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Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick and a technologist, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land. He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. He only provides consulting services to expert SEOs and also performs search marketing expert witness services. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region. You can follow Barry on…

When brands complain about influencer platforms, they rarely say, “I need more charts.” What you see instead, is a pattern of dashboards that are too powerful, too expensive, and still not answering the question the CMO actually asks: “Which creators drove revenue, and can we prove it?” Advanced analytics has become both the key differentiator and the biggest source of friction. Smaller teams feel priced out of enterprise stacks that promise AI-driven ROI but bury them in features they’ll never use, while global brands wrestle with data that doesn’t quite match native social metrics, inconsistent EMV formulas, and gaps wherever…

AI-generated answers are spreading across search. Google and Bing are each presenting synthesized responses alongside regular results. These answers are not replacing traditional SERPs yet, but they are taking up attention. As they improve, they influence what people see first and what they trust most. The question is no longer whether they will change search, but how much of your brand’s visibility they will absorb as they expand. And as usage of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other platforms continues to expand, we’re going to start to see user habits shift. Which means we’ll see more engagement with synthesized answers with…

Branding never stands still. As technology evolves, so do the ways businesses express their identity and connect with audiences. From AI-assisted design tools to cultural shifts shaping tone and authenticity, the world of brand building is changing fast. But while many trends come and go, the best ones reflect deeper shifts in how people live, shop, and engage with brands. They show how creativity adapts to new platforms and expectations while staying rooted in timeless principles like clarity, emotion, and trust. As we move into 2026, a new…

If 2024 felt like a telenovela, 2025 was the spinoff nobody asked for.Many websites suffered declining clicks due to AI search features, and just as we were getting used to AI Overviews (AIOs),  Google rolled out AI Mode to compete with ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs).Meanwhile, LLMs are launching their own browsers, which means we might need to start optimizing for SERPs in more channels.It’s a lot to keep up with.So, how do you prioritize? What should you focus on when everything is in flux?In this article, 20 SEO and content experts share their top predictions for 2026…

LinkedIn allows you to have a great degree of control over who can see what about you on LinkedIn. One of the most powerful features for maintaining privacy is LinkedIn private mode, which allows you to browse profiles anonymously without revealing your identity. Especially in an era where there seems to be very little online privacy, understanding how to use LinkedIn private mode effectively is quite valuable. However, many people still don’t know that LinkedIn private mode exists or simply don’t understand how to activate and use it strategically. LinkedIn private mode is just one of several privacy tools available,…

Social media feeds are no longer built around who you follow. Platforms are pivoting to an interest graph, serving content based on what you like, watch and share. Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee) has been talking about this shift for years, calling it “interest media.” TikTok is the best example of this movement. Its For You Page (FYP) is personalised for each user, ranking videos according to interactions, content signals and basic device data rather than follower counts. This article explores how TikTok’s interest‑based algorithm works, why follower counts are losing relevance and how Gary Vee’s insights can help brands and creators…

With AI Max for Search now widely available in beta, advertisers are debating everything from performance comparisons to how it plays with existing keyword structures. Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin is stepping in to clarify what AI Max is — and what it isn’t. What AI Max is designed to do. AI Max aims to unlock incremental conversions or conversion value — not replace or compete with your current keyword setup. It expands reach using broad match logic and keywordless matching (think DSA-style crawling of your landing pages). It pairs that with dynamic creative optimization, including text customization and Final…

Black Friday is probably the biggest sales event of the year for web hosting. Almost every hosting provider drops their prices. Whether you’re launching a new website or upgrading your current host, this is one of the few times you’ll find fantastic discounts across every type of hosting plan. Web hosting isn’t a one-time purchase. It’s a service you pay for each month or year, so even a small discount can lead to big savings over time. Black Friday is when most hosting companies offer their lowest prices, often reducing plans by as much as 80%. For new website owners,…

Bianca challenged SEO’s obsession with traffic and introduced the “Heavy Hitters” framework for finding and protecting the URLs that convert, even when overall traffic drops.Key takeaways:Shift your reporting from traffic to revenue-generating pagesCreate a URL-level report that merges GA4 traffic and conversions. Flag any page that consistently drives leads or revenue, even if traffic is low.Build a ‘Heavy Hitter Report’ to monitor high-value URLs Identify your top-performing pages based on conversion, not clicks. Track their visibility monthly so you can act fast when traffic or performance shifts.Diagnose traffic drops using a ‘performance dip bucket’ systemCategorize underperforming URLs by root cause: SERP…