Growth Memo

Airbnb’s new categories and the problem with site taxonomy

Airbnb's new categories present an opportunity to grow non-branded traffic, but unfortunately, the company misses an important step.

Growth Memo

Google I/O 2022 - Ambient Computing is getting real

Every announcement at Google I/O 2022 had AI at its heart. No surprise for an “AI-first” company but what used to be a vision in 2021 finally becomes reality.

Growth Memo

Short-form video is winning - what does that mean for SEO?

Tik Tok recently surpassed Youtube in engagement. As a result, ad monetization on Youtube has slowed down. What does this mean for SEO?

Growth Memo

5 fundamental problems in SEO

Knowing the fundamental problems in an industry helps you truly understand it. In this article, I outline the 5 fundamental problems in SEO.

Growth Memo

Uber Eats: SEO aggregation case study

Uber Eats is a smart product expansion but also a smart SEO aggregator play. In this article, I explain how it works and why it might have saved Uber.

Growth Memo

Local Search is Google’s weapon against Amazon

Even though Google is still growing at a rapid pace, it needs to think about where future growth will come from and where to find competitive advantages against Amazon.

Growth Memo

How could Google recognize AI content?

Recent advances in machine learning put search engines and the web in front of new challenges.

Growth Memo

3 SEO trends that hide in the open

3 big SEO trends are unfolding right in front of our eyes but without our awareness.

Growth Memo

The importance of custom click curves

In this article, I explain how to build custom click curves for better traffic predictions and outlier detection.

Growth Memo

TIPR lite

In this post, I’m presenting an updated lite version of my TIPR model for internal linking optimization.

Growth Memo

The role of Search and Social in modern wars

Modern wars are increasingly fought in the digital world on top of the physical world. Search engines and social networks play special roles in this situation.

Growth Memo

Topical Authority: myth or reality?

Be careful with the concept of Topical Authority when arguing for SEO recommendations. The concept doesn’t stand on a robust logic.

Growth Memo

Lazy vs effective execution

The lazy mindset is fast but creates more work than it drives impact. The effective mindset takes aim before action.

Growth Memo

How stable is SEO as a growth channel?

Organic traffic fluctuations can be frustrating and induce a lot of stress. They can occur naturally due to algorithm updates or be the result of changes on a website.

Growth Memo

Why SEO is so popular right now

The demand for SEO is at an all-time high for many reasons. In this article, I explain why

Growth Memo

Wordle’s growth loop

Wordle’s virality is no accident, it’s engineered. In this post, I explain the growth mechanics of the game that was just acquired for a 7-figure sum.

Growth Memo

SEO growth loops

Certain types of companies can build self-reinforcing growth loops on organic search. In this post, I explain the mechanics and constraints of SEO Growth Loops.

Growth Memo

People Also Asked vs. Featured Snippets - 3 years of data

Over the last 3 years, Google has significantly increased the number of People Also Asked boxes while decreasing the number of Featured Snippets.

Growth Memo

Pinterest, the inspirational search engine

Pinterest processes more searches than DuckDuckGo and is the #1 destination for inspirational searches. Compared to Google, Pinterest has significant competitive advantages in the way it serves search results.

Growth Memo

SEO first principles

It's easy to get lost in wild speculations with SEO, but good strategies and tactics are always the results of reasoning from first principles.

Growth Memo

How Google helped TikTok take the throne

TikTok recently became the largest site on the internet and kicked Google off the throne. The irony: Google helped TikTok get there!

Growth Memo

2021 Review

This is my unfiltered, personal reflection on 2021, SEO, and Growth.

Growth Memo

My SEO and Growth predictions for 2022

In this post, I evaluate my predictions for 2021 and share my predictions for 2022 on SEO, e-commerce, marketing, and M&A.

Growth Memo

Which site is crushing it in SEO?

I looked at 3,000 sites over the last 12 months to figure out which ones are crushing it in organic traffic growth and which ones aren’t.

Growth Memo

How to buy attention

Instead of building an audience, brands can buy attention by acquiring smaller platforms like podcasts, newsletters, forums, or publishers.