Meta AI, announced today, is a new conversational assistant “you can interact with like a person,” according to the company.

Microsoft Bing is working with Meta to “integrate Bing into Meta AI’s chat experiences enabling more timely and up-to-date answers with access to real-time search information,” according to Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, in a company blog post.

This includes bringing Bing to Meta AI and Meta’s 28 other new AI characters in Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

What Microsoft is saying. If a request requires fresh information, Meta AI will automatically ask Bing to get the chat answer, according to Jordi Ribas, Microsoft CVP, head of engineering and product for Bing.

• “Many people ask me whether LLMs will make web search engines less valuable, but the opposite is actually the case. LLMs make web search more critical than ever, since the combination of LLMs + web search is what produces fresher and more accurate chat results,” Ribas posted on X.

Why we care. Search continues to expand and is now essentially everything, everywhere, all at once. This integration means Meta’s AI assistant will have access to real-time information, which in theory should produce better chat results via conversational search. And coming soon: businesses will be able to create their own AIs.

What Meta AI looks like. Here’s a GIF Meta shared:

More Meta AIs with Bing. Meta announced it is releasing 28 additional AIs, all with unique personas, that users can interact with on its platforms. Meta said it plans to bring Bing search to these AI characters, many of which are based on celebrities (e.g., Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Mr Beast) “in the coming months.”

Bing’s role. Meta AI is powered by a custom model that leverages technology from Llama 2 and other large language models. However, Meta’s LLMs are only trained on information prior to 2023, which would lead to dated responses. This is where Bing’s real-time web results will come into play.

More to come. Meta promises that it is working on AIs for businesses and creators that will be available next year. From Meta:

• “Businesses will also be able to create AIs that reflect their brand’s values and improve customer service experiences. From small businesses looking to scale to large brands wanting to enhance communications, AIs can help businesses engage with their customers across our apps. We’re launching this in alpha and will scale it further next year.”

In 2016, Andrey Lipattsev, a Google search quality senior strategist, said links pointing at your site were one of the top three Google Search ranking factors (along with content and RankBrain).

In 2023, that is no longer the case, according to Gary Illyes, an analyst on the Google Search team, speaking at Pubcon Pro in Austin last week.

Why we care. To be clear, links still matter. Illyes said as much. Nobody is saying otherwise. But it’s also important to understand that the Google Search of today is not the same as it was in 2014 or the early 2000s when PageRank was everything and every link was a “vote.” Technology has advanced and machine learning (e.g., BERT, MUM), natural language understanding and other relevance signals now have more importance in Google’s algorithm.

Dig deeper: AMA with Google’s Gary Illyes: 15 quick SEO takeaways

What Illyes said. Illyes was asked whether links are still among the three most important Google Search ranking factors. He does not.

• “I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

Illyes also said, “it is possible to rank without links.” Although it very much sounded like an edge case, he mentioned one case in which a website had zero links (internal or external) but had such fantastic content that it was ranking number one consistently. Google was only able to discover it via the website’s sitemap.

Illyes delivered a similar message earlier this year during a keynote at a Pubcon event in February, noting you can do fine in many verticals without links:

• “Links are important, but not as important as people think.”

Not the first to downgrade links. Duy Nguyen from Google’s search quality team also said links have a less significant impact for ranking in November during a Google SEO Office Hours:

• “First, backlinks as a signal has a lot less significant impact compared to when Google Search first started out many years ago. We have robust ranking signals, hundreds of them, to make sure that we are able to rank the most relevant and useful results for all queries.”

In a Search Off the Record podcast episode, Google’s John Mueller said he believes that links will be not as important of a ranking factor for Google:

“Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links. At some point, will drop off a little bit as we can’t figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web. And to some extent, links will always be something that we care about because we have to find pages somehow. It’s like how do you find a page on the web without some reference to it?

“But my guess is over time, it won’t be such a big factor as sometimes it is today. I think already, that’s something that’s been changing quite a bit.”

Mueller also said in 2020:

• “Links are definitely not the most important SEO factor.”

And in 2014, Matt Cutts, then a distinguished engineer at Google, said backlinks would become less important:

“I think backlinks still have many, many years left in them. But inevitably, what we’re trying to do is figure out how an expert user would say, this particular page matched their information needs. And sometimes backlinks matter for that. It’s helpful to find out what the reputation of the site or a page is. But, for the most part, people care about the quality of the content on that particular page. So I think over time, backlinks will become a little less important.”

Liar, liar? Whenever a Google representative makes a statement like this, many SEOs say it is typical Google disinformation or flat-out lying. Nobody will ever agree on this – it is SEO, after all.

But again, Illyes didn’t say links are not important at all. He just said that it is not in the “top three.” (Illyes disagrees that there even is a “top three” because every site will have something different as the top two or three ranking factors.)

Asking whether Amazon reviews are important is like wondering whether your body needs water to thrive. 

The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” 

Acquiring as many positive reviews as possible will pay off for Amazon sellers.

8 reasons Amazon reviews are important

Amazon reviews aren’t just testimonials; they are powerful tools that can make or break your sales on the platform.

Here’s why Amazon reviews have so much impact.

1. Consumer trust

Amazon reviews provide valuable insights into the quality and performance of products. Potential buyers often rely on these reviews to make informed decisions about whether to purchase a product.

Positive reviews can instill trust and confidence in a product, while negative reviews can serve as warnings that scare people off.

2. Product information

Reviews often contain detailed information about the product’s features, benefits and drawbacks — even more so than official product descriptions. 

This can help consumers understand what they are buying and whether it meets their specific needs.

3. Quality assurance

Reviews help hold sellers accountable for the quality of their products. A high number of positive reviews can indicate that a product is reliable and of high quality, while a consistent pattern of negative reviews may signal quality issues.

4. Improved products

Constructive feedback in reviews can be valuable for sellers. 

They can use this feedback to make improvements to their products, addressing issues raised by customers and enhancing overall product quality.

5. SEO and visibility

Amazon’s algorithm considers reviews when ranking products in search results. 

Products with more and better reviews often appear higher in search results, making them more visible to potential customers.

6. Seller reputation

For sellers, maintaining a good reputation on Amazon is crucial. Positive reviews can help build a seller’s credibility and attract more customers. Negative reviews, on the other hand, can harm a seller’s reputation and negatively impact sales.

7. Competitive advantage 

In a competitive marketplace like Amazon, positive reviews can give a product a significant advantage. They can differentiate a product from similar offerings and encourage more sales.

8. Risk mitigation

For consumers, reading reviews can help them avoid making poor purchasing decisions. They can learn from the experiences of others and avoid products that consistently receive negative feedback.

Use these Amazon review best practices to your advantage

With reviews playing such an important role in everything from SERP rankings to sales, it’s inevitable that some sellers would try to game the system by manipulating reviews.

As a result, Amazon has been cracking down, revising its review policy to preserve quality and credibility and maintain consumer trust. They have outlawed many of the practices sellers used to solicit reviews.

This doesn’t mean you should give up on trying to obtain reviews any more than you would stop drinking water. The key is to do so smartly, without violating Amazon’s zero-tolerance policy.

The following Amazon reviews best practices will help you boost sales and improve customer satisfaction. 

1. Understand the algorithmic impact

Amazon is notoriously tight-lipped concerning its review methodology.

However, certain factors – including how recently a review was written and whether the purchase was verified – carry significant weight. Fresh reviews are more valuable for long-term relevancy. 

The bottom line remains the same: the more reviews you have, the higher your search rankings and visibility, and the better your sales.

2. Leverage Amazon Vine

Amazon Vine is a program developed to help facilitate the collection of customer reviews for new and pre-release products on its platform.

Amazon Vine primarily targets more established and trusted reviewers, often referred to as “Vine Voices,” who have a history of writing helpful and informative reviews. Amazon Vine reviews include a badge stating “Vine Customer Review of Free Product” to ensure transparency.

In exchange for providing free items, sellers who enroll in the Amazon Vine program get early reviews from unbiased Vine Voices reviewers who have demonstrated high standards in writing trustworthy reviews. This improves visibility and rankings and can boost sales by up to 30%, according to Amazon. 

3. Encourage organic reviews

Encouraging organic Amazon reviews – reviews that naturally occur without manipulation or incentivization:

• Improves your credibility and trustworthiness.
• Helps you build a long-term reputation.
• Helps potential buyers make informed purchasing decisions.
• Can improve your product’s visibility in search results.

The best way to obtain organic reviews, which ensure compliance with Amazon’s policies, eliminating any risk of penalties or account suspension, is by providing high-quality products, exceptional customer service, and clear communication.

Respond promptly to customer issues, ensure your products meet or exceed expectations, create informative and engaging product listings, and use constructive customer feedback to make product improvements when necessary.

It’s OK to send customers follow-up emails requesting feedback on their purchases as long as you don’t offer incentives that violate Amazon policies.

4. Respond professionally to negative reviews

Nobody likes a negative review, but they are an inevitable part of doing business.

Responding professionally can have a significant impact on your reputation. Negative reviews are visible to the public, and how you respond can influence how your business is perceived.

Professional responses help minimize damage to your brand and help build trust with both current and potential customers. When you acknowledge their concerns and offer solutions, you have an opportunity to turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones.

Responding professionally to negative reviews may be easier said than done, so start out by taking a deep breath. Next:

• Avoid getting defensive; focus on the facts and the customer’s concerns by acknowledging their complaint and expressing empathy.
• Offer a solution to the problem or provide additional information that might help clarify any misunderstandings.
• Use courteous and professional language, offer a sincere apology when warranted, and suggest moving the conversation offline to address the issue more personally.

5. Highlight positive reviews in marketing

Positive reviews are a blessing. Highlighting them in other channels is a great way to build trust with potential customers and showcase the quality and value of your products and services.

Incorporating positive reviews into your marketing efforts might involve:

• Including snippets in your Amazon product descriptions.
• Creating a testimonials section on your website, including a mix of written reviews and star ratings.
• Sharing positive reviews on your social media profiles.
• Using pull quotes in marketing collateral.
• Incorporating reviews into ad campaigns or product packaging.

Remember to always seek permission from customers before using their reviews or testimonials in your marketing efforts. Doing so ensures your marketing practices comply with Amazon’s policies and any other regulations and ethical guidelines. 

6. Regular monitoring and analysis

Regularly tracking customer reviews keeps you informed about customer perceptions, helps you identify emerging trends or recurring issues, improves customer engagement, and allows you to make data-driven improvements.

Consider using an online monitoring tool like Amazon CloudWatch to continuously track the digital experiences of your customers, or third-party services that aggregate and analyze reviews from various platforms, including Amazon. These tools can help you efficiently manage your online reputation and stay proactive in addressing customer feedback. 

Additionally, establish clear internal processes for reviewing and responding to customer reviews to ensure consistent and timely engagement with your customers’ feedback. 

7. Stay compliant with Amazon’s policies

Staying compliant with Amazon’s policies is crucial. The online platform has established a strict set of rules and guidelines to maintain a fair and trustworthy marketplace.

Violating Amazon’s policies, whether intentionally or not, can lead to the suspension or termination of your seller account, with serious long-term business implications. 

Understanding what is allowed and what is not will help you build and maintain trust with both customers and other sellers, and promotes fair competition.

Amazon’s policies are designed to ensure a positive shopping experience for customers; by focusing on compliance, you’ll help contribute to a more consistent and reliable shopping experience, which can result in higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

8. Learn from your competitors

By tracking customer reviews of your competitors, you can gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can inform your own business strategies, helping you differentiate your offerings and outperform the competition.

Begin by identifying your key Amazon competitors – those sellers that offer similar products or services. Collect a sample of competitor reviews for analysis (you can do this by manually reading through their reviews or using review aggregation tools or services to streamline the process), analyze the overall star ratings for consistency, and pay attention to recurring complaints or praises.

Look for competitive advantages, evaluate pricing strategies, and assess their overall brand reputation. Compare the insights gained from competitor reviews with your own reviews, identifying areas where you can leverage strengths or address weaknesses. 

9. Use third-party tools for advanced management

Amazon provides sellers with access to many valuable tools for managing their accounts, but third parties often include additional features designed to streamline operations, optimize sales and enhance overall business performance.

Third-party tools can:

• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Provide access to robust analytics and reporting capabilities.
• Track and manage inventory.
• Optimize product listings.
• Manage Amazon advertising campaigns.
• Integrate with other ecommerce platforms to expand your reach.
• Help manage customer communications. 

Evaluate third-party management tools carefully, investing in those that align with your specific needs, budget, and business goals.

Are you looking to engage your audience with a personalized experience throughout their meandering journey – from awareness to conversion and Organic Search through Paid Social?

Then Facebook Dynamic Ads could be your marketing funnel’s secret weapon. 

Regardless of whether you’re B2C or B2B, Facebook’s Dynamic Ads are a smart, cost-effective way to expand your reach.

Here are four reasons why you should consider trying Facebook Dynamic Ads.

1. AI does the hard work

AI may be the big buzzword these days, but seasoned marketers know that paid advertising platforms like Meta have been using AI algorithms for all sorts of things, including Facebook’s Dynamic Ads.

Originally released in 2015, Facebook’s Dynamic Ads were touted as a format to help advertisers “capture the intent signals that customers show on websites and apps to ensure the right products are connected to the right people.”

Put simply, Meta uses AI to analyze user behavior and show users applicable content. 

Where Dynamic Ads shine is the AI’s ability to decipher user behavior and preferences with precision.

Dynamic Ads tap into Meta’s treasure trove of user data, allowing the ads to adapt seamlessly to each user and their unique surroundings. 

Unlike traditional ad campaigns that require painstaking A/B testing, Dynamic Ads ads eliminate the need for lengthy guesswork. AI does the heavy lifting by continuously analyzing user engagement data and fine-tuning the ad content in real time.

No more creating separate tests. No more manual adjustments. It’s all taken care of behind the scenes.

2. Efficiency

Personalization and performance are intertwined – personalized ads can increase user engagement and significantly enhance ad performance.

So if you aren’t leveraging Dynamic Ads in your Facebook strategy, you’re missing out on that increased user engagement, ad performance and an overall cost-saving tool. 

Finding the winning combination in traditional ad campaigns often requires hefty budgets for A/B testing and manual adjustments after lengthy learning periods.

Dynamic Ads, however, continuously optimize ad content based on user behavior, eliminating the need for costly trial and error. This translates into better engagement, higher conversion rate, and reduced cost per lead, making every advertising dollar work more efficiently.

3. Low maintenance

In the beginning, crafting Dynamic Ads can be more time-consuming.

You’re selecting individual pieces for the groundwork for your personalized ad journeys. And these pieces all need to play nicely together because they’ll be tossed into a blender and presented in all manner of combinations.

However, the beauty of the approach lies in what follows: once the setup is in place, you get to sit back and watch Facebook take the reins.

Instead of constantly fiddling with ad parameters (which Facebook discourages you from doing anyway), you can entrust the heavy lifting to Meta’s algorithms. Meta uses user behavior, engagement data, and countless other factors to automatically fine-tune your campaigns.

This means your ads become more effective over time without you needing to lift a finger (and to really extend their expiration date without increasing their frequency, use videos!).

In essence, Dynamic Ads allow you to manage your time better, by being high-maintenance upfront with minimal ongoing effort.

It’s the best of both worlds – a personalized, powerful ad experience for users without constant tinkering for marketers.

4. Assets are everything

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then an ad asset is easily worth $1,000.

Dynamic ads rely so heavily on visual appeal to capture your audience’s attention, that failing to have high-quality creative that resonates with users can make or break your campaign performance.

To ensure your assets have the best shot at performing well, consider three things:

No maximum resolution

Facebook recommends a resolution of at least 1080×1080 pixels.

However, Facebook also notes that there is no maximum resolution.

That means go as high as you can.

Aspect ratios are key

While you can get away with using single images in various sizes for some campaigns, there are many instances where having the correct image ratios is absolutely key to performance.

Your ad could look downright out of place:

To ensure maximum coverage across these platforms and the best bang for your buck, you need the trifecta: assets in the right ratios for stories, feed and Instagram Reels. 

Different mediums demand different assets

“Great message, wrong medium,” is a tale as old as time.

If your asset doesn’t take into account the difference between Instagram and Facebook, your campaign will not be as effective as it could be.

Take Instagram Reels, for example. The vertical format demands a way to showcase your product or service in a way that feels native to the platform.

Here’s an Instagram Reel ad that used live-action, high-quality video:

Feed images, on the other hand, need to pop out amidst a sea of content.

The same advertiser also opted to use a colorful graphic, to help it stand out from the photos users share on Facebook:

Personalization and performance are inextricably linked

If you’re looking to increase your Facebook reach you should consider testing Dynamic Ads. You can leverage user data to produce personalized ads that perform – without huge investments of time or money.

The multibillion-dollar question right now is whether the Search Generative Experience (SGE) will blow up Google’s Search business model. Based on early testing, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is “confident” that won’t happen.

“It’s important to us to connect users with what’s out on the web, and we are working deeply to make sure that continues to work well,” Pichai told Steven Levy in a Q&A published on Wired.

Why we care. Google may be confident that the SGE experiment will continue to send people to websites, but we’re still finding it hard to trust Google at this point. They won’t reveal any real data to us about whether AI answers are driving clicks to websites, click-through rate data, or advertising performance data on what we are calling CHERPs, or Chat Engine Results Pages. And we have no way to track this in Google Search Console, Google Ads or Google Analytics.

Ads vs. organic. Levy pointed out to Pichai that the AI-generated answers are different from a list of links, which could further add confusion about whether an SGE answer is sponsored or organic.

• “Even in a generative experience we would give you a set of sites that support what we are saying. We want to make sure users are consuming those sites. So I don’t think the core part of the experience will change. We will have a space for ads in a way that makes sense for users and particularly on commercial queries,” Pichai said.

Helping people find information. Pichai pointed out that even though the way Google presents information has evolved greatly in 25 years – but ultimately people are searching for information.

• “We are still trying to help people find the best information that exists online. Inherently, people are also looking for commercial information, and ads are very valuable commercial information, because they connect merchants and businesses, small and big, to users. None of that changes just because we are applying AI deeply. When we evolve search with generative AI, we’ll apply the same principles,” Pichai said.

Like desktop to mobile? Pichai pointed out that people asked similar questions as Google shifted its focus from desktop to making everything mobile-first.

• “Our early testing shows that we’ll be able to get it right. It’s core to the company to evolve search while applying the underlying principles. I am confident we’ll be able to get that right through this transition,” Pichai said.

The search community was also extremely worried about Google’s featured snippets stealing traffic. When Bard launched in February, there were no links. And SGE only finally added links to websites Aug. 30 after months of pressure by search marketers and publishers.

Bing burn. Did the new Bing, powered by ChatGPT, make Google “dance.” Pichai essentially dissed their efforts, comparing it to Alexa and Siri. Pichai also claimed:

• “Around the end of last year, my thoughts were, how can we bring generative AI to search in a way that makes sense for our users? That’s what I’m thinking about, and that’s what will matter in the long run.”

Could that time in late 2022 coincide with OpenAI launching ChatGPT in late November? Generative AI exploded on the scene and supposedly triggered a code red within Google, leading to the return of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Pichai was also asked about the antitrust trial, but had little to say beyond throwing around the word “innovation.”

You can read the full interview here: Sundar Pichai on Google’s AI, Microsoft’s AI, OpenAI, and … Did We Mention AI?

“Search is coming to Threads,” according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg shared the news via Threads about an hour ago, but it’s unclear when it’s coming. But if he’s hyping it up, Threads search must be near.

Why we care. The Threads app launched without several basic and expected features – such as the ability to search for posts using words. We have been frustratingly limited to only searching for accounts, but it seems that will finally change soon, which means more opportunities for your posts to be discovered.

Search being tested now. Threads Search is now being tested in New Zealand and Australia, TechCrunch reported. Search will rollout to more English-speaking countries but we don’t yet know when.

What it looks like. Here’s a screenshot for a Threads search for [tennis], via TechCrunch:

What Meta is saying. “We are actively listening to the community’s feedback and working on more features to improve the search experience,” the company said in a statement.

Better late than never? Threads took just five days to get 100 million users. However, in the weeks since, engagement has declined and it has an estimated 8 million daily active users now. We’ll soon find out whether launching the web version of Threads and having actual useful search can help reverse Threads’ downward trend.

Dig deeper. Threads FAQ: Everything marketers need to know

“For you on Threads”. Meanwhile, in another attempt to lure in users, Instagram has started testing a For you on Threads carousel with a link to open the app, TechCrunch reported.