What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
AI Content Detectors Are Lying to You: The Grift of Fake Plagiarism Scanners in SEO
If you think AI content detectors actually catch plagiarism or maintain quality, you’re dead wrong. They're a lazy agency cash grab and Google-approved nonsense.
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The Applebot-Extended Visibility Myth: How a Ghost Bot Is Hijacking Your Crawl Budget
Applebot isn’t the SEO ally you think it is. That so-called extended visibility is a cargo cult narrative masking a stealth crawl budget vampire.
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Core Web Vitals Are Overrated Noise: Why Google's Speed Signals Are Peak Nothingburger in 2026
The SEO world’s obsession with Core Web Vitals is a sad circus of vanity metrics and lazy agency parroting. Here’s why these signals are meaningless noise in 2026.
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GSC Discover Traffic Attribution Is Broken Beyond Repair - Stop Trusting These Vanity Metrics
Google Search Console’s Discover traffic numbers are a masterclass in broken attribution. If you’re relying on those stats, you’re chasing ghosts and inflating your ego.
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Schema.org Adoption Is a Dumpster Fire: Why Most Publishers Are Wasting Time on Half-Baked Markup
The SEO world loves to pretend adding a few Schema tags is a silver bullet. Spoiler: most publishers are drowning in broken, incomplete, and outright useless structured data.
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Yoast and Rank Math AI Features Are a Lazy Joke: How These Plugins Still Can't Generate Real SEO Value
Yoast and Rank Math's new AI gimmicks are nothing but smoke and mirrors — a lazy band-aid on decades of plugin bloat and SEO grift that delivers zero tangible ROI.
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IndexNow Is a Zero-Impact PR Stunt: Why Microsoft's Link Submission API Is SEO Snake Oil in 2026
IndexNow is being paraded as the next big thing in SEO, but it's a glorified link submission API that delivers zero tangible value. Here’s why the whole thing is SEO snake oil in 2026.
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How The Good Noticings Podcast Ditches Clickbait for Genuine Positivity in a Toxic Social Media Jungle
The Good Noticings podcast rejects the content industry’s obsession with outrage and hot takes, proving that positivity and authenticity can cut through the noise.
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The CMO Shakeup Nobody’s Talking About: Growth Isn’t Marketing’s Side Hustle Anymore
The recent wave of CMO shakeups reveals a brutal truth: marketing’s old playbook is dead. Growth isn’t a side hustle anymore — it’s the entire job.
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Legacy Brands and the Illusion of Reinvention: What Crayola’s Latest Strategy Gets Wrong
Crayola’s recent rebrand efforts reveal a deeper issue: legacy brands mistaking nostalgia for innovation, and emotional resonance for strategic evolution.
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The Week’s Most Eye-Rolling Ad Stunts: Marc Jacobs, Ikea, and the Same Old Noise
This week’s roundup of ad campaigns from Marc Jacobs to Ikea reveals a familiar pattern: flashy packaging over meaningful innovation. Here’s why the industry’s playing it safe is killing creativity.
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Possible 2026: The Fontainebleau Fanfare and the C-Suite Climb That Could Break Marketing’s Echo Chamber
Possible’s 2026 expansion at Eden Roc aims to transform it into marketing’s Davos with exclusive programming and C-suite dealmaking, but is it substance or style? Spoiler: it’s a gamble.
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Beehiiv’s Feature Spree: Polishing the Platform or Just Noise in the Creator Wars?
Beehiiv is aggressively adding features to challenge Substack and others, but piling on bells and whistles risks turning it into yet another bloated platform that creators will abandon.
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Sports Marketing’s Lazy Pivot: Agencies Hiring Ex-Athletes Won’t Save Your Brand
Hiring ex-athletes and leaning on AI won’t save your sports marketing campaigns. The real win comes from obsessing over fans, not quick fixes.
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Nike’s Boston Marathon Billboard Backlash Sparks Inclusive Riposte From Asics and Ecco
Nike’s Boston Marathon billboard calling out walkers sparked backlash and swift removal, prompting Asics and Ecco to launch inclusive campaigns celebrating all movement.
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Taste Trumps Tech: Why AI’s Ubiquity Means Creativity, Not Code, Wins Marketing Wars
AI tools flood the marketing landscape with interchangeable content, but real competitive edge now comes from human taste — a muscle no algorithm can flex.
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Coca-Cola’s World Cup TV Ads Are Just the Tip of Their Sports Marketing Iceberg
Coca-Cola’s Powerade World Cup campaign proves TV ads alone are dead. The brand’s 360-degree strategy blends traditional and digital channels to maximize impact.
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Devonshires Breaks Legal Mold with First-Ever CMO Hire — And It’s About Time
Devonshires is finally admitting that old-school legal marketing won’t cut it anymore by appointing its first-ever CMO to drive real growth strategy.
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