professional PUNCH

05/28/2026

March 2026, the algorithm changed entirely. The platform doesn't reward the most active people. It rewards the most RELEVANT ones.

It now reads your last 1,000+ interactions as a trajectory and asks: given where this person has been going, what do they want to see next?

That changes everything.

What's working right now:
✅ Personal profiles over company pages (561% more reach)
✅ Substantive comments of 10+ words (worth up to 15x more than a like)
✅ PDF carousels as the highest-engagement format (avg. 6.6% engagement rate)
✅ The first 60 minutes after posting determine 70% of your total reach

What's stopping working:
❌ Posting without topic consistency
❌ AI-sounding content that hasn't been edited
❌ External links in the post body (cuts distribution by up to 40%)

The algorithm needs 90 days to map your expertise. If you keep switching topics, it simply doesn't know who to show you to. Are you taking advantage of that?

Read the full breakdown 👉https://professionalpunch.com/blog/linkedin-changed-its-algorithm-heres-what-changed-and-what-to-do-about-it/

05/20/2026

Are you creating content for algorithms or for actual humans?

Our position on AI writing tools is:

AI can write content, but only humans create insight.

AIO, or AI assisted optimization, is becoming the new content model because it helps writers scale and work smarter.

Great AIO content blends:
AI for research, structure and speed
Human writers for experience, nuance and voice
A blend of AI and human for strategic editing, optimization for search intent, and readability

Without human expertise, AI content becomes generic. Without AI support, human content becomes slow.

When done well, AIO protects two things business owners care about most: QUALITY and TIME

It also gives your audience clear, useful, experience backed content that solves real problems.

Marketing is not about volume. It is about value.

If your team is curious about AIO or overwhelmed by content demands, message us AIO and we will help you understand what a balanced workflow looks like.

05/14/2026

When was the last time your content made someone feel something?

Search engines reward structure and algorithms reward consistency, but people reward connection. And that’s the part many brands are missing.

As marketing becomes more automated, audiences are craving the opposite:

Clarity.
Personality.
A real point of view.

The brands winning in 2026 are more human. They tell real stories, show their process, and put people behind the work.

Because marketing is how you communicate your value in a way that actually resonates.

Whether it’s an SEO article, a thought leadership post, a brand video, or a landing page, the goal is the same: make someone think, feel, and help them move forward.

If your content feels flat or disconnected, let’s talk!

05/05/2026

Everyone's talking about the 74%.

That's Google's share of search. But what about the other 26%?

New research from and Fishkin analyzed search behavior across 41 major platforms. While Google's dominance is real, the more interesting story is what's happening in the margins.

Nearly 1 in 5 searches happen outside of Google entirely.

➡️ Commerce platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and Etsy make up 9.76% of all searches.
➡️ Social networks like YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram are 5.37% of searches.
➡️ AI tools make up 3.19% of searches.

Yes, Google still dominates search, but on these other platforms there is less competition, high intent, and significant audience attention.

It might seem like a footnote, but really it's an opportunity.

Knowing where your audience searches is step one.
💡 Building a strategy around it is where the real work begins.

If you're not sure where to start, send us a DM. We're happy to think it through with you.

05/01/2026

Fractional CMO ≠ another marketing vendor.

It’s senior-level marketing leadership without the full-time executive salary—bringing strategy, direction, and accountability so your marketing actually drives growth.

Because more tactics won’t fix a strategy gap.

🎥 Watch the 34-second breakdown.

04/28/2026

Everyone says AI search changed everything. It didn’t.
It just exposed weak strategy.
If you only show up in one place: you’re not visible, you’re limited.
If your brand is quiet, AI won’t speak for you.

04/23/2026

Here's a list of 25 of the most commonly used SEO terms. Click through and tell us in the comments if you came across any you didn't know!

04/02/2026

New research from just dropped some eye-opening findings about AI brand recommendations.

📣 Here's the headline: AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI are wildly inconsistent.

You can ask ChatGPT for brand recommendations 100 times, and you'll almost never get the same list twice. The same list in the same order happens roughly 1 in 1,000 times. 😮

Here's what this means for marketers and businesses:

➡️ AI rankings aren't worth tracking. Position #1 today could be #7 tomorrow with the exact same prompt.
➡️ Visibility % matters more. How often your brand appears across multiple queries is more important than where it ranks.
➡️ Prompt diversity is huge. When asked to write a prompt about the best headphones, 142 people wrote 142 unique prompts, with barely any overlap.

The ProPunch team is keeping an eye on these developments. This affects how brands show up, get discovered, and ultimately win business.

The research is detailed and worth the read:

Editor's Note: We're hosting an exclusive webinar on March 11 to walk through the findings of this study. Join us live or sign up to receive the