Podcasts about digital marketing news

Greg Finn jumps into the Paid Ad news focus this week. Friend of the show; it's always a good time when he is around! What do you think about Google's ambitious prediction that AI will craft mesmerizing customer journeys while the search giant navigates through over 5 trillion searches a year? And what is going on with Google Ads and their announcement that they will use well-performing Headlines in Sitelinks? That's confusing for us, but it will also be confusing for consumers. What gives, Google? Greg, Erin, and Jacob dive deep into the world of paid ads, dissecting Google's latest move to serve triple ads on a single SERP and introducing the bewildering Mystery Shopping Rating. As Greg unleashes his fiery insights, they tackle the challenges of Google's evolving auction dynamics and the perplexities of manipulating ad placements and bids for high-value prospects. Not to mention our newest discovery, the Grinning Indomitable Greg Finn Yeti! We've seen it in the wild, and he's pissed! A must-listen-to podcast for the avid Paid Ad advertiser - today on the EDGE! Key Segments: [00:01:51]    The Grinning Indomitable Greg Finn Yeti! News from the EDGE: [00:03:37]  Reddit for SMBs [00:08:28] Google now sees more than 5 trillion searches per year [00:11:06]  EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:12:06] Google VP of Ads bets on AI to transform ads into tailored consumer journeys Paid Ad News: [00:15:35]  Google is Making Headlines (AKA sitelinks) once Again with Some New Developments. [00:22:07] Google Ads run different auctions for each ad location [00:26:46] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: InLinks [00:27:43] Google Ads Triple Serving Ads On Same Search Results Page [00:33:59] Google Ads Mystery Shopping Rating - What? [00:41:22] Google Ads High Value New Customer Mode Live For Some Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Thanks to our Social News Expert: Greg Finn X: @gregfinn LinkedIn: Greg Finn Marketing O'Clock X: @MarketingOClock Follow Us: X: @ErinSparks X: @TheMann00 X: @EDGEWebRadio

Erin Sparks and Jacob Mann are returning to bring you the hottest SEO news of the week. Mordy was absent this week, but worry not, as the great Michael King fills in!  Google AI overviews are under fire for giving dangerous and wrong answers. Announced at Google I/O and recently rolled out, the AI summary tool has quickly gathered attention for its comically incorrect responses to user queries. The question of why Google has not removed such a blatantly bad and underdeveloped tool leaves the SEO community puzzled.  The crew explores TikTok's debut of AI-powered ad automation, TikTok One, a centralized hub that gives advertisers access to creators, creative tools, partners, and measurement capabilities. Additionally, TikTok releases TikTok Symphony, an umbrella for AI ad tools that support script writing, video production, and creative asset optimization.  The last headline on the ballot shows that the Wayback Machine is under attack. The Internet Archive has been hit with a DDOS attack, making it difficult for users to access the California-based nonprofits free site. The nonprofit wrote on Monday that data has thankfully not been affected, but services are still being blocked for many users. The identities and motives of the attackers are still unknown. Tune in to navigate a major week in SEO news with the team this week as always, here on the EDGE of the Web! Digital Marketing News: [00:00:00] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Riverside.FM [00:04:12] Google faces criticism over AI Overview feature providing misleading and harmful information [00:15:01] TikTok launches AI-driven tools to automate ad creation [00:21:07] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:21:16] Internet Archive experiences major disruption from a DDoS attack AI News: [00:25:00] Ex-Googler: Google's AI projects are driven by ‘stone cold panic' [00:29:59] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: SERanking [00:31:21] Elon Musk's xAI raises $6 billion to fund its race against ChatGPT and all the rest AI Tools: [00:35:40] Canva Magic Studio [00:37:59] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Inlinks Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:39:40 ] Memorial Day Google Search Ranking Volatility [00:41:49] Google's John Mueller On Recovering From Core Updates - Maybe You Had A Good Run… [00:44:10] In the Face Of AI Overview Backlash, Google Updates Docs With How To Show Web-Only Results & How To Give Feedback Thanks to our Sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site SERanking: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Riverside.FM: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/riverside Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @iPullRank Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio Resources:  Google faces criticism over AI Overview feature providing misleading and harmful information TikTok launches AI-driven tools to automate ad creation Internet Archive experiences major disruption from a DDoS attack Ex-Googler: Google's AI projects are driven by ‘stone cold panic' Google's AI Overviews Shake Up E-commerce Search Visibility Elon Musk's xAI raises $6 billion to fund its race against ChatGPT and all the rest Canva Magic Studio Automate prompt engineering with self-improving optimization Memorial Day Google Search Ranking Volatility Google's John Mueller On Recovering From Core Updates - Maybe You Had A Good Run… In Face Of AI Overview Backlash, Google Updates Docs With How To Show Web Only Results & How To Give Feedback #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine  

In this week's episode, we're exploring how traditional marketing can be translated to social media with guest Stacey Britt-Fitzgerald, the Brand Director at Grind, as well as our Social Media Assistant Alicia!We'll discuss:Transitioning traditional marketing to social mediaInstagram's new feature updatesTikTok extending video limitsAnd much more!Want to be featured on the pod? Send us a voice note on Instagram at @GiraffeSM.Want to be featured on the pod? Drop us a voice note on Instagram at @GiraffeSM.

In This Episode... Welcome to the Dojo, the podcast where we turn marketing news into marketing tasks. This week we're joined by Gustavo Uy, and we talk about: Apple Apologises for Crush Advert The Ordinary Push Science in Ads Tim's AI Corner: GPT-4o Timestamps 02:36 – Story 1 – Apple Apologises for Crush Advert 20:45 – Story 2 – The Ordinary Push Science in Ads 35:21 – Story 3 – Tim's AI Corner: GPT-4o 48:00 – The Tasks Get a FREE review of your website https://exposureninja.com/rpod/review/ Get the show notes https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-17/ Watch the podcast recording on YouTube: https://exposure.ninja/dojo-17 You May Also Enjoy… The Reason Your PPC Isn't Working https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-15/ Tesla's PPC Marketing Mistakes I ft. Emma Davies and Ruta Sudmantaite https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-14/ How Formula One Teams Nail Event Marketing https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-13/ The Risks of Relying on AI Content I ft. Andy Tuxford https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-12/ The Impact of AI on Customer Trust I ft. Daisy Burns O'Keefe https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-11/ Is Google's Generative AI Search Rolling Out? https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-10/

Episode 208 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Apr 15-19, 2024.1. Google Confirms: Fewer Links Needed for Effective SEO Rankings! - At the recent SERP Conference, Google's Gary Illyes reiterated a significant shift in SEO strategy: the diminishing importance of links in ranking web pages. During his presentation on April 19, 2024, Illyes highlighted that Google's algorithm now requires "very few links to rank pages," signaling a continued move away from heavily relying on link quantity for search engine rankings.This evolution reflects Google's ongoing updates to refine their search algorithms to focus more on content quality and user experience rather than traditional signals like the number of links. Illyes' statement underscores a broader trend where links, although still valuable, are not the central metric they once were in SEO. This shift encourages SEO professionals and business owners to diversify their SEO strategies, focusing more on quality content and holistic site optimization.For businesses, this means that developing robust, relevant content and ensuring a user-friendly site can be just as crucial as link-building efforts. This change is intended to make search results more useful and relevant to users, aligning more closely with Google's core objective of enhancing the user search experience.2. Preventing Deindexing After Hosting Transitions! - If you've recently migrated your site and noticed a drop in search visibility, then this is for you.The issue begins post-migration, where a site might disappear from Google's search results. This sudden disappearance often leads to a panic, but the root causes can typically be diagnosed and resolved through a few strategic steps. John Mueller of Google suggests that the primary check should be whether the new site setup is unintentionally blocking Google's crawlers, which is a common oversight during migrations.The first step in diagnosing this issue is to utilize Google Search Console. This tool can help identify whether pages are not found (404 errors) or if there's a robots.txt file blocking the crawlers. Such blockages can occur due to settings that discourage search engines from indexing the site, which might be enabled during the migration process without the site owner's knowledge.Mueller points out that often during a WordPress site migration, settings intended to hide the site from search engines during development are not reverted. To check this, you can navigate to the 'Reading' settings under 'Settings' in the WordPress admin panel. If the 'Discourage search engines from indexing this site' option is ticked, simply unticking this will resolve the issue.If the problem isn't related to this setting, it might be due to an SEO or migration plugin that inadvertently set up a robots.txt block. Alternatively, it could be a DNS setting issue or an error on the part of the web hosting service.3. Google's Stance on The Impact of Owning Multiple Websites - Google's John Mueller clarified concerns surrounding the impact of managing multiple websites on SEO rankings. He emphasized that owning several websites in itself does not directly harm rankings. However, the real issue lies in the distribution of effort and quality. Mueller pointed out that managing multiple sites often dilutes the ability to maintain high-quality content across all platforms. If the sites cover the same topic, it might appear as an attempt to manipulate rankings, which is not an ideal strategy for SEO success.For business owners, the takeaway is clear: focus on developing one authoritative website rather than spreading resources thin over multiple lesser sites. This approach not only enhances your site's quality and relevance but also aligns better with Google's algorithms, which favor comprehensive and user-focused content.This perspective is supported by Bill Hartzer of Hartzer Consulting, who notes that while it's common to think creating additional websites on the same topic might double success, this strategy rarely pans out. Consolidating sites into one primary, authoritative presence is usually more effective for maintaining strong SEO performance.For those contemplating the management of multiple websites, it's crucial to consider the strategic goals: are you aiming for quality or merely trying to capture more traffic? Opt for creating a single, robust site that truly serves your audience's needs and stands out in Google's search rankings.4. 404 Errors on Your Website's SEO Ranking - During the Google SEO office hours, Gary Illyes from Google addressed the common concern about the correlation between 404 errors and SEO rankings. Illyes confirmed that encountering 404 errors—'Page Not Found' notifications—is quite normal and does not inherently lead to ranking drops. He specifically addressed a scenario involving 'fake' 404 errors, which are URLs mistakenly or maliciously generated by bots, emphasizing that these errors are unlikely to influence a site's ranking negatively.For business owners monitoring their website's performance, it's crucial to understand that while 404 errors are not problematic by themselves, their origin and frequency should be analyzed. If genuine users encounter 404 errors, this could point to broken links or misspellings which should be redirected correctly to improve user experience and site functionality. Moreover, it's advised to periodically check for security vulnerabilities, especially if 404 errors might suggest bot activities searching for exploits.Illyes suggests utilizing analytics tools to identify if real users are encountering these errors and to take corrective actions like redirection or offering relevant content on error pages to retain visitor engagement. His insights clarify that while 404 errors are normal, the context and response to these errors can influence the overall quality and security of a website.5. Does Changing Your Web Hosting Impact SEO? Google Weighs In! - As business owners often ponder the implications of switching web hosting services, Google's Gary Illyes sheds light on this topic. Illyes clarifies that changing your web hosting platform should not negatively affect your SEO rankings, provided the migration is executed correctly.Key aspects to ensure a smooth transition include minimal downtime and maintaining website resolvability. This involves updating name server information and making sure the domain's IP address matches the new hosting location. Even if a website experiences downtime, as long as it's brief and the site's structure remains unchanged, the impact on SEO should be negligible.For those considering a host switch, it's crucial to choose a service that matches or exceeds the quality of your current host to avoid any potential drops in site performance. Illyes' insights confirm that with proper planning and execution, changing web hosts can be a seamless process that maintains your current SEO standing.6. How Does a 503 Status Affect Your Site's SEO? Google Explains - During the Google Search Central SEO office hours in April 2024, a significant clarification was made regarding the SEO implications of the 503 'Service Unavailable' status cod...

Episode 207 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Apr 08-12, 2024.1. How Index Selection and Canonicalization Are Impacted During Google's Core Algorithm Updates - In a recent LinkedIn conversation, a significant topic was brought to the forefront by David Minchala, addressing a common misconception in the SEO community regarding the impact of Google's core algorithm updates on indexing services like canonicalization.Minchala posed a question, suggesting that during core algorithm updates—or possibly any major update—services such as canonicalization might slow down. Canonicalization involves selecting the most representative URL for content that exists in multiple URLs and merging all signals from known duplicate URLs. The underlying concern was whether these crucial indexing services suffer in performance during extensive updates.Responding to this, Gary Illyes clarified that this assumption was incorrect. He explained that the processes of indexing, like canonicalization and index selection, are entirely independent of core updates. Illyes used a culinary analogy to elucidate his point, comparing core updates to adjusting ingredients in a recipe which can significantly alter the dish's outcome. In contrast, canonicalization and index selection processes are likened to activities in the salt mines or MSG factories—fundamental and separate from the immediate cooking process.This separation is crucial for SEO practitioners and business owners to understand, as it reassures that the stability and performance of indexing services remain unaffected by the changes introduced in core updates. These updates primarily tweak how Google's algorithms assess and rank web content based on relevance and quality, but they do not directly interfere with the technical processes of how content is indexed or canonical URLs are determined.In summary, while Google's core updates can significantly impact how websites are ranked, they do not directly influence the fundamental mechanisms of how websites are indexed. This distinction is crucial for effectively navigating SEO and ensuring that efforts are directed towards enhancing content quality and user experience, rather than worrying about the operational aspects of Google's algorithm updates.2. Google's John Mueller Demystifies 404 and 410 Codes! - Understanding the intricacies of SEO can be a daunting task, especially when it involves technical aspects like HTTP status codes. John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, clarified common misconceptions regarding the 404 and 410 HTTP status codes during a discussion on the r/SEO Reddit forum. These codes are used to indicate that a page on your website is either temporarily missing or permanently removed. Mueller emphasized that there is a minimal difference between the two from an SEO perspective, stating that both are treated similarly by Google's indexing process. Importantly, having these status codes on your website does not result in penalties from Google, which means they should not be a major concern for site owners.The discussion began with a website owner who had used AI-generated content for a videogame guide site. When issues arose from the AI content, the owner removed the pages and sought advice on recovery. This led to a broader conversation about whether 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) status codes could affect their site's SEO. Mueller reassured the community that the practical impact of these codes on search engine visibility is negligible.Mueller's advice serves as a crucial reminder for business owners: focus on creating high-quality, engaging content rather than getting bogged down by the technical nuances of HTTP status codes. By ensuring your site maintains valuable content, you're more likely to see sustained SEO success.3. Rising Ad Costs Due to Meta Platform Glitches! - Are you monitoring your Facebook advertising costs and performance? If not, you might want to start. A recent report highlighted significant system glitches within Meta's advertising platform that have been pushing up ad prices since early April 2024. These issues have been causing increased costs for advertisers, with some marketers experiencing a tripling in CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), a key advertising expense metric.According to insights from Bloomberg and additional details from Search Engine Land, these technical issues have not only escalated the costs but also led to mixed results and decreased sales, affecting the overall effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Interestingly, Meta has recognized some problems with ad delivery but suggests these are not widespread. They have reportedly fixed a few technical issues and are investigating further to ensure optimal outcomes for businesses using their platform.It's important to note that not every advertiser has been affected by these glitches. However, the potential impact on your ad spend due to these glitches could be significant. This situation mirrors a similar occurrence last year where a glitch led to many advertisers being overcharged. It's a crucial time to keep a vigilant eye on your account's performance and ad charges.Given that this issue arose at the close of the first quarter (January to March), any additional ad spend could inadvertently inflate Meta's revenue figures for the period, despite the possibility of subsequent refunds. While it might seem speculative, the timing of these glitches is indeed noteworthy.As a proactive measure, I recommend regularly checking your Facebook ad performance and noting any unusual fluctuations in costs. Staying informed and vigilant can help mitigate unexpected financial impacts and ensure your advertising budget is spent effectively.Should you notice inconsistencies, consider reaching out for expert analysis or directly to Meta support for clarification and potential rectification.

Episode 206 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Apr 1-5, 2024.1. Recovering from Google's March 2024 Core Update - In the aftermath of Google's March 2024 core update, many website owners, particularly small businesses, have felt the impact of significant traffic fluctuations. Google's John Mueller provided some clarity and advice on how to address these changes, especially for those who've experienced a downturn in website performance.The March 2024 update, one of Google's regular adjustments to its core algorithm, has been especially notable for its complexity and the breadth of its impact. Core updates are comprehensive, affecting various parts of the search algorithm, including how sites are ranked and indexed based on content quality, user experience, and many other factors.One key piece of advice that emerged from Mueller's discussion is not to rush into making changes while an update is still rolling out. This is because the full effects and intentions of the update might not be immediately clear, and premature adjustments could inadvertently harm your site's performance further. Mueller emphasized, however, that if there are clear areas for improvement on your site, especially those unrelated to the core update's specific focus, it's always a good time to address them.For businesses that have noticed a decline in rankings or traffic, Mueller's guidance focuses on long-term website health and user satisfaction. He suggests that optimizing your website for users—rather than search engines—is a critical strategy for recovery and future resilience. This approach, often termed "User Experience SEO," prioritizes how content and site design affect the user's interaction and satisfaction.A specific area highlighted for attention was the use of paid links or aggressive link-building strategies, which can negatively impact your site's ranking. If your site has been engaged in these practices, addressing them can be a step towards recovery.Mueller also advises diversifying your traffic sources to reduce dependency on search engine rankings. Focusing on building value for users can help attract direct visits and recommendations, aligning with Google's ultimate goal of rewarding sites that best serve their audience's needs.In summary, the March 2024 core update underscores the importance of maintaining a high-quality, user-focused website. Small business owners looking to recover from or thrive despite these updates should focus on:Patiently assessing the full impact of the update before making significant changes.Continuously improving site quality and user experience.Addressing specific known issues, such as paid links, that could harm your site's reputation with Google.Building a more robust online presence that isn't solely reliant on search engine traffic.2. Google's Approach to Canonical Pages - Google's Gary Illyes shed light on the intricate process of how Google selects canonical webpages. Essentially, publishers and SEOs traditionally view canonicalization as a method to earmark the 'original' or the most 'authoritative' version of a webpage for ranking purposes. However, Google's approach to canonicalization diverges significantly, focusing instead on deduplication - a method to identify and consolidate duplicate pages.Illyes clarifies that Google's primary aim in identifying a canonical page is to choose a version that best represents a set of duplicate pages based on collected signals. This involves a meticulous process where Google first determines if a page is a duplicate and then selects the most suitable version for indexing. This selection is critical as, typically, only canonical pages are displayed in search results.Google uses a variety of signals to make this decision, ranging from straightforward indicators like site owner annotations (e.g., rel=canonical tags) to more complex ones such as the page's overall significance on the internet. The importance of this process cannot be understated, as it directly impacts how content is presented in search results, especially for pages with multiple variants (e.g., product pages with different sizes or colors). Illyes's discussion also touches on the concept of duplicate clustering, where Google groups similar content together, and the notion of "centerpiece" content, which refers to the main content of a page that helps in the deduplication process.3. The Role of Content Quality in Google's Indexing Process - Google's Gary Illyes revealed key insights into how Google's indexing process evaluates the quality of webpages. llyes's discussion, aimed at demystifying the indexing stage, highlights the significant role content quality plays in determining a webpage's crawl frequency and its ranking in search results.The indexing process involves a comprehensive analysis of a page's textual content, including tags, attributes, images, and videos. During this stage, Google assesses various signals to gauge the page's quality. A critical takeaway for small business owners is the concept of 'index selection'. This step decides whether a page makes it into Google's index, a decision heavily influenced by the page's quality and the signals collected during the initial assessment.Illyes emphasizes that even if a webpage is technically sound, it might not be indexed if it doesn't meet Google's quality threshold. This underscores the importance of creating high-quality content that is not only relevant and informative but also engages the target audience effectively. Google has expressed an intention to conserve crawling resources by focusing on pages that warrant crawling, further stressing the need for content to meet high-quality standards.In addition to quality assessment, Illyes also delved into Google's approach to duplicate content, explaining the process of 'duplicate clustering'. This involves grouping similar pages and selecting a single canonical version to represent the content in search results. The selection is based on the quality signals associated with each duplicate page, highlighting the importance of ensuring each piece of content is optimized to stand out.Ensuring your content meets Google's quality standards can significantly enhance your website's visibility in search results. Here are actionable steps to align your content with these standards:Content Creation: Focus on developing content that thoroughly addresses your audience's needs and pain points. Tailor your content to reflect current search trends and demands.Content Structure: Make your content user-friendly. Structure it in an easily navigable format, and consider implementing schema markup to aid Google in understanding the context of your content.Content Refresh: Regularly update and refresh your content to keep it relevant and valuable, thereby improving your chances of being indexed and increasing your crawl frequency.4. Navigating Google's INP - Google has launched a tutorial aimed at helping website owners identify and rectify issues related to Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which has recently taken over from First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital. This shift signifies a new approach in assessing user experience on websites, placing a renewed emphasis on the speed and responsiveness ...

Episode 205 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Mar 25-29, 2024.1. Google's Guidance On Helpful Content Update - Google's Search Liaison recently addressed concerns about the Helpful Content Update (HCU), providing clear guidance for content creators facing ranking changes. Announced on March 25, 2024, this advice aims to dispel misconceptions and offer recovery strategies. Unlike earlier perceptions of the HCU affecting entire domains, Google now evaluates content on a page-by-page basis, focusing on the helpfulness of each page independently. This means that having some unhelpful content doesn't penalize an entire site, allowing helpful pages to be recognized individually.The clarification that the HCU is not a single signal but part of Google's complex ranking system highlights the need for creators to focus on producing genuinely helpful content. The emphasis is on the quality and relevance of content, rather than on trying to manipulate rankings through a single algorithmic factor.For those noticing ranking drops, Google suggests a thoughtful review of the content in question, urging creators to focus on its relevance and usefulness to users. Such decreases in visibility might indicate Google's preference for more pertinent content options, not necessarily a penalty against the site.Google has also introduced a new FAQ page to help publishers understand how to align their content with HCU principles, especially for content that has lost traffic following the update. By adhering to these guidelines and prioritizing user experience, website owners and SEO experts can better navigate the post-HCU search landscape.2. Rethinking BackLink Importance in SEO - John Mueller of Google indicated in a Reddit discussion that solely focusing on increasing backlink counts might not be the most effective strategy for marketers anymore. This change is part of Google's consistent effort over the past six months to update its stance on the role of links in SEO, suggesting a more comprehensive change in the valuation of links.The discussion was initiated by questions regarding the variation in backlink counts reported by different SEO tools, like Ahrefs and Google Search Console. Mueller pointed out that due to the varied methodologies of web crawling and indexing across these tools, discrepancies in link counts are natural. He stressed that concentrating on the sheer number of backlinks might divert marketers from improving their website's quality or relevance.Mueller further encouraged marketers to focus on other website aspects that could more significantly affect SEO success. He mentioned that search engines are now using more advanced methods, like sitemaps, for content discovery and evaluation, reducing dependency on backlinks for website ranking.This conversation is in line with recent adjustments in Google's guidelines and statements from Google representatives such as Gary Illyes, indicating a reduced emphasis on backlinks as a ranking factor. The removal of the term "important" from Google's description of links as a ranking signal confirms this trend.For business owners and digital marketers, this shift highlights the need for a more holistic SEO approach that extends beyond backlink building. Concentrating on content quality, user experience, and technical SEO elements, while keeping abreast of Google's algorithm updates, is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in the digital arena.3. Core Web Vitals: A Ranking Factor That Requires Balanced Attention - On March 29, 2024, in episode 71 of Google's "Search Off The Record" podcast shed light on the complex role of Core Web Vitals (CWV) in SEO, making it clear that excelling in CWV scores alone does not ensure higher search visibility. This episode, featuring insights from Google engineers including Rick Viscomi, a web performance lead, and Lizzi Sassman, a senior technical writer, emphasized the importance of focusing on real-world user experiences over merely achieving high CWV scores.The conversation revealed a common misunderstanding among developers and marketers who prioritize CWV scores without considering actual user satisfaction. An eye-opening example shared was Google's own page experience documentation, which scored only 45 out of 100, illustrating that achieving top CWV scores is not crucial for success.John Mueller, explained that while CWV metrics do influence Google's ranking algorithms, slight improvements in these metrics may not significantly impact search rankings. He advised against focusing too much on CWV at the expense of other SEO priorities, as CWV is only one aspect of a comprehensive ranking system.The podcast also advocated for a holistic approach to web performance, suggesting improvements in CWV should be part of a broader strategy to enhance the overall user experience. This includes focusing on content quality and website design, aiming for a balanced effort that enhances user satisfaction and engagement.This discussion serves as a reminder that Core Web Vitals, while important, should not detract from other essential aspects of SEO like content relevance and user engagement. A well-rounded approach that prioritizes a superior user experience overall is crucial for long-term success in search engine rankings.4. Quality Over Quantity: Google's Stance on Content and Indexing - Again from episode 71 of the "Search Off The Record" podcast episode with Google's Gary Illyes, Lizzi Sassman, and guest Dave Smart, a key SEO principle was highlighted: the significant impact of content quality on Google's crawling and indexing frequency. The discussion emphasized a shift towards prioritizing content quality over quantity, a stance Google has consistently maintained. This approach contradicts the belief that merely increasing content production will lead to better rankings or more rapid indexing.John Mueller from Google further clarified this point on LinkedIn, addressing a misconception among website owners that boosting content volume could signal a site's quality to Google, thus improving crawl rates. Mueller likened this to the futile effort of making children prefer kale over ice cream by increasing kale consumption, humorously illustrating that quality cannot be replaced with quantity.Google and Bing's spokespeople have consistently stated that the frequency of content publication is not a ranking signal. This clarifies that producing more content does not automatically enhance a site's search visibility or ranking. Bing's Fabrice Canel supported this by advising a "less is more" strategy, suggesting that focusing on creating high-quality content is a more efficient use of crawl budgets and can result in higher quality traffic from search engines. Moreover, publishing repetitive content could negatively impact a site's crawl allocation, underlining the need for original and valuable content.For business owners in the digital marketing field, this underscores a critical message: investing in content quality, rather than quantity, is more likely to improve SEO performance. As user experience and content value become increasingly important, tailoring digital strategies to meet these expectations is key for sustained success in search engine rankings.5. Google's Plea to SEOs: Focus on Your Visitors, Not Just on Rankings - On March 2...

Episode 202 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Mar 4-8, 2024.1. IndexNow Insights & Top SEO Insights Report - In an announcement at PubCon and then shared on the Bing blog by Fabrice Canel, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, Bing Webmaster Tools has introduced new insights and reports aimed at enhancing site performance across Bing and general search engines. The new IndexNow Insights report, now offers more than just a glimpse into URLs submitted through IndexNow; it provides:Learn about issues with crawled URLs and the status of your submitted URLs.Receive detailed reports on the number of URLs submitted, crawled, and indexed.Learn about your latest 1000 submitted URLs, including their index status, first indexed date, and whether they were submitted late.Get insights into the source of your URL submissions, whether through Cloudflare, WordPress, manual submission, or other means.With the "Important URLs Missing" tab, find out which newly discovered links are getting clicked but were not recently visible in IndexNow, helping you to better optimize your content and identify any technical issues.Get detailed information on individual errors, including content quality, robots disallowed, not crawled, indexed, and deadlinks. View a list of problematic URLs and steps to fix them.Drill-down for further details on non-indexed URLs, sample URLs, submission times, and mitigation steps to getting URLs indexed.Export indexing trends for further analysis or reporting.With IndexNow reaching 2.5 billion URLs submitted—up from 1.2 billion six months ago—and accounting for 17% of new URLs clicked in web search results, as stated by Canel, the importance of adopting this protocol cannot be overstated. 2. YouTube's Algorithm Insights for Creators - In a recent conversation on the Creator Insider channel, Renee Richie, a creator liaison, delves into the intricacies of YouTube's algorithm with Todd, who leads the Growth and Discovery team at YouTube. The discussion focuses on clarifying common misconceptions creators have about the algorithm and offers valuable insights into optimizing content for better visibility and engagement.The algorithm, contrary to popular belief, evaluates videos on an individual basis rather than assessing the overall performance of a channel. This approach ensures that a single off-topic viral video or a poorly received video does not adversely affect the channel's standing with the algorithm. Todd emphasizes the importance of aligning content with audience interests to maintain and enhance video performance.One of the most enlightening points made during the discussion is the concept that YouTube does not push videos to viewers; instead, it pulls videos based on viewer preferences. This viewer-centric approach means that the algorithm is activated when a user visits YouTube, making recommendations based on the user's history, device, and other contextual factors. Such insights underscore the importance for creators to focus on creating content that resonates with their audience, rather than trying to game the system.Another key takeaway is the algorithm's persistent support for videos, regardless of their immediate performance. Todd reassures creators that a video's success is not confined to its initial launch period. YouTube continues to recommend videos over time, adapting to shifts in viewer interests and trends. This perspective encourages creators to remain patient and not to disregard videos that do not perform well initially.The conversation also touches on the dynamics of content strategy, highlighting the necessity for creators to adapt to changing viewer preferences, such as the rising popularity of short-form content. Recognizing and responding to these shifts, and understanding the competitive landscape, can significantly influence a creator's success on the platform.Creators are advised to analyze their content's performance, especially how it's received by subscribers, to identify areas for improvement. This process can help pinpoint issues related to content packaging or delivery that might affect viewer engagement.In summary, the discussion between Renee and Todd sheds light on the operational principles of YouTube's algorithm, debunking myths and providing creators with a clearer path to optimizing their content strategy. Understanding that the algorithm favors content that meets viewer demands and preferences can empower creators to produce more engaging and successful videos.3. Local Services Ads Verification to Combat Spam - On March 4, 2024, Google updated the verification process for Local Services Ads (LSAs), aimed at enhancing security and trustworthiness among users and advertisers. This update, first rolling out in smaller U.S. states and progressively expanding to larger ones throughout the year, introduces a stringent verification procedure that includes identity checks alongside the existing license verifications for professionals featured in LSAs, such as lawyers.The revised verification process is Google's response to the growing concern over spam and fraudulent activities within the LSA program. By enforcing identity verification, Google intends to safeguard consumers from impersonators posing as licensed professionals. This move ensures that only verified business owners or senior partners, along with their affiliated professionals, are eligible to appear in LSAs, thereby enhancing the integrity of the ads shown to users.Affected advertisers are notified via email, with instructions on completing the verification process through Google's partner, Evident. Failure to comply within a specified timeframe results in the removal of the ads from search results, impacting the visibility and potential reach of the business. This initiative reflects Google's commitment to improving the LSA ecosystem, protecting both consumers and legitimate advertisers from the adverse effects of deceptive practices.4. "Solutions": Google Ads' Latest Innovation to Streamline Ad Management - Google Ads has announced "Solutions." This new tool is designed to simplify and automate the management of Google Ads accounts, offering a seamless experience for advertisers. Accessible for free under the "Tools" section in Google Ads, Solutions empowers users with the ability to generate comprehensive reports, automate basic management tasks, and much more, all tailored to enhance campaign performance relative to business goals. Here is what you can do with it:Filter your data by campaign, ad group, keyword, or other dimensionsSet flexible budgetsManage negative keyword lists throughout your accountSort your data by any metricExport your reports to a variety of formats, including CSV and XLSXSolutions help you to create automated and customized workflows without making changes to the code. Solutions are accessible for all advertisers and don't require technical skills or coding knowledge. Here are the types of solutions:Account summary: Generates a report of the performance for a Google Ads accountAd performance: Generates a Google Spreadsheet with distribution charts showing an ad's performanceAccount anomaly detector: Sends out an email when an account's performance stats deviate significantly

Episode 201 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Feb 26 - Mar 1, 2024.1. ‘How Google Search Crawls Pages' - In a comprehensive video from, Google engineer Gary Illyes sheds light on how Google's search engine discovers and fetches web pages through a process known as crawling.  Crawling is the first step in making a webpage searchable. Google uses automated programs, known as crawlers, to find new or updated pages. The cornerstone of this process is URL discovery, where Google identifies new pages by following links from known pages. This method highlights the importance of having a well-structured website with effective internal linking, ensuring that Google can discover and index new content efficiently.A key tool in enhancing your website's discoverability is the use of sitemaps. These are XML files that list your site's URLs along with additional metadata. While not mandatory, sitemaps are highly recommended as they significantly aid Google and other search engines in finding your content. For business owners, this means working with your website provider or developer to ensure your site automatically generates sitemap files, saving you time and reducing the risk of errors.Googlebot, Google's main crawler, uses algorithms to decide which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch. This process is delicately balanced to avoid overloading your website, with the speed of crawling adjusted based on your site's response times, content quality, and server health. It's crucial for businesses to maintain a responsive and high-quality website to facilitate efficient crawling.Moreover, Googlebot only indexes publicly accessible URLs, emphasizing the need for businesses to ensure their most important content is not hidden behind login pages. The crawling process concludes with downloading and rendering the pages, allowing Google to see and index dynamic content loaded via JavaScript.2. Is Google Happy with 301+410 Responses? - In a recent discussion on Reddit, a user expressed concerns about their site's "crawl budget" being impacted by a combination of 301 redirects and 410 error responses. This situation involved redirecting non-secure, outdated URLs to their secure counterparts, only to serve a 410 error indicating the page is permanently removed. The user wondered if this approach was hindering Googlebot's efficiency and contributing to crawl budget issues.Google's John Mueller provided clarity, stating that using a mix of 301 redirects (which guide users from HTTP to HTTPS versions of a site) followed by 410 errors is acceptable. Mueller emphasized that crawl budget concerns primarily affect very large sites, as detailed in Google's documentation. If a smaller site experiences crawl issues, it likely stems from Google's assessment of the site's value rather than technical problems. This suggests the need for content evaluation to enhance its appeal to Googlebot.Mueller's insights reveal a critical aspect of SEO; the creation of valuable content. He criticizes common SEO strategies that replicate existing content, which fails to add value or originality. This approach, likened to producing more "Zeros" rather than unique "Ones," implies that merely duplicating what's already available does not improve a site's worth in Google's eyes.For business owners, this discussion underlines the importance of focusing on original, high-quality content over technical SEO manipulations. While ensuring your site is technically sound is necessary, the real competitive edge lies in offering something unique and valuable to your audience. This not only aids in standing out in search results but also aligns with Google's preference for indexing content that provides new information or perspectives.In summary, while understanding the technicalities of SEO, such as crawl budgets and redirects, is important, the emphasis should be on content quality. Businesses should strive to create original content that answers unmet needs or provides fresh insights. This approach not only helps with better indexing by Google but also engages your audience more effectively, driving organic traffic and contributing to your site's long-term success.3. UTM Parameters & SEO - Google's John Mueller emphasized that disallowing URLs with UTM parameters does not significantly enhance a website's search performance. Instead, he advocates for maintaining clean and consistent internal URLs to ensure optimal site hygiene and efficiency in tracking.Mueller's advice is straightforward: focus on improving the site's structure to minimize the need for Google to crawl irrelevant URLs. This involves refining internal linking strategies, employing rel-canonical tags judiciously, and ensuring consistency in URLs across feeds. The goal is to streamline site management and make it easier to track user interactions and traffic sources without compromising on SEO performance.A notable point Mueller makes is regarding the handling of external links with UTM parameters. He advises against blocking these through robots.txt, suggesting that rel-canonical tags will effectively manage these over time, aligning external links with the site's canonical URL structure. This approach not only simplifies the cleanup of random parameter URLs but also reinforces the importance of direct management at the source. For instance, if a site generates random parameter URLs internally or through feed submissions, the priority should be to address these issues directly rather than relying on robots.txt to block them.In summary, Mueller's guidance underscores the importance of website hygiene and the strategic use of SEO tools like rel-canonical tags to manage URL parameters effectively. His stance is clear: maintaining a clean website is crucial, but blocking external URLs with random parameters is not recommended. This advice aligns with Mueller's consistent approach to SEO best practices, emphasizing the need for site owners to focus on foundational site improvements and efficient management of URL parameters for better search visibility and tracking.4. Transition Required for Google Business Profile Websites - Google has announced that starting in March 2024, websites created through Google Business Profiles (GBP) will be deactivated, with an automatic redirect to the businesses' Google Business Profile in place until June 10, 2024. This move requires immediate attention from GBP website owners to ensure continuity in their online operations.For businesses unsure if their website is hosted through Google Business Profiles, a simple search on Google for their business name and accessing the edit function of their Google Business Profile will reveal if their website is a GBP creation. It's indicated by a message stating, “You have a website created with Google.” For those without a GBP website, the option to link an external site will be available.In response to this change, Google has recommended several alternative website builders for affected businesses. Among the suggested platforms are Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Google Sites, Shopify (specifically for e-commerce), Durable, Weebly, Strikingly, and WordPress. Each offers unique features, with WordPress notable for its free website builder incorporating generative AI capabilities. However, users should be aware ...

Episode 200 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Feb 19 -23, 2024.1. Google : You Decide On The Fate Of Your Old Content - The question of what to do with old content on your website is a recurring dilemma. Google's John Mueller recently shed light on this topic, emphasizing the importance of self-assessment over stringent guidelines when deciding the fate of outdated material. His insights, shared on Reddit, underscore the value of content quality and relevance over mere word counts.It's Your Call: Mueller makes it clear that Google does not dictate the utility of old content. The decision to keep, remove, or update it rests with the website owner. He states, "There is no upper / lower word count limit or target...So what's useful & helpful content is up to you to decide."Unique Content Holds Value: Drawing from his personal viewpoint, Mueller suggests that unique news archives, for instance, can serve a purpose. This highlights the potential worth of specialized content that may cater to niche audiences.Hybrid Approaches: For content that's not actively serving your main site's goals but still holds value, Mueller proposes a middle ground. He recommends relocating such content to an archive section with a 'noindex' tag. This method preserves the content for internal search purposes, allowing you to gauge its ongoing relevance through user engagement metrics.Quality Over Quantity: Echoing a sentiment relevant to all content creators, Mueller reminds us that the significance of content is not inherently tied to its popularity. He posits, "Something can be useful even if only a few people read it," challenging the notion that only widely viewed content is valuable.This guidance from a Google insider offers a fresh perspective on managing old content. Business owners should view their content through the lens of utility and uniqueness, rather than adhering to arbitrary standards. By evaluating content's relevance to your audience and considering creative archiving solutions, you can enhance your website's value without compromising on quality or cluttering your digital space.In essence, the approach to old content should be strategic and thoughtful, tailored to your business's unique needs and the interests of your audience. This mindset not only aligns with Google's advice but also paves the way for a more engaging and resourceful online presence.2. Clarifying the Use of Google's Indexing API - John Mueller, from Google, reiterated the intended use and limitations of the Google Indexing API, shedding light on its appropriate application. This clarification comes amid ongoing discussions within the digital marketing community about leveraging the API beyond its official capacities. Mueller's comments aim to guide and inform website owners and digital marketers about the proper use of this tool.The Google Indexing API is designed with a specific purpose: to facilitate the indexing of job posting and live stream content on Google. This narrow scope is intended to streamline the process for these particular types of content, ensuring they are promptly recognized and indexed by Google's search engine.Despite clear guidelines, there exists a trend where the Indexing API is applied to content types it wasn't designed for. Some users report temporary success in speeding up the indexing process for other types of content. However, Mueller warns, "it's great to see passionate people try to do more with it, but a) it's often for spam & low-quality, and b) it's not supported." Essentially, while experimentation is noted, it's often associated with low-quality outputs and is not officially endorsed by Google.Mueller's stance emphasizes the API's limitations and discourages attempts to use it beyond its intended purpose, stating plainly, "So you can keep trying to use it but hey, it won't work." This serves as a reminder that while innovation is valued, adherence to Google's guidelines ensures the longevity and visibility of content within its search ecosystem.Attempting to exploit the Indexing API for unintended purposes may yield brief results but could ultimately lead to content being dropped from the index or associated with spam.3. Structured Data Support for Product Variants - Google has rolled out structured data support for Product variants. This move, building on the previous expansions in 2022 for Product structured data and the addition of shipping and returns data in 2023, marks a new milestone in enhancing online shopping experiences. Structured Data Support for Product Variants enables merchants to showcase a wider array of product variations, offering shoppers more relevant and detailed results directly in search. Products often come in various options, such as size, color, material, or technical specifications like memory size and processor type. Recognizing this, Google's latest update facilitates the representation of these product variants in search results through the use of structured data. By adopting the Schema.org ProductGroup type for your product listings, you can now make your product variants eligible for enhanced visibility in Google Search.For business owners, the ability to display product variants more prominently in Google Search can significantly enhance product discovery and customer engagement. By providing detailed variant information directly in search results, you can improve the shopping experience for your customers, potentially leading to higher conversion rates.4. New Google Merchant Center Requirement: Tagging AI-Generated Images - Google has introduced a new requirement for businesses leveraging AI-generated images in their Merchant Center listings. This change mandates the preservation of specific metadata tags within AI-created imagery, aiming to maintain transparency about the origin of these images.When you use AI to generate images for your product listings in Merchant Center, Google now requires that these images retain their original metadata tags, specifically indicating their AI-generated nature. This requirement is centered around the 'trainedAlgorithmicMedia' tag under the IPTC DigitalSourceType category, a standard for photo metadata. This tag serves as a clear marker that the image was created by generative AI technologies.By ensuring these AI-generated images are appropriately tagged, Google aims to foster an environment of transparency and authenticity within the digital marketplace. This move is particularly relevant in a time when the distinction between AI-generated and traditionally created content is becoming increasingly nuanced.Action StepsReview your AI-generated images in Merchant Center for compliance.Ensure all AI-generated images include the 'trainedAlgorithmicMedia' IPTC tag.Educate your team about this requirement to prevent future oversights.Compliance with these requirements not only aligns with Google's standards but also signals to your customers that you value honesty and transparency in your digital marketing practices. As AI continues to play a significant role in ecommerce, understanding and implementing these guidelines will be crucial for maintaining a competi...

Episode 199 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Feb 12 -16, 2024.1. Google Updates Image Removal Process from Search Index - Google has  updated their guidelines regarding the removal of images from their search index. As of February 16, 2024, the updated guidance includes new details for both emergency and non-emergency situations, ensuring that you can swiftly address image removal needs. Properly managing these images can protect your brand's reputation and ensure that only relevant and positive images are associated with your business in search results.The guidance highlights various methods to remove images, covering scenarios where immediate action is required and where there is no direct access to the Content Delivery Network (CDN) or Content Management System (CMS) hosting the images. For urgent removals, Google recommends using the Removals Tool, which temporarily removes images from search results. However, it's crucial to block or remove these images from your site to prevent them from reappearing after the removal request expires.One common issue addressed is the inability to access images hosted on a CDN or through a CMS that doesn't support indexing blocks. In such cases, deleting the images from your site may be necessary. Furthermore, Google has provided more detailed instructions on using robots.txt with wildcards for more effective control over which images are indexed. This update is essential for tailoring your site's visibility and ensuring that unwanted or irrelevant images do not detract from your online presence.Additionally, the update includes a caution regarding the use of the "noimageindex" robots tag. While this tag can prevent images on a specific page from being indexed, if those images appear on other pages, they might still be indexed. To fully block an image, the "noindex" X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header should be used.2. Google Updates Canonical Tag Documentation - Canonical tags play a foundational role in SEO by helping prevent duplicate content issues. They signal to search engines which version of a page is preferred when similar content appears under multiple URLs. Proper use of these tags ensures that the right page gets indexed and ranked, leading to improved website visibility and user experience.The essence of the update, based on Google's adherence to RFC 6596 standards, is the emphasis on explicit use of rel="canonical" annotations. Google specifies that the canonical tag is intended to identify the preferred version of a webpage among duplicates. This clarification does not change how Google processes these annotations but aims to make their intended use clearer.A noteworthy addition to Google's documentation is the guidance against using rel="canonical" for non-duplicative purposes, such as indicating alternate versions of a page (e.g., in another language or for a different media type). Instead, Google recommends using rel="alternate" for such cases. This adjustment highlights the importance of accurately using canonical and alternate tags to avoid confusion and ensure the correct page version is presented to search engine users.3. A New Video Series for Learning Google Search - Google has launched a video series titled "How Search Works" on its Search Central YouTube channel, aimed at demystifying the complexities of Google Search. Spearheaded by Google engineer Gary Illyes, this initiative promises to offer a behind-the-scenes look into the operational intricacies of the world's leading search engine. The series is designed to cater to a broad audience, including business owners, marketers, and even the general public, with the ultimate goal of boosting website visibility in Google's search results.The debut episode lays the groundwork for the series, with subsequent installments set to dive into practical strategies for improving your website's search engine ranking. Illyes highlights the series' technical focus, emphasizing its intent to equip viewers with the knowledge to enhance their site's online presence. Central to the discussion are the fundamental processes of Google Search: crawling, indexing, and serving. These stages represent how Google discovers URLs, understands and stores webpage content, and finally, how it ranks and presents search results.From the initial episode, Illyes stresses two pivotal insights. First, Google staunchly denies accepting payments for improved crawling frequency or search ranking positions. Illyes firmly states, "If anyone tells you otherwise, they're wrong," dismissing any misconceptions about pay-for-play in search rankings. Secondly, the quality of a website's content is underscored as the cornerstone for securing a favorable spot in search results. The definition of "quality" content, as per Google's standards, will be explored in future episodes, offering viewers a roadmap to achieve better visibility.4. Google's Guidance for Understanding Ranking Decline - In the dynamic landscape of search engine optimization (SEO), even the most authoritative websites can experience fluctuations in Google search rankings. This was the case for Wesley Copeland, owner of a gaming news website, who noticed a significant downturn in traffic and reached out to Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, for insights. On February 14, 2024, Sullivan responded with a practical blueprint for diagnosing and potentially reversing ranking declines, shedding light on the intricate dance of maintaining visibility in Google's search results.Sullivan's advice centers on leveraging Google Search Console to dissect and understand the factors contributing to a site's performance dip. He outlines a five-step process aimed at identifying where and why these declines might occur. This method starts with comparing the site's metrics over recent months against a previous period, focusing on the Queries report sorted by click change. This analytical approach helps pinpoint significant decreases in clicks, providing a clearer picture of the site's current standing in search rankings."If you're still ranking in the top results, there's probably nothing fundamental you have to correct," Sullivan reassures, indicating that fluctuations can often be attributed to Google's algorithmic changes rather than a decline in content quality or SEO efforts. He emphasizes that Google's algorithms are designed to evolve, constantly refining how content is ranked and presented to users based on relevance and utility.For business owners and SEO professionals, this conversation underscores the importance of regular performance reviews using tools like Google Search Console. It's crucial to recognize that high search rankings are not static achievements but ongoing efforts that align with Google's ever-changing criteria. Sullivan's parting message offers both assurance and a dose of reality, suggesting that while fundamental issues may not be present, the variability in how content is displayed can impact site visibility over time.The dialogue between Copeland and Sullivan se...

Episode 198 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Feb 5 -9, 2024.1. Google's SEO Starter Guide Revamp: Streamlining for Clarity and Efficiency - Google has recently overhauled its SEO Starter Guide, a move that marks a significant shift towards simplifying SEO practices for website owners and digital marketers. The revised guide has been condensed from approximately 8,639 words to about 4,058 words, making it nearly 53% shorter than its predecessor. This streamlining effort is aimed at eliminating redundancy and focusing on the core essentials of SEO. The reduction in content volume is matched by a decrease in the use of heading elements, from 92 in the original to 27 in the updated version, indicating a more orderly page structure and a tighter focus on key topics.Key Takeaways from the Updated Guide:Topic-Rich Links: The guide emphasizes the importance of creating links that are useful to readers, suggesting that user interactions, as influenced by the quality of these links, play a significant role in ranking.Orderly Page Structure: The new guide is not only shorter but also more logically organized, with a clear progression from one topic to the next. This structure enhances readability and comprehension.Topic-Focused Content: By discarding granular subtopics and reducing the number of headings, the guide maintains a sharp focus on the main topic, providing essential information while offering links to more detailed content.Conciseness Over Comprehensiveness: Reflecting the mobile-first world's content consumption habits, the guide favors concise, on-topic information that addresses readers' immediate needs without overwhelming them with excessive detail.Cohesive Visual Elements: The updated guide also pays attention to the visual consistency of images, which contributes to a more professional and trustworthy presentation of content.This revamped SEO Starter Guide is a valuable resource that demystifies SEO by presenting it in a more digestible and actionable format. It highlights the shift away from technical SEO manipulations towards creating high-quality, user-focused content that naturally improves search rankings.2. Decoding SEO: Understanding Google's Ranking Systems, Signals, and Factors - In a recent clarification, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, provided valuable insights into the intricacies of Google's ranking process, which is crucial for business owners striving to enhance their online visibility. Sullivan's explanation sheds light on the often-confusing terms within SEO: ranking systems, signals, and factors. He emphasized that signals and factors are used synonymously at Google, serving as the "fuel" for the ranking "machine" or systems.This analogy is particularly enlightening for small business owners navigating the complex world of SEO. Sullivan described the signals and factors as the essential elements or criteria that Google's algorithms evaluate when determining the relevance and quality of a webpage for a specific search query. These can range from the use of keywords within the content to the speed at which a page loads and the quality of inbound links.On the other hand, the systems are the algorithms themselves – the "machines" that process these signals or factors to rank content. This distinction is critical for understanding how SEO works and how to optimize content effectively. It highlights that while the signals or factors are the inputs or "fuel," the ranking systems are the engines that analyze these inputs to determine search rankings.In summary, Sullivan's analogy provides a clearer understanding of how Google's search ranking process works, distinguishing between the inputs (signals/factors) and the systems that process them. For businesses, this means that SEO efforts should be holistic, focusing on improving all aspects of their website's content and user experience. By doing so, they can provide the right "fuel" to power the "machine" that determines their visibility in search results, driving more organic traffic to their site and ultimately, enhancing their online presence.3. Clarifying Google's Stance: Page Experience and Core Web Vitals as Ranking Factors - Google's Danny Sullivan provided clarity on the ongoing confusion surrounding page experience and core web vitals as ranking factors. Despite previous discussions and documentation updates, Sullivan emphasized, "We don't confirm any of the things [page experience or core web vitals] as a direct ranking factor." This clarification is crucial for business owners navigating the complexities of SEO to enhance their online presence.Sullivan further elaborated that Google evaluates numerous elements to determine search rankings, indicating that no single factor, including page experience or core web vitals, directly influences ranking. This approach underscores Google's multifaceted evaluation system, which assesses a wide range of signals rather than relying on a singular metric.The confusion stems from past updates to Google's helpful content guidance and page experience documentation, which led to mixed messages about their role in search rankings. While Google previously stated that page experience is a ranking signal, Sullivan clarified it is not a ranking system but rather one of many signals used by other systems. This distinction is vital, as it highlights the importance of considering a broad spectrum of factors in SEO strategies.On X, Sullivan reiterated, "While not all aspects may be directly used to inform ranking, they do generally align with success in search ranking and are worth attention." This statement is a reminder that, although not every aspect may directly impact rankings, focusing on page experience and core web vitals aligns with overall success in search results.4. Google Updates Extended Crawler Documentation for AI Model Training - Google has recently made updates to the documentation of its Google-extended web crawler user agent. Introduced on September 28, 2023, the Google-extended user agent allows web publishers to control how their sites are crawled, specifically offering the option to opt-out of having their content used in AI training datasets. This move by Google aims to give publishers more control over their content, addressing concerns about the use of web content in training AI models like Bard (now renamed Gemini Apps) and Vertex AI generative APIs.The updated documentation clarifies that the Google-extended crawling is exclusive to Gemini Apps and has no impact on Google Search. This distinction is crucial for business owners who may worry that blocking the Google-extended crawler could affect their site's search rankings. The revised guidance reassures publishers that opting out of Google-extended AI data collection does not impact a site's inclusion or ranking in Google Search.Key points from the update include:Control Over Content Use: Publishers can now explicitly allow or disallow the Google-extended user agent from crawling their sites, providing a direct way to opt-out of AI model training data collection.Clarification on Impact: The documentation emphasizes that Google-extended crawling is solely for AI model training and does not affect search rankings, ...

Episode 196 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Jan 22-26, 2024.1. Google's SEO Starter Guide Update: Streamlining for Clarity and Efficiency - Google is currently reworking its popular SEO Starter Guide, initially released in 2010 and updated in 2017 to significantly streamline the guide, making it more accessible and relevant for today's website owners.The current SEO Starter Guide, which is about 8,500 words, will be reduced to less than half its size in the upcoming revision. Lizzi Sassman from Google mentioned that the new guide would be a little over 3,000 words. This reduction is achieved by cutting out repetitive and redundant information, aiming to eliminate duplication and streamline the content.Key aspects of the updated guide include:Focus on Modern Users: The guide will be more concise, focusing on general concepts rather than detailed technical instructions. This change reflects the rise of user-friendly content management systems like WordPress and Wix, which have simplified many aspects of SEO.Elimination of Redundancy: The new guide aims to avoid duplicating information available in more extensive resources on Google's Search Central site. It will serve as a one-stop introductory resource for SEO basics.Potential Impact on Guide's Ranking: Gary Illyes from Google speculated that the guide's ranking in Google search results might drop due to the reduced word count. However, the emphasis is on making the guide more user-friendly rather than maintaining its length for ranking purposes.Feedback-Driven Revision: John Mueller of Google highlighted that reader feedback has been instrumental in reshaping the guide. The goal is to make it more suitable for modern websites and accessible to those new to SEO.This updated guide will be a valuable resource for understanding the fundamentals of SEO in a more digestible format. It will provide clear, impactful advice without overwhelming readers with excessive details or outdated practices.2. Google's Stance: No Guaranteed Traffic in SEO - A recent statement by Google's John Mueller on January 17, 2024, has sparked attention among business owners and SEO professionals. The essence of Mueller's statement is that no one, not even experts, can guarantee increased traffic to a website as a result of specific changes. This was in response to an inquiry about whether removing certain parameters from a website would lead to an increase in traffic. Mueller's unequivocal response was, "Nobody can guarantee you traffic, sorry."This highlights a crucial aspect of digital marketing – the unpredictability and non-guaranteed nature of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO involves optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results, ideally increasing visibility and traffic. However, the algorithms that search engines use are complex and constantly evolving. This makes it challenging to predict exactly how changes to a website will impact its traffic.Many SEO professionals use estimates and formulas to predict the ROI (Return on Investment) of making specific changes to a website. They might estimate that improving rankings could lead to increased clicks and potentially more revenue. However, these are just estimates and should not be considered guaranteed outcomes. The digital marketing landscape is dynamic, and what works today might not work tomorrow.3.  Google's Stance on HTML Structure for SEO Rankings - It's crucial to understand the factors that influence your website's visibility on search engines like Google. One common area of focus is the structure of a website's HTML code. On January 26, 2024, an insightful update was shared regarding Google's stance on this matter, which is particularly relevant for those managing their own websites or working with digital marketing professionals.Gary Illyes from Google clarified on the latest episode of the ‘Search Off The Record' podcast that the HTML structure of web pages does not significantly impact search rankings. This revelation addresses a common misconception among website owners and SEO specialists who often prioritize meticulous HTML structuring in the hopes of boosting their search rankings.Illyes emphasized the value of diversity in website designs and structures, suggesting that if every website had the same HTML structure, the internet would become monotonous. He acknowledged that while basic elements like headings, title tags, and well-organized paragraphs are beneficial, obsessing over the intricate details of HTML structuring is largely unnecessary for SEO purposes.In 2018, John Mueller of Google also remarked that while a clear content structure is helpful for users, it does not directly influence ranking. This reinforces the idea that user experience should be the primary focus rather than the complexity of HTML structure.Furthermore, Google has stated that overusing elements like H1 tags or constantly rearranging them has little to no effect on a site's ranking. This information is especially useful for small business owners who might be allocating resources to fine-tune HTML structures under the assumption that it significantly impacts SEO.In summary, while maintaining a basic, user-friendly HTML structure is important, overemphasizing its complexity does not yield significant benefits in terms of SEO rankings. Business owners are advised to focus on creating valuable content and a pleasant user experience, rather than getting caught up in the intricacies of HTML coding for SEO purposes.4. Google Bot Does Not Read Content Within HTML Comments - On January 25, 2024 Google's John Mueller clarified that HTML comments, which are parts of the website code not visible to users but can contain notes or additional information for developers, were believed by some to influence Google's understanding of a site's content. However, John Mueller clarified that Googlebot, the search engine's crawling software, does not read or utilize the content within these HTML comments for indexing or ranking purposes. This clarification came as a response to a query on Reddit, where an individual inquired about the potential benefits of including content in HTML comments to enhance text recognition from images on their website.Mueller's response underlines an essential principle of web content creation: the importance of putting content directly on web pages, rather than in hidden elements like HTML comments. For business owners, this insight is particularly valuable. It emphasizes the need to focus on creating high-quality, visible content that users and search engines can easily access and understand. This approach not only ensures better engagement with potential customers but also aligns with Google's guidelines for optimal website performance in search results.Business owners should stay away from gimmicks and instead prioritize content that adds real value to their website visitors, as this is what Google's algorithms are designed to recognize and reward in search rankings. This update reiterates the ongoing need for transparency and user-centric strategies in digital marketing practices.

Episode 195 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Jan 15-19, 2024.1. Google's Guide to Seamless Website Transition Without SEO Hiccups - Google's John Mueller has provided advice for businesses transitioning to a new website without affecting their SEO. This guidance is crucial for small business owners who are considering or in the process of moving to a new website.Mueller emphasized the importance of either removing or updating the old website. Keeping both the old and new sites live with conflicting information can confuse users and harm SEO. Inconsistent details, such as different business hours or addresses on both sites, can frustrate customers and make it challenging for search engines to index and rank pages correctly.To ensure a smooth transition, Mueller suggests implementing redirects from the old site to the new one. This approach aids users in finding the correct website and helps search engines transfer any existing signals to the new domain, potentially boosting its standing. Mueller recommends getting help from a web developer or hosting provider to implement the redirects properly and suggests keeping them in place for at least one year.Redirects are crucial when transitioning from one website domain to a new one. They ensure users who visit the old website domain are automatically forwarded to the new domain and pass on the value of links pointing to the old domain to the new domain. This link equity transfer is vital for the new website to retain its search engine ranking.If redirects to a new domain aren't possible, Mueller suggests updating the old site with a notice alerting visitors that the content has moved to a new domain. If that can't be done, take down the old site completely. He assures that the new site won't be penalized by search engines for outdated content on the old domain. However, both the old and new websites may still appear in searches for a while, which may need clarification for users.After making the transition, it's important to monitor the process closely. Use analytics software to check that redirects function correctly and traffic is sent to the right places. Keep an eye on your search engine rankings to catch any unexpected dips that might indicate a problem with the transition. Informing users about the change through emails, social media, and website announcements is also crucial.In summary, moving to a new website is a significant change for any business. Handling the shift carefully is vital to maintaining search engine rankings and providing users with a continuous experience. Mueller's guidance should assist in making the transition from an old site to a new one go smoothly.2. Google's Clarification on 'Index, Follow' Meta Tag: What It Means for Your Website - Google's John Mueller recently provided clarity on the use of the 'index, follow' meta tag, a topic of interest for many website owners and SEO professionals. The HTML meta element communicates metadata. Metadata is machine readable information that a crawler like Googlebot can read. Muller's clarity sheds light on a common misunderstanding in the SEO community.The 'index, follow' meta tag has been widely used with the belief that it instructs search engine crawlers to index the content of a webpage and follow its links. However, Mueller clarified that this tag is essentially redundant for Google, as indexing and following links are default behaviors of search engine robots. The tag looks like this: .Mueller explained that the 'index' directive in the robots meta tag has no function for Google and is completely ignored. Similarly, the 'follow' directive is unnecessary because Googlebot automatically follows links unless instructed otherwise. Google's documentation confirms that the default values for robots tags are 'index, follow', and these don't need to be specified. Furthermore, he wrote, “Google has https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags & https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag to document the meta tags that have functions. You can use anything else, it'll be ignored. is an option, if you want to throw people off.”If the robots meta you want to use isn't' listed in Google's documentation then Googlebot is going to ignore it. So don't try to be cute or innovative unless you want to throw people off. The tag is still valid and tells the search engine crawlers to not index the content on the webpage and to not follow any links.For small business owners managing their websites, this clarification means that including the 'index, follow' meta tag does not impact how Google crawls or indexes their pages. The focus should instead be on ensuring that the website is accessible, with high-quality content that serves the audience's needs.While Bing treats the 'index, follow' tag similarly, it does allow explicit statements of 'index' or 'follow' if desired, as per Bing's documentation. However, for Google, the emphasis is on streamlining the website's HTML and removing unnecessary elements that do not contribute to its performance in search results.3. Understanding the Impact of Changing from WWW to Non-WWW on SEO - In a recent discussion, Google's John Mueller clarified a common query among website owners and digital marketers about the impact of changing a domain from 'www' to 'non-www' on search rankings. This is particularly relevant for business owners who are considering such changes to their websites.Mueller stated that switching from a 'www' to a 'non-www' domain should not significantly affect a website's rankings. He suggested that Google is adept at recognizing such changes, and the rankings are unlikely to suffer substantially as a result. This response came after a query about a large site that changed its domain URL to remove 'www' and implemented 301 redirects via user agent Mozilla. The site owner noticed a worsening impact over time, leading to concerns about Google's recognition of this form of 301 redirect.Mueller clarified that server-side redirects like 301 do not use user agents, indicating a possible misunderstanding in the implementation. He emphasized that changing from 'www' to 'non-www' doesn't really change much in terms of SEO. If a website is experiencing significant changes in rankings, it is likely due to other factors.It's important for business owners to understand that while such domain changes are recognized by Google, the key is in the proper implementation of redirects. Google is quick to pick up on changes like 'http to https' or 'www to non-www,' and these types of changes should not negatively impact a site's rankings. However, changes in URL structures or significant parts of the site might lead to slower reactions from Google.4. Maximizing SEO: The Importance of Text Placement Over Images - In a recent

Episode 194 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Jan 08-12, 2024.1. Google's Clear Message: No 'Perfect Page' Formula for Search Rankings - Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan debunked a common myth in SEO: the existence of a 'perfect page' formula for achieving high rankings in search results. Danny emphasized that there is no universal formula or set of rules that websites must adhere to for high placement in search results. This clarification challenges the widespread belief, dating back to the early days of SEO, that specific word counts, page structures, or other optimizations can guarantee success in search rankings.According to Danny, third-party SEO tools often suggest creating pages in certain ways to succeed in search. However, he asserted that these tools cannot predict rankings accurately. Their advice is usually based on finding averages among top-ranking pages, but Google's algorithm values both commonalities and unique differences in content. Following such generalized advice does not guarantee a top ranking.Instead of focusing on mythical formulas, Danny recommended prioritizing helpfulness and relevance to users. For instance, including an author byline should be based on its usefulness to readers, not because it might supposedly boost rankings. His key advice is to put readers and audience first, as being helpful to them aligns more closely with the various signals used by Google to reward content.For small business owners, this means shifting focus from trying to crack a non-existent 'perfect SEO formula' to creating content that genuinely serves its audience. This reader-first approach is more likely to resonate with the diverse and evolving signals used by search engines. It's not just about organizing content; it's about making your site more accessible and relevant to both your audience and search engines.In summary, Google's message is clear: there is no perfect blueprint for guaranteed rankings. However, creating content that genuinely serves its purpose continues to be rewarded. This approach encourages small business owners to focus on quality and relevance, rather than chasing elusive SEO shortcuts, ultimately leading to a more robust and effective online presence.The question for you: Who will you listen and follow? Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison or a third-party tool who makes money when can keep you as a customer? 2. Author Bylines Don't Impact Search Rankings - Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, stated, "Author bylines aren't something you do for Google, and they don't help you rank better." This statement addresses the belief that including author bylines and bios on a website can directly influence its ranking in Google's search results. Sullivan emphasized that these elements are for the benefit of the readers, not for the search engine.He further explained that while publications with author bylines may exhibit other characteristics that align with Google's criteria for useful content, the bylines themselves do not contribute to better rankings. This clarification dispels the myth that specific structural elements like author bylines can be used as a shortcut to achieve higher search rankings.John Mueller of Google also previously stated (Sep 20, 2021) that author bylines are not a requirement for Google Search. This reinforces the idea that while bylines can enhance the credibility and transparency of content for readers it is not going to give you a ranking boost. For small business owners, this means prioritizing the creation of content that genuinely serves the needs and interests of their audience. By focusing on being helpful and providing value to readers, businesses are more likely to align with the various signals Google uses to reward content. This approach not only enhances user experience but also supports long-term SEO success without relying on misconceptions about specific page elements.3. Navigating the Japanese Keyword Hack: Google's John Mueller Offers Recovery Advice - In a recent interaction on Reddit, Google's John Mueller provided crucial advice for website owners who fall victim to the Japanese keyword hack. This is especially relevant for small business owners who manage their websites and are concerned about online security and SEO.The Japanese keyword hack is a type of SEO spam attack where a website is injected with thousands of foreign language pages, often in Japanese or Chinese, without the owner's knowledge or consent. This attack can significantly impact a site's search rankings and integrity. In the reported case, a website owner discovered over 20,000 such pages suddenly indexed on their site.Mueller's advice for recovery begins with identifying how the breach occurred. It's crucial to understand the vulnerability that allowed the hack, to ensure it is properly secured. He suggested considering automatic updates or switching to a hosting platform that handles security as potential solutions.For SEO implications, Mueller advised that once a site's most important pages are cleaned of unwanted content, they can be reindexed quickly. He reassured that old hacked pages, if not visible to users, do not pose immediate problems and can remain indexed for months without issue. Importantly, Mueller clarified that spammy backlinks pointing to these invisible indexed pages do not require disavowing. Instead, the focus should be on cleaning up the site's visible content and preventing internal search results from being indexed.Regarding the issue of spammy backlinks causing internal search pages to be indexed, Mueller clarified that this was separate from the hacking issue. He recommended against disavowing the links, as the pages would naturally drop from search results over time. Proactively blocking search results pages from indexing, using methods like robots.txt or noindex, is advised for both new and existing sites to prevent exploitation by spammers.For small business owners, this incident underscores the importance of website security and regular maintenance. Regular security updates, malware scans, and link audits should be part of routine website management. It's a shared responsibility between website owners and search engines to keep search results free of hacked and spammy content.In summary, Mueller's advice highlights the need for proactive security measures and vigilant maintenance to protect websites from hacking and spam attacks. By focusing on these areas, small business owners can safeguard their online presence, maintain their search rankings, and ensure a trustworthy experience for their users.4. Google's Updated Guidance on Search Snippets - Google has recently updated its documentation to clarify how its algorithm selects snippets for search results. Traditionally, it was believed that the snippet in search results, which consists of a title, URL breadcrumb, and a brief description, was derived mainly from the meta description of a webpage. However, Google's updated guidance indicates that the primary source of the snippet is the page content itself, not the structured data or the meta description.This update represents a shift in how meta descriptions might be written and how content is optimized. The previous version of Google's documentation implied that the snippet was mostly derived from the meta description, suggesting that on-page content could also be selected for the snippet. The new documentation makes it clear that the page content is the main source of the snippet, with the meta description being used only when it describes the page better than other parts of the content.Google has removed a substantial amount of content from the previous version of the documentation, including a paragraph that advised site owners on how to suggest content for snippets. The new wording emphasizes that snippets are primarily created from the page content, and the meta description is used only when it might give users a more accurate description of the page than content taken directly from the page.5. Google's Temporary Reprieve for Select Sites on Third-Party Cookie Phase-Out - Google Chrome has started restricting third-party cookie access, a significant change that began on January 4, 2024, and is expected to reach 100% of users globally by Q3 2024. Recognizing the challenges this transition poses, Google is offering a limited "Deprecation Trial" to allow websites and businesses additional time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies. This trial is specifically for non-advertising use cases and will temporarily re-enable third-party cookie access for eligible third-party services until December 27, 2024.To qualify for these trials, services must meet strict eligibility criteria set by Google. Services categorized as advertising-related will not be approved, and origins matching known ad-related domains, including subdomains, will be rejected. Only services with proven functional breakage, not just data collection issues, are eligible. Applicants must provide detailed steps to reproduce the broken functionality in bug reports, and Google will only accept requests where apparent breakage is validated.For approved services, unique access tokens can be added in Chrome to enable trials. Google has granted a grace period until April 1, 2024, for approved sites to deploy their tokens, addressing the short window between registration opening and the initial blocking of cookies for 1% of traffic.This extension is not intended to relieve data collection inconveniences but to allow services with functional breakage to use third-party cookies. Business owners relying on third-party services or cookies should conduct an audit of their site's usage and prepare contingency plans. With the rollout already underway, it's crucial to address potential impacts before a larger percentage of visitors are affected.6. Google Search Console Retires Crawl Rate Tool - Google has officially removed the crawl rate setting tool from Google Search Console. The crawl rate limiter was a legacy tool within Google Search Console that allowed website owners to communicate to Google how frequently their site should be crawled. It was primarily used when a website experienced server load problems due to frequent crawling by Googlebot. However, Google has deemed this feature no longer necessary due to improvements in its crawling logic and other tools available to publishers.With the removal of this tool, Google now relies more on its enhanced crawling logic to determine the appropriate frequency for crawling websites. Googlebot now automatically adjusts its crawl rate in response to how a site or server responds to its requests. For instance, if a server consistently returns HTTP 500 status codes or if the response time for requests significantly lengthens, Googlebot will automatically slow down it's crawling.This means that Google's automated systems are now more adept at managing crawl rates without manual intervention. While this may reduce the level of control website owners have over crawl rates, it also simplifies the process, as Googlebot will intelligently adjust its behavior based on the site's response. Google has set the minimum crawling speed to a lower rate, comparable to the old crawl rate limits. This adjustment aims to continue honoring the settings that some site owners had previously set, especially if the search interest is low and the crawlers do not waste the site's bandwidth.7. The Evolving Role of Hashtags on LinkedIn - On January 12, 2024, Andrew Hutchinson reported in Social Media Today about the changing effectiveness of hashtags on LinkedIn. For a long time, LinkedIn did not support hashtags. However, in 2018, the platform reactivated hashtag discoverability and began encouraging users to categorize their posts using hashtags. The goal was to segment content better, enabling LinkedIn to show users more relevant content. But as algorithms have evolved, the necessity for hashtags has diminished. Modern social platform systems are now adept at understanding the context of a post's text, visuals, user history, and all keywords included, making hashtags less critical for content categorization.LinkedIn's current stance is that while hashtags can be helpful for viewers to easily identify what a post is about and find related posts, they should be closely related to the topic of the post to be most effective. LinkedIn also considers conversation topics and keywords to surface relevant information. This suggests that LinkedIn is now less reliant on hashtags for maximizing discovery. However, when searching for conversations on a specific topic, users can still use topics or hashtags.For business owners, this means that while hashtags in LinkedIn posts are less relevant than before, it's still important to be mindful of the keywords mentioned in the main post. Understanding and tapping into the right conversation streams based on target topics is crucial. Following popular pages and people within your business niche can provide insights into common hashtags related to your sector. Additionally, searching for hashtags in the app can help identify trending topics and discussions in your industry.Research by LinkedIn expert Richard van der Blom indicates that using 3-10 hashtags in LinkedIn posts used to significantly boost reach, but now hashtags provide no additional reach boost. This change suggests that LinkedIn is gradually deemphasizing hashtags as a discovery tool, focusing more on topical relevance rather than maximizing reach.LinkedIn's system is not designed for virality, so hashtags do not necessarily function on LinkedIn the way they do on other social media platforms. This could be part of LinkedIn's strategy to prevent users from gaming the system with hashtags.8. Expanding E-Commerce Horizons: X's New Partnership with Shopify - On January 9, 2024, X announced an expanded partnership with Shopify. This collaboration is set to open new opportunities for Shopify merchants to promote their products on X's platform, aligning with X's vision of becoming an "everything app."The partnership is designed to enable all Shopify merchants to reach a broader customer base by leveraging the power of X Business. While X already had a deal with Shopify in 2022 to display products in-stream, this new development promises to facilitate broader product awareness actions, enable easier catalog uploads, and provide more ways for Shopify merchants to maximize ad outcomes.Shopify President Harley Finkelstein highlighted the importance of reaching customers wherever they are. He emphasized that more platforms mean more choice, entrepreneurship, and opportunities for business growth. Although many details of the partnership are yet to be disclosed, the collaboration is expected to offer significant benefits for retailers.X's work with Shopify could potentially facilitate new opportunities for retailers in-stream. This would be particularly impactful if X's vision of integrating peer-to-peer payments and transfers in the app materializes. Such a feature could lead to innovative ways for retailers to expand their audience and leverage X's reach.For small business owners, this partnership represents a significant opportunity. It suggests that leveraging platforms like X, in conjunction with e-commerce giants like Shopify, could be a strategic move to expand their digital footprint and reach new customers. The potential for in-stream payments and transfers could further enhance the customer experience and streamline the purchasing process.9. Microsoft Has A New Ad Creation Tool - On January 11, 2024, Microsoft announced a significant update to its retail media tool, introducing a new Creative Studio element powered by generative AI. The new Creative Studio allows users to generate entirely new ads in various formats using conversational AI prompts. This AI-powered solution is designed to boost creativity and productivity, particularly benefiting retailers and advertisers by simplifying the process of creating banner ads. The tool's ease of use is particularly advantageous for smaller businesses that may lack the resources to run effective banner campaigns.One of the key features of this tool is its ability to create ads based on just a product URL. Users can then further customize the creative for different channels. Microsoft ensures that the AI-generated ads will automatically align with each retailer's style guide. Additionally, users have the flexibility to customize ads by updating and emphasizing selected words and phrases, cropping and cleaning up backgrounds, and modifying other ad elements, all based on text prompts.

Episode 193 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Jan 01-05, 2024.1. Google's Shift Away from Third-Party Cookies has Started - On January 4, 2024, Google embarked on a significant change in the digital marketing landscape by initiating the first stage of its strategy to remove third-party cookies. We have mentioned in our previous episode that it will begin in January 2024. However, I did not expect it to start so soon. Third-party cookies have long been a staple in digital marketing, allowing businesses to track users' browsing habits across different websites and deliver personalized advertising. Google's decision to phase out these cookies is part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to balance user privacy with the needs of online businesses. Initially, this change will impact 1% of Chrome users globally, equivalent to about 30 million people.The impact of Tracking Protection's rollout is yet to be fully realized, but it's clear that advertisers need to be ready for a cookie-less future. This shift will cause issues for sites that depend on third-party cookies. Third-party cookies have traditionally provided vital insights for targeted advertising. With their removal, Google will categorize users into anonymized topic listings, allowing brands to target subsets of users but without the granular data previously available. This change is expected to lead to less effective advertising campaigns and, consequently, reduced revenue for web publishers. It also signifies increased costs for businesses in targeting ads.For small business owners, this shift represents a significant challenge and opportunity. The removal of third-party cookies means that the traditional methods of targeted advertising, which rely on detailed user data, will become less effective. Instead, Google plans to categorize users into anonymized topic listings. While this still allows for targeted advertising, it will be less specific than before, potentially leading to less effective campaigns and reduced revenue for web publishers. Additionally, the cost of ad targeting is likely to increase for many businesses.Google's move also reflects a broader trend in the digital world towards prioritizing user privacy. This trend is not only driven by tech giants like Google and Apple but also by regulatory changes in regions like the European Union. As a result, digital marketers are entering a phase of trial and error, learning to utilize new tools and strategies to maximize their advertising effectiveness in a privacy-focused online ecosystem.Business owners must adapt their digital marketing strategies to align with these new privacy standards. This adaptation involves exploring new tools and methods for reaching audiences in a way that respects their privacy while still achieving marketing goals. 2. The Community's Verdict on Buying DR & DA Services: More Harm Than Good - As a small business owner, you might be tempted to quickly boost your website's Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) by purchasing services from platforms like Fiverr. DR and DA are metrics developed by SEO companies to estimate a website's likelihood of ranking well in search engine results. While these metrics can be useful indicators of a site's health and link profile, they are not direct factors used by search engines like Google for ranking websites.The allure of these services is understandable: they promise quick, significant improvements in your website's perceived authority. However, it's crucial to understand the potential risks and downsides.Quality of Links: Many services offering to boost DR and DA do so by creating a large number of backlinks to your site. However, these links are often from low-quality or irrelevant sites. Search engines have evolved to recognize and penalize such artificial link-building tactics, which can harm your site's long-term SEO health.Short-term Gains, Long-term Risks: While you might see a temporary increase in your DR or DA, these gains can be short-lived. Search engines continuously update their algorithms to provide the most relevant search results, and they may penalize sites that engage in manipulative link-building practices.Misalignment with SEO Best Practices: The best SEO strategy focuses on creating high-quality content and obtaining backlinks naturally from reputable websites within your industry. Purchasing DR/DA boosting services often goes against these organic practices and can lead to a misalignment with Google's guidelines.Cost vs. Benefit: While the cost of these services might seem low compared to other marketing efforts, the potential damage to your site's reputation and ranking can be much more costly in the long run.The Reddit SEO community strongly advises against purchasing services to artificially boost Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) from platforms like Fiverr. Here are some key takeaways from their responses:Toxic Backlinks: Many users pointed out that the backlinks provided by these services are often "toxic" and flagged by search engine algorithms. One user stated, "because the backlinks are usually toxic (spammed and flagged by algos), flagged or have no actual power no matter what their DA says."Irrelevance of DR and DA: Several comments emphasized that DR and DA are third-party metrics and not Google metrics. They are often seen as "vanity metrics" with no real value in SEO. A user mentioned, "Because DR and DA are irrelevant third party metrics when it comes to SEO."No Impact on Rankings: Users highlighted that an increase in DR and DA does not translate to an increase in search engine rankings. One comment read, "Because it doesn't work and an increase in DR and DA (not even Google metrics) doesn't mean there will be an increase in rankings."Potential Harm to Site: There's a consensus that these services can harm your site's SEO health. One user warned, "Worst case scenario: you severely damage your backlink profile in Google."Low-Quality Links and PBNs: Several comments noted that these services often use low-quality links and private blog networks (PBNs), which are frowned upon by Google. A user shared, "They sell the same shit to everyone who orders these. Lots of low quality backlinks using the same PBN."Misleading Metrics: Users agreed that DR and DA are easy to manipulate and do not reflect a site's actual authority or relevance. A comment stated, "DR/DA are useless when it comes to link quality."Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Losses: The community believes that any short-term gains from these services are outweighed by long-term losses in rankings and credibility.In conclusion, the Reddit SEO community strongly advises against buying DR and DA boosting services. These services offer short-term, superficial gains at the expense of long-term SEO health and credibility. For small business owners, the focus should be on building organic backlinks, creating quality content, and following best SEO practices for sustainable growth and success.3. Revamp Your Website Without Losing SEO: Essential Tips from John Muller - Google's John Mueller highlights the critical importance of careful planning in website revamps to avoid SEO pitfalls. This topic is particularly relevant for small business owners who are considering updating their website's user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).UI and UX are fundamental aspects of a website, influencing how visitors interact and their overall satisfaction. Changes in these areas, along with adding new pages, can significantly impact a site's SEO performance. This is because these changes can affect everything from how Google crawls and understands a page to the on-page ranking factors. Here is what he mentioned:“One complexity is that a relaunch can mean so many different things, from just shifting a website to a new server and leaving everything else the same, to changing domain names and all of the content as well. First, you need to be absolutely clear what's changing on the website. Ideally map out all changes in a document, and annotate which ones might have SEO implications. If you're changing URLs, we have some great guidance on handling site migrations in our documentation. If you're changing the content or the UI, of course that will affect SEO too. If you're unsure about the effects, I'd strongly recommend getting help from someone more experienced - it's easy to mess up a bigger revamp or migration in terms of SEO, if it's done without proper preparation. Even with everything done properly, I get nervous when I see them being done. Fixing a broken migration will take much more time and effort than preparing well. In any case, good luck!”We also recommend that you discuss your needs with a reputable, competent SEO professional.Here are some key steps to consider:Crawl the Website: Use tools like Screaming Frog to crawl your site before and after changes. This helps identify issues like missing pages, broken links, or misconfigured meta elements.Create a Backup: Always have multiple backups of your website. This is a safety net against various potential issues that could arise during the update process.Stage the Website: Use a staging environment to test new changes. This is a duplicate version of your site where you can identify and fix technical bugs or errors before they go live.For small business owners, understanding and implementing these steps is crucial. A well-planned website revamp can enhance user experience and SEO performance, while a poorly executed one can lead to significant setbacks in site visibility and user engagement. Therefore, it's not just about making the site look better; it's about ensuring that these improvements align with SEO best practices to maintain or enhance your site's ranking on search engines.4. Importance of a Website's Homepage in Google's Eyes - Historically, the homepage was deemed the most important page due to the prevalence of directory and reciprocal links pointing to it. However, the focus shifted to inner pages as link-building strategies evolved, targeting content-rich pages for better ranking in search results. Despite this trend, recent statements from Google's Gary Illyes and John Mueller suggest a resurgence in the importance of the homepage.Illyes, in ep#66 of the Search off the Record podcast, emphasized that from Google's perspective, the homepage is the most important page of a site. Here is what he said :“... I can't speak for other search engines, obviously, but from Google's perspective, the homepage is the most important page on the site,... ”This statement is significant for business owners, as it implies that Google pays special attention to the homepage for indexing and understanding a website's structure. Mueller echoed this sentiment, noting that Google uses the homepage as a starting point for crawling and gauging the importance of other pages. He explained that pages linked directly from the homepage are often considered more important, influencing their weight in search results.This renewed focus on the homepage does not negate the value of inner pages but highlights the homepage's role as a gateway to the rest of the site. For business owners, this means ensuring that your homepage is not only well-designed and user-friendly but also strategically links to key inner pages. This approach can enhance the visibility and ranking of your website in Google's search results.In summary, while the importance of individual pages varies, the homepage holds a special place in Google's indexing and ranking process. As a small business owner, prioritizing your homepage's content and structure can significantly impact your website's overall performance in search results. This understanding is essential in today's competitive digital landscape, where a well-optimized homepage can be a game-changer for your online presence.5. Brand Over Keywords: John Mueller's Advice on Domain Names for SEO - In the realm of SEO, the choice of a domain name is a critical decision for any business owner. And the idea of using keyword domain name keeps on coming up. In a now deleted reddit post, John Mueller, Google's Search Advocate addressed a common query: Do keyword domain names offer an SEO advantage? His response was clear and straightforward. He advised against relying on keyword-specific domain names for long-term SEO strategy, stating that such a domain name does not provide a significant SEO advantage on Google. This advice is particularly relevant for businesses planning for long-term growth and online presence.The rationale behind Mueller's advice is twofold. First, keyword-focused domain names can limit brand recognition. They may pigeonhole a business into a narrow niche, making it challenging to expand or diversify offerings in the future. Second, these domain names can be restrictive when targeting other keywords, thereby limiting the website's ability to adapt to new products, services, or market trends.Mueller's insights reflect a shift in SEO trends, emphasizing the importance of building a strong, recognizable brand across various channels. This approach aligns with omnichannel marketing, where consistency in branding across different platforms is key to connecting with customers. In today's digital landscape, brand recognition and quality content are increasingly significant in achieving SEO success.In conclusion, Mueller's advice for 2024 and beyond is to focus less on keyword-centric domain names and more on developing a comprehensive, brand-focused online presence. This strategy not only aligns with current SEO trends but also ensures versatility and adaptability for businesses in the ever-evolving digital market. For small business owners, this means investing in a domain name that reflects your brand's identity and values, rather than just targeting specific keywords. This approach will help in building a lasting and flexible online presence, crucial for long-term success in the digital world.6. Facebook's New Link History Feature: Implications for Targeted Advertising - On January 3, 2024, Facebook introduced a significant update affecting digital marketing: the global archiving of all users' link history on both Android and iOS devices. This is particularly relevant for small business owners who utilize Facebook for targeted advertising.The new feature, which is enabled by default, allows Meta to use the collected data from users' link history for targeted advertising. This means that Facebook will keep track of the websites visited by users within its mobile browser over the last 30 days. However, it's important to note that links visited in Messenger chats are not included in this history.The feature could provide a valuable source of data for reaching high-value consumers, especially as the industry moves towards a cookieless future and faces stricter privacy laws. On the other hand, the reliance on such data could be temporary, and there are concerns about user privacy and the potential backlash.Users have the option to opt-out of this feature. To disable it, they can select any link within the Facebook app, launch Facebook's mobile browser, click on the three dots in the bottom right corner, select browser settings, and then toggle the switch next to "Allow Link History."A Facebook spokesperson stated, "You can choose to turn link history on or off at any time. When you turn link history off, we will immediately clear your link history, and you will no longer be able to see any links that you've visited. Additionally, we won't save your link history or use it to improve your ads across Meta technologies."7. LinkedIn Ad Prices Surge Amid Advertiser Boycott of Platform X - As of January 2, 2024, LinkedIn has experienced a significant surge in ad prices, a development crucial for small business owners to understand. This change, is attributed to increased demand following an advertiser boycott of another major platform, referred to as "X."The cost of ads on LinkedIn, a Microsoft-owned platform, has risen by as much as 30% in some cases. This increase is a direct result of advertisers shifting their focus from Platform X to LinkedIn. Leesha Anderson, Vice-President of Digital Marketing and Social Media at Outcast Ad Agency, noted that most of their clients have moved away from Platform X and are now focusing on LinkedIn.Despite the steep increase in prices, marketers are reporting substantial returns on their investments in LinkedIn ads. Advertisers are seeing up to 20% ROI, meaning for every $100 spent, they are generating profits of $120. This high ROI is particularly noteworthy given the increased costs of LinkedIn campaigns compared to those on Meta's platforms, where the cost per 1000 impressions can be as low as $10 to $15.LinkedIn's ad prices are determined by an auction system based on market demand. The greater the demand, the higher the ad price. This system has led to the current surge in prices due to the influx of advertisers from Platform X.The platform's annual ad revenue soared by 101% year-on-year in 2023, reaching almost $4 billion. Insider Intelligence forecasts that this growth will continue, with an additional 141% increase expected in 2024.Penry Price, LinkedIn's Vice-President of Marketing Solutions, attributed the increased investment in LinkedIn ads to the platform's unique targeting capabilities. LinkedIn claims to have twice the buying power of the average web audience, with four out of five members driving business decisions.For small business owners, this information is vital. While LinkedIn presents a solid alternative for advertising, especially in light of the boycott of Platform X, the increased costs must be considered. The platform's robust targeting capabilities and high ROI potential make it an attractive option, but businesses must carefully assess their budgets and advertising strategies to ensure the best use of their resources.

Episode 192 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Dec 18-22, 2023.1. Site Structure Strategy - Understanding the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can significantly enhance your online presence. Gary Illyes from Google has recently shed light on the importance of using a hierarchical site structure for SEO, a strategy crucial for making your website more accessible and understandable to both users and search engines.Illyes explains two types of site structures: hierarchical and flat. A flat site structure links every page directly from the home page, making each page just one click away. This approach was popular when sites relied heavily on web directories and reciprocal linking. However, as Google reduced the influence of PageRank as a ranking factor, the flat structure became less relevant.In contrast, a hierarchical site structure organizes content from general to specific. The home page covers the most general topic, with links to categories, subcategories, and individual pages that delve into more specific topics. This structure not only makes it easier for users to navigate your site but also helps search engines understand and categorize your content effectively.A hierarchical structure offers several advantages: Improved User Experience: It makes it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, enhancing their overall experience on your site. Better SEO: By clearly categorizing your content, search engines can more easily index and rank your pages. Flexibility: It allows you to create distinct sections on your site, like a news section, which can be crawled and indexed differently by search engines. The choice between a hierarchical and a flat structure depends on your site's size and complexity. For larger sites with diverse content, a hierarchical structure is more beneficial. It allows for better organization and easier management of different content sections. He explained, "hierarchical structure will allow you to do funky stuff on just one section and will also allow search engines to potentially treat different sections differently. Especially when it comes to crawling. For example, having news section for newsy content and archives for old content would allow search engines to crawl news faster than the other directory. If you put everything in one directory that's not really possible."For small business owners, adopting a hierarchical site structure, as suggested by Gary Illyes from Google, can significantly improve your website's SEO performance. It's not just about organizing content; it's about making your site more accessible and relevant to both your audience and search engines. By implementing this structure, you can enhance user experience, improve search rankings, and ultimately drive more traffic to your site.2. Decoding the Dec 21 Spam Attack: Key Lessons to Elevate Your SEO Strategy! - On December 21, 2023, Google's search results were overwhelmed by a massive spam attack. This event highlights the vulnerability of search engines to spam tactics and the potential impact on businesses relying on online visibility.The attack involved numerous domains ranking for hundreds of thousands of keywords, indicating a large-scale operation. The spam was first noticed when almost all top search results for specific queries, like "Craigslist used auto parts," turned out to be spam, except for a few legitimate listings.The spam sites exploited three main opportunities within Google's ranking system: Local Search Algorithm: This algorithm is more permissive, allowing local businesses to rank without many links. Spammers used this to their advantage, targeting local search queries. Longtail Keywords: These are low-volume, specific phrases. Due to their low competition, it's easier for spammers to rank in these areas. New Domain Advantage: Google gives new sites a short period of 'benefit of the doubt' to rank in search results. Many spam domains were newly registered, exploiting this window. The effectiveness of this technique lies in the different algorithms Google uses for local and non-local searches. Local search algorithms are more lenient, allowing these spam sites to rank with minimal effort. he December 21, 2023, spam attack on Google's search results offers valuable insights for business owners looking to enhance their SEO strategies. This incident, where numerous domains ranked for an unusually high number of keywords, sheds light on the vulnerabilities and opportunities within Google's ranking system.Key Learnings from the Spam Attack Exploiting Low-Competition Areas: The spam attack targeted low-competition keywords, particularly in local search and longtail queries. For legitimate businesses, this highlights the potential of focusing on niche, specific keywords where competition is lower, increasing the chances of ranking higher. Understanding Google's Algorithms: The spammers took advantage of the local search algorithm's leniency and the initial ranking boost given to new domains. This underscores the importance of understanding how different SEO factors work, including the impact of new content and the specific requirements of local SEO. The Power of Longtail Keywords: The attack successfully utilized longtail keywords, which are specific and often less targeted by major competitors. For businesses, incorporating longtail keywords into their SEO strategy can capture niche markets and attract highly targeted traffic. Applying These Insights to Your SEO Strategy Focus on Local SEO: If you're a local business, optimize for local search queries. Ensure your business is listed accurately on Google My Business, and use local keywords in your website's content. Leverage Long Tail Keywords: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify longtail keywords relevant to your business. These keywords can drive targeted traffic and are generally easier to rank for. Monitor New Trends and Updates: Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and Google algorithm updates. Understanding these changes can help you adapt your strategies effectively. Diversify Your Online Presence: Don't rely solely on organic search rankings. Utilize social media, email marketing, and other channels to build a robust online presence. 3. Is Your Company Blog Google News Worthy? - Google's John Mueller addressed a crucial question: Can company blogs be eligible for Google News? This is particularly relevant for small business owners seeking to expand their reach and visibility online.Mueller clarified that while he works on search, which is somewhat separate from Google News, there's nothing in Google News content policies specifically excluding company blogs. This opens up an opportunity for business blogs to be featured, provided they meet certain criteria.To be considered for Google News, your blog content must adhere to specific guidelines. These include: Clear Dates and Bylines: Each article should have a visible publication date and author byline. Author, Publication, and Publisher Information: Details about the authors, the publication, and the company or network behind the content are essential. Contact Information: Providing contact details adds credibility and transparency to your content. While Google can automatically discover news content, being proactive can increase your chances. You can submit your blog URL for consideration through Google's Publisher Center. This step is crucial for small business owners looking to leverage their company blog for greater visibility.FYI: Google News does feature content from company blogs. For instance, GridinSoft company's blog and Adobe's company webpage have been shown in Google News. This demonstrates that while dedicated news sites are more common, company blogs that publish news are also considered.For small business owners, this information is a game-changer. It means that your company blog has the potential to be featured in Google News, provided it meets Google's content policies. This can lead to increased exposure, traffic, and potentially, a steady stream of advertising income. It's an opportunity to elevate your content strategy and expand your digital footprint in a meaningful way.4. Perfect SEO Isn't a Reality for Your Business - Google's John Mueller in his last SEO office hours of December 2023, where he stated, "no SEO is perfect." This insight is particularly relevant for business owners who may feel overwhelmed by the constantly evolving landscape of SEO.SEO is an ever-changing field, influenced by the continuous evolution of the internet, search engines, and user behavior. This fluidity means that what works today in SEO might not be as effective tomorrow. The technical elements like structured data and quality considerations are always in flux, making the idea of achieving 'perfect' SEO unattainable.Despite the impossibility of perfect SEO, Mueller emphasizes the importance of engaging in SEO practices. The goal isn't to achieve perfection but to adapt and evolve with the changes. SEO remains a crucial element in enhancing online visibility, driving traffic, and improving user engagement.Key Takeaways for Business Owners Adaptability is Key: Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates. Being adaptable in your SEO strategy is more valuable than striving for perfection. Focus on Quality and Relevance: Instead of chasing perfection, concentrate on creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience and adheres to SEO best practices. Continuous Learning and Improvement: SEO is a journey, not a destination. Regularly review and update your SEO strategies to align with current best practices and user preferences. Don't Be Discouraged: The complexity of SEO can be daunting, but don't let the pursuit of perfection discourage you. Even small, consistent efforts in SEO can yield significant benefits over time. For small business owners, understanding that 'no SEO is perfect' can be liberating. It shifts the focus from chasing an unattainable goal to developing a flexible, quality-focused approach that grows with your business and the digital landscape. Embracing this mindset allows you to navigate the complexities of SEO with more confidence and less stress, ultimately leading to a more robust and effective online presence.5. Does a Double Slash in URLs Affect Your SEO? - Google's Gary Illyes addressed a common query: does a double forward slash in a URL affect a website's SEO? Double forward slashes in URLs often result from coding issues in the CMS (Content Management System) or the .htaccess file. This can lead to the creation of duplicate webpages that differ only in their URL structure. Resolving this issue isn't as simple as rewriting the URL to remove the extra slash; the root cause must be identified and corrected.Gary Illyes clarified that from a technical SEO perspective, having double slashes in a URL is not problematic. According to RFC 3986, section 3, a forward slash is a standard separator in URLs and can appear multiple times, even consecutively. However, from a usability standpoint, double slashes are not ideal. They could potentially confuse users and some web crawlers.The usability of a website is crucial because it can affect user satisfaction and, indirectly, the site's popularity and visibility. If a site is difficult to navigate or understand, it may deter users and reduce the likelihood of being recommended or linked to by other sites. Similarly, anything that causes confusion for web crawlers can directly impact SEO. It's essential for a site to be easily crawlable and understandable.To avoid potential issues: Regularly check your website for double slashes and other URL anomalies. Consult with an htaccess expert or a developer to identify and fix the source of the problem. Use tools like Screaming Frog to pinpoint where the double forward slash issue starts, providing clues to the underlying technical issue. For small business owners, understanding and addressing these seemingly minor details can make a significant difference in SEO performance. While Google may be able to navigate through such issues, relying on this is not a best practice. Proactively managing your site's technical health ensures a better user experience and optimizes your site for search engines.6. DBAs Now Accepted for Advertiser Verification! - Google Ads has made a change to its Advertiser Verification Program and now accepts DBAs (Doing Business As) or trade names for verification. This development is particularly important for small business owners who often operate under trade names or DBAs.Previously, the Google Ads Advertiser Verification Program required advertisers to use their legal business names for verification. This posed a challenge for many businesses that operate under a DBA or a trade name different from their legal name. With this update, Google Ads acknowledges the common practice of using DBAs and adapts its verification process accordingly.Implications for Business Owners Broader Accessibility: This change makes the verification process more accessible to a wider range of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that commonly use DBAs. Brand Consistency: Businesses can now maintain brand consistency across their advertising and legal documentation. This is crucial for brand recognition and trust among consumers. Simplified Verification Process: The inclusion of DBAs simplifies the verification process for many businesses, reducing the administrative burden and potential confusion. To be verified under a DBA or trade name, the legal document submitted for verification must include both the legal name and the DBA/trade name. This ensures that Google can accurately associate the trade name with the legal entity behind it.7. Reservation Campaigns in YouTube Ads - YouTube/Google Ads has simplified the process of setting up reservation video campaigns, a type of advertising that offers fixed-rate impressions, ideal for brand awareness and product promotions.Reservation campaigns are a form of advertising where ad placements are purchased in advance at a fixed rate, typically on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis. Unlike auction-based ads, where placements are bid on in real-time, reservation campaigns guarantee ad placement, making them ideal for high-impact advertising and ensuring visibility for crucial campaigns.Key Features of the New System Self-Service Options: Advertisers can now easily set up reservation video campaigns through Google Ads, streamlining the process of buying high-visibility ad placements like YouTube Select lineups and Masthead. Enhanced Targeting Options: The update includes advanced targeting capabilities, such as YouTube Select topic and interest-based targeting, along with demographic targeting, allowing advertisers to reach their desired audience more precisely. Access to Premier Content: Advertisers gain access to prominent placements like the YouTube Masthead and premier content via YouTube Select, ensuring a broader audience reach. Diverse Ad Formats: The system offers various ad formats, including non-skippable in-stream ads and bumper ads, catering to different campaign needs and audience preferences. Benefits for Business Owners Greater Control and Visibility: With fixed-rate impressions and guaranteed placements, reservation campaigns offer more control over ad impressions and higher visibility for your brand. Targeted Reach: The expanded targeting options enable businesses to tailor their campaigns more effectively, reaching the right audience with relevant content. Efficiency and Flexibility: The streamlined process saves time and effort, allowing businesses to focus more on the creative aspects and strategy of their campaigns. For small business owners, Google's update to reservation video campaigns on YouTube simplifies the process of creating impactful brand awareness and product promotion campaigns, leveraging YouTube's vast audience. Familiarizing yourself with this new system and aligning your campaigns with Google's policies will be key to maximizing your brand's exposure on one of the world's most popular video platforms.

Episode 191 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Dec 11-15, 2023.1. Google Reiterates: Domain Age Does Not Impact Search Rankings - In a recent discussion, Google's John Mueller addressed a long-standing question in the SEO community: Does the age of a domain name impact Google search rankings? This topic, often debated among SEO professionals, has been clarified by Mueller, providing valuable insights for business owners looking to understand the nuances of search engine optimization.Key Insights from the Discussion: Domain Age and Rankings: Mueller stated that the age of a domain name does not impact Google search rankings. This clarification dispels a common belief among SEOs that older domain names correlate with top rankings. Misinterpretation of Google's Patent: The misconception about domain age as a ranking factor may have originated from a misreading of a Google patent titled "Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data." The patent, however, focuses on identifying spam sites using domain-related information, not on boosting the rankings of legitimate domains. The Role of Domain Data: The patent mentions using domain data to catch throwaway domains used by spammers. It indicates that valuable, legitimate domains are often paid for several years in advance, unlike spam domains. However, this information is used to predict the legitimacy of a domain for spam detection, not for ranking purposes. This clarification from Google means that focusing on the age of your domain as a ranking strategy is misguided and highlights the importance of accurate information in the SEO industry. Instead, attention should be directed towards creating high-quality, relevant content and optimizing your website for a better user experience. It is a reminder to always seek clarity and accuracy in SEO strategies, ensuring that efforts are directed towards genuinely effective methods.2. Google Chrome: Phasing Out Third-Party Cookies for Enhanced Privacy - On January 4, 2024, Google will begin testing a new feature that restricts third-party cookies by default in Chrome, impacting 1% of users globally. This rollout is part of Google's broader initiative to phase out third-party cookies entirely by the second half of 2024, marking a significant shift in online privacy and digital advertising practices.Key Aspects of Google's Update: Testing of Tracking Protection: The new tracking protection tool will be rolled out to a small percentage of Chrome users, starting with 1% globally. This feature is designed to limit third-party cookies, which have been a fundamental part of the web for nearly three decades. Impact on Websites and Advertisers: Websites that depend on third-party cookies for advertising or other purposes might face challenges due to this rollout. It's crucial for site owners to prepare in advance for a web without third-party cookies. Google's Privacy Sandbox Initiative: This initiative aims to develop technology that safeguards online privacy while providing tools for successful digital businesses. The primary objectives are to phase out third-party cookies and reduce cross-site tracking, maintaining free online content and services. For small business owners, especially those relying on digital advertising, this update signals a need to adapt to new privacy-focused online practices. The phasing out of third-party cookies will require a shift in how businesses target and reach their audiences online. Preparing for these changes is essential to ensure continued effectiveness in digital marketing strategies.3. Google's Local Search Algorithm Update: Prioritizing Open Businesses - On December 16, 2023, Google announced an update to its local search ranking algorithm, emphasizing the 'openness' signal for non-navigational queries. This change means that Google now ranks open businesses higher in local search results than those that are closed, particularly during the business's operating hours. This update is a response to the evolving needs of users who are increasingly looking for immediate services or products.Key Aspects of the Update: Strengthened Openness Signal: Google's local search algorithm now considers whether a business is currently open as a more significant factor in ranking for local pack rankings. This change applies to non-navigational queries, where users search for types of services rather than specific brands. Impact on Business Visibility: Businesses that are open at the time of a user's search query are more likely to appear higher in search results. This update benefits businesses that operate 24/7, as they remain visible even when competitors are closed. Advice Against Manipulating Business Hours: Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, advised against changing business hours to appear open 24/7 unless true. This manipulation could lead to penalties or adjustments in the ranking signal in the future. For small business owners, this update underscores the importance of accurately listing business hours on Google. Ensuring your Google Business Profile reflects true open hours can improve your visibility in local search results, especially during your operating hours. This change can significantly impact customer footfall and inquiries, making it crucial for businesses to update their profiles accurately.4. Google Confirms: Publishing Content in Both PDF and HTML Formats is Acceptable - On December 13, 2023, Google's John Mueller clarified a common query regarding the publication of content in both PDF and HTML formats. In a recent AskGooglebot video, Mueller confirmed that it's perfectly fine to publish content in both formats, as Google's systems can index them separately, even if the content is technically a duplicate.Key Insights from John Mueller's Statement: Independent Indexing of PDF and HTML: Google can find and index both PDF and HTML pages separately. This means that even if the content in both formats is the same, they can be shown independently in search results. Managing Duplicates: If Google's systems identify the content as duplicates, they usually defer to the HTML page version. However, website owners have control over this through various methods like using a 'noindex' HTTP header or robots meta tag to block indexing of one format, or using the 'rel=canonical' link element to indicate a preference. Practical Use Cases: Mueller highlighted that the choice of format often depends on what the audience prefers or requires. For example, restaurant menus are best suited as HTML pages for mobile viewing, while forms or guidebooks might be more practical in PDF format. Google's stance on publishing content in both PDF and HTML formats offers businesses an opportunity to diversify their content strategy. By understanding how Google indexes and handles these formats, business owners can make informed decisions about content publication, ensuring their information reaches the audience effectively in their preferred format.5. Google Takes Action Against Parasite SEO - On December 11, 2023, Google's Search Liaison Danny Sullivan announced that the search company has taken steps to address the issue of 'parasite SEO.' This term refers to the practice of leveraging high-authority third-party websites to rank content that otherwise wouldn't perform well in search results. Sullivan indicated that while the specific change related to the upcoming helpful content update isn't live yet, Google has implemented other measures to combat this problem.Key Points from Google's Announcement: Addressing Third-Party Content Abuse: Google has enhanced its systems to better handle third-party content that falls under the category of parasite SEO. This includes content hosted on reputable sites but created primarily for SEO manipulation. Ongoing Efforts: Sullivan emphasized that Google will continue to refine its approach to dealing with such issues, indicating an ongoing commitment to maintaining the integrity of search results. Advice for Content Creators: The advice given by Google regarding third-party content remains relevant. Creators are encouraged to focus on producing helpful, people-first content to be recognized as valuable by Google's algorithms. Impact on Business Owners: This development is particularly important for small business owners who rely on organic search traffic. Understanding and adhering to Google's guidelines is crucial for maintaining visibility and credibility in search results. Google's proactive steps to address parasite SEO highlight the importance of ethical SEO practices. For business owners, this serves as a reminder to focus on creating high-quality, user-centric content rather than resorting to manipulative tactics. Staying informed about these changes and aligning with Google's guidelines is key to achieving long-term success in search engine rankings.6. Googlebot Crawling Experiment: Surprising Insights for Website Owners - On December 14, 2023, an intriguing experiment conducted by technical SEO expert Kristina Azarenko revealed the impact of disabling Googlebot from crawling a website. This experiment, which ran from October 5 to November 7, offers valuable insights for business owners about the importance of Googlebot crawling and its effects on website performance.Key Findings from the Experiment: Impact on Favicon and Video Search Results: The website's favicon was removed from Google search results, and video search results took a significant hit, which still hadn't recovered post-experiment. Stability and Volatility in Search Positions: While positions remained relatively stable, there was slightly more volatility in Canada. Slight Decrease in Traffic: The website only saw a slight decrease in traffic during the experiment. Increase in Reported Indexed Pages: Despite pages having 'noindex' meta robots tags, they ended up being indexed because Google couldn't crawl the site to see those tags. Multiple Alerts in Google Search Console (GSC): The site received multiple alerts in GSC, such as 'indexed though blocked by robots.txt' and 'blocked by robots.txt.' This experiment highlights the critical role of Googlebot in maintaining and updating a website's presence in search results. For business owners, it underscores the importance of ensuring that Googlebot can crawl their site effectively. Any impediments to crawling can lead to unexpected issues, such as outdated information in search results or the indexing of unintended pages.7. Google Ads Unveils Expanded Video Reach Campaigns - On December 12, 2023, Google Ads announced a significant enhancement to Video Reach Campaigns (VRC), offering businesses more formats to maximize their brand awareness on YouTube. This update reflects the evolving ways people engage with YouTube, from mobile Shorts to TV screen browsing, presenting brands with diverse opportunities to connect with their audience.Key Features of the Update: Expanded Video Formats: Video Reach Campaigns now include the ability to scale video creatives to in-feed and Shorts, in addition to in-stream ads. This expansion allows advertisers to reach viewers across various YouTube formats, increasing the potential for brand exposure. AI-Powered Efficiency: Leveraging Google's AI, multiformat ads in VRC deliver enhanced reach and efficiency. Testing has shown that campaigns opting into all three inventory types (in-feed, in-stream, and Shorts) achieved an average of 54% more reach at 42% lower CPM (Cost Per Mille) compared to in-stream-only campaigns. Case Study - Bayer's Midol Campaign: Bayer utilized VRC for their Midol multi symptom relief campaign, opting into in-feed, in-stream, and Shorts ads. A head-to-head test against in-stream-only VRC revealed that the multiformat approach delivered 30% more reach at a 45% lower CPM.8. Google Ads Enhances Business Operation Verification Process - On December 12, 2023, Google Ads announced the rollout of a comprehensive guide to assist businesses in completing their Business Operation Verification. This new resource aims to clarify the verification process, providing detailed explanations and examples to help advertisers understand and successfully navigate the verification requirements.Key Features of the Update: Step-by-Step Guide: The guide offers a clear, step-by-step explanation of the Business Operation Verification process, including reasons for verification failure and example scenarios where verification might be required. Easy Accessibility: The guide is accessible through the billing icon in Google Ads and via in-account prompts, ensuring that advertisers can easily find and use the resource. Clarification on Verification Requirements: The document outlines specific scenarios and reasons why a business might need to undergo verification, helping advertisers to better prepare and complete the process efficiently. Google's Commitment to Transparency: This update reflects Google's ongoing efforts to maintain a secure and transparent advertising environment. By providing additional information to advertisers, Google aims to enhance the overall experience and effectiveness of the advertiser verification program. Google Ads' introduction of a detailed guide for Business Operation Verification is a proactive step towards supporting advertisers in meeting compliance standards. For business owners, this resource is a valuable tool in optimizing their advertising efforts and maintaining a credible presence on Google's platform.9. Meta's Threads App Embraces Decentralization with ActivityPub Integration - On December 13, 2023, Meta announced a significant step towards decentralization and interoperability for its Threads app by integrating with ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking protocol. This move allows Threads content and profiles to be accessible via other Fediverse-based apps, marking a notable shift in Meta's approach to social media.Key Aspects of Meta's Integration with ActivityPub: Threads Content Viewable on Mastodon: The integration enables Threads content to be viewable on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-based systems, effectively plugging Threads into the Fediverse concept. The Fediverse Concept: The Fediverse is a collection of independent, federated servers working together to facilitate open social media access. It aims to reduce centralized control, allowing each server to establish its own parameters and algorithms. Meta's Shift Towards Decentralization: Historically, Meta has been known for its 'walled garden' approach. This integration represents a significant move towards decentralization, potentially connecting Threads content to a range of tools and platforms that utilize the ActivityPub standard. Interoperability and Data Portability: The integration aligns with Meta's commitment to data portability and control over content. It also facilitates a broader connection into the Mastodon network, expanding Threads' audience reach and engagement. Meta's integration of Threads with ActivityPub is a bold step towards a more open and interconnected social media ecosystem. For business owners, it presents an opportunity to leverage the expanded reach and interoperability offered by this integration, potentially enhancing their social media strategy and audience engagement.

Episode 190 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Dec 4-8, 2023.1. Google Ads Responds: Temporary Opt-Out for Search Partner Network in PMax Campaigns - Last week in Ep 189, I highlighted the study by Adalytics that revealed Google search ads were appearing on websites violating Google's own publisher policies. This revelation raised significant concerns among advertisers about the placement of their ads. It seems Google has taken note of these concerns, as they have now introduced a temporary opt-out feature for advertisers in Performance Max (PMax) and Universal App campaigns, allowing them to avoid placements in the Search Partner Network (SPN). This move, unprecedented in the realm of automated campaigns, marks a significant shift in Google's advertising approach.Key Points from the Update: Temporary Opt-Out for SPN: Advertisers can now temporarily opt out of placing their ads on SPN for all campaign types, including PMax and App campaigns. This change, effective until March 1st, is a direct response to the concerns raised by the Adalytics report. Google's Response to the Report: While Google has contested the methodology and conclusions of the Adalytics report, they acknowledge the importance of improving their products to meet partner needs. Opt-Out Process: The opt-out feature is currently gated and requires a Google representative to enable it for advertisers. This process is being developed for wider accessibility. For small business owners using Google PMax Ads, this update is crucial. It offers more control over ad placements, ensuring that ads are displayed in contexts that align with brand values and reach the intended audience. The ability to opt out of SPN in PMax campaigns allows for more targeted advertising and potentially better ROI. Google's introduction of a temporary opt-out feature for SPN in PMax campaigns is a significant response to  concerns about ad placements. This development serves as a crucial reminder for business owners: always check your ad placements and don't blindly trust any ad platform. Regularly verifying where your ads are displayed is essential. Failing to do so could mean unintentionally leaving money on the table or giving more to Google than necessary. Trust but verify – it's a key principle in digital advertising to ensure your investments are yielding the best possible returns.2. Google's 3 Essential Tips for Technical Troubleshooting - Google has shared insights for diagnosing and resolving technical SEO issues that can affect a website's indexing and ranking. This guidance is particularly crucial for business owners who may not have an in-depth understanding of SEO but want to ensure their website performs optimally in search results.Google's Three Key Tips for Technical SEO Troubleshooting:Check if the Page is Indexed or Indexable: Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool to determine if a page is indexed and indexable. This tool provides information on whether a page is indexed and, if not, offers suggestions for why Google might be having trouble indexing it. It also shows the last crawl date, indicating Google's interest in the page.Identify Duplicate Content and Canonical Issues: Google advises checking if a page is being ignored as a duplicate and if another page is selected as the canonical URL. While it might not be the canonical URL you expected, if the content is indexed, it can still appear in search results. This is generally acceptable and not a cause for concern.Review Rendered HTML for Code-Related Issues: Inspecting the rendered HTML, which shows the HTML after all JavaScript has been executed, is crucial. This can reveal issues related to JavaScript or other technical aspects that might not be visible in the source code HTML. Google suggests using Search Console and Chrome DevTools to view the rendered HTML.Bonus Tip: Google cautioned against using the cache or site:search operator for any kind of diagnostic purposes. For example, a page can be indexed but not show up in a site:search. The site search operator, just like all the other site operators, is completely disconnected from the search index. This has always been the case, even when there was a site search operator for showing backlinks.Understanding and addressing technical SEO issues is vital for ensuring your website is properly indexed and ranked by search engines. By following Google's tips, you can identify and fix problems that might be hindering your website's performance. This can lead to better visibility in search results, potentially driving more traffic and customers to your business. Regularly checking for indexing issues, understanding duplicate content and canonicalization, and reviewing rendered HTML are key steps in maintaining a healthy and search-friendly website.3. Google Ads Gambling and Games Advertising Policy Update - Google Ads is updating its policy regarding gambling and games advertising, effective from December 12. This change is particularly relevant for businesses in the sports betting and lottery sectors, as it opens new advertising opportunities in specific regions.Key Changes in Google Ads Policy: Starting December 12, Google will begin accepting and running ads from state-approved entities for sports betting in Vermont and lottery couriers in Arkansas, Montana, New Jersey, and New York. This marks a significant expansion of the types of gambling-related ads that can be run through Google Ads. To be eligible to promote these ads, advertisers must apply for certification. This process involves filling out an online gambling application form in the Google Ads Help Center, providing all requested information to prevent delays. Different forms are available for privately-licensed operators, state-run entities, and social casino game operators. 4. Google's Cryptocurrency Advertising Policy Update - Google has announced significant changes to its cryptocurrency advertising policy, set to take effect on January 29, 2024. This update is particularly relevant for businesses involved in advertising cryptocurrency coin trusts, a type of financial product that allows investors to trade shares in trusts holding large amounts of digital currency. These trusts offer equity in cryptocurrencies without direct ownership and can diversify investment portfolios.Key Aspects of the Policy Update: Scope and Requirements: Advertisers targeting the United States will be able to promote these products and services, provided they comply with specific policies and obtain certification from Google. Global Application: The updated policy is not limited to the United States but will apply globally to all accounts advertising cryptocurrency coin trusts. Compliance with Local Laws: Advertisers must comply with local laws in the areas where the ads are targeted. This is a crucial aspect of the policy, emphasizing the need for advertisers to be aware of and adhere to regional regulations. Warning Before Suspension: In case of policy violations, Google will first issue a warning, giving advertisers at least seven days to rectify non-compliance issues before imposing an account suspension. This approach provides an opportunity for advertisers to address any issues and align with the revised guidelines. 5. Google's Criteria for Video Content in Search Results - Google has updated its requirements for video search results, particularly affecting the "Video Mode" feature in Google Search. This significant change mandates that videos must be the main content of a webpage to be featured in search results and Video Mode.Video Mode is a feature in Google Search that displays under the video tab. It specifically showcases videos that are the central element of their respective web pages. This mode is designed to provide users with direct access to video content, ensuring that the videos they find are the primary focus of the pages they visit.Key Aspects of the Update: Stricter Video Requirements: Google now requires that for a video to show up in search results and Video Mode, it must be the primary content of the page. This means pages where videos are supplementary to text or other content will not be featured in these search results. Impact on Video Mode: With this update, Video Mode will only show videos that are the main focus of their respective pages, enhancing the user experience by directing them to pages where the video is the central element. Examples of Non-Primary Video Content: Google provided examples of pages where videos are not the primary focus, such as blog posts with complementary videos, product detail pages with additional videos, and video category pages listing multiple videos of equal prominence. 6. Google Analytics 4 Audiences Now Integrated with Google Ads - Google has made a significant update to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), integrating GA4 audiences directly with Google Ads. This update, announced on December 6, 2023, allows advertisers to create and apply GA4 audiences, including predictive audiences, within Google Ads. This integration streamlines the process of audience creation and application, enhancing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.Key Features of the Update: Direct Integration with Google Ads: Advertisers can now build analytics audiences, including predictive audiences, using the Audience Manager feature in Google Ads. This integration simplifies the audience creation process and makes it more efficient. Predictive Audiences: A predictive audience is defined by at least one condition related to a predictive metric. For example, an audience named "likely 7-day purchasers" consists of users predicted to purchase in the next 7 days. This feature allows for more targeted and effective advertising. 7. Threads Expands Keyword Search and Content Ranking Insights - Threads, the X (formerly Twitter) alternative social media platform, has recently made two significant updates. On November 30, 2023, Threads expanded its keyword search functionality to all regions, enhancing users' ability to find relevant content. Additionally, Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri provided insights into Threads' content ranking approach, emphasizing a mindful strategy to avoid the pitfalls of spammy tactics and divisive content.Key Updates from Threads: Expanded Keyword Search: Initially tested in selected regions, Threads' keyword search is now available globally. This feature allows users to search for posts using specific terms, including hashtagged and topic-tagged content. The expansion supports all languages available in the app, with more search enhancements promised soon. Mindful Approach to Tags and Search: Threads is cautious about adding tags and search features due to their potential to amplify spam and irrelevant content. To mitigate this, users can only add one topic tag per post, and hashtag use is not straightforwardly enabled. This approach aligns with Meta's vision for Threads as a more positive public conversation app. Content Ranking Insights from Adam Mosseri: Mosseri explained that Threads aims to avoid the negatives of engagement-focused platforms, which often amplify divisive content. Threads' content ranking strategy is designed to foster healthier, more engaging conversations without over-promising reach and engagement to news outlets.

Episode 189 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Nov 27-Dec 1, 2023.1. Google Ads Controversy: Ad Placements on Questionable Websites - A recent study by Adalytics has sparked a debate over the ethical and transparency issues surrounding Google's Search Partner Network (GSP). The report found that Google search ads appeared on websites that violate Google's publisher policies, raising significant concerns for advertisers about where their ads are being displayed.Key Points from the Study: Violation of Publisher Policies: The study discovered Google search ads on websites that don't adhere to Google's publisher policies. These policies prohibit ads from being served alongside illegal content, hate speech, misinformation, and more. Yet, ads were found on far-leaning political websites and other questionable domains. Google Search Partner Network: The GSP is a collection of search-related websites and apps where Google ads can appear. The network, established in 2003, aims to expand Google's ad reach beyond its search engine. However, the lack of transparency about the websites included in this network is a major concern. Compromising Ad Placements: Advertisers reported finding their ads on websites they had previously blocked. This raises questions about the effectiveness of Google Ads' excluded placements setting and the overall control advertisers have over their ad placements. Ethical and Transparency Issues: The report highlights the need for greater transparency and trust in Google's ad network. The lack of clarity about the GSP's members and the discovery of ads on sanctioned websites in countries like Iran and Russia pose ethical dilemmas for advertisers. What Can Advertisers Do? Opt-Out of GSP: Advertisers can manually opt out of the GSP for each search campaign to avoid their ads appearing on these networks. Review Content Suitability Settings: Adjusting these settings, especially on YouTube or display campaigns, can help control where ads are shown. Check Display Campaign Placements: Reviewing where ads are shown in display campaigns can provide insights into potentially questionable or poor-performing websites. Use Advanced Settings for Additional Exclusions: Advertisers can exclude sensitive content types, themes, keywords, websites, apps, YouTube channels, or videos to gain more control over ad placements. This report underscores the importance for business owners of being vigilant about where their ads are displayed. It's crucial to regularly review and adjust ad settings to ensure that your brand's values align with the platforms where your ads are shown. As digital marketing continues to evolve, ethical considerations and transparency in ad placements remain key concerns for advertisers.2. Google Updates Policy for for Consumer Finance Ads - Google has updated its personalized ads policy in February 2024, and introduced new limitations on personalized advertising related to consumer financial products and services. This policy change is particularly important for businesses in the consumer finance sector, including those offering credit cards, loans, banking services, and debt management products.Understanding the Policy Update: Scope of the Update: The updated policy will prohibit targeting audiences based on sensitive interest categories like gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code in the United States and Canada for consumer finance in personalized ads. Effective Date: The policy enforcement will begin on February 28, 2024, and is expected to ramp up to full enforcement over approximately six weeks. Warning Before Suspension: Violations of this policy will not lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued at least seven days before any suspension of an account. Implications for Business Owners: Review Advertising Strategies: Businesses in the consumer finance sector need to review their advertising strategies on Google to ensure compliance with the new policy. This includes revising targeting methods and ad content. Prepare for Changes: With the policy taking effect in February 2024, businesses have time to adjust their campaigns and avoid potential disruptions. Understand the Impact: The policy change underscores the importance of ethical advertising practices, especially in sensitive sectors like consumer finance. It's crucial for businesses to understand how these changes affect their digital marketing efforts. 3. Google's November 2023 Core Update Rollout Complete - Google has finalized its November 2023 Core Update, marking the fourth major algorithm update of the year. This update, which began on November 2, 2023, concluded on November 28, 2023, after 26 days. It followed closely on the heels of the October 2023 Core Update, which itself had significant impacts on search rankings.The November Core Update was notable for the breadth of its impact, affecting a wide range of sites and causing considerable ranking volatility. Many SEOs reported substantial changes in site rankings from the outset of the update.Adding to the complexity, the November 2023 Reviews Update, which began on November 8, overlapped with the Core Update. This meant that websites experienced the effects of two significant updates simultaneously, although the impacts of each were distinct.Understanding Google's algorithm updates is crucial for businesses, as these updates can impact how your site performs in search results. Any change in rankings from a core update, positive or negative, can impact your organic traffic, conversions, and revenue. Knowing when Google makes these updates enables site owners to know if traffic fluctuations resulted from a change to the site or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm.4. Google Search Expands Organization Markup: Enhancing Business Visibility - Google has recently updated its organization markup in Google Search, now supporting additional fields such as name, address, contact information, and various business identifiers. This expansion is a significant development for business owners, as it allows for more comprehensive representation of their organizations in Google's search results.What's New in the Update: Expanded Fields: The updated organization structured data now includes fields for name, alternate name, legal name, description, sameAs, address, phone numbers, email, number of employees, founding date, DUNS, NAICS, tax ID, and other ID numbers. This is in addition to the previously supported logo and URL structured data fields. Enhanced Visibility: These new fields can be used in Google Search knowledge panels and other visual elements, such as attribution. This means that when someone searches for your business, Google can display a rich snippet with detailed information about your organization, making it easier for potential customers to find and contact you. Updated Reporting: Google Search Console reports have been updated to support validation of these new fields. The rich results testing tool has also been updated, allowing you to test your organization's structured data and confirm its validity instantly. Google's expansion of the organization markup in search results is a valuable opportunity for business owners to improve their online visibility and provide users with more detailed information about their organizations. By effectively utilizing these new structured data fields, businesses can enhance their search presence, improve user experience, and potentially increase customer engagement.5. Google Adds Support for Discussion Forums and Profile Pages - Google has announced the introduction of structured data for profile pages and discussion forums, a significant update for Google Search. This new markup, along with corresponding reports in Search Console, is designed to improve the accuracy and completeness of search results, particularly for content from social media platforms, forums, and online communities.Key Features of the Update: Profile Page Markup: This is intended for sites where creators (individuals or organizations) share firsthand perspectives. It helps Google Search better identify information about the creator, such as their name, social handle, profile photo, follower count, and the popularity of their content. This markup is utilized in Google Search features like 'Perspectives' and 'Discussions and Forums.' Discussion Forum Posting Markup: Aimed at forum-style sites where people share firsthand perspectives, this markup helps Google Search better identify forum sites and online discussions. Forums with this markup are considered for content appearance in 'Perspectives' and 'Discussions and Forums' features. QA Markup vs. Forum Markup: For sites already using QA markup for question-and-answer themed user forums, Google has updated the QA structured data documentation to align with the new discussion forum guidelines. Sites should use the markup that best suits their content structure. Search Console Reports: To monitor discussion threads and profile page markup issues, Google is launching rich result reports in Search Console. These reports will show errors, warnings, and valid items related to marked-up pages. Additionally, the rich results test tool supports both features to help test and validate markup. For business owners, especially those with a strong online community presence or who engage in forum-style content, this update is crucial. Implementing the new structured data will enhance your content's visibility and accuracy in Google Search, potentially driving more traffic to your site. It's an opportunity to ensure that Google accurately represents your brand and content in search results.6. TikTok Creative Cards : Will It Boost Content Engagement? - TikTok has launched a new feature called Creative Cards, designed to help small businesses and content creators enhance engagement, relevance, and relatability in their posts. This so-called innovative tool offers data-backed prompts, providing tips on crafting content that resonates more effectively with the TikTok audience.Key Features of TikTok Creative Cards: Diverse Categories: The cards are divided into five categories: Community, Edutainment, Creator Tools, Trends, and Storytelling. Each category offers unique insights tailored to different aspects of content creation. Community Insights: These insights assist creators in engaging their audience actively, building customer loyalty through integrating customer testimonials and content based on user comments. Edutainment Tips: This category includes creative ways to showcase products, share lessons, and introduce offers, blending education with entertainment. Creator Tools: From storytelling techniques to incorporating music and captions, these cards explore various ways to boost views and enhance likability. Trends and Storytelling: The cards help creators brainstorm ideas for participating in trending memes and hashtags and offer different approaches to telling their business's journey and challenges. Why It Matters for Business Owners: Valuable for New and Experienced Creators: Creative Cards are particularly valuable for brands new to TikTok or those seeking inspiration, especially during the crucial holiday season. Enhanced Content Strategy: With more than 100 digital cards for ideas, businesses can refine their content strategy to better engage with the TikTok audience. Access and Usage: To use this feature, content creators need to register for access. Once granted, they can scroll through the digital cards for ideas, breaking down their content creation needs by category. 7. Meta Releases Q5 Strategy Guide For Post-Holiday Marketing - Meta's recently released a Q5 marketing guide that offers a strategic approach to maximizing post-holiday marketing budgets. This period, known as Q5, spans from late December to mid-January and is often overlooked by marketers. However, according to Meta's guide, this period presents a unique opportunity for businesses to capitalize on continued consumer shopping behavior.Key Insights from Meta's Q5 Marketing Guide:Extended Shopping Season: A YouGov survey commissioned by Meta found that 41% of holiday shoppers continue their shopping past the holidays into January. This indicates a sustained consumer interest in purchasing even after the main holiday season.Lower Media Costs: Global data from January 2023 shows that CPM (Cost Per Mille) rates were on average 15% lower than their levels on October 1st. This suggests that advertising during Q5 can be more cost-effective compared to the peak holiday season.Five Best Practices for Q5 Marketing: The guide outlines crucial strategies for marketers: Minimize campaign changes to maintain stability. Leverage automation and AI for improved ad performance. Diversify creatives to appeal to a broader audience. Use data to grow the lifetime value of customers. Always validate results through consistent measurement.

Episode 188 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Nov 20-24, 2023.1. Overlooked Details That Make or Break Your SEO - Search engines look at many factors when determining how to rank web pages in search results. While flashy new SEO trends come and go, focusing on foundational website quality and technical basics tends to pay off more in the long run. Google's John Mueller, Martin Splitt, and Gary Illyes recently delved into the concept of site quality in a podcast, offering valuable insights for business owners and digital marketers. Their discussion demystifies site quality, emphasizing its simplicity and practicality. Site Quality is Not Complex: The Google experts encourage reading site quality documentation, asserting that understanding and achieving site quality is not as complicated as it may seem. Gary Illyes remarks, "It's not rocket science," suggesting that the basics of site quality are accessible to everyone. No Specific Tools for Site Quality: Unlike technical issues, there are no direct tools to measure site quality. Traffic metrics may indicate changes, but they don't pinpoint specific quality issues. This means business owners need to assess their content's effectiveness and relevance themselves. Reframing the Approach: Illyes advises reframing the problem by focusing on whether a page delivers what it promises to users. This user-centric approach is key to improving site quality. It's about creating content that helps users achieve their goals. Quality in Terms of Value Addition: Adding value is crucial for site quality. In competitive search queries, it's not enough to be relevant; your content must offer something unique and valuable that stands out from what's already available. Mueller explains that simply replicating what's in the search results doesn't add value. Instead, aim for content that exceeds the existing baseline. Breaking into Competitive SERPs: Illyes suggests an indirect approach to compete in tough SERPs. Choose realistic battles and focus on areas where you can genuinely offer something different and better. In summary, Google's experts highlight the importance of user-focused content, uniqueness, and value addition in achieving site quality. For business owners, this means focusing on creating content that genuinely helps users and offers something beyond what's already out there.2. Master the SEO Basics: Google's Advice for Effective Website Optimization - In the ever-evolving world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it's easy to get caught up in the latest trends and advanced tactics. However, Google's Search Relations team, featuring Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes, and John Mueller, emphasized the importance of mastering basic technical SEO issues first. This advice is particularly relevant for business owners who might not be deeply versed in the intricacies of SEO.Technical SEO involves optimizing the architecture and infrastructure of a website to enhance its crawling and indexing by search engines. This is crucial because, no matter how innovative your SEO strategies are, if search engines like Google can't properly crawl or render your site, your efforts won't yield the desired results. Illyes highlights the importance of ensuring that your content is accessible and useful, as these are key factors that Google considers.Another significant point discussed is the common misconception that high traffic automatically means high-quality pages. Mueller advises looking beyond just traffic metrics and focusing on user engagement and satisfaction. These are more accurate indicators of a page's usefulness and quality. It's important to focus on relevant queries and track lower-level pages to better understand a site's performance.The key to creating high-quality content is to focus on what helps people achieve their goals when they visit your page. This could mean providing comprehensive answers to common questions, solving problems, or sharing engaging stories. Illyes suggests that quality might be simpler than most think – it's about writing content that genuinely helps your audience.For business owners, the takeaway is clear: before diving into complex SEO strategies, ensure that your website's technical foundation is solid. Also, prioritize creating content that is not just high in volume but high in value to your audience. By focusing on these areas, you can significantly improve your website's SEO performance.3. Rethinking SEO Success: Beyond Traffic Metrics - In episode 66 of Google's "Search Off the Record" podcast, Google's John Mueller and Martin Splitt discussed a crucial aspect of SEO: the real value of traffic metrics. The conversation highlighted a common misconception in the SEO community—equating high traffic with success. While many SEO professionals boast about traffic increases, Mueller and Splitt emphasized the importance of focusing on more meaningful goals, like conversions and business impact.The podcast shed light on the tendency of SEOs to prioritize traffic statistics over Return on Investment (ROI) or the actual impact on earnings. Mueller speculated that this might be due to the delayed effects of SEO efforts on tangible business results. He pointed out that while traffic data is useful, it can be misleading if not analyzed in the context of its relevance and contribution to business goals.The discussion also touched on the different types of traffic and their varying values. Not all traffic contributes equally to sales or brand building; some may be irrelevant or non-converting. Therefore, understanding the nature of the traffic and its actual impact on sales or business growth is crucial.Mueller and Splitt's conversation serves as a reminder for SEO professionals to align their strategies with broader business objectives, rather than just chasing traffic numbers. It calls for a more nuanced approach to SEO, where the success is measured not just by the quantity of traffic, but by its quality and contribution to the business's bottom line.4. Google Clarifies the SEO Value of 404 Pages - Google recently shed light on the SEO implications of 404 error pages, offering valuable insights for business owners and digital marketers. A 404 error occurs when a page on a website cannot be found. Contrary to common belief, these pages can have a positive impact on a site's SEO if managed correctly.Google's John Mueller explained that 404 pages are a normal part of the web. They signal to search engines that a page no longer exists, which is crucial for maintaining a clean and up-to-date site structure. Importantly, 404 errors do not directly harm a site's overall ranking in search results.For business owners, this means that occasional 404 errors are not a cause for alarm. However, it's important to monitor these errors and ensure they are appropriate. For instance, if a product is no longer available, a 404 page is suitable. But if the page has moved, a 301 redirect to the new location is better for both users and search engines.Understanding the role of 404 pages in SEO is vital for maintaining a healthy website. It's about balancing user experience and search engine signals. Regularly checking for 404 errors and addressing them appropriately can contribute to a more effective online presence.This insight from Google highlights the importance of website maintenance and understanding the nuances of SEO. It's a reminder that not all errors are detrimental and that proper management of these pages can support a site's SEO strategy.5. AI in Content Creation: A Tool, Not a Threat - Google Search Relations team, including Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes, and John Mueller, discussed the role of AI in content creation. They view AI as a valuable aid to human creativity, not a replacement. The team emphasized that AI is excellent for certain tasks but not a catch-all solution. They humorously noted how technology, like Google Plus, can quickly become outdated, highlighting the rapid evolution of tech.The Google team believes AI can be particularly useful for overcoming writer's block or meeting tight deadlines. AI tools can suggest frameworks, phrases, and variations to speed up the writing process. However, they stressed that AI should be used responsibly and as a complement to human creativity, not as a substitute. This perspective encourages a balanced approach to AI in content creation, viewing it as a tool to enhance human efforts rather than overshadow them.Key Takeaways: AI as a Creative Aid: AI is seen as a tool to enhance human creativity, especially useful in overcoming writer's block or accelerating the writing process. Balanced Perspective: The Google team advocates for a responsible use of AI, emphasizing its role as a supplement to human creativity rather than a replacement. Rapid Technological Evolution: The discussion also touches on the fast-paced nature of technology, using Google Plus as an example of how quickly tech can become outdated. 6. Google's Guidance On SEO Tools - Google's John Mueller addressed a query regarding the use of SEO tools for content writing, specifically in the context of a Vietnamese travel agency blog. The question revolved around whether to include Vietnamese accents in keywords, as suggested by an SEO tool, considering the primary audience comprised American and Australian tourists unlikely to use these accents in searches.Mueller's response emphasized the importance of writing in the language of the audience, particularly for headers and body text. He advised not to depend entirely on SEO tools for writing guidance but to conduct independent research. Mueller suggested examining the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) with and without accents (e.g., "quảng binh" vs. "quang binh") to understand better what ranks higher and is more relevant to the target audience.The key takeaway from Mueller's advice is the significance of not relying solely on SEO tools. These tools are based on the current knowledge and trends in SEO, which can be limited and sometimes outdated. They were developed based on what SEOs believed to be effective at the time, such as keyword densities and reciprocal linking strategies, which eventually became less effective.Mueller's guidance underscores the dynamic nature of SEO and the need for writers and marketers to use their judgment and stay updated with current best practices. While SEO tools can provide valuable insights, they should not dictate content creation. Instead, a balance between tool-guided insights and personal research and understanding of the audience should drive content strategy.This advice is particularly relevant for small business owners and digital marketing enthusiasts who aim to create content that resonates with their audience while also performing well in search engines. Understanding the limitations of SEO tools and the importance of audience-centric content can lead to more effective and engaging digital marketing strategies.7. Follower Count: Not a Google Search Ranking Factor - There's a common belief among some digital marketers and business owners that a higher number of followers on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram could positively influence their Google search rankings. This assumption stems from the idea that social signals, such as likes and followers, might be interpreted by Google as indicators of a site's popularity or credibility.Google has explicitly stated that follower counts on social media are not a factor in determining search rankings. This clarification is significant because it helps refocus SEO strategies on more impactful practices. Google's search algorithms are complex and take into account numerous factors, but social media follower counts are not among them.For small business owners and digital marketing enthusiasts, this information is vital. It means that while having a robust social media presence can be beneficial for brand awareness and customer engagement, it does not directly contribute to how well your website ranks in Google searches. Therefore, efforts should be more strategically directed towards proven SEO practices like content quality, website optimization, and building authoritative backlinks.Key Takeaways: Social media is valuable for engagement and brand presence, not for SEO in terms of follower counts. Focus on creating high-quality, relevant content and optimizing your website for a better user experience. Building a strong backlink profile from reputable sources can significantly impact your Google search rankings. Understanding what does and does not impact your website's ranking in search results is key to effective SEO. This clarification from Google serves as a reminder to focus on the core aspects of SEO that genuinely make a difference, rather than misconceptions like the impact of social media follower counts.8. Google to Remove Crawl Rate Tool from Search Console in 2024 - Google has announced that it will be deprecating the Crawl Rate Limiter legacy tool within Google Search Console on January 8, 2024. This decision comes as Google believes the tool has become less useful due to advancements in its crawling logic and the availability of other tools for publishers.The Crawl Rate Limiter allowed website owners to communicate to Google how often to crawl their site. It was particularly useful for sites experiencing server load issues due to frequent crawling by Googlebot. However, Google has improved its crawling algorithms to automatically adjust based on a site's server response. For instance, if a site consistently returns HTTP 500 status codes or if the response time significantly increases, Googlebot will automatically slow down its crawling.Gary Illyes from Google explained that the tool's usefulness has diminished over time. He noted that the tool's effect on crawling speed was slow and it was rarely used. With its removal, Google will set a new minimum crawling speed, which will be comparable to the old crawl rate limits, especially for sites with low search interest.For website owners experiencing issues with Googlebot crawling, Google recommends referring to a specific help document and using a report form to communicate any concerns.As a business owner, it's crucial to stay informed about changes in Google's tools and services, as they can impact your website's visibility and performance. The removal of the Crawl Rate Limiter tool signifies Google's confidence in its automated systems to manage site crawling efficiently. However, it also means that you should be more vigilant about monitoring your site's performance and be ready to use alternative methods to communicate any crawling-related issues to Google.9. Google Removes Key Robots.txt FAQs - Google recently removed its Robots.txt FAQ help document from its search developer documentation. This change has raised questions among webmasters and SEO professionals about the implications for website crawling and indexing.Robots.txt is a file used by websites to communicate with web crawlers about which parts of the site should or should not be processed or scanned. Google's FAQ page on this topic was a valuable resource for understanding how to use this file effectively. Its removal means that some specific guidance and clarifications are no longer directly available from Google.Key Takeaways from the Removed FAQs: A website doesn't necessarily need a Robots.txt file; without it, Googlebot will generally crawl and index the site normally. The Robots.txt file is recommended for controlling crawler traffic to prevent server issues, not for hiding private content. For controlling how individual pages appear in search results, use the Robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header. Changes in the Robots.txt file can take up to a day to be reflected in Google's cache and subsequently affect search results. Blocking Google from crawling a page using Robots.txt doesn't guarantee removal from search results. For explicit blocking, use the 'noindex' tag. As a business owner, it's important to understand that while the specific FAQs are no longer available, the fundamental principles of using Robots.txt remain unchanged. It's crucial to ensure that your website's Robots.txt file is correctly configured to guide search engines effectively. Remember, incorrect or unsupported rules in this file are typically ignored by crawlers, so accuracy is key.The removal of the Robots.txt FAQs by Google underscores the dynamic nature of SEO and the importance of staying informed about best practices. Business owners should consult with SEO professionals or refer to updated resources to ensure their website's Robots.txt file aligns with their digital marketing goals.10. Google Ads to Update Location Asset Requirements: What You Need to Know - Google Ads is set to update its location asset requirements in December. A location asset in Google Ads is a feature that allows advertisers to include specific location details, like addresses and phone numbers, in their ads. This is particularly useful for businesses with physical locations, as it helps potential customers find them easily.The upcoming change aims to clarify which types of location assets are not allowed, helping advertisers better understand the restrictions. The update will specifically address locations that are closed, not recognized by Google, or do not match the business running the ad. Additionally, assets with products or services that do not match the specified location will be disallowed.This update is significant for business owners and digital marketers. Using location assets effectively in ads can significantly boost a business's visibility and conversion potential. However, not adhering to these updated requirements could result in leaving out vital details, potentially harming your return on investment.11. Microsoft Advertising's Last-Minute Shopper Insights - As the holiday shopping season reaches its peak, Microsoft Advertising's Festive Season Marketing Playbook offers valuable insights for advertisers to capitalize on consumer spending. Here's a concise summary: Timing of Revenue Peaks: Despite some advertisers not yet seeing a peak in revenue, historical trends show significant spikes around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, a 3-4% increase in holiday spending in the US is anticipated, potentially reaching up to $966.6 billion. The UK and Germany are also expected to see similar high spending, highlighting the global impact of the season. Shift in Consumer Behavior: A notable trend this year is the increased emphasis on deal-seeking. Over two-thirds of US shoppers are spending more time looking for coupons and deals, especially around the Cyber5 period (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sunday, and Cyber Monday). Advertisers need to adapt to this trend and align their strategies accordingly. The Central Role of Search in Purchasing Decisions: Search remains a crucial component in guiding both online and in-store purchases. It's a pivotal tool for discovering new retailers, conducting pre-purchase research, and comparing prices. For example, Gen X consumers heavily rely on search to find the best prices. In the EMEA region, deal-seekers spend 33% more time searching than average shoppers, offering a significant opportunity for targeted advertising. Post-Cyber5 Opportunities: Search volumes remain high even after the Cyber5 period, presenting a continued opportunity for advertisers. Many holiday clicks and conversions happen during Cyber5 with lower cost per acquisition (CPA), so maintaining active advertising campaigns during this period can yield substantial benefits. Planning for Returns: The post-holiday return period is another critical aspect for businesses. Search volumes for returns peak shortly after Christmas and continue into the new year. Preparing for this influx and adjusting marketing strategies can help mitigate potential losses and maintain customer satisfaction. Strategic Holiday Planning Checklist: Microsoft suggests launching campaigns early, using remarketing and dynamic search ads, emphasizing value messages, leveraging AI for personalized offerings, and utilizing store support for profitable online growth.

There's always news in the world of digital marketing... and today is no different. In this episode of the Digital Marketing Podcast we explore Performance Max search themes and how they can be leveraged for max performance in your campaigns. We also discuss the latest changes to core web vitals and how this will impact your website's performance metrics, as well as the shift in multi-channel marketing strategies. ---- Show notes:  Have feedback on the show? We really would love to hear from you. , tell us what you love and what you think could be better. And, if you are really enjoying the show, please 

Episode 187 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Nov 13-17, 2023.1. Danny Sullivan's Insights on Google's Ranking Misconceptions - In a recent presentation, Google's Danny Sullivan addressed a common misunderstanding in the SEO community regarding how search rankings work. He emphasized that the SEO industry might be misinterpreting Google's guidance and documentation. A key example Sullivan provided was the widespread adoption of author pages and bylines, based on the belief that Google's algorithm prioritizes these elements. However, Sullivan clarified that Google does not specifically look for author pages.The main point of Sullivan's presentation was the gap between Google's communication and the SEO community's interpretation. He acknowledged that Google needs to improve how it conveys its expectations for successful content. Sullivan urged SEO professionals to focus on creating 'people-first' content, emphasizing the importance of trustworthiness and reliability in content, rather than specific elements like author pages.Sullivan also highlighted the challenge in communicating what Google looks for in content. He explained that Google's guidance is often interpreted too literally, leading to misconceptions about the ranking algorithm. For instance, when Google advises assessing a webpage's trustworthiness, it does not mean the algorithm is specifically looking for features like author pages. Instead, it's about evaluating the content broadly for trust factors.The presentation led to a significant shift in how SEOs should approach Google's documentation. Sullivan presented examples of how certain parts of Google's advice are cherry-picked and misinterpreted as direct ranking factors. He encouraged more critical thinking and a closer examination of what is being advised, distinguishing between opinions and actual Google statements.Sullivan concluded by revealing that much of Google's recent update documentation is a reiteration of decades-old advice. The core message has always been about creating helpful, people-first content. The difference now lies in the advanced technology like AI and machine learning, making it plausible that these long-standing principles are integrated into Google's algorithm.P.s: For business owners, this insight from Danny Sullivan is crucial. It suggests a shift from focusing on specific SEO tactics to prioritizing the overall quality and trustworthiness of your content. Understanding that Google values 'people-first' content can guide you in developing a more effective and sustainable SEO strategy, ensuring your website not only ranks well but also genuinely serves your audience's needs.2. GoogleSafety - Google's New Crawler - Google has updated its official list of crawlers, adding details about a previously undocumented and somewhat mysterious crawler. This update is particularly relevant for website owners and digital marketers who need to understand how Google interacts with their sites.Understanding Crawlers: Crawlers, also known as bots or spiders, are tools used by search engines like Google to collect information from websites. This process is crucial for indexing and ranking websites in search results. There are different types of crawlers, each serving a specific purpose. Common Crawlers: These are primarily used for indexing various types of content. Some are also employed for search testing tools, internal Google product team use, and AI-related crawling. User-Triggered Fetchers: Triggered by user actions, these bots are used for tasks like fetching feeds or site verification. Special-Case Crawlers: These are used for unique purposes, such as mobile ads, webpage quality checks, or push notification messages via Google APIs. They do not follow the global user agent directives in robots.txt marked with an asterisk. The GoogleSafety Crawler: The newly documented crawler is known as the "GoogleSafety" user agent. It plays a critical role in Google's process of identifying malware and is unique among special-case crawlers. Unlike others, the GoogleSafety crawler completely ignores all robots.txt directives. Its primary function is to crawl for malware in publicly posted links on Google properties. The full agent string for this crawler is "GoogleSafety."3. Google's Hidden Gems Ranking System - Google has introduced the "Hidden Gems" ranking system, a significant update aimed at promoting authentic content buried within forums, social media, and blog posts. This update is distinct from the Helpful Content Update and has been part of Google's core updates for a few months. The Hidden Gems algorithm is designed to identify content that offers personal insights and experiences, which might have been challenging to find in search results previously.The Hidden Gems update is not a classification system but rather a method to highlight content perceived as especially helpful. This content often resides in unexpected places, such as comments in forum threads, posts on lesser-known blogs, or articles with unique expertise on a topic. Google's approach with this update is to make these valuable pieces of content more accessible to users.Initially, there was some confusion about whether this update was live and its relation to the Helpful Content Update. However, Brad Kellett, Senior Director on Google Search Product and Engineering, clarified that Hidden Gems is its own algorithm and ranking system, separate from the Helpful Content Update. This initiative is part of a series of ongoing updates, not just a single change.4. Google Search Console Introduces New Robots.txt Report - Google has announced a significant update to its Search Console with the introduction of a new robots.txt report. This new feature replaces the older robots.txt tester tool. The report is designed to provide webmasters with detailed insights into the robots.txt files found for the top 20 hosts on their site. It includes information about the last time these files were crawled by Google and highlights any warnings or errors encountered during the process.This update is particularly important for business owners and digital marketers who rely on Google Search Console to monitor and optimize their website's performance in search results. The robots.txt file plays a crucial role in controlling how search engines crawl and index a website's content. By providing a more comprehensive report, Google aims to make it easier for site owners to identify and fix issues that could affect their site's visibility and ranking in search results.However, the removal of the older robots.txt tester tool has been met with mixed reactions. While some users appreciate the new report's enhanced capabilities, others miss the simplicity and familiarity of the previous tool. It's worth noting that Bing still offers a robots.txt tester, which might be a useful alternative for those who prefer the older format.5. Google's $18 Billion Secret: Paying Apple for Safari Search Dominance -  In a surprising revelation during the federal antitrust trial, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that Google pays Apple a significant 36% of its Safari search revenue. This payment, amounting to a staggering $18 billion, is in exchange for Google maintaining its status as the default search engine on all Apple devices. This disclosure came to light when Google's final witness, Kevin Murphy, inadvertently mentioned the figure during the trial.This information is crucial for business owners to understand the competitive dynamics of the digital market. Google, often touted as the superior search engine, spends billions to secure its default position on Apple devices. This raises questions about Google's dominance in the search engine market and whether it's due to quality or strategic financial agreements.The implications of this revelation are significant. The Department of Justice (DOJ) argues that this agreement between Google and Apple demonstrates Google's efforts to unlawfully control search and advertising markets. If the DOJ's case succeeds, it could lead to a court order halting Google's practices, potentially even breaking up the company. This outcome could have a profound impact on the digital marketing landscape, affecting how businesses strategize their online presence and advertising.6. Google's Take on Topical Authority -  In the realm of SEO, the term "topical authority" has been a buzzword, often causing confusion among professionals and business owners alike. Google's John Mueller recently addressed this topic, providing clarity and a refreshing perspective.The concept of topical authority emerged from the SEO community's interpretation of Google's approach to authoritativeness. It suggests that by creating and interlinking content around a specific topic, a website can gain 'topical authority' in Google's eyes. Imagine a website dedicated to sustainable living. This site regularly publishes in-depth articles, blogs, guides, and videos on topics like eco-friendly home practices, sustainable products, renewable energy, and environmental conservation. Over time, the website becomes a go-to resource for information on sustainable living. However, Mueller's advice is straightforward: don't worry about it.The key takeaway from Mueller's response and the article is that while Google does look for signs of authoritativeness, there's no specific 'topical authority' metric or score. Good content naturally gains authority due to its quality and relevance to user queries. The idea of linking related articles for the sake of gaining topical authority is overthinking what is essentially a basic best practice in content organization and site architecture.In conclusion, the concept of topical authority, while rooted in valid SEO practices, is not a revolutionary tactic. It's a common-sense approach to creating and organizing quality content. As Mueller suggests, rather than getting caught up in buzzwords, focus on the fundamentals of good SEO practices.7. Google Introduces New Structured Data for Educational Videos - Google has introduced a new type of structured data markup specifically designed for educational videos. This markup, based on schema.org metadata, allows site owners to specify the educational level, concepts, and skills their videos cover. The primary goal of this update is to enhance Google Search's ability to understand and categorize educational video content more effectively, thereby providing users with more relevant search results.The new structured data for learning videos enables Google to display rich snippets in search results. These snippets can include information like the target education level and the type of video, such as an overview or a solution-focused piece. This feature is currently available in English on Google Search globally, both on desktop and mobile platforms. It appears for searches related to academic learning and educational content.For implementation, publishers with content management systems (CMS) can integrate structured data plugins to add this markup more easily. Those using JavaScript-based websites can generate the schema.org metadata through coding. Google emphasizes the importance of following best practices for implementation, such as adding the required schema.org properties based on the video format and using Google's structured data testing tool for validation.The technical requirements for this feature include a minimum video duration of 30 seconds, and the videos must be publicly accessible without any login or subscription barriers. The structured data must be present on the page where users can view the video directly.8. Google Search Console Adds Learning Video Rich Results Data -  Google has enhanced its Search Console by adding a new feature for learning video rich results. Learning videos are specifically designed for students and teachers, encompassing a range of educational levels and covering various concepts and skills. In June 2022, Google introduced new rich results for these learning videos, which include details like the educational level and the skills or concepts taught in the video.The latest update in Google Search Console allows users to track the performance of these learning videos as a search appearance in the performance reports. This means that content creators can now get detailed insights into how their educational videos are performing in Google searches. The inclusion of learning video rich results in performance reports is a step forward in understanding the impact and reach of educational content on the web.9. YouTube Mandates Tags for AI-Generated Videos - YouTube is introducing new tagging requirements for AI-generated content to enhance transparency and viewer awareness. Over the coming months, creators will be required to disclose when their content is synthetic, especially if it realistically depicts events or actions that didn't actually happen. This includes AI-generated videos that might show someone saying or doing something they never did. While AI-generated animations are acceptable, realistic depictions of people and events must be tagged. Non-compliance could lead to penalties like content removal, suspension from monetization, or even account suspension. YouTube will also automatically tag content created with its own AI tools. Additionally, the platform is adding new removal request processes for individuals and musicians whose likenesses are used in AI creations. This move aligns with YouTube's efforts in music discovery and generative AI music creation, working with record labels to set parameters for AI-generated music. Both Meta and TikTok have also implemented similar tags for AI-generated content, reflecting a growing trend in the industry for transparency in the use of generative AI tools.10. YouTube Easing the Copyright Claims Process for Creators - YouTube is enhancing its copyright claims process to better support content creators. This update aims to reduce the burden of multiple claims and provide more effective solutions for creators to manage their content in compliance with copyright laws.The key change involves the notification system for copyright claims. Instead of receiving separate emails for each claim, creators will now get a single notification encompassing all claims. This consolidated approach not only streamlines communication but also includes clear steps for resolving the issues. For instance, if a video violates copyright due to its soundtrack, creators can now easily access YouTube's copyright-free music library, Creator Music, to find a suitable replacement.This improvement is part of YouTube's ongoing efforts to refine its automated detection system, which has significantly reduced false claims. Additionally, YouTube has introduced an educational approach for repeat violators, offering guidance to prevent future violations. Creators can also utilize a pre-publish check to identify potential copyright issues before their content goes live.These enhancements reflect YouTube's commitment to creating a more creator-friendly environment. By simplifying the copyright claims process and providing accessible tools for compliance, YouTube is helping creators and brands navigate copyright regulations more effectively.11. Maximize Your TikTok Ad Impact: New Metrics Unveiled! - TikTok is enhancing its advertising analytics with a new measurement metric, the Engaged View-Through Attribution (EVTA). This metric aims to provide a deeper understanding of how TikTok ads influence user conversions. EVTA tracks conversions that occur after a user views an ad for at least six seconds, even if they don't click on it, and then makes a purchase within seven days. This approach acknowledges that the path from ad exposure to conversion isn't always direct.TikTok's introduction of EVTA is part of its broader effort to improve conversion tracking. The platform recognizes that traditional last-click attribution methods often undervalued TikTok's role in driving purchases. A recent report revealed that these methods underestimate TikTok conversions by 73%, missing 79% of purchases influenced by the platform. EVTA, combined with other recent ad measurement tools, offers a more comprehensive view of how TikTok ads lead to customer engagement and sales.12. Meta Partners with Amazon for Seamless Shopping on Facebook and Instagram - Meta has struck a significant deal with Amazon that will allow Facebook and Instagram users to purchase Amazon products directly within these apps. The integration is designed to facilitate one-click purchases by linking Instagram and Amazon accounts, offering a seamless shopping experience without leaving the social media app.The new feature will display real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads within Facebook and Instagram. This development, while not entirely groundbreaking, as in-app purchases are already possible, marks a significant step in enhancing the convenience and efficiency of social media shopping.A crucial aspect of this partnership is the data integration between Meta and Amazon. The agreement involves sharing limited in-app activity data to show more relevant product ads based on user engagement. However, it's important to note that Amazon will not share specific shopping actions like purchases, product views, or searches with Meta. This means the data exchange is somewhat restricted, focusing mainly on improving ad targeting rather than creating a comprehensive data-sharing ecosystem.Despite the limited data flow, this collaboration could drive more engagement with Amazon ads on Facebook and Instagram. It also aligns with Meta's ongoing efforts to boost in-app shopping activities. While Meta has scaled back some of its e-commerce initiatives, like livestream shopping and dedicated shopping tabs, this partnership with Amazon, which boasts over 167 million Prime subscribers in the U.S., could open new avenues for in-app shopping.13. Microsoft Advertising's New Alert System for Policy Violations - Microsoft Advertising has enhanced its policy violation notification process, aiming to inform customers more promptly when their ads, keywords, or product offers are disapproved. This change involves sending more frequent email alerts, often within 24 hours of a violation. These emails, titled "Notice of Violation of Policy: Ad or Ad Component," detail the rejected content and provide insights into which accounts under a manager's customer account are affected.The emails link directly to the Microsoft Advertising campaign interface, allowing advertisers to view specifics on disapprovals. If advertisers choose not to modify the disallowed content, no action is needed. However, for those wishing to have their content reconsidered, edits must be made to comply with policy standards before requesting an appeal.Common violations highlighted by Microsoft include misleading product claims, inappropriate content, counterfeit goods, and gambling/alcohol promotions. The tighter policies aim to decrease such violations but may also restrict advertising potential in certain cases. This initiative is part of Microsoft's broader effort to increase transparency and safety across its products and services. The rise in email notifications suggests an increase in policy violations, indicating a more rigorous approval process to catch and address these issues.

Episode 186 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Nov 6-10, 2023.1. Google's Cookieless Future Unveiled! - As third-party cookies are being phased out, Google is introducing new, privacy-focused ad targeting methods that rely on first-party data and artificial intelligence (AI). This change, set to take effect in 2024, is crucial for business owners to understand and prepare for.Third-party cookies have long been a staple in digital advertising, enabling brands to track users across websites and serve targeted ads. However, they've also raised privacy concerns. Google's research indicates that a staggering 89% of internet users would trust brands more if they used privacy-safe technologies. In response, Google is transitioning to a cookieless future, emphasizing the importance of first-party data and privacy-preserving tools like the Privacy Sandbox's Protected Audience API. This API introduces new techniques to limit constant tracking, such as minimum thresholds for ad targeting and shorter user data storage durations.The shift to first-party data means advertisers will still be able to build audience lists, but with enhanced AI filling the gaps left by reduced tracking capabilities. Tools like Smart Bidding and Optimized Targeting are expected to improve ad relevance using internal algorithms. For instance, Optimized Targeting has already increased conversions by 50% for some Google Display customers. Additionally, Google is expanding capabilities like Customer Match, allowing personalized ad targeting based on an advertiser's customer data.This transition away from third-party cookies is part of a broader movement towards stronger data privacy protections. While some advertisers are concerned about the potential impact on digital ad revenues, the introduction of alternative targeting and measurement approaches offers a new way forward. For business owners, investing now in automated and consent-based solutions is key to adapting to this changing advertising landscape.In summary, while targeting precision may decrease post-third-party cookie phaseout, the advancements in first-party data use and AI optimization present viable alternatives for online marketers. Embracing these changes and preparing for the cookieless future is essential for staying ahead in the digital advertising game.P.S. The future of digital advertising is here, and it's more private and user-focused than ever. Start adapting today to stay competitive!2. Insights From Google Search Ranking Documents in Antitrust Trial Exhibits - Key documents released during the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust trial involving Google provide insights into Google's search ranking processes, which are crucial for business owners to understand in order to optimize their websites for better visibility in Google searches.Key Takeaways: Three Pillars of Ranking: Google's search ranking is based on three main factors: the content of the document itself, what the web says about the document (links and references), and user interactions with the document (like clicks and attention on a result). User Interaction Signals: Google uses various user interaction signals, such as clicks, scrolls, and mouse hovers, to understand how users interact with search results. This helps them determine the relevance and quality of a document. Importance of User Responses: Google doesn't fully understand documents but relies on how people react to them. Positive reactions suggest good content, while negative reactions indicate the opposite. This approach is crucial for sustaining Google's ability to deliver relevant search results. Search Quality Aspects: The documents mentions 18 aspects of search quality that Google considers, including relevance, page quality, popularity, freshness, and mobile-friendliness. Understanding these aspects can help businesses create content that aligns with what Google considers high-quality. Challenges with Click Data: Google acknowledges the limitations of using click data for ranking, as it can be hard to interpret and requires a lot of traffic to draw meaningful conclusions. Continuous Manipulation Attempts: The documents highlight the ongoing attempts to manipulate search results, emphasizing the need for secrecy in Google's search workings to prevent exploitation by SEOs, competitors, and others. Implications for Business Owners:  It's crucial to grasp these pillars. Your website content (Body), how it's referenced across the web (Anchors), and how users interact with it (User Interactions) are all vital for your site's search ranking. Ensure your website's content is high-quality and relevant. This not only appeals to your audience but also aligns with how Google assesses and ranks content. User interactions are a significant factor. Pay attention to how users engage with your site and continuously improve their experience.3. Google Claims That Core Web Vitals Save Decades in Load Times! - Every second counts, especially when it comes to website loading times. Google's recent announcement highlights a groundbreaking achievement: Core Web Vitals (CWV) optimizations have saved Chrome users over 10,000 years in page load time in 2023 alone. This remarkable feat underscores the importance of optimizing your website for speed and user experience.Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics developed by Google to measure the user experience on web pages. These include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which tracks load time; First Input Delay (FID), measuring responsiveness; Interaction to Next Paint (INP), assessing overall responsiveness; and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which gauges visual stability. By focusing on these metrics, websites can significantly enhance user experiences.The time savings were calculated by Google's Chrome team, analyzing data from millions of website visits. Specifically, optimizations related to CWV saved over 8,000 years on Android devices and over 2,000 years on desktops in 2023. These improvements are not just about faster loading times; they also include better page response metrics, contributing to a more seamless user journey.Technical improvements in Chrome, such as preconnecting resources and rendering optimizations, played a crucial role. For instance, prioritizing image loading reduced layout shifts and improved LCP by over 5% on mobile. The broader web community, including platforms like WordPress and JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular, have also contributed to this progress.Currently, over 40% of websites meet the CWV thresholds, indicating that there's still room for improvement. As a business owner, this is a call to action. Optimizing your website for Core Web Vitals is not just about complying with Google's standards; it's about providing a superior experience for your users. This can lead to increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and ultimately, business growth.In conclusion, Google's Core Web Vitals are revolutionizing the way we experience the web. By focusing on these key metrics, you can ensure that your website not only meets Google's standards but also delivers an exceptional experience to your customers.P.S. Embrace the change and optimize your website for Core Web Vitals today.4.  Boost Your Website's Speed with Expert Tips from Google's John Mueller! - The speed of your website is more than just a convenience; it's a crucial factor in attracting and retaining customers. Google's John Mueller recently shared valuable insights on improving website performance, specifically focusing on Google's PageSpeed Insights (PSI) scores. This tool evaluates web pages' loading speeds and provides a score from 0 to 100, along with recommendations for enhancement. For anyone involved in managing a website, understanding and improving these scores is vital for both search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience.Mueller's tips are particularly helpful for those who have tried common optimization techniques, like compressing images and videos, but haven't seen the expected improvements in PSI scores. He suggests a more targeted approach: testing individual page elements on a noindexed page. This method allows you to isolate specific changes and understand their individual effects before applying them to your entire website. For example, if a test page with a compressed image loads faster but the live page doesn't show similar improvements, it indicates other factors are slowing down the live page.Mueller emphasizes the importance of focusing optimizations where they're most needed. If your website's page speed is already reasonable, extensive extra work may not be necessary. However, if improvements are needed, Mueller advises making a copy of the actual page, removing the elements you've already optimized, and then trying out changes on the rest. This step-by-step, selective process helps identify and address the real limiting factors affecting your website's performance.In summary, optimizing your website's performance requires patience and incremental testing. By isolating webpage elements and evaluating their impact, you can make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts. Remember, achieving and maintaining high PSI scores is possible with the right strategies tailored to your website's specific needs.5. Google Updates Page Experience Report in Search Console - Google has recently updated the Page Experience Report in its Search Console, aiming to provide a more holistic view of page experience as part of the content creation process. This update is significant for business owners who rely on Google for online visibility and customer engagement.The Page Experience Report now offers an informational page with links to relevant reports, making it easier for site owners to understand and improve their web pages' performance. This change is part of Google's ongoing efforts to evolve its understanding of page experience, which now encompasses more than just core web vitals and HTTPS.One notable change is the removal of the "Good Page Experience" search appearance filter from the Performance Report in Search Console. This filter was previously used to identify pages that met certain criteria for a good user experience. With its removal, Google emphasizes the need to consider a broader range of factors in evaluating page experience.The update also includes the retirement of the search appearance filter from the Search Console API, which will take effect in 180 days. This means that businesses and SEO professionals will need to adjust their reporting and analysis practices to align with the new framework.For business owners, this update underscores the importance of focusing on comprehensive quality and user experience on their websites. It's not just about meeting technical benchmarks but creating content that genuinely serves and engages the audience. Adapting to these changes in Google's approach will be crucial for maintaining and improving online visibility and performance.6. Google Shares How Your Feedback Shapes Search Results! - Recently, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, revealed internal documents highlighting how Google incorporates feedback from SEO professionals into its search algorithms. This insight is vital for anyone looking to improve their website's visibility on Google.Sullivan's documents show that Google actively listens to SEO feedback and considers it when updating its search algorithms. This process includes gathering opinions on various updates like the "Helpful Content Update" and "Parasite SEO." For instance, Sullivan discussed the challenge of creating "people-first" content. He emphasized that content should be designed for readers, not just to rank well on Google. This is a fundamental shift from traditional SEO practices, where the focus was primarily on pleasing search engines.Another key point Sullivan addressed is the misconception about old content being unhelpful. He clarified that Google does not penalize sites for having older content, as long as it remains relevant and people-first. This is reassuring for businesses that have a wealth of archival content.Sullivan also touched on the idea of a "Helpful Content Tool," a potential future feature that could help website owners understand what Google considers valuable content. This tool could be a game-changer for businesses struggling to align their content with Google's guidelines.The documents also debunked the myth that certain SEO tactics, like using schema and recipe sites, directly boost rankings. Sullivan's insights suggest that while these elements are important, they are not the sole factors in determining a site's ranking.In summary, Google's approach to SEO feedback is a dynamic process that involves constant evaluation and adaptation. For business owners, this means staying informed and adaptable is key to maintaining a strong online presence. Understanding that Google values user-centric content and does not solely rely on technical SEO tactics can guide your content strategy in a more effective direction.7. Holiday Marketing with Meta's Latest Lead Gen Innovations! - Meta (formerly Facebook) has recently announced several updates to their lead generation campaigns, which are particularly relevant for the upcoming holiday season. These updates aim to enhance direct customer engagement and streamline the lead generation process, making them vital for businesses looking to capitalize on the holiday rush.One of the key updates is the expansion of Meta's lead objective to Facebook and Instagram ads that initiate a WhatsApp chat. This feature allows businesses to tap into the growing trend of direct messaging (DMs) for customer engagement. With more people preferring DMs over public social media posts, this update offers a new avenue to connect with potential customers directly and personally.Another development is the introduction of a question-and-answer flow in Instagram Direct ads, where businesses can offer coupons to customers who engage with the flow. This not only incentivizes customer interaction but also drives sales by offering discounts on future purchases.Meta is also testing a new instant form ad format. This format allows users to submit their information to multiple related businesses at once, increasing convenience for customers and exposure for businesses. For example, someone signing up for a bridal hair trial can simultaneously share their contact information with related businesses like nail salons.Furthermore, Meta is exploring the potential for businesses to make phone calls through Facebook, displaying their business name and information on the caller screen. While this might be more appealing to older demographics, it's an interesting option for businesses looking to establish a more personal connection with their audience.Lastly, Meta is testing full campaign automation for lead generation campaigns. This feature utilizes AI to manage various campaign elements, including targeting, creative content, placements, and budget. While it may take time for businesses to trust AI with these aspects, the potential for streamlined, efficient campaign management is significant.In conclusion, these updates from Meta offer innovative ways to enhance lead generation and customer engagement. As a business owner, staying updated and adapting to these changes can significantly impact your holiday marketing strategy and overall business growth.8. LinkedIn Update: Carousel Posts and Profile Videos to be Removed! - In a recent announcement, LinkedIn has informed users that  starting December 14, 2023, LinkedIn will remove all carousel posts and profile videos. This change is noteworthy because carousel posts have been a popular feature for engaging audiences with multiple images or slides in a single post.LinkedIn introduced carousel posts in July last year, allowing users to upload PDFs with each page as a separate slide. This feature gained popularity due to its interactive and engaging format. However, LinkedIn has decided to discontinue this feature, along with profile videos, which were added in 2021 but didn't gain as much traction. Additionally, the ability to embed clickable links within images or videos will also be deactivated. While the content itself will remain, the interactive links will no longer function.This update is significant for businesses that rely on LinkedIn for marketing and engagement. Carousel posts, in particular, have been effective in generating high levels of user interaction. With their removal, businesses will need to adapt their content strategies on LinkedIn. The platform suggests reverting to the previous method of creating carousels by uploading PDFs, but this might not offer the same level of engagement as the native carousel feature.For those who have used these features extensively, LinkedIn offers a solution to retrieve their content. Users can contact LinkedIn at contentsupport@linkedin.com by December 11th to request a copy of their profile video or files from their carousel posts.

Episode 185 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Oct 30 - Nov 3, 2023.1. Mobile-First Indexing: Google's 7-Year Mission Accomplished! - Imagine a world where your smartphone is the key to unlocking the vast potential of the internet. That's the vision Google has pursued for nearly seven years, and they've just announced a significant milestone: the completion of mobile-first indexing. This means that Google now primarily uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking across all websites.Back in 2016, Google embarked on this journey, recognizing the shift towards mobile internet usage. By 2018, half of the websites in Google's search results were indexed this way. Fast forward to today, and Google has officially declared the process complete. What does this mean for you? It's simple: if your website isn't optimized for mobile, you're not speaking the same language as Google's search engine—and potentially missing out on valuable traffic.For the few sites that still don't work on mobile devices, Google will continue to use its legacy desktop crawler, but this is a temporary measure. The message is clear: mobile optimization is no longer optional; it's essential.As a business owner, this update is a call to action. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, with responsive design and content that shines on smaller screens. This isn't just about staying in Google's good graces—it's about providing your customers with the best experience, no matter how they find you.Google's update is a reminder of the ever-evolving nature of the web and the importance of keeping pace with these changes. As mobile-first indexing becomes the norm, it's an opportunity to review your online presence and ensure that your business is set up for success in a mobile-centric world.P.S. Don't let your website get left behind in the desktop era. Embrace mobile optimization and open the door to a world of opportunities.2. Google Launches Nov'23 Core Update -  Google has announced its November 2023 Core Update. This update is the latest in a series of adjustments that Google makes to its search algorithms, which can significantly impact where your site appears in search results.The November update is particularly noteworthy because it's the fourth broad core algorithm update of the year, following closely on the heels of the October 2023 Core Update. These updates are part of Google's ongoing efforts to improve the searcher's experience by providing the most relevant and high-quality results.What's new with this update? Google has improved a different core system than the one adjusted last month. This means that even if you've made recent changes to your site, you might still see fluctuations in your search rankings. Google's guidance remains the same: focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your users.If your site's rankings are negatively impacted by an update, Google advises that there aren't specific actions to take to recover. However, they do offer a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. It's also possible to see a bit of recovery between core updates, but the most significant changes typically occur after subsequent updates. In conclusion, Google's Core Updates are a reminder of the importance of having a robust content strategy that prioritizes user experience. By focusing on creating valuable, high-quality content, you're more likely to weather the storm of algorithm changes and maintain a strong presence in search results.3.  According to Google, Small Websites Can Win in the Ever-Evolving Search Landscape - In the digital age, where the internet seems dominated by large players, it's easy to wonder if small websites still have a fighting chance. Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison with over 25 years in the search space, shared an encouraging perspective that's vital for you as a business owner to understand.Search engines have evolved tremendously since the pre-Google era, and with each update, concerns arise about the visibility of small sites. Yet, history has shown us that small sites have not only survived but can thrive and become leaders in their niches. Sullivan himself has witnessed this growth firsthand, having run two successful small sites before joining Google.The key takeaway? Google's goal is to reward great content, regardless of the site's size. They are committed to the success of the open web ecosystem, where quality content leads to satisfaction all around—for searchers, content creators, and the search engines themselves.However, the web is dynamic, with changing content and shifting user expectations. Google continuously adapts, striving to improve search results. This includes recognizing valuable contributions from various sources, including forums and personal experiences, ensuring a diverse mix of results.For you, the message is clear: don't get caught up in an "expert arms race" or create content solely with Google's algorithms in mind. Instead, focus on what benefits your readers. Author bios, for instance, should be crafted for your audience, not for search engine optimization. Quality content that serves your readers' expectations aligns naturally with Google's ranking principles.Sullivan emphasizes that there's no checklist for success. Instead, he points to guidelines that help assess if content is genuinely people-first, such as providing original information or analysis. If your content consistently delivers value and leaves visitors thinking, "Wow, that was great. I learned something. That was helpful," you're on the right track.Remember, it's not about being labeled as an "expert" or having the perfect About page—it's about creating content that resonates with and serves your audience. As a business owner, focusing on delivering great content is your key to thriving in the search landscape.P.S. For more insights on creating helpful content, visit Google's guide here: Creating Helpful Content.4. Unpacking the Real Impact of Keyword Stuffing on Your Site - In the realm of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), "keyword stuffing" has been a buzzword for all the wrong reasons. But what does it truly mean for your website's content? Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, sheds light on this topic, clarifying that keyword stuffing isn't about the number of times a word is used. Instead, it's about the context and quality of your writing.Keyword stuffing refers to cramming a webpage with keywords or numbers to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results. This often results in content that sounds unnatural or out of context. For example, repeating "unlimited app store credits" to an excessive degree can be flagged as keyword stuffing. It's not the repetition per se that's the issue; it's when the repetition leads to non-sensible patterns and unhelpful writing.Sullivan advises against writing with Google's algorithms as your primary audience. Phrases shouldn't be repeated unnaturally just to ensure Google "gets it." Instead, focus on how people consume content. Google's sophisticated language analysis can understand meaning and concepts without the need for over-repetition. The best practice is to write naturally, as if you're explaining something to a person, not a search engine.This insight is crucial for you as a business owner. The content on your website should be crafted for your customers, providing them with value and a pleasant reading experience. If your content is engaging, informative, and written in a natural tone, you're already aligning with Google's preference for high-quality, user-focused content.Remember, the goal is not to outsmart search engines but to create content that genuinely serves your audience. By doing so, you'll naturally improve your site's SEO and foster a trustworthy relationship with your customers.5. Write for Your Readers, Not for Google - In the digital world, where Google's algorithms can feel like an enigma, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, offers a simple yet profound piece of advice: "Stop thinking 'What should I do for Google?' when writing content." Instead, focus on what your readers need and want. This shift in perspective is not just refreshing; it's crucial for creating content that resonates with your audience and, ironically, performs well on Google too.Sullivan's guidance comes as a reminder that the content you produce should cater to the interests and queries of your readers, not to the perceived demands of search engines. The essence of his message is to prioritize the quality and usefulness of your content over SEO tactics. Google's ranking systems are designed to reward content that serves readers well, which is why your primary goal should be to address the needs and questions of your audience.This approach is more than just a best practice; it's a strategic move in the ever-evolving landscape of SEO. By focusing on your readers, you're likely to naturally include the keywords and topics they're searching for, which aligns with how Google assesses and ranks pages. Sullivan reiterates this point, encouraging content creators to write in a way that's most helpful for their audience.For you, this means taking a step back from the technicalities of SEO and asking yourself: What information does my audience seek? How can I provide value in a way that's engaging and informative? The answers to these questions will guide you in crafting content that stands out, not just to search engines, but more importantly, to the people you aim to serve.In conclusion, let go of the "What should I do for Google?" mindset. Instead, embrace a reader-first approach to content creation. It's a strategy that will serve your business well, building trust with your audience and, as a result, with search engines too.6. Vintage or Outdated? Google's Take on Old Content's Value - Understanding the importance of content relevance is crucial for any business owner. The digital space is often seen as a race to stay current, but Sullivan's insights suggest that the true value lies in the content's quality and utility to the reader, not its publication date. He states, "Just because something is older doesn't make it unhelpful." This is a significant point, especially for news publishers and content creators who worry about the need to constantly update their articles to maintain relevance.The conversation arose from a question about the feasibility of news publishers updating old articles. Sullivan's response was clear: if the content is written with the audience in mind and remains relevant, it doesn't lose its value over time. This perspective is part of Google's broader guidance, which emphasizes creating content that prioritizes the reader's experience.For you, this means that the evergreen content on your site—those pieces that provide timeless value—can continue to serve your audience and contribute to your site's authority. It's a reminder to focus on quality over quantity and to consider the lasting impact of what you publish.In summary, don't rush to discard or rewrite your older content just because of its date. Evaluate its ongoing relevance and usefulness to your audience. If it still answers questions, solves problems, or provides insight, it remains a valuable asset to your website.7. The Truth About Schema: Does It Really Boost Your Google Ranking? - Are you looking to improve your website's ranking on Google? You might have heard that adding schema, or structured data markup, to your pages can give you a leg up in search results. However, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, has clarified a common misconception: schema does not directly improve your site's ranking.Schema markup is a code that you put on your website to help search engines return more informative results for users. While it's true that schema can enhance the way your page appears in search results—potentially increasing click-through rates—it's important to understand that it doesn't give your page a ranking boost. Sullivan emphasizes, "Using schema doesn't give you a ranking boost. It can help you be eligible for certain displays or enhancements, but it doesn't somehow boost you to the top of results."This clarification is crucial for business owners like you who are investing time and resources into SEO strategies. It's easy to get caught up in the myriad of tips and tricks out there, but Google's stance is clear: schema is about aiding search engines in understanding your content, not about climbing the search result ladder.Moreover, if your site violates Google's schema guidelines, it won't impact your ranking. Instead, it may disqualify your site from being eligible for those rich results or enhancements that schema can provide. Sullivan's message is a reminder to focus on creating quality content first and foremost. The use of schema should be viewed as a tool for improving user experience, not as a shortcut to higher rankings.As a business owner, it's essential to align your SEO efforts with practices that genuinely help your audience. By focusing on delivering valuable, high-quality content, and using schema as it's intended—to enhance user understanding—you're setting your site up for long-term success.Remember, the goal is to make your content helpful and accessible to your audience. Schema can contribute to this by making your content more understandable to search engines, which in turn helps users find the great content you're providing.8. Boost Your Video's Visibility: Google's New Structured Data Guidelines - Google has updated its guidelines for video structured data with new recommendations that could enhance your video content's visibility in search results. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. For videos, this means using specific code to communicate details to Google about the video content on your site, which can then be displayed in rich search results.The key change is that Google now requires not just the date but the exact time a video was published and also when the video expires, using the ISO 8601 format. This update aims to make the publication time more precise, which can be crucial for timely content. Google suggests including timezone information with this data; otherwise, it defaults to the timezone of Googlebot, which may not align with your local time.If you ignore these new recommendations, the only immediate consequence is the potential for a timezone mismatch. However, it's always wise to present structured data as Google expects. Think of it as fine-tuning your content for optimal performance – you're giving Google exactly what it's looking for, which can only benefit your site.In summary, take the time to update your video content with the precise publication time and timezone. It's a simple step that aligns with Google's best practices and could make a noticeable difference in your content's online presence.9. Google's Sep'18 Top Money-Making Search Queries Revealed - Have you ever wondered which search queries are the golden tickets in the vast lottery of Google searches? A recent revelation from an ongoing antitrust trial has shed light on this very topic, and the insights are invaluable for any business looking to capitalize on Google's search engine.For a single week in September 2018, terms like "iPhone," "auto insurance," and "cheap flights" were the most profitable for Google in the United States. This information, previously shrouded in secrecy due to Google's tight-lipped policies on revenue data, was disclosed in a heavily redacted slide. While the exact figures remain undisclosed, the list of terms provides a fascinating glimpse into user behavior and market trends.Why does this matter to you? Understanding these high-revenue search terms can inform your digital marketing strategy. If your business is related to any of these lucrative categories, there's a clear opportunity to align your online content and advertising efforts with what users are actively seeking.The top revenue-driving searches ranged from tech products to insurance and entertainment services, indicating diverse areas where Google users are willing to spend their money. This diversity suggests that there's room for businesses of all kinds to find their niche in the search engine landscape.In conclusion, while the specifics of Google's earnings from these searches are not public, the takeaway for you is the importance of targeting the right keywords in your SEO and PPC campaigns. By focusing on terms related to your business that have proven profitable, you can potentially increase your visibility to high-intent customers and drive more revenue through your online channels.10. Google Ads Click Tracker Policy - In the digital age, tracking the performance of your online ads is crucial for understanding customer behavior and maximizing your return on investment. Google Ads has recently updated its policies, and there's an important change you should be aware of: the requirement to use certified click trackers.A click tracker is a tool that records clicks on your ads, providing valuable data on how users interact with your advertising. Google has now mandated that, for accounts using click trackers for the first time after September 11, 2023, only certified click trackers will be accepted. Ads using non-certified trackers may be disapproved. This policy will be fully enforced over the next 12 to 18 months, with the timing depending on factors like the advertiser's history and account activity.Why is this important for you? Compliance with Google's policies ensures that your ads remain active and effective. Using a certified click tracker not only aligns with Google's standards but also guarantees that the data you collect is reliable and actionable.If you're currently using a third-party click-tracking service, it's time to check if it's on Google's approved list. If not, you'll need to switch to a certified provider or risk having your ads disapproved. This may seem daunting, but it's a step towards more transparent and trustworthy ad tracking.For those who provide click-tracking services, Google has opened applications for certification. Meeting their guidelines means you can continue to serve businesses like yours without interruption.

Episode 184 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Oct 23-27, 2023.1. Google Introduces “Search Themes” -  A New Optional Performance Max Signal : Google has introduced a new feature called "Search Themes" for its Performance Max campaigns. If you're not familiar, Performance Max campaigns use Google's AI to automatically place ads across Google's landscape after analyzing your budget, assets, feeds, and landing pages to predict valuable placements. . The new feature allows advertisers to have more control over these automated campaigns by providing specific topics or categories relevant to their business. This helps the AI system better understand what kind of traffic would be most beneficial for your business - better targeting means more relevant traffic, and more relevant traffic means higher conversion rates.Why should you care? Traditional keyword-based advertising has its limitations. For instance, if you've just launched a new product or entered a new market, you might not have enough data for effective keyword targeting. Search Themes fill this gap by allowing you to provide additional context about your business, helping Google to better understand and target your ads. You can add up to 25 search themes per ad group  in your Performance Max campaign, and these themes will be treated like phrases and broad match keywords in regular search campaigns.  Search themes will respect any brand exclusions and negative keywords you've set at the account level. This is a significant step towards giving advertisers more control over automated systems, which has been a long-standing request from the business community.Google has launched this feature in beta and plans to add more robust search term insights and guidance around utilizing Search Themes in 2024. Early feedback from pilot testers has been positive.2. Google's Latest Update on Structured Data! - Google has just rolled out an update that allows you to mix different types of structured data on your website. If you're wondering what structured data is, it's a way to label your website's content so search engines like Google can understand it better. This helps improve your website's visibility in search results, which is crucial for attracting more customers.Before this update, you had to choose between using JSON-LD or Microdata formats for your structured data. Each has its own pros and cons. JSON-LD is easier to maintain and read, while Microdata integrates directly into your HTML. Now, Google says it's okay to use both formats together. This flexibility can make your website more efficient and effective in communicating with search engines.Why is this important for you? Imagine you run a blog on your business website. Previously, you might have had to duplicate your article content in the structured data to make it understandable to Google, making your code bulky. With this update, you can use Microdata for the article content and JSON-LD for other metadata, avoiding unnecessary duplication. This means cleaner, more efficient code, which can lead to faster load times and a better user experience.This change is optional, so you don't have to rush to update your existing structured data. But it opens up new possibilities for optimizing your website. Whether you're looking to improve your site's SEO or streamline its code, this update offers a valuable opportunity to do both.3. Don't Let Google Penalize You: Avoid These Content Mistakes Now! - Are you aware that the type of content you publish on your website can either make or break your online presence? Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, recently shed light on what the search engine considers "unhelpful content." In simple terms, unhelpful content is material written primarily to rank well in search engine results, rather than to serve your audience's needs.Why should you care? Google is the gatekeeper to your online visibility. If your content is deemed unhelpful, it could seriously harm your website's search engine ranking. This means fewer people will find your business online, leading to lost opportunities and revenue.Sullivan pointed out that if you're writing articles like "20 Fun Things You Can Do Today" just to rank well for the term "fun things," then you're on the wrong track. The focus should be on creating content that is genuinely useful to your audience. He also cautioned against using tools that suggest what to write about based on what might rank well. According to him, this approach often leads to content that Google considers unhelpful.So, what's the takeaway? Shift your focus from trying to please search engines to meeting the needs of your audience. If someone asks a question and your content provides a clear answer, that's "people-first content." And guess what? Google loves it!Don't risk your online visibility by making easily avoidable mistakes. Make the shift to audience-focused content today and watch your online presence grow.P.S. Google's guidelines are not just rules but opportunities to improve. Take action now to align your content strategy with what truly matters!4. The Real Culprit Behind Your Website's Ranking Drop: It's Not CLS! - Have you noticed a sudden drop in your website's Google search rankings and are scrambling to find out why? You might be tempted to blame it on "Cumulative Layout Shift" (CLS), especially if you've recently received warnings about it from Google Search Console. But hold on, Google's John Mueller has made it clear: CLS is not the reason for sudden, significant drops in search rankings.Firstly, what is Cumulative Layout Shift? It's a metric that measures the visual stability of your website. For example, if elements on your webpage move around as it loads, that's a high CLS score, and it's generally considered bad for user experience. However, according to Mueller, even if you have issues with CLS, it's not going to cause a drastic drop in your Google rankings.Why is this important for you? Because focusing on the wrong issue can waste your valuable time and resources. Google has consistently stated that page experience signals, like Core Web Vitals (which includes CLS), are not significant ranking factors. They might act more like a "tie-breaker" than a major ranking signal. So, if you've seen a drop in traffic, the culprit is likely something else.In summary, while it's good to optimize for a better page experience, don't panic or "over-focus" on metrics like CLS when you see a drop in your rankings. Your time is better spent analyzing other potential issues that could have a more significant impact on your website's performance.P.S. Understanding what really affects your website's ranking can save you from unnecessary stress and help you focus on what truly matters for your business. Don't chase the wrong problems!5. Stop Blaming Your Web Host: The Real Story Behind Google's "Hostload Exceeded" Error! - If you've been scratching your head over the "Hostload Exceeded" error message on Google Search Console, you're not alone. This error has left many website owners puzzled, leading them to question their web hosting services. But Google's John Mueller has clarified that the issue is not with your web host; it's something else entirely.First, let's break down what "Hostload Exceeded" means. This error appears when you try to index your website's pages using Google Search Console. Indexing is crucial because it helps Google understand your website's content, making it searchable and visible to potential customers. So, when you see an error like this, it's natural to worry.However, Mueller has stated that the problem is not with your web host or even with Google's crawling and indexing processes. Instead, the issue arises when people "spam" the URL inspection tool by submitting too many URLs for indexing. In other words, the error is a result of user behavior, not a technical glitch or quality issue with your website.Why is this important? Because understanding the real cause behind this error can save you time and effort. You don't need to switch web hosts or make drastic changes to your website. Instead, be mindful of how many URLs you're submitting for indexing. Normal crawling and indexing by Google will happen naturally, so there's no need to force the process.P.S. Transparency and accurate information are key to solving problems. Don't waste time fixing what's not broken; focus on what truly matters for your website's success!6. Google's New Privacy Feature : IP Protection - Google is taking a significant step in enhancing user privacy with its new IP Protection feature for Chrome. If you're wondering what IP Protection is, it's a feature designed to mask users' original IP addresses, making it harder for websites to track them. This is crucial for you as a business owner because it could impact how you target and reach potential customers online.Why is IP Protection important? In today's digital age, privacy is a growing concern. Many users are wary of how their data is being used, and Google's new feature aims to address this by limiting cross-site tracking. This means that the feature could potentially disrupt traditional online advertising methods that rely on tracking users' behavior based on their IP addresses.Here's how it works: Users will need to opt-in to activate IP Protection. Initially, the feature will focus on Google-owned domains and be available for U.S.-based IP addresses. Google plans to roll out this feature in phases, starting with a single company-owned proxy server responsible for routing web traffic. Future updates will include a more complex system for added privacy.So, what does this mean for your business? If you rely heavily on targeted advertising, you may need to rethink your strategies. The feature is still in its early stages, but it's essential to stay ahead of the curve and consider how these privacy changes could affect your marketing efforts.P.S. Privacy is not just a user concern; it's a business concern too. Stay updated and adapt your strategies to meet the evolving digital landscape. Don't get left behind! 7. Google's Q3'23 Ad Revenue Bounces Back - Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., has reported an 11% year-on-year increase in search advertising revenue for Q3 2023. If you're wondering why this matters to you, it's simple: this uptick indicates a stabilizing ad market, which could be a golden opportunity for your business.Why is this important? The 11% gain in search revenue is a significant improvement from the 5% loss reported in the previous quarter. This suggests that the digital advertising landscape is recovering, making it a ripe time for businesses like yours to invest in online advertising. Alphabet's CFO, Ruth Porat, stated that the "fundamental strength of our business was apparent again in Q3," with a total revenue of $77 billion, up 11% year over year.The report also highlighted a 12.5% increase in YouTube ad revenue, while Google's advertising network saw a 2.6% decline. However, this decline is an improvement over the previous quarter, signaling a positive trend. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, emphasized the role of AI-driven innovations in driving this growth, particularly in search and YouTube.8. IndexNow Impressive Growth : 1.4 Billion URLs Submitted Daily For Indexing - If you're a business owner with an online presence, you know how crucial it is for your website content to be up-to-date in search engine results. The problem? Search engines often lag behind in reflecting the latest changes on your website. This is where IndexNow comes in, a service that has made significant strides in solving this issue.Established two years ago, IndexNow aims to streamline how websites communicate their content changes to search engines. The service has seen exponential growth, with 60 million websites joining daily and a staggering 1.4 billion URLs submitted each day. The platform bridges the gap between search engine results and real-time website content by sending a simple "ping" to participating search engines whenever a URL is added, updated, or deleted. This ensures that search engines crawl only the updated content, making the process more efficient for both businesses and search engines.IndexNow is integrated with popular platforms like WordPress, Wix Premium, and Duda, making it easy for website owners to adopt. If you're using SEO plugins like Yoast, All-in-One SEO, RankMath, or SEOPress, IndexNow is already included. Even if you're not using these services, activating IndexNow is straightforward. All you need to do is generate an API key, host it on your web server, add the necessary code to your website, and monitor the details via webmaster tools.9. Microsoft's PubCenter Relaunch: The Google AdSense Alternative - If you're looking to monetize your website, Microsoft has relaunched its PubCenter as a compelling alternative to Google AdSense. For those unfamiliar with these terms, monetizing your website means displaying ads to earn revenue. Google AdSense has been the go-to platform for this, but Microsoft's PubCenter is stepping up as a strong competitor.Why should you care? PubCenter offers a way to display both native and display ads from Microsoft's advertising network. The platform is not new; it's been around since 2008. However, Microsoft is repositioning it as a U.S.-only pilot program. The process is simple: choose an ad format, add some code to your website, and start earning every time an ad is displayed. There are no signup costs, revenue minimums, or volume requirements.What sets PubCenter apart? Microsoft claims to offer "higher engagement and more revenue" compared to Google AdSense. The platform allows you to use their ads alongside Google AdSense ads, serving Microsoft's ads only when they predict a higher bid for you. This flexibility can be a game-changer for small and mid-sized publishers looking to maximize their ad revenue.Currently, PubCenter is open only to U.S.-based businesses, but if you're outside the U.S., you can join a waitlist for when international support is added. If you've been relying solely on Google AdSense, this could be the perfect time to diversify your revenue streams.10. Microsoft's Q3 Surge in Ad Revenue - Microsoft has just reported a remarkable 10% year-on-year increase in its search and news advertising revenue for Q3 2023. If you're not familiar with the world of online advertising, this is a significant metric that indicates the health of the digital advertising ecosystem. As a business owner, this news should catch your attention because it signals a recovering ad market and the growing importance of diversifying your advertising platforms.Why is this surge significant? For starters, it marks a substantial jump from last quarter's 3% increase. This growth suggests that ad spending is bouncing back after the economic downturn, offering a more fertile ground for your business to advertise and reach potential customers. Microsoft's overall revenue in productivity and business processes also rose by 13% to $18.6 billion, further emphasizing the company's strong market position.So, what does this mean for you? If you've been solely relying on Google for your online advertising, now might be the time to consider Microsoft's platforms as well. With the ad market recovering and Microsoft showing strong performance, diversifying your advertising strategy could be a wise move.11. Meta's Q3 Profits Skyrocket to $11.6 Billion - Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has reported a staggering $11.6 billion in profits for Q3 2023.So, what's driving this success? Meta's Q3 revenue soared by 23% year-on-year to $34.15 billion. The company saw a 31% increase in ads viewed during the quarter, even though the average price per ad decreased by 6%. This is the smallest decline in seven quarters, signaling a robust ad market. Meta's CFO, Susan Li, attributes this to "ongoing improvements to ad targeting and measurement," which are driving better results for advertisers.Cost-cutting measures also played a role. Meta has reduced its workforce by about a third and cut expenses by 7% from a year earlier. The company is also heavily investing in AI-powered marketing planning and ad measurement to drive growth. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to hire more AI-focused technologists, emphasizing the role of AI in the company's future.12. HubSpot and TikTok's Game-Changing Partnership For B2B Lead Generation - HubSpot and TikTok have joined forces to redefine B2B lead generation. If you're a business owner, you know how crucial lead generation is for growth. This partnership aims to make that process more efficient and cost-effective. HubSpot's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform will now integrate seamlessly with TikTok, allowing businesses to automatically capture leads from the social media giant. This is TikTok's first CRM lead generation collaboration.Why is this important? Small and medium-sized businesses are grappling with rising customer acquisition costs. HubSpot's research shows that 53% of such businesses in the U.S. have seen these costs go up from 2021 to 2022. TikTok, a platform where over half of its U.S. users discover new brands, aims to alleviate this issue.The integration offers automated lead capture from TikTok, turning its highly engaged audience into potential high-value customers. Once you link your TikTok for Business account with HubSpot, you can create lead-generation ads that automatically sync leads into HubSpot's CRM in real-time. This centralizes all your prospects, making it easier to manage your sales funnel. Plus, you can engage with these new leads using HubSpot's Marketing Hub and determine the effectiveness of your campaigns through AI-powered analytics.As an added incentive, the first 500 advertisers to integrate HubSpot CRM with TikTok will receive $200 in TikTok ad credits. Currently, this integration is only available in the U.S. and Canada but is expected to expand to other countries soon.

Episode 183 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Oct 16-20, 2023.1. Microsoft's New Automated Bidding Features for Your Business! - Microsoft Advertising has rolled out two automated bidding strategies, Target CPA and Maximize Conversions, to all advertisers. These features aim to simplify the advertising process and are now available in all regions where Microsoft's Audience Ads are served. Automated bidding strategies help you optimize your ad campaigns without constant monitoring, freeing up your time for other business tasks.Target CPA allows you to set a cost-per-acquisition goal, and the system will automatically adjust your bids to meet that target. Maximize Conversions, on the other hand, aims to get you as many conversions as possible within your set budget. Both strategies offer flexibility in budgeting and performance measurement, putting you in control while also reducing manual effort.Microsoft's Audience Ads are native display ads that leverage Microsoft's data insights to target your desired audience effectively. These ads appear on various platforms like MSN, Outlook, and more. 2. Google's October 2023 Core and Spam Updates Completed! - Google has finished rolling out two significant updates that you should be aware of: the October 2023 Core Update and the October 2023 Spam Update. These updates can affect your website's visibility on Google, so let's break it down.October 2023 Core Update: This update took almost 14 days to roll out completely, starting on October 5th and ending on October 19th. It had a significant impact on SEOs and websites, causing a lot of volatility in search rankings. The update is global and affects all types of content. If you've noticed changes in your website's performance, this could be why. Google hasn't specified what percentage of queries were impacted, but it's safe to say that the reach is wide.October 2023 Spam Update: This update started on October 4th and ended on October 20th. It targets spam techniques that violate Google's policies, particularly in languages like Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, and Chinese. If your website was affected, Google suggests reviewing its spam policies.Interestingly, these two updates overlapped, making it challenging to pinpoint which update caused changes to your website's rankings. If you're not involved in spammy practices and see changes, it's likely due to the Core Update. If you do engage in spam and notice alterations, it's probably the Spam Update.Why Should You Care? These updates can either elevate your website's visibility or push it down the search rankings. If you've been hit, it's crucial to adapt your strategies accordingly.Need Expert Guidance? If all this sounds overwhelming, we're here to help. Contact us for expert advice on navigating these Google updates seamlessly.3. YouTube's New AI-Powered "Spotlight Moments" - YouTube has launched an advertising feature called "Spotlight Moments," designed to boost your brand's visibility during key cultural events. This new feature uses artificial intelligence to place your brand's videos next to the most relevant and engaging content related to specific cultural moments, like Halloween or Christmas.Here's how it works: YouTube uses AI to identify popular videos related to these cultural moments. Your ads will then be served alongside this content, giving your brand a chance to shine during these high-traffic periods. All these videos will be curated into dynamically updated playlists on a sponsored hub called the "YouTube Culture Hub," which will also feature your brand's logo."Spotlight Moments" offers a unique opportunity to increase your brand's visibility and reach your target audience during times when they are most engaged. The big question, of course, is what kind of return on investment (ROI) you can expect from this new ad package.4. YouTube with New Product Targeting Features! - YouTube is introducing a new feature that allows creators to add timestamps to tagged products in their videos. This new feature aims to enhance your advertising strategy by targeting potential customers at the most opportune moments.When a timestamp is added to a tagged product, a shopping cart button appears at a time when viewer engagement is expected to be high. This precision in targeting can result in increased engagement and conversions.The feature is especially timely as YouTube plans to remove some ad controls for newly uploaded videos next month (removing individual ad controls for newly uploaded videos in November for the following ad types: Pre-roll, Post-roll, Skippable, and Non-skippable. Moving forward, creators will only be able to decide between displaying ads before or after a video, and whether to have this option on or off. If they turn this option on, YouTube will automatically decide which ad type to display as appropriate), giving creators and sponsors more control in the meantime.But that's not all. YouTube is also rolling out additional features to improve the shopping experience. One such feature allows creators to bulk tag affiliate products in video libraries, potentially earning revenue from older, high-traffic content. Additionally, a new reporting tool will soon be available in YouTube Studio to reveal which affiliate products are generating the most revenue for brands.5. Google Ads Certification Now Requires Video Recording: What You Need to Know! - Google Ads has recently updated its certification process, adding a new layer of scrutiny for those taking the exam. The new rules require test-takers to record themselves during the exam, among other requirements.Specifically, you'll need to take a picture of your photo ID, a picture of your face, and record a video of your test-taking environment. These steps are part of Google's efforts to ensure exam integrity. During the exam, a live proctor will monitor your activity via webcam and screen-sharing software. If any unauthorized behavior is noticed, the proctor will pause your exam and message you. The guidelines also prohibit the use of open books, notes, scratch paper, and even restroom breaks during the exam.The new rules have stirred some reactions in the community, with some finding them overly strict, especially for those who work from home and may have other people around. According to Google, the changes aim to maintain the credibility of the Google Ads certification, making it a more reliable indicator of expertise. However, I disagree with Google.6.

Episode 182 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Oct 9-13, 2023.1. Google's Demand Gen Ads: The AI-Powered Video Ads  - If you're using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for advertising, you'll want to know about Google's latest ad product: Demand Gen campaigns. Google Ads is a platform that allows you to place advertisements on Google's search engine and other platforms. Demand Gen is Google's newest effort to compete with traditional social media sites for your advertising dollars.What sets Demand Gen apart? It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create highly targeted video and image ads, specifically designed for platforms like YouTube. These ads can be up to 15 seconds long, ideal for YouTube placements, and can also feature image carousels tailored for mobile users. The tool uses Google's powerful AI to identify "lookalike audiences" that share characteristics with your existing customers, allowing for more targeted advertising.Why is this important for you? Consumer habits are changing. People are now splitting their time between traditional social media platforms and video sites like YouTube. Google's Demand Gen aims to help you capitalize on this shift by offering visually compelling ads tailored to specific audiences. Early adopters have already seen promising results; for example, Argentine fintech startup Naranja X reported 3x higher click-through rates at 61% lower costs compared to its paid social campaigns.2. Google Ads Policy Update: What You Need to Know About Offering Rewards

Episode 181 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Oct 2-6, 2023.1. New Courses to Unlock the Power of Reddit Ads - If you're a business owner looking to diversify your online advertising, Reddit has some exciting news for you. The platform has updated its "Reddit Ads Formula" marketing education program, adding a new "Boost 2.0 Certification" to its existing courses. What does this mean for you? It's a golden opportunity to understand Reddit's advertising tools better and use them to your advantage.Originally launched last June, Reddit Ads Formula offers a straightforward guide to Reddit's advertising options. The new Boost 2.0 Certification takes it a step further by providing in-depth knowledge and insights. The course covers essential topics like selecting the right bid and budget strategy, identifying performance opportunities, and effectively engaging Reddit communities. Completing the course earns you a certification badge, which can add credibility to your business. Plus, you'll have the option to make a Reddit-funded donation to charity.Why is this important? Reddit is a growing platform with a diverse user base, making it a fertile ground for advertising. The new courses aim to help you optimize your ad campaigns, thereby increasing your reach and ROI. With over 5,800 participants from 26+ countries already benefiting from the program, it's time you consider hopping on the Reddit advertising bandwagon.2. LinkedIn Testing Fully Automated Accelerate Ad Campaigns - LinkedIn is stepping up its advertising game with a new feature called "Accelerate," designed to automate your entire ad campaign process. If you're a business owner, this is big news. Why? Because advertising on platforms like LinkedIn can be complex and time-consuming. Accelerate aims to simplify this by recommending a complete campaign in as little as five minutes.Here's how it works: You provide a URL for the product you want to promote, and LinkedIn's AI systems take care of the rest. The AI analyzes your company's LinkedIn page, past ads, and the website you shared to create a tailored campaign. You can then fine-tune the campaign's copy, images, and targeting parameters. The AI also adjusts your campaign bids and budget in real-time to maximize results.Why should you care? LinkedIn claims that its AI tools have led to a 47% improvement in cost-per-conversion and a 21% improvement in average cost-per-lead. Essentially, you're letting LinkedIn's AI manage your ad budget in the most efficient way possible, which could save you both time and money.The Accelerate feature is currently available to a limited number of customers in North America. It's a hands-off approach to LinkedIn ads that could make your life a lot easier. So, is it time to let AI take the wheel in your LinkedIn advertising? It might be worth a try.3. Meta Expands Roll Out of Generative AI Features for Ad Creation - Meta, the company behind Facebook, has recently expanded its Generative AI features for ad creation. These features include text variations, background generation, and image expansion tools. What does this mean for you as a business owner? It means you can now create more dynamic and personalized ads with just a few clicks, saving you both time and money.In early tests, advertisers found that these AI tools saved them an estimated five or more hours a week. That's almost a month's worth of time saved per year! These tools not only speed up the ad creation process but also help in maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns. For instance, you can quickly develop multiple variations of ad creatives, which allows for more strategic work and better performance.But that's not all. Meta is also developing AI tools for business messaging on platforms like Messenger and WhatsApp. These tools will help you engage with customers more effectively, offering instant conversational responses.In summary, Meta's new AI features are designed to make your life easier by automating tedious tasks, allowing you to focus on strategy and creativity. These tools are rolling out globally and are expected to be fully available by next year. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your advertising to the next level.4. Meta's New Subscription Model Could Change Your Business Advertising Strategy - Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is planning to introduce a subscription-based model that offers an ad-free experience for $14 a month. This move is in response to the European Union's Digital Services Act, which will take effect on January 1, 2024. The act requires platforms to seek user consent for serving personalized ads, impacting businesses that rely heavily on ad revenue.Why is this important for you as a business owner? Well, if users opt for this subscription, they won't see ads, which could significantly reduce the reach of your advertising campaigns on these platforms. This means you might need to rethink your advertising strategies and possibly invest in alternative platforms for better visibility.Meta has not yet made an official statement about this new model, but it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve. The cost of the subscription could be a determining factor for user adoption. If fewer people see your ads because they've opted for the ad-free subscription, you'll need to adapt quickly to maintain your online presence and customer engagement.Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story, as it could have a significant impact on how you approach advertising on social media platforms.5. TikTok Testing Subscription Plan - TikTok is exploring a new avenue to enhance user experience: an ad-free subscription plan. This move comes as social media platforms are grappling with changes in digital privacy regulations, particularly in the European Union. The new plan would cost users around $4.99 per month to enjoy an ad-free TikTok experience.Why is this important for you as a business owner? Ads are the lifeblood of social media platforms, helping businesses like yours reach potential customers. However, with increasing regulations and user demands for a cleaner interface, platforms are considering alternative revenue streams. TikTok's ad-free subscription is not just a user-centric move; it's a signal of changing tides in the digital advertising landscape.This shift could impact how you allocate your advertising budget and engage with your audience on TikTok. It's also worth noting that while this feature is currently in the testing phase and targeted at a single English-speaking market outside the U.S., it could potentially be rolled out more broadly in the future.6. New Google Rules for Email Marketing: What You Need to Know to Keep Your Business in the Clear! - Google is tightening its rules for businesses that send bulk emails to Gmail users. If your business sends more than 5,000 emails per day to Gmail addresses, you'll need to pay attention to these new guidelines, which will take effect in February 2024. The changes aim to reduce spam and improve email security, making it crucial for business owners to adapt. Strong Email Authentication: Google will require you to authenticate your emails using established protocols like SPF, DKIM, or DMARC. This ensures that your emails are genuine and not spam. Easy Unsubscribe: You'll need to provide an easy, one-click unsubscribe option in your emails. All unsubscribe requests must be processed within two days. Clear Spam Rate Threshold: Google will enforce a specific spam rate that you must not exceed. This will help keep your emails out of the spam folder. These new rules are not just about compliance; they're about maintaining a healthy relationship with your customers and ensuring your emails actually reach them. Even if your email list has fewer than 5,000 recipients, following these best practices is still recommended.By adhering to these new guidelines, you'll not only avoid potential penalties but also improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. Make sure to update your email practices before the February deadline to stay compliant.7. Google's new GA4 feature!

Episode 180 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 25-29, 2023.1. Is Google Lying About Using Clicks in Rankings? A X-Googler Testimony - The debate over whether Google uses clicks as a direct ranking factor has taken a new turn. Eric Lehman, a former 17-year Google veteran who worked on search quality and ranking, recently testified in the ongoing U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial. Lehman stated that Google's machine learning systems, BERT and MUM, are becoming more critical than user data for search rankings. He believes that Google will increasingly rely on machine learning to evaluate text rather than user data.Lehman's testimony has sparked controversy, especially among SEO experts, who have long questioned Google's transparency about its ranking factors. Google's Gary Illyes, at a recent AMA, confirmed that Google uses historical search data for its machine-learning algorithm, RankBrain. However, he clarified that clicks are not necessarily a direct ranking factor. Instead, they are used for evaluating experiments and personalization.The Department of Justice (DOJ) also attempted to challenge Lehman's statements by questioning Google's advantage in using BERT over its competitors. Lehman clarified that Google's edge comes from inventing BERT, not from its user data. The DOJ's attempt to impeach Lehman's testimony seemed to backfire, adding more credibility to his statements.Lehman also touched on the sensitive topic of using clicks in search rankings. He mentioned that Google avoids confirming the use of user data in rankings to prevent people from thinking that SEO could be used to manipulate search results. This adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing debate.In summary, while clicks may not serve as a direct ranking factor, they are part of a more complex system that includes machine learning algorithms and personalization. Lehman's testimony has reignited the discussion about Google's ranking factors, raising questions about the company's transparency and the future of SEO.2.

Episode 179 contains the important Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 18-22, 2023.1. YouTube's New AI-Powered Tools! - YouTube is stepping up its game with a slew of innovative creator tools, including groundbreaking generative AI features. Unveiled at the "Made On" showcase event, the platform introduced the "Dream Screen" generative AI tool, allowing creators to integrate AI-generated video and image backgrounds into their YouTube Shorts. This tool aligns YouTube with the latest creative trends, matching efforts by platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram.Additionally, YouTube is launching "YouTube Create," a free video editing app reminiscent of TikTok's CapCut. This app offers a suite of editing tools, including audio cleanup, auto captions in multiple languages, filters, transitions, and direct publishing options. Initially tested in India and Singapore, it's now expanding to more regions and is currently available for Android users.To further fuel creativity, YouTube is introducing an AI ideas generator. By inputting a topic, creators receive content suggestions and even a downloadable content outline. While this tool offers inspiration, it's essential to use it as a guide rather than a strict blueprint to maintain originality.Other notable features include an automatic dubbing tool for content translation and an assistive search in creator music. These tools aim to simplify the content creation process, allowing creators to focus on their unique vision. 2. Google's New Report To Spot Checkout Issues on

Episode 178 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 11-15, 2023.1. TikTok Shop Launches in the US - With inspiring hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, TikTok now aims to revolutionize online shopping culture. TikTok Shop is now officially available in the US, allowing US businesses to sell their products directly on the TikTok platform. TikTok Shop is a social commerce platform that allows users to discover and purchase products directly from their favorite creators and brands. TikTok Shop adds shoppable videos and LIVE streams directly into the “For You” feeds for its 150 million American users. TikTok Shop extends beyond in-feed videos and LIVE streams. Users can discover new products via the search bar inside the TikTok app, filtering results to Shop. Businesses and brands get a dedicated “Shop Tab” to display products and promotions. This incorporates a product showcase where users can read reviews and purchase directly from your brand's profile. In addition, sellers can take advantage of “Fulfilled by TikTok” – a new logistics solution where TikTok manages storage, picking, packing, and shipping. The platform even includes an affiliate program, letting popular influencers and creators earn commissions by promoting TikTok Shop products. To get started, go to your TikTok app, visit your profile and, using the menu, navigate to Creator Tools. There, you will see the options to sign up for TikTok Shop as a seller or creator to earn brand commissions. Creators must have at least 5,000 followers and be 18 years old to be eligible for the TikTok Shop Affiliate program. TikTok Shop is integrated with well-known ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This should make it easier for existing ecommece sellers to start selling on TikTok without creating a new store from scratch. In addition, TikTok has partnered with several multi-channel platforms like Channel Advisor and Feedonomics to support omni-channel businesses. Sellers can utilize apps from Zendesk, Printful, Yotpo, EasyShip, and more to add more functionality and features to TikTok Shops.2. Amazon Launches New AI Tool to Help Sellers Create Listing Content - Creating compelling product titles, bullet points, and descriptions has traditionally been a cumbersome task for sellers. Amazon has taken a significant step forward in simplifying the lives of its sellers by employing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate listing content. The process is remarkably straightforward. Sellers only need to supply a brief description or a few keywords about the product. Amazon's AI generates high-quality, detailed content for the seller's review. If satisfied, sellers can directly upload this content to their product listings. Robert Tekiela, vice president of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, expressed excitement about the developments in the announcement post. “With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency. Our models learn to infer product information through the diverse sources of information, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning that they learn. For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”3. Suspended Google Advertisers Needs To Complete Verification Before Appeal - Google wrote, "In October 2023, selected advertisers whose accounts were suspended due to a violation of our Google Ads policies must complete Advertiser verification first to be able to appeal their account suspension."Google said that those advertisers on monthly invoicing are not required to complete Advertiser verification. If they do get suspended, Google said they may directly appeal their account suspension.Google will be rolling out this process on October 10, 2023, with full enforcement ramping up over approximately four weeks.Advertisers may be required to provide the following information for advertiser verification for the account suspension appeals process: D-U-N-S number if the advertiser is an organization US Social Security Number or phone number if the advertiser is an individual 4. Struggling To Get Results From Your YouTube Ads? Google Ads Creative Guidance Can Help! - Google Ads Creative Guidance is a new tool that helps advertisers improve the performance of their YouTube ads. It provides feedback and recommendations on key creative attributes, such as brand logo, video duration, voice-over, and aspect ratio.To access Creative Guidance, advertisers simply need to go to their Google Ads account and click on the "Videos" tab. Then, they can select the video ad they want to analyze and click on the "Creative Guidance" button.Creative Guidance will then provide feedback on the following creative attributes: Brand logo: Is the brand logo displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad? Video duration: Is the video ad the recommended length for its marketing objective? Voice-over: Does the video ad use a high-quality, human voice-over? Aspect ratio: Does the video ad group include all three video orientations: horizontal 16:9, vertical 9:16, and square 1:1? Creative Guidance will also provide recommendations for how to improve the performance of the video ad. For example, if the brand logo is not displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad, Creative Guidance will recommend adding a logo overlay to the video.Creative Guidance can be a valuable tool for advertisers who want to improve the performance of their YouTube ads. By following the feedback and recommendations from Creative Guidance, advertisers can create video ads that are more likely to capture the attention of viewers and drive results. While this tool seems promising, advertisers must remember that the AI can only provide recommendations based on historical data and existing best practices. Therefore, its suggestions may not align with every brand's style and strategy.To access Creative guidance in Google Ads, follow these instructions: In your Google Ads account,  Click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.  Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.  Click “Videos”.  Click the “Analytics” tab next to “Videos”.  Select your video ad in the drop down menu.  In the “Ideas to try” section below the retention curves, you'll find the creative attributes you're missing with recommendations on how to take action.  The steps listed above are part of a new Google Ads user experience that is set to launch for all advertisers in 2024. A spokesperson for Google Ads said in a statement: "We'll let you know if your video is missing a best practice. If we have a recommendation or tool to implement a suggestion such as adding a voiceover, we'll direct you to it." "Voiceover has a big impact on YouTube. Thanks to the power of AI, quality voice overs in 15 languages are accessible directly in Google Ads (both in the asset library and built into the video creation tool) and coming soon to Ads Creative Studio. "Similarly, if your campaign would benefit from videos in different durations, we'll guide you to Trim video. Or, if you're missing a horizontal, square or vertical video, you can easily create one using a variety of high-quality templates." "These features empower marketers to take charge of their creative. AI can help turbocharge performance by tuning creative elements across all the different viewing experiences and content that YouTube viewers love." 5. Google: Don't Stuff Low-Quality Content at the Bottom of Your E-Commerce Category Pages - During September 2023, Google SEO Office hour, Gary Illyes has advised against stuffing low-quality, auto-generated content at the bottom of e-commerce category pages. Gary said, instead, "add content that people will actually find useful, don't add content because search might require it or so you think… please don't do those auto-generated low-quality repeated, blurbs of text over and over again on all your category pages.It just looks silly, even for the average person."6. Google Says Meta Description Length Doesn't Matter for SEO - Your SEO professional may disagree with this, but Google's John Mueller has said that the length of meta descriptions does not matter for the Google search ranking algorithm. However, meta descriptions are still important for SEO, as they can influence click-through rates (CTRs). His exact words were, "I'm sorry to tell you, those numbers are all made up.. Whoever told them to you is leading you astray, probably not just in this regard (and I hope you're not telling them to clients)." after Kushal wrote to John stating "Hey @JohnMu meta description length matters. One of client say 200-300 character not good, make it 155-160 character is ideal as per google algo. Being SEO What I suggest him. I know the hidden truth. Pls suggest."7. Google: No Such Thing as "Back to the Same" for Search Rankings After a Site Revamp -  In a recent tweet, Google Search's John Mueller said that there is no such thing as "back to the same" for search rankings after a website revamp. This means that when you make changes to your website, your search rankings may go up, down, or stay the same.There is no specific time or guarantee for how long it will take for your rankings to stabilize after a revamp. It can depend on a number of factors, such as the size and scope of the changes you made, the quality of your content, and the competitiveness of your keywords.If you are considering revamping your website, it is important to be aware of the potential impact on your search rankings. You should also make sure that you have a plan in place for monitoring your traffic and rankings after the revamp.So before you embark on your website revamp journey, work with a reputable SEO professional to figure out a SEO strategy that will either maintain the rankings or even improve.8. Google: Fixing INP Issues Won't Improve Search Rankings - Google's John Mueller reiterated what Google has been saying for some time around Core Web Vitals and the specific metrics within the page experience system. In short, if you fix INP issues, John Muller said, don't expect it to visibly change search ranking visibility.INP, or Input Interactivity, measures how responsive a page is to user input by selecting one of the single longest interactions that occur when a user visits a page. For pages with less than 50 interactions in total, INP is the interaction with the worst latency. For pages with many interactions, INP is most often the 98th percentile of interaction latency. It is one of the three Core Web Vitals, which are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a web page. In July, Google began sending out scary INP core web vital warnings to users. That email notice came a few weeks after Google created the INP report in Google Search Console. As a reminder, INP, Interaction to Next, is replacing FID, First Input Delay, in March 2024. More on INP can be found here and how to optimize for it can be found here.P.S: While INP is important for user experience, it is not a direct ranking factor. This means that fixing INP issues is not guaranteed to improve your search rankings. However, it is still important to fix INP issues, as they can improve the user experience of your website.9. Google Announces September 2023 Helpful Content System Update - Google rolled out a new update to its Helpful Content System on September 14, 2023. The update, which is the first since December 2022, is designed to promote helpful content and demote unhelpful content. It will take about two weeks to complete. And they'll update their ranking release history page when the rollout is complete. The three main things you should be aware of are: Loosening the guidance on machine generated content : Google's previous guidance on machine generated content emphasized that the Helpful Content system prioritizes content created by humans. That part of the guidance is removed, signaling a change in Google's attitude toward AI content to align it better with other seemingly contradictory guidance on AI content. Here is what the new guidance reads: “Google Search's helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results.” Hosting third-party content on subdomains (or on main domain) - There is a longstanding trend of hosting third-party content on the main part of a website or on a subdomain. An example of this is news media websites hosting third-party credit card affiliate content on a subdomain. The idea behind theses strategies may be that some of the main site's ranking power would help the subdomain content rank better. Google's September 2023 Helpful Content update has made a change that may negatively affect websites that host third-party content anywhere on their website. Now a new section added to the Helpful Content Update guidance advises: “If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site's purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.” Gary Illyes from Google also posted on LinkedIn that reads: “We've heard (and also noticed) that some sites “rent out” their subdomains or sometimes even subdirectories to third-parties, typically without any oversight over the content that's hosted on those new, generally low quality micro-sites that have nothing to do with the parent site. In fact the micro-sites are rarely ever linked from the parent sites, which don't actually want to endorse these often questionable sites. The only reason the owners of these shady (?) micro-sites rent the sub-spaces is to manipulate search results.” New warnings on attempts to fake updates to pages and faking freshness - Google added this line “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?” under the avoid creating search engine-first content section. I see it all the time where sites will make a couple of changes to their content from years ago, update the date, and re-publish it. This is a common SEO “strategy” that is on Google's radar. So what is Helpful Content update? Google's helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” This algorithm update aims to help searchers find “high-quality content.” Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users. Searchers get frustrated when they land on unhelpful web pages that rank well in search because they were written for the purpose of ranking in search engines. This is the type of content you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content.” Google's helpful content algorithm aims to downgrade those types of websites while promoting more helpful websites, designed for humans, above search engines. Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.” Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions here, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update. You should also read this. Please note if this update has hit you, it can take several months to recover if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time. Here is what Google wrote on this: “If you've noticed a change in traffic you suspect may be related to this system (such as after a publicly-posted ranking update to the system), then you should self-assess your content and fix or remove any that seems unhelpful. Our help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content has questions that you can use to self-assess your content to be successful with the helpful content system.”

Episode 177 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 4-8, 2023.1. Google August 2023 Core Update - Google has confirmed that the August 2023 core update, which began rolling out on August 22, 2023, has completed on Sept 7, 2023. This is the second core update of 2023, following the March 2023 core update.FYI: Core updates are major changes to Google's search algorithm that aim to improve the quality of search results. They are not focused on any particular kind of content or website, and they can affect rankings for a wide variety of websites. The early SEO industry chatter suggested this update was a fairly impactful update compared to previous core updates. The exact impact of the August 2023 core update is still unknown. Google stressed that pages impacted by core updates aren't necessarily flawed. According to Google, this update focused on improving Google's overall content assessment. As always, Google advised site owners to focus on quality content as a response to fluctuations in search rankings. Sites that are experiencing a dip should consider conducting an audit to understand which pages were most impacted and for what types of searches. Google also cautioned that improving your website content may not lead to an immediate change in rankings.2. Google Updates Helpful Content Guidelines: Self-Assess Your Content & Remove Unhelpful Content - Google recently updated its documentation on the helpful content system, designed to identify and demote low-quality content from search results. The updated documentation now states that website owners should self-assess their content to determine if it is helpful to visitors. If website owners find their content unhelpful, they are encouraged to remove it.Marie Haynes asked Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison:"Google's documentation on the helpful content system talks about recovering by "removing unhelpful content" in order to get the unhelpful content classification removed. Any chance we could get more clarity on this? Do you mean: -remove parts of pages that contain large amounts of text readers will likely skip over? -remove entire pages that offer little original value? -perhaps both? Does a site need to remove unhelpful content published in the past in order to recover? Or could they focus on simply producing content that is helpful and original from this point onwards. Would that be enough?"Danny replied: "People should self-assess their content to understand if they believe it will be helpful to visitors. Keep content on pages or entire pages or whatever they believe is helpful. Get rid of things that aren't, if they're looking critically at them as a visitor."I know that Google does not provide specific guidance on what constitutes unhelpful content. However, the documentation does provide some general examples, such as content that is plagiarized, spammy, or irrelevant to the user's search intent.Website owners concerned about their content being labeled as unhelpful should carefully review their pages or enlist the help of a trusted third party. How do you all go about assessing if your content is helpful or not?3. Google Sites: Not Ideal for SEO - Google Sites is a free website builder that allows users to create and publish websites without coding knowledge. The Google site is a hosted website builder that's free and published under a sites.google.com domain, although one can opt to use an actual domain name. Now, Google's John Mueller shared additional details on Google Sites and SEO after someone asked him why Google did not index his Google site. Here is what John replied:"Taking a step back, websites created on Google Sites can and do get indexed in Google Search. However, the URLs used in Google Sites are hard to track since the public version can differ from the URL you see when logged in. To be blunt, while it's technically indexable, it's not ideal for SEO purposes and can be complex for tracking in Search Console. If SEO is your primary consideration, exploring other options and checking the pros and cons before committing might be worthwhile. For performance tracking in the Search Console, you could also use your domain name for the Google Sites content. Using your domain name makes it easier to migrate, should you choose, and allows you to verify ownership of the whole domain for Search Console. "P.S: The Google Sites service is popular with link spammers who create links on Google subdomains in a tactic called "Google Stacking." The idea behind Google Stacking is that spammers generate a page of links on Google Sheets, Google Docs, etc., and then interlink them all from a Google Sites. Google Stacking is based on the mistaken belief that there's "authority" and "trust" in Google subdomains that is transferred over to the spammer sites through links. Of course, that's wishful thinking. There's no such thing used by Google called "trust" or "authority" that gets transferred from one site to another through links.4. The Best Way to Do Paid Guest Posting (According to Google) - Whether paid or unpaid, guest posts are an old tactic. In 2014, Google's Matt Cutts wrote a blog post telling SEO practitioners to "put a fork in it," since guest blogging does not work anymore.The same year Google issued a series of penalties on guest blogging platforms. But these days, Google doesn't hand out penalties like it used to. Google stops the links from passing PageRank. That makes it hard to know whether the guest post is working. So people keep guest posting because the penalty feedback isn't there.During the September 2023 Google SEO Office Hours, an individual asked: "Most websites only offer the option to purchase a "guest post" (to gain a backlink) from them nowadays. Is this against Google's guidelines if I'm writing valuable content?"John Mueller answered: "It sounds like you're already on the right track.Yes, using guest posts for links is against our spam policies. In particular, it's important that these links are qualified in a way that signal that they don't affect search results.You can do this with the rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored attributes on links. It's fine to use advertising to promote your site, but the links should be blocked as mentioned."So, Paid Guest Posts with links are advertisements as far as Google is concerned. Failure to label advertisements is not only misleading to readers but may also violate laws that prohibit misleading advertisements. 

Episode 176 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of August 28 - Sep 1, 2023.1. Google Announces Lighthouse 11 with New Accessibility Audits, and LCP Bug Fix - Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a free tool to help you find and fix issues slowing down your web application. PageSpeed Insights (PSI) reports on the user experience of a page on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions on how that page may be improved. An open-source tool called Lighthouse collects and analyzes lab data that's combined with real-world data from the Chrome User Experience Report dataset. Google has released the latest version (v.11) of Lighthouse, an open-source tool that helps developers and webmasters measure the performance of their websites. Lighthouse 11 includes a number of new features and improvements, including: New accessibility audits: Website accessibility is not currently a ranking factor and quite likely not a quality signal. However it's a best practice for a website to function correctly for as many people as possible. Lighthouse 11 introduces thirteen new accessibility audits that help developers identify and fix accessibility issues on their websites. Changes to how best practices are scored: Lighthouse 11 has changed the way that best practices are scored. This makes it easier for developers to understand how their websites are performing and what they can do to improve their scores. Largest Contentful Paint scoring bug fixed: Lighthouse 11 has fixed a bug that was affecting the scoring of Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). LCP is a measure of how long it takes for the largest content element on a page to become visible. Updated Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to reflect it's no longer experimental: Lighthouse 11 has updated the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric to reflect that it is no longer experimental. INP measures the time it takes for a user to be able to interact with a page after it has loaded. In my opinion, INP is in line to become an official Core Web Vital in 2024. These changes make Lighthouse 11 a more powerful and useful tool for developers and webmasters who want to improve the performance of their websites.2. YouTube Creators Can Now Remove Community Guideline Strikes - YouTube has announced that creators will now be able to remove Community Guideline strikes from their channels by completing educational courses. This is a new policy that was introduced in June 2023, and it is designed to help creators learn about the Community Guidelines and how to avoid violating them in the future.To remove a strike, creators will need to complete a course that covers the Community Guidelines and how to create compliant content. The course is available in several languages, and it takes about an hour to complete. Once the course is completed, the strike will be removed from the channel.This new policy is a positive step for YouTube creators. It provides them with a way to learn from their mistakes and avoid getting strikes in the future. It also shows that YouTube is committed to creating a safe and positive environment for its users.3. Your Site's Language Doesn't Protect It From Google's Penalty - Google can issue manual actions to any site, regardless of the language it is written in. This means that sites written in non-native English can still be penalized by Google if they violate the company's webmaster guidelines.Google Search Advocate, John Muller was asked if Google penalizes sites written by non-native English writers. Mueller responded that manual actions and algorithm changes are independent of the native language of the authors or the site language. He also said that Google does not have a list of "bad" languages, and that all sites are treated equally.This means that site owners who write in non-native English need to be just as careful as those who write in English as their first language. They should avoid any practices that could lead to a manual action, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and duplicate content.4. How Googlebot Handles AI-Generated Content

Episode 175 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of August 21 -25, 2023.1.LinkedIn Makes it Easier to Create and Manage Newsletters - LinkedIn is updating its newsletter creation user interface (UI) to make it easier for users to create and manage their newsletters. The new UI includes a number of improvements, such as a more intuitive design, a preview pane, and the ability to host multiple newsletters.First off, LinkedIn's rolling out an updated newsletter editing and publishing process, improving on the current creation flow. The preview pane allows users to see how their newsletter will look before they publish it. This is a helpful feature for ensuring that the newsletter is formatted correctly and that all of the content is displayed as intended.“The revamped article editor is purposefully designed to offer a seamless and dependable experience, allowing you to completely focus on sharing your insights and expertise. It's now easier than ever to format, layout, and add a mix of photos, videos, links and more. You can save your articles in progress as drafts to seek a second opinion and gather feedback from others before it goes live. With customization options, you can schedule your article to publish when your community is most active and add a SEO title and description for even more reach”The ability to host multiple newsletters is a new feature that allows users to create different newsletters for different purposes. For example, a user could create one newsletter for their company's news and updates, and another newsletter for their thought leadership content. “Any member or Company via Pages can now host up to five newsletters in one place with different topics, design and frequency of posting for each newsletter to strengthen relevance and engagement.”Finally, LinkedIn's also now adding auto-follow for newsletter subscribers, so that when a new subscriber signs up to your newsletter, they'll also follow your regular LinkedIn updates as well. I'm not sure that this is the best way to go, as newsletter subscribers are not explicitly seeking to follow all of a member's updates, but it could help in building your LinkedIn audience, and maximizing engagement through extended notifications.LinkedIn says that its newsletter updates will be rolled out to all users over the next month.2. TikTok Pushes Retailers to Adopt Native Shopping - TikTok is pushing retailers to adopt its native shopping elements, as it looks to further grow its in-app commerce business. The company recently announced that it is shutting down its Storefront feature, which allowed merchants to connect their third-party shopping process into the TikTok UI. Originally launched back in 2021, TikTok's Storefronts are primarily focused on direct connection with Shopify, and enabling Shopify merchants to display their products in-stream. TikTok has since expanded Storefront integration to other eCommerce providers as well, but now, it's confident that its own TikTok Shop offering will cover all retailer requirements.Now, TikTok wants retailers to rely on its own shopping tools, such as TikTok Shop, which allows users to browse and purchase products directly from videos and live streams. According to TikTok: “Storefront will be officially discontinued and unavailable for use. This means your Storefront products will no longer be visible on your TikTok profile, or be eligible for inclusion in short videos, LIVEs and ads. You will also lose access to your Storefront on Store Manager. It's important to migrate from your Storefront to TikTok Shop as soon as possible.”TikTok Shop is still in its early stages, but it has already seen some success. In April, TikTok announced that it had processed over $3 billion in GMV through TikTok Shop. The company is also working on expanding TikTok Shop to other countries, including the United States.The move to native shopping elements is a sign of TikTok's ambitions in the e-commerce space. In China, in-app shopping has become the key revenue stream for the local version of the app, but thus far, Western users haven't shown the same enthusiasm for in-stream purchases. TikTok has the reach, the experience, and the expertise to make this happen. Now, it's just down to whether users actually want to be able to shop in-stream.3. TikTok Launches Search Ads: A New Way to Reach Your Target Audience - It's official – TikTok is bringing ads to its search results.  TikTok has begun rolling out ads in search results, giving brands a new way to reach users who are actively looking for information about their products or services. The ads will appear alongside organic search results, and they will be labeled as "Sponsored." TikTok said this depends on: Relevancy, user intent (as understood from their search query), and broader learnings from other user behavior. Per Tiktok: “The typical search journey starts with a user clicking the search button at the top of the For You feed. From there, they type in a search query, which then yields a series of search results. The ads appear among these search results. Once a user clicks on a search ad, the ad mirrors the in-feed TikTok experience, with users able to continue scrolling through the search results in the order they appear on the page.”TikTok's search ads are not a standalone ads product. Rather, ads are an extension of a TikTok video ad buy. TikTok's search ads are powered by the same technology as its In-Feed Ads, which means that they can be targeted to users based on their interests, demographics, and other factors. This makes them a highly effective way to reach a specific audience with relevant advertising.The launch of TikTok's search ads is a major development for the platform, as it opens up a new revenue stream for the company and gives brands a new way to reach their target audience. It is also a sign of TikTok's growing ambitions in the advertising market. TikTok has 100 million U.S. monthly active users, which means there is a big opportunity for your brand or business to be found. Google has acknowledged TikTok search is a legitimate threat to its search business.4. YouTube's Tips for Creating Successful Shorts - YouTube Shorts is the fastest-growing content type on YouTube, and is now driving over 50 billion daily views in the app. YouTube has published a new interview with Shorts Product Lead Todd Sherman, in which Sherman answers some of the most common questions about Shorts, including how they're using hashtags, how often you should post, the Shorts algorithm, and what's coming next. “For example, on long form, a lot of the times people are choosing which video by tapping on it on their phone, or clicking on it on the web, and that choice is something that drives a lot of engagement. On short form, people are swiping through a feed, and discovering things as they go. That's one important difference.”Sherman says that Shorts views are not measured when a Short appears on screen, but are more aligned with actual viewer interest. “What we try and do with a view is have it encode for your intent of watching that thing, so that creators feel like that view has some meaningful threshold that the person decided to watch. It doesn't mean it's their favorite video ever, it just means that they are deliberately watching it.” Sherman says that YouTube doesn't publish its actual calculations on this, in order to stop people trying to game the system.Sherman says that the Shorts team has opted not to add specific thumbnail creation tools for Shorts because most Shorts views come from people swiping through the Shorts feed, which means that most people won't see your thumbnails anyway. YouTube has added the capacity to select a frame from your clip as the thumbnail, but there are no plans to add custom thumbnail options. YouTube advises that creators should “think audience, not algorithm” within their creative process. On hashtags, he said “Sometimes a hashtag can be associated with a real world thing that's happened, like an event, and you wanna' associate it with it. Other times they're focused on topics, and I think in both those cases, creators should consider using them.”Creators should also experiment with different types of content and collaborate with other creators to reach a wider audience.In terms of the Shorts algorithm, YouTube says that it takes into account factors such as watch time, engagement, and the creator's overall channel performance. The company also advises against posting too many shorts in a short period of time, as this can lead to lower engagement. “If you generated a bunch of relatively lower quality videos and then posted those, and got meager engagement on them, that energy is probably better spent in just making a better video and fewer of them.”Some gurus claim that re-uploading can effectively re-trigger the algorithm to expand your distribution, but Sherman says that this is not a great strategy. “I would not advise that. I've heard people talk about this as like a growth hack on Twitter or something [but] I think that there's also a risk that it gets seen as spam in our systems.”5. Google Ads Enhanced Customer Service: Get help from a Google Ads expert for $50 per call - Google Ads has started rolling out a new paid customer support service for small businesses. PPC expert Natasha Kaurra spotted the new feature on her account for the first time and decided to provide a sneak preview of what it looks like on X (formerly known as Twitter). The service, called "Enhanced Customer Service," offers businesses one-on-one phone consultations with a Google Ads expert for $50 per call. However, the new tool is still in beta and so is not yet available to everyone.The service is currently available to a limited number of businesses, but Google plans to expand it to more businesses in the coming months. Google claims that in the consultation, a Google Ads expert will help the business with a specific issue they are having with their Google Ads campaigns. The expert can help with a variety of tasks, such as setting up campaigns, optimizing bids, and creating ad copy.The service is designed to help small businesses get the most out of Google Ads. By providing businesses with one-on-one support, Google hopes to help them improve their campaigns and get better results.Please listen to me and stay away from this service. If you want to hear why I'm asking you to stay away from this service then do give the show a listen. 6. Google August 2023 Core Update: What You Need to Know - Google announced its August 2023 core update on August 22, 2023. This is the second broad core algorithm update of 2023, following the March 2023 core update.The August 2023 core update is designed to improve the quality of search results. Google has not released any specific details about the update, but it is likely to focus on factors such as relevance, expertise, and authority.Early unconfirmed reports suggest that the August 2023 core update has had a significant impact on search results. Some websites have seen their rankings improve, while others have seen their rankings decline.It is important to note that core updates can take several weeks to fully roll out. This means that the full impact of the August 2023 core update may not be known for some time. Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form: Name: Google August 2023 Broad Core Update Launched: August 22, 2023 at around 1:30 pm ET Rollout: It will take about one to two weeks to roll out Targets: It looks at all types of content Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages. Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update but so far, this seems to be a typical core update that reaches wide and the impact is fast. Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more. Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's core update advice. 7. Google Search Can Now Index CSV Files: What You Need to Know - Google Search has recently updated its help document to say that it can now index Comma-Separated Values (.csv) files. This means that Google Search can now show CSV files in its search results when relevant to the query. This is a significant change, as it opens up the possibility of indexing a much wider range of data.CSV files are a common way to store data, and they are often used to store information such as customer lists, product data, and financial data. This means that businesses and organizations that have CSV files can now potentially have their data indexed by Google Search.There are a few things to keep in mind if you want to have your CSV files indexed by Google Search. First, the file must be publicly accessible. Second, the file must be well-formatted and easy to read. Third, the file must contain relevant keywords.8. Google: Internal Links Pointing To Same Page Don't Affect SEO -  John Mueller was asked if internal links that point to the same page have any SEO value. The exact question from Sina Afkham was, "How much weight does Google give to internal links pointing to a page itself? Does Google consider the anchor text of these links to gain a better understanding of what the page is about?" Mueller replied that Google does not give these links any more weight than other links. He explained that Google understands that internal links are often used to create a navigation structure for a website, and that they do not necessarily indicate that the linked page is more important than other pages on the site.This means that internal links pointing to the same page should not be used as a way to artificially boost the ranking of that page in search results. Instead, internal links should be used to help users navigate your website and find the information they are looking for.9. On Google's Ranking Systems From Google's Search Off The Record Podcast - In a recent episode of the Google Search Off The Record podcast, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, discussed the company's ranking systems and how they are evolving. Sullivan revealed that Google uses multiple ranking systems, not just one algorithm, and that these systems are constantly being updated. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, there's the Google algorithm, and that's it, it's this big giant thing.' And of course, as we all know, there's multiple systems that all come into play.”He also said that Google is now viewing updates as ongoing, rather than one-time changes. The podcast touched on SEO professionals' mistaken beliefs about ranking algorithm updates. One misconception is that each new update necessitates reworking your SEO strategy. However, Sullivan disagrees with this view.“If you've seen a change after one of these systems has been launched or an updated system been launched then that's probably a sign that, well, maybe you're not as aligned as you should be with what these things have been looking for with what Google's generally trying to look for.”Sullivan addressed the concerns of some SEO professionals who believe that Google's increased transparency about its ranking systems could lead to more gaming of the system. He said that Google is committed to providing accurate and relevant search results, and that it will continue to take steps to prevent gaming.“I think that I feel like more of our shift these days is less about these are the specific things and more of these are the mindsets you should be following.”Finally, Sullivan discussed the importance of creating high-quality content that is relevant to users' search intent - Create genuine, engaging content tailored to your target audience. He said that this is still the best way to rank well in Google search results.“Now more than ever, having that authentic content that you created because you have an actual audience in mind that you know would come to it directly, that is your way forward as you try to navigate this world of how ranking systems are evolving.”In conclusion, while staying informed is essential, Sullivan says most updates don't require dramatic alterations to your overall SEO approach.10. Google: A Page Doesn't Have To Be In The Top 10 Results To Be A Featured Snippet - Featured snippets (also known as Answer box) are a type of search result that appears at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and quickly answer the users search query. They are typically a brief summary of the most relevant information from a web page, and they can be a great way to get your content noticed by searchers.There are a number of factors that can affect the ranking of featured snippets, including the quality and relevance of the content, the use of keywords, and the overall structure of the page. However, Google has not revealed the exact algorithm that is used to determine which pages are eligible for featured snippets.Shubham Davey asked John Muller "if a page isn't ranking in the top 10 on SERPs, are those pages eligible for featured snippets?"  Google's John Mueller said there is no rule that a page has to rank in the top ten search result positions for it to be considered eligible for a featured snippet position. This directly contradicts the results of a study published by Ahrefs and backed by their own data where they wrote: “If your page is ranking anywhere in the top10 Google search results, it has a chance to also get the #0 spot - a featured snippet. And the best part is that the amount of effort required to get featured is almost zero (that is, if you get lucky).”Google's Danny Sullivan added: “If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.”Given that Ahref contradicts with what John and Danny said, my question to you: Who will you listen to? An outsider or Google's official rep?

Episode 174 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of August 14 -18, 2023.1. Google Ads Sunsetting Enhanced CPC on Shopping campaigns - Google Ads Shopping campaigns will no longer use Enhanced cost-per-click (eCPC) starting in October. Instead, Shopping campaigns using eCPC will behave as though they are using Manual CPC bidding, according to an email Google sent advertisers. Google explained that it is adopting more advanced strategies and campaigns as its technology improves. Google pointed out that eCPC was launched more than 10 years ago, and new strategies, such as target ROAS, Maximise conversion value and fully automated campaigns like Performance Max, can help you achieve the same or better results.If you are using eCPC, Google recommends taking the following actions:  In your Standard Shopping campaigns, try the one-click Target ROAS experiments for Shopping, which you can find in your campaign settings.  Alternatively, you can trial Google Ads' newest fully automated solution, Performance Max campaigns. 2. Google Testing Small Advertisers Premium Support - Not sure if this true but Search Engine Journal reported that Google Ads has launched  a new pilot program to provide enhanced customer service for a select group of small Google Ads customers. The goal of the paid pilot program is to: “… provide agencies and advertisers with specialized one-on-one support tailored to specific customer needs.”This marks a shift for Google, which has historically reserved this high-touch level of support for its largest advertising clients.My thoughts in the show. Listen and find out.3. Google Makes it Easier for Customers to Find You on Social Media - Google has announced that businesses can now add social media links to their Google Business Profiles. This new feature allows businesses to make it easier for customers to find and connect with them on social media.To add social media links to your Google Business Profile, you will need to: Go to your Google Business Profile. Click on the Edit button. Click on the Contact tab. Under Social profiles, enter the URL for each social media platform where you have a presence. Click on the Save button. Once you have added your social media links, they will be displayed on your Google Business Profile. Customers will be able to click on the links to visit your social media profiles.4. Google: Domain Name Does Not Make Or Break Your SEO - We've covered this topic in the past however it came up this week so we are covering it again. Here is what Google's John Muller wrote:“An #seo question from the X-Twitter world: In the domain name, is the use of dash ( – ) recommended or not? It's fine  Pick a domain name for your brand for the long run, don't just collect keywords (the common reason for dashes). Build out a domain. – For SEO, dashes are very minimally better in URLs than underscores. Don't change your URLs for them tho. Don't use spaces, commas, colons, etc in URLs.  Your domain name is never going to make or break your SEO.” 5. Is It Okay to Use noindex to Remove a Page from SERP Sitelinks? - Google's John Mueller answered a question about whether it's okay to use the noindex meta tag to remove a page from SERP sitelinks. Here is the original question: “Is noindex a good way to get a page out of a search result sitelinks? Should be an option in web console imho but a specific real estate agent's page is part of the website sitelinks where there are lots of other pages like About etc. that should be there instead. Should I temporarily noindex the agent's page to get it off the sitelinks?”What are SERP sitelinks? SERP Sitelinks are clustered links in the search results from one domain and are are typically shown when someone searches for the name or URL of a website.And a noindex meta tag is a directive, which means that search engines are obligated to obey the request. In the case of a meta noindex tag, this means that search engines are required to drop a webpage from the index. In simple terms, there's an indexing engine, which is the part with Googlebot that goes out, crawls the web and acquires website content for possible inclusion into Google's index. And there's also a ranking engine.Mueller said that it's generally fine to use noindex for this purpose, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.“I suspect (computers do weird things, so no guarantees :-)) what would happen is we'd drop it (during the noindex) and return it to normal (same state as before) when you remove the noindex. We wouldn't see a temporary noindex as a signal that you like it a little bit less — it's either indexable or not, the ranking side is separate from the indexing.”Google lists a number of steps that publishers can take to keep less desirable pages out of the sitelinks in their official documentation: Make sure that the text you use as your page titles and in your headings is informative, relevant, and compact.  Create a logical site structure that is easy for users to navigate, and make sure you link to your important pages from other relevant pages.  Ensure that your internal links' anchor text is concise and relevant to the page they're pointing to.  Avoid repetitions in your content. However it still does not solve the mystery as to why a less desirable page is showing up in SERP sitelinks. May be what is less desirable to the site owner is more desirable to Google? 6. Why Your Site Might Not Be Ranking in Google Despite Good SEO? During August 2023, SEO Office hour, someone asked “Why is my site not ranking despite low competition and good SEO? I have a sitemap, indexed pages, updated content, backlinks and on-page optimization. But my site is still not in the top 200 results for my keywords.”Before I jump into what Google's John Muller said in his reply, I want to point out that “Good” is subjective here. It depends on the expertise, knowledge, and competence of the individual making that judgment. Until failure makes a knowledge gap obvious, it is difficult to be aware of what one does not know.So "good" SEO might mean different things. Anyways, now on to how Muller responded. First he said “I see this kind of question often. Google tends to focus on various technical aspects when it comes to talking about SEO, but you need to do more.A good way to think about this is to compare it to the offline world.  When it comes to books, does a good cover photo, a reasonable sentence length, few misspellings, and a good topic mean that a book will become a best-seller? Or as a restaurant, does using the right ingredients and cooking in a clean kitchen mean you'll get a lot of customers? Technical details are good to cover well, but there's more involved in being successful.”Hmm. So Mueller responded to the question in riddles. IMO, what he is saying that in addition to technical details you need to have good quality content aka helpful content. More of my thoughts in the show. 7. Google Doesn't Use Third-Party SEO Tool Scores for Rankings - Google has clarified its stance on third-party SEO tool scores, stating that Google does not use these scores to determine search rankings. “Once again, no, Google does not use scores from third-party SEO tools for search. However, that doesn't mean that they're all useless.” This means that while these tools can be helpful for providing insights into a website's SEO performance, they should not be relied upon as a definitive measure of success. “Transparently calculated scores can be useful to estimate your website's standing or to point out actual issues. They could help with the next steps or perhaps even qualify the work that was done.”John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, made the clarification in a recent episode of the "Ask Googlebot" video series. He explained that Google's algorithms are constantly evolving, and that they take into account a variety of factors when ranking websites. These factors include the quality and relevance of the content, the number and quality of backlinks, and the user experience.Mueller mentioned Google's Chrome Lighthouse tool as a helpful tool that doesn't directly impact rankings. Lighthouse generates scores for website performance, but Google doesn't use them to rank websites in search results. However, Mueller explained the performance scores from Lighthouse could benefit you: “The score is transparently created based on various tests, which you can look at. With the overall score, you can estimate how well your website performs for those tests.” Website analytics scores can help you find problems, such as utilizing overly brief anchor text that could negatively impact site navigation. Though these concerns may not directly affect search engine ranking positions, they could still affect user experience and click-through rate.He said that these tools can be helpful, but they should not be used as a substitute for understanding how Google's algorithms work. Website authority scores, spam scores – Google doesn't use any of those in ranking. It's just an SEO myth that won't die.

Episode 173 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of August 7 -11, 2023.1. Amazon is Testing AI to Write Product Descriptions for Sellers - Amazon is reportedly testing a generative AI tool for sellers that writes copy for product listings. This marks a significant move in integrating large language models (LLMs) into ecommerce. The tool is anticipated to revolutionize how merchants create and optimize product descriptions.According to a report by TechCrunch, Amazon is testing the tool with a small group of sellers. The tool is able to generate titles and descriptions for product listings, as well as bullet points and images. The tool is still under development, but it has the potential to save sellers a significant amount of time and effort.The use of LLMs in ecommerce is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to disrupt the industry. LLMs can be used to generate product descriptions, write customer reviews, and even create marketing campaigns. As LLMs become more sophisticated, they are likely to play an increasingly important role in ecommerce.2. Meta to Replace Inactive Group Admins: What You Need to Know -  Meta has begun notifying some group admins that they need to be more active in moderating their groups, or Meta will assign another group member to the job instead. This change is likely in response to the ongoing moderator conflict at Reddit, which has seen some large and popular communities become unmoderated or even taken over by bad actors.The notification that Meta is sending to group admins says that they need to "take action to maintain activity" within their groups within one week. This includes things like posting new content, responding to comments, and enforcing the group's rules. If admins do not take action, Meta will assign another group member to the role.This change is likely to have a significant impact on many Facebook groups. Many groups rely on their admins to keep them active and moderated, and if those admins are replaced, it could lead to the decline or even collapse of those groups. It is also possible that this change could lead to an increase in spam and abuse in Facebook groups, as there will be fewer admins to monitor them.3. YouTube Cracks Down on Spammy Links in Shorts - YouTube is rolling out a new linking policy that will make it more difficult for creators to post spammy links in their Shorts videos and channel descriptions. The new policy will take effect on August 31, 2023.Under the new policy, links in Shorts videos and channel descriptions will be automatically converted to unclickable text. Creators will still be able to include links in their videos and descriptions, but they will need to be manually approved by YouTube before they can be clicked on.YouTube is making this change in an effort to curb the spread of spam on its platform. In recent months, YouTube has seen an increase in the number of spammy links being posted in Shorts videos and channel descriptions. These links often lead to malicious websites or scams.The new linking policy is expected to make it more difficult for spammers to spread their content on YouTube. It will also make it easier for users to identify and avoid spammy links.4. YouTube Expands Link Limit for Channel Profiles: Add Up to 14 Links Now! - YouTube is rolling out an update that will allow creators to add up to 14 links to their channel profiles, up from the previous limit of 5. This new feature is designed to give creators more ways to promote their content and drive traffic to their websites, social media profiles, and other online destinations.To add links to your channel profile, simply go to the "About" tab and click on the "Links" section. You can then enter up to 14 links, each with a title and a description. The links will be displayed in a grid format on your channel profile, and viewers can click on them to visit the linked destinations.This new feature is a welcome addition for YouTube creators, as it gives them more flexibility and control over how they promote their content. It can also help creators to drive traffic to their websites and social media profiles, which can help them to grow their audience and reach more viewers.5. YouTube Makes it Easier to Find Longer Content from Shorts - YouTube is testing a new feature that will allow creators to link their Shorts clips to longer video uploads. This will make it easier for viewers to find and watch longer content that is related to the Shorts they have enjoyed.The new feature is currently being tested with a small group of creators. If it is successful, it could be rolled out to all creators in the coming months.The ability to link Shorts clips to longer video uploads is a significant development for YouTube. It could help creators to grow their audiences and drive more traffic to their channels. It could also help to make YouTube a more discoverable platform for users.6. YouTube's New Report: See How Your Videos Are Performing by Format - YouTube has announced a new report that will allow creators to see how their videos are performing by format. The report, which is available in YouTube Studio, breaks down views, watch time, and other metrics by video format, including Shorts, longform videos, and live streams.This new report is a valuable tool for creators who want to understand how their viewers are engaging with their content. It can help creators to identify which formats are performing well and which ones could use improvement. This information can then be used to make strategic decisions about future content creation.For example, if a creator sees that their Shorts are getting a lot of views but their longform videos are not, they may want to focus on creating more Shorts in the future. Or, if a creator sees that their live streams are getting a lot of engagement but their Shorts are not, they may want to experiment with different ways to promote their live streams.The new report is just one of the many ways that YouTube is helping creators to succeed. By providing creators with insights into their performance, YouTube is empowering them to make informed decisions about their content creation.7. 3 Ways to Keep Your AI Chatbot Content Out of Google Search - AI chatbots are becoming increasingly common on websites across the globe, providing instant customer service and engagement. But AI-powered agents can also produce inaccurate content that website owners may not want to be a part of their human-edited and generated content. Google's Search Advocate, John Mueller, recently advised website owners to consider ways to block artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot content from indexing. This is because AI chatbot content can often be repetitive and low-quality, which can negatively impact a website's search engine ranking.There are three main ways to block Google from indexing AI chatbot content: Use a roboted iframe. This is a frame that the site owner can control independently, allowing them to apply a noindex directive to it, which prevents it from being indexed by search engine bots since Google can crawl iframes. Use a roboted JavaScript file / resource. This is a file that can be used to control how Google crawls and indexes a website. By adding a noindex directive to this file, Google will be prevented from indexing the AI chatbot content. Use the data-nosnippet attribute. This attribute can be added to HTML elements to prevent them from being included in the snippet that is displayed in search results. This can be useful for blocking AI chatbot content that is not relevant to the user's search intent. It is important to note that these methods are not foolproof. Google may still be able to index AI chatbot content if it is not properly blocked. However, by using these methods, website owners can significantly reduce the chances of their AI chatbot content being indexed.8. Google Ads Updates: Get More Customers with New Features - Google Ads is rolling out a number of new features and making major updates to its platform in the coming months. These changes are designed to help advertisers improve their campaigns and get better results. The changes to Google Ads were unveiled via an announcement on their announcement page. They wrote: “This holiday season is just around the corner, which means one thing: shoppers and retailers alike are working on their checklists. In fact, today's shoppers are being more intentional with their holiday purchases, with 74% planning their shopping ahead of time.” “AI-powered tools are transforming businesses' ability to move faster, better understand the intent of their customers, and engage them in new ways across the path to purchase.” “Today, we're excited to share new tools to generate insights and new features to help you do more with Google AI.” Here are  the things you should know about: Local inventory ads and Omnichannel Shoppers - According to Google's data, 61% of holiday shoppers use five or more channels while shopping over two days. To reach these omnichannel consumers, Google is expanding ad formats and adding new optimization tools. For example, businesses can now use “Pickup Later” annotations for local inventory ads if they don't have a feed set up. Insights On Early Holiday Shopping - Advertisers can now access more granular performance reporting on products, brands, and labels over time in the Ads interface to capitalize on this. The Performance tab in Google Merchant Center has also been upgraded with competitive benchmarks on bestselling items and pricing visibility. Targeting - Google is enhancing the promotions, shipping details, and visuals on product listings to help items stand out. Advertisers can now target deals to specific locations and categories. Same-day delivery and return information will also be more prominent. AI Tools In Product Studio - Google is launching new tools to help retailers improve product images and create 3D visual assets. Product Studio will be available within Merchant Center Next, Google's upgraded interface for managing Shopping campaigns. It will also be available on the Google & YouTube App on Shopify. Shopify merchants can access Product Studio directly through their Shopify account. Early adopters can test out Product Studio ahead of its full release. AI Strategy in Performance Max - Google urges more advertisers to adopt its AI-powered Performance Max campaigns this holiday season. The platform can now optimize for high lifetime value new customers, helping businesses focus spending on valuable first-time buyers. Early adopters who have switched from standard Shopping campaigns to Performance Max have reportedly seen a 25% increase in conversion value on average, at similar return on ad spend levels. 9. Google Updates Performance Max Best Practices: How to Get Better Results - Google has updated its Performance Max best practices guide, with new recommendations for businesses of all sizes. The guide covers everything from setting goals and budgets to creating effective creative.One of the key changes in the new guide is the emphasis on using Performance Max to achieve specific business goals. The updated best practices guide underscores how Performance Max campaigns can help retailers optimize ad spending across Google's search, display, YouTube, and other inventory. In short – Performance Max utilizes AI to present customers with the most relevant combination of ad creatives across devices and marketing channels.The guide also provides new recommendations for leveraging Google's Performance Planner for optimizing budgets and bids. Performance Planner gives retailers suggested budget and bid adjustments to help campaigns achieve better performance for the same spend. Additionally, the guide offers tips on demand forecasts to understand predicted trends relevant to your business.The guide encourages marketers to experiment to measure the uplift in conversion value from switching to Performance Max. Here is what Google wrote: “If you are running Standard Shopping campaigns, you can run an experiment in order to measure the uplift in conversion value from switching to Performance Max. … If you're satisfied with the results of your A/B experiment, you can then continue running your new Performance Max campaign to replace your Standard Shopping campaign.”The guide provides tips on strategies like lower ROAS targets to increase visibility for high-priority products leading to significant retail moments. “For example, you may want a campaign for holiday merchandise, a campaign for high-margin products, and a campaign for everything else. Setting a lower ROAS target can also help maximize visibility for these products…”To help Performance Max campaigns learn faster, Google advises consolidating campaign structures where possible. “When setting up a new Performance Max campaign, you should consolidate your campaign structure where you can. Google AI works best when it can optimize performance across channels using a unified budget.”With the latest Performance Max capabilities, retailers can optimize for acquiring high-value customers. “New Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization is also now available in beta to help you optimize for new customers with high predicted lifetime value.”The guide concludes with a thorough review of reporting and insights, focusing on using retail-centric reports.The updated Performance Max best practices guide is a valuable resource for businesses of all sizes. By following the recommendations in the guide, businesses can improve the performance of their campaigns and achieve their desired results.10. Google Downgrades HowTo and FAQ Rich Results: What You Need to Know - Google will be showing fewer rich results in its search results, specifically showing less FAQ rich results across the search result snippets and limiting How-To rich results to desktop devices.Google said the FAQs, FAQPage structured data, rich results will only be shown for “well-known, authoritative government and health websites.”For all other sites, this rich result will no longer be shown regularly, Google added. Which sites Google decides to show them for are automated and algorithmic.Google said there is no reason to remove structured data from your site. Google said “Structured data that's not being used does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search.”Google said the How-To, from HowTo structured data, rich results will only be shown for desktop users, and not for users on mobile devices.Google added that “with mobile indexing, Google indexes the mobile version of a website as the basis for indexing: to have How-To rich results shown on desktop, the mobile version of your website must include the appropriate markup.”Google wrote, “For both of these items, you may also notice this change in the Search Console reporting for your website. In particular, this will be visible in the metrics shown for FAQ and How-To search appearances in the performance report, and in the number of impressions reported in the appropriate enhancement reports. This change does not affect the number of items reported in the enhancement reports. The search appearances, and the reports, will remain in Search Console for the time being.”11. Semantic HTML: Can It Help With SEO Success in 2023? - Semantic HTML is the practice of using HTML elements to convey the meaning of the content on a web page. This is in contrast to using HTML elements only for presentational purposes.There are many benefits to using semantic HTML for SEO. First, it helps search engines understand the content of your page better. This can lead to your page ranking higher in search results. Second, it can help users find the information they are looking for on your page more easily. Third, it can make your page more accessible to people with disabilities.Google's John Mueller, in a recent SEO Office Hours session, answered a question about whether the semantic HTML element has an impact on Google. John answered the question directly but there is a fair bit of nuance that was left out of his answer that needs to be addressed.The questioner asked: “Does the use of an HTML tag have an impact on Google? Is it better to put the content of a product listing page in an tag?”John responded: “The HTML element does not have any particular effect in Google Search. This is similar to lots of other kinds of HTML tags. There's so much more to using HTML than just Google Search though! Sometimes there are accessibility or semantic reasons to use a specific kind of markup, so don't only focus on SEO.”John Mueller correctly said that there are “semantic reasons” for some HTML elements. Semantic HTML tells developers (or search engines) what the purpose of that code is. For example, the element tells developers or search engines that whatever is wrapped within that element is the footer section of the webpage. The semantic HTML element describes the purpose of that section of content. The element makes it easier for search engines to identify where the main content is, making it easier to find where to find what Google's Martin Splitt calls, the Centerpiece Annotation.Of course you need to have good content in the block and if you do then you definitely make it easier for the Google crawler.12. Google Warns: Content Pruning Can Hurt Your SEO - Gizmodo published an article “exposing” CNET for deleting thousands of pages, as they put it to “game Google Search.” This, even though content pruning is a fairly common advanced SEO practice. And CNET decided which pages to “redirect, repurpose or remove (deprecate)” by looking at metrics such as: Pageviews. Backlink profiles Amount of time passed since the last update. And from an August 2023 leaked internal memo we learned that someone at CNET thinks that old content “sends a signal to Google that says CNET is fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors in search results,”It's evident that, CNET needs better advice on how SEO works. Deleting content does not signal those three things. Publishing relevant, trustworthy, helpful, quality content for your audience on a technically sound website is what makes you worthy of greater organic search visibility.Here is the bad news for CNET - Google doesn't want to reward sites that are primarily driven by SEO traffic. The helpful content system is meant to reward websites that are primarily creating content for users, not search engines. Also, there is no “penalty” for having old content on your website. Google will not send a manual action notice to CNET, or any site, because you have an article that was published in 2015, or 2007, or 2003, or whatever year.To bolster my point, Google's Danny Sullivan, via his @SearchLiaison account on X, posted: “Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like ‘old' content? That's not a thing! Our guidance doesn't encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too.”When someone asked Sullivan on what to do if the old content has broken links, is no longer relevant or can't be made more helpful. Sullivan's response was: “The page itself isn't likely to rank well. Removing it might mean if you have a massive site that we're better able to crawl other content on the site. But it doesn't mean we go ‘oh, now the whole site is so much better' because of what happens with an individual page.”The “deleting old content is good for SEO” belief started back to 2011 (12+ years back) after Google launched the Panda update. After the launch, a Google employee wrote :”In addition, it's important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site's ranking as a whole. For this reason, if you believe you've been impacted by this change you should evaluate all the content on your site and do your best to improve the overall quality of the pages on your domain. Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”IMO, may be that idea made sense back in 2011 but these days one needs to be informed and careful.  Google's Danny Sullivan, clarified that there is more need for nuance in this particular discussion and tried to make it clear that Google has never advised people to delete content simply because it's old. Other prominent Googlers, including John Mueller and Gary Illyes, have also advised improving content, instead of removing it, whenever possible.Deleting old content can be good for SEO performance. To be clear: deleting old content alone – just because it's old – probably won't help you much. However, deleting, improving and consolidating content should be part of your SEO strategy because it helps improve your overall content quality – or, as Mueller once put it, “building out your reputation of knowledge on that topic.”

Join Tim and Jess as they discuss the latest addition of links, videos, and images to Google's Search Generative Experience (i.e. AI-fuelled search results), plus the latest marketing news. Watch the podcast instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6J4H6_bfvg Get a FREE review of your website @ https://exposureninja.com/rpod/review/ Get the show notes @ https://exposureninja.com/podcast/extra-023/ Download our eBook @ https://exposureninja.com/your-google-book/ You May Also Enjoy… Google's SECRET SEO Guide (and How to Use It) Lessons From Kim K's $4 Billion Brand Valuation 615% Organic Traffic Increase With SEO and Content

Episode 172 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 31 - August 4, 2023.1. OpenAI's GPTBot: The New Web Crawler That's Changing the Game - OpenAI has announced the launch of GPTBot, a new web crawler that uses large language models to crawl the web. GPTBot is designed to be more efficient and effective than traditional web crawlers, and it can be used to collect data for a variety of purposes, including research, development, and marketing.You can use robots.txt to block GPTBot from accessing your website, or parts of it. To disallow GPTBot to access your site you can add GPTBot to your site's robots.txt:User-agent: GPTBotDisallow: /To allow GPTBot to access only parts of your site, you can add the GPTBot token to your site's robots.txt like this:User-agent: GPTBotAllow: /directory-1/Disallow: /directory-2/GPTBot documentation. You can read the documentation on GPTBot.GPTBot IP ranges. OpenAI also published the IP ranges that GPTBot uses. It only lists one, but I suspect they will add more over time.2. Google Releases Responsive Search Ads Guide - Responsive search ads (RSAs) are a type of ad that allows you to create multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google will test different combinations to see which ones perform best. This can help you to create more effective ads that are more likely to get clicks.To create an RSA, you will need to provide a minimum of 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Google will then test different combinations of these headlines and descriptions, and the best-performing combinations will be used in your ads.Now Google has released a Responsive Search Ads guide to help marketers improve their campaign performance.The new RSA guide includes Google's advice and information on how: To write ads for maximum conversions. RSAs use Google AI to generate ad copy. To evaluate a campaign's effectiveness. A Google spokesperson said: "Our goal is to simplify the work it takes to create high-quality ads that achieve your business objectives at scale. To do this, we're hard at work applying the newest AI-powered innovations across asset generation, customizing assets for relevance, and both simplifying and improving tools for managing ads."Read Google's Responsive Search Ads guide (PDF) for more information.3. YouTube Shorts Adds Six New Features - YouTube Shorts, the short-form video platform from YouTube, has launched a number of new features to improve content creation. The new features rolled out on YouTube Shorts are: Collab – This new feature allows creators to film a Short alongside other YouTube or Short videos in a side-by-side format.  Multiple layout options are available. Q&A stickers – Content creators can use this new feature to ask viewers questions. The audience can then leave their replies in the comments section, enabling creators to give them a shoutout as they can see who left the response. Mobile-first vertical live – This new feature is what will allow live creators to get discovered in the Shorts feed. YouTube is hoping this will enable creators to connect live with a new audience and build communities in a more modern way.  Creation suggestions – YouTube can now automatically bundle the audio and effects from a Short you may be remixing. The platform can surface the same audio time stamp from the Short you just watched, and add the same effect as a creation suggestion.  Content creators also have the option to mix and match.  Shorts playlist – Creators can now save Shorts to playlists directly onto YouTube.  Transform horizontal videos to Shorts – This new feature is being trialled in the coming weeks. Users will now be able to choose a video to remix and adjust the layout, zoom and crop to turn it into a Short.4. YouTube's New AI-Generated Video Summaries: A Quick Way to Get the Cliff Notes - YouTube is testing a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to generate summaries of videos. The summaries are displayed in a small box below the video player, and they provide a brief overview of the video's content. “We're starting to test AI auto-generated summaries on YouTube, so that it's easier for you to read a quick summary about a video and decide whether it's the right fit for you. To begin with, you may see these summaries on watch and search pages. While we hope these summaries are helpful and give you a quick overview of what a video is about, they do not replace video descriptions (which are written by creators!).”The summaries are generated using a technique called natural language processing, which allows computers to understand and process human language. The summaries are not perfect, but they can be a helpful way to get a quick overview of a video before you decide to watch it. Remember, generative AI produces a lot of misleading, untrue, and confused content.5. Linking to High-Authority Sites Won't Help Your SEO - Google Search Advocate John Mueller recently clarified that linking to popular sites like Wikipedia does not impact search rankings, dispelling a myth that has persisted among SEO practitioners. He stated that linking to high-authority sites does not help SEO, and that the focus should be on providing useful links that benefit users.Mueller further illustrated his point with a humorous example, saying, “Here's my affiliate site about handbags – and here's a link to CNN & Wikipedia, please take me seriously now, k?” His statement underscores the misconception that linking to high-authority sites is akin to borrowing their credibility. Instead he advised: “Does this link provide additional, unique value to users? Then, link naturally. Is this link irrelevant to my users? Then don't link to it.”6. Keyword Stuffing: How Many Times Should You Use a Keyword on a Page? -  Keyword stuffing is a practice of repeating the same keywords or phrases too many times on a page in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings. However, Google has become very good at detecting keyword stuffing, and pages that engage in this practice are often penalized in search results.In a recent Twitter thread, Google's John Mueller said that there is no need to worry about keyword stuffing if you only use a keyword 10-20 times on a page. However, if you unnecessarily overuse a keyword, then you may be engaging in keyword stuffing and could be penalized by Google. The question you should ask yourself : “Will the reader be ok with having to read the keyword multiple times?”7. Google Releases Appeal Form For Ads Trademark Policy Violations - Google announced a change to its Google Ads trademark policy and will require advertisers to file an appeal form if their ad is flagged for trademark infringement. Previously, advertisers could simply click a button to appeal a flagged ad, but the new process requires them to provide more information about their ad and why they believe it is not infringing on a trademark.The change is intended to simplify and speed up the appeals process for advertisers, as well as to provide more clarity for trademark holders about why their trademarks are being used in Google Ads. However, some advertisers have complained that the new process is too cumbersome and time-consuming.8. Blocking Banner Ads From Getting Indexed - Someone on Reddit asked Google's John Muller if it is possible to prevent Banner Ads from getting Indexed. The person was worried that GoogleBot will consider banner ads as duplicate content since the same banner will appear on all the pages on the site.John simply answered that: “You cannot noindex a part of a page like that.” And John is **somewhat** correct. However, if you have good knowledge & understanding of Semantic HTML then you will know that to avoid potential confusion and issues, you need to put your banner ads outside of the “main” tag or if it appears within “main” then wrap the ad within the “aside” tag.While Google in general can identify what content is advertising and which content is main content, but don't leave it to chance, use semantic HTML markup to make it clear for Google. It's an SEO best practice to make the page structure exceedingly clear for Google.

Join Tim and Jess as they discuss the $4B valuation of Kim Kardashian's SKIMS brand, as well as the latest marketing news, including takeaways from Google's last earnings call. Watch the podcast instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zecCaAnMlN0 Get a FREE review of your website @ https://exposureninja.com/rpod/review/ Get the show notes @ https://exposureninja.com/podcast/extra-022/ Download our eBook @ https://exposureninja.com/your-google-book/ You May Also Enjoy… What Marketers Can Learn from the Barbie Movie The Importance of PPC in an AI Search World How Brand Positioning Will 10x Your Leads and Sales  

Episode 171 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 24-28, 2023.1. Google and Microsoft Ad Revenue Up: What Does This Mean for Marketers? - Google and Microsoft both reported strong earnings for Q2 2023, with ad revenue growth outpacing overall revenue growth. Google's ad revenue was up 3.3% year-over-year (revenue increased by $1.85 billion from the previous year, while YouTube ad revenue was $7.67 billion, up from $7.34 billion in 2022), while Microsoft's ad revenue was up 8%. Google's ad revenue growth was driven by growth in Search and YouTube. Microsoft's ad revenue growth was driven by growth in Bing and LinkedIn. LinkedIn's overall revenue increased by $197 million, driven by stronger interest in its Talent Solutions recruitment offerings. But LinkedIn saw a decline in overall ad spend in the most recent period, though Microsoft also reduced its overall marketing spend to offset this. On another front, LinkedIn is also still reporting that it has 202M+ users in United States.Based on LinkedIn's reports from earlier this year, is that the platform has seen A 22% increase in views of updates in the main feed year-over-year A 25% increase in public conversations in the app YoY Newsletter creation increased 10X in 2022 What you really need to know, however, is who of your target audience is active in the app, and for that, you can use LinkedIn's Audience insights, and/or your company page analytics, to glean more info on your specific active audience. Taking into account that LinkedIn is seeing ‘record levels' of engagement, these types of data notes can help to inform your strategy, and reach the people that are engaging with your business.2. Meta's Ad Revenue Up 12% In Q2 - Meta's ad revenue increased by 12% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the year-earlier period, surpassing expectations.Advertising revenue for Q2 2023 was $31.5 billion compared to $28.2 billion in the same period in 2022. This success helped drive total Meta revenue to grow 11% year-on-year from $28.8 billion in Q2 2022 to $32 billion in Q2 2023.Meta's Q2 2023 performance also showed impressive growth in user engagement. Facebook's daily active user count increased by 5% to reach 2.06 billion. The number of monthly active users was 3.03 billion, up 3% year-on-year. The “family of apps” category, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, saw a 7% year-over-year rise in daily active users, totalling 3.07 billion. The number of monthly active users in this category also increased by 6% to 3.88 billion. This is the first time that Meta has achieved double-digit growth since the fourth quarter of 2021, with much of its strong performance driven by growth in ad revenue. This sends a clear message that digital advertising is bouncing back after it took a setback due to the economic downturn. Now, forecasters are predicting increased ad spend for later on in the year, which will create more opportunities for marketers.3. Google: DSA And GDA Advertisers Should Upgrade To Performance Max - Google announced two voluntary upgrades to Performance Max for Dynamic Search (DSA) and Google Display (GDA) advertisers. The AI-driven platform optimizes performance across channels by allowing users to customize their inputs, making it more responsive to individual business needs. Advertisers have seen an average increase of 15% – 20% in conversions after upgrading to a unified campaign strategy.One of the recent enhancements in Performance Max prevents your campaign from serving ads on traffic related to certain brands. This would offer more control over search results. Advertisers can now specify landing page URLs or exclude certain URLs at the campaign level, offering greater customization via brand settings.Performance Max customizes your entire Search ad to match consumer intent better using automatically created assets. These automatic assets will soon appear in the asset reporting table, giving users more control. Performance Max also simplifies the implementation of audience strategies through goals directly integrated into the campaign, like new customer acquisition. Google plans to add re-engagement goals in Performance Max later this year to help retain existing customers. Instead of manually managing complex user lists and exclusions, Google will automatically distinguish between new and existing customers.Although voluntary, the self-upgrade process is highly recommended to start with Performance Max for DSA and GDA campaigns. Advertisers who choose to upgrade can use best practices offered by Google to ensure new Performance Max campaigns are set up for success.4. TikTok Text Posts: A New Way to Express Yourself - TikTok has announced a new feature called "Text Posts" that allows users to share text-only content on the platform. Text Posts can be up to 1000 characters long and can include images, stickers, and hashtags.The introduction of Text Posts is a significant development for TikTok, as it allows users to share more creative and expressive content on the platform. Text Posts could also be valuable for businesses as they present a new avenue for content creation and customer engagement on TikTok.5. Google Merchant Center Adds Customer Support: What You Need to Know - Google Merchant Center is a free service that allows businesses to manage their product listings on Google Shopping. Google has launched a new customer support feature on Merchant Center. The new tool enables retailers to input their customer support information and returns policy. Merchant Center is then able to share these details with shoppers without them ever having to leave the program.Google explained the importance of providing customer service information via a statement issued on Merchant Center: "Customer service is important for your business and your customers because it allows you to help customers solve any issues with your product or service. "It also helps you build trust with your customers. So it's important that your customers know how they can reach you for support." Here's how Google said retailers can add their customer support information: Log into Merchant Center. Once on the Home page, navigate to the Add customer support info card. Select Add info. Input the following customer support information: Customer service telephone number Customer service email address Customer service web page URL (i.e. link to a customer service form) Select the “Live chat support available” toggle if your business supports this Select the “Chat bot support available” toggle if your business supports this After providing the relevant information, select your preferred contact method. Once these steps are complete, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click  ‘Save'. 6. Google Cracks Down on Automated and AI-Generated Reviews - On August 28, 2023, the “Product Ratings policies” will be updated.. The updated Product Ratings policies addresses the issue of automated and AI-generated content in reviews. The new policies state that reviews that are primarily generated by an automated program or AI application should be flagged as spam using the attribute.The rules clearly state not to submit reviews that stem from conflicts of interest or contain inauthentic remarks. This includes reviews paid for, employee-written, or composed by individuals with a vested interest in the product.This is to ensure that users see genuine and helpful reviews when they are making purchasing decisions. To ensure compliance, Google combines automated and human evaluation methods. Machine-learning algorithms will support this effort while specially trained experts deal with more complex cases requiring context. Actions against violations can range from disapproving violating content or reviews, issuing warnings, or suspending accounts for repeated or severe offenses.You can read the updated product ratings policy here.Businesses can now use a new tool called the "Review Spam Report" to submit spam reviews to Google for review.7. Google Expands Site Names Support for Subdomains: Improve Your Visibility in Search - Google has expanded support for site names on subdomains through the alternateName property, allowing websites to display their preferred site name in search results. This is a significant improvement for websites with multiple subdomains, as it can help them to improve their visibility in search results.Previously, Google would only display the main domain name in search results, even if a website had a preferred site name for a subdomain. This meant that websites with multiple subdomains could be difficult to find in search results, as users would have to know the exact subdomain to visit the website.With the expanded support for site names on subdomains, Google will now display the preferred site name for a subdomain in search results if it is configured correctly. This will make it easier for users to find websites with multiple subdomains, and it could lead to an increase in traffic for these websites.As a reminder, the best way to indicate a preferred site name to Google is to make use of WebSite structured data, as explained in their site name documentation.Find out more in the blog post and in their documentation.8. Are .AI Domains Good for SEO? - There are two kinds of domain names. There are gTLD and ccTLD. A gTLD is a Generic Top Level Domain. These kinds of domains are not associated with any country and can be used worldwide. Typical gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .biz, .xyz and so on. A ccTLD is a TLD (top level domain) that is associated with a specific country. Google uses ccTLDs to localize the websites that use them with the countries those TLDs are associated with. The .in TLD helps Google to determine which country that domain name is relevant to. This aligns with how people of the world generally expect the Internet to work..AI domains are country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) that are associated with the island of Anguilla. However, they are also becoming increasingly popular for use by businesses and organizations around the world. In the July 2023 Google SEO Office hours session, Google's Gary Illyes answered the question about whether there was a downside to using the .AI domain since it's associated with the Caribbean island of Anguilla. “As of early June, 2023, we treat .ai as a gTLD in Google Search, so yeah, you can use it for your global presence””Gary's answer calls attention to the importance of verifying if a domain extension chosen for a website is treated as a ccTLD or a gTLD because that could make a difference in the website ability to rank worldwide.There are a few reasons why .AI domains may be a good choice for SEO. First, they are relatively short and easy to remember, which can make them more likely to be typed into search engines. Second, they are associated with the concept of artificial intelligence, which is a growing field of interest.However, it is important to note that .AI domains do not have any inherent SEO benefits. Whether or not they help your website rank in search results will depend on a number of other factors, such as the quality of your content and the number of backlinks you have.Google publishes the list of ccTLDs that are treated by Google as generic top level domains. The list shows that ccTLDs like .eu and .asia are treated like gTLDs. Other international domains that are treated like gTLDs are .ad, .co, .fm, .tv and of course .ai.9. Google's John Mueller: Programmatic SEO is Spam - Google's John Mueller has called out "programmatic SEO" as a form of spam. This type of SEO involves creating large numbers of low-quality landing pages that are designed to rank for specific keywords.Mueller said that programmatic SEO is often used to target "hyper-specific" keywords, such as "songs about dogs" or "maps of schools." These keywords are often not very competitive, so it is easy to rank for them with low-quality content.Mueller warned that programmatic SEO can lead to penalties from Google. He said that Google is "trying to get rid of this stuff" and that it is "not something that we want to see in the search results."

Episode 170 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 17-21, 2023.1. Sell Directly on TikTok with WooCommerce - WooCommerce and TikTok have partnered to allow WooCommerce merchants in the United States to sell directly on TikTok. This new program, currently in beta, gives store owners access to an audience of over 150 million, 61% of which engage in ecommerce behavior.To participate in the program, merchants must have a WooCommerce store in the United States and be approved by TikTok. Once approved, merchants can create a TikTok Shop and start selling their products.TikTok Shops offer a number of features that can help merchants sell more products, including: The ability to create product catalogs and tags The ability to run product ads The ability to track sales and performance The WooCommerce and TikTok partnership is a great opportunity for merchants to reach a new audience and grow their businesses.2. TikTok Launches Ads Transparency Library: See Who's Advertising What - TikTok has launched a new Ads Transparency Library (Commercial Content Library), which provides users with more information about the ads they see on the platform. The library includes information such as the advertiser, the target audience, and the creative used in the ad.The Ads Transparency Library is a welcome addition to TikTok, as it gives users more control over the ads they see. It also helps to increase transparency and accountability for advertisers.Having access to this data can give marketers a better understanding of campaign performance and the TikTok algorithm. This key information will help reveal what creatives work, what ideas don't work and more. Having this data at hand will enable marketers to make more informed decisions, potentially maximizing reach and ROI.Access to TikTok's Commercial Content Library is available to everyone globally. However, only data from Europe is available. TikTok said that its team is already working on ways to include advertising data from more countries, such as the U.S., in the future. But a date for this release is yet to be confirmed.Read TikTok's official blog post to find out more about its ads transparency library.3. Meta : How to Integrate Your Brand with Threads - Social media app Threads, Meta's new Twitter alternative, has seen a nearly 70% decline in the number of daily active users since its July 7 peak, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, spoiling their explosive launch just two weeks ago and paling in comparison to Twitter. Now Meta is providing guidance to brands on how to integrate with Threads, its ephemeral messaging app for teenagers. The guidance includes tips on how to create "epic entrances," engage followers, and run challenges or contests.Meta suggests that brands make a grand entrance on Threads by combining images, memes, and open-ended questions to announce their arrival. They should also engage followers by creating interactive content, such as polls or quizzes. Additionally, brands can run challenges or contests to encourage users to create and share content on Threads.The guidance also emphasizes the importance of using puns and talking about Threads in order to promote the app. Finally, Meta suggests that brands explore Threads' existing tools, such as stickers and GIFs, to create engaging content.4. 30 New Ecommerce Metrics in GA4: Get More Insights into Your Shopping Performance - Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has just announced an expansion of its ecommerce measurement capabilities, adding 30 new dimensions and metrics. These new metrics provide more granular data on items, promotions, and shopping behavior, making it easier for marketers to track and analyze their ecommerce performance.Some of the new metrics include: Item Name: The name of the product that was purchased. Brand: The brand of the product that was purchased. Category: The category of the product that was purchased. Promotion Name: The name of the promotion that was used to purchase the product. Checkout Step: The step in the checkout process where the purchase was made. Gross item revenue (The total revenue from items only, excluding tax and shipping) Gross purchase revenue (The total revenue from purchases made on your website or app) Refund amount (The total amount from refunds given on your website or app) These new metrics can be used to answer questions such as: What are the most popular products? What brands are performing well? What promotions are driving sales? Which checkout steps are causing the most abandonment? The addition of these new metrics is a significant boost for ecommerce marketers, providing them with more data to track and analyze their performance. These changes to GA4 make it easier to see meaningful ecommerce data. Marketers will no longer have to build custom reports to access key revenue metrics.5. Google Updates Misrepresentation Policy: What You Need to Know - Google has updated its Misrepresentation policy with detailed information on how marketers can build trust. The document advises what steps and precautions brands should take to make sure their products and offers are eligible to be served in Search.The updated policy includes new requirements for brands to provide clear and transparent information about their products and offers. This includes information about the product's availability, pricing, and shipping. Brands are also required to provide accurate and up-to-date information about their reviews and testimonials. For each issue specified, Google provided specific instructions that brands should follow: Business Identity Ensure that the official business name is provided and that there is consistency across the registered business name and domain name. Make sure a brand's website features an ‘About Us' page as this establishes authenticity and helps customers to understand their unique journey. Link out to the brand's social media profiles from the website so that customers can follow those accounts should they so wish. Transparency Make sure website content and messaging is completely clear and include details regarding shipping, returns and privacy policies. Ensure honesty and transparency about the brand's business model and how the company operates. Online reputation Display honest reviews and testimonials about a brand's products and services to help customers understand how to use them. Feature any badges or seals of approval from official third-party sources. Clearly display how customers can get in touch. Be sure to tell customers if the brand publishes a blog post. Make sure customers know if the brand was mentioned in a third-party article. Professional design Make sure that the brand's website has an SSL certificate to reassure customers that their sensitive data is stored securely. The brand's website should be easy to navigate and shouldn't contain any unnecessary redirects or redirects to broken links. Try to avoid placeholders where possible as this gives Google and the customer the impression that the website is still under construction and not yet ready for SERPs. Google explained that there are several steps brands can take to help it to understand their business faster and more accurately: Create and verify a Google Business Profile. Share up-to-date information in the Merchant Center under the Business information settings. Link relevant third-party platforms to Merchant Center. Follow Google's SEO guidelines to ensure a strong customer experience is provided. Opt into the Google Customer Reviews or other third-party review services to improve eligibility for seller ratings. Match product data in the product feed with your website to make sure that customers are seeing the same information across both platforms. Google is also taking steps to crack down on misrepresentation in the Merchant Center. Merchants who violate the policy may have their products removed from Google Search and Shopping results.Read Google's “Building Trust with your Customers” guide for more information on its Misrepresentation policy.6. Avoid Spam Risks with Your Domain Name - Google advises against choosing cheap top-level domains (TLDs), such as .xyz or .club, due to the increased risk of spam. These domains are often used by spammers because they are inexpensive and easy to register.Google's Search Relations Team (John Mueller, Gary Illyes, and Martin Splitt) in the Jul 20, 2023 podcast episode recommended that website owners choose TLDs that are well-known and reputable. They also suggest considering branding and marketing factors, not just SEO, when choosing a TLD.Google's Search Relations team debunked the misconception that having a TLD matching your keywords provides an inherent SEO advantage. When Splitt asked if owning a domain like fantastic.coffee could offer any SEO benefits for a coffee shop, Illyes responded with a definitive “No.”For more on website domain best practices, check out the full episode of Google's podcast.P.S: I covered this is Episode 163. Now Google is talking about the same issue. 7. Your Domain Name Matters: Don't Forget the Branding - Another update from the latest episode of Google's Search Off The Record podcast. Google's John Mueller has advised that domain name selection should prioritize long-term branding over keyword-centric SEO strategies. Keywords in domain names do not impact Google search rankings, but they can influence user behavior. Therefore, it is more important to choose a domain name that is memorable and easy to type, even if it does not contain any keywords.Here are some additional tips from Mueller for choosing a domain name: Choose a domain name that is easy to pronounce and remember. Avoid using hyphens or numbers in your domain name. Keep your domain name short and concise. Make sure your domain name is available in all relevant top-level domains (TLDs). 8. 301 vs. 404: Which is Better for SEO? -  When a web page is deleted or moved, it can be redirected to a new page using a 301 or 404 status code. Google's Gary Illyes answers the question about which status code is "less harmful" A 301 redirect tells search engines that the page has been permanently moved to a new location, while a 404 error code tells search engines that the page cannot be found.So, which is better: 301 or 404? Google's Gary Illyes answers the question about which status code is "less harmful" in July's SEO Office hour.Per Illyes, it actually depends on a case by case basis thought 301 redirects are generally considered to be better for SEO than 404 error codes. If the page is missing because two sites were merged, a publisher can 301 redirect old or outdated pages to the new pages that are similar in topic.However, there are some cases where a 404 error code may be preferable. For example, if a page has been deleted because it was spam or malicious, a 404 error code will prevent search engines from indexing the page.9. Good Page Experience is Not Enough for SEO - Google's John Mueller recently clarified that having a good page experience is not a silver bullet for SEO. In other words, having a website that loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, and has no errors will not necessarily improve your search rankings if your content is not high-quality or relevant to the user's search intent.Mueller's comments are a reminder that SEO is a complex process that involves a variety of factors. While page experience is an important factor, it is not the only one. If you want to improve your search rankings, you need to focus on creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience.10. Google Doesn't Favor AI-Generated Content - Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has clarified that Google does not give any special ranking boost to AI-generated content. In fact, he says that "lots of AI content on the web that doesn't rank well and hence isn't well received" by Google Search.Sullivan's comments come after a recent article in Vox Media claimed that AI content is "currently well-received by search engines." However, Sullivan says that this is not the case, and that Google's search algorithms are designed to rank content based on its helpfulness and quality, not on how it was produced.This means that AI-generated content can still rank well in Google Search, but only if it is actually helpful and informative. If it is not, it is likely to be ignored by Google's algorithms.11. Should You Match Google's Rewritten Titles? - Google often rewrites the titles of pages in the search results, most of the time removing the site name from the title. That seem to indicate to them that maybe Google sees the site name as redundant and perhaps they should just drop the site name from the title tag altogether. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as to make the titles more concise, to make them more relevant to the user's search intent, or to avoid duplicate titles.There is no consensus on whether or not it is a good idea to match the titles of your pages to the titles that Google rewrites. Some people believe that it is important to match the titles in order to improve your click-through rate (CTR). Others believe that it is not important to match the titles, and that you should focus on creating high-quality content that will attract users to your site.Google's John Muller offered his recommendations on this topic by writing: “I would not assume that a rewritten version is better (for SEO or for users), and I'd recommend keeping your site name in there — because it makes it easier to confirm a site name that we show above the title. Also, it's a well-known pattern, so I wouldn't change it just for Google.”The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says that the purpose of the title element is to define what the webpage (referred to as a document) is about. And Google largely follows those standards.Google's official title element recommendations (on Google Search Central) for title tags echoes what the W3C recommends in a little more detail. Google advises that title elements should be descriptive and concise. The title elements should not be vague. Lastly, Google recommends concisely branding the title. That means using the site name is fine but repeating a marketing slogan across the entire site is not necessarily concise.Why does Google rewrite titles? Years ago many SEO sites recommended adding keywords in the title tag instead of recommending to describe what the page is about. Eventually Google figured out that people were stuffing keywords in the title tag. Obviously, if the keyword is relevant to what the document is about then put the keyword in there if you want. Another reason Google rewrites titles is because the description of the entire page is not appropriate. For example, Google often ranks a webpage for what is essentially a subtopic of the main topic of the webpage. This happens when Google ranks a webpage for a phrase that is in the middle of the document.So should you match Google's title rewrite? In my opinion it is not a good idea because Google might be ranking the page for a subtopic. If you want a reality check about the title element, give ChatGPT a try by inputting the text of the document and asking it to summarize it in ten words. Then again be careful because ChatGPT can spit out incorrect information.

Episode 169 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 10 - 14, 2023. 1. ByteDance's CapCut Plugin Uses AI to Automate Video Creation - ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has released a new plugin for ChatGPT that allows users to create videos with AI. The new plugin leverages generative AI to create everything you need for publishing video content on TikTok and other social channels. It only takes a one-sentence prompt to describe the video's theme, topic, or purpose. But for higher-quality results, the more specific and detailed your prompt is, the better.2. Microsoft Advertising Announces New Features and Updates to Help Advertisers Get More Results - Microsoft Advertising has announced a number of new features and updates in July, including: Predictive Targeting - Microsoft Advertising introduced Predictive Targeting, an AI-based advertising tool that uses machine learning to automatically identify and target new audiences for increased conversions, which could save advertisers' time and boost campaign efficiency. While it offers flexible application with existing strategies, potential downsides include losing control over target audiences and possibly wasted ad spend or brand damage if incorrect audiences are exposed to ads. Generative AI And RSA - Microsoft integrated generative AI into creating and editing responsive search ads (RSA), providing AI-generated headlines and descriptions based on the advertiser's final URL. The updated experience reportedly offers neatly categorized, high-quality, and diverse recommendations in 35 detected languages, enabling advertisers to select multiple suggestions in a single click. You can also opt-in to auto-generation of assets, which dynamically creates assets when serving ads, enabling greater scalability and relevancy. RSA IF Functions - IF functions for RSAs could offer sophisticated targeting and ad customization based on device and audience. This would reduce the need for separate campaigns and enables customized messages for specific user devices or audience segments. Automated multimedia ads within Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) groups will reportedly utilize AI to automatically generate rich, visually engaging ads optimized for performance using your website's content. Combining users' assets with machine learning technology, these ads will be displayed on the right side of the search results page and exclusive, with only one multimedia ad appearing per page per advertiser. Property Promotion Ads For Vacation Rentals Microsoft extended its Property Promotion Ads, which are highly visual ads designed to inspire potential travelers, including vacation rentals and hotels. It allows travel advertisers to display more property offerings on Microsoft platforms. Offering a rich, engaging experience with complete control over images and callouts, these ads could drive increased bookings with premium placements and automated management via familiar ad management workflows in the Microsoft Hotel Center, saving advertisers' time. Enhancements To Universal Event Tracking Microsoft Advertising has enhanced its Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag dashboard, troubleshooting and monitoring UET events in real-time for more efficient testing and quality assurance. Additionally, the UET overview tab now provides an expanded lookback period to review the performance of your tag across various dimensions, such as events, parameters, and event types. Data-driven attribution (DDA) reporting became generally available, using advanced machine learning to calculate the actual contribution of each ad interaction on conversion, differing from the traditional Last Click Attribution (LCA) model. This model comparison report, accessible through Reports > Default Reports > Performance > Conversion Model Compare, should allow for thorough analysis with a wide range of metrics at the ‘Keyword' grain. Deprecation Of Keyword Planner Legacy Features Microsoft Advertising is deprecating several legacy features in Keyword Planner, including various service operations and the Product Category feature, due to their outdated nature and incompatibility with the system, effective August 21, 2023. 3. YouTube's New Video Title Suggestions: A Must-Try for Creators - YouTube is rolling out a new feature that will suggest video titles for creators based on the video's transcript and description. This new feature is designed to help creators create more effective titles that will attract more viewers.The title suggestions are generated by an AI model that analyzes the video's transcript and description. The model takes into account factors such as the most common words and phrases in the video, as well as the keywords that are likely to be searched for by viewers.The title suggestions are optional, but creators can choose to use them if they want. The suggestions are also updated over time as the AI model learns more about the video.4. Google Ads Policy Update: Repeated Violations Could Result in Account Suspension - Google Ads is updating its Circumventing Systems policy this month to clarify that the policy prohibits repeated and simultaneous policy violations across any of your accounts, including using two or more accounts to post ads that violate any Google Ads policy.The update also clarifies that the policy applies to both manual and automated violations. This means that if you are caught using automated software to circumvent Google's systems, your account could be suspended.Google takes violations of this policy very seriously and considers them egregious. If they find violations of this policy, they will suspend your Google Ads accounts upon detection and without prior warning, and you will not be allowed to advertise with Google Ads again.To avoid violating the Circumventing Systems policy, it is important to understand what is considered a violation. Cloaking (showing different content to certain users, including Google, than to other users) that aims at or results in interference with Google's review systems, or hides or attempts to hide non-compliance with Google Ads policies, such as: Redirection to non-compliant content Using dynamic DNS to switch page or ad content Manipulating site content or restricting access to so many of your landing pages that it makes it difficult to meaningfully review your ad, site, or account Using click trackers to redirect users to malicious sites Whether repeated or simultaneous, policy violations across any of your accounts, including using 2 or more accounts to post ads that violate this or any other Google Ads policy. For example, creating new domains or accounts to post ads that are similar to ads that have been disapproved for this or any other Google Ads policy. Bypassing enforcement mechanisms and detection by creating variations of ads, domains or content that have been disapproved (for this or any Google Ads policy) or using techniques in text, images, or videos to obfuscate sexually explicit content After a previous suspension decision, attempting to use the Google Ads system again by creating new accounts in order to re enter the system Abusing Google Ads product features in order to show policy non-compliant content to users and/or gain additional traffic Submitting false information as part of our verification programs As an FYI, Google Search (organic results, not paid) also has a circumvention spam policy.5. Building Trust and Increasing Sales with Google Merchant Center - Google Merchant Center is a free service that allows you to submit your business and product information to Google so that it can be displayed in Google results. This can be a great way to increase visibility for your products and drive traffic to your website.  Google has posted a new document in the Google Merchant Center area on how to build trust with your customers. The document goes through your business identity, your transparency, your online reputation, and your professional design.Google explained, that it wants "Google to be a safe and trustworthy place for both our customers and retailers. Customers should feel confident about the offers they are browsing and the businesses they are purchasing from. Sometimes it can take some time before a sufficient level of trust is established and before we consider it safe to display your offers to customers. This assessment is an ongoing process and since we know that customers are likely to do research about your products and business, we may review multiple signals from across the web. The more we know about your business, the better we are able to represent you."Here is that list of what Google said customers value in building trust with your business: Business Identity: Provide the official business name that you use across the web and avoid any mismatches in your registered business name and domain name. Include an “about us” page on your website to show your authenticity and tell customers your unique story. Let customers know that they can follow you on social media profiles and link to those pages from your website. Transparency: Be clear and provide detailed information about your policies including shipping, returns and privacy policies. Be transparent about your business model and how you operate. Online reputation: Help potential customers understand how to use your products or how other customers have used them. Show reviews and testimonials about your products and business. If you've received any badges or seals of approval from official third-party sources, make sure that you mention these. Clearly communicate how customers can interact with you by making sure they know how to get in touch with you and how your customer support is set-up. If you publish a blog post or if your business was mentioned in an article, make sure your customers know about this. Professional design: Install an SSL certificate so customers know that their sensitive data is retrieved and stored securely without being intercepted by hackers. Your website should be accessible for all customers, easy to navigate, and shouldn't contain any unnecessary redirects or redirects to broken links. Avoid placeholders for text and images; this gives the feeling that the website is unfinished. So there you have it, your blueprint from Google on how you can get your customers to trust you. :)But how does Google know if your customers trust you? Google put down this list of how you can help Google learn more about your business: Provide information in the Business information settings in Merchant Center. Link the relevant third-party platforms to Merchant Center. Create and verify a Google Business Profile. Follow our SEO guidelines to improve the visibility of your website on Google and to provide a good customer experience. Improve your eligibility for seller ratings, by opting into Google Customer Reviews or other third-party review services. Match your product data in your product feed with your website to ensure customers see the same information, such as prices, across both.6.  Don't Let Your Syndicated Content Hurt Your SEO! - Syndicated content is content that is published on multiple websites. This can be a problem for SEO, as it can lead to duplicate content issues. Google recommends that publishers use the noindex tag on syndicated content to prevent it from being indexed by search engines.The noindex tag is a meta tag that tells search engines not to index a particular page. This can be useful for a variety of reasons, including preventing duplicate content issues, preventing spam, and improving page load times.To use the noindex tag, simply add the following code to the head section of your page:This will tell search engines not to index the page. Google recommends publishers push syndication partners to use noindex to prevent syndicated content from outranking original news sources.7. Google Explains How Google Discover Works - Google's Martin Splitt answered a question on the July 2023 Office Hours session about what to do after traffic from Google Discover traffic dries up. Martin offers quick insights into what Google Discover focuses on.Google Discover is a personalized feed of articles that match user interests. It is a great way to drive traffic to your website.Google Discover uses a variety of factors to determine which articles to show users, including the user's search history, the websites they have visited, and the topics they have clicked on. This means that the best way to optimize your content for Google Discover is to create high-quality content (while Google shows relevant evergreen content, the system is also looking for fresh content on particular topics that tend to need freshness.) that is relevant to your target audience. According to Martin, “Generally, content that is indexed and meets our content guidelines can be included in Discover. But …Discover traffic is hard to predict and will ebb and flow. The content in Discover is automatically refreshed as new content is published, however Discover is designed to show all types of helpful content from across the web, not just newly published content. A common mistake I see in the SEO industry is focusing too hard on keywords or the semantics of words and not enough on topics. In my experience, focusing on the semantics of words is a waste of time. Focus on topics of interest. Topics are about what's going on in the industry and understanding what are people interested in right now.”Here are some specific tips for optimizing your content for Google Discover: Use clear and concise titles that accurately reflect the content of your article. Use relevant keywords throughout your article. Include a well-written meta description that summarizes the content of your article. Use high-quality images and videos. Promote your articles on social media. 8. Your Page is Discovered, but Not Indexed! Here's How to Fix It - Google's John Mueller answered whether removing pages from a large site helps to solve the problem of pages that are discovered by Google but not crawled.The "Discovered - Currently Not Indexed" status in Google Search Console means that Google has found your page, but it has not yet crawled or indexed it. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as technical errors on your site, duplicate content, or low-quality content, although Google's official documentation only lists one reason. “Discovered – currently not indexed The page was found by Google, but not crawled yet. Typically, Google wanted to crawl the URL but this was expected to overload the site; therefore Google rescheduled the crawl. This is why the last crawl date is empty on the report.” If you see the "Discovered - Currently Not Indexed" status for one of your pages, there are a few things you can do to try to fix it: Check for technical errors on your site. Make sure your content is unique and high-quality. Submit your page to Google Search Console. 9. Google's SEO Advice Has Not Changed in 20 Years. Here's What You Need to Know - Google's core SEO advice has not changed in two decades. That's right, the same advice that Google gave in 2002 still applies today.In a recent post, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, shared a screenshot of Google's advice from 2002. The advice reads: "Make pages for users, not for search engines."Sullivan went on to say that Google's core SEO advice has not changed because it is still the best way to create high-quality content that people will want to read.So, what does it mean to "make pages for users, not for search engines"? It means that you should focus on creating content that is informative, helpful, and engaging. You should also use keywords throughout your content, but you should not stuff your content with keywords.If you follow Google's core SEO advice, you will be well on your way to ranking well in search results.Here are some additional tips for following Google's core SEO advice: Write clear and concise titles that accurately reflect the content of your page. Use relevant keywords throughout your content, but don't overdo it. Create high-quality images and videos. 10. LLMs for SEO: A Recipe for Disaster? -  Large language models (LLMs) are a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of tasks, including generating text, translating languages, and writing different kinds of creative content. However, LLMs can also be used for SEO purposes, and this can lead to disaster if not done correctly.One of the main problems with using LLMs for SEO is that they can generate content that is not relevant to the user's search intent. This can lead to a decrease in organic traffic, as users will be less likely to click on links to pages that are not relevant to their search.Another problem with using LLMs for SEO is that they can generate content that is plagiarized or duplicate. This can lead to a site being penalized by Google, which can result in a decrease in search rankings.If you are considering using LLMs for SEO, it is important to be aware of the risks involved. You should also make sure that you are using a reputable LLM provider that has a good track record of generating high-quality content.Sources: https://twitter.com/rustybrick/status/1671848255792054272 and https://flower-nutria-41d.notion.site/No-GPT4-can-t-ace-MIT-b27e6796ab5a48368127a98216c76864

Episode 168 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 3 - 7, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.1. Meta Launches Threads: Twitter Copycat - App Reaches 80 Million Users in 48 Hours - Threads, an Instagram app for text-based messaging, has seen a meteoric rise in number of signups within the first 48 hours. The app, which was launched on July 7, 2023, has already reached 80 million users. This is a significant achievement, especially considering that Threads is only available in a limited number of countries.Threads is designed to be a more intimate and personal messaging experience than Instagram's main app. It allows users to send text messages, photos, and videos to their close friends, and it also includes features like read receipts and typing indicators.The app's success is likely due to a number of factors, including its timing (it was launched just as people are starting to get back to socializing in person), its focus on close friendships, and its integration with Instagram.Before you rush to create your Threads profile, keep in mind that in a Supplemental Privacy Policy, Meta explains: “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” The rationale, Meta elaborates on the policy page, is that a Threads profile is part of the user's Instagram account. The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users.So Threads reminds of the song “Hotel California” by the Eagles. “Welcome to the Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

In this episode, we delve into the latest developments in Google's local search landscape. We kick off with an exploration of Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), a new AI-driven feature that's reshaping local search results. We discuss its potential impact on residential contractors and how businesses can adapt to this closed-loop system. Next, we tackle the issue of missing reviews on Google. We share insights from a new process that Google has introduced for reporting missing reviews, a critical aspect of digital marketing for home improvement businesses. We discuss the importance of reviews in reputation management, rankings, and revenue generation. We then shift our focus to the ethical acquisition of reviews. We discuss why businesses should avoid soliciting reviews in exchange for donations and the implications of Google's E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) concept on review acquisition strategies. Finally, we discuss a new development in Google Business Profile management - the introduction of text-based confirmations. We explore how this change can help businesses verify their profiles more efficiently and the implications for local search visibility. Join us as we navigate these changes and provide actionable tips for residential contractors to optimize their digital marketing strategies in the evolving local search landscape. Read the full article here: https://moz.com/blog/local-search-developments-q2-2023 www.contractorgrowthnetwork.com

Episode 167 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 26 - 30, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.1. Time's Up for Universal Analytics (UA): Embrace Google Analytics 4(GA4) Now - The transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has officially started, marking a significant shift in the digital marketing landscape. With the discontinuation of UA, marketers have to migrate to GA4 to continue measuring their websites and campaigns, unless they opt for an analytics alternative outside of Google.The phasing out process is happening in stages; despite UA still processing some data, a message now greets users stating: “This property is scheduled to stop processing data very soon. Once this goes into effect, you'll need a Google Analytics 4 property to measure website performance." All functioning UA properties are queued for deletion on a rolling basis.Google has repeatedly advised marketers about this transition, reiterating that GA4 is the company's next-generation measurement solution. In a statement, Google stressed the urgency for users to switch to GA4, adding that those who use UA data in their Google Ads accounts should migrate their UA property's Google Ads links to their GA4 property.The timeline for the UA shutdown is as follows: March 2023: Google auto-created a GA4 property for marketers who didn't opt out of the automatic property creation option. July 2023: UA ceased processing hits, but marketers could access previously processed data in their UA property until July 2024. July 2024: All access to the UA user interface and API will be terminated. For guidance on transitioning to GA4, Google has provided a comprehensive 'Learn how to make the switch' guide. Make the switch as soon as possible to avoid interruptions in your web analytics services.2. Boost Your Campaigns: Import GA4 Conversions to Google Ads Now -  Google is actively encouraging marketers to import their web and app conversions from Google Analytics 4 (GA4) into Google Ads. Those with a linked Google Ads account may have already seen a new recommendation to import conversions. Notifications of this feature will appear at the top of the Advertising snapshot page, on the Home page, or the Insights Hub page.This streamlined process is a boon for marketers, allowing them to access their web and app conversions directly in Google Ads without needing to switch back to GA4. It paves the way for better bid optimization, which could potentially enhance campaign performance.Conversions, which indicate the instances when ads lead to sales, are crucial in understanding the success of marketing strategies. Having immediate access to this data empowers marketers to make necessary adjustments to their campaigns - from tweaking keywords to budget allocations and bidding strategies. This can result in improved profitability and reduced costs in Google Ads.To maximize the benefits and gain accurate insights, marketers should check out Google's GA4 Recommendations guide. This simple act of importing GA4 conversion data into Google Ads promises to be a game-changer in campaign optimization.3. New Boundaries: YouTube Revamps Impersonation Policy for Fan Channels - In response to escalating concerns about misrepresentation and impersonation, YouTube is refining its impersonation policy. This change primarily targets "fan channels," requiring them to clearly state their non-affiliation with the entities they support.YouTube's policy update is straightforward: fan channels need to explicitly mention their status in their channel name or handle. The platform aims to ensure viewers can easily discern that such channels do not represent the original creator, artist, or entity they celebrate. The objective is to thwart users who repost others' content and claim it as their own.For example, channels self-proclaiming as "fan accounts" while imitating other channels and re-uploading their content will no longer be tolerated. Similarly, channels that copy the name, avatar, or banner of another channel, with only minor changes such as an added space or altered character, will be prohibited under the new rules.Interestingly, the revised policy stipulates that any violations may lead to immediate account termination. This represents a departure from the previous three-strike penalty system.The backdrop to this change is a surge in channels re-uploading content from popular creators, masquerading as the original poster to garner a monetizable audience. This trend isn't exclusive to YouTube; platforms like TikTok and Instagram also see users re-posting popular TV show clips and trending content to maximize audience reach.With these revamped rules, YouTube aims to clamp down on this behavior, potentially discouraging users from exploiting others' work. The specifics of how YouTube plans to enforce this change and its subsequent impact on the content ecosystem remain to be seen.The updated rules are slated to take effect from August 21, 2023. For a more detailed understanding of YouTube's impersonation policy update, you can refer to their official statement. As content creators or avid followers, let's be sure to adapt to these changes and continue to support original content!4. Stepping Up the Game: Microsoft Advertising Overhauls Policies for Better Compliance and User Safety - Microsoft Advertising has undertaken a series of updates to enhance the clarity of its policies, improve enforcement mechanisms, and ensure user protection.From July 1, 2023, Microsoft will put into action a defined structure for penalties, targeting advertisers who do not adhere to its guidelines. Sanctions will range from disapproval of ad components to immediate suspension of services for severe violations. The new policy aims to better outline the constraints already in place against persistent or egregious breaches.Among the recent modifications to their regulations, Microsoft will now accept advertisements for vitamins and supplements within their network, provided they refrain from making extravagant health claims. It's also a mandate that these ads link directly to a product page, rather than an advertorial article or video. In addition, gambling advertisements will be permitted in jurisdictions where such promotion is legal, contingent upon advertisers having the necessary operating licenses.Changes in gambling ad regulations are slated for Belgium and the Netherlands from July 1, 2023. While Belgium will entirely prohibit gambling advertisements, the Netherlands will restrict ad campaigns to users aged 24 or older.From August 1, 2023, a series of further restrictions will take effect. Ireland will require gambling advertisements to adopt time-based targeting to avoid visibility between 5:30 AM and 9:00 PM. Meanwhile, advertisements for clinical trials and experimental medical treatments will be globally banned, and adult-oriented advertising will no longer be accepted in Hungary or Poland.For a more user-friendly approach, Microsoft Advertising is reshuffling its policy pages, grouping similar content and adding explicit examples for better understanding. Information related to MSN, Outlook, and Xbox will now be relocated to a separate help document linked from the policy pages. You can visit the Microsoft Advertising policies website for the most up-to-date information.Be sure to note that some of these policy changes will only be implemented after July 1, 2023.5. Unlocking Web Potential: The Power of Semantic HTML in SEO & Accessibility - Google's John Mueller recently offered valuable insights into the role of semantic HTML in enhancing website content comprehension for search engines. Mueller clarified its influence on SEO, accessibility, and, indirectly, search rankings.Semantic HTML can be described as the backbone of web content, giving it structure and purpose. Its elements like headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, links, images, articles, sections, asides, and figures help search engines and browsers interpret the page content and its context effectively. Examples of non-semantic elements: and - Tells nothing about its content. Examples of semantic elements: , , and - Clearly defines its content.Contrary to popular belief, Mueller points out that semantic HTML, despite facilitating page analysis, is not a direct ranking determinant. He said, "Semantic HTML does help to understand a page. However, it's not a magical multiplier for making a website rank higher."Nevertheless, it's critical to SEO and accessibility and is a recommended best practice for creating an optimal user experience.Semantic HTML offers SEO advantages like structuring text with headings, positioning relevant images beside corresponding text, employing table tags for data tabulation, and using anchor links over JavaScript-based links. Mueller further explained that Google's algorithms are more concerned with clear structure and relationships between elements than the specifics of similar elements.On the accessibility front, semantic HTML proves to be a game-changer. It assists screen reader software in interpreting web content for visually impaired users, ensures keyboard navigability, enhances the usability of assistive technologies, and promotes responsive web design for various devices. Its adherence to web standards also future-proofs content.Mueller concludes with a powerful message to website owners, urging them to use semantic HTML. "Please use semantic HTML. It's not a ranking factor, but it can help our systems to understand your content better." The clear take-away here is that while semantic HTML might not directly improve your site's ranking, its importance in offering an inclusive web experience can't be understated.6. Adapting to Change: Google Phasing Out Sitemaps Ping Endpoint - Google has announced plans to end support for the Sitemaps ping endpoint by the close of this year. The decision means HTTP ping requests will result in a 404 error. So submitting your Sitemap using an HTTP request such as /ping?sitemap=sitemap_url will no longer work.The Sitemap protocol defined an unauthenticated REST method for submitting sitemaps to search engines, offering a way of notifying search engines whenever a sitemap was updated. However, Google found, through internal studies and comparisons with other search engines like Bing, that these unauthenticated sitemap submissions have become largely unproductive, with most leading to spam.Despite this change, sitemaps can still be submitted through Google Search Console and your robots.txt files. Google further recommends using the lastmod element in your sitemap file, ensuring it reflects the actual change date of the page. For example, if your content management system (CMS) changes a minor piece of text in the sidebar or footer, there's no need to update the lastmod value. However, if there are significant changes to the primary text, structured data, or links, updating the lastmod value is advised.It's important to note that Google still doesn't use changefreq or priority elements for sitemaps.Regarding SEO implications, Google assured that existing code or plugins using this endpoint won't affect Google Search, and no changes are required, although the endpoint will no longer serve any useful purpose.The speed at which your content gets picked up might be marginally affected without ping support, but Google doesn't foresee this as a major issue. However, those using custom code or a CMS that pings Google with updates might want to remove those pings by the end of the year. It's also crucial to ensure your lastmod data remains accurate and helpful.7. Ad Placement Controversy: Is Google Delivering on its Promises? - Recent research by Adalytics, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, suggests that an estimated 80% of ads served across the web by YouTube are infringing upon its own service terms, potentially costing Google billions in refunds and shaking advertisers' trust.The study reports that roughly half of the ads paid for by advertisers on YouTube are not being displayed on the platform but are instead shown on other websites and mobile apps via Google's "Google Video Partners" program. However, these third-party site placements often fail to deliver the promised YouTube ad experience, with ads often being muted, unskippable, and autoplayed off-screen. This breach of agreement has resulted in advertisers paying premium rates for substandard placements.Adalytics' analysis spanned ad campaigns from over 1,100 major brands, covering billions of impressions from 2020 to 2023. Ads from established brands like Johnson & Johnson, American Express, and Samsung, as well as government organizations like Medicare, were found on low-quality websites, contradicting Google's commitment to ensure ad placements on reputable, thoroughly vetted sites. Understandably, this is leading to upset advertisers seeking refunds.Google, however, has disputed the Adalytics report, labeling its methodology as unreliable. Google asserts that the Google Video Partners network is only a small, separate extension of their ad services, aimed at helping advertisers broaden their campaign reach. Google also emphasizes that advertisers maintain control over their GVP campaigns and can opt out at any time.Potential fallout from the Adalytics report could have profound implications on Google's credibility, its advertising revenue, and even provoke further regulatory scrutiny and legal action. If substantiated, these findings could drive transformation in the digital advertising industry, sparking stricter regulations, improved technologies, and more transparent practices. Google, in turn, may need to invest more resources into ad placement screening and monitoring to regain advertiser trust and avert financial losses.8. Unlock Success in Ads: Deep Dive into Google's Value-Based Bidding -  Google's Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, recently shared valuable insights about Google Ads' value-based bidding (VBB), clearing misconceptions and responding to queries in a Twitter thread.VBB aims to maximize conversion value within your budget and optional return on ad spend (ROAS) target. It particularly suits businesses involved in lead generation, online sales, and even brick-and-mortar stores. The technique focuses on returning a higher total value of conversions, albeit at a lower conversion volume compared to maximum conversion/tCPA bidding.The use of VBB hinges on correctly setting conversion values, which could be sales revenue, profit margins, or lifetime value, among others. Should you set a ROAS target, it will work towards maximizing conversion value at that target level. It's recommended to have at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days for most campaign types, especially with tROAS.If lower-funnel conversions are insufficient, consider optimizing for a higher-funnel conversion action or simplifying campaign structures. Even if the exact value of conversion actions is unknown, proxy values can be used effectively. It's important to be patient while establishing the right proxy values.VBB allows for optimization for both value and volume. However, upon switching to tROAS, expect a lower volume as it targets the most valuable customers instead of maximizing conversions. To optimize for new customers, consider using VBB+New Customer Acquisition (NCA) bidding.To measure tROAS performance, it's typically suggested to wait 2 weeks or 3 conversion cycles. Remember, Google doesn't understand the meaning behind your values; they are used to inform decisions to hit targets. Your conversion value data isn't shared with competitors, and your campaigns will benefit from uploading true conversion values aligned with your business goals.For lead generation, assigning values to offline conversions should reflect their importance to your business. Profit or other KPI can be optimized using tROAS by importing relevant data to Google Ads. Lower traffic and conversions during tROAS tests are typical, as VBB focuses on maximizing conversion value within budget and ROAS constraints.Currently, setting negative conversion values for unwanted leads isn't feasible, but you can use conversion retractions. The VBB features in SA360 are unique and include bidding to proxy or predictive values, GMP stack integration, budget bid strategies, conversion value rules, and custom variable adjustments.9. Refining Your Reach: Google Ads Rolls Out New Brand Settings - Google Ads is enhancing its platform with the introduction of new brand settings for Search and Performance Max campaigns. These updates are expected to provide advertisers with increased control and precision over their ad targeting, notably involving broad match and brand exclusions.Google's new "Brand Restrictions for Search Campaigns" allows advertisers to employ broad match targeting, but with a twist. This setting ensures your broad match only applies to the specific brand traffic you've selected. Essentially, your broad match traffic will be served solely on searches related to the brands you select or their associated products. This control enables advertisers to extend their reach and improve performance while sticking to specific brand needs.Google Ads is also enhancing Performance Max campaigns with "Brand Exclusions." This feature gives advertisers the power to exclude specific brands from their campaigns, offering added control to avoid unwanted branded queries on Search and Shopping inventory. This functionality even extends to blocking traffic from brand misspellings and brand searches in foreign languages.To add a brand list to an existing Performance Max campaign, follow the same steps as above, but select "Brand exclusions" instead of "Brand restrictions" in step 4.These new brand settings are actively being rolled out by Google, which means they may not yet be available for all users. Nevertheless, these changes promise advertisers an improved, more precise control over their ad targeting. 10. Navigating New Norms: Google Ads Tightens Rules on Third-Party Click Tracking - Google Ads has recently updated its policy, stating that it might disapprove ads using third-party click-tracking services that aren't officially certified by Google. However, this rule will only apply to accounts that commence using such services after the week of August 28th.Third-party click-tracking services are tools that advertisers use to monitor and analyze the performance of their online advertising campaigns. These services provide detailed data about every individual who clicks on an advertisement, which is essential for evaluating campaign performance and optimizing future initiatives.Here are some key functions and benefits of third-party click-tracking services: Performance Analysis: These services help advertisers understand which ads are performing well and which aren't. By tracking the number of clicks, they provide insights into the effectiveness of various ads. Campaign Optimization: By understanding which ads are receiving more clicks, advertisers can tweak their campaigns accordingly. They can invest more in high-performing ads and modify or discard those that aren't performing well. Insights into User Behavior: Click tracking can provide insights into user behavior, like which type of ads are more appealing to users, what time users are more likely to click on ads, etc. This data can be crucial in creating more user-focused advertising strategies. Budget Management: With precise tracking, advertisers can ensure that their advertising budget is being used effectively and not being wasted on under-performing ads. ROI Measurement: By analyzing the number of clicks and comparing it with the campaign expenditure, advertisers can calculate their return on investment (ROI) from different ads. A/B Testing: Click tracking services allow advertisers to perform A/B testing. They can create multiple versions of the same ad, see which version gets more clicks, and use this information to create more effective ads in the future. Some popular third-party click-tracking services include: ClickMeter: ClickMeter offers various tracking services including click, conversion, and audience tracking. Voluum: Known for its real-time analytics and A/B testing capabilities, Voluum is a popular choice for many advertisers. Improvely: This service not only tracks clicks but also identifies and protects against click fraud. LinkTrackr: LinkTrackr offers click tracking with a focus on affiliate marketing and link cloaking. ClickMagick: ClickMagick is another robust click-tracking tool, offering features like real-time stats, A/B testing, and more. In a nutshell, third-party click-tracking services play a crucial role in optimizing digital advertising strategies, helping businesses to understand their audience better, manage their budgets efficiently, and ultimately, improve their overall advertising performance.Now according to Google's new guideline, starting from the week of August 28th, advertisers who intend to use click trackers for the first time must ensure that these are certified click trackers in the Tracking Template feature; otherwise, their ads may face disapproval.For those who have been utilizing non-certified click trackers before the stated date, Google has given temporary leniency. They can continue to use the Tracking Template feature without any restrictions for now.Google has released a list of approved click-tracking services. If your service provider isn't featured on this list, Google recommends that the click tracker service providers apply for their click tracker's certification. The guidelines outlining the compliance measures to get approved as a certified click tracker by Google are also provided.In conclusion, this move indicates Google's ongoing effort to ensure the transparency and legitimacy of ad tracking, aiming to provide advertisers with the most reliable and effective advertising experience.

Episode 166 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 19 - 23, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.1. YouTube's New Thumbnail A/B Testing Tool - YouTube has launched a new thumbnail A/B testing tool that allows creators to test different variations of their thumbnail images to see which one performs best. The tool is currently in live testing with a small group of creators, but it is expected to be rolled out to more creators in the coming months.The thumbnail A/B testing tool is a valuable addition to YouTube's creator toolkit. By testing different thumbnail images, creators can ensure that they are using the most effective thumbnail to attract viewers and maximize their video views.2. TikTok Expands TikTok Shops to All Businesses In The US, UK, Canada, and France - TikTok is expanding access to its TikTok Shops eCommerce program to all businesses in the US, UK, Canada, and France. The program allows businesses to sell products directly through TikTok, and it has been growing rapidly in popularity. In the first quarter of 2023, TikTok Shops generated over $1 billion in GMV.To join the TikTok Shops program, businesses need to have a TikTok account and a Shopify or Ecwid store. Once they are approved, they can start adding products to their TikTok Shop and linking their product catalog to TikTok. Businesses can then tag products in their videos and create shopping posts that allow users to purchase products directly from TikTok.The expansion of TikTok Shops to all businesses in these four countries is a major step for the platform. It will allow more businesses to reach a wider audience and sell more products through TikTok. This is likely to further boost the growth of TikTok Shops in the coming months and years.3. Instagram Now Lets You Download Public Reels! - Instagram is now rolling out the ability for users to download publicly posted Reels content to their camera roll. This means that users can now save Reels to their devices for offline viewing, sharing, or editing. To download a Reel, simply tap on the share icon and then select the "Download" option.There are a few limitations to this feature. First, only Reels from public accounts can be downloaded. Second, creators can opt out of enabling downloads of their content in their Account Settings. Finally, some users have reported audio issues with some Reels content, which could be linked to Meta's music licensing agreements.Overall, this is a welcome addition to Instagram that will give users more flexibility with how they interact with Reels content. It will also make it easier for users to share Reels with others, even if they don't have Instagram.4. LinkedIn's New AI Image Detector Catches 99% of Fake Profiles - LinkedIn has developed a new AI image detector that has a 99% success rate in catching fake profile photos. The detector uses a variety of techniques to identify fake images, including analyzing the image's pixels, comparing it to other images in its database, and looking for inconsistencies in the image's metadata.The advent of AI-generated profile images has made it easier to create fake LinkedIn profiles, which has exacerbated an already huge problem. In the first half of 2022, LinkedIn detected and removed 21 million fake accounts.Anecdotal evidence suggests that LinkedIn's AI image detector is working well. An affiliate marketer who deployed fake LinkedIn profiles said that their success rate dropped significantly after LinkedIn implemented the new detector.5. Meta Expands Reels Ads To Instagram And Tests AI Features - Meta is expanding Reels ads to Instagram and testing AI features to boost engagement and broaden advertiser reach. Previously, Reels ads were only available on Facebook. Now, advertisers can run ads between Reels on Instagram, expanding beyond Facebook. Meta is also introducing app promotion ads to Reels to boost app downloads. Additionally, Meta is testing AI to optimize music in single-image Reels ads, aiming for better viewer engagement.6. Meta's New Speech-to-Text Translation Tool Can Translate Text into Audio in 6 Languages - Meta has announced a new AI system called Voicebox that can translate text to audio in a variety of styles and voices. The system is based on a new method called Flow Matching, which allows it to synthesize speech with fewer learning and processing requirements than other similar systems.Voicebox can translate text into audio in six languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. It can also perform noise removal, edit content, and transfer audio style.The system is still under development, but Meta plans to make it available to developers in the future.7. GA4 Update: Now You Can Control Conversion Credit - Google Analytics 4 has added a new feature that allows you to select which channels are eligible to receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Google Ads. This means that you can now choose to give credit to organic and paid channels, even if the last non-direct click was not from a Google ad.This new feature can help you to get a more accurate picture of the impact of your marketing campaigns. For example, if you're running a paid campaign and you see that organic traffic is also converting, you can now give credit to both channels. This will help you to allocate your budget more effectively and improve your ROI.8. Google Sues Rank and Rent Marketer: What You Need to Know - Google is suing an online marketer for violating its terms of service and for engaging in activities that mislead users and violate both federal and state laws. The marketer, who was a member of a public Facebook group called "Rank and Rent – GMB Strategy & Domination," is accused of creating fake businesses and fake websites, and then associating them with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone numbers whose area codes correspond to the fake businesses' supposed locations. Google alleges that the marketer has been associated with over 350 fake Business Profiles listings since mid-2021.9. Google Launches New INP Report in Search Console to Help you Prepare for FID to INP Transition - Google has launched a new report in Google Search Console to help site owners prepare for the upcoming change of First Input Delay (FID) to Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a Core Web Vital metric. The report, which can be accessed by clicking this link and selecting a property, shows how well your site performs with the INP metric.INP is a measure of how long it takes for a user to be able to interact with a page after it has loaded. It is a more accurate measure of user experience than FID, as it takes into account the time it takes for the browser to paint the first content on the page as well as the time it takes for the user to be able to interact with that content.The INP report in Google Search Console shows the following data for each page on your site: The average INP for the page The percentage of users who experienced an INP of 100 milliseconds or less The percentage of users who experienced an INP of 300 milliseconds or less Google has not yet announced a specific date for the FID to INP transition, but it is expected to happen in March 2024. By using the INP report in Google Search Console, you can start preparing your site for the change and ensure that your users have a good experience. 10. Google Postpones Data-Driven Attribution Switch: What You Need to Know - Google has postponed the switch to data-driven attribution in Google Ads from June to mid-July 2023. This means that first click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models will still be available for new conversion actions until mid-July. However, once the switch is made, these models will be removed from all Google Ads reporting. Advertisers who want to continue using these models will have to manually switch to them.The reason for the postponement is that Google wants to give advertisers more time to prepare for the switch. Data-driven attribution is a more complex model than the other attribution models, and it requires more data. Google wants to make sure that advertisers have enough data to get accurate results from data-driven attribution.11. Google Ads Now Lets You Track Store Sales and Optimize Your Bids -  Google has announced that store sales reporting and bidding are now available across Performance Max campaigns within Google Ads. This means advertisers can measure total sales wherever customers prefer to shop and optimize their bids for in-store revenue.To use this feature, you'll need to upload and match your transaction data from your business to Google. Once you've done that, you'll be able to see how your ads translate into offline purchases.Store sales reporting and bidding offer a number of benefits for businesses, including: The ability to measure the true value of your ads in terms of in-store sales The ability to optimize your bids for in-store revenue The ability to gain insights into how your ads are driving offline purchases If you're using Performance Max campaigns, I encourage you to take advantage of this new feature. It's a great way to track the impact of your ads on your offline sales and optimize your bids for maximum results.12. Google's John Mueller Warns: Custom Elements in Head Can Hurt SEO - Google's John Mueller has advised against using custom elements in the head of a web page. Custom elements are HTML tags that are not part of the standard HTML specification. They can be used to add new functionality to web pages, but they can also disrupt how Google renders and indexes pages.Mueller's warning comes after a user on Twitter asked him if it was technically valid to have a custom element in the document head. Mueller responded that using custom elements in the likely breaks page rendering in Google Search. This is because Google's crawlers may not recognize custom elements, which could lead to the page being indexed incorrectly or not at all.As an alternative to custom elements, Mueller recommends using JSON-LD tags. JSON-LD is a lightweight markup language that can be used to add structured data to web pages. This data can be used by Google to better understand the content of a page, which can improve its ranking in search results.13. Your Homepage is Not Indexed? Fix It With These 3 Steps! - Google's John Mueller explained in a recent Twitter thread that there are a few reasons why a homepage might not be indexed by Google. These reasons include: The homepage may not be linked to from any other pages on the site. The homepage may have been blocked from crawling by robots.txt or a meta robots tag. The homepage may contain errors that prevent Googlebot from crawling it successfully. The homepage may not have enough content to be indexed. Mueller also said that the crawl budget, which is the amount of time and resources that Googlebot has available to crawl websites, is not usually a factor in why homepages are not indexed. However, if a site has a large number of pages, the crawl budget could become a limiting factor.To fix a homepage that is not indexed, you can try the following: Add links to the homepage from other pages on the site. Remove any robots.txt or meta robots tags that are blocking the homepage from being crawled. Fix any errors that are preventing Googlebot from crawling the homepage successfully. Add more content to the homepage. If you are still having trouble getting your homepage indexed, you can use Google Search Console to troubleshoot the issue.14. Launch a New Domain Before Migrating Content to Reduce SEO Risk - Google's John Mueller says it can be beneficial to launch a new domain before migrating your site to it. This can help to reduce some of the risks associated with migration, both internal and external. For example, if you launch the new domain and start building links to it, this can help to establish its authority before you start migrating your content. Additionally, if there are any problems with the migration, you can still keep your old domain up and running while you troubleshoot.Here are some of the benefits of launching a new domain before migrating your site: It can help to reduce the risk of losing traffic during the migration. It can help to build up the authority of the new domain before you start migrating your content. It gives you a chance to test out the new domain and make sure it is working properly. 15. Google's Gary Illyes: Don't Use AI for SEO - Google's Gary Illyes recently warned SEOs against using large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose SEO issues. He said that these tools are not yet sophisticated enough to provide accurate insights into the complex factors that affect search rankings. Instead, Illyes recommends using traditional SEO methods, such as manual analysis of site data and search console reports.16. Google Ads is Phasing Out DSAs: Are You Ready for PMax? - Google Ads is asking advertisers to "upgrade" from dynamic search ads (DSAs) to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. This is because Google is gradually phasing out DSAs in favor of PMax, which is a more sophisticated campaign type that can reach a wider audience and generate more conversions.When you upgrade your DSA campaign to PMax, your existing assets, settings, and budget will be used to create a new PMax campaign. You can then continue to optimize your PMax campaign as you would any other Google Ads campaign.Some PPC experts believe that this is the beginning of the end for DSAs, and that Google will eventually force everyone to switch to PMax. If you're currently running DSA campaigns, it's a good idea to start planning your transition to PMax now.17. Microsoft Ads Renames Platforms and Integrates AI - Microsoft is renaming several of its advertising platforms and integrating AI into its ad platforms to help advertisers automate campaign creation and improve campaign management efficiencies. The name changes include: Microsoft Advertising becomes Microsoft Ads Xandr becomes Microsoft Audience Network PromoteIQ becomes Microsoft Retail Media Microsoft is also adding AI-powered predictive targeting to its ad platform. This will allow advertisers to target their ads more effectively to potential customers.18.  Microsoft Launches AI-Powered Advertising Tool That Can Help You Increase Your Conversion Rates - Microsoft has announced the launch of Predictive Targeting, an artificial intelligence-powered advertising tool that uses machine learning to help advertisers reach new, receptive audiences and drive higher conversion rates. Predictive Targeting is now available to all advertisers on the Microsoft Audience Network.The tool uses a variety of data points, including website traffic, search history, and social media activity, to create a profile of each user. This profile is then used to predict which ads are most likely to be clicked on by each user.Predictive Targeting is available through Microsoft's Advertising Platform, and it can be used to target ads across a variety of channels, including search, display, and video.  For more information on Microsoft's predictive targeting feature, read its complete guide here.

Welcome back to another news digest episode for June 2023! Artificial Intelligence is moving faster than ever and we have updates for you on Google AI Search, the rise in podcasting, 3rd party cookies, AI chat search and much more. With lots of popular and upcoming trends this is not one to miss. The nominations for The Digital Marketing Toolkit Awards are also now open! Visit and nominate your favourite digital marketing tool for its chance to win one of our bespoke, beautifully designed trophies!

Episode 165 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 12 - 16, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.1. LinkedIn Removes Carousel Posts, Profile Videos, and In-Image Links - LinkedIn is removing native carousel posts, profile videos, and the ability to embed clickable links within the image or video of your posts. These changes will take effect on June 26, 2023.Carousel posts were introduced in July 2022, but they never really caught on with users. Profile videos were added in 2021, but they also failed to gain traction. The ability to embed clickable links in images and videos was a more popular feature, but LinkedIn says that it is being removed because it is not being used as much as other features.LinkedIn says that it is making these changes in order to "focus on the features that our members use the most." The company says that it will continue to evaluate its features and make changes as needed.2. Instagram Broadcast Channels Are Here!: A New Way to Connect with Your Audience - Instagram Broadcast Channels are now available worldwide. Creators can use Broadcast Channels to send one-way messages to their followers with text, photos, videos, polls, and voice messages. Broadcast Channels are only available in the Instagram app. Instagram is testing experimental features for Broadcast Channels, including question prompts, a dedicated tab in the inbox, collaborators, expiration dates and times, content moderators, and preview links.3. TikTok Launches AI Ad Script Generator: How to Use It and What to Watch Out For -  TikTok has launched a new AI tool that can create scripts for ads in a matter of seconds. The Script Generator is available to all TikTok Creative Center users with a desktop TikTok for Business account. Advertisers simply have to enter in some basic information about the services or products they're offering, and the tool will generate various video scripts with hooks, scenes, calls to action, and visual/audio cues.The Script Generator is a free tool, and advertisers can run their enquiry as many times as they like. However, it's important to note that there is a risk of inaccurate information being published when using AI-generated content. TikTok has warned digital marketers that they shouldn't rely solely on AI-generated scripts, and that they are solely responsible for ensuring that the content is accurate and complies with applicable laws and regulations.4. Google's New Search Spam Report Form: How to Help Keep Search Results Clean - Google has updated its search spam report form to include more types of feedback, such as spam, paid links, malicious behavior, low quality, and other search quality issues. To submit a spam report, simply visit the Google Search spam report form and fill out the required information. You can also submit feedback in bulk by clicking the "Bulk Submission" button.  This new form is a great way to help Google keep its search results spam-free. If you see any spam on Google, please take a moment to submit a report.5. Google Sues Scammers for Creating Fake Businesses and Reviews - Google has filed a lawsuit against a group of scammers who created fake businesses and fake reviews on Google Maps and Business Profiles. The scammers allegedly created over 350 fraudulent Business Profiles and over 14,000 fake reviews. Google is seeking to stop the scammers from continuing their illegal activities and to recover damages.6. Google Merchant Center Updates: What You Need to Know -  Google has updated its Merchant Center product data specification, with some changes taking effect immediately and others rolling out over the next few months. The most notable changes include: Expanding the list of countries where shipping cost is required using the shipping [shipping] attribute or through account shipping settings and enforced to additional countries. Offers without shipping cost will now be disapproved. Per Google, Shipping cost is one of the most common reasons for customers to abandon their shopping choices, so offering accurate information can help the performance of your ads and free listings. Shipping cost is recommended in all countries, but only required for certain countries. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023. Introducing a new certification attribute to describe product certifications, such as energy efficiency ratings. The certification [certification] attribute is used to describe certifications like energy efficiency ratings, and will allow for compliance with updated EU energy efficiency labeling regulation for products covered by rescaled EU energy labels. Learn more about the certification certification [certification]. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023. Previously, the quantity [quantity] attribute was required and the availability [availability] attribute was optional for local inventory feeds.  To simplify setup, they're making the availability [availability] attribute required and quantity [quantity] optional. Google will begin warning merchants who don't use the availability [availability] attribute in their local inventory feeds. Availability required instead of the quantity for local inventory ads and free local listings. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023. Clarifying the guidance for unique product identifiers. If your landing page has multiple prices, such as price for other variants, original currency, or promotional prices, they require the additional prices to be clearly differentiable from the advertised base price. For example, if you show the base price and a members-only price on your landing page, then it should be clear to the user which price is the advertised base price and which price is for members-only. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023. Expiration date [expiration_date] : Starting July 18, 2023, you can use the expiration date [expiration_date] attribute to stop showing a product on a specific date. For example, you can use this attribute for limited stock or seasonal products Beginning September 1, 2023, products that misuse out_of_stock availability will be disapproved. The availability [availability] attribute tells users whether or not a product you've listed is in stock, and should accurately represent the state of your product. Previously, the availability [availability] attribute could be used to pause and unpause ads from showing on Google. Instead, you should now use the pause [pause] attribute, which was introduced last year, to temporarily stop products from showing. If you are listing your products on Google Shopping then you  should review your product data feeds to ensure that they are compliant with the new specifications. Failure to comply could result in product disapprovals or other penalties. If you need help then reach out to us.