Business operating loop

Google just gave away their new ranking playbook at their annual conference. Three signals matter now, and almost no one's paying attention.

The future of search is AI-generated answers, intelligent search agents, and dynamic results built in real time, which means getting cited by AI is now more important than ranking on Google. And this isn't theoretical.

Our own research shows that in some cases, AI traffic is already driving up to 17% of e commerce sales. And the ones coming from AI have a higher lifetime value than the ones coming from traditional search.

The signals that drive AI citations are almost nothing like what work for SEO. There are three that matter the most.

No. 1, freshness.

AI doesn't trust stale information. Two, structure headers, Liz clean code, AI read structure first.

Three, clarity, direct specific language. No fluff, no clever marketing copy.

So here's what you gotta do, and it's actually quite simple. First, check whether AI tools are actually citing you.

Right now, you can go to Uber. Sass...

Google just made a huge change to the content it's rewarding. Previously, it was rewarding things like: 7 tips for first-time home buyers.

Top 10 things to consider when buying running shoes. Now: why this customer's shoes collapsed after 400 miles, a wear pattern analysis.

Why we waive the inspection and save $15,000, a look inside the sewer line. Marble versus grape juice: why I refuse to install stone for a family of 5.

Literally just drop this into ChatGPT. My niche is dog supplies.

Give me title ideas. This $12 dog toy survived 3 pit bulls for 6 months.

Here's what finally broke it! What?

This is so. Oh good!

We tested 15 indestructible dog toys. Only two passed.

Oh my gosh! This is where top of funnel content on Google is headed.

And if you want to learn where bottom of funnel content is headed, go to compactkeywords.com.

On a daily basis I meet with companies that are struggling with their Google Ads and their SEO. I met a company last week, Thursday, and this is just such an example of what I see on a daily basis.

We're digging deep into the s C. O which has literally fallen off a cliff in the last six months and their Google Ads, they're just throwing money down the drain and nothing is happening.

After spending 10 minutes, we saw what the issues were. The agency that has done it changed the structure of their U.

L's in their website and that is the problem and I think we can fix it. With regards to the Google Ads, they're running just rubbish P Max campaigns.

They have no idea what they're doing. And again, I think we can fix this issue.

I asked the business owner, I said, can you just tell me how did you start using this agency? What they told me should have shocked me but unfortunately I hear the same story every day.

I said, no, they're using the agency because one of the directors in the business, it's his brother that runs the agency. I don't understand this...

ease only use people that know what they're doing. You can't take chances.

You can't just waste money on a guy because you think he's a nice guy. Use agencies and professionals that they know what they're doing.

Only then are you gonna have a chance to win.

Somebody needs to hear this. These are the silent killers of startups no one dares to admit.

1. The experts curse.

Being an industry expert becomes the biggest liability. You solve yesterday's problems.

You know too much to see new patterns. 2.

The 90 day death clock. Days 1 through 30, vision leads.

Days 31 through 60, you need validation. Day 90+, still no validation.

You're already dead. You don't die when money runs out.

You died three months ago. 3.

Reality distortion. Debt.

Every Assumption equals debt. Every we know better equals interest.

Every delayed user test equals compound interest. Most startups are bankrupt before they're broke.

4. The competence trap.

More competence equals more procrastination. Building becomes an escape from selling.

You're perfecting code instead of getting feedback. This is death by beautiful products that nobody wants.

5. Time perception disorder.

Soon equals never. Perfect timing equals fear.

The market is not ready equals we're not ready. While you wait, the market moves on.

The hard truth. Startups don't fail when you run out of money...

Paul Graham is the founder of Y Combinator, responsible for some of the biggest companies in the world like Airbnb or Dropbox or Reddit. This is what Paul Graham wrote.

Great work happens by focusing consistently on something you're genuinely interested in. When you pause to take stock, you're surprised how far you've come.

The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day, you'll write a book a year.

That's the key, consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day.

They get something done rather than nothing. If you do work that compounds, you'll get exponential growth.

Most people who do this do it unconsciously, but it's worth stopping to think about. Learning, for example, is an instance of this phenomenon.

The more you learn about something, the easy dear it is to learn more. Growing an audience is another.

The more fans you have, the more new fans they'll bring you. The trouble with exponential growth is that the curve feels flat in the beginning...