TopListWP

YouTube to automatically link to places mentioned in videos

YouTube is launching a new link format within the video description box that provides “an easy and visual way for viewers to learn about locations mentioned” in the video, the company announced via its Creator Insider channel. Named “Places Mentioned,” this feature will be visible on the mobile app for iOS and Android for food and drinks videos where YouTube can detect places. The company has not released a timeline for the rollout or stated whether Places Mentioned will expand to more video categories.

Until now, the only way to add information about a location mentioned in a video was to manually add a text link. Automatic detection and link creation for places that are mentioned will decrease some of the legwork for content creators in the food and restaurant vertical.

By default, the video description box is minimized in the YouTube app — users must expand it to view the description, which may undermine some of the benefits of adding links to the description. YouTube said that Places Mentioned will give viewers an engaging way to learn more about places in the video, but the company has not released screenshots of what the feature will look like or how it will work given the current description box setup.

Read more: YouTube to automatically link to places mentioned in videos

Google Analytics vs. Google Analytics 360

Today, data is the currency of the digital economy. Marketers need data-driven insights to understand who their most valuable customers are, which experiences led them to act, and how to get more of them.

And when it comes to analytics platforms, Google Analytics dominates the space. Cardinal Path research shows that 77% of the Fortune 1000 rely on Google Analytics to drive their data analytics practice.

Google Analytics 360 is designed not only to help you collect data across your digital properties, but to turn raw data into insights, and then to take action on those insights across the broader Google Marketing Platform.

Read more: Google Analytics vs. Google Analytics 360

How marketers can prepare for what’s next in page experience

When Google’s Page Experience update finished rolling out in early September, it changed how the search engine evaluates websites — namely, a new emphasis on user experience signals. In his session at SMX Next, Patrick Stox, product advisor for technical SEO and brand ambassador at Ahrefs, noted some important alterations to this update that took place in the months following, which continue to leave many SEOs confused.

“Safe browsing is already out,” he said, “And cumulative layout shift has changed a bit. It’s the five seconds where the most shifting occurs. Google has also removed AMP from Top stories requirements and many news sites are looking at dropping it.”

One of the key pieces of the Page Experience update — Core Web Vitals — is also one of the most hotly debated. SEOs and agencies have questioned how big of a difference these metrics make in terms of rankings, leading many, such as Stox, to take a deeper look at the data.

“We looked at about 5.2 million individual pages, which I think is the largest data set that’s been studied now,” he said. His study found that only 11.4% of them met the recommended standards for Core Web Vitals.

This begs the question: Is Core Web Vitals optimization necessary?

“Maybe these are small ranking factors,” said Stox, “But I think if you argue this from an SEO standpoint, you’re going to fail. Many Google employees have now said these are small factors, that these are tiebreakers signals.”

Read more: How marketers can prepare for what’s next in page experience

Google Ads unaffected by Log4j vulnerability

Although Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform aren’t using vulnerable versions of Log4j, marketers that have built their own API integrations with any of the Google APIs should ensure that whatever they are using isn’t affected by the CVE-2021-44228 vulnerability.

Additionally, if you are using an Ads API Client Library and Apache Log4j versions 2.0 to 2.14.1, you should upgrade to the patched version 2.15.0, Google said on its developer blog.

More on the news

• “Our security teams are investigating any potential impact on Google products and services and are focused on protecting our users and customers,” Google said.
• The flaw, which was discovered on December 9, may allow hackers to attack unpatched Apache servers in order to take control of a system.
• “To be clear, this vulnerability poses a severe risk,” Jen Easterly,  director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a statement, “We will only minimize potential impacts through collaborative efforts between government and the private sector. We urge all organizations to join us in this essential effort and take action.” 

Read more: Google Ads unaffected by Log4j vulnerability

4 elements that help create compelling SEO content

Creating content for SEO purposes is often associated with keyword-stuffed articles that lack quality and voice. But, as Google continues to push search marketers towards optimizing for humans instead of algorithms, that kind of content is rapidly losing visibility in the search results.

High-quality content, that’s designed to address the user’s needs as efficiently and effectively as possible, is now the standard. At SMX Create, Alli Berry, SEO director at The Motley Fool, provided an overview of the principles and tactics she uses to create content that not only ranks well and drives traffic but also speaks to searchers.

Structure for scanability

Even the most comprehensive content will fail audiences if it’s not presented in a digestible format. And, the narrow aspect ratio of mobile devices adds another factor to consider as it influences how much content a user can view at one time. This is why it is so important to organize your content so that users can find the exact information they’re looking for.

“Whenever I’m training new writers, the first thing I explain is the inverted pyramid of journalism,” Berry said, adding, “Nobody does this better than journalists . . . Their formula for writing content is really aligned with what search engines are looking for.”

The inverted pyramid is a way to organize content by leading with the most relevant, impactful information — in other words, the information the user is presumably seeking — at the very beginning.

Read more: 4 elements that help create compelling SEO content

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Google Local Search Ranking Algorithm Update Last Week

Upgrade to the Google Ads API for even more features

3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

Catastrophic Log4j Security Fail Threatens Enterprise Systems & Web Apps Worldwide

A serious code execution vulnerability in Log4j has security experts warning of potentially catastrophic consequences for enterprise organizations and web apps.

The vulnerability, listed as CVE-2021-44228 in the Apache Log4j Security Vulnerabilities log, enables remote attackers to take control of an affected system.

What is Log4j?

Log4j is an open source Apache logging system framework used by developers for recordkeeping within an application.

Who Is Impacted By The Log4j Security Issue?

The issue is so severe that the United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency released a notice December 10 that states, in part:

“CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Apache Log4j 2.15.0 Announcement and upgrade to Log4j 2.15.0 or apply the recommended mitigations immediately.”

Security Expert Recommendations For Combating Log4j Vulnerabilities

Kevin Beaumont warns that even if you had upgraded to log4j-2.15.0-rc1, there was a bypass:

Marcus Hutchins from MalwareTech.com offers a workaround for those who can’t upgrade Log4j:

Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, announced Friday:

“We’ve made the determination that #Log4J is so bad we’re going to try and roll out at least some protection for all Cloudflare customers by default, even free customers who do not have our WAF. Working on how to do that safely now.”

Chris Wysopal, co-founder and CTO at Veracode, recommends upgrading to a minimum of Java 8:

He also warns, “There may be only 5% of apps still on Java 7 but that is the long tail that will be exploited over the next months. Don’t have one of these in your org.”

Figuring out which applications in your organization use Log4j should be mission critical.

Source: Catastrophic Log4j Security Fail Threatens Enterprise Systems & Web Apps Worldwide

Exclusive: The most popular Yelp search filters

Yelp has provided Search Engine Land with the most popular search filters among users. “Open Now” was the most used filter across all categories, which speaks to the intent of customers browsing local reviews platforms like Yelp. “Request a Quote” was the second-most used filter for services businesses and the “Open to All” filter was also among the most popular filters for businesses in the Healthy & Beauty, Active Life and Shopping categories.

Yelp’s most popular search filters. The most used filters on Yelp, by category, are as follows:

Services businesses (Auto, Home, Local, and Professional Services)

1. Open Now
2. Request a Quote
3. Accepts Credit Cards
4. Fast-responding
5. Offering a Deal

Restaurants, Food and Nightlife businesses

1. Open Now
2. Reservations
3. Offers Takeout
4. Outdoor Seating
5. Offers Delivery
6. Good for Dinner

Health & Beauty businesses

1. Open Now
2. Accepts Credit Cards
3. Offering a Deal
4. By Appointment Only
5. Good for Kids
6. Open to All

Active Life businesses

1. Open Now
2. Good for Kids
3. Dogs Allowed
4. Open to All

Shopping

1. Open Now
2. Open to All
3. Accepts Credit Cards

Don’t overlook “Open Now.” As mentioned above, local reviews platforms are used by high-intent consumers that are likely to need a local business sooner rather than later. What’s open, at the time of their search, can determine which businesses they’ll eventually visit or contact.

While this may seem like a basic point, it underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date business hours, which, for some businesses, may change frequently due to safety measures or staffing challenges related to the COVID pandemic or holiday schedules. Both Yelp and Google offer the ability to indicate special hours so that you can keep customers informed that you may not be operating as usual.

Filters reveal consumer priorities in different verticals. In the Restaurants, Food and Nightlife categories, “Offers Takeout,” “Outdoor Seating,” and “Offers Delivery” accounted for three of the top-five filters. This may be due to the pandemic’s effect on consumer preferences and speaks to the pivot in services that many food and nightlife businesses had to undergo to support these new expectations.

“Offering a Deal” was another popular filter for services businesses (auto, home, local and professional services) as well as health and beauty businesses. This may indicate that competitive pricing or other incentives are a priority for consumers looking for businesses in these categories.

“Open to All,” a filter and attribute indicating that a business is a “safe and welcoming place for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, immigration status, religion or disability,” was also among the top filters for Health & Beauty, Active Life and Shopping businesses.

Over the last few years, ethics and personal values have taken on more important roles in determining which businesses consumers are willing to support. To that end, Yelp has introduced numerous diversity attributes, including the Asian-owned, Black-owned, Latinx-owned, Women-owned and LGBTQ-owned attributes. Similarly, Google Business Profile owners can self-identify as Black-owned, Veteran-led, Women-led and LGBTQ-friendly.

Source: Exclusive: The most popular Yelp search filters

Meta Introduces Professional Mode For Facebook Profiles

Facebook Profile Updates – New Professional Mode

A new professional mode for Facebook profiles in the US includes revenue earning opportunities and insights on content performance.

New Ways To Earn Money

The first monetization option available with Facebook’s professional mode is the Reels Play bonus program.

This allows eligible creators to earn revenue based on the views of qualifying Reels.

The program is currently invite-only, but interested users can fill out a signup form to be notified when its more widely available.

Features From Pages Come To Profiles

Professional mode makes Facebook profiles more like Pages.

Withthis mode activated, anyone can follow and see your public content in their feed without sending you a friend request.

However, you’ll still have control over who can see the content in individual posts.

With each post you publish you can choose if it goes out to the public or if its visible to friends only.

This is being tested with a limited number of profiles starting today in the US, with plans to expand to more users soon.

Professional mode will be available to more countries in the coming months, and more tools will be added including more monetization options.

New Features For Facebook Pages

In a limited test, some admins will see a new unit at the top of their Page’s feed that provides a snapshot of post engagement and follower count.

The new unit may also show tips on how to create high performing content.

Lastly, Facebook is testing an updated post composer for Pages that offers a variety of creator-focused features.

The initial test will include the ability to schedule posts, which was previously only available through Facebook Business Suite.

With this update it’s now possible for admins to schedule posts regardless of their existing workflow and which tool or app they’re using.

Source: Meta Introduces Professional Mode For Facebook Profiles

Google Ads refreshes custom columns UI and adds new metrics

Google Ads is rolling out a new user interface for custom columns as well as new metrics, a Google spokesperson has confirmed to Search Engine Land. “The update will be rolling out to all advertisers in the next few weeks,” a Google spokesperson said.

Tip of the hat to PPCGreg on Twitter for first bringing this to our attention.

The new metrics coming to custom columns. With this update, the following metrics will be available for custom columns:

• Spreadsheet functions.
• Calculate/compare metrics across date ranges (example).
• Non-metric columns (like Campaign name or Budget).
• Reference other custom columns.
• Search, Click and Display impression share.
• Three phone call metrics, and others.

Source: Google Ads refreshes custom columns UI and adds new metrics

10up Releases the Publisher Media Kit WordPress Plugin

Earlier today, version 1.0 of 10up’s Publisher Media Kit went live in the WordPress plugin directory. It is a preconfigured set of blocks and patterns for jump-starting a media kit page for small and medium-sized publications.

Given that WP Tavern just launched its new design yesterday, this might be an opportunity for us to lead the way. The plugin does give me a few ideas on what we could do with a similar page here on the site.

Publisher Media Kit has been tested with Twenty Twenty-One, Newspack, and several Newspack child themes. I did run it through most of those to check for compatibility, and the plugin worked admirably. However, I primarily tested it with Twenty Twenty-Two, the upcoming default WordPress theme. Aside from a few layout alignment quirks, it worked well.

The plugin automatically creates a new “Media Kit” draft page on the website once it is activated. The content is a set of pre-defined sections built from eight patterns and an accompanying Tabs block.

This allows users to quickly fill in their own content and make customizations. Once done, it is just a matter of hitting the publish button.

However, end-users can take things into their own hands by using the various patterns on any post or page of their site. The cover, stats, and questions/contact patterns work well as general-use patterns.

Source: 10up Releases the Publisher Media Kit WordPress Plugin

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Google Updates Search Results For News Stories On Desktop

Meta Makes It Easier To Run Cryptocurrency Ads

Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

Google Local Search Ranking Algorithm Update Last Week

Google may have also pushed out a local search and map algorithm and ranking update over the past week or so. There has been some recent chatter and the Bright Local RankFlux tool has been off the charts for the past few weeks.

In fact, that tool has been showing major ranking fluctuations for about four weeks, since about November 10th or so. So much so, I’ve even asked BrightLocal if the tool is working properly, which I did not hear back on yet but there have been some bugs with the tool in the past month, which they said they are working to resolve.

Read more: Google Local Search Ranking Algorithm Update Last Week

Two Google Ads In Local Pack

Google is now showing up to two ads in the local search results – the local pack. Joy Hawkins spotted it the other day for a search on [lawn care near me] and shared a screenshot where Google’s local pack results showed two ads above the organic local listings.

Many others have been saying in response to that tweet that they also have been seeing two ads in the local pack in recent weeks.

One thing for sure we can expect from Google is to show more ads – that is my prediction for 2022 and beyond. Yea, I know, I am making bold predictions…

Read more: Two Google Ads In Local Pack

Google Top Stories Logo May Use Structured Data For Non-AMP Pages

Now that some publishers, like Search Engine Land, are removing AMP because it is no longer a requirement for top stories inclusion, some are noticing weird changes to the publisher’s logo Google selects in the top stories section. Google said when you switch off AMP, Google may use a different logo than what you specified in your AMP structured data.

Danny Sullivan of Google said, “if you shift off AMP, the AMP-derived logos aren’t used (which makes sense).” But Google may be looking for ways to standardize this more, Danny said there is “no guarantee or set timing, but we are exploring ways to have the same type of AMP-style logo system work through structured data for non-AMP pages.”

Read more: Google Top Stories Logo May Use Structured Data For Non-AMP Pages

Google’s Guide To User Generated Content (UGC)

A new guide from Google goes over the acceptable ways to incorporate user-generated content (UGC) on your website to ensure you’re following the company’s guidelines.

To assist websites with the correct use of UGC, Google has created an infographic with a yes/no flowchart and an interactive troubleshooter.

Knowing how to utilize this type of content the right way is important because Google treats it the same as a webpage’s main content.

That means low-quality content created by users can drag down the overall quality of the webpage.

Even worse, spammy UGC could potentially lead to a Google penalty if it’s not being moderated.

You also need to pay close attention to content users are submitting if you run ads on your website, as Google explains.

Websites are not obligated to allow UGC, nor is there any inherent benefit for doing so.

However, user-submitted comments can be an effective way to drive discussion and engagement around articles, and many publishers choose to allow it.

There are pros and cons to allowing content from website visitors, and Google’s flowchart can help you decide if it’s worth the trouble.

Read more: Google’s Guide To User Generated Content (UGC)

Facebook AI Hunts & Removes Harmful Content

Facebook announced a new AI technology that can rapidly identify harmful content in order to make Facebook safer. The new AI model uses “few-shot” learning to reduce the time for detecting new kinds of harmful content from months to a period of weeks.

Few-Shot Learning

Few-shot learning has similarities to Zero-shot learning. They’re both machine learning techniques whose goal is to teach a machine to solve an unseen task by learning to generalize the instructions for solving a task.

Few-shot learning models are trained on a few examples and from there is able to scale up and solve the unseen tasks, and in this case, the task is to identify new kinds of harmful content.

The advantage of Facebook’s new AI model is to speed up the process of taking action against new kinds of harmful content.

The new technology is effective in one hundred languages and works on both images and text.

Facebook’s new few-shot learning AI is meant as an addition to current methods for evaluating and removing harmful content.

Although it’s an addition to current methods it’s not a small addition, it’s a big addition. The impact of the new AI is one of scale as well as speed.

New Facebook AI Live

Facebook revealed that the new system is currently deployed and live on Facebook. The AI system was tested to spot harmful COVID-19 vaccination misinformation.

It was also used to identify content that is meant to incite violence or simply walk up to the edge.

Read more: Facebook AI Hunts & Removes Harmful Content

Google Reveals Top Searches Of 2021

Google’s annual recap of the year’s top trending searches offers dozens of ideas for content publishers looking to capitalize on long-tail keyword opportunities.

Data on the top trending searches is published every year, which is interesting on its own, but you may find yourself asking “What can I do with this information?”

At first glance the data doesn’t have much to offer beyond satisfying general curiosity around what people are searching for in Google.

Take the overall top 10 trending searches in 2021, for example:

1. NBA
2. DMX
3. Gabby Petito
4. Kyle Rittenhouse
5. Brian Laundrie
6. Mega Millions
7. AMC Stock
8. Stimulus Check
9. Georgia Senate Race
10. Squid Game

There’s arguably not much you can do with that as a search marketer or content publisher.

Those are all huge topics, and the chances of ranking for any of them are slim at this point.

If you dig deeper, however, you’ll find the long-tail keywords people were searching for most this year.

You’ll find the questions people were asking — the things that searchers genuinely needed help with — and therein lies the opportunity.

Let’s go over some of those, and perhaps you’ll find a few ideas for your next pieces of content.

Note that these are all top “trending” searches, which means the keywords with the largest increases in search volume from 2020 to 2021. These are not necessarily the top searches across all of Google.

Read more: Google Reveals Top Searches Of 2021

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Google says it values all local reviews, both positive and negative

Google Updates Search Results For News Stories On Desktop

Google changes how search results for news stories are presented on desktop by grouping together multiple results for the same story.

This update is now in effect, which brings news results on desktop in line with how they’re presented in Google Search on mobile devices.

In an announcement on Twitter, the official @GoogleNews account states:

“Now, when there are multiple stories related to your search, we’ll organize results by story so it’s easier to understand what’s most relevant and you can make a more informed decision on which specific articles to explore.”

What Exactly Has Changed?

The search community may have to decide on a new term, because the carousel is now more of a box with stories displayed as different tiles.

As an example, Google’s tweet links to search results for the keyword “covid.”

Here’s how it looks:

Why Has Google Changed News Results On Desktop?

Google offers this explanation on Twitter for changing the layout of news results:
“This new structure will make more room for quality content–beyond just the most recent coverage–as well as a range of sources to bring more context and perspective to the day’s news.”
In addition, this changes makes news results on desktop similar to what people are accustomed to seeing in mobile search.

Source: Google Updates Search Results For News Stories On Desktop

Gravatar “Breach” Exposes Data of 100+ Million Users

The security alert company HaveIBeenPwned notified users that the profile information of 114 million Gravatar users had been leaked online in what they characterized as a data breach. Gravatar denies that it was hacked.

Gravatar Enumeration Vulnerability

The user information of every person with a Gravatar account was open to being downloaded using software that “scrapes” the data.

While technically that is not a breach, the manner in which user information was stored by Gravatar made it easy for a person with malicious intent to obtain user information which could then be used as part of another attack to gain passwords and access.

Gravatar accounts are public information. However the individual user profile accounts are not publicly listed in a way that can easily be browsed. Ordinarily a person would have to know account information like the username in order to find the account and all the publicly available information.

Data Scraping Event

A data breach is defined as when an unauthorized person gains access to information that is not publicly available.

The Gravatar information was publicly available but an outsider would have to know the username of the Gravatar user in order to gain access to the Gravatar user profile. Additionally the email address of that user was stored in an insecure encrypted manner (called an MD5 hash).

An MD5 hash is insecure and can easily be unencrypted (also known as cracked). Storing email addresses in the MD5 format provided only minor security protection.

That means that once an attacker downloaded the usernames and the email MD5 hash it was then a simple matter for the user’s email address to be extracted.

According to the security researcher who initially discovered the username enumeration vulnerability, Gravatar only had “virtually no rate limiting” which means that a scraper bot could request millions of user profiles without being stopped or challenged for suspicious behavior.

Gravatar Minimizes User Data Collection

The last tweet in the series from Gravatar encouraged readers to learn how Gravatar works:

“If you want to learn more about how Gravatar works or adjust the data shared on your profile, please visit http://Gravatar.com.”

Ironically, Gravatar linked to an insecure protocol of the URL, using HTTP. Upon reaching the URL there was no redirect on Gravatar to a secure (HTTPS) version of the web page, which only undermined their efforts to project a sense of security.

Were Gravatar Users Pwned?

An argument could be made that a Gravatar account can be public but not easily harvested as Step One of a hacking event by people with malicious intent.

Gravatar asserted that after the enumeration attack vulnerability was disclosed that they took steps to close it to prevent further downloading of user information.

So on the one hand Gravatar took steps to prevent those with malicious intent from harvesting user information. But on the other hand they said reports of Gravatar being hacked is misinformation.

But the fact is that HaveIBeenPwned did not call it a hacking event, they called it a breach.

An argument could be made that Gravatar’s use of the MD5 hash for storing email data was insecure and the moment hackers cracked the insecure encryption, the abnormal scraping of “public information” became a breach.

Source: Gravatar “Breach” Exposes Data of 100+ Million Users

Bing launches Ethical Shopping hub in UK

Microsoft Bing has launched its Ethical Shopping hub, which enables users to shop eco-friendly, upcycled or fair-trade fashion, the company announced Wednesday. The Ethical Shopping hub is currently only available to desktop users in the UK. “Currently, we are looking at a horizon of at least another quarter before a significant release in the U.S.,” Sumit Chatterjee, lead product manager at Microsoft, told Search Engine Land.

How it’s different from Bing Shopping. Consumers can use the Ethical Shopping hub to browse by ethical fashion brands or products as well as trending and featured items. As mentioned above, they can also narrow down their options using the eco-friendly, upcycled and fair-trade options. Additionally, the hub will also feature articles about “informed fashion choices and other planet-friendly news topics,” according to the announcement.

The price drop and sales labels that are available on Bing’s traditional shopping experience will also be shown in the Ethical Shopping hub, so product feed data will continue to play an important role here as well.

How products eligibility is determined. Sustainable and ethical ratings are powered by Good On You, an organization that compiles and rates fashion brands based on their impact on people, animals and the environment.

“Information is gathered from brand and parent company credible reporting, third-party indices (e.g., the Fashion Transparency Index and CDP Climate Change and Water Security projects), and independent certifications, accreditations, and other standards-based systems (like Fair Trade, Cradle to Cradle, OEKO-TEX STeP and the Global Organic Textile Standard),” Microsoft said in the announcement.

These ratings are integrated into Bing Shopping filters and users can apply them when searching for fashion products.

Source: Bing launches Ethical Shopping hub in UK

Microsoft Advertising now supports Spanish language ads in the US

Beginning this month, advertisers can serve text ads from Spanish ad groups in the U.S. on all devices and publishers, Microsoft Advertising announced Tuesday. The company also announced updates to the Microsoft Audience Network, including support for Video Ads and Feed Ads in the Audience Network Planner and the ability to choose between CPC or CPM pricing.

Spanish language ads. Any campaign that has Spanish selected as the language can now serve in the United States. Spanish language ads serve when the user self-identifies as Spanish-speaking or the query is in Spanish.

Microsoft offered the following recommendations for advertisers just starting out with Spanish language ads:

• Separate your Spanish and English ad copies into different ad groups and choose the corresponding language at the ad group level.
• Create Spanish extensions for your Spanish ad group.
• Bid boost for your Spanish ad groups, or have a higher base bid, so that your Spanish ad can be shown over your English ad.

For branded campaigns, Microsoft recommends keeping the same keywords in both ad groups. For non-branded campaigns, the company recommended choosing the appropropriate keywords for each corresponding ad group. All other settings (automated bidding, targeting, etc.) should be kept the same.

Audience Network Planner extends support to Video and Feed Ads. In addition to Image Ads, the Audience Network Planner now supports Video Ads and Feed Ads as well.

CPM pricing is now available. First announced in October, advertisers on the Microsoft Audience Network can now specify a maximum amount they’re willing to pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM). CPC pricing remains available, should you want to switch between the two bidding strategies.

Source: Microsoft Advertising now supports Spanish language ads in the US

Surge: A New Page Caching Plugin for WordPress with No Configuration Required

WordPress Core Contributor Konstantin Kovshenin has released a new page caching plugin called Surge. Searching the WordPress plugin directory, you will find hundreds of caching and cache purging plugins, but this one stands out from competitors in that it requires no configuration. The plugin starts working as soon as it’s activated, and there are no options.

What kind of performance improvements can you expect with Surge activated? Kovshenin’s tests indicate that WordPress site performance on cheap hosting can be significantly improved with the plugin:

Surge stores cache files on the filesystem, leveraging the Linux kernel page cache for efficient in-memory caching and invalidation. In various load tests, Surge has shown to easily handle 1000-2500 requests per second at 100 concurrent, on a cheap single-core virtual server with only 1 GB of memory. That’s over 70x faster than a stock WordPress install with a default theme and no plugins.

Kovshenin built Surge because he could not find a suitable plugin to work well Sail, the CLI tool he has been developing for deploying WordPress apps to DigitalOcean.

“The biggest blocker for me was the configuration, screen after screen after screen, the amount of hoops I had to jump through just to get things working,” he said. “And sure, there are on-screen guides and wizards, video tutorials, hundreds of documentation articles, but all I wanted was a page caching plugin, not a rocket (no pun intended). I had to roll my own.”

Source: Surge: A New Page Caching Plugin for WordPress with No Configuration Required

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Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 delayed

Upgrade to the Google Ads API for even more features

The Google Ads API helps you manage your Google Ads accounts and campaigns at scale. When you migrate from the AdWords API over to the Google Ads API, you’ll get support for even more features like recommendations, Performance Max campaigns, Keyword Planner, and more. 

Optimize your campaigns more efficiently 

To help you optimize your campaigns at scale, you can now apply recommendations across multiple accounts in the Google Ads API. Recommendations make it easy for you to improve your campaigns’ performance and help you find new opportunities for your business. In fact, advertisers that used recommendations to increase their account-level optimization score by 10 points saw a median 14% increase in conversions.¹

Reach more customers where they are 

Performance Max campaigns are a new way for you to reach potential customers across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Google Maps. They complement keyword-based Search campaigns and use automation to help you grow conversions and value across all of Google’s advertising channels and inventory from a single campaign. We’ve seen advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.

Read more: Upgrade to the Google Ads API for even more features

Google Ads ditches campaign drafts in updated experiments page

A new experiments workflow is rolling out to select Google Ads accounts, according to reports from numerous PPC professionals. Tip of the hat to Dario from the Marketing O’Clock Discord channel for first spotting this update. Google declined to provide a specific date for when this feature will roll out more widely.

The new Google Ads experiments page. Advertisers that have access to the new experiments page may see the following notice: “The new experiments page allows you to create experiment campaigns without creating a draft, automatically sync changes from your base campaign to your trial campaign, and receive customized reporting based on experiment goals.” Tip of the hat to Brett Bodofsky for sharing the notice on Twitter.

Below are screen captures of the new workflow, courtesy of Greg Finn from Cypress North.

The left-hand navigation has been updated from “Drafts & experiments” to just “Experiments” to reflect the change. Image: Greg Finn.

There are three options: Optimize text ads, video experiment and custom experiment.

Read more: Google Ads ditches campaign drafts in updated experiments page

Google confirms a bug with Google Ads Editor image uploads

Google has confirmed a bug with the most recent version of Google Ads Editor. The issue seems to be with the bulk image ad uploads process. Google is aware of the issue and said the team is working on resolving it.

Confirmation. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, replied on Twitter saying “The team is aware of a recent issue that may be impacting image ad uploads in Editor and is working to address it. Changing versions won’t help in this case. I’ve passed this along and will let you know if I learn anything new.”

No workaround. Google said that reverting to an older version of Google Ads Editor won’t resolve the issue. Google said it has to fix the issue for it to be resolved. So hang tight and be patient or if you really need to upload image ads, then you can try to do so through the web interface or maybe the API.

Google Ads Editor. Google Ads Editor is a desktop program for Windows or Mac that makes managing your Google Ads more efficient. Google Ads Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your Google Ads campaigns. It allows you to download one or more accounts, make changes offline, then upload the changes back into Google Ads. Google Ads Editor can help you save time and make it easier to make changes in bulk.

But when things do not work, it can be frustrating.

Read more: Google confirms a bug with Google Ads Editor image uploads

3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

Calls to action (CTAs) provide customers with a path to follow to achieve their goals, whether that’s completing a purchase or requesting a consultation. Despite being one of the last steps in the customer’s journey, CTAs have gone overlooked as brands adopt a generic approach in this final, crucial solicitation, using messages like “Click here,” “Join now,” and “Read more.”

Creating descriptive CTAs takes time, but it can also signal relevance to search engines, guide your users and improve conversion rates. At SMX Convert, Billie Hyde, senior account manager at The SEO Works, shared several tactics she uses with her own clients to improve the experience for users while furthering business outcomes.

Ditch the generic CTAs

“There are two types of calls to actions . . . subtle calls to action or glaringly obvious,” Hyde said, “These super obvious ones . . .  they appear everywhere on the page, so they can be in the meta description or in the actual content or on the product description towards the end.”

CTAs often serve as anchor text, but generic wording may downplay the relevance of the link for users as well as search engines. Hyde recommends that marketers go beyond these bland CTAs to provide more value.

Use your CTAs to strengthen the user journey

Your CTAs should be leading users across your pages, educating them about your offerings while nudging them along the journey you’ve designed for them. More subtle, specific CTAs are better suited for this purpose, as they allow you to suggest alternatives (if a product is unavailable) or simply add more touchpoints to build trust.

“Not what you are looking for? Why not browse our collection of colorful prints to add some color and art to your house,” was one example Hyde provided for situations when a user might leave because they’re not able to find what they were looking for.

Prioritize differently-abled users

Sites are typically designed on desktop, for abled users. Search engines, like Google, have incentivized improving the mobile experience through algorithm updates like the mobile-friendly update. However, no such ranking boosts exist for sites that are designed with visually impaired users in mind.

“In 2020, there were over 2 billion sales made online, and according to Practical Ecommerce, around 3% of all online shoppers use a screen reader,” Hyde said, “So that means an estimated 60 million online sales last year were made by people who have visual impairments.”

Read more: 3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

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3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

Google says it values all local reviews, both positive and negative

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3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

Calls to action (CTAs) provide customers with a path to follow to achieve their goals, whether that’s completing a purchase or requesting a consultation. Despite being one of the last steps in the customer’s journey, CTAs have gone overlooked as brands adopt a generic approach in this final, crucial solicitation, using messages like “Click here,” “Join Now,” and “Read more.”

Creating descriptive CTAs takes time, but it can also signal relevance to search engines, guide your users and improve conversion rates. At SMX Convert, Billie Hyde, senior account manager at The SEO Works, shared several tactics she uses with her own clients to improve the experience for users while furthering business outcomes.

Ditch the generic CTAs

“There are two types of calls to actions . . . subtle calls to action or glaringly obvious,” Hyde said, “These super obvious ones . . .  they appear everywhere on the page, so they can be in the meta description or in the actual content or on the product description towards the end.”

CTAs often serve as anchor text, but generic wording may downplay the relevance of the link for users as well as search engines. Hyde recommends that marketers go beyond these bland CTAs to provide more value.

“Try to put something relevant to the page you’re trying to take users to,” she said. Instead of a CTA like “Browse our collection today,” Hyde recommends “Browse our collection of gold earrings today,” she provided as an example. “So I’m still saying to Google that where this call to action is taking you is relevant for this reason and the page that we’re linking to is what we’re saying it is,” she said, adding that this also helps with internal linking.

If you must use a generic CTA, it’s worth researching and testing whether it actually applies to the content you’re using it for, Hyde added.

Read more: 3 tactics to improve CTAs for increased relevance and conversions

When Google’s title change goes wrong

Analyzing the Google SERP title tag changes

Ever since Google announced changes to its SERP page title generation process, SEOs have been scrambling to measure its impact, adjusting their strategies when necessary. Many organizations saw minor changes to their site’s title tags, but there were some notable exceptions. Our team, in particular, noticed a major edit to our MarTech mission page title link (the title of a search result in Google Search).

Reviewing the changes in clicks and CTR

Most of the MarTech SERP title changes we’ve seen haven’t changed drastically. As a result, their clicks, impressions, and CTR numbers stayed at expected levels over the past few months.

But, we wanted to zoom in on the search metrics for our “What is Martech?” page to see what impact an unwanted title change made by Google has had, especially since it’s one of our most visited pages. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t good.

Read more: When Google’s title change goes wrong

Google Search lets you see if a doctor or healthcare facility takes your insurance

Google is rolling out a few updates to Google Search to help users find doctors and healthcare providers that are right for them. These updates include being able to see if a doctor or healthcare provider accepts your insurance and if they speak your language.

Health insurance. Google Search can now show you which insurance networks the doctor or healthcare provider might accept. Plus, on the mobile search results, Google will let you filter providers by the insurance plans accepted. This will help users determine if a provider accepts their insurance, including Medicare, private insurance and employer-funded insurance, government-affiliated health programs and more.

Speak my language. Healthcare providers and doctors can also edit their Google Business Profile listing to define the languages spoken at their offices. Google said patients “want to be able to communicate clearly in their language of choice.” Google says there are over a dozen languages represented, including Spanish and American Sign Language.

Read more: Google Search lets you see if a doctor or healthcare facility takes your insurance

Google adds PrestaShop to list of e-commerce integrations

Google has announced a shopping integration with e-commerce platform PrestaShop, the company announced Thursday. The integration is available now via the “PrestaShop Marketing with Google” add-on, available in France and in countries where Shopping campaigns are available.

This new integration gives PrestaShop’s 300,000 merchants an easy way to make their product listings more discoverable across Google properties, such as Search, the Shopping tab, Image search, and YouTube.

Making it easier for retailers who may not be working with an agency to show their products on Google strengthens the search engine as an e-commerce destination, which will help it compete against other e-commerce platforms and may also help it attract more retail advertisers.

Read more: Google adds PrestaShop to list of e-commerce integrations

Google December 2021 product reviews update is rolling out now

Google is now rolling out a new search algorithm update named the December 2021 products reviews update. This is the second time Google is pushing out the reviews of a product update this year; the first one rolled out in April 2021.

This update is “designed to better reward” product reviews that “share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products,” a spokesperson told Search Engine Land in April. Reviews that are written in a way that has “insightful analysis and original research” will be rewarded, especially “content written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well,” Google said.

What is changing? Google said that if you made changes between now and the last update, you may see improvements to your rankings since the last update. Google wrote, “if you have made positive changes to your content, you may see that improvement reflected as part of this latest release.”

Google also said the search company has “received more feedback from users on what type of review content is deemed trustworthy and useful, motivating us to provide additional product review guidance. Users have told us that they trust reviews with evidence of products actually being tested, and prefer to have more options to purchase the product.”

Read more: Google December 2021 product reviews update is rolling out now

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Meta Makes It Easier To Run Cryptocurrency Ads

It’s now easier to run ads about cryptocurrency on Meta. Businesses can now obtain a regulatory license instead of going through a whole application process.

Meta is expanding the number of regulatory licenses it accepts from three to 27, which should make many more businesses immediately eligible to run ads about crypto.

Why Is Meta Changing Its Policies On Running Ads About Cryptocurrency?

Meta says it’s changing its policies because the cryptocurrency landscape has matured and stabilized in recent years.

In addition, more government regulations have been put in place that set clear rules for the industry.

As a result, Meta can make its policy on running ads about cryptocurrency more equitable and transparent.

What Does This Mean For Advertisers?

Advertisers who were previously approved to run ads about cryptocurrency will not be impacted by this change.

The list of products and services that require pre-approval also won’t change.

What is changing are the steps businesses have to go through to receive permission to run these types of ads.

Businesses that hold at least one of the 27 licenses and registrations accepted by Meta can receive permission to run ads about crypto.

Who Needs Permission To Run Ads About Crypto?

The following types of businesses and service providers are required to obtain permission to run ads about crypto:

• Platforms, software apps or products known as cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms.
• Platforms, software apps, or products that offer cryptocurrency lending and borrowing.
• Cryptocurrency wallets that also allow people to buy, sell, swap, or stake their cryptocurrency tokens.
• Hardware and software for cryptocurrency mining.

Who Doesn’t Need Permission?

The following types of businesses and service providers are not required to obtain permission to run ads about crypto:

• Tax services for cryptocurrency companies.
• Events, education and news related to cryptocurrency (where no cryptocurrency products or services are on offer).
• Blockchain technology news.
• Services and products based on blockchain technology that are not a virtual currency, e.g. NFTs.
• Cryptocurrency wallets that allow users to store their cryptocurrency tokens without features of buying, selling, swapping, or staking their cryptocurrency tokens.

As cryptocurrency is an evolving space, Meta may refine its rules over time as the industry changes.

The company will continue to review available licenses and may expand its eligibility list in the future.

Source: Meta Makes It Easier To Run Cryptocurrency Ads

Demographic audiences deliver twice the reach of narrow interest audiences, according to Facebook

Demographic audiences delivered nearly twice the reach (+99%) of interest audiences in campaigns with the same budget when the selected interest audiences were too narrow, according to a study of consumer packaged goods (CPG) campaigns published by Facebook. However, both types of targeting performed comparably when interest audiences were broad enough.

The analysis included 50 CPG campaigns in the EMEA region, measured using Facebook Brand Lift.

Demographic outperforms interest audiences that are too narrow. Interest-based targeting is inherently more limited than demographic-based targeting. To overcome that difference, the campaign with the lower reach needs to compensate with greater efficiency. Interest targeting does deliver greater efficiency, but it’s unlikely to make up the difference.

Both demographic- and interest-based targeting can deliver reach. The two strategies achieved comparable reach with the same budget when interest audiences were broad enough to provide sufficient reach. When both could deliver comparable reach — within 20% of the other — for the same budget, Facebook’s analysis showed that they were equally likely to be the winning, cost-effective strategy.

Your objectives should dictate your strategy. Demographic targeting was the winning strategy 1.6x more often at the top of the funnel, while interest targeting was the winning strategy 2x more often at the bottom of the funnel, according to the analysis.

Source: Demographic audiences deliver twice the reach of narrow interest audiences, according to Facebook

YouTube’s experimental tool for creators simplifies keyword research and identifies content gaps

YouTube Search Insights is an experimental feature that shows creators search data such as the queries that led viewers to their videos or query data across YouTube’s entire audience. It can also identify content gaps (when viewers can’t find the exact content they’re looking for). Search Insights was announced on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel on Thursday, November 25, 2021; the company has not provided a timeline for the rollout.

The new features are spread across two tabs within YouTube Insights: “Your viewers’ searches” and “Searches across YouTube.”

Your viewers’ searches. The “Your viewers’ searches” tab (shown below) displays the top searches from your viewers or from channels similar to yours. YouTube-wide search volume for the term is also available, although it is described generically as low, medium or high.

Searches across YouTube. This tab goes beyond a channel’s own audience and allows creators to explore searches across YouTube’s entire audience. This data is searchable, so creators can, for example, type in “Chromebook” to view the most popular keywords viewers are using to find Chromebook-related content.

Content gaps. “We’re also testing a new concept called content gaps,” Alina Verbenchuk of Creator Insider said, “A search becomes a content gap when viewers can’t find the information they were looking for.” Content gaps can include instances when users can’t find any results for a particular query or the content they found is low quality, she provided as examples. When applicable, content gap labels appear next to keywords (as shown above) and content gap filters will be available in both the Searches across YouTube and Your viewers’ searches tabs.

Source: YouTube’s experimental tool for creators simplifies keyword research and identifies content gaps

Google December 2021 Product Review Update

The update is called the December 201 Product Review Update and will take three weeks to fully roll out.

This update is preceded by a Spam Update in early November and a Core Algorithm Update that finished rolling out at the end of November.

While some may feel it ill-timed or mean for Google to roll out updates during the busiest shopping season, so far these updates have not been especially disruptive.

Yet it would be most unfortunate if legitimate product review sites unintentionally lost rankings during this critical time of the year.

Product Review Page Ranking Assessment

Google’s announcement makes reference to an “automated assessment” that is specific to product reviews. It also notes that product review pages will also be ranked by the other ranking factors common to other web pages.

New Product Review Best Practices

Google also gave an advanced warning that they will be introducing two new product review requirements that are clearly aimed at fake product reviews.

The first requirement is that a product review provide on-page evidence that a product has actually been handled and reviewed.

Many low quality reviews are clearly affiliate sites posting bogus reviews that are closer to rewritten versions of the product specifications.

The second requirement is that product reviews offer multiple buying options.

Promoting Quality Product Reviews

Many products are expensive to review, such as kayaks, which is why there are so many fake reviews that do not feature original images of the products because no kayak was actually reviewed.

One has to wonder if these new requirements could backfire by causing fake review sites to respond by adding fake hands-on assessment content and images.

Source: Google December 2021 Product Review Update

WooCommerce 6.0 RC 1

We’re excited to announce that the first release candidate for WooCommerce 6.0 is now available. We are currently on track for our planned December 14th release date.

Changes

Since the beta release, the follow changes have been made:

• WooCommerce Admin’s feature plugin has reached a stable version, and is now being included as 2.9.0. The changelog is available here.
• WooCommerce Blocks has been updated to 6.3.3. The changelog is available here.

Testing

If you’d like to dive in and help test this new release, our handy WooCommerce Beta Tester plugin allows you to switch between beta versions and release candidates. You can also download the release from wordpress.org.

A set of testing instructions has been published on our Wiki page in GitHub. We’ve also posted a helpful writeup on beta testing to help get you started.

If you discover any bugs during the testing process, please let us know by logging a report in GitHub.

Source: WooCommerce 6.0 RC 1

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Google Maps Adds 4 New Features For Local Shopping

Google says it values all local reviews, both positive and negative

Google has updated its reviews help document page in the Google Business Profile support area to say that Google values all reviews, not just positive. Now Google says it is “more trustworthy” to see a mix of both positive and negative reviews on the business profile.

What is new. Google has added a bullet point to the document that reads “Value all reviews: Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn’t follow our posting guidelines, you can request to remove it.”

Here is a screenshot:

Ranking impact? This will probably not impact rankings in any way but it might be a sign that if a business has 99% of all positive reviews, maybe – just maybe – Google will flag that business and manually audit the reviews of that business. It is simply not natural for all customers to only leave positive reviews on a business online.

Read more: Google says it values all local reviews, both positive and negative

Google Merchant Center now automatically displays badge eligibility for products

Google Merchant Center is now automatically showing retailers when their products are eligible for badges, a Google spokesperson has confirmed to Search Engine Land. Available badges include, but are not limited to, the “sale price,” “price drop,” “amount off,” “percent off,” and “buy the quantity, get percent off” badges.  

Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams, who first posted about this new feature.

Badging isn’t new. However, the column showing which badge your products are appearing with is new and it can help merchants understand how potential customers are seeing their ads, without needing to manually figure it out for themselves. This can help retailers identify the types of promotions that are (or aren’t) working out for their business.

Read more: Google Merchant Center now automatically displays badge eligibility for products

7 best link-building services for SEO performance

The 7 best link-building services to help improve search rankings

Link building is the process of actively seeking out backlinks from another website back to yours. 

Having high-quality links to your site is one of Google’s most important ranking factors. It’s a key trust signal for search engines and an indication that people like your content and your brand.

A number of ethical, white-hat link-building strategies can be used to accomplish this, including broken link building, guest posting, and outreach campaigns to show people your incredible content.

1) Reputable link-building company

 Recommended provider: LinkBuilder.io

Using a specialist link-building agency is the best overall option since they’ll use a number of different link-building strategies at their disposal to build high-quality backlinks to your website.

2) Outreach platform

Recommended provider: Pitchbox or GroupHigh

Link-building outreach platforms will help you to find relevant bloggers & websites that you can email and connect with to try and earn a backlink. They are an essential game-changer for anyone serious about link building.

3) HARO

Website: Helpareporter.com

“Help a Reporter” is a platform that connects journalists seeking expertise to sources who have expert knowledge in a given subject matter.

Active journalists use the platform to crowdsource insights from experts in any given field, and there are hundreds of requests every day from writers at huge sites like Shopify, Yahoo, and American Express.

4) Citation building service

Recommended provider: SEOBuilder.com or BrightLocal

The fact is the vast majority of local businesses only have links from directories. Pull up the backlink profile of any local dentist or optician in your area, and you’ll notice that even websites ranking at the top of Google have a ton of directory links.

5) Facebook & Slack groups

Recommended Group: B2B Bloggers Boost Group

Social media & Slack provides an incredible opportunity for link building for those willing to spend the time.

6) Podcast booking service

Recommended provider: Podcast Bookers

There’s an ever-increasing number of podcasts in every industry imaginable, and the podcast hosts are always looking for great guests to interview.

This is an incredibly great way of combining brand & company awareness in addition to backlinks since the host will always link back to your site.

7) Digital PR

Recommended provider: Fractl

Digital PR involves taking high-quality content and sharing it with relevant journalists who might want to cover the story.

Read more: 7 best link-building services for SEO performance

Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

Google’s mobile-first indexing deadline is no longer a deadline and it decided to leave the “timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing,” John Mueller of Google said on the company blog. Previously, Google postponed the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021, and that deadline came and passed.

No timeline. Now, Google said there is no specific timeline, instead, Google said the search company “decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.” Google added currently Google does not “have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing.”

Why no deadline. Google said the deadline has been removed because after “analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first” the company “determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing.”

Read more: Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

Google: Sites Can Be Stuck In Algorithm Penalty Limbo For Several Years (Rare)

Google’s John Mueller said in this past Friday’s hangout that in rare situations some sites can get stuck in some sort of algorithmic penalty limbo or black hole state and not be able to recover because Google stopped updating that algorithm. He said this can lead to some sites not being able to recover for several years.

This came up at the 24:49 mark into the video where John said “The other thing that I’ve very rarely seen is that a site gets stuck in some kind of a weird in-between state in our systems in that, I don’t know, at some point or algorithms reviewed the website and found it to be absolutely terrible and for whatever reason, those part of the algorithms just took a very long time to be updated again. And sometimes that can be several years.”

Read more: Google: Sites Can Be Stuck In Algorithm Penalty Limbo For Several Years (Rare)

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SEO community feels blindsided by November core update as Google defends timing

Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

Google’s mobile-first indexing deadline is no longer a deadline and it decided to leave the “timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing,” John Mueller of Google said on the company blog. Previously, Google postponed the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021, and that deadline came and past.

No timeline. Now, Google said there is no specific timeline, instead Google said the search company “decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.” Google added currently Google does not “have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing.”

Why no deadline. Google said the deadline has been removed because after “analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first” the company “determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing.”

Google added that these “sites were facing unexpectedly difficult challenges and we wanted to accommodate their timelines.” Thus it was to be “thoughtful” of these sites and not move them over until they are ready.

Previously. Google in early March, before all the lock-downs began across most of the world, announced the deadline for all sites to switch over to mobile-first indexing would be September 2020. At that time, Google said, “To simplify, we’ll be switching to mobile-first indexing for all websites starting September 2020.”  Then in July 2020, Google moved that deadline once again to March 2021.

Sites will move. Google said as these sites make changes that enable them to switch over to mobile-first indexing, it will “gradually to move those remaining sites over.” Google said that if a website is not verified in Google Search Console, then Google won’t be able to inform it of a pending switch to mobile-first indexing. You can learn more about this in their blog post.

Source: Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended

Microsoft: Here’s how to avoid getting your card details stolen this Cyber Monday

As bargain-hunters around the world gear up to spend big at Cyber Monday 2021, Microsoft has issued some guidance on how to stay safe when shopping online.

The company has released a blog post containing some top tips on how to make sure you stay protected during the holiday shopping season.

The advice seems especially pertinent given that a recent Microsoft survey found nearly two-thirds (63%) of holiday shopping will be done online this year, but global supply chain issues may lead some of us to let down our guard in search of the perfect gift.

Shopping challenges

“While we all grapple with these challenges and what they mean for our holiday traditions and celebrations, there is another group that is evaluating what it means for them—hackers,” noted Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Security, Compliance and Identity.

“We know bad actors aim to understand the psychology of their victims—what tricks will they fall for and what vulnerabilities they have. And this year, there are some new areas around which we all need to be extra vigilant.”

Microsoft’s advice includes always double-checking links to make sure they won’t redirect you to somewhere unexpected. Spelling mistakes, errors or extra letters can often be a giveaway that an ecommerce scammer could be lurking.

Source: Microsoft: Here’s how to avoid getting your card details stolen this Cyber Monday

Is Your Usage Of Google Ads An Organic Search Ranking Factor?

Does Google favor advertisers by giving those who use paid ads a ranking advantage in organic search results?

The Claim: Google Ads As A Ranking Factor

This one stems from an ongoing distrust of Google the Mega Corporation. It suggests that if you spend money in one division (in this case, Google Ads), you’ll enjoy benefits in another (Search).

The Evidence for Google Ads As A Ranking Factor

Early in 2021, a member of the search marketing community fired off a series of tweets accusing Google of not only using Ads campaign spend to influence organic search rankings but of attempting to extort business owners with the practice.

In one, she wrote:

“I’m not sure yet how to process the fact that Google just did a shakedown of one of our clients. In essence, they were told to spend more on paid ads in order to improve organic search for their brand name.”

As expected, chaos ensued. Those who’d harbored a belief in the Google Ads/organic rankings cheered in vindication. SEO pros shook their proverbial fists at the Twitter sky.

Others argued that it wasn’t possible; that the intent of the sales rep’s message had been lost in translation.

Upon questioning, she insisted it was not a miscommunication and that the Google Ads sales rep had even sent written confirmation that increasing ad spend would improve branded organic rankings.

The Evidence Against Google Ads As A Ranking Factor

Google’s Danny Sullivan caught wind of the conversation above and was clear in denying any connection between the two:

This isn’t surprising, as Google has long held that there’s no connection between advertising and organic search.

Matt Cutts dispelled this myth in a 2014 video, characterizing the ongoing insistence that Google Ads (AdWords, at the time) were in any way related to organic search performance as the stuff of conspiracy theories:

“…there are a lot of SEO myths. So one of the biggest that we always hear is, ‘If you buy ads, you’ll rank higher on Google.’ And then there’s an opposing conspiracy theory which is, ‘If you don’t buy ads, you’ll rank better on Google.’

And we sort of feel like we should get those two conspiracy camps together and let them fight it all out. And then whoever emerges from that one room, we can just debunk that one conspiracy theory.”

Another conspiracy theory, he said, was that Google makes algorithm changes to try to make people buy ads.

“We want to return really good search results to users so they’re happy, so they’ll keep coming back. That’s basically it.”

Google Ads As A Ranking Factor: Our Verdict

Google is a massive organization more than capable of keeping these two divisions separate.

What’s more, allowing ad spend to influence organic rankings would surely result in less useful results and a poorer user experience. It would counteract everything else Google is trying to do with search.

You may not believe everything Google says.

This one is clear: Google does not use Google Ads as a search ranking signal.

What else is true about Google: the layout of Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs) clearly emphasizes ads (traditional text, Shopping, Hotels, etc.).

So while buying an ad isn’t an organic search ranking factor, Google’s ads absolutely can impact the visibility and placement of your site on the SERPs.

Source: Is Your Usage Of Google Ads An Organic Search Ranking Factor?

November 29: The latest jobs in search marketing

PPC Strategist @ Portent (U.S. remote)

• Salary: $60-85k/yr
• Support the PPC Team Lead and other PPC team practitioners to help execute for clients on Google Ads, Bing Ads, and other major paid advertising platforms.
• Monitor and optimize client accounts, seeking out growth opportunities, assessing performance, and partnering with other Strategists and Senior Strategists to drive strategy and meet the client’s marketing goals.

Sr. SEO Specialist @ G2 (U.S. remote)

• Salary: $70-90k/yr
• Drive the keyword strategy and content optimization on learn.g2.com.
• Support the SEO team in developing and executing big bets for G2’s marketplace.

Head of PPC @ Evoluted (UK remote)

• Salary: £40-50k/yr
• Develop and/or oversee client strategy development with paid media strategists and specialists.
• Lead, manage and inspire the paid media team to deliver exceptional work for Evoluted’s clients.

Senior SEO Specialist @ American Addiction Centers (San Diego, CA; remote option available)

• Pay: $60-95k/yr
• Work with content team to publish high quality, thoroughly researched, factually accurate and informative content that will encourage visitors to seek addiction treatment for themselves or their loved ones.
• On-site SEO projects and tasks, including fixing broken links, crawl errors, 301 redirects, and other on-site optimization efforts.

Source: November 29: The latest jobs in search marketing

How NASA’s spacecraft will smash into an asteroid and save Earth from harm next year

A NASA spacecraft the size of a golf cart has been directed to smash into an asteroid, with the intention of knocking it slightly off course. The test aims to demonstrate our technological readiness in case an actual asteroid threat is detected in the future.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) lifted off aboard a SpaceX rocket from California on November 23, and will arrive at the target asteroid system in September, next year.

The mission will travel to the asteroid Didymos, a member of the Amor group of asteroids. Every 12 hours Didymos is orbited by a mini-moon, or “moonlet”, Dimorphos. This smaller half of the pair will be DART’s target.

Source: How NASA’s spacecraft will smash into an asteroid and save Earth from harm next year

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6 tactics to rank better in Google Discover

Google’s Discover feed presents mobile users with a stream of content based on the user’s interests. For publications that have managed to get their content featured in it, the Discover feed can drive substantial traffic — but, unfortunately, “there’s no way to create content that explicitly targets Discover’s interest matching,” John Shehata, VP, global audience development strategy & CRM at Condé Nast, said, quoting Google during his session at SMX Next.

“That’s absolutely true, but there are certain things [that you can do to] increase your chances of ranking well in Google Discover,” he added. Using data obtained from one million pages (equating to 27 billion impressions) over the prior 90 days, in tandem with his own experience, Shehata provided the following tactics publishers can use to strengthen their ability to rank in Google Discover.

Use emotional titles, not clickbait

“When we analyzed the titles that perform very well in Google Discover [the top titles above 25% CTR and have at least 10,000 impressions] . . . You will see a lot of them are in that area of ‘clickbaity,’ so is there bait and switch?” Shehata said.

Include high-quality visuals

Your larger images should be at least 1200 pixels wide and enabled by the max-image-preview: large setting or by using AMP. “That will transfer your small images, like this on the left [in the screenshot above] to the right size, which is the full-width image,” he said, adding, “I have seen this increase CTR by two or three times.”

Understand and enhance E-A-T signals

While Search and Discover are different products, the overall principles of E-A-T as they apply to content are similar. In 2020, Google added the term E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) to its Discover guidelines. “This phrase has not been there before,” Shehata said, “They’re going to be looking at E-A-T when they are evaluating Google Discover content.”

Use the API to identify topics and entities that work for your brand

Now that Discover data is available in the Google Search Console Search Analytics API, publishers can utilize Google’s natural language processing to identify which entities interest their audiences and work for their publications.

Refresh your evergreen content

Updating your evergreen content can help drive additional Discover traffic. In the image below, clicks spiked each time the article was refreshed.

Understand your Google Discover data

Establishing a baseline contextualizes your data and lets you know which stories performed above or below average.

To that end, it’s important to understand:

• Your average CTR per category;
• Your average impressions per story; and
• Your average daily life span per story.

Read more: 6 tactics to rank better in Google Discover

How marketers can adapt to Google’s local SEO changes

“COVID itself has changed the way that people interact with businesses online,” said Amanda Jordan, director of the local search at LOCOMOTIVE Agency, in her session at SMX Next, “which means that search engines, businesses, and marketers had to pivot to meet those demands and needs.”

The events of 2020 have changed how local businesses operate as well as Google’s search results. And, while these shifts are designed to make the search easier for consumers, many businesses have been caught unawares, losing visibility on Google.

Read more: How marketers can adapt to Google’s local SEO changes

Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads starting on March 1, 2022

Beginning on March 1, 2022, Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads, the company announced Wednesday. To go along with the change, Google is also rebranding Matched content as “Multiplex ads.”

What’s changing. Launched in 2015 as a free recommendation service that enables sites to promote their own content, along with ads (which can be disabled), to visitors, the Matched content widget will continue to function that way until February 28, 2022.

“Due to decreasing usage of the content promotion service, and positive customer feedback and performance results from the ads-only Matched content ad format, we’ve decided to turn down the content promotion service and convert all existing Matched content units to only show ads,” Google said in the announcement, “This also applies to Matched content units that have the ‘Monetize with Ads’ option turned off.”

Read more: Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads starting on March 1, 2022

Google had a crawling issues that impacted some sites

Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that a bug prevented Google from crawling for the AMP cache between November 11, 2021, and November 17, 2021. The bug has since been resolved.

Google confirmed. “We saw that crawling for the AMP cache had slowed down for some sites,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “This bug has since been resolved, and an internal analysis showed it wasn’t widespread, and that there were no negative effects overall.”.

The issue. It seems the issue impacted only certain crawling of caches for some sites. “We saw that crawling for the caches had slowed down for some sites. This bug has since been resolved, and an internal analysis showed it wasn’t widespread, and that there were no negative effects overall,” Mueller said on Twitter.

First to notice. Olivier Papon from Seolyzer first spotted the issue and posted about it on Twitter, saying that he noticed Googlebot, Google’s web crawler, has essentially stopped crawling much of the web. He said it began on November 11 at 6 PM (GMT) and then crawling went back to normal on November 17 at 8 PM (GMT), he said in a follow-up tweet.

Read more: Google had crawling issues that impacted some sites

Microsoft Bing launched Page insights

Microsoft Bing Page insights is now live in the Bing search results for search results snippets, the company announced Tuesday. Users will see a lightbulb icon on the right-hand side of the search results that provides more details about the search result.

Page insights “provides summarized insights from a page on your search results so you can find what you’re looking for faster,” Microsoft said in the announcement.

ore on-page insights. Page insights “helps you verify that the source is relevant to your needs, helps you get caught up to speed at a glance on top factoids you didn’t know about, and lets you jump straight to the relevant section of the page when you click ‘Read more’ for a specific question,” the company said. There is also a section to “explore more” to find more relevant search results.

Read more: Microsoft Bing launched Page insights

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