Hi there Reader,

Happy 2024! And welcome to Food Blogger Pro’s Blogging Newsletter. 🎉

It’s coming to you a bit later than normal, but that’s because the entire Food Blogger Pro team was off enjoying the holidays last week. ❄️

You know what they say though: better late than never!

Here are some highlights on a few notable happenings in the blogging and content creation space last month:

1. New email deliverability requirements for Gmail and Yahoo. 📧

​Google and Yahoo announced new "bulk email sender" requirements a few months ago, and they'll go into effect in February 2024. The requirements mostly impact:

• People who send over 5,000 emails to Gmail and Yahoo email addresses in any single day.
• People who use a @gmail email address to send their emails through their service provider.

Failure to adhere to these new requirements may affect deliverability to your email list.

If it sounds like you may be impacted by these new requirements, your email service provider (like ConvertKit or Mailchimp) should have instructions to help. Here are instructions for some of the most popular email service providers:

• ​ConvertKit​
• ​Mailchimp​
• ​MailerLite​
• ​ActiveCampaign​

2. Can you use AI-generated images like stock photography? 🤖

John Mueller, Senior Search Analyst and Search Relations Team Lead at Google, shared his #showerthoughts on using AI-generated photos like stock photography in a post on LinkedIn.

Photos help users understand your content, so if a photo is supposed to show something real –– aka this is what this chocolate chip cookie recipe should look like after you bake it in your kitchen –– you should use a real photo. A reader coming to a food blog for your chocolate chip cookie recipe is expecting a real photo of the recipe.

In fact, someone in the comments of the post mentioned seeing AI-generated images on recipe posts, and John said that was a sign to him that the site is “spam.”

John does mention, however, that AI-generated images (like stock photography) could be used effectively to decorate your content and make your content more engaging.

The AI space is going to be an interesting one to closely follow this year!

3. Be aware of this phishing scam! 🎣

A phishing scam that looks like an email from the WordPress team is making its rounds. It suggests that the user simply needs to download, install, and activate a specific plugin to fix a vulnerability on the user’s site.

That plugin allows the attackers to gain access to the sites on which it is installed and activated.

Be sure to check out this blog post from Wordfence to avoid falling for this scam!

4. Find new keywords for your site with these 10 strategies… 💻

Do you have a goal to dive into keyword research this year? If so, this blog post from the Semrush team is a great one to review!

Not only will you learn about why ranking for keywords is important for content sites, they also cover 10 different ways you can discover keywords that may help you generate more search traffic this year including:

• Keyword impressions
• Keyword gaps
• Related searches
• Forums
• Lost keywords
• And more!

​Find all of the details here.

P.S. Want even MORE keyword research advice? Get access to our Keyword Research webinar for free!

5. SEO in 2024 predictions from Casey Markee! 🎉

​Our SEO Expert, Casey Markee, was recently on The Blogger Genius Podcast to talk through SEO predictions for 2024, and it’s a can’t-miss interview!

We know that SEO changes constantly with search algorithm updates and new and improved strategies. And in this interview, Casey identifies some of the ways he expects changes in the SEO world this year. You’ll learn about:

• Google updates (and how to deal with ranking changes due to them)
• Content structure
• AI
• Third-party cookies
• And more!

​Find the full episode here.

6. Content creation systems that are working for creators. 🙌

New year, new systems to help you accomplish your goals!

If you’re looking for advice on the workflows, strategies, and systems that are actually working for content creators like you, look no further! The Buffer team rounded up seven diferent creators and had them share more about the systems they use to accomplish tasks and make progress.

It’s a fascinating “over-the-shoulder” look at how successful creatives are making it work and getting things done. Maybe you can borrow some of their advice to crush your goals this new year!

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And that’s a wrap for December’s Blogging Newsletter!

We hope you have a fabulous start to your new year, and we’ll see ya next time. 😊