Hello!
SEO expert Marie Haynes (did you catch her incredible talks at the Tastemaker Conference in January?) thinks another big core update is on its way for Google after the spam update completes. With Google publishing new AI content guidelines this week, it sounds likely.
News Roundup
Google has updated its advice for content creators about AI-generated content. Google says it is “critical” that you manually fact-check and review all AI-generated content and recommends letting readers know how the piece of content was created. Read the documentation.
Google also recently updated its guidance for creating helpful content. One of the new sections is about not having deceptive authorship info, which includes AI-generated headshots, made-up names, or false credentials. The other is all about main content and what Google is looking for (effort, originality, talent/skill, and accuracy).
Instagram is adding an AI assistant to its CapCut competitor, Edits. Meta says this will provide personalized insights into your Instagram metrics.
YouTube is changing how it chooses Shorts and is prioritizing new content over re-uploaded content.
Jessica Holmes of Sweetest Menu shares what it’s like publishing a debut cookbook.
Yvette Marquez of Muy Bueno shares how she makes money from various income streams.
I’m Rachel Cunliffe, food blog designer + statistician at cre8d design. Every Sunday, Best Served Hot provides exclusive trend analysis and clear-cut insights, and industry news you need to know.
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Methodology: Top food blogs are defined as those running Raptive ads with 100K+ followers, DA 40+, and have posted in the past six months. Lifestyle, cocktail-only, and aggregator sites are excluded. This week we’re tracking 506 sites.



