Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Friday, April 21st, 2023
Microsoft Bing Chat said it is now better at responding to news questions and also reduced unnecessary duplicate searches, end conversation triggers, and returning no response to queries.
News answers. Bing wrote, “We’ve taken steps to help Bing give better answers if you’re asking questions about news. Bing said we should try to ask Bing Chart “What are today’s top breaking news stories?” So I did and it gives me these stories about Theodore McCarrick, a top news item from a few days ago; a six-year-old being shot, which is a more recent news story; Clemson being a top pick for Casey Poe, also recent news and some financial advice from CNBC from 30 minutes ago.
Here is a screenshot:
When you compare it to Google Bard, they both tell very different stories. I like how Bard breaks it down but I also prefer the top news box that Bing Chat provides:
Other Bing Chat improvements. Other items Bing mentioned as updates to Bing Chat include updates to its :
- Formatting of math formulas so it is easier to read
- Reduction in how often Bing Chat triggers end-of-conversation statements
- Reduction in triggered unnecessary duplicative searches
- Minimizing errors that led to Bing chat returning no response to queries
Why we care. News publishers may be starting to notice some traffic from Bing Chat. If not, if Bing Chat grows, it may drive more and more traffic over time, as Bign Chat grows in popularity.
Plus, watching these rapid improvements to AI search and AI chat features is really exciting.
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Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Google is set to integrate generative artificial intelligence into its advertising business in the coming months, joining other major tech companies in adopting the technology.
The company plans to use AI to generate unique ads using materials provided by human marketers, based on an internal presentation for advertisers obtained by the Financial Times.
The new technology will be integrated into Performance Max, a program offered by Google since 2020 that uses an algorithm to determine ad placement, budget allocation, and simple ad copy creation.
AI-powered ads 2023. The presentation, titled “AI-powered ads 2023,” describes how generative AI opens up new possibilities for creativity. While Google already employs AI in its advertising to create simple prompts that encourage users to make purchases, the introduction of generative AI will enable the creation of more sophisticated campaigns akin to those made by marketing agencies.
How it works. Advertisers can submit creative content such as images, videos, and text related to a campaign, and the AI will “remix” these materials to generate ads that target specific audiences and meet objectives like sales targets, according to the presentation.
However, there are concerns that the tool could disseminate misinformation, as AI-generated text can confidently assert falsehoods. One individual familiar with the presentation commented that the AI is optimized for converting new customers and does not have an understanding of truth.
Google told the Financial Times that it intends to implement strict safeguards to prevent such errors, or “hallucinations,” as it rolls out its new generative AI features.
Why we care. Google’s integration of generative AI into its ad business offers the potential for increased creativity and sophistication in ad campaigns. By utilizing AI-generated content, advertisers can benefit from customized ads that target specific audiences and help meet objectives, such as sales targets. As a result, this technology can lead to improved conversion rates and more effective marketing strategies, giving businesses a competitive edge in the evolving digital advertising landscape.
ICYMI. Google has already confirmed that it is testing integrating AI into the Google Ads interface. The feature would help brands and marketers create responsive search ads (RSAs) using suggested headlines and descriptions. At this time we’re unsure if the two features are related.
AI – so hot right now. This is just the latest Google product that is adding generative AI. In addition to launching Bard last month, we know Google is working on new AI features to Search as well as planning a new search engine. Google is also bringing generative AI into Google Docs and Gmail.
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Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Google has announced four new enhancements for the GA4 homepage:
- New welcome tutorial
- New banner along the top of the Home page
- Improvements to the Suggested for you section
- Dismiss suggestions, insights, and recommendations
New welcome tutorial. Google Analytics has incorporated a brief tutorial for new Google Analytics 4 users on the Home page. This tutorial introduces essential concepts and settings to help users get started with their new property.
New banner at the top of the Home page. Editors and Administrators who utilize Google Ads in conjunction with Google Analytics data will now see a banner titled “Verify your Google Ads settings” at the top of the Home page. The banner outlines key tasks that must be completed to bid against Google Analytics 4 data. The banner disappears once all tasks are marked as complete in Setup Assistant.
Enhancements to the “Suggested for you” section. This section now offers users cards that are popular across all Analytics properties (to aid new Google Analytics 4 users) and cards that users frequently return to.
Dismissal of suggestions, insights, and recommendations. Users can now dismiss irrelevant cards in the “Suggested for you” or “Insights & recommendations” sections by clicking the thumbs-down button. Google Analytics will use this input to better curate the Home page for users in the future.
Upon clicking the thumbs-down button, Analytics will remove the card from the Home page, and the card will not reappear for the next 30 days. However, if users do not submit the feedback form that appears after clicking the feedback button, the card will remain in view for the remainder of the session but will be removed in future sessions.
Users can still access all insights and recommendations from the Insights Hub, including dismissed ones.
Open the setup assistant. GA4 properties now include an action button at the bottom right of each page. Hovering over the button reveals the number of tasks marked as complete in Setup Assistant. Clicking the button opens the Setup Assistant, allowing users to continue completing essential setup tasks.
Why we care. The new enhancements to the GA4 Home page provide a more user-friendly experience, enabling users to quickly grasp essential concepts and settings through the welcome tutorial. Furthermore, the integration of a banner for verifying Google Ads settings ensures a seamless connection between Google Ads and Analytics data, while the improved “Suggested for you” section offers tailored content based on user preferences.
The ability to dismiss irrelevant insights and recommendations ensures a personalized Home page experience, and the easily accessible Setup Assistant helps users efficiently complete key setup tasks. Overall, these updates significantly streamline the process of utilizing Google Analytics data to inform and optimize advertising strategies.
The announcement You can read more about the new features on Google’s Analytics Help page.
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Thursday, April 20th, 2023
In today’s fiercely competitive market, delivering personalized experiences is crucial for customer engagement and loyalty. However, marketers who fail to adapt to the transition from decision-tree to trigger-based engagement strategies risk falling behind and missing out on the opportunity to captivate customers at every touchpoint with hyper-personalized experiences.
In this workshop, discover how to seamlessly collaborate with your data team to unlock the full potential of your first-party data and create personalized experiences that captivate your customers at every touchpoint.
Register and attend “How To Power Next Best Action with First-Party Customer Data,” presented by Snowplow.
Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.
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Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Currently holding strong at just under a 65% market share, WordPress has been the world’s top CMS platform for many years.
From novice and experienced bloggers and small businesses to the largest ecommerce and news websites, WordPress has been a popular choice because of its simplicity in set-up, endless customization, and large actively supported community.
The great thing about WordPress is it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
It’s SEO-friendly out of the box, and comes with clean code, semantic markup, and a structure that search engines can easily crawl and understand. This makes it easier for your content to be indexed and ranked in search engine results pages (SERPs).
That being said, every WordPress blog has its shortcomings.
As a site auditor focusing exclusively on WordPress blogs, I can confidently say that focusing on specific technical aspects is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve SEO, build traffic, and increase bottom-line RPMs (revenue per thousand impressions).
Here are some top priorities to help make your WordPress site as technically sound as possible.
1. Setting up Google Analytics 4 before the July deadline
Google has warned us for over two years that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) would replace Universal Analytics on July 1. Yet, many site owners still haven’t moved to the new system.
To help smooth the transition, the search engine has said they will automatically migrate your properties from UA to GA4 for you (unless you opt out).
But they also warn that since the setup of GA4 is slightly different, you’re better off doing it yourself to ensure you’re happy with the choices.
Google provides an interactive Quickstart tutorial that will effortlessly allow someone to set up the new GA4 account to run parallel to their existing GA3 Universal setup.
Once that is done, WordPress users have two popular plugin options to add the tracking to their site: Google Site Kit and Code Snippets.
Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to add GA4 with the Google Site Kit plugin.
And here’s a walkthrough on how to add GA4 with the Code Snippets plugin.
2. Passing Core Web Vitals on WordPress
Core Web Vitals (CWVs) and page speed are important ranking factors and warrant your attention.
Let’s focus on bottom-line recommendations that will result in 99 out of 100 WordPress blogs passing CWVs.
Compressing all images
I recommend you use Imagify or Shortpixel. Compressing images down to 200KB max or less should be the focus.
Don’t use cheap hosting
Hosts with “Blue” or “Gator” in their names should be avoided like the plague.
I recommend Big Scoots or Agathon. Invest in managed WordPress hosting.
Use a CDN
A CDN (content delivery network) stores your files on numerous servers worldwide, delivering them from the location closest to a user. Cloudflare is a good choice.
Invest in a quality caching plugin
I recommend WP Rocket. When set up correctly, this will eliminate 99% of all CSS and JavaScript-related PageSpeed Insights warnings.
Set your site up with a quality theme
Genesis, Feast, Kadence, and Astra are all good choices.
If it’s a “free theme,” it’s probably not a great option.
Optimize your fonts
Custom fonts may be flashy, but “system fonts” load faster.
If you must use custom fonts, limit their number, and load them asynchronously.
Paginate comments
Paginating comments reduces DOM nodes and page size, increasing bottom-line speed.
Go with 20 comments maximum, and show newer comments first.
Passing Core Web Vitals is all about reducing page size and optimizing the delivery of on-page elements. Focusing on the above strategies solves both of these priorities in WordPress.
3. Removing internal permalink redirects
An internal permalink redirect is a way to redirect an old permalink to a new permalink within your website.
It helps maintain the SEO value of your website by avoiding broken links, 404 errors, and other issues that can harm your website’s search engine rankings.
You can do this by creating a redirect rule in your website’s .htaccess file or using a plugin such as Redirection or Yoast SEO.
For example, links to https://sample.com/2022/02/sample-url.htm can be redirected to https://sample.com/sample-url/ and links from https://sample.com/sample-url can be redirected to https://sample.com/sample-url/.
The problem with the above is that most site owners fail to do a “find and replace” and remove all the old internal links (with the previous URL permutation) to the new URL internal links (without the previous URL permutation).
Per Google, unnecessary server hops and HTML redirects should be avoided as they dilute the flow of PageRank and authority to your site.
“Additional HTTP redirects can add one or two extra network roundtrips (two if an extra DNS lookup is required), incurring hundreds of milliseconds of extra latency on 4G networks. For this reason, we strongly encourage webmasters to minimize the number, and ideally eliminate redirects entirely – this is especially important for the HTML document (avoid “m dot” redirects when possible).”
To fix this, reach out to your host and have it scan your site to fix this at scale. Or, install a plugin like Search and Replace and do this yourself.
Always edit internal links within content to reflect the new URL, especially after instituting redirects. Internal redirects slow down the server, add complexity, and annoy users.
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<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”“>
4. Fixing link targets
Have you ever navigated through a site and had every hyperlink you clicked on open in a new tab? Pretty annoying, right!?
Unfortunately, understanding the correct behavior for link targets still confuses most users. To simplify it as much as possible, the best practice is as follows:
- Internal links open in the same tab.
- External links open in new tabs.
It’s actually common sense.
Nothing annoys users more than the needless generation of new tabs/windows on a mobile device as you navigate through the same site.
This problem is called “tab fatigue” and should be actively combatted.
In contrast, having all internal hyperlinks open in the same tab as a user navigates the average website increases the chance the user stays on the domain longer.
You can also correctly track the user’s path through the entire journey. This is just simple SEO 101 and a sound UX practice.
Finally, understand that link behavior has an accessibility component.
By forcing all links on a page to open in new tabs, you have removed the choice from the user.
Always inform the user if you force links to open in new tabs. I recommend the WP External Links plugin as a simple way to mark for the user when a link opens in a new tab.
5. Fixing broken links
Broken links are a tremendous frustration to users. When someone navigates through your site and hits a 404, they aren’t coming back.
404s and 503s, per Google, are not a sign of low quality. But they impact crawl quality by interrupting the flow of link equity between pages, which can affect the rankings of internal pages.
Every broken link should be fixed quickly and efficiently.
Fortunately, you don’t have to manually check all your links, as the good folks at WPMU DEV have developed a convenient, open-source plugin called Broken Link Checker.
Recently completely relaunched and rebuilt, I still find the “Classic Version” works the best. I recommend running this plugin at least once a month to find and fix issues at scale.
Other options for WordPress users include external SEO tools like Semrush, Sitebulb, or Screaming Frog. All do well in surfacing internal and external 404s and 503s.
6. Improving internal anchor text
Appropriate anchor text helps inform users about what is expected if they click on a link. It also helps the search engines establish a contextual relevance between source and destination pages.
Anchor text like “Read more” or “Here” are essentially useless from an SEO standpoint.
They provide no contextual information to users and are a lost opportunity to connect two logically and semantically relevant pages.
Related to this, using the same anchor text on links to similar internal pages creates a content cannibalization and topical dilution issue that must also be discussed.
For example, if I have four “banana bread recipes” and use the identical anchor text “banana bread” on all of these, I will cannibalize my ability to rank these recipes independently of each other. It’s a topically confusing signal to Google.
As such, selecting detailed anchor text is one of the easiest ways to increase your SEO rankings. It makes it easier for Google to find and rank your best content.
Maybe I use instead “instant pot banana bread” and “gluten-free banana bread” to intentionally differentiate my various recipes? Doing so will significantly prevent possible topical dilution and improve my ranking prospects.
For WordPress users, there exists no greater ability to harness the power of internal linking than through the Link Whisper plugin.
Whether you’re using the free version (available from the WordPress repository) or a premium version with additional features, this plugin takes all the strain out of finding effective anchor text and identifying internal pages with few or no internal links.
Internal linking is one of the most under-appreciated SEO ways to build massive traffic. This plugin helps automate the process considerably.
7. Optimizing sidebars
Sidebars are often visible on every webpage – so it’s ironic that many webmasters pay the least attention to this significant real estate.
WordPress blogs historically used sidebars for things like blogrolls and email embeds.
Now, in a mobile-first world where users don’t even see the average sidebar on their phone or tablet, the value of the sidebar has been forgotten.
This has resulted in a recent trend to “remove sidebars altogether.” But definitely do not do this!
Sidebars are incredibly important for internal linking and content discovery.
The average site should use a fully optimized sidebar to showcase popular content and seasonal content. You should also be rotating that content as seasons and holidays change.
You may not notice the sidebar on mobile, but the links are there, and they still count… a lot!
8. Reinforcing E-E-A-T in 2023
WordPress blogs provide multiple methods to reinforce individual authors and teams.
Search Engine Land has a great overview article on E-E-A-T, covering each individual component in more detail.
But for our purposes, the average WordPress blogger can greatly influence their personal E-E-A-T by focusing on the below:
- Consider showing a clear photo of the author or team on the sidebar.
- Ensure all content is linked to custom author pages or an About page at the top of all posts.
- Show Published and Last modified dates on all content.
- Put some effort into your About page – show credentials, an FAQ block with top questions, media mentions, and more. Great examples to emulate here and here.
- Link out regularly to reputable sources to support claims, facts, and statistics, as needed.
- Don’t use stock photography if you can avoid it. Generate your own AI images with Midjourney or Dall-E 2.
The above list is not absolute, but it provides a quick and easy list of ways WordPress users can build and influence E-E-A-T for the long term.
9. Addressing accessibility concerns
If you’re unaware of your legal responsibilities to make your WordPress blog accessible, you’re due for a wake-up call. Accessibility lawsuits are on the rise, and entire websites exist to track them monthly.
Here are some of the most important aspects of accessibility you should focus on immediately:
Provide informative alt text on images for those using screen readers
Alt text is not a place to stuff keywords. It should be short (12-16 words or less) and descriptive of the image.
Always end it with a period so the screen reader recognizes the end of the description.
Design with adequate color contrast ratios in mind
The most common reason behind ADA harassment lawsuits against bloggers is inadequate color contrasting.
Ensure hyperlinks and all colors on your site pass accessibility standards – a 4.5:1 contrast ratio or higher, for links, for example.
Add an accessibility policy to your website
Even if everything isn’t yet up to standards, this will at least communicate to your visitors that “hey, we’re working on it.”
You can get a free policy from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative to link to in your footer.
Understand how to use headings
Headings are the main mechanism by which impaired users can navigate a website. They must follow a hierarchy.
For instance, never use an H3 unless preceded by an H2. And don’t use a heading simply because you like the size or font involved.
Here’s a great guide on headings: Modern Guidelines for Page Headings.
Finally, there has been a considerable rise in the use of automated overlays to “solve accessibility” via a plugin.
Even the Yoast SEO plugin founders have announced a recent equity investment in the Equalize Digital Accessibility Plugin for WordPress.
This seems promising. However, most overlays and automated accessibility fixes are hated by the very audience they are trying to help, and it’s too soon to see if this plugin will be embraced. Stay tuned.
A technical SEO path to success exists for all WordPress users
It has never been more competitive to be a WordPress blogger.
Although WordPress does a lot of the heavy lifting for you, there is much that it does not do. This list is but a small concentration of popular priority action items of which to be aware.
Technical SEO is one of the most underrated areas of digital marketing, especially considering the ROI that even small technical changes can mean for the average blog.
Get a handle on the issues covered here, and I guarantee you and your users will have a much more successful year overall. Good luck out there.
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Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
The Google Search Console page experience report, at least how we know it today, is going away. It will be replaced by a content page that links to Google’s general guidance about page experience.
Why we care. You may have relied on this report for some of your SEO work. With these changes, you will need to adapt some of your reporting practices going forward.
Page experience report changes. Google is removing the existing page experience report within Google Search Console and replacing it with content around what Google thinks is a good page experience. This change will happen in “the coming months,” Google wrote.
“The page experience report was intended as a general guidepost of some metrics that aligned with good page experience, not as a comprehensive assessment of all the different aspects. Those seeking to provide a good page experience should take an holistic approach, including following some of our self-assessment questions covered on our Understanding page experience in Google Search results page.”
Core Web Vitals & HTTPS report remain. There will be a dashboard view of the individual Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports that will remain in Search Console, Google added.
Mobile-friendly test going away. With that, Google is also removing the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and Mobile-Friendly Test API. Google said that this “doesn’t mean that mobile usability isn’t important for success with Google Search,” it is important. “It remains critical for users, who are using mobile devices more than ever, and as such, it remains a part of our page experience guidance,” Google added.
Changes to helpful content and page experience. Google also announced that good page experience is a requirement for creating, what Google defines as, helpful content.
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Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
Google now says that good page experience is a part of the aspects for creating, what Google defines as, helpful content. Google added a new section for providing a great page experience to its guidance around how to create helpful content, Google explained. Google also revised its help page about page experience to add more details about helpful content.
To be clear, good page experience is not a requirement for content to be considered helpful, it is just one of the aspects that is factored in by Google.
Page experience section in helpful content. Google added the following section to the helpful content guidance here, it reads:
“Provide a great page experience: Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience. Site owners seeking to be successful with our systems should not focus on only one or two aspects of page experience. Instead, check if you’re providing an overall great page experience across many aspects. For more advice, see our page, Understanding page experience in Google Search results.”
“In turn, that section links over to our revised Understanding page experience in Google Search results help page, which explains the role of page experience in more detail, along with self-assessment questions and resources,” Danny Sullivan of Google wrote. “That page brings together in one place some key aspects of page experience to consider, aspects that are unchanged from what we’ve talked about in recent years,” he added.
Search Console report changes. Google also removed the page experience report from Search Console and while keeping the core web vitals and HTTPS report and also dropped the mobile-friendly testing tool. More on those changes can be found over here.
More FAQs. Google also posted these FAQs on this change, which mentions the site-wide versus page-specific evaluations when it comes to measuring page experience:
Without the Page Experience report, how do I know if my site provides a great page experience?
The page experience report was intended as a general guidepost of some metrics that aligned with good page experience, not as a comprehensive assessment of all the different aspects. Those seeking to provide a good page experience should take an holistic approach, including following some of our self-assessment questions covered on our Understanding page experience in Google Search results page.
Is there a single “page experience signal” that Google Search uses for ranking?
There is no single signal. Our core ranking systems look at a variety of signals that align with overall page experience.
Page experience signals had been listed as Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendly, HTTPS and no intrusive interstitials. Are these signals still used in search rankings? While not all of these may be directly used to inform ranking, we do find that all of these aspects of page experience align with success in search ranking, and are worth attention
Are Core Web Vitals still important?
We highly recommend site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search and to ensure a great user experience generally. However, great page experience involves more than Core Web Vitals. Good stats within the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console or third-party Core Web Vitals reports don’t guarantee good rankings.
What does this mean for the “page experience update”?
The page experience update was a concept to describe a set of key page experience aspects for site owners to focus on. In particular, it introduced Core Web Vitals as a new signal that our core ranking systems considered, along with other page experience signals such as HTTPS that they’d already been considering. It was not a separate ranking system, and it did not combine all these signals into one single “page experience” signal.
Is good page experience required to appear in the “Top stories” carousel on mobile?
Page experience is not an eligibility requirement to appear anywhere in the “Top stories” section. As long as content meets Google News best practices and Google News policies, our automated systems may consider it.
Is page experience evaluated on a site-wide or page-specific basis?
Our core ranking systems generally evaluate content on a page-specific basis, including when understanding aspects related to page experience. However, we do have some site-wide assessments.
Does page experience factor into the helpful content system?
The helpful content system is primarily focused on signals related to content, rather than presentation and page experience. However, just as our core ranking systems consider signals that align with good page experience, so does the helpful content system, to a degree.
How important is page experience to ranking success?
Google Search always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par. But for many queries, there is lots of helpful content available. Having a great page experience can contribute to success in Search, in such cases.
Why we care. Reviewing these changes and understanding where Google wants your content and page experience to meet is important. The more you understand what it means to create helpful content, the better chances you have to rank well in Google Search.
Removing some of the tools in Search Console may not be something any of us are looking forward to, but we do learn to adapt.
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Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
On Tuesday, Amazon initiated layoffs within its advertising division as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s efforts to control costs.
It is unclear exactly how many employees in the ads division will be affected.
What’s happening. Amazon is currently experiencing the largest layoffs in its 29-year history, following a hiring surge during the Covid pandemic. Amazon’s global workforce grew to over 1.6 million by the end of 2021, up from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The aftermath. As a result of the recent layoffs, Amazon will reallocate resources, which include shifting team members, slowing down or stopping certain programs, and recognizing the need for different skill sets to address priorities. Consequently, role eliminations occurred for a small percentage of the organization. Affected employees were notified via email on Tuesday morning, with the layoffs scheduled to commence on June 20, or July 17 for workers in New York and New Jersey, following a 60- to 90-day transition period.
Transitioning to other roles. During this transition period, affected employees will have the opportunity to search for another role within the company. The exact number of layoffs within the advertising unit remains unclear. Last month, Jassy announced that Amazon would lay off 9,000 employees in addition to the 18,000 cuts previously announced in November and January. Those earlier layoffs primarily targeted retail, devices, recruiting, and human resources groups.
Jassy is also examining the company’s expenses on a larger scale as it faces an economic downturn and slowing growth in its core retail business. Amazon has frozen hiring within its corporate workforce, discontinued some experimental projects, and slowed warehouse expansion. By announcing layoffs in the advertising and Amazon Web Services divisions, Jassy has indicated that even Amazon’s largest and most profitable businesses are not exempt from cost-cutting measures.
What Amazon said. In a memo sent to staff, Paul Kotas, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Advertising, IMDb, and Grand Challenge, informed employees of the job cuts. The memo emphasized that throughout the 2023 planning process, Amazon has been rigorously prioritizing resources to maximize customer benefits and ensure the long-term health of the business.
“Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share that this morning we took the difficult step of informing Amazon Ads team members who were impacted by role reductions in the U.S. and Canada. In other regions, we are following local policies which require additional time and process steps, including consultation with employee representative bodies. We will communicate with affected employees in other regions in accordance with those policies and timelines. We recognize that this news is significant for all our team members and, therefore, want to provide you with additional context on both the decision to eliminate roles and how we are supporting our impacted colleagues.
As Andy shared a few weeks ago, throughout the 2023 planning process, we’ve been scrupulously prioritizing resources with an eye toward maximizing benefits to customers and the long-term health of our business. For Ads, this process has involved reallocating resources by shifting team members, slowing down or stopping certain programs, or concluding we didn’t have the right skills in place to address our priorities. As a result, we have made deeply-considered decisions about how best to move forward, resulting in role eliminations for a small percentage of our organization.
Importantly, I want to acknowledge and thank our impacted colleagues for the work they have done on behalf of Amazon Ads customers. Our immediate focus is supporting our team members through this difficult transition and, to this end, employees whose roles were eliminated will have a personal follow-up meeting with a leader from their team explaining next steps. Those affected will receive full pay and benefits for the next 60 days (90 days if in New York and New Jersey), plus an additional severance package and outplacement support to help with finding their next role outside of Amazon.
Looking ahead, I remain very optimistic about the opportunities in front of us, even in an uncertain economic environment. We’ve built a strong foundation and I’m personally very excited by the invention and building happening across our organization. I also want to thank each of you for showing one another empathy and support during this time. Please reach out to your team leaders or MyHR with any questions.”
Paul Kotas, Amazon senior vice president of advertising, IMDb and Grand Challenge
Layoffs hitting the tech industry hard. Meta also announced its own plans to lay off employees across Facebook, Instagram, Reality Labs, and WhatsApp starting today. Meta employees in North America were notified by email between 4 am to 5 am PT Wednesday morning. Outside of North America, the timelines will vary country to country, and some countries will not be impacted.
Why we care. Aside from Layoffs signal a shift in the Amazon’s priorities and resource allocation. These changes could impact the advertising landscape on the platform, affecting the tools, services, and opportunities available to advertisers.
Additionally, getting laid off from a job is never easy. The affected individuals from Amazon, Meta, Google, and all of the other tech companies going through tough times, have valuable experience and expertise within the ad industry. Hopefully, their insights and skills will be an asset to other companies looking to strengthen their advertising teams.
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Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
Apple’s Safari browser, long known for its emphasis on user privacy, is further restricting data collection methods. The move has sparked frustration, particularly due to Apple’s lack of communication about the change, which will impact the architecture of numerous websites.
What’s happening. Apple is closing a loophole that allowed websites to pass off third-party partners as first-party cookies. First-party cookies enable websites to recognize returning users, allowing them to avoid logging in each time they revisit a publisher’s site.
Why integration is key. Many websites collaborate with third parties to improve functionality, using tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and content hosting services. They want these partners to track their audiences, but third-party cookies have not been available since Safari deprecated them in 2017. Consequently, websites have devised various methods to disguise third-party cookies as first-party cookies, with Safari attempting to counteract these techniques over the past few years.
In October 2022, an Apple engineer posted on GitHub about the company’s intention to limit one such cloaking technique. The post explained that Apple would compare the IP address of the incoming response with the IP address of the main resource response. If the addresses are mostly different, the cookies can only last for seven days before being destroyed, thus limiting the data usage and inferences that can be made.
Mums the word. Apple never published an official blog post about the change or specified when it would be implemented. Anton Lipkanou, president of analytics-focused agency Delve, stated that the change is already active and causing anomalies in website data. However, Jen Simmons, Apple Evangelist on the web developer team for Safari & Webkit, tweeted on April 11 that the change had not been implemented. Apple has not provided any comments.
Ad-tech executives’ dissatisfaction with the change stems from Apple’s limited communication about it, given its impact on many websites’ architecture.
Publishers and advertisers may be affected as sites working with multiple third parties using this technique might need to revise their website operations, according to Loch Rose, chief analytics officer at Publicis-owned data firm Epsilon. He added that many sites with a majority of their traffic from Apple users could lose significant functionality.
Why we care. The changes in Apple’s Safari browser make it harder for websites to work with third-party services like Google Analytics, can directly impact advertisers’ and brands’ ability to gather and analyze user data. It can hinder their capacity to tailor marketing campaigns, target specific audiences, and measure the effectiveness of their advertising strategies. In turn, this may lead to a reduced ROI and diminished overall performance for their marketing efforts.
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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Tuesday, April 18th, 2023
Results from a Google experiment showed that interest-based audience solutions performed reasonably well compared to third-party cookies.
The results. The results were compared using interest-based audience (IBA) solutions with privacy-preserving signals on the display network, Google Display Ads advertiser spending on IBA, as a proxy for scale reached (meaning that a particular metric or value is being used to estimate or represent the extent or level of impact achieved in a specific context. In this case, it indicates that the given metric serves as an indirect measure to help understand the overall reach or success of a particular aspect being discussed).
- Advertiser spending on interest-based audiences (IBA) decreased by 2-7%, compared to third-party-cookie-based results.
- For conversions per dollar, the decrease was 1-3%.
- Click-through rates remained within 90% of the status quo.
- Campaigns using optimized targeting or Maximize conversions bid strategies were less impacted by the removal of third-party cookies, indicating that machine learning can play a significant role in driving results.
The experiment. Google Ads and Display & Video 360 have been conducting experiments with interest-based audience solutions ahead of Chrome’s deprecation of third-party cookies.
In the first quarter of 2023, Google Ads platforms ran an experiment to determine the effectiveness of IBA solutions when relying on a combination of privacy-preserving signals, including contextual information, first-party identifiers, and the Topics API from the Privacy Sandbox.
Why it matters. Google believes that ad tech platforms can set a new standard for privacy that meets consumers’ expectations while giving businesses the tools they need to grow through innovation. Over the coming months, Google will continue to run more rounds of testing and provide regular feedback to Chrome and the broader industry. As an advertiser, it is important to adopt innovative ad solutions that protect people’s privacy and drive performance.
Dig deeper. You can read the full results of Google’s study here.
Why we care. The shift towards privacy-preserving interest-based audience solutions represents the future of digital advertising. As third-party cookies are being deprecated, embracing innovative ad solutions that protect user privacy is crucial to maintaining ad performance, meeting consumer expectations, and supporting business growth. By adopting these new solutions, advertisers can ensure continued effectiveness in targeting and conversion rates while upholding privacy standards and staying ahead in a rapidly changing industry landscape.
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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
