2025 SEO Strategies, DeepSeek AI, And Ad Budget ROI! 🔎🌳🤖
Also - 9 in-demand SEO services, Google's SEO insights, Substack writers becoming sales reps?
January 30th, 2025
This week's most significant marketing (and tech) story is DeepSeek AI. The American AI giants (like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Altman) have been competing with each other for AI dominance. But now, they face serious competition from outside the US. The major revelation here is that DeepSeek allegedly uses much cheaper graphics cards and functions at a much smaller price than its American competitors. (More on this in a moment.)
Check out this week's goodies below! 🤓🥰😄
Latest Marketing Guides, Strategies, And Hacks
# 1 - SEO Strategies For 2025 - Whiteboard Friday Insights - The latest Whiteboard Friday episode from Moz outlines six key 2025 SEO strategies. These include driving brand awareness to increase branded searches, diversifying traffic sources, optimizing for AI-generated results, leveraging niche influencers, and utilizing user-generated content platforms like Trustpilot and Reddit. Moz also emphasizes the importance of tracking referral traffic from large language models to determine where to focus efforts. Read more on Moz.
# 2 - 9 In-Demand SEO Services To Offer In 2025 - Web designers and agencies can expand their income streams by offering various SEO services that are red hot in 2025. The nine most in-demand types include Local SEO for small businesses, On-Page SEO for high-performing content, Technical SEO for better performance, and Programmatic SEO for automation and scale. Other valuable services are acquiring backlinks, organic content SEO, brand SEO and digital PR, alternate search engine optimization, and international/multi-lingual SEO. Read more on Elegant Themes.
# 3 - Maximizing Your Marketing Budget - How To Optimize Spend For Better Results - Ad spend optimization is key to achieving maximum ROI. HubSpot breaks down four crucial steps to maximize your marketing budget. First, set clear goals to guide your campaigns. Next, target the right audience to avoid wasting resources. Analyzing your spending will help you identify high-performing strategies, and reallocating funds based on real-time performance can ensure your marketing efforts deliver optimal results. Read more on Hubspot.
# 4 - 5 Ways AI Will Transform Social Media Marketing - AI will revolutionize social media marketing in five significant ways. These include integrating AI characters that engage like humans, the potential for AI-generated misinformation, democratizing content creation with new AI tools, introducing AI agents to perform tasks on users' behalf, and improving ad performance through machine learning and AI-driven targeting. Read more on Social Media Today.
# 5 - Google's Insights On SEO For AI Overviews In 2025 - Even Google admits that AI will change SEO. Big time! But that doesn't mean you should dismiss SEO outright! Google's John Mueller recently weighed in on the future of SEO, particularly for AI search. Mueller said that SEO remains critical as search engines evolve, with technical SEO playing a key role in optimizing traditional and AI-powered search results. Mueller emphasizes the importance of SEO in improving accessibility for large language models, which rely on internet content to deliver accurate information. As search evolves at breakneck speed, it's even more crucial to keep learning, as things will likely evolve tremendously fast. Read more on Search Engine Journal.
Marketing News And Updates For January 2025
DeepSeek's Game-Changing AI! The Low-Cost, High-Power Model That Could Reveal An American AI Bubble - DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has sent shockwaves through the tech world with its claims of developing high-performance AI models at a fraction of the cost of its US competitors. The company's flagship model, DeepSeek-V3, seemingly rivals leading platforms like ChatGPT. DeepSeek allegedly only required $5.6 million in computing power to develop, compared to the hundreds of millions or even billions spent by OpenAI, Meta, and Google. However, skepticism remains about the veracity of DeepSeek's claims. Some analysts argue that the reported costs are misleading and don't account for crucial factors like research and infrastructure expenses. Read more on The Verge.
OpenAI Claims Chinese Rivals Are Using Its Work To Build Advanced AIs - OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has raised concerns that rivals, particularly those in China, might be using its intellectual property to help develop their AI tools. Microsoft is also investigating whether competitors leveraged OpenAI's proprietary technologies or data without authorization. This growing tension highlights the fierce global competition in AI development as companies navigate complex ethical and legal issues around intellectual property and fair use. Read more on BBC.
Google Workers Unite! Over 1,300 Demand Job Security Amid Layoff Fear - Over 1,300 Google employees have signed a petition demanding job security from CEO Sundar Pichai following significant workforce reductions of 12,000 in January 2023 and an additional 1,000 in 2024. The Alphabet Workers Union calls for guaranteed severance packages, voluntary buyouts before layoffs, and an end to performance review quotas. These tech workers are signaling a collective stance against the ongoing "instability at Google," highlighting growing anxieties in the tech industry about job security and fair treatment during rapid technological transformation and corporate restructuring. Read more on Entrepreneur.
Substack Writers Becoming Part-Time Sales Reps As Ads Take Over Newsletters - Substack is transforming independent writers into part-time sales reps as advertising becomes a growing revenue stream on the platform. Writers like Casey Lewis and Alex Kantrowitz are navigating ad negotiations, pricing, and logistics while maintaining their creative work. With ad rates ranging from $100 to $20,000 depending on audience size and engagement, brands are flocking to Substack for its niche, loyal readership. However, the process remains fragmented, with many writers relying on DIY methods like Google Docs and Venmo to manage deals. Read more on The Wall Street Journal.
Meta Experiments With Ads On Threads - A New Era For The Platform? - Meta is taking its first steps towards monetizing Threads, its rapidly growing social media platform. The company has launched initial ad testing with selected users and brands in the US and Japan. This move allows businesses to extend their existing Meta ad campaigns to Threads simply by checking a box in Ads Manager, potentially reaching a wider audience across Meta's family of apps. Read more on Marketing Dive.
More Nerdy Stuff I'm Reading Right Now
# 1 - Egg-Onomic Crisis! Egg Prices Set To Rise 20% In 2025 - Egg prices have already hit about $6 per carton at one of the grocery stores I visit, and it looks like things won't be getting better anytime soon. The US Department of Agriculture predicts a 20% price increase in 2025! The ongoing bird flu outbreak is the primary cause of the skyrocketing cost. As of December 2024, national average egg costs hit $4.15 per dozen—36.8% higher than the previous year. Avian influenza (H5N1) continues to devastate commercial chicken flocks, with over 145 million birds culled since the outbreak began. Read more on USA Today.
# 2 - Study Finds Pet Flea Treatments Killing Songbird Chicks - A disturbing new study from the UK has revealed that high levels of pesticides found in pet flea treatments are killing songbird chicks. The chemicals, which help treat cats and dogs, are ending up in the nests of blue and great tits, causing significant harm to the species. (The birds use the pet fur to line their nests.) The University of Sussex researchers are urging the government to reassess the environmental risks of these chemicals and restrict their use, as pets are often treated for fleas unnecessarily. Read more on The Guardian.
# 3 - Google Maps To Change Gulf Of Mexico To Gulf Of America And Mount Denali To Mount McKinley - Google has announced plans to update its maps to reflect names favored by President Trump, including "Mount McKinley" for Denali and "Gulf of America" for the Gulf of Mexico. Google will implement these changes once the federal government officially adopts them. While some locals and officials support the new names, others view this as a controversial step, raising questions about the influence of political figures in geographical naming. Read more on CNN.
# 4 - AOC Calls Out Insider Trading In Congress, Slams Democrat Hypocrisy - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticized the stock trading activities of lawmakers, accusing members of Congress, including Democrats, of engaging in insider trading. Speaking on Jon Stewart's podcast, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out the inconsistency within her party, highlighting that some Democrats are trading stocks while hypocritically advocating for stricter regulations. Read more on Yahoo Finance.
# 5 - US Students Perform Worse In Reading Scores, Make Minimal Gains In Math On Latest National Exam - The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals troubling trends for US students, with reading skills continuing to decline and minimal progress in math since the pandemic. The results highlight the ongoing struggles schools face, including disruptions from COVID-19, a mental health crisis among youth, and rising absenteeism. While top-performing students have shown signs of recovery, lower-performing students are falling further behind, exacerbating educational imbalances. Read more on Associated Press.
About The MrComputerScience Newsletter
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