designer and Only NY cofounder Micah Belamarich in a social media post showing the logo. Belamarich did not respond to a request for comment. It’s standard operating procedure for candidates to use their last names in political logos, though there are notable exceptions (hi, Bernie!). One study of 2020 campaign logos found female candidates are more likely to use their first names in their logos than male candidates, as their first names communicate their gender to voters in a simple way. For Schlossberg, his first name connects him to the Kennedy family legacy without saying “Kennedy.” “Let’s Back Jack” was a slogan used in support of Kennedy in 1960. In 2026, it will be a rallying call for Schlossberg in what could be a competitive primary to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler in one of the most Democratic districts in the country. Already, two New York state assemblymen, Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, are running for the seat. The campaign has found other ways to give a nod to the candidate’s storied political heritage without explicitly referencing the Kennedy name. Schlossberg’s logo and branding use typography that evokes mid-20th-century signage (check the “Our Man Jack” sign in the background of one shot in this Instagram gallery) alongside a contemporary take on the classic red, white, and blue color palette. A “12 for 12” list on the campaign website lists off not policy proposals, but rather 12 “promises to the people of New York’s 12th District” that sound like qualifications for a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, including service, strength, accountability, and optimism. Overall, it’s a brand that’s nostalgic but still feels contemporary, and combined with Schlossberg’s name recognition and vociferous social media posting, it’s one that could find success in a city that just elected another well-branded and social media-fluent candidate as mayor. “This is the best part of the greatest city on earth,” Schlossberg said about the district in his announcement video on TikTok, calling New York “the financial and media capital of the world.” He added: “This district should have a representative who can harness the creativity, energy, and drive of this district and translate that into political power in Washington.” Though JFK’s presidential campaign happened 65 years ago, it continues to inspire political branding and advertising, even across party lines. A super PAC ran a 2024 Super Bowl ad for Schlossberg’s cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that ripped off one of the 1960 Kennedy campaign ads. And today, there’s campaign merch available for Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley that mimics the style of JFK’s, with the candidates’ portraits on a background of horizontal red, white, and blue stripes. Images of Schlossberg on his campaign website pay homage to his famous family. One shot of Schlossberg backlit against a wall that’s decorated with U.S. and New York flags recalls a photo of a 29-year-old Kennedy running for Congress, while photos of Schlossberg in a suit on a bike emulate his uncle, George magazine founder John F. Kennedy Jr. By evoking the Kennedy dynasty through image, typography, and nickname, Schlossberg is tapping into his family legacy without using the famous family surname. “Jack” says enough. View the full article

Delegation is supposed to get easier the higher you rise. In reality, it becomes challenging in a different way, Common delegation advice is helpful for first-time managers, who typically have trouble letting go. But for senior leaders, effective delegation looks different. It’s not about handing off tasks. It’s about leading through a paradox. They need to stay close enough to align and coach, but they also need to step back enough to empower and grow others. At this level, for many, the risk isn’t micromanagement, but over-detachment. When you’re too removed, you miss chances to align strategy, spot risks, or coach your leaders. Delegation is about managing a polarity These risks don’t happen by chance. They’re likely to happen when we don’t see what delegation really is: a polarity to manage. It’s a continuous balancing act of two interdependent poles, involvement and autonomy. Both are valuable. And there are downsides to doing too much of both. That is the essence of polarity management, which Barry Johnson first described in his 1992 book, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems. Yet it remains more relevant than ever for leaders today. Polarities are paradoxes and tensions you can’t solve, but only manage, over time. Think speed and quality; short-term and long-term; stability and change. Two poles of a polarity are interdependent, so you cannot choose one as a “solution” and neglect the other, just like involvement and autonomy. To get the benefits of one, you need to attend to the other. Senior leaders live in this paradox every day, but few think about delegation as the polarity it actually is. It’s not about choosing between involvement and autonomy, control or letting go, but about continuously managing the tension between the two. The trap of the pendulum effect Most leaders have a natural preference. Some stay deeply involved, others pride themselves on giving their people wide latitude. Both preferences work—until they don’t. When there’s too much autonomy, it can lead to organizational misalignment, missed risks, and late-stage pivots. But when there’s too much involvement, that creates decision bottlenecks at the top, and team members can feel micromanaged and disempowered. The actual trap is the pendulum effect—leaders swinging from one pole to the other. If too much autonomy leads to drift, they jump back in and get more involved, potentially exerting too much control. When that frustrates and disempowers their team members, they swing back to being hands-off. And the cycle repeats. Breaking the cycle requires a different mindset. Leaders need to see delegation as a polarity to balance. That means recognizing the pattern, anticipating the shifts, and proactively balancing the upsides of both poles before the downsides start to emerge. The art of high-impact delegation at senior levels, therefore, lies in cycling between involvement and autonomy. You need to be able to switch between the two depending on the stakes and context of the work, and trust in the relationships and capabilities of your team members. There is no perfect and stable point of balance. It’s a continuous practice of adjustment. How to show up differently A tech company I’ve worked with trained all its senior leaders to look at delegation through a polarity lens, while emphasizing that involvement was an integral part of their culture. Leaders mapped out their tendencies, learned to recognize early warning signs of leaning too much into one pole, and experimented with new ways of showing up. A few big shifts stood out: Where they showed up changed They realized involvement wasn’t about hovering everywhere. It was about leaning in with more focus and attention when the stakes were highest. This means critical work like high-stakes or unusually complex projects, when they need to coach, support, or provide people with stretch opportunities. This was also crucial during strategic moments when they needed perspective to align across the organization. How they showed up changed Instead of inserting themselves or taking over, leaders leaned on dialogue. They were: Asking big-picture questions about context, impact, or purpose, like “Why are we doing this?” or “Who else will be impacted?” Helping teams zoom out to see risks, interdependencies, and strategic connections. Clarifying expectations and roles upfront, and using check-ins for alignment, problem-solving, and coaching—not just updates. The result? Leaders weren’t doing more of the work themselves, as many had feared. They were actually influencing the work, bringing perspective, context, and coaching in ways that elevated their teams. Through modeling deeper thinking and strategizing, their teams started internalizing those behaviors and applied them independently, even when the leader wasn’t present. And once leaders got comfortable with polarity thinking, they started applying it elsewhere—candor and care, stability and change, results, and relationships. They stopped asking which side was “right” and started asking how to get the best of both. That development shift—from either/or choices to both/and leadership—is what unlocks deeper effectiveness, not just in delegation but in leading in complexity. Leading with the paradox So how can you put this into practice? You can start by doing the following: Reflect on your patterns. Notice when you overdo autonomy or involvement. Watch for the early warning signs: drift, misalignment, bottlenecks, and disengagement. Ask yourself the following questions: How do you intentionally cycle between the two poles, depending on context and capability? How do you ensure your involvement adds value without disempowering? How do you ensure autonomy doesn’t become detachment? Align expectations upfront. Be clear on outcomes, roles, responsibilities, and decision boundaries. You should also discuss and align around your work styles and preferences for updating and keeping each other informed. Continuously calibrate. Contexts shift. Projects evolve. People grow. Ask yourself: “What requires my attention right now? Where will involvement matter most? Where can I step back to create space?” Trust your intuition and check in with your teams. This cycle of reflection, alignment, and calibration allows you to balance both poles of the delegation paradox over time without getting stuck in either. Delegation at senior levels isn’t about handing off tasks and hoping for the best. Treating delegation as a polarity–rather than a skill to master—helps leaders embrace it as an ongoing practice. Leaders who do this well don’t ask, “Am I delegating enough?” They ask, “Am I balancing involvement and autonomy in a way that serves the whole organization, my teams, and the individuals I lead?” View the full article

From the outside looking in, the life of a content creator is enviable. Shopping, jet-setting, star-studded events, all documented for their audience of thousands. But new research tells a different story. A study by Creators 4 Mental Health, conducted in partnership with Lupiani Insights & Strategies and sponsored by Opus, BeReal, Social Currant, Statusphere, and the nonprofit AAKOMA Project, spoke to more than 500 full- and part-time creators across North America about their work, mental health, and well-being. One in ten creators reported having suicidal thoughts tied to their work. That rate is nearly double the national average of 5.5%, according to the National Institutes of Health. Only 8% of creators described their mental health as excellent. For those who have been in the industry for more than five years, that number drops to 4%. The report found that 65% experience anxiety or depression related to their work, and 62% feel burned out. Rather than getting better over time, this only gets worse. Those who have worked five years or more report the highest rates of burnout, stress, and financial instability. Content creation is a numbers game. Yet those who check analytics obsessively also have significantly worse emotional well-being scores. Of those surveyed, 65% said they obsess over content performance, and 58% said their self-worth declines when content underperforms. Likes, views, and engagement directly correlate to how much money content creators can make, either through creator funds or negotiating brand deals. However, nearly 69% of creators said their income is unpredictable or inconsistent, a factor that also strongly correlates with poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression. Far from the cushy work life some would imagine, burnout impacts creators almost as much as the wider U.S. population. The difference is that creators often face these challenges without access to any kind of specialized mental healthcare or workplace benefits. “Creators are the new workforce of the digital age, doing the work of entire teams without support and protections,” says Shira Lazar, Emmy-nominated creator and founder of Creators 4 Mental Health. “This study is a wake-up call for platforms, brands, and policymakers to treat creator mental health as a workforce issue, not a personal problem.” As much as creators’ complaints about the industry are often met with calls to quit or “get a real job,” content creation as a career path isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the creator economy is growing rapidly, expected to nearly double in value to $480 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs. Instead, change has to start with the platforms and brands that rely on content creators’ labor. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they want income stability tools built into social media platforms; 59% said they want transparent pay rates from brands. “These results are a clear call to action for brands, platforms, nonprofits, and creators themselves,” says Lazar. “Creators are suffering as a result of their work, and something has got to give.” View the full article

Link building is an essential part of SEO. It helps search engines find, understand, and rank your pages. You can write the perfect post, but if search engines cannot follow at least one link to it, your content may stay hidden from view. Table of Contents What is link building? What is a link? Internal and external links Anchor text and why it matters Why we build links Link building as digital PR Link quality over quantity Avoid shady link-building tactics How to earn high-quality links Link building in the era of AI and LLM search Examples of effective link building In conclusion TL;DR For Google to discover your pages, you need links from other websites. The more relevant and trustworthy those links are, the stronger your reputation becomes. In this guide, we explain what link building means in 2025, how it connects to digital PR, and how AI-driven search now evaluates trust and authority. If you are new to SEO, check out our Beginner’s guide to SEO for a complete overview. What is a link? A link, or hyperlink, connects one page on the internet to another. It helps users and search engines move between pages. For readers, links make it easy to explore related topics. For search engines, links act like roads, guiding crawlers to discover and index new content. Without inbound links, a website can be difficult for search engines to find or evaluate. You can learn more about how search engines navigate websites in our article on site structure and SEO. A link in HTML In HTML, a link looks like this: <a href="https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/">Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress</a> The first part contains the URL, and the second part is the clickable text, called the anchor text. Both parts matter for SEO and user experience, because they tell both people and search engines what to expect when they click. Internal and external links There are two main types of links that affect SEO. Internal links connect pages within your own website, while external links come from other websites and point to your pages. External links are often called backlinks. Both types of links matter, but external links carry more authority because they act as endorsements from independent sources. Internal linking, however, plays a crucial role in helping search engines understand how your content fits together and which pages are most important. To learn more about structuring your site effectively, see our guide to internal linking for SEO. Anchor text and why it matters The anchor text describes the linked page. Clear, descriptive anchor text helps users understand where a link will take them and gives search engines more context about the topic. For example, “SEO copywriting guide” is much more useful and meaningful than “click here.” The right anchor text improves usability, accessibility, and search relevance. You can optimize your own internal linking by using logical, topic-based anchors. For more examples, read our anchor text best practices guide. Why we build links Link building is the process of earning backlinks from other websites. These links act as votes of confidence, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Search engines like Google still use backlinks as a key ranking signal, but the focus has shifted away from quantity and toward quality and context. A single link from an authoritative, relevant site can be worth far more than dozens from unrelated or low-quality sources. Good link building is about creating genuine connections, not collecting as many links as possible. When people share your content because they find it useful, you gain visibility, credibility, and referral traffic. These benefits reinforce one another, helping your brand stand out both in traditional search and in AI-driven environments where authority and reputation matter most. Link building as digital PR In 2025, link building has evolved into a form of digital PR. Instead of focusing purely on SEO tactics, marketers now use link building to boost brand visibility and credibility. Digital PR revolves around storytelling, relationship-building, and public exposure. A successful strategy might involve pitching articles or insights to journalists, collaborating with bloggers, or publishing original research that earns citations across the web. When your business appears in trusted media or professional communities, you gain not just backlinks but also brand mentions and citations that reinforce your authority. Citations are particularly important in today’s search landscape. They are references to your brand or content, even without a clickable link. Search engines and AI systems treat them as indicators of credibility, especially when they appear on reputable sites. Combined with consistent author information and structured data, they help demonstrate your E-E-A-T—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. You can learn more about building brand authority in our article on E-E-A-T and SEO. Link quality over quantity Not all links are created equal. A high-quality backlink from a well-respected, topic-relevant website has far more impact than multiple links from small or unrelated sites. Consider a restaurant owner who earns a link from The Guardian’s food section. That single editorial mention is far more valuable than a dozen random directory links. Google recognizes that editorial links earned for merit are strong signals of expertise, while low-effort links from unrelated pages carry little or no value. High-quality backlinks usually come from sites with strong reputations, clear editorial standards, and engaged audiences. They fit naturally within content and make sense to readers. Low-quality links, on the other hand, can make your site appear manipulative or untrustworthy. Building authority takes time, but the reward is a reputation that search engines and users can rely on. Read more about this long-term approach in our post on holistic SEO. Avoid shady link-building tactics Because earning good links can take time, some site owners resort to shortcuts like buying backlinks, using link farms, or participating in private blog networks. These tactics may offer quick results, but they violate Google’s spam policies and can trigger severe penalties. When a site’s link profile looks unnatural or manipulative, Google may reduce its visibility or remove it from results altogether. Recovering from such penalties can take months. It is far safer to focus on ethical, transparent methods. Quality always lasts longer than trickery. How to earn high-quality links The best way to earn strong backlinks is to produce content that others genuinely want to reference. Start by understanding your audience and their challenges. Once you know what they are looking for, create content that provides clear answers, unique insights, or helpful tools. For example, publishing original data or research can attract links from journalists and educators. Creating detailed how-to guides or case studies can draw links from blogs and businesses that want to cite your expertise. You can also build relationships with people in your industry by commenting on their content, sharing their work, and offering collaboration ideas. Newsworthy content is another proven approach. Announce a product launch, partnership, or study that has real value for your audience. When you provide something genuinely useful, you will find that links and citations follow naturally. Structured data also plays a growing role. By using Schema markup, you help search engines understand your brand, authors, and topics, making it easier for them to connect mentions of your business across the web. For a more detailed approach, visit our step-by-step guide to link building. Link building in the era of AI and LLM search Search is evolving quickly. Systems like Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity no longer rely solely on backlinks to determine authority. They analyze the meaning and connections behind content, paying attention to context, reputation, and consistency. In this new landscape, links still matter, but they are part of a wider ecosystem of trust signals. Mentions, structured data, and author profiles all contribute to how search and AI systems understand your expertise. This means that link building is now about being both findable and credible. To stay ahead, make sure your brand and authors are clearly represented across your site. Use structured data to connect your organization, people, and content. Keep your messaging consistent wherever your brand appears. When machines and humans can both understand who you are and what you offer, your chances of visibility increase. You can read more about how structured data supports this process in our guide to Schema and structured data. Examples of effective link building There are many ways to put link building into action. A company might publish a research study that earns coverage from major industry blogs and online magazines. A small business might collaborate with local influencers or community organizations that naturally reference its website. Another might produce in-depth educational content that other professionals use as a trusted resource. Each of these examples shares the same principle: links are earned because the content has genuine value. That is the foundation of successful link building. When people trust what you create and see it as worth sharing, search engines take notice too. In conclusion Link building remains one of the strongest ways to build visibility and authority. But in 2025, success depends on more than collecting backlinks. It depends on trust, consistency, and reputation. Think of link building as part of your digital PR strategy. Focus on creating content that deserves attention, build relationships with credible sources, and communicate your expertise clearly. The combination of valuable content, ethical outreach, and structured data will help you stand out across both Google Search and AI-driven platforms. When you build for people first, the right links will follow. TL;DR (2025 Version) Link building means earning links from other websites to show search engines that your content is credible and valuable. In 2025, it is part of digital PR, focused on relationships, trust, and reputation rather than quantity. AI-driven search now looks at citations, structured data, and contextual relevance alongside backlinks. Focus on quality, clarity, and authority to build long-term visibility online. Ethical link building remains one of the best ways to grow your brand’s reach and reputation in search. The post SEO Basics: What is link building? appeared first on Yoast. View the full article