The Grip is a newsletter that compiles essential news and insights for bold healthcare marketers, brought to you by Grippi Media .
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Google’s search algorithm has always been an enigma, but that veil of secrecy was lifted earlier this week. A leaked document has revealed the intricate details about the algorithm powering the world’s top search engine, sending shock waves through the marketing community.
What’s important? What’s irrelevant? What comes next? Find out in this week’s edition of The Grip!
👉 Huge Google Search Document Leak Reveals Inner Workings of Ranking Algorithm
👉 Google AI’s Hilariously Bad Answers Aren’t the Big Problem
👉 LinkedIn Shares Insights Into the Use of AI in Marketing
👉 Dollar General, DocGo End Pilot Program for Mobile Health Clinics
👉 South Park Skewers GLP-1 Frenzy in End of Obesity Special
All this and more in issue 5 of The Grip. Go ahead and give it a read. And don’t forget to subscribe!
- Vincent Grippi, Founder/CEO, Grippi Media
I Can’t Believe That’s a Keyword
Using Semrush, we hunt down bizarre (and totally real) search queries and try to answer them.
This Week’s Keyword: What Would Happen If You Touched The Elephants Foot? Avg. Monthly Search Volume: 340
Answer: After some poking around, I learned that “the elephant” is a nickname given to a large, solid mass of highly radioactive material that formed during the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. It’s still sitting beneath the Chernobyl sarcophagus today and is lethally radioactive. That said, if you were to touch it, you’d need a lot more than a Band Aid.
Top Stories We’re Tracking
Essential marketing and healthcare headlines of the week.
HUGE Google Search Document Leak Reveals Inner Workings of Ranking Algorithm
A massive leak of @Google documents has unveiled detailed insights into the search engine’s ranking algorithm, revealing the use of clicks, links, content, entities, Chrome data, and more. These documents, released on @GitHub by an automated bot, were shared with SEO experts Rand Fishkin and Michael King, who provided an in-depth analysis. The leak, potentially one of the most significant in SEO history, disclosed 2,596 ranking modules with 14,014 attributes but did not reveal how they are weighted.
Key Revelations:
Links and link diversity matter quite a bit, which Google previously denied.
Clicks also matter quite a bit, which Google previously denied as well. It looks like Google rates clicks with tags such as badClicks, goodClicks, lastLongestClicks and unsquashedClicks. It’s not clear what any of these actually mean, but I’m incredibly curious about unsquashedclicks based on the ridiculous name alone.
Google appears to have its own Site Authority scoring system, which, you guessed it - they’ve continuously denied.
Google built re-ranking functions called Twiddlers that “can adjust the information retrieval score of a document or change the ranking of a document,” according to King.
Google keeps a copy of every version of every page it has indexed, so it can "remember" all changes made. However, it only considers the last 20 changes when analyzing links.
Additional findings from the documents highlight the ongoing relevance of PageRank, the influence of brand recognition, and the consideration of authorship. The document also reveals that Google uses data from its Chrome browser and maintains whitelists for certain domains related to elections and COVID-19.
Other notable aspects include the importance of content freshness, the vectorization of pages to determine core topics, and the significance of page titles.
Google spokesperson, Davis Thompson confirmed the legitimacy of the leak to The Verge, saying:
“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information. We’ve shared extensive information about how Search works and the types of factors that our systems weigh, while also working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
Bad Timing
Frankly, this couldn't have come at a worse time for Google, as they continue to face increased scrutiny. From the tech giant's antitrust trial and its controversial AI Overviews cluttering SERPs with questionable information, to the mounting pressures from its ongoing competition with OpenAI, it seems like Google is perpetually caught on the wrong side of the headlines these days.
Lack of Trust in Google
This leak reveals a lot of suspected ranking factors that Google has long denied, yet marketers continued to believe anyway - e.g. links/clicks matter. Are we really that surprised that Google hasn’t spilled the beans on all of the inner workings of its algorithm? If it did, it would only promote further abuse (a dilemma Google was struggling with in spades), which in turn mucks up the SERPs even more. On that front, I can’t really blame them for being misleading with certain details.
What I find most concerning is that Google uses Google Chrome data for things like determining keyword rankings and whitelists. But again, we don’t know the full context of everything contained in the leak. Which of these ranking factors are active vs. which aren’t? Which were merely experimental? How are these factors weighted vs. others? We’ll probably never know.
What Next?
SEO is a continuous and cyclical process that requires consistent testing and updating throughout the year. Although Google will never fully disclose their algorithm, it's important to pay attention to their communications, evaluate them critically, and conduct your own tests. If a strategy is effective, continue using it until it no longer yields results.
Above all, you should always prioritize creating content for humans, not search engine algorithms.
📄 Read Article (Source: Search Engine Land)
Google AI’s Hilariously Bad Answers Aren’t the Big Problem
Google's recent rollout of “AI Overviews” in search results has been met with backlash due to several inaccuracies, some absurdly so. Instances such as recommending glue on pizza and eating rocks, derived from questionable sources like Reddit, Inc. and satirical sites, have led to public outcry. More troubling were errors like repeating the false claim that former President Barack Obama is Muslim.
This mishap has sparked a trend of users experimenting with bizarre queries and sharing results on social media, highlighting the tendency of the AI to generate misleading information without proper context or understanding.
Despite having more guardrails than competitors like Microsoft’s Copilot-infused Bing, Google's AI Overviews still fall short. Google’s goal of organizing and making quality information universally accessible is compromised by its own AI.
The failure of AI Overviews highlights the importance of not blindly trusting AI-generated content, as the real danger lies in subtle errors that aren't immediately obvious, which could significantly impact user trust and Google’s reputation.
Can Google fix the problem of AI Overviews exacerbating the spread of misinformation? CEO, Sundar Pichai, doesn’t seem to think so.
📄 Read Article (Source: Fast Company)
LinkedIn Shares Insights Into the Use of AI in Marketing
LinkedIn published an infographic, based on data from its 2024 Global Marketing Jobs Outlook, which provides interesting insights into the adoption of AI in marketing. We break down the highlights below:
Generative AI's Impact on Marketing:
AI has evolved from a novelty to an essential tool in marketing.
Tools like ChatGPT are now integrated into daily marketing tasks, making processes more efficient and productive.
Benefits of Generative AI in 2024:
58% of B2B marketers plan to use AI to generate more content in less time.
55% aim to increase efficiency, allowing focus on higher-value work.
51% intend to create optimized, engaging content tailored to target audiences.
39% seek to develop more creative campaigns.
51% aim to gain a competitive advantage.
Building AI Skills:
Marketers are engaging in AI-focused courses such as "What is Generative AI?", "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence", and "Ethics in the Age of Generative AI".
Specific AI-related skills added to profiles include Prompt Engineering, DALL-E, GPT-3, GPT-4, Generative Art, and more.
Hiring Trends:
71% of leaders prefer hiring candidates with AI literacy skills, even if less experienced.
66% would not hire someone without AI literacy skills.
📄 Read Article (Source: Social Media Today, LLC)
Dollar General, DocGo End Pilot Program for Mobile Health Clinics
Dollar General and DocGo have mutually decided to end their pilot program for mobile health clinics, which was launched in early 2023 at three Tennessee stores.
The program, which provided services such as physicals, vaccinations, urgent care, and lab tests, was part of Dollar General's DG Wellbeing initiative to enhance health and wellness offerings.
DocGo plans to use the insights from this pilot to improve other mobile and in-home healthcare programs. This move follows a trend of major retailers, like Walmart and Walgreens, scaling back their healthcare initiatives.
📄 Read Article (Source: Modern Healthcare )
South Park Skewers GLP-1 Frenzy in End of Obesity Special
It was only a matter of time.
South Park recently released "The End of Obesity," a special on Paramount+ satirizing the current craze around weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound.
The episode follows Eric Cartman's pursuit of these GLP-1 drugs to manage his obesity, alongside a subplot about other town members using the drugs off-label for cosmetic weight loss and their economic impact. The special pulls no punches joking about the high costs, insurance issues, side effects, and supply shortages of these drugs.
The show has been well-received, noted for its equal-opportunity mockery of Big Pharma, health insurers, doctors, and celebrities.
📄 Read Article (Source: MM+M)
Our Latest Podcasts
Recent episodes of the podcasts that we help produce.
Summer Safety: Seasonal Risks and Tips
With summer upon us, it's time to dust off those BBQ grills, lace up those hiking boots, and dive into all the fun that comes with the sunny season.
But as with all good things in life, the warm weather comes with a few risks.
From skin disease to the dangers of heat stroke, summer brings its own set of challenges.
In our latest episode of CareTalk Podcast: Healthcare. Unfiltered., David E. Williams and John Driscoll cover everything you need to know to stay safe while having fun this summer!
Unlocking the Secrets of Cells with AI, Jonathan Baptista from DeepLife
DeepLife uses machine learning to curate and annotate single-cell RNA-seq datasets, enabling downstream bioinformatics analysis and target identification.
In this episode of the AWS Health Innovation Podcast, Jonathan Baptista joins host, Alex Merwin, to explore how DeepLife works with the world’s most ambitious pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and academics to accelerate drug discovery through artificial intelligence.
What We’re Listening To
New music that has been inspiring us.
The Palms - Wonderland
With MDW behind us, summer is unofficially here! This new album from The Palms is a sonic painting of what it’s like to drive around aimlessly in the summer sun. Easy listening pop with an air of haziness. Play it poolside, during a BBQ or while hammerin’ some excel spreadsheets outside.
That's it for now. See you next week! 👋
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