Amazon’s 2025 title policy update: Key changes and implementation guide

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Amazon logo on building facade

Amazon recently announced significant changes to its product title policy, set to take effect Jan. 21. This update marks a shift in how sellers approach product listing titles on the Amazon platform. 

Amazon product title requirements

Titles have long been considered the most important piece of structured data on a product detail page for Amazon SEO.

This is especially true as the title appears not only on the search engine results page (SERP) and product detail page but also as the advertising copy for most ad types. 

In the private label Amazon spaces, in particular, title construction has prioritized exact keyword phrase matches in titles, leading to an increase in lengthy and unclear titles as sellers try to squeeze in as many keyword phrases as possible – a practice Amazon now aims to address through these policy changes. 

The policy makes the following changes: 

  • 200-character limit (or less) for titles. 
  • Disallowing special characters. 
  • Keyword repetition restrictions. 

Character length restrictions 

Amazon has progressively tightened character limitations across various listing fields in recent years. 

The new policy establishes a universal 200-character limit for most product categories, with some apparel categories facing even stricter constraints of 125 characters. 

Character length restrictions 

Amazon has always said it wanted concise titles. However, most sellers have found that longer titles can help with indexing and ranking. 

Amazon’s policy limits titles to 80 characters. (We usually recommend 100-200 characters.) 

This new restriction is not entirely unforeseen, as we have seen Amazon more aggressively enforce the existing 200-character title length in several categories in 2024. 

Disallowing special characters

Amazon has never been a fan of emojis in titles or decorative symbols, and they are now getting even stricter by only allowing a handful of special characters. 

“The special characters !, $, ?, _, {, }, ^, ¬, and ¦ are not allowed, unless they are part of the brand name.” 

You can still use pipes “|” and dashes “-” to break up your title, but most other special characters are being restricted with this new policy. 

The exception for this new policy for special characters is if the special character is part of the brand name. 

This will likely mean that the brand used in the Brand Registry and the trademark would include that special character. 

For example, if your brand was trademarked and registered as “TaDa!” Then you could include that in your title as it is part of your brand name. 

Amazon also says that some special characters will only be allowed in specific contexts: 

“Other special characters, such as ~, #, <, >, and *, are allowed only in specific contexts. For example, you may use these symbols as product identifiers (“Style #4301”) or measurements (“<10 lb”).” 

They also make sure to highlight that special characters are not to be used as decoration. 

 “Decorative usage of special characters is not allowed. For example, the title “Paradise Towel Wear Co. Beach Coverup << Size Kids XXS >>” is non-compliant because of the excessive use of symbols around the size.” 

Keyword repetition restrictions 

The most significant change addresses keyword repetition in titles. 

The new policy limits the use of the same word to no more than twice, with exceptions for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. 

In practice, this means a word can appear twice but not three times. 

This change poses a challenge for sellers with traditionally repeated keywords to incorporate as many keyword phrases as possible into their titles. 

During Amazon’s AMA on Jan. 8, it was clarified that plurals and different forms of the same word will also count as repeated usage.

Amazon AMA - Repeated words
Amazon AMA - Duplicate words

Exceptions for brand names 

The policy makes an important distinction regarding brand names. Words appearing within brand names are treated separately from their use in product descriptions. 

“The brand name is also not allowed more than twice. If part of the brand name appears in the title in different context, then it is not considered a duplicate. For example, in ‘Old Navy and Navy Blue,’ the word ‘Navy’ is not considered a duplicate.”

One issue with this is how Amazon will determine where the line is if a keyword is used in a separate context. 

Amazon has also clarified that they will consider titles that repeat words, such as “loaf pan, muffin pan, baking pan,” to be duplicates. 

It looks like they will be looking for duplicates with a much wider net than anticipated when this was first announced. 

Implementation timeline and process 

Amazon will begin notifying sellers of non-compliant titles after Jan. 21, providing a 14-day window for resolution.

Non-compliant titles can be identified and managed through the Manage All Inventory tab in Seller Central.

If you have a brand with special characters or your primary purpose in your brand name, you will want to check for alerts as soon as the policy goes into effect in Seller Central in the Manage Inventory page. 

If you think you were flagged in error, you should submit a case to Seller Support as quickly as possible. This will allow you time to escalate the issue as needed before your 14-day compliance window is up. 

Changing titles in bulk

If you need to change multiple titles it is always best to do that with a flat file (.csv upload). To do this, you would take the following steps: 

Download category listing reports
  • Use the downloaded file to update titles. You can then use this file to update many listings all at once. You may be able to use find and replace within Excel to speed up title changes. 
  • Upload the files to Amazon. After the file processes, check for errors. It is also a good practice to wait 24 hours and visually check all updated listings to ensure the title changes are reflected in the system. Make sure you understand how flat file updates work and that you have the field that indicates full or partial updates completed correctly. 
  • Schedule time on Jan. 21 to review any recommended changes from Amazon. If you believe you should have an exception or if your listing was flagged in error, you may need to submit a ticket. 

Future implications 

This is a fundamental change in how sellers will approach titles (and, in turn, their ad copy). Amazon changes policies often, so it could be that they relax these requirements. 

However, I think these restrictions could help us enter a new era of more thoughtful and meticulously crafted titles that are ultimately more focused on catering to the customer than search algorithms. 

After all, clear, helpful titles are what turn browsers into buyers. 

Note: Links to Amazon Seller Central pages are generally accessible only to registered sellers who have an active Amazon Seller account.

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Google Ads launches new promo code formats for Promotion Assets

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How to use the new customer acquisition goal in Google Ads

Google Ads expanded its Promotion Assets with new barcode and QR code options, giving advertisers more ways to share promotional offers.

These new formats make it easier for customers to redeem online and in-store offers, bridging digital and physical shopping experiences.

Details:

  • Barcode option supports multiple formats, including Aztec, Data Matrix, and EAN-8.
  • QR codes can contain up to 720 characters of text.
  • Links are not supported in QR codes.
  • Advertisers must provide valid barcode numbers for barcode format.

How it works. Advertisers can select either barcode or QR code options when creating Promotion Assets, then input their specific promotional information within the format constraints.

Why we care. These new promo code options provide more flexibility in running cross-channel promotions and can improve redemption tracking. The barcode format enables better in-store integration, while QR codes make it easier for customers to claim offers on mobile devices, potentially increasing conversion rates.

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First seen. This update first came to our attention when Google Ads Strategist Thomas Eccel posted it on LinkedIn:

Bottom line. This update gives advertisers more flexibility in how they present promotional codes, potentially increasing redemption rates through easier customer access.

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Supreme Court lets $7 billion Meta ad fraud case proceed

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B2B audience targeting: Meta Ads as an alternative to LinkedIn

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Meta’s appeal in a massive class action lawsuit that claimed Facebook and Instagram inflated their advertising reach metrics.

The decision could expose Meta to billions in damages. It raised questions about the accuracy of metrics advertisers rely on when spending money on social platforms.

The big picture. Advertisers allege Meta fraudulently inflated its “potential reach” numbers by up to 400% by counting multiple accounts belonging to the same users.

By the numbers:

  • The class action could exceed $7 billion in damages.
  • The case covers ads purchased since Aug. 15, 2014.
  • Meta generated $116.1 billion in ad revenue in the first 9 months of 2024.
  • Millions of individuals and businesses could be part of the class.

Why we care. This lawsuit could expose Meta’s potential overstatement of ad reach by up to 400%. If successful, you could be one of many advertisers compensated as well as the government enforcing more transparent reporting standards across social media platforms.

Additionally, it raises important questions about the reliability of Meta’s measurement metrics that advertisers use to make budget decisions.

Between the lines. The Supreme Court’s decision lets stand a March 2024 ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said advertisers could pursue damages as a group since Meta’s alleged misrepresentation was consistent across all affected parties.

Meta’s argument. The tech giant claimed that different advertisers may have valued or relied on the reach metrics differently, thus leading to the inflation they see.

Meta also said that the 9th Circuit’s “common course of conduct” test conflicts with other federal courts.

What’s next. The case will now proceed as a class action, potentially affecting millions of Meta advertisers who bought ads over the past decade.

Go deeper. Advertising revenue remains Meta’s primary business driver, making the outcome of this case particularly significant for the company’s future.

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Google’s search market share drops below 90% for first time since 2015

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Bing vs Google

Google’s share of the global search engine market fell below 90% for the first time since 2015, according to Statcounter. Google’s global search market share was under 90% during each of the final three months of 2024.

The data. Here’s a screenshot of the 2024 search market share, showing Google dipping below 90% – to 89.34% in October; 89.99% in November; and 89.73% in December:

Search engine market share worldwide January to December 2024

And here’s the last three-month stretch where Google’s search market share was under 90%, in 2015: 89.62% in January; 89.47% in February; 89.52% in March:

Search engine market share worldwide 2015

Why we care. As the old saying goes, one’s a dot, two’s a line, and three’s a trend. Cleary, we’re seeing a trend here with Google losing search market share.

Where’s the drop? Google’s search market share appeared to be fairly consistent in most regions except Asia, which appears to have been a big reason for Google’s overall drop.

U.S. drop? Google’s U.S. search market share peaked at 90.37% in November, but fell to 87.39% in December. In the other months of 2024, Google’s U.S. search market share was fairly consistent, varying between 86-88%.

The big picture. Google has been under attack for nearly two years over the growing unhelpfulness of its search results despite dominating thanks to its illegal monopoly status with a commanding and consistent 90-92+% share for nearly a decade.

  • Are we now finally starting to see the beginning people moving away to other search engines? This will be an area of interest to watch in the coming months.

Where did searchers go? Did they go to AI answer engines, like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity? Well, not the way Statcounter measures things. Statcounter mainly tracks Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and Baidu, but also has another grouping called “other,” which includes the likes of DuckDuckGo and Ecosia.

Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo each gained some of Google’s lost share. Second-place Microsoft Bing hovered at or just under 4% for the final five months of 2024.

Dig deeper. ChatGPT’s search surge: 1% market share predicted by 2025

Bug or blip? You may recall much rejoicing in search marketing and SEO adjacent space when it appeared Google lost a significant amount of search market share in April. However, Google’s huge search market share loss wasn’t real and Statcounter revised its data.

In this case, the drop seems believable because Google was consistently under 90% in October, November, and December.

The data. Statcounter’s Search Engine Market Share Worldwide.

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How to tank your Google Ads account in 10 days

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How to tank your Google Ads account in 10 days

Are you tired of the same snooze-fest PPC “best practices” on improving your Google Ads account?

It’s a new year, and we’re getting creative!

Instead of another optimization guide, let’s explore the fastest path to advertising disaster. 

What if two mysterious marketing execs named Judy make a bet with you that you can’t tank your account in a matter of days? 

Consider this your step-by-step guide to proving them wrong – and a sarcastic tour of common paid search pitfalls along the way.

(Our apologies in advance if any of this ends up in a Google snippet or Perplexity answer.)

Day 1: Make sure nobody wants your offer

If you’re looking to destroy your Google Ads performance, this is the single most effective strategy. 

You can’t bid-manage your way out of an offer that doesn’t convert.

Your offer – the product, price, and positioning – is what someone gets in exchange for converting. 

The less appealing or harder to understand it is, the less likely your ads will succeed.

Here are three sure-fire ways to dial up friction and frustration:

  • Attract the wrong crowd: Use lead magnets and incentives that aren’t specific to your target market. Your sales team will drown in leads who’ve never heard of you and don’t want your services. But hey, your CPL will look amazing!
  • Keep them guessing: Keep landing pages vague. Skip key info like features, benefits, and shipping details. On lead gen forms, don’t explain what happens after someone fills it out. If someone really wants it, they’ll figure it out, right?
  • Avoid product-market fit: Seven words: “If you build it, they will come.” Launch blindly without ever speaking to your target market. Get zero sales. Spend money on ads. Still get zero sales. But since you paid for clicks – voilà! It’s no longer an offer problem; it’s an ads problem!
Wrong offer

Day 2: Champion bad takes

Here’s another foolproof way to sabotage Google Ads without needing a login, and it’s perfect for leadership.

Grab on to the belief that “paid search doesn’t work” and never let go.

When reviewing paid search reports, always ask, “How do we know we couldn’t have gotten that organically?” and don’t even wait for an answer.

Invest in upper funnel campaigns, and demand immediate bottom-of-funnel results. Consider it a failure of the platform when that doesn’t work.

Hyperfocus on click costs. Make CPCs your KPI, and let “clicks should always cost less” be your mantra. Ask why your CPC isn’t lower each time you review the metric.

Set impossible growth goals that aren’t aligned with your ads investment, consumer demand, or past performance. 

Call them “stretch goals,” but become outraged when targets aren’t hit. You’re a luminary – people want this from you.

The important thing is to be uncurious, suspicious, and dismissive at all times. Even a brilliant paid search team can’t succeed if leadership refuses to let them.

Bad takes

Day 3: Trash your conversion tracking

What even is a conversion? Nobody knows.

It’s not standardized, so embrace the chaos and track whatever you want.

Here are some tried-and-true methods to mess up your data:

  • If it fires, it counts. Skip debugging and de-duping. Double the tags, double the sources, double the fun!
  • No judgment. Treat “scroll 50% for 30 seconds” the same as “purchase complete.” Give all actions equal weight, make them primary conversions, and stick to aggregate reporting.
  • What happens offline stays offline.
  • Keep it casual. Use names like “Event 1” or “Test Conversion,” so no one really knows what’s being tracked.
  • Trust, but don’t verify. Use platform data as your source of truth and never compare it to your CRM or actual sales numbers.

Not only will you have no idea what’s working, but Google won’t either, so it’ll optimize for all the wrong outcomes.

Bonus tip: If your conversion tracking breaks, don’t bother with the data exclusions feature. Always forward, never back.

What happens offline, stays offline

Day 4: Say ‘yes’ to every Google Ads recommendation

You’ve spent your whole life playing it safe – proceeding with caution, carefully analyzing, and looking both ways before crossing a busy street. 

It’s time to step into your main character energy and say “yes”… to Google.

Don’t overthink it. Actually, don’t think at all. Just say “yes” to every recommendation that comes your way. 

Broad match keywords? Sure, why not?

Raise your budget? Only one question: How high?

Auto-applied suggestions? Go ahead, Google, live your truth. 

Every word from your account rep is now a mandate. Every low optimization score or ad strength is now your top priority to address.

Watch your account do a complete 180. Because it was never really about the destination, it was about the journey.

Burn your permission slip to say no to Google. This is your moment of “yes.”

Say yes

Day 5: Use AI and ML to overcomplicate everything

“It’s not about refining your workflow; it’s about deploying generative AI at scale without a strategy.” 

Sure, there are smart ways to use AI to learn about your audience, create messaging, and process large data sets. 

But let’s be honest: narrowing in on appropriate use cases takes effort, and effort is so 2015.

Today’s hottest companies are blowing six figures a month on ChatGPT-generated ads with no sales to show for it. But you don’t need those budgets to get the same results!

And why stop at ad generation? 

You can use ML-driven algorithms to overcomplicate your account structure, automate decisions with zero context, and remove humans from tasks that desperately need human oversight. 

You’ll know you’re on the fast track to ruin when someone suggests prioritizing strategy over scaling, and your only response is, “But we’ve already invested so much in the tool!”

Because nothing says “visionary” like being so focused on the future that you let your account implode before you even get there.

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Day 6: Un-structure your account

Your Google Ads account likely includes multiple campaign types, segments, networks, bid strategies, and initiatives. 

Very confusing. Very complicated.

Why not throw it all into one giant, cozy, messy campaign? 

Call it “Campaign 1” for good measure.

Search + Display Network? Combine ‘em!

Top of funnel, competitor and brand terms? Put ‘em all in the same ad group with a DKI ad – let Google sort ‘em out.

There’s no better way to throttle the performance of high-intent, high-converting keywords than to mash them together with high-volume, low-converting keywords into a campaign that’s “limited by budget.”

Your chaotic structure will make it impossible to tell what’s working and what’s not. 

Reporting becomes a beautiful nightmare, and budget optimization is now rightfully impossible.

It’s not disorganized, it’s “hagakure*!”

(*Of course, accounts can also suffer from being overly granular. Hagakure, as a principle, isn’t inherently bad. It’s the blanket permission to abandon structure that turns it into a problem.)

Structure

Day 7: Turn the user journey into a maze

At its core, the paid search conversion sequence is pretty simple:

  • The keyword reflects the user’s intent (“I have a problem”).
  • The ad connects the problem of the keyword to the solution of the offer.
  • The landing page delivers the solution with a clear call to action, inviting a conversion.

Boooooring.

Paid search conversion sequence

Still, it’s a simple path. So how could anyone possibly mess it up? 

The answer is just as simple: misalignment. 

Whether you ignore the user entirely or overcomplicate every step, the result is the same: a chaotic journey that guarantees missed conversions. 

Here are two popular ways to get it wrong.

Option 1: The passive approach

Here’s where you don’t really think about the person behind the search. 

You just throw a bunch of unrelated keywords and ads into the system and hope that Google will serve the “right” message to the “right” audience. 

It’s a beautiful dream!

Option 2: The overcomplexity approach

This one requires a bit more effort and, more importantly, many more buzzwords. It sounds like this:

“Advertising used to be simple: see ad, buy product. But today’s sophisticated consumers need 50+ touchpoints, and the user journey takes a team of PhDs to track.”

Spoiler: Advertising has never succeeded without alignment. 

When you replace a basic understanding of your audience’s motivations with marketing mix models (MMM) and convoluted attribution tools, you end up just as lost as your audience.

Here’s the thing: whether you’re too passive or overly complex, both paths lead to the same questions when performance tanks:

  • Was it the keyword?
  • The ad copy?
  • The landing page?
  • Or just Mercury in retrograde again?

When your user journey becomes a maze, the answer doesn’t matter. Your customer is already gone.

Day 8: Madlib your way to ad copy

Why do your customers choose you over your competitors? 

If you don’t know – or better yet, don’t care – it’s time to throw together a bland word scramble that quietly vanishes into the SERP. Here’s how:

  • Write some cookie-cutter headlines filled with vague superlatives and uninspired CTAs. If that’s too much, let Google Ads auto-create them or get an AI tool to do it for you.
  • Leave your headlines unpinned, since the key to an effective headline is that it delivers the same message backward, forward, and in any random order.
  • Now let Google Ads work its magic by optimizing your headlines for clicks. Google’s revenue model depends on clicks, so it’ll prioritize ad combinations that drive the most clicks, not necessarily those that bring you qualified clicks or …(gross)… conversions.
  • Only measure ad success using metrics like clicks and CTR. These numbers are trending up across Google Ads accounts anyway, so you’ll feel accomplished watching the graph climb, even as your conversions plummet.

It’s a bit of a long game, but this system ensures your ads stay vague, attract untargeted clicks, and burn through your budget without reaching your ideal customers. 

Because really… who needs ‘em?

Madlibs

Day 9: Change everything, all the time

Want to master the art of campaign chaos? Here’s your step-by-step guide: 

  • Try something new.
  • If it doesn’t deliver instant results, panic and immediately reverse it. 
  • When that change doesn’t magically fix things either, try something totally different. 
  • Still no immediate success? Perfect! Pause or delete the campaign entirely. 

Bonus: this approach will keep your bid strategies in an indefinite “learning period.” 

Learning mode is Google’s way of saying, “Let’s experiment with your budget!” 

Expect sky-high CPCs, random placements, and risky behavior any brand manager would faint over as Google flails around trying to make sense of your constant changes.

This roller coaster guarantees maximum frustration, minimum ROI, and a campaign that never, ever stabilizes.

Who needs stability when you can chase the thrill of constant reinvention and keep your results unpredictable?

Shifting gears

Day 10: Expand, expand, expand

Success in Google Ads depends on qualifying, targeting, and speaking directly to your ideal audience.

Achieving the opposite effect is actually pretty easy: Go broad, baby!

Do whatever it takes to get the most impressions – qualified or not. After all, if 100% of the global population sees your ad, and even 0.01% take action, you’ll sell millions! 

  • Don’t limit location targeting to areas where you do business or see results. Be sure to use the default “Presence or Interest” to pay for clicks from locations you’re not actually targeting.
  • Don’t limit languages to the language your ads and offers are written in.
  • Don’t keep your ads from running on irrelevant apps or YouTube videos for minors.
  • Don’t exclude audience segments that are unlikely to convert.

Assume that all views and clicks are equally valuable, even if they’re generated accidentally, in bad faith, or by two-year-olds through the “suitable for families” content loophole.

If reach is the name of your paid search game, you’re definitely playing a losing game.

Expand, expand, expand

There are plenty of other ways to mess with your Google Ads account, but these 10 guarantee a disaster worse than an ad-libbed karaoke duet. Happy failing!

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How to avoid 10 common SEO interview mistakes and land your next job 

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How to avoid 10 common SEO interview mistakes and land your next job

Over the past decade, I’ve reviewed hundreds of CVs, conducted countless interviews, and led numerous technical tests for SEO candidates. 

Along the way, I’ve met many exceptional professionals – but I’ve also noticed a recurring pattern of common interview mistakes that can hold even the most talented candidates back.

Below are 10 common mistakes I’ve observed in SEO interviews – and how you can easily avoid them.

1. Projecting arrogance instead of confidence 

Confidence is great! While imposter syndrome is common in SEO, it’s important to stay realistically confident in your skills and experience.

However, there is a fine line between projecting confidence and appearing arrogant.

For example, talk about your successes, such as:

  • Complicated projects you navigated.
  • Great results you achieved.
  • Buy-in you gained. 

Be articulate in what you achieved and how.

Show off your theoretical knowledge. Discuss ideas and theories with your interviewer. 

Don’t assume they will agree with you, though. This can be arrogance.

SEO is not a “one-size-fits-all” practice. 

You may have different experiences from your interviewer’s, which may have led you both to opposing conclusions. This is fine. It happens in SEO all the time.

Some people make the mistake of thinking it’s OK to argue and dismiss others’ opinions. 

This rarely works well in any workplace and can be especially harmful during an interview.

When I interview, I look for team players – confident in their knowledge yet humble and open to learning. 

They embrace new evidence and contribute to discussions that elevate the entire team’s understanding, including their own.

If you stray too far into arrogance during an interview, you may come across as difficult to teach or lead and not open to feedback.

2. Giving hazy details about projects and successes

Interviews are your time to shine. They allow you to show off some of your best work. 

Another mistake I’ve seen in interviews is assuming interviewers can fill in the gaps.

Candidates talk about a project or website they have worked on but fail to convey its significance. 

They mention website migrations, expecting non-SEO interviewers to understand the complexities involved.

They discuss turning around a traffic slump without giving any data. Avoid this. 

Make sure to give the specifics.

There’s a good acronym for constructing interview answers called STAR. It stands for:

  • Situation: What was the issue or opportunity you were facing?
  • Task: What was your role or responsibility in this and the goal you were working toward?
  • Action: What did you do to address the situation?
  • Result: What happened because of your actions? What successes, learnings, or results can you share?

Using this method, you may find it easier to hit all the salient points that give the interviewers clarity and perspective. 

Try to choose examples that have an outcome that you’re proud of or can at least explain what made it fall short.

Dig deeper: How to become exceptional at SEO

3. Ignoring the question

Candidates sometimes don’t have time to think of an answer to the question or feel they don’t have one. 

They try to talk around the question and bring it back to something they feel more comfortable discussing.

If an interviewer asks, “Talk about a time when you faced a complex website migration and what did you do?” or “How would you handle a stakeholder not signing off on your recommendations?” that’s exactly what they want to know. 

Avoid going off on a tangent and ensure you address the question directly.

Oftentimes, interviewers will have a list of questions they are asking each candidate.

They may even use these to compare candidates against each other. If you’re not directly answering them, you put yourself at a disadvantage.

Instead, take some time to think about the answer. 

Explain that you want to answer well and need a minute to organize your thoughts. 

If you don’t have an experience relevant to a question or have not encountered something before, explain that to the interviewer. 

Tell them you haven’t “migrated a website before,” but mention what you would do in that situation. 

If you make something up, passing it off as a situation you faced, you risk being exposed. 

You may be asked for details you can’t provide, or you may realize that a savvy interviewer has been researching the company or website as you talk about it. 

4. Not addressing your audience well

Building rapport with interviewers is key to a successful interview. 

Answer their questions clearly, making it easy for them to recognize your knowledge and experience.

To do that well, you need to understand your audience. 

You should address their questions using the language and tone they are addressing you and gauge their level of SEO knowledge. 

It may be tempting to impress non-SEO stakeholders with industry jargon, but if they don’t know what it means, they won’t understand the impact of what you’ve done.

Similarly, if you’re being interviewed by the head of SEO, relying on jargon or complex-sounding projects without substance can risk being seen as insincere or unqualified.

5. Being disrespectful of the progress of the site(s)

If you are talking to another SEO at the company or agency, don’t assume they are negligent in not addressing that JavaScript issue you’ve noticed on their site. 

Don’t think their approach to SEO is basic because there is still an obvious area of expansion. 

Be respectful. It’s OK to acknowledge that you noticed these issues with their sites, but assume you aren’t telling them anything they don’t already know.

Chances are some procedural or technical blocks are stopping them from fixing it. Enquire about that instead.

It will give you some insight into what challenges you may face if you do go on to work there. 

Dig deeper: The SEO career crisis is coming: Are you ready?

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6. Being unprepared for the types of questions asked

Interviews are nerve-wracking! 

It’s understandable if your mind goes blank when asked to share specific examples of your work or knowledge.

One of the most frustrating mistakes I see in interviews (and have made myself!) is not being able to remember the details of the perfect example of a project that would have answered an interviewer’s question.

A good way to avoid this is to come prepared with projects or challenges that exemplify some core areas of SEO that you are likely to face in the role. 

Look at the job listing again and see what experience they hope candidates will have. 

Given the scope, seniority, and complexity of the sites, consider the situations and tasks you may face in that role.

For example, if you are interviewing for a senior technical SEO role, you may want to prepare examples of projects you’ve worked on that included:

  • A challenging crawling, indexing, parsing, or rendering issue.
  • A large, complicated technical SEO project that you needed to gain buy-in from stakeholders for.
  • A sudden drop in traffic or rankings that needed to be investigated.
  • A website migration that you had a leading role in.

If you are interviewing for an SEO account manager at an agency, you may want to prepare times when:

  • You had to explain to stakeholders a drop in performance and any remedial action planned.
  • Present an SEO proposal to a group of people with varying SEO literacy and explain how you helped them get on board with the plan.
  • You presented at a client pitch, the work you put into the pitch, and how you onboarded that client.

Come prepared with example projects you can adapt. 

  • Think of a successful project and how you made it work. 
  • Give an example of an unsuccessful project and what you would do differently. 

This may mean writing notes about these projects and key points, such as tasks and results, to jog your memory. 

Essentially, you want to have a few well-detailed and thought-out examples that you can adapt using the STAR method on the fly at the interview.

7. All talk, no substance

Waffle. Meandering. Stalling for time out loud. 

Whatever you want to call it, this I possibly one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in interviews.

Starting to answer the question before knowing what you are going to say. 

Again, it’s understandable. We feel like we need to answer the question as soon as it is asked. 

In reality, though, it’s OK to take some time to think it through first. 

Listen to the question and address that directly. 

Consider it a school assignment where you get a mark for every point you hit.

Structure your answers clearly to help interviewers find the information they’re looking for.

Sometimes the waffling comes because the question wasn’t asked well. Perhaps it isn’t entirely clear what the interviewer is asking. 

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to answer a question you don’t fully understand.

It’s OK to ask clarifying questions.

If you still don’t have an answer, you can explain that it isn’t something you have encountered or even heard of.

However, this gives you something to go away and look into.

You could even ask the interviewers what they think about the topic or what they would do in the situation they asked about.

Most interviewers will seek team members willing to learn and expand their knowledge.

In the best case, they will see your willingness to learn and grow from others around you.

Worst case, you have another side of SEO or interviewing techniques to study for the next role you apply for!

Did deeper: What to do if you lose your SEO job: The emergency handbook

8. Trying to bribe or threaten interviewers

This should probably go without saying, but as I’ve encountered it in interviews before, I guess it needs to be said.

Please don’t threaten or try to bribe your interviewers.

It is highly unlikely that if an interview is going badly, the promise of a link from your friend’s blog to their company’s website will turn it around. 

Don’t promise them that if they hire you, they will get access to the secrets to your “guaranteed SEO approach” if you have not been able to demonstrate your competency through the questions they’ve asked. 

Don’t threaten a negative SEO attack on them or their competitors. 

Avoid suggesting they only wanted to interview you to steal your ideas. 

Just don’t be rude or dishonest. You won’t get the job, and you won’t be kept in the database of possible future candidates.

9. Contacting everyone in the company to get an ‘in’

Another mistake I’ve seen is a candidate getting too enthusiastic about standing out from the crowd. 

In doing so, they contact anyone in the company they can to make themselves known.

It is great to show that you are interested in the company and the role. 

If the interviewers have said it’s OK for you to contact them after the interview, it is absolutely fine. 

However, be considerate when you contact interviewers outside of the interview process.

It may come across as keen, but do it too much, and it can become difficult for people to respond, especially if they aren’t directly involved in the interviewing process.

It’s OK to follow up sparingly and with the right people, but be mindful of how busy interviewers are when running hiring processes. 

Your keen attitude may be too much to handle if not appropriate. 

10. Being dishonest about the level of involvement had in the project

Be truthful about your level of involvement in a project. 

Don’t claim you worked on a project just because it happened at your agency at the same time you were working there. 

As soon as interviewers start asking in-depth questions about the project, your lack of knowledge will be apparent.

Instead of it sounding impressive, you’ll come across as lacking knowledge and depth in your answer.

Ace your SEO interview and leave a lasting impression

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can present yourself as a confident, prepared, and team-oriented candidate.

With the right approach, you’ll be better positioned to impress interviewers and land your next SEO role.

Dig deeper: The latest jobs in search marketing

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Google quietly updated the News and Discover manual action policies

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Google has updated its manual actions for Google News and Google Discover a few months back, where they removed the adult-theme and artificial freshening sections, updated the hateful content section and added five new deceptive practices sections.

This change was spotted by Gagan Ghotra who wrote, “last year somewhere between 10th Oct and 27 Nov Google updated Manual Actions for News and Discovers to add some specific policy violations for Deceptive Practices.”

What changed. Google removed two sections:

  • Adult-themed content (Discover)
  • Artificial freshening (News and Discover)

Google updated one section:

  • “News and Discover policy violation: Hateful content” is now “Hateful content (News and Discover)”

Google added five sections on deceptive practices including:

  • Deceptive practices: Coordinated deceptive practices (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that appears to conceal or misrepresent the site ownership or purpose.
  • Deceptive practices: Good neighbor policy (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that impersonates or conceals the organization that created the content.
  • Deceptive practices: Impersonation (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that misrepresents the person or organization that provided the content.
  • Deceptive practices: Misrepresentation of affiliation (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that seems to misrepresent or conceal the financial or editorial relationships of the content producers.
  • Deceptive practices: Misrepresentation of location (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that seems to misrepresent or conceal the country of origin of the website.

Here is an image I created showing the side-by-side changes:

Why we care. If you are in the business of creating and publishing content, you will want to review these updated manual actions. Now, while these have been out for a few months now, it is still important to review these changes and scan through the manual action policy violations list every now and then.

Receiving a manual action can be very harmful to your site’s performance both in Google Search, Google News and Google Discover.

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Reddit introduces business analytics tools and AMA ads

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4 Reddit ad formats you need to know

Reddit today announced two significant product launches: a trends analysis tool for businesses and a new advertising format for its popular Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions.

Reddit’s new business-focused offerings come as the platform hits major growth milestones, including its first time exceeding 100 million daily active users and reaching profitability.

The details. The new Reddit Pro Trends tool, available within Reddit Pro’s free suite, allows businesses to:

  • Track real-time conversations about their brands, products, and industry trends.
  • Visualize conversation volume across Reddit communities.
  • Monitor discussions across approximately 100,000 “smart” keywords.
  • Access a feed of relevant conversations.
  • Soon view related keyword suggestions.

Why we care. These new capabilities allow for monitoring real-time conversations about your products and directly promoting Q&A sessions, essentially helping you access communities that are actively discussing your market segment. The new AMA ad format, especially, provides a structured way for you to participate in these conversations rather than just observe them.

Between the lines. Early adopters like Wayfair and the NBA tested Reddit Pro Trends, with participating businesses seeing a 12% increase in post creation. Smaller companies like Nudge Security and Van Votz, also tested the analytics tool, using it to find niche audiences.

What’s next. The new AMA Ads format lets businesses promote Q&A sessions directly through Reddit’s ad dashboard, complete with RSVP tracking capabilities.

Bottom line. These launches reflect Reddit’s strategic push to monetize its massive user base while providing value to businesses looking to tap into authentic community discussions.

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Google drops ad scheduling for Smart Bidding campaigns?

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Google Ads logo on smartphone

Google quietly updated its policies to remove ad scheduling for campaigns using Smart Bidding, raising eyebrows across the paid search community.

Ad scheduling lets advertisers control when their ads show, aligning campaigns with business hours or peak performance times. Removing this feature for Smart Bidding campaigns reduces control and could impact budget efficiency.

Voices from the field. Scott Carruthers, paid search director at Journey Further, is not a fan of this at all:

  • “It’s a step further away from keeping your advertising aligned with your business goals. I fully understand not taking bid adjustments into consideration, but advertisers should be able to choose when their ads run.”

PPC expert Amalia Fowler had a different take.

  • “If it’s true, I don’t hate this. Many businesses restrict their schedules unnecessarily, but more transparency from Google would be appreciated.”

Why we care. When using smart bidding you can no longer limit ad visibility to business hours, potentially leading to wasted spend outside of peak times. While automation can optimize for performance, this update diminishes your control over ad delivery to align with operational hours or staff availability.

What’s next. Expect further clarification from Google as advertisers push for answers. Many are watching closely to see if this policy change sticks or evolves with additional feedback.

First seen. This change was shared by Adriaan Dekker on LinkedIn. He wondered whether Google will make an announcement about this change or whether this might be an error.

Maybe an error? This change happened two days ago. The last time Google’s “About ad scheduling” page appeared in Wayback Machine (Feb. 28, 2024), this page said:

  • “Ad scheduling is not compatible with both Smart Shopping campaigns and App campaigns.”

Bottom line. Google’s shift toward automation-first advertising continues to disrupt traditional PPC strategies, forcing advertisers to adapt or find creative workarounds to maintain control over their campaigns.

Read more at Read More

Automated bidding in Google Ads: How to get the best results

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Google Ads logo on smartphone

Automated bidding in Google Ads promises to simplify campaign management and boost results – but it’s not foolproof. 

With the right bidding strategy, you can take control, optimize performance, and drive better conversions.

Let’s break down the essentials to get started.

Manual CPC: The best starting point for new campaigns

The simplest way to launch a new campaign, especially in a new or low-budget account, is to start with Manual CPC bidding. 

This lets you test comfortable bid levels and adjust based on results. 

Monitor these campaigns closely: 

  • Start with a bid.
  • Increase it if volume is low.
  • Track ad position, CTR, CPC, and conversions. 

For example, if impressions are too low, your bid is likely too low. 

If you see high conversions, clicks, and a strong Impr. (Abs. Top) %, test lowering your bid to reduce CPC and CPA. 

It’s a constant balance to find the optimal bid for your budget.

You can add negative keywords based on the search terms you see coming through and better control your spend, as there won’t be any surprises with average CPCs. 

However, automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions in a new campaign or ad account may result in extremely high CPCs for your target keywords. 

For instance, a small business may find a $100 CPC unacceptable, and spending can escalate quickly.

Once you’ve gathered enough performance data from impressions, clicks, and conversions, you can test switching to automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions. 

Alternatively, if you have a higher budget and are prepared to spend more upfront to collect data, you can launch a new campaign using Maximize Conversions immediately.

Dig deeper: There is no ‘best’ Google Ads bidding strategy, study finds

Pairing keyword match types and bidding strategies for success

Keyword match types and bidding strategies will vary depending on your budget and the average CPC in your industry.

Broad match keywords perform significantly better with automated bidding (i.e., Maximize Conversions) because it can automatically test many variations of your broad match keywords to find the best search terms with high conversion rates. 

This is much more difficult to achieve with manual bidding for broad match keywords.

For more specific terms, often used in B2B lead generation, phrase and exact match are preferred to keep search terms focused and avoid wasting money on irrelevant searches. 

Both automated and manual bidding can be effective with these match types, as you may not want to target a wide range of variations or related terms. 

Many industries rely on extremely specific keywords where slight variations or related terms no longer make sense to target.

Industries like home services, local businesses, attorneys, medical, education, insurance, and ecommerce often benefit from using broad match with automated bidding since many relevant search terms are available.

Testing broad match keywords with automated bidding is worthwhile if you have the budget.

Broad match has evolved significantly, now factoring in elements such as:

  • The user’s recent search activities.
  • The content of the landing page.
  • Other keywords in an ad group to better understand keyword intent.

In my experience, this approach has been far more effective than the old broad match, which attempted to expand to terms it deemed related. 

However, negative keywords remain critical and should always be a priority on any PPC management checklist.

Maximize Conversions: Benefits, challenges, and best practices

The Maximize Conversions bidding strategy is often used to gather data for a specific ad campaign. 

It can initially result in high CPCs and CPAs because it tests various combinations to determine what generates the most conversions over time. 

Unlike a human monitoring CPC and CPA during a new campaign launch, Google focuses on maximizing conversions within your budget but lacks the data to perform optimally at the start.

In other words, Maximize Conversions doesn’t immediately deliver the results its name suggests.

If enough conversions aren’t gathered during the learning phase, it may spend significant amounts with no conversions. 

This occurs because platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Meta Ads are trying to identify the right audience or keywords that could convert. 

If the initial keywords or audience don’t work, the system will test others. 

This is not an instant process, and in some cases, hundreds of clicks and substantial costs may yield no conversions. 

While results typically improve if the right audience or keywords are targeted, success is not guaranteed. 

Many advertisers pause campaigns after excessive ad spend with no conversions, where testing manual bidding first might have been a better option.

Maximize Conversions can be particularly effective with audience targeting in Display Ads or Video campaigns for lead generation or ecommerce. 

These campaign types often launch well with Maximize Conversions because their CPCs tend to be low, and automation can efficiently test various audiences or placements much faster than manual CPC bidding. 

For these types of campaigns, a tCPA or tROAS may not even be necessary if the strategy is delivering ample conversions.

Refining Maximize Conversions with tCPA or tROAS

A Target CPA (tCPA) or Target ROAS (tROAS) can be applied after you have determined your average CPA or ROAS, or you can choose to set up Maximize Conversions with a tCPA or tROAS from the start – both approaches are acceptable. 

However, this setting can be restrictive if it is based on assumptions without supporting data. 

To avoid overly limiting the campaign early on, you may consider launching with a higher tCPA or tROAS than your ideal target.

Ecommerce tends to be simpler with automated bidding because a sale is a sale. 

Lead generation, however, involves additional challenges such as lead quality issues or fake leads. 

For this reason, CRM and call-tracking software integration are essential to monitor lead quality by source and ad campaign.

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Boosting returns with Maximize Conversion Value

For ecommerce, Maximize Conversion Value is an excellent option for prioritizing higher-priced products over lower-priced ones to boost your overall ROAS for the campaign. 

However, it’s often best to start with Maximize Conversions and switch to this setting after gathering sufficient sales data.

This option can also be applied to lead generation if different values are assigned to different leads. 

For instance, filling out a form for an appointment can be assigned a higher conversion value than simply providing an email for a free download.

Portfolio bidding: Strategies for complex campaigns

Portfolio bidding refers to shared bidding strategies that can be applied to one or multiple campaigns, offering additional settings not available at the campaign level. 

These strategies are particularly useful when CPCs are increasing rapidly, as portfolio bidding allows you to address this issue immediately. 

Unlike campaign-level settings, portfolio bidding enables you to set both a Target CPA and a Max CPC simultaneously. 

This is especially beneficial in industries where target keywords typically have low CPCs. 

It can also be useful in competitive industries or for expensive keywords to avoid $200 CPCs that could harm account performance.

For instance, you can set a target CPA of $50 with a max CPC of $8. 

This approach is far more effective than using the Maximize Conversions bid strategy, which may test CPCs as high as $150 – three times your target CPA. 

Even with a 100% conversion rate, this would exceed your goal by a wide margin. 

This is a clear example where automation benefits from human guidance to ensure it aligns with your advertising goals when its default testing logic doesn’t make sense.

Portfolio bidding can also be valuable for ecommerce. 

For example, setting a target ROAS of 300% with a max CPC of $10 directs automation to adjust bids to achieve a 300% ROAS while capping clicks at $10 each. 

This keeps the automation in check and focused on achieving your desired outcomes.

Performance Max: Aligning automation with campaign data

Performance Max campaigns do not always deliver “maximum performance,” as the name suggests. 

For campaigns heavily reliant on automation, it is generally best to use Performance Max after establishing proof of concept with Search, Shopping, Video, or Display campaigns. 

Starting with a new account that lacks performance data and expecting Performance Max to optimize everything independently is risky. 

While it can sometimes succeed, it performs significantly better when supported by proven performance data, such as a customer list to help match your target audience or at least a remarketing audience of website visitors.

Exploring less common bidding strategies

Some less commonly used strategies include Target Impression Share, which adjusts bids to maximize impression share.

This prioritizes showing your ad as frequently as possible without monitoring other metrics. It is primarily used by large brands with nearly unlimited budgets.

Even for branded keywords in branded campaigns, it is unwise to pay excessive CPCs ($100 or more) just to maintain a top position.

The Maximize Clicks strategy adjusts bids to generate the highest possible number of clicks. However, this is not cost-effective for most advertisers unless they are large brands with substantial budgets. 

Switching from Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions, a common practice, is not recommended. 

Keywords that attract the most clicks do not necessarily generate the most conversions. Instead, start with manual CPC and then transition to Maximize Conversions (with or without a target CPA). 

This ensures a cohesive strategy, as both approaches aim to optimize for conversions. 

In contrast, gathering data through Maximize Clicks does not align with the goals of Maximize Conversions.

Additionally, Google is phasing out Enhanced CPC bidding. If you currently use this strategy, we recommend transitioning to manual CPC or an automated option in the first quarter of 2025.

Dig deeper: 10 advanced strategy ideas for Google Ads

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