Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Wednesday, June 29th, 2022
Yoast SEO, one of the more popular SEO plugins for WordPress, has finally adopted IndexNow, the Microsoft backed protocol to submit content to search engines. This is available in the premium version of Yoast SEO version 19.2, the company announced.
What is IndexNow. IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results. The co-sharing of IndexNow went fully live in January 2022.
Integrations. Why Microsoft built its own plugin for WordPress sites to use IndexNow, Yoast decided to build it in to its premium plugin. Why did Yoast add it now? “The latest change to the protocol is the second significant development that made us change our minds about IndexNow. The IndexNow team changed the endpoint of the API from pinging each individual-supported search engine to a single API managed by the protocol. This means that sites only have to ping a single site, making the process much more efficient. All of this fits into our view of a sustainable crawling and indexing solution, so now is the time to implement IndexNow with a new integration in Yoast SEO,” the company explained.
What is IndexNow. IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results.
Google support? Nope, not yet. Google last year said it was testing IndexNow but since then has not said much about IndexNow. There have been some rumors that Google would not adopt this protocol but as we have seen in the search space, things change fast and often.
Why we care. Like we said before, instant indexing is an SEO’s dream when it comes to giving search engines the most updated content on a site. The protocol is very simple and it requires very little developer effort to add this to your site, so it makes sense to implement this if you care about speedy indexing.
Now, if you have WordPress and use Yoast SEO premium, you can easily active IndexNow for your site.
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Monday, June 27th, 2022
To provide more flexibility in advertisers’ goals, strategies, and conversion journeys, TikTok is introducing a flexible Attribution Manager. The new feature enables users to set custom attribution windows on the TikTok Ads Manager.
Why the change. TikTok realizes that every advertiser is different in regard to the actions their target market takes after clicking an ad. If the goal is brand awareness, a click or like is a sufficient objective. However, if the advertiser is selling a service or high-ticket item, the conversion journey looks different and can often take longer.
New options. The original and default attribution windows are set to 7-day click and 1-day view. This means that potential customers have 1 day to convert after an ad is viewed, or 7 days after the ad is clicked.
The new options available for advertisers are:
- Click-through (CTA): 1, 7, 14, 28 day
- View-through (VTA): off, 1 and 7 day
Best practices. To get the most out of the new attribution windows, you’ll need to consider who your customer is, what your conversion goal is, and how long they take to perform the primary action.
For retail brands running a seasonal campaign or flash sale, a 7-day click or 1-day view is sufficient. However, for a high-ticket item, or a product that takes more consideration such as purchasing insurance or comparing laptop models, a longer attribution model is suggested.
Who gets it. The TikTok Attribution Manager is available to advertisers who run campaigns using the TikTok Pixel or Events API.
What TikTok has to say. You can read the announcement on the TikTok blog here.
Why we care. This is a necessary update from TikTok, as most ad platforms have flexible attribution windows already. Advertisers are likely familiar with how they work, but if you use TikTok ads, be sure you have the pixel installed so you can track your conversions and take advantage of this new update.
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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Monday, June 27th, 2022
“Not all Google updates are equal,” said Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive, in his presentation at SMX Advanced. “Google pushes thousands of changes per year, but some are small and some are large.”
Whenever a new Google algorithm update is announced, SEOs often spend a lot of money, time, and resources optimizing their sites. And while this can be a good thing, as it helps improve these properties, it can also distract marketers from higher priority tasks when the update is overhyped.
For example, many sites worked heavily on improving Core Web Vitals even though the page experience signal is lightweight (more of a tiebreaker). Gabe showed examples of sites that saw no movement at all when their CWV scores were “poor” and “good”.
Source: Glenn Gabe
Source: Glenn Gabe
To properly address these updates — and discern what impact they will have — Gabe offered SEOs a few tips that can help them get to the heart of the issue.
Don’t jump to conclusions
Any major drop in rankings/visibility following a Google update will undoubtedly spur many SEOs to action. But, to avoid wasting too much of your valuable time and resources, Gabe recommended getting all the facts in place before jumping to conclusions.
“Avoid the knee-jerk reaction when rankings drop,” he said. “You might need to [make changes], or you might not need to. A drop during a major algorithm update could be due to relevancy adjustments, intent shifts, or overall site quality problems.”
“All of these are very different, so don’t just charge ahead,” he added.
Gabe suggests marketers create a delta report to analyze these changes. This type of report will detail changes in your top landing pages and queries, allowing you to pinpoint those that have dropped during significant algorithm updates. It can also reveal the root cause of the drops and help teams determine the next steps.
Source: Glenn Gabe
“This is quick, easy, and packed with punch,” he said. “It can reveal a lot of information.”
Determine if there are site quality issues
Sometimes visibility changes following a Google update stem from a quality issue with your site, rather than a change in the algorithm or new competitors.
“If you determine this is the case, there’s good and bad news,” Gabe said. “You can address those problems and see recovery eventually, but it takes significant work over the long term. You will typically not recover quickly — it’s usually months of hard work.”
Gabe said that when addressing these quality issues, site owners should analyze their sites through the lens of broad core algorithm updates, then work to improve content quality and user experience. This means reviewing potential technical SEO problems that could be affecting site quality as well.
“As Google’s John Mueller explained, when you think about quality, it’s not just about content,” said Gabe. “It’s not just about the text on a page, so don’t just focus on what people are reading.”
Pay attention to E-A-T
“E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trust, is super-important,” said Gabe. “You could think of Google’s algorithm like a human who’s asking if the [site] creator has expertise on a topic. You have to look at your content objectively.”
Because E-A-T isn’t a score or scale, it’s not always easy determining how well your site embodies its principles. Yet Google’s documentation has highlighted its importance — especially when future-proofing sites for algorithm updates. So, SEOs should ensure they’re adhering to its standard.
When it comes to improving E-A-T after a ranking drop, many SEOs focus on improving content quality and thoroughness, which are incredibly important. But, as Gabe noted, authoritativeness is also heavily influenced by links and mentions from authoritative sites.
“If you do the right things content-wise and build trust with your audience, links and mentions from well-known sites could help from an E-A-T standpoint,” he said. “It’s not easy to fix this problem if you don’t have a lot of authority, but you can work at it over time.”
“It’s really important to identify, plan and execute changes to improve the site overall,” he added.
Watch Glenn Gabe’s full SMX Advanced presentation
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Monday, June 27th, 2022
A new group – Agencies for Reproductive Rights (ARR) – has been formed by more than 30 search organizations.
The group’s purpose. It is to provide abortion travel benefits for team members following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. According to the ARR’s website:
- “Each agency … has agreed to cover travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion to the nearest state where legal and safe care is available.”
As Michael King, founder & CEO of iPullRank, put it on Twitter, “if you work at @iPullRankAgency and live in a state that doesn’t support a woman’s right, whatever plane, train or automobile you need to take is on us.”
There are still many details to work out, as the group was only formed over the weekend and announced today. What is for sure is that the group is free to join, and there is a form on the ARR site to do so.
Why the group formed. “I woke up Friday still reeling from the fact that my wife, Jill, and my two daughters, were just told by their government that they were basically second-class citizens and that the government had more say over what they could do with their own bodies than they did,” according to Andrew Shotland, CEO of Local SEO Guide.
Also, right now, women need support and allies, not judgment, said Tess Voecks, director of project management at Local SEO Guide.
“I’m very thankful to have a supportive and understanding employer who understands that reproductive healthcare and medical needs are a personal choice to be made by a woman and that restricting that right by law and making it punishable by law is both dangerous and wrong,” Voecks said.
She also she is thankful that “we are all working together to initiate and organize the formation of a community of support for our industry. We won’t be silenced!”
Women need to feel empowered to make decisions about their bodies and lives for any and all reasons, including reproductive care, Voecks said.
“It’s terrifying to have this right stripped away from us,” she said. “While some of us live in states that still allow legal abortions, many of us do not, and some of us still live very far from a facility that would provide us with the medical care that we want or need.
“That said, travel and time away from work should never be a concern to get the healthcare we want or need. We want our employees to feel supported and empowered to time away from work, afford travel expenses and have the mental and medical care for the reproductive care they need,” Voecks added.
The companies. These companies have joined ARR so far:
- Altura Interactive
- Amsive Digital
- Argent Media
- Beyond SEO
- BKW Partners / BKW Health
- Blind Five Year Old
- Boldist
- Boylan Point
- Captivate
- The Digital Marketers Organization
- Duda
- EPL Digital/Attorney Sync
- The Gray Dot Company
- Growth Plays
- Gulo Solutions
- Impressive Digital
- Intellifluence
- iPullRank
- Juris Digital
- LocalMN Interactive
- Local SEO Guide
- Local Splash
- Location3
- Marketing Mojo
- OpenMoves
- Anthony Palomerez
- Pasterneck Marketing
- Position 2
- Rickety Roo
- Search Labs
- Webfor
Why we care. Whether you are pro-abortion or anti-abortion, the Supreme Court’s decision is only starting to be felt in our industry. The ripple effects will likely continue for the foreseeable future. As Google put it in a memo to its employees: “this ruling will have [an impact] on people’s health, lives, and careers.”
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Monday, June 27th, 2022
At this year’s SMX Advanced Julie Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon, moderated a roundtable discussion with three other experts on the topic of the recent Google Marketing Live 2022.
Included in the panel were:
GML2022: Thoughts & reactions from the panel
One of the underlying thoughts from the panel was this GML2022 was a very different Google Marketing Live event than past shows.
“So this year’s Google Marketing Live was all about commerce,” Gales said. “Commerce was the star of the show and I don’t know that I was expecting that.”
Bacchini highlighted the point that this year there was a lot of talk about auto-generated creative and speculates that we will see more of this in the future.
“In the keynote, they said ‘Let’s build the future of marketing together’ and then every mention of the future of marketing was AI and automation,” Henderson said. “It felt a little over the top.”
The consensus was also that folks were expecting more about some of the newer campaign types like Performance Max, but real news on the topic never materialized.
All agreed that the lack of talk around keywords and bidding was surprising, and unique, for a Google Marketing Live event.
Reaction to Amazon & Tiktok
The panel thought that the event felt more “reactive” to Amazon and TikTok with announcements aimed at taking market share from the ecommerce and social media giants.
Everyone on the panel also agreed that this year’s event was the most ecommerce heavy event to date.
Gales was most excited about the new vision for the search experience. She said:
- “We always think of search as more bottom of funnel, demand capture with people looking for exactly what they want and finding a solution … and instead this new vision informed by shopping features, by video features was really about discovery and engagement.”
She also went on to state that this vision may be a longer-term play and that not all of the plan will come to fruition immediately.
“In previous Google Marketing Lives I was always looking for more video and in this year’s Google Marketing Live video had its place,” Henke said.
Henke also praised the efforts of Google in competing with the likes of TikTok and Instagram with the creator funds and full adoption of vertical video on Google’s biggest stage.
There were also questions about how video will actually fit together with the new story ad types.
Other positives from Google Marketing Live
Some additional GML2022 elements that the panel liked were:
- Shareable asset library. Henderson noted that he wasn’t expecting the new shareable asset library, but that he was delighted at the prospect of it.
- Google tag. The panel had high hopes for the new Google tag that was announced but are still hungry for more information.
- Connected TVs. Henke made an astute point that you can currently target TV-only campaigns, but with new partners like Hulu this is yet another way to “step on more turf” of competitors.
- Geo-experiments. Henerson was excited to test the geo-experiments feature around conversion lift.
- Discovery campaigns. The panel was excited about the ability to bring video into discovery campaigns and on the continued buildout of that campaign type.
Potential concerns from Google Marketing Live
One main element of concern for the panel was the risk posed by uploading user data.
Bacchini made it clear that while Google wants advertisers and agencies to upload first-party data, there may be a risk associated with that, which falls directly to the advertiser/agency.
She made a plea to consult with your legal team before acting on some of the first-party data uploads.
Bottom line
Whether you like or dislike the changes announced at this year’s Google Marketing Live, they will be coming to your accounts soon. This roundtable gives a fair look at how four ads experts are planning for these changes.
Watch the full SMX Advanced roundtable
You can view the full discussion at no cost until Aug. 31, along with all of the other sessions from this year’s SMX Advanced.
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Friday, June 24th, 2022
Organizations have been investing resources into improving their Core Web Vitals scores, according to new research.
Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge has compared the top rankings for 500 keywords, from this year to last, in four markets: education, B2B technology, finance and retail.
Core Web Vitals, one year later. It’s been just over a year since Google’s page experience update started rolling out June 15, 2021. It was completed Sept. 2.
The three Core Web Vitals website performance metrics were a subset of the overall Page Experience Update. Those metrics are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – loading, target 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay (FID) – interactivity, target 100 milliseconds. (Note: Google announced in May that it might replace FID with a new metric called INP – Interaction to Next Paint).
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – visual stability, target 0.1.
Page experiences are improving. Here’s the data from BrightEdge:
Source: BrightEdge
On average:
- Retail scores improved by 58%. BrightEdge noted that retail giants have made significant strides in improving poor experiences – last year, top-ranked retail sites failed to meet Core Web Vitals metrics.
- B2B tech scores improved by 30%. Publishers and resources from SaaS platforms have made good gains.
- Education scores improved by 28%. More .gov sites are ranking and have good Core Web Vitals scores.
- Finance scores improved by 27%. This sector was best prepared last year and perhaps due to that saw the least amount of performance gains.
Why we care. SEOs weren’t sold on Core Web Vitals. However, this research shows that companies have been taking Core Web Vitals seriously. It is impossible to point to Core Web Vitals as the sole reason for any ranking boosts or declines. But smart SEO requires driving incremental gains. And every possible positive signal you can give Google (such as good Core Web Vitals scores) is a potential way to positively influence your ranking and visibility.
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Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Google has updated its help document on Googlebot to specify that Googlebot will crawl up to the first 15MB of the page and then stop. So if you want to ensure that Google ranks your page appropriately, make sure Googlebot can crawl and index that part of the page within the first 15MB.
What is new. In the Googlebot help document, Google added this section that reads:
Googlebot can crawl the first 15MB of content in an HTML file or supported text-based file. After the first 15MB of the file, Googlebot stops crawling and only considers the first 15MB of content for indexing.
Why we care. In general, you probably want to keep your pages pretty light for both users and search engine crawlers. But here Google is being very clear about how much Googlebot will consume from your page.
A good way to test this is to use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console and see what parts of the page Google renders and sees within the debugging tool.
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Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Twitter announced yesterday they were launching Branded Likes. Branded Likes are custom Like animations for tweets that brands can create through the ads manager.
What are Branded Likes. Branded Likes are Like buttons stylized for specific tweets. You can see an example here promoting the ‘Scream’ movie.
A costly addition. Branded Likes were featured during the Super Bowl with brands Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo taking the bait. But the price tag for the emojis then was around $1 million. They won’t cost that much when they’re launched, but it does make us wonder what sort of impact they had at that time if any.
Who will get access. Twitter says that they’ll make Branded Likes available as an ad option to all advertisers in the US, UK, and Japan next week.
Why we care. I’m not entirely sure we do. Branded Likes are a novelty, but there aren’t any early indicators that they’ll have a positive effect on brand awareness or engagement.
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Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Following discussions with the Commission and network of national consumer protection (CPC) authorities, TikTok has agreed to implement regulations around promoting alcohol, cigarettes, and ‘get rich quick’ schemes. They will also allow users to report undisclosed branded content and flag ads that trick children into making purchases.
New labels for paid ads. The policy will also identify ads with a new label, allowing users to see immediately whether a post is sponsored. Publishers will also have to switch on a toggle button when they’re publishing content captioned with certain keywords such as #ad or #sponsored. In addition, users with more than 10,000 followers will also have their videos reviewed to ensure they meet TikTok’s guidelines.
The new commitments. According to the European Commission, the main commitments agreed to by TikTok are:
- Users can now report advertisements and offer that could potentially push or trick children into purchasing goods or services.
- Branded content now abides by a policy protecting users, which prohibits the promotion of inappropriate products and services, such as alcohol, “get rich quick” schemes and cigarettes.
- Users are prompted to switch on a toggle when they publish content captioned with specific brand-related keywords such as #ad or #sponsored.
- If a user has more than 10,000 followers, their videos are reviewed by TikTok against its Branded Content Policy and Community Guidelines to ensure that the content is appropriate.
- Policies clarify how to purchase and use coins, and pop-up windows will provide the estimated price in local currencies. Consumers are allowed to withdraw within 14 days from the purchase, and their purchase history is also available.
- Policies also clarify how to get rewards from TikTok and how to send gifts, for which users will be able to easily calculate their price.
- Paid advertisements in videos will be identified with a new label, which will be tested for effectiveness by a third party.
- Users are able to report undisclosed branded content, and new rules for hashtags and labels will be implemented.
What the Commission says.
All social media platforms are required to play by the rules and make sure that consumers can easily identify commercial content, including when promoted by influencers. We welcome TikTok’s commitment for more transparency in the way it operates its business activity. Thanks to our dialogue, consumers will be able to spot all kinds of advertisements that they are exposed to when using this platform. Despite today’s commitment, we will continue to monitor the situation in the future, paying particular attention to the effects on young users.
A troubling history of challenges. In 2020, TikTok came under hot water regarding its content moderation process and it’s exposure of young users in the app. While there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the app itself, a leaked document in 2020 showed that TikTok moderators had been instructed to suppress content that featured people who may have been seen as less desirable, as investigations have uncovered that TikTok relies on pretty young women, in particular.
TikToks commitment. To learn more about TikToks commitment to EU rules, you can read the article here.
Why we care. Any regulations aimed at cracking down on predatory social platforms that target children, and moderate content based on insufficient policies and practices that leave users vulnerable, are OK in our book. We hope these new regulations help make social media a safer place for children, but we’ll see.
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Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Twitter has just launched Campaign Planner, a forecasting tool designed to help advertisers estimate campaign results before launching.
What does Campaign Planner do. The new Campaign Planner helps advertisers:
- Forecast reach, impressions, average frequency, and CPM for a specific audience, duration, frequency setting, and placement
- Budget for auction-based campaigns
- Start and save draft campaigns directly from the tool
What Twitter says. Twitter created this tool in order to help empower partners and advertisers to better understand the size and cost of reaching a target audience during the campaign planning process.
Campaign Planner unlocks more forecasting information than ever before and we’re excited to continue to build toward the goal of making Twitter easier to buy for advertisers. Throughout the coming months, we will be expanding campaign planner to support more objectives and in more markets, and enable plan comparison to help evaluate the best campaign settings for your goals.
How to access Campaign Planner. The Campaign Planner is available to all managed advertisers in the US, UK, and Japan. Managed partners can access the tool by contacting their Twitter Client Partner. You can access the Campaign Planner from your Twitter Ads account. Upon doing so, you’ll be prompted to enter details to begin building your forecast.
What the Campaign Planner Looks like.
Twitter recommended settings. Twitter has outlined recommendations on how to set up your campaigns most effectively. Twitter claims these recommendations are backed by research, but advertisers should set up their campaigns how they see fit based on testing and what works for their specific business.
Reach and frequency. Once you determine your core audience, Twitter recommends using higher levels of weekly frequency to achieve better results. Most advertisers are aware that increased brand awareness leads to better results. A higher budget can help you achieve this.
Campaign length. Twitter also recommends letting your campaigns run for a longer period of time to allow sufficient time to build brand recognition. They suggest letting the campaigns run over 5 weeks to gain momentum and up to 13 weeks to resonate with your audience.
Learn more about Campaign Planner. You can read more about Campaign Planner via the announcement here.
Why we care. The Campaign Planner seems like a useful tool for advertisers to predict the impact of their campaigns. However, the Campaign Planners forecast is estimated and their recommendations are general. There is no substitute for constant monitoring and testing.
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