TopListWP

Google to add page experience ranking signals to desktop search in February 2022

Google will begin rolling out the page experience ranking update to desktop search results starting in February 2022. Google said the rollout will finish rolling out by the end of March 2022. This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile-friendly.

“This ranking launch will be based on the same page experience signals that we rolled out for mobile earlier this year,” Jeffrey Jose, Product Manager on Search at Google said.

We knew this would be coming, Google told us this would happen back in May 2021 at Google I/O.

Mobile vs desktop. Which factors is will be included in this desktop version? Google said all of them with the exception of the mobile friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious. Here is a chart Google designed showing the specific factors:

Seach Console tools. Google will be updating the Google Search Console tools and reports to help site owners prepare for this update. “We are also planning to help site owners understand how their desktop pages are performing with regards to page experience using a Search Console report which will launch before desktop becomes a ranking signal,” Google said.

Read more: Google to add page experience ranking signals to desktop search in February 2022

Google adds Smart Bidding for store sales to optimize bids for offline transactions

Searches for in-store transactions have grown year over year, according to data from Google. ” People looking for things like “‘open now near me’ have grown globally by more than 400%,” said a Google help document. As a result, the company announced today that advertisers can add Smart Bidder for store sales to help increase those in-person visits from customers who are ready to buy.

How it works. “Advertisers can upload their first-party, transaction data in a privacy-safe way to optimize for store sales conversions for Search and Shopping campaigns—with the goal of driving additional sales in stores,” said Google.

Best practices. Along with the announcement, Google linked a list of best practices to enhance the use of this feature for advertisers looking to drive offline sales via online searches:

• Build out your Google Business profile.
• Work to measure the offline value of your online ads.
• Optimize your campaigns for maximum return from both online and offline conversions.
• Highlight your locations and communicate your store information, business offerings, promotions and more to nearby customers when they search, browse or navigate on Google Search, Maps, YouTube and the Google Display Network.

Read more: Google adds Smart Bidding for store sales to optimize bids for offline transactions

Phishing scams in Google Ads led searchers to fake crypto wallets

Those who are new to cryptocurrency may not totally understand how every aspect of virtual currency works. Many will go to Google and other search engines to search for things like “What is cryptocurrency?” “How to buy Bitcoin” and “What is a crypto exchange?” Knowing that not everyone is keen on how it works, scammers have taken advantage of crypto newbies through a phishing scam where those involved lost over $500,000, according to research by Check Point Research.

What happened? “Attacker buys Google Ads in response to searches for popular crypto wallets (that’s the software used to store cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the like),” said James Vincent for The Verge.

Read more: Phishing scams in Google Ads led searchers to fake crypto wallets

Destination mismatch: Advertisers are reporting another potential Google Ads glitch

Numerous advertisers have reported “Destination mismatch” ad disapprovals in Google Ads that may be the result of a glitch. “I had five clients impacted; most ads are no longer disapproved (though one account still has some). Of the other four, three have ads Eligible (Limited) for Destination Mismatch,” said Director of Search Strategy at JumpFly, Nikki Kuhlman, who first brought this to our attention.

The Google Ads team is aware of the issue and is currently investigating it, said Ginny Marvin, Google’s ads product liaison.

UPDATE: Google Ads is now showing a notice in the Help section. “We’re currently experiencing a volume increase due to ad disapprovals for Destination Mismatch. We don’t have a workaround at the moment, however, this is a known issue affecting multiple advertisers and our technical team is working on a solution to address this ASAP. If your account is having the same issue, please rest assured that it’s being worked upon even if you don’t file a support ticket,” the notice reads.

One professional, Christian Rios, said that he’s now seeing destination mismatch disapprovals for ads that “haven’t been touched in ages.”

Read more: Destination mismatch: Advertisers are reporting another potential Google Ads glitch

Google My Business now known as Google Business Profile as Google migrates features to Maps and Search

Google is renaming Google My Business to Google Business Profile, as it moves efforts to bring more of the business profile management out of the Google My Business app and directly into Google Search, Google Maps, and those respective apps.

The new name. Google Business Profile will be the new name going forward for Google My Business. Google said the reason for the new name is to “keep things simple” and sometime in 2022, Google will retire the Google My Business app completely.

Another new name you say? We are now calling it Google Business Profile, before that it was named Google My Business, before that, Google Places, and before that it was Google+ Local, before that it was also Google Places, and then prior to that I think it was just Google Local. Yes, the local business management product has been through many names, I think I am even forgetting some previous names the product had.

Google My Business going away. What does it mean that Google My Business name is going away? Well, Google is encouraging businesses to manage their single listings directly on Google Search or Google Maps, either via the web interface or mobile apps. Yes, for a long time now, Google lets businesses manage their individual listings directly in the search results or directly in Google Maps, now Google is saying it prefers businesses with single listings to manage their businesses in Search or Maps, and not in the old Google My Business console.

Read more: Google My Business now known as Google Business Profile as Google migrates features to Maps and Search

More news:

Holiday shopping SEO: Last-minute tips and techniques for e-commerce sites

Facebook is now Meta: Tech giant announces rebrand

App advertisers can now use App campaigns for engagement without implementing deep links

Facebook Shutting Down Facial Recognition

Facebook announced that it is shutting down it’s use of facial recognition, including for uses related to the visually impaired. Facebook left the door open to exploring on-device facial recognition technologies that do not communicate with an external server.

Facebook Facial Recognition

Facial recognition technology was used for recognizing who users are from photos in the Memories feature, photos or videos. Tagging, where individuals name friends in an image will still be allowed.

Those who had opted into allowing Facebook to use facial recognition don’t have to do anything, Facebook will automatically delete the “template” used by Facebook to recognize the members.

While many may view this as a positive change the impact might be felt more keenly by those who are visually impaired and relied on the automatic facial recognition to tell them who is in a photo shared on Facebook.

Facebook Facial Recognition is Not Going Away

Facebook indicated it will research ways to use facial recognition in ways that are useful in a way that respects users privacy.

Potential uses could be for people who need to verify their identity, particularly in situations where a person is locked out of their account.

Use of the facial recognition technology on the device and without accessing external servers was cited as an area to be explored.

Facebook to Explore On-device Facial Recognition

On-device use of facial recognition is a popular and accepted use of the technology, for example, for unlocking a device. Beyond that some may feel uncomfortable with it and Facebook’s decision to drop facial recognition may be a sign of Facebook understanding that they may need to be proactive of overextending technology in ways that might provoke concerns over privacy.

Source: Facebook Shutting Down Facial Recognition

Google launches new way for publishers to use first-party data to enhance targeted advertising

In an announcement today, Google said it is offering a new way for publishers to share Publisher-provided identifiers (PPIDs) with Google’s programmatic demand to better customize ads, targeting, and advertising experiences. “By helping publishers expand the use of their first-party identifiers to more transaction types, like the Open Auction, our partners will be able to show ads that are more relevant to their audiences, which will increase the value of their programmatic inventory,” said Steve Swan, Product Manager, Google Ad Manager.

How do PPIDs work? A “Publisher provided identifier or PPID allows publishers to send Google Ad Manager an identifier for use in frequency capping, audience segmentation and targeting, sequential ad rotation, and other audience-based ad delivery controls across devices,” according to Google’s documentation on the topic.

How the new system works. The announcement says that the new form of PPID sharing will both protect privacy and help publishers and advertisers:

• Before sharing PPIDs with Google demand, Ad Manager turns them into per-publisher partitioned IDs, so users cannot be identified across other publishers’ sites and apps.
• Then Google Ads and Display & Video 360 aggregate the anonymized data from participating publishers to help build audience segments.
• Using these segments, advertisers can programmatically deliver relevant ads on publishers’ sites and apps based on first-party data.
• In addition to helping publishers earn more revenue in the auction, the data also unlocks core functionality for advertisers, like cross-device reach, frequency management, and creative optimization in programmatic inventory without third-party cookies or other identifiers present.

The announcement also emphasizes that advertisers who will be able to build segments off of the PPID data will not be able to see individualized information or user data, “and because PPIDs are unique to each publisher, there is no way to match identifiers or create profiles across sites,” added Swan.

What is first-party data? First-party data is information that websites, advertisers, and publishers collect directly from users and searchers (that they give voluntarily). This includes things like the actions they take on your websites, the data they submit to forms, social data, survey information, and data that already exists in the company’s CRM.

Source: Google launches new way for publishers to use first-party data to enhance targeted advertising

Shopify & Fast Simon: An Ecommerce SEO Case Study

It’s no question that Shopify has been growing in popularity over the years. We’ve been seeing that more businesses are choosing Shopify as their platform of choice for eCommerce.

Not only has the platform attracted small to medium size businesses but we’re seeing more and more major retailers such as Staples and Dressbarn using the platform.

Clearly, Shopify is attracting sites with bigger technological requirements.

A lot of these larger Shopify stores are utilizing the Fast Simon technology for faceted navigation, category page personalization, improving internal site search, and more.

Adding Fast Simon To Shopify: A Case Study

Fast Simon is a shopper interaction tool that can help increase conversions and average order value by automating some CRO tasks using AI, and integrates with WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento, as well.

We had a client implement Fast Simon in December 2020 and while initially there appeared to be improvements, we can see that organic traffic and visibility took a sharp drop in May 2021.

When we looked into other sites that used Fast Simon, we found that many of them appeared to have seen organic visibility drops in the past couple of years.

For example, here is the organic traffic timeline for Motherhood Maternity:

We actually saw similar SEO trends for other sites that utilize Fast Simon.

Of course, correlation isn’t causation and there’s no telling when these sites implemented Fast Simon.

However, all of this combined with our client’s ranking declines definitely made us want to investigate more.

We loved the UX improvements that Fast Simon made to the site and wanted to see if changes could be made to strengthen our client’s technical SEO foundation.

Thus, we began to make Shopify SEO adjustments for our client keeping in mind that there could be better ways to optimize the platform.

Fortunately, we were able to significantly improve rankings by following the process below.

Enable Prerendering

Block The Crawling Of The Faceted Navigation

Ensure Google Is Allowed To Crawl Pagination

Schema Plus for SEO

SEO Images King

SEOMetriks Marketing Tools

Fire AMP

SEO HTML Sitemap

SEO JSON‑LD Boost by Verge

Automizely Page Builder

Source: Shopify & Fast Simon: An Ecommerce SEO Case Study

Google releases November 2021 spam update

Google is rolling out a new search ranking algorithm update targeting the more spammy side of of the search results. Google is calling this update the “November 2021 spam update.”

The update should take about a week to fully roll out and be noticed in the search results.

Google announced this on Twitter saying “As part of our regular work to improve results, we’ve released a spam update to our systems. This November 2021 spam update should be fully rolled out within a week. We encourage sites to follow our best practices for Search.”

Google linked to the generic Google webmaster guidelines for more guidance.

Source: Google releases November 2021 spam update

WordPress’ Gutenberg Demo Page Is Getting a Redesign

The official Gutenberg demo page on WordPress.org may soon be getting an update that better reflects the editor’s capabilities and showcases the design creativity available through patterns.

Automattic-sponsored designers Beatriz Fialho and Kelly Hoffman have submitted a prototype for consideration with explorations of both light and dark modes and three different variations for typography.

Practically speaking, this works out to a more polished landing page with less focus on the demo being a playground that can be manipulated by visitors. Headings like “Say Hello to the New Editor” are now outdated, as the editor is no longer new. It has been nearly three years since Gutenberg was introduced in WordPress 5.0.

Since the time the demo page was first launched, the use of pattens has become a centerpiece in designing pages with Gutenberg. The updated demo will highlight blocks and patterns and will add a new section dedicated to helping new users get connected to resources for learning WordPress.

Source: WordPress’ Gutenberg Demo Page Is Getting a Redesign

More News:

OptinMonster Vulnerability Affects +1 Million Sites

Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results

300,00+ Installations of Catch Themes WordPress Plugins Vulnerable

Holiday shopping SEO: Last-minute tips and techniques for e-commerce sites

Take advantage of free product listings

Google opened up its Shopping search results to unpaid, organic listings in April 2020, and Bing followed suit in August. Getting your products into these results can mean free exposure to the millions of people that use Google and Bing Shopping to look for holiday gifts.

To be eligible to show up in Shopping results, you’ll need to upload product feeds into Google and Microsoft Merchant Center, respectively. If you operate a physical store, there is a separate program in Google Merchant Center (GMC) called “Local surfaces across Google,” which can be used to show product availability in Google search, Google Images, Google Shopping, Google Maps, and Google Lens.

Read more: Holiday shopping SEO: Last-minute tips and techniques for e-commerce sites

Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz, leaving Moz after 14 years

Sarah Bird, the CEO of Moz, said that it is “time for me to move on and make space for new voices, new leaders,” on the company blog. After 14 years with the company, almost 8 of those years as the CEO of Moz, and the previous years as Moz’s President and COO, she is leaving the company.

Sarah Bird took over as the CEO in January 2014, after Rand Fishkin, the co-founder, stepped down from that role. Rand Fishkin explained that Sarah Bird was the President and COO of the company and was taking over as the CEO then. She has been with the company for 6 years and has been acting in many ways as the company’s CEO, prior to her taking on that role. In 2017, Rand Fishkin left the day-to-day operations of the company.

Read more: Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz, leaving Moz after 14 years

Google Ads’ new conversion goals group conversion actions for account- and campaign-level bidding optimization

Google Ads is introducing conversion goals, which group conversion actions into categories based on conversion type and can be used to optimize bidding at the account or campaign level, the company announced Monday. Alongside conversion goals, the company also announced a troubleshooting tool called Tag Assistant and explanations for Search campaigns.

Conversion goals. There are three types of conversion goals:

• Standard goals — Conversion actions added by the advertiser, which are then automatically grouped into conversion goals based on their conversion category type (e.g., “Purchases,” “Contacts” or “Submit lead forms”).
• Account-default goals — The standard conversion goals (above) that you have designated as your account default. When you create a new campaign, all account-default goals in your account are selected for optimization by default.
• Custom goals — Goals that advertisers can create and add any combination of primary (used for bidding) and secondary conversion (not used for bidding) actions.

Tag assistant. Your conversion actions play an important role in facilitating the aforementioned conversion goals. To that end, Google is also introducing Tag Assistant, a tool that can help you diagnose issues with your conversion actions, such as unverified conversion actions, inactive tags or no recent conversions.

Explanations for Search campaigns. Google has also added explanations for Search campaigns. “With explanations, you can view the reason for any change in conversion value in a single click,” the company said.

Read more: Google Ads’ new conversion goals group conversion actions for account- and campaign-level bidding optimization

Google on Penguin algorithm; aims to ignore spammy links but can lead to distrusting your site

When Google released the real-time Penguin algorithm update, which some SEOs code-named 4.0, back in 2016, Google told us this version devalues or ignores most spammy links. For the most part, Google’s Penguin algorithm no longer penalized for bad links because it would aim to neutralize the spammy links and just not count them, as opposed to penalizing for them.

John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, said on Friday in a video question and answer session that Penguin does try to ignore the spammy links. However, in the cases where Google cannot because there is a “very strong pattern” of spammy links pointing to the site, Penguin may penalize and distrust the site as a whole and not act in the granular way it was designed for.

John Mueller said this at the 37:06 mark in this video he posted on Friday on the Google Search Central YouTube channel.

What was said. The question John was asked was “Is the Penguin penalty still relevant at all or less relevant spammy toxic backlinks are more or less ignored by the ranking algorithms these days.”

Read more: Google on Penguin algorithm; aims to ignore spammy links but can lead to distrusting your site

Performance Max campaigns launch to all advertisers

In an unpredictable year, change has been a reliable constant. And we’ve seen this clearly in online consumer behavior. For example, Google Image searches for “yard landscaping ideas” have grown globally by over 80% YoY as people look for more ways to spruce up their homes. Meanwhile, searches for “best all-inclusive resorts” have grown globally by over 200% YoY² as people get inspired to travel again.

Thankfully, advertisers don’t have to predict the future to be ready for it. If change is the challenge, automation is the solution businesses and agencies are using to stay ahead of ongoing shifts in consumer demand. Last year, we introduced Performance Max campaigns as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from a single campaign. They complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

After strong beta results, Performance Max campaigns will roll out to all advertisers around the world starting today. They will also become the next generation of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year.

Consumers are moving seamlessly between online experiences to find buying inspiration. 70% of U.S. shoppers report buying from a brand after seeing it on YouTube,⁴ and 91% of Google feed users say they took some kind of shopping or product-related action immediately after discovering new products, services, or brands on their feed.⁵

Performance Max allows you to promote your business across all Google Ads inventory. As a result, you can show up for more customers and drive more conversions based on your goals. In fact, advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% in total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.

Read more: Performance Max campaigns launch to all advertisers

More news:

Facebook is now Meta: Tech giant announces rebrand

Google search quality guidelines update expand YMYL category, defines lowest quality content and more

App advertisers can now use App campaigns for engagement without implementing deep links

OptinMonster Vulnerability Affects +1 Million Sites

WordPress security researchers reported that a flaw in the OptinMonster WordPress plugin was found to allow hackers to upload malicious scripts to attack site visitors and lead to full site takeovers. Failure to perform a basic security check exposes over a million sites to potential hacking events.

Lack of REST-API Endpoint Capability Checking

According to security researchers at popular WordPress security company Wordfence, the exploit was due to a failure in the WordPress REST-API implementation in the OptinMonster WordPress plugin which resulted in “insufficient capability checking.”

When properly coded, REST-API is a secure method to extend WordPress functionality by allowing plugins and themes to interact with a WordPress site for managing and publishing content. It allows a plugin or theme to interact directly with the website database without compromising security… if properly coded.

Majority of REST-API Endpoints Compromised

REST-API endpoints are URLs that represent the posts and pages on a WordPress site that a plugin or theme can modify and manipulate.

But according to Wordfence, almost every single REST-API endpoint in OptinMonster was improperly coded, compromising website security.

Recommended Course of Action

Wordfence notified the publishers of OptinMonster and about ten days later released an updated version of the OptinMonster that plugged all of the security holes.

The most secure version of OptinMonster is version 2.6.5.

Source: OptinMonster Vulnerability Affects +1 Million Sites

Google introduces new ‘Deals’ features for the Shopping tab and Merchant Center

Google is introducing a new “Deals” feed in the Shopping tab along with additional Merchant Center features to support retailers running promotions, sales and price drops, the company announced Thursday. It is also expanding its integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce to enable merchants to showcase their deals across Google surfaces.

The new “Deals” feed. All products with a deals badge are now automatically eligible to show in a new feed within the Shopping tab of the search results. This new feed is shown when a user searches for generic deal-related or shopping event-related queries, like “deals” or “black friday,” (shown above) or when “Deals” is selected from the drop-down menu in the Shopping tab (shown below).

New ways to track your deals in Merchant Center. Merchants can now see which of their products is eligible for a deals badge from the products tab in Google Merchant Center. Eligibility is based on promotions, sales prices and/or price drops.

In addition, a new dashboard (shown above) breaks out data on impressions, clicks and click-through rate for Shopping ads for products with a deals badge. The data can be segmented by promotion type, product, brand and category.

Deeper integration with Shopify and WooCommerce. Building on Shopify and WooCommerce integrations announced earlier this year, retailers on these platforms are now able to show their existing deals across Google surfaces (Search, the Shopping tab, Images and Lens).

And, starting next month, retailers that use Shopify’s Google channel app or WooCommerce’s Google Listings and Ads extension will be able to show their promotions in Search and the Shopping tab.  Retailers can sync both existing and new promotions to their products listed on Google directly from their store dashboard.

Source: Google introduces new ‘Deals’ features for the Shopping tab and Merchant Center

LinkedIn Adds New Features To Help Companies Attract Talent

LinkedIn is adding new features to company pages to improve internal communication, attract new talent, and gain insight on competitors.

We’re in the most competitive hiring market on record.

What others are calling The Great Resignation, LinkedIn prefers to The Great Reshuffle because of the opportunities to make positive career changes.

As workers seek new and better jobs, businesses have to communicate to prospective employees that they’re the right company to work for.

Moreover, businesses should be striving to create stronger connections with employees to keep them around long-term.

New Features For LinkedIn Pages

Updates To ‘My Company’ Tab

LinkedIn is updating the My Company tab with new ways to keep employees engaged and informed with what’s going on internally.

The My Company tab is a space within LinkedIn pages that’s exclusively for employees. Businesses can utilize this space to grow their employee community and advocacy efforts.

Openly Share Your Workplace Policies

Job seekers in today’s market aren’t choosing their next position based on salary and benefits alone. They also care about workplace policies.

See How Your Page Compares To Competitors

LinkedIn has added customizable competitor analytics to the Analytics tab, which allows you to add up to nine competitors to benchmark their LinkedIn Page performance.

With this feature you can track how many followers your competitors have and how the performance of their content compares with yours.

Source: LinkedIn Adds New Features To Help Companies Attract Talent

Jetpack Launches New Licensing Portal for Agencies

Jetpack is finally formalizing its approach to agency licensing with a new portal launched this week. The program is aimed at streamlining product setup and account billing records for agencies and professionals who use Jetpack on client projects.

The dashboard shows partners their total licenses and costs at a glance. It also allows agencies to monitor clients’ backups, scans, and activity logs. This is an improvement over managing billing for licenses scattered across client sites. Once an agency is approved for the program, Jetpack representatives will migrate existing plans into the same account. An agency’s clients can then all be rolled into one monthly bill.

“The Jetpack licensing portal is the first solution we’ve launched to address licensing for agencies or professionals that manage multiple sites,” said Jesse Friedman, who manages Strategic Marketing and Partnerships for Jetpack. “We’ve spent a lot of time focused on making it easier for customers to setup and get started with Jetpack. This licensing platform streamlines that setup flow specifically for agencies. They will be able to issue a license, and have Jetpack backing up or scanning a site in moments, by eliminating the checkout flows and reducing multiple monthly bills into one single invoice.”

Source: Jetpack Launches New Licensing Portal for Agencies

It’s Time To Shine a Spotlight on the WordPress Community + Where You Can Get Assistance in a Pinch

One of the best things about WordPress is its lively community. There are many websites, communities, and resources run by WordPress developers and enthusiasts that you can turn to when you need answers to any of your WordPress questions.

In this post, we’ll highlight the best resources to get help with WordPress and shine a spotlight on the amazing WordPress community.

Where To Get WordPress Help

Official Support Forums

One of the first places to look for help is the official WordPress support forums. They have a variety of resources to point you in the right direction. In fact, in many cases, you might even find the answer to your question by simply searching for the appropriate topic.

Bluehost Blog

Their blog is another excellent resource for learning more about WordPress. You’ll find plenty of tutorials, guides and articles to help you learn more about different WordPress features.

WordPress Codex

WordPress Codex describes itself as the online manual for WordPress. It has detailed instructions for installing and working with WordPress.

Stack Exchange

If you can’t find the answer to your question using one of the official resources, WordPress Stack Exchange is your next best bet.

WordPress Learn Page

This is another official WordPress resource with plenty of workshops and lesson plans to help you master WordPress.

YouTube Channels

If you’re more of a visual learner, numerous YouTube channels focus on delivering content around WordPress. A few notable mentions include:

• Create WP Site — you’ll find plenty of tutorials covering all kinds of topics related to building a website with WordPress.
• WPLearningLab — On this channel, you’ll find tutorials that focus on WordPress fundamentals and take you through to advanced skills.
• Darrel Wilson — another channel with plenty of tutorials about WordPress, plugin and theme reviews and WordPress news updates.
• WPTuts — This channel has WordPress tutorials as well as some specific WooCommerce tutorials if you want to learn more about customizing your online store.

Source: It’s Time To Shine a Spotlight on the WordPress Community + Where You Can Get Assistance in a Pinch

More News:

YouTube Shorts: An Introductory Guide

WordPress Releases Gutenberg 11.6 – Top 4 Achievements

Google is Developing ‘Big Moments’ Feature For Breaking News

Facebook is now Meta: Tech giant announces rebrand

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that the tech company is renaming itself to “Meta” to encompass its expanding technology and role in what it calls, “the metaverse.” The company owns multiple technologies and apps including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus VR. In July, Zuckerberg told The Verge that over the next several years, Meta would “effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”

What’s the metaverse? The way that Zuckerberg explains it in his founder’s letter today makes it sound like the next level of virtual reality: “You will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up.”

What does this mean for Facebook? “Starting with our results for the fourth quarter of 2021, we plan to report on two operating segments: Family of Apps and Reality Labs,” said the announcement. “We also intend to start trading under the new stock ticker we have reserved, MVRS, on December 1. Today’s announcement does not affect how we use or share data.”

Read more: Facebook is now Meta: Tech giant announces rebrand

Whether Google manipulated AMP or not, it’s a great time to reassess using it

As soon as Google announced that its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework would no longer be required to appear in the Top Stories section of its search results, SEOs working with publishers began envisioning more ad revenue opportunities without sacrificing the traffic that Top Stories could bring. However, some publishers may feel “stuck” with the framework due to a lack of developer resources or other factors.

But, in light of recently unredacted allegations from 17 state attorneys general accusing Google of throttling non-AMP ads in order to give AMP a “nice comparative boost,” publishers that are still using AMP may be raising an eyebrow of suspicion. “We’ve all known for a long time that AMP was Google’s attempt to force its own paradigm onto the web, a way to try and control the chaos and establish its own methods as a standard way of doing things,” said Barry Adams, independent SEO consultant and co-founder of News and Editorial SEO Summit, “These latest allegations, if true, show just how far Google’s greed can reach, that it would artificially penalize websites that don’t use Google’s preferred approach,” he said, citing 2018 accusations that Google slowed down YouTube for Firefox users as precedent for such conduct.

Read more: Whether Google manipulated AMP or not, it’s a great time to reassess using it

Instagram opens Stories link sticker to all users

Instagram has made the link sticker available to all users this week. The feature lets you link out to third-party sites, stories, products, and more via the Stories option in the app.

Previously only available to select accounts. Instagram began testing the sticker option as a replacement to “Swipe Up” link in Instagram Stories around August. Plus, the features were only available to verified accounts or those that met a 10,000 follower threshold. Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, has been emphasizing how the platform is crucial for small, local, and retail businesses — especially as a rallying cry against Apple’s App Tracking Transparency initiative.

Read more: Instagram opens Stories link sticker to all users

Google reduces the unique product identifiers enforcement on free product listings

What are unique product identifiers (UPIs). Google said a unique product identifier, also known as UPIs, are considered products that include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs), and brand names in the product feed you submit to Google Merchant Center.

Previous enforcement. In September, Google said if a product listing was missing these required attributes, the product was immediately disapproved and no longer shown in free listings. Google said “in order to unify the enforcement of UPIs across programs, specifically the enforcement for multiple different products that use the same GTIN, we’re expanding this enforcement and applying it to products listed in free listings.” Google said then, “beginning September 15, 2021, the following enforcement will apply to products shown in free listings.”

New rules. Now, starting in November 2021, “with the introduction of limited performance enforcements, products that are missing such attributes will remain eligible to serve but their performance may be limited,” the company said.

Read more: Google reduces the unique product identifiers enforcement on free product listings

Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results

Google is now letting anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from the Google Search results. The removal request can lead to the image no longer appearing in the Google Images tab or as thumbnails in any feature in Google Search, the company said.

Reputation management. This may make the process of removing images from Google Search easier and online reputation management companies may benefit from this. Having more and faster methods to remove content from Google Search is likely welcomed by SEO firms, especially those that focus on reputation management.

Read more: Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results

YouTube ads are the breakout star of Google’s Q3 earnings report

Another quarter’s earnings report shows that Google is among the winners when it comes to the shifting pandemic landscape. It makes sense that their investment in e-commerce and multi-channel advertising options continues to pay dividends as many people are still hesitant to participate in in-person shopping, dining, and more. That, plus many have just come to prefer the convenience of pick-up, delivery, and online ordering options.

41% year-over-year growth. Revenues for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, went up a whopping 41% YoY according to the report, with ad revenues driving $51.3 out of the $65.1 billion. Google attributed the continued increases to its big push for commerce in Q3 (and before) in the earnings call. Along with the investment in commerce, Google is offering even more options for advertisers who are seeing a return to in-person shopping, especially as the holiday season nears.

YouTube is the breakout star. “YouTube advertising revenues reached $7.2bn, an increase of 43% from the previous quarter thanks to both direct response and brand advertising,” reported John Glenday for The Drum.

Read more: YouTube ads are the breakout star of Google’s Q3 earnings report

More news:

App advertisers can now use App campaigns for engagement without implementing deep links

Google search quality guidelines update expand YMYL category, defines lowest quality content and more

Google Search Console testing tools to match URL Inspection tool

Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results

Google is now letting anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from the Google Search results. The removal request can lead to the image no longer appearing in the Google Images tab or as thumbnails in any feature in Google Search, the company said.

Reputation management. This may make the process of removing images from Google Search easier and online reputation management companies may benefit from this. Having more and faster methods to remove content from Google Search is likely welcomed by SEO firms, especially those that focus on reputation management.

How it works. Here are the steps to remove these images, assuming you are under 18 and there’s an image of yourself that you want removed from Google results. Now, you or your parent/guardian or authorized representative (maybe an online reputation management firm) can follow these steps.

1. Visit the help page for this new policy to understand the information you’ll need to provide when using the request form.
2. Start your removal request using the form at this support link. 
3. Fill out the form to report the imagery that is appearing in results. In the form, include information like: 
   1. Image URLs of any images that you want removed
   2. URLs of any search results pages that contain the images
   3. Search query terms that surface the images.
4. After you submit the request, our teams will review it and reach out for any additional information we might need to verify it meets the requirements for removal. And we’ll notify you once we’ve taken down the image, if it meets the requirements.

Source: Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results

Instagram Lets Everyone Share Links In Stories

All Instagram accounts can now share links in stories, a feature that was previously reserved for verified and high-follower accounts.

This marks the first time that link sharing on Instagram is available everyone.

If users didn’t meet Instagram’s old criteria for sharing links in stories, the only other place they could be shared was in their profile page.

That made it difficult to use Instagram as a tool for driving website traffic, as links can’t be shared in feed posts either.

Comparatively, websites like Twitter and Facebook are more effective in this area. Links can be shared just about anywhere on those platforms.

As one of the most highly trafficked sections of the app outside of the main feed, links in Instagram stories have the potential to be a boon for publishers.

Adding Links To Instagram Stories

Rolling out to everyone today are story stickers, which can be added just like adding any other sticker to your Instagram story.

This is how it’s done:

• Capture or upload content to your story
• Select the sticker tool from the top navigation bar
• Tap the “Link” sticker to add your desired link and tap “Done”
• Place the sticker on your story — like our other stickers — and tap on the sticker to see color variations

The Fine Print

Instagram notes that story stickers will not be available to brand new accounts.

Unfortunately, that means you can’t join Instagram today and immediately start sharing links.

What qualifies as a “new” account isn’t specified. I presume users will eventually get access after being an Instagram member for a certain period, but that’s something the company needs to clear up.

In addition, accounts that repeatedly post hate speech, misinformation, or content that violates Instagram’s community guidelines will not have access to link stickers.

If you’re a longtime user, and you’ve played by the rules, then you should be good to go with link sharing.

Other Notes About Instagram Stories

That update rolled out in 2019, after Instagram published its 500 million statistic, so it would be very interesting to know how many people are viewing stories today.

Source: Instagram Lets Everyone Share Links In Stories

In 2022, retailers will lose half of sales on backordered items unless they compensate with experience, according to Forrester

Brands stand to lose 50% of their sales on backordered items unless they compensate with customer support, Forrester said in its Predictions 2022: Customer Experience report. The report also forecasted trends for pandemic era services as well as labor practices that may affect customer experience. The research company also published its 2022 consumer predictions as well, suggesting that brand values will continue to be a factor for customers.

Customer churn due to supply chain issues. Product availability is one of the most common reasons why U.S. consumers purchase from a retailer other than the one they originally planned on, according to Forrester. These unaddressed product shortages can lead to frustration, which negatively impacts customer loyalty. Brands that can stabilize their supply chains, suggest in-house alternatives to products that are out of stock and proactively message customers about shortages and expected availability are in the best position to curb customer churn, Forrester predicted.

Customers will want some pandemic-era services to be part of the new normal. Since the outset of the pandemic, companies have introduced new ways of doing business, like curbside pickup, senior shopping hours, easier and more flexible flight changes and virtual alternatives to traditionally in-person services or experiences. “Brands that successfully navigate the transition to the new normal will avoid a wholesale reversion and analyze current customer insights and research to evaluate which services to keep, adjust, or toss,“ Forrester said.

One-fifth of retail and consumer goods firms will compromise on customer experience. Typically, customer expectations only grow stronger, but those demands may be straining employees. The last year and a half or so has highlighted the human cost of these conveniences. Nearly 40% of U.S. consumers say concerns about companies’ labor practices influence their purchasing decisions, according to Forrester. The research company predicts that, next year, more businesses will consider their responsibility to their employees as they plan their customer experience and product offerings.

Company values will continue to be a differentiator. Brand values took center stage last summer and that will continue to be the case, but Forrester predicts that the focus will shift to environmental sustainability. By July of this year, three-fifths of Fortune 500 companies had committed to climate action, up from 32% the year prior; and just today, Microsoft announced that it aims to reduce data center water consumption by 95% by 2024.

“Brands that take a stand on more highly charged issues will cater to a small segment of hyperaware consumers with a personal connection to those values,” said Lai et al.

Source: In 2022, retailers will lose half of sales on backordered items unless they compensate with experience, according to Forrester

What’s New in Gutenberg 11.7? | October 2021

In usual fashion, the Gutenberg team released version 11.7 on October 13, 2021, two weeks after releasing version 11.6.

The latest version includes:

• Global Styles improvements
• Navigation Block Improvements
• Column Block Spacing

Global Styles Improvements

Building off the Gutenberg 11.6 Global Styles navigation improvements, developers introduced a color palette to the Global Styles sidebar in version 11.7.

Another notable update is the presence of the Layout section at the root level of the Global Styles sidebar, which allows users to adjust the padding for the website.

Navigation Block Improvements

Gutenberg 11.7 introduces multiple improvements to the Navigation Block, including the ability to:

• Add new links after clicking the “+” icon without an additional block step.
• Add links using the slash inserter.
• Create new pages when adding links.
• Transform navigation links into other allowed block types, such as Site Logo, Home Link or Social Icons.
• Notice linking mistakes with the appearance of squiggly lines indicating empty links.

Column Block Spacing

Gutenberg 11.7 now allows you to adjust the spaces between columns and the margins surrounding the block. This feature complements the block gap feature that was first introduced in Gutenberg 11.4.

Other Gutenberg 11.7 updates include duotone filters to the site logo and a lighter Navigation experience.

The Gutenberg 11.6 and 11.7 updates focused on improvements to Global Styles and Navigation blocks, which will be incorporated into the WordPress 5.9 release in December 2021.

Source: What’s New in Gutenberg 11.7? | October 2021

ACCC wants all Android devices to have dedicated screen for choosing search engines

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has reiterated its call for Google to implement a mandatory search engine “choice screen” after finding the company’s dominance in the online search market has harmed competition and consumers.

A choice screen is a setup page that presents consumers with a selection of search engines to use, rather than sending consumers to a preset default search engine.

In the interim report, the ACCC said Google currently owns 94% of the online search market, which was in large part due to Google Search being the preset default search engine for Google Chrome and Apple Safari. Chrome and Safari have a combined browser market share of over 80% on desktop devices and almost 90% on mobile devices.

According to the ACCC, Google gains significant value from being the default search engine for Safari, with Google estimated to receive around $8 to $12 billion per year in advertising revenue from being Safari’s default search engine, and Siri and Spotlight’s default provider for search queries on Apple devices.

The watchdog also noted, however, that Google’s royalty payments paid to Mozilla for having Google Search as its default search engine contributed over 90% of Mozilla’s Firefox annual global revenue.

With this market dominance and control of key search access points, the ACCC said there is likely to be less innovative services being developed and such services having limited reach. 

Examples of this are search engines that emphasise privacy and minimal data collection, such as DuckDuckGo and Brave.

The screen choice concept is not new, as Google implemented the measure two years ago for new Android devices in some European countries to comply with EU rules.

But the ACCC said the EU screen choice measure has had a “limited impact”, both in terms of the level of market concentration and consumer reach, due to the design of the EU Android choice screen and its implementation as the choice screen only applying to new devices.

Detailing how the ACCC wants Australia’s version of the choice screen to work, the regulator said the measure should initially apply to new and existing Android mobile devices and across all search access points on these Android mobile devices.

It added that the choice screen measure could also include restricting a provider, which meets pre-defined criteria, from tying or bundling search services with other goods or services.

Other things flagged in the interim report were that less than a third of respondents to the ACCC’s 2021 consumer survey were aware of privacy-focused search engines and mobile browsers, despite 70% of consumers reporting concerns about the collection of data and personal information by browsers and search engines.

The survey also found that 35% of consumers did not know how to change the default browser on their mobile device or were unsure if they knew how to do so. For desktop use, this issue affected one in five consumers.

Last month, the ACCC criticised Google’s ad tech practices, accusing the tech giant of creating “systemic competition concerns” as part of its inquiry into Australia’s ad tech market.

From analysing open display ads — which are online ads except for those shown on a general search engine or classifieds websites traded on open channels — the regulator found Google’s share of impressions for the four main ad tech services used in Australia was between 70-100% and, for those ad tech services where revenue information is available, Google’s share of revenue was between 40-70%.

The ad tech services inquiry was wrapped up after the ACCC made those findings, with the watchdog now considering how to implement broader ad tech changes as part of the Digital Platform Services Inquiry.

Source: ACCC wants all Android devices to have dedicated screen for choosing search engines

More News:

300,00+ Installations of Catch Themes WordPress Plugins Vulnerable

Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand

App advertisers can now use App campaigns for engagement without implementing deep links

App advertisers are no longer required to implement deep linking to run App campaigns for engagement, Google Ads announced Monday. As a new option, advertisers can select “Set to app homepage” during ad group creation to direct users to the app homepage.

More on App campaigns for engagement

• App campaigns for engagement are designed to target an app’s existing users to bring them back to the app and foster loyalty and engagement.
• To use this campaign type, advertisers must provide text, images, video and designate a starting bid and budget. Google Ads’ automation then designs a variety of ads in different formats. These ads can appear across Google Search, YouTube, Google Play and within other apps on the Google Display Network.
• App campaigns for engagement were first announced in March 2019 and rolled out globally in December 2020.

Read more: App advertisers can now use App campaigns for engagement without implementing deep links

Google allegedly creates ad monopoly with Facebook to favor its own exchange according to new, unredacted details from Project Jedi

This past Friday a New York judge unsealed previously redacted documents in the lawsuit against Google led by the State of Texas. One of the main allegations of the antitrust lawsuit is that Google and Facebook colluded to rig ad prices and “kill header bidding” (the attempt by competitors to make the ad market less Google-centric).

“The lawsuit claims that when Facebook began to gain traction as a rival advertiser, Google made an agreement with Facebook to reduce competition in exchange for giving the social media company an advantage in Google-run ad auctions. The project was called ‘Jedi Blue,’” we wrote in April of this year.

The newly unredacted information shows just how deep the alleged agreement went between Facebook and the search engine giant. 

Jedi Blue and Facebook/Google ad exchanges. Code-named “Jedi Blue,” the arrangement between Facebook and Google meant that Google would “​​charge Facebook lower fees and give Facebook information, speed and other advantages in header bidding auctions in exchange for Facebook’s support of Open Bidding, Google’s header bidding alternative,” wrote Allison Schiff for AdExchanger.

Some suspect that Facebook initially backed header bidding in order to force Google’s hand in the arrangement and force a mutually beneficial deal. “Partnerships like this are common in the industry, and we have similar agreements with several other companies. Facebook continues to invest in these partnerships, and create new ones, which help increase competition in ad auctions to create the best outcomes for advertisers and publishers. Any suggestion that these types of agreements harm competition is baseless,” Facebook said in a statement.

The internal documents at Facebook reveal that the company had “four options: to ‘invest hundreds more engineers’ and spend billions of dollars to lock up inventory to compete, exit the business, or do the deal with Google.”

Meanwhile, Google’s main goal was to figure out any way to stop header bidding from gaining steam in the industry.

How Project Jedi worked. In order to win in the exchange, Google created the Open Bidding program. This program, in theory, lets publishers display their inventory to multiple ad exchanges at once. This was presented as a competitor to header bidding. However, the lawsuit alleges that Google manipulated Open Bidding to give Facebook’s Ad Network (FAN) an unfair advantage. “Jedi’s success was measured not by financial targets or output increases, but by how much it stopped publishers from using header bidding,” said Janice Tan with Marketing Interactive after an assessment of the documents.

Read more: Google allegedly creates ad monopoly with Facebook to favor its own exchange according to new, unredacted details from Project Jedi

Google Search Console Search Analytics API gains Discover, News, and Regex

Google has added new support, data, and features to the Google Search Console Search Analytics API. The API now supports showing data for Google Discover, Google News and also supports Regex commands — all of which were already supported in the web interface.

Google announced this morning this support has been added to the Search Analytics API after many requests from the industry to add it.

API updates. “The search type parameter, which previously enabled you to filter API calls by the news, video, image, and web, will be renamed to type and will support two additional parameters: discover (for Google Discover) and google news (for Google News),” the company said. Google is still supporting the old name search type for the time being, so it is backward compatible.

Regex API support. Google has added Regex support to the API, specifically to the query and page dimensions. Two new operators have been added to the existing match operations, they are includingRegex and excludingRegex.

Already in web interface. Like we said above, these features have been in the web interface for a while. Google has now brought support to the API. Google News performance reports were added in January 2021, Google Discover performance reports gained full data in February 2021 and Regex support was added in April 2021.

Read more: Google Search Console Search Analytics API gains Discover, News, and Regex

How to fix the SEO issues that keep you from achieving your goals

Oftentimes we look for the quick fixes that drive major ranking improvements. These still exist, but the relationships involved with connecting us to clients, and the website to users are where the most sustained value can be found.

Here are some questions to ask before we even get started with the fixes:

Is the company ready?

At LOCOMOTIVE, we work with a wide range of clients. One of the key benefits is we see a wide range of problems, and we also develop insights on how different companies handle SEO from an implementation perspective.

Is the SEO team ready?

It is not always clients creating a bottleneck to SEO growth. It is often the SEO agency team. Every SEO team should focus strongly on the following three areas:

1. Communicating issues clearly,
2. Prioritizing projects well,
3. Testing and reporting on impact.

SEO Issues

Most SEO issues can be broken down into a few categories. I like talking about these items, rather than using technical jargon because it helps relate back to things that are meaningful and understandable for non-SEOs.

Read more: How to fix the SEO issues that keep you from achieving your goals

Read more:

Google search quality guidelines update expand YMYL category, defines lowest quality content and more

Google Search Console testing tools to match URL Inspection tool

Google AdSense moves to a first-price auction model

300,00+ Installations of Catch Themes WordPress Plugins Vulnerable

Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

These vulnerabilities allow any logged-in user, even a subscriber, to perform changes that are usually reserved for WordPress users with the highest editing privileges, like the administrator of the website.

Wordfence Reports Vulnerability in Catch Demo Import WordPress Plugin

The Catch Themes Demo Import WordPress plugin was found to have an Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability.

It’s unclear how severe this specific vulnerability is. The vulnerability was rated by Wordfence as 9.1 on a scale of 1 – 10 and described as Critical. However, the vulnerability was listed on the US government National Vulnerability Database with a rating of 7.2 (High).

Over 300,000 Installations Affected

Ten Most Popular Vulnerable Catch Theme Plugins:

1. To Top – 80,000 Installations
2. Essential Content Types – 50,000 Installations
3. Catch IDs – 40,000 Installations
4. Catch Web Tools – 20,000 Installations
5. Social Gallery and Widget – 20,000 Installations
6. Catch Infinite Scroll – 20,000 Installations
7. Catch Gallery – 20,000 Installations
8. Essential Widgets – 20,000 Installations
9. Catch Instagram Feed Gallery & Widget (Social Gallery and Widget) – 20,000 Installations
10. Catch Themes Demo Import – 10,000 Installations

Seventeen Catch Themes Vulnerable Plugins:

These are the seventeen plugins reported by WPScan to have a vulnerability that was subsequently patched:

1. Essential Widgets
   Fixed in version 1.9
2. To Top
   Fixed in version 2.3
3. Header Enhancement
   Fixed in version 1.5
4. Generate Child Theme
   Fixed in version 1.6
5. Essential Content Types
   Fixed in version 1.9
6. Catch Web Tools
   Fixed in version 2.7
7. Catch Under Construction
   Fixed in version 1.4
8. Catch Themes Demo Import
   Fixed in version 1.6
9. Catch Sticky Menu
   Fixed in version 1.7
10. Catch Scroll Progress Bar
    Fixed in version 1.6
11. Catch Instagram Feed Gallery & Widget (Social Gallery and Widget)
    Fixed in version 2.3
12. Catch Infinite Scroll
    Fixed in version 1.9
13. Catch Import Export
    Fixed in version 1.9
14. Catch Gallery
    Fixed in version 1.7
15. Catch Duplicate Switcher
    Fixed in version 1.6
16. Catch Breadcrumb
    Fixed in version 1.7
17. Catch IDs
    Fixed in version 2.4

Users Recommended to Consider Updating to Latest Plugin Versions

Publishers who use the affected Catch Themes plugins who wish to avoid unintended consequences from using vulnerable versions of those plugins should consider upgrading to the very latest versions of the plugins now available.

Failure to do so may lead to unnecessary exposure to a hacking event.

Citations

Read WPScan Advisory on Catch Themes Plugins

Multiple Plugins from CatchThemes – Unauthorised Plugin’s Setting Change

Wordfence Advisory of Catch Themes Plugin

Catch Themes Demo Import <= 1.7 Admin+ Arbitrary File Upload

National Vulnerability Database Catch Themes Plugins Advisories

Catch Themes Demo Import WordPress plugin vulnerability CVE-2021-39352 Detail

Source: 300,00+ Installations of Catch Themes WordPress Plugins Vulnerable

Google throttled AMP page speeds, created format to hamper header bidding, antitrust complaint claims

Newly unredacted complaints against Google allege that the search giant’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which the company claimed would “dramatically improve” mobile web performance when it launched in 2015, was in fact a scheme to coerce publishers into using the format in order to limit advertising dollars not spent on its own ad exchanges.

The complaint, which is led by the State of Texas on behalf of 12 mostly Republican states, goes so far as to allege Google even throttled the load speed of pages not using AMP in order to give a “nicer comparative boost” to AMP.

“Throttling non-AMP ads slows down header bidding, which Google then uses to denigrate header bidding for being too slow,” it reads. “‘Header Bidding can often increase latency of web pages and create security flaws when executed incorrectly,’ Google falsely claimed. Internally, Google employees grappled with ‘how to [publicly] justify [Google] making something slower,’” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit, which cites internal Google documents, was originally filed on Sept. 9 and was heavily redacted. However, a ruling by a Manhattan judge forced the release of the mostly unredacted version on Friday.

Targeting header bidding. At the center of the issue is header bidding, an advertising practice where publishers can place their ad inventory on numerous ad exchanges at once. It’s a method meant to sidestep Google’s “waterfall” approach to bidding, which often favors Google’s ad servers. Publishers generally like header bidding because of its potential for higher revenue and transparency.

A damning indictment of AMP. The complaint is not wrong that publishers have held a love/hate relationship with AMP. The premise itself goes against publisher instincts. AMP requires us to create versions of our content on servers we do not own using templates we have limited control over. The tradeoff meant improved user experience on mobile and a greater likelihood of showing up in Top Stories, a placement that can yield significant traffic. Using AMP wreaks havoc on internal analytics, too,  since it makes it very difficult to track users migrating across a site’s AMP and non-AMP pages.

Source: Google throttled AMP page speeds, created format to hamper header bidding, antitrust complaint claims

WPChill Takes Over Gutenberg Forms, Plans To Shake Up the Free Forms Market

WPChill is now the owner of Gutenberg Forms, a project created by Munir Kamal. While still rough around the edges a year ago, the plugin was updated regularly and was something to at least keep an eye on as it matured. Extendify acquired it alongside Kamal’s Editor Plus and Gutenberg Hub at the end of 2020.

Then, Gutenberg Forms seemed to stall. Since Extendify took over the project, outside of bug fixes, most of the changes revolved around the addition of its commercial template and pattern library. However, the plugin still racked up over 1,000 active installs and a 4.6-star rating.

Cristian Raiber, the CEO of WPChill, said he had discussed acquiring the plugin early on. However, he backed out before closing the deal because his company already owned Kali Forms, a commercial forms solution.

“After a while of not gaining enough market share with Kali Forms, we circled back, and luckily, this time around, Chris Lubkert, the CEO of Extendify, was actually looking for someone to take over the project (adopt it) and keep it going,” he said.

There are no plans to merge the two form solutions. Both plugins serve different markets.

“Kali Forms is a more complex and complete solution whereas Gutenberg Forms just focuses on simpler forms, which also makes it limited in functionality but also in scope,” said Raiber. “There’s a market for people who just need a basic form solution built into Gutenberg, and we just happen to be the new owners of that solution.”

Gutenberg Forms is still in its infancy, and there are many paths the new development team could take. Given enough time and resources, WPChill could shake up the free forms market.

Source: WPChill Takes Over Gutenberg Forms, Plans To Shake Up the Free Forms Market

Why Is TikTok So Popular?

A Neilsen study attempts to explain why.

Commissioned by TikTok, the study analyzes data from over 8,000 survey respondents who were asked questions regarding their perception of the site’s content.

The objective of the study is to understand what people value about TikTok. Results offer insight into why it’s become a cultural phenomenon.

Users Say TikTok Is Authentic

Users feel like they can be themselves on TikTok, which could be a contributing factor to its popularity.

Users Say TikTok Makes Them Happy

TikTok content brings joy, the study finds, and who doesn’t need more of that in their lives?

“An average of 31% of TikTok users included “lifting my spirits” as one of the top three reasons for returning to the TikTok platform again and again.”

TikTok Is Unique And Different

Users feel like they can go on TikTok and see content they can’t get anywhere else.

While they may see the same content shared across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter— TikTok stands apart as a place to discover something new.

TikTok Is A Community

Among TikTok’s greatest strengths is the sense of community felt by its users.

That’s demonstrated by the viral challenges users take part in.

The ability to sample others’ content and add to it also helps users build stronger connections.

In short— TikTok users feel comfortable on the platform and are even excited to engage with one another.

A common theme throughout this data is positivity. Users enjoy their time on TikTok, they’re delighted by the unique content they find, and they feel safe expressing themselves with their own content.

Source: Why Is TikTok So Popular?

Navigating Google’s title changes: The rollout, what’s happening now and what you can do about it

In August, Google introduced a new system for generating title links (the title of a search result in Google Search). “This is because we think our new system is producing titles that work better for documents overall, to describe what they are about, regardless of the particular query,” the company explained.

However, during the new system’s initial rollout, SEOs provided example after example after example of titles that not only failed to describe what the page was about, but may also confuse users and deter them from clicking through. Fortunately, the situation has since improved, but placing blind faith in Google’s new system can mean that you’re ceding control over a crucial aspect of your content, which could ultimately affect your business. Below, you’ll find a synopsis of how Google’s title changes have evolved, how you can verify whether your titles have been changed and what you can do to regain control over them.

Title changes: Then and now

A tale of two title changes. Google has been adjusting titles links for a long time. In 2014, the company explained that it might change a title to match the query (to a certain extent). This is an important detail because Google would later cite these historical practices as precedent for its new system — a justification that some SEOs found misleading as the magnitude and impact of the changes contrast sharply.

The first weeks of the title change rollout. When the new title change system rolled out in August, SEOs took to Twitter to share examples of poorly rewritten titles in the search results. “While many of the title overwrites made sense and were unlikely to negatively affect performance, there were many (too many) examples of title overwrites gone awry,” said Lily Ray, senior director, SEO and head of organic research at Amsive Digital.

The nature of Google’s title rewrites. “It appeared that Google was truncating some article headlines in strange ways that changed the meaning of the title,” said Ray, “In other cases, it seemed that punctuation, like quotation marks or dashes, caused the title to break early. In even rarer and stranger situations, Google would choose anchor text or other article text to display as the title, which was occasionally taken out of context and was a poor representation of the full page content.”

Google has since improved its title rewrites. After the initial blowback from the SEO community, Google’s Danny Sullivan published a post explaining why Google made the title changes. Several weeks after that, the company published more help documents on controlling titles and descriptions in Search. Just as important, Google’s explanations seem to be accompanied by improvements to its title change algorithm.

What to do if you suspect Google is changing your titles

“Essentially, you’ll need a way to start tracking and trending titles. You’ll need to collect your site’s popular search terms, and then gather the Google SERPs title and compare it to the actual title,” Sliva said. In addition to that, there’s Thruuu, Keywords in Sheets solution, and this creative bookmarklet to inject titles into a SERP.”

Ahrefs users also have a new tool that enables them to export title changes for deeper analysis. Brodie Clark has provided instructions on how to get started with it and how he analyzes the data.

The new tool is in the “Top pages” tab underneath the “Site Explorer 2.0” heading. Once you’re there, you’ll have to toggle the “SERP titles” button and change the date for comparison. Next, you can export the data for analysis.

“There are important aspects to keep in mind when interpreting the data to ensure you’re getting an accurate depiction,” Clark said, recommending that SEOs remove new URLs and URLs that are no longer ranking so that they’re only looking at titles that are eligible for comparison.

“Changing the grouping of the rows to the top pages based on est. traffic that has had a title link change, we can see trends for what has changed,” Clark said. At this point, you’ll have to perform a manual review. “When completing the manual review, you’ll also need to look out for titles that have manually changed for pages during the comparison period,” he added.

What you can do if you’re unhappy with how Google changed your titles

Some titles may still be unsatisfactory — it can be argued that the example in line #3 from the chart above is less informative than the original title, for example. Unfortunately, there is little you can do to directly change Google’s title links, but embracing a more holistic view of the issue can help you craft more informative titles and avoid bad rewrites from Google.

One thing you can do to bring a particularly inaccurate title change to Google’s attention is to submit feedback: “Google created a form where you can submit your feedback for incorrect or egregious titles,” Lily Ray pointed out, “Otherwise, pay attention to when the overwrites take place and what they look like; this could provide insight into potential issues Google may have with your titles and offer some inspiration about how to adjust them. Google also offers clear examples about the types of titles it intended to overwrite, so you can evaluate whether your titles fall into any of those categories.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same

For SEOs. We’re now accustomed to optimizing for rich results, featured snippets, knowledge panels and dozens of other non-traditional search features, but titles — as Google has now reminded us — are one of the oldest forms of on-SERP SEO. 

For the industry. We rely on Google for traffic and Google relies on us for content to show users. When the title changes rolled out in August, Google said it wasn’t new, which was only half-true as the search engine has been known to replace titles, but had not done so to the extent that we’ve recently experienced.

Source: Navigating Google’s title changes: The rollout, what’s happening now and what you can do about it

More News:

Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand

Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search

Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Microsoft announced a new Shopify partnership today that gives merchants access to more customers via the updated Microsoft Channel app in Shopify.

Currently available to merchants in the U.S. and Canada, the updated Channel app enables advertisers to utilize both the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network.

Products are then automatically eligible to display in the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab free as Product Listings.

Bolar also revealed that Product Ads and Product Listings will “soon” have a Buy Now button to give shoppers a quick checkout option directly from the ad experience. The timeline for that rollout was not given.

These are the latest in a series of Microsoft Advertising updates designed to engage consumers and expand advertiser reach.

Source: Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Google extends its shopping integrations to include BigCommerce

Google has rolled out an integration with BigCommerce, the company announced Thursday. Similar to Google’s integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square, which were announced earlier this year, this partnership will enable BigCommerce merchants to show their products for free on Google, create ad campaigns and review performance metrics from their BigCommerce store.

Why we care

The new integration provides BigCommerce retailers with an easy way to make their listings more discoverable across Google properties, which can help drive traffic to their products. This may be especially helpful for merchants that can’t or aren’t able to dedicate extra staff or enlist the help of an agency.

For Google, all these integrations may mean more product listings it can show to users, which strengthens it as a shopping destination and helps it compete with other e-commerce platforms. If Google is able to generate value for merchants via these integrations, then merchants may also be inclined to try the platform’s advertising tools, which is also good for Google.

Source: Google extends its shopping integrations to include BigCommerce

Facebook Has New Communication Tools For Businesses

Facebook is rolling out a series of updates targeted at small businesses, including audio & video calls in Messenger, live audio rooms, and more.

These updates are coming just in time for the holiday shopping season, which reportedly counts for 20% of annual revenue for small businesses.

Businesses will have more ways to communicate with customers this season, the ability to book more appointments directly in Facebook, and easier ways to create ads.

New Facebook Features For Businesses

Audio & Video Calling

Facebook is starting to test audio and video calling with select small and medium sized businesses using Business Inbox in Messenger.

Live Audio Rooms

Live Audio Rooms were introduced earlier this year and are widely regarded as Facebook’s answer to Clubhouse.

Small businesses can host live conversations on topics relevant to their customers, and people can discover them across Facebook.

Hosts can invite friends, followers, creators or any listeners in the room to be a speaker. Speakers can be invited in advance or during the conversation.

Appointment Bookings

Small business owners can receive and manage appointments from new and existing clients using their Facebook page.

The ability to book appointments is being offered at no added cost to businesses.

Changes to Personalized Ads

The message will reinforce to the user that their engagement is helping the small business grow and get found by more customers.

Updates to Facebook Business Suite

Updates to Business Suite will streamline the ad creation process and provide business owners with new insights.

The full list of changes includes:

• Ability to create Instagram-only ads on desktop.
• New insights to help measure ad performance.
• Recommendations on audience targeting.
• Recommendations on campaign optimizations.
• Easy access to official best practices.

Updates to Ad Creation

Facebook is aligning the ad creation process in Ads Manager to better align campaign objectives with traditional marketing goals such as awareness, site traffic, leads, or sales.

The 11 goals businesses were previously asked to choose from are being consolidated into three:

Automated Ads

Create an Ad

Boost Existing Content

Source: Facebook Has New Communication Tools For Businesses

Jetpack Launches Commercial Backup Feature as a Standalone Plugin

Jetpack is splitting out its commercial Backup feature into a standalone plugin that can be used without installing the core Jetpack plugin.

The commercial product includes automated daily or real-time backups with one-click restores, even for sites that are offline. Backups include all WordPress database, theme, and plugin files, which are stored on WordPress.com’s infrastructure with redundant copies on multiple servers. The product was built with WooCommerce in mind and can restore a site to any past state while keeping current orders and products in place.

Jetpack representative Rob Pugh said the product was split out of the core plugin because “many developers and site owners asked for the flexibility to use specific components of Jetpack as part of their own, custom-built ‘tech stack’ of plugins.”

The standalone plugin is available on WordPress.org and requires a user connection to WordPress.com. It is essentially a shell for connecting the commercial product, as the plugin doesn’t have a free tier or perform any function unless you click “Upgrade Now.”

The plugin’s description on WordPress.org is somewhat misleading, as it isn’t explicit that this is a commercial-only product. The “Get Started” section states, “Installation is free, quick, and easy. It only takes a few minutes to install Jetpack Backup.” The fact that it’s a paid product isn’t evident unless you dig into the accordion FAQ section about how to create a backup: “As soon as you purchase Jetpack Backup, it will be activated, and the first backup will be completed.”

Source: Jetpack Launches Commercial Backup Feature as a Standalone Plugin

Free AI Content Optimization Tool by MarketMuse

MarketMuse recently released a free version of their sophisticated AI powered content writing tool. This tool automates the content creation process so that the team can focus on the content plus it provides insights to help optimize the content before it is published rather than refining it after it’s been published.

AI Content Planning and Optimization

First-hand Experience With MarketMuse

The free version of MarketMuse is similar to the paid version. The free version contains the primary features of MarketMuse. The biggest difference in those primary features is scale. The paid version can focus on more queries.

Screenshot of Traffic Metrics Showing Increase After Using MarketMuse:

MarketMuse Free Version

The MarketMuse free version of their product was designed to be useful for smaller sites. The functionality is basically the same as the paid version which offers more queries to work with.

The free version of MarketMuse offers these primary applications:

• Optimize
• Connect
• Compete
• Research
• Questions.

Users of the free version receive 35 queries per month to run the applications and optimize their content before publishing it.

According to MarketMuse:

“Those who leverage our Free package will be able to improve the quality of select articles each month by ensuring:

• They answer the right questions
• Identifying the right links
• Covering the right topics before publication.”

Should You Try the Free Version of MarketMuse?

There are some content optimization tools that claim to optimize content but all they provide is a simple analysis of the search results consisting of statistical data about keyword usage of the top ranked websites. That’s not machine learning. That’s not AI.

MarketMuse helps automate the entire content creation process with AI and machine learning created by data scientists and computer engineers and experts in SEO.

MarketMuse is used and trusted by top organizations like The Motley Fool and Discover.

Source: Free AI Content Optimization Tool by MarketMuse

More News:

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand

Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search

Microsoft will shutter LinkedIn in China by the end of the year

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand – report

Facebook plans to make a dramatic break with its past by rebranding the company next week, according to a report.

Facebook’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is preparing to talk about the name change at a company event next week, but it could be unveiled sooner, reported the Verge, a US tech news website.

Under the plans, Facebook would change the name of its holding company but not that of its eponymous social media platform, known internally as the “big blue app”. As well as its founding site, the company also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and the virtual reality brand Oculus.

The Verge reported that the new name for the holding company could be linked to Horizon, a word used in at least two virtual reality products that the company is developing. Zuckerberg launched his company as TheFacebook 17 years ago.

Source: Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand – report

PayPal Offers $45 Billion For Social Photo Sharing Network Pinterest

PayPal Holdings Inc. is looking to acquire social media company Pinterest Inc. for $45 billion, according to reports from both Reuters and Bloomberg (each of whom cites anonymous people familiar with the matter).

The pandemic and resultant acceleration of ecommerce adoption have left PayPal in a position to finance the deal “mostly with stock,” their sources say.

PayPal stock is up 36% in the last 12 months, giving the O.G. fintech brand a market cap of almost $320 billion.

Pinterest has grown its audience to over 400 million monthly active users.

That audience could prove incredibly lucrative for PayPal, given that Pinterest’s userbase is more than 60% female and consists of 45% of people in the U.S. with an annual household income over $100,000.

Rumors Coincide With Launch Of More Shoppable Idea Pins & Creator Rewards

News of the potential acquisition broke just as Pinterest announced the launch of:

• A redesigned home feed with Browse and Watch tabs.
• Takes, a new engagement tool available on iOS and Android for Pinners and creators worldwide.
• Creator Rewards, Pinterest’s first in-product monetization program for creators.
• Augmented reality integration for Idea Pins, via AR Try on.
• Creator Originals, a new content series of 100 episodes featuring 10 different Pinners.
• Amazon Associates Program product tagging for U.S. Pinners, who are now able to add affiliate links from Amazon and earn commission on qualifying purchases.

Pinterest Adds Visual Search to Video Content

Pinterest’s new features start rolling out on iOS, Android, web, and desktop today.

Even in a record-breaking year for M&As, this is certainly one to watch.

Source: PayPal Offers $45 Billion For Social Photo Sharing Network Pinterest

Gutenberg Contributors Propose Renaming Reusable Blocks

WordPress’ Reusable blocks may soon be getting re-named, as the feature’s distinct capabilities are less recognizable from its name following the introduction of patterns.

When the Gutenberg project first took off, nobody had any idea how important patterns would become in the page building experience, or that they would be getting their own directory on WordPress.org. During a demo at WordCamp Europe 2021, Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura commented on how transformative patterns have been for making page design approachable for users.

“Perhaps it was a smaller part of the roadmap initially but it’s becoming a centerpiece – especially because it allows…world class designers to provide a starting point for users and users get to learn design as they are interacting with themes,” Ventura said. 

A year later, patterns have made their way to the forefront of theme design and development with an excitement that rivals the introduction of widgets in WordPress’ earlier days. WordPress 5.9 will feature pattern insertion directly from the Pattern Directory so users will be able to change their patterns as often as they like, without having to switch themes. Coming in Gutenberg 11.8, the pattern inserter will highlight featured patterns from the directory in the initial view, instead of displaying the first alphabetical category. Contributors are also considering a path for allowing themes to surface specific patterns from the directory instead of bundling them.

Source: Gutenberg Contributors Propose Renaming Reusable Blocks

Instagram Collabs: Team Up & Boost Engagement

Instagram is introducing a way for users to publish content together as a “collab.”

Engagement signals earned from the collab are shared between each user.

A Facebook representative confirms the ability to co-author content on Instagram is being tested for feed posts and Reels.

Collabs offer an easy way for users to get in front of new audiences while strengthening their relationships with other creators.

One use case that immediately comes to mind is influencer marketing.

If you’re a brand launching a product you collaborated on with a popular influencer, you can co-author an announcement post and share all the engagement signals generated by their larger audience.

How to Use Instagram Collabs

You can check if your account has access to Collabs in the account tagging screen.

Create a post and select the option to tag people.

If you have Collabs you’ll see a new button on the tagging screen that says: “Invite Collaborator.”

After selecting that option you can invite another Instagram account to be an official collaborator on the post.

Co-Author, Not Co-Create

Instagram makes it clear Collabs is designed for co-authoring content— not co-creating it.

The content has to already be created. Then Collabs can be utilized to give both parties credit for the work.

To illustrate the difference, a good example of a feature designed for co-creating content is TikTok’s Duets.

Will Collabs Help Instagram Be More Like TikTok?

That’s a pain point for Mosseri, who wants Instagram to be as good as TikTok at spotlighting new creators.

“Instagram is much better at helping creators that have already made a name for themselves do more online. TikTok is better at identifying new and young talent and helping them break out in the first place.

And we want to be really good at that. We have historically focused on that less, but I’m pushing my teams hard at getting better at doing well by the little guy.”

Source: Instagram Collabs: Team Up & Boost Engagement

WordPress Cache Plugin Exploit Affects +1 Million Websites

WP Fastest Cache Plugin Vulnerabilities Description

WP Fastest Cache is a WordPress plugin used by over a million WordPress websites. The plugin creates a static HTML version of the website.

There are multiple vulnerabilities that were discovered:

• Authenticated SQL Injection
• Stored XSS via Cross-Site Request Forgery

Authenticated SQL Injection

The Authenticated SQL Injection allows a logged-in users to access administrator level information through the database.

A SQL Injection vulnerability is an attack that’s directed at the database, which is where the website elements, including passwords, are stored.

A successful SQL Injection attack could lead to a full website takeover.

Stored XSS via Cross-Site Request Forgery

XSS (Cross-site Scripting) vulnerabilities is a somewhat common vulnerability that results from a flaw in how inputs to the website are validated. Anywhere a user can input something to a website, like a contact form, can be vulnerable to an XSS attack if the input isn’t sanitized.

Jetpack Security Research Warning

The security researchers at Jetpack recommend that all users of WP Fastest Cache WordPress plugin updated their plugin right away.

The Jetpack security researchers posted:

“We recommend that you check which version of the WP Fastest Cache plugin your site is using, and if it is less than 0.9.5, update it as soon as possible!”

Source: WordPress Cache Plugin Exploit Affects +1 Million Websites

More News:

Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search

Microsoft will shutter LinkedIn in China by the end of the year

Google is Developing ‘Big Moments’ Feature For Breaking News