Google helpful content update is now done rolling out

Google has confirmed that the helpful content update is now finished rolling out. The update took 15 days to roll out, starting on August 25, 2022, and ending on September 9, 2022. Google has posted it completed today, September 9th.

As a reminder, Google’s helpful content update is a sitewide signal. It targets websites that have a relatively high amount of unsatisfying or unhelpful content, where the content is written for search engines first.

In short, did you write that piece of content to rank on Google or did you write it to help users?

What to do if you are hit. Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions as we posted over here, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update.

Note, if you were hit by this update, it can take several months to recover, if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time.

More on the helpful content update. The new helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people,” Google said. This update aims at helping searchers find “high-quality content.”

Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

Content written for the purpose of ranking in search engines, maybe called search engine first content, has been a topic coming up more and more across social media and other areas. In short, searchers are getting frustrated with landing on web pages that do not help them rank well in search because they were designed to rank well.

This algorithm aims to downgrade those types of websites while promoting more helpful websites, designed for humans, above search engines.

Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in Search.” This targets content written for search engines over human-first content.

Source: Google helpful content update is now done rolling out

TikTok adds additional regional trend insights

TikTok has added more insights, into countries, industries, holidays, and other key market trends to its insights tool.

What are TikTok Insights? Insights help advertisers and creators understand the audience, behaviors, opinions, and effectiveness of their campaigns.

Part of its Creative Center platform, the Insights tool allows you to filter by age group, viewer type (creator, advertiser, user), industry, events, and year.

Use the tool. You can test the tool and view different insights by location here.

Why do we care? It’s a start. While the tool can be useful to help advertisers plan campaigns, it’s not as robust as it could be. With limited data, the tool doesn’t show as much information as one might expect a platform with one billion users to have.

Source: TikTok adds additional regional trend insights

Instagram Beta Testing New Repost Feature

At last – the long-awaited “repost” feature on Instagram is coming soon. But not for all users.

On September 8th, a Meta representative confirmed to TechCrunch that they plan to test the repost feature soon to a select group of people.

As of today, Meta has not publicly announced this soon-to-be feature.

The Reposts Tab Is Being Tested

So, how did this news break to the community?

Matt Navara, a social media consultant, screenshotted the profile of Adam Mosseri, current Head of Instagram, to his Twitter followers on September 7th.

Based on the screenshot evidence, it looks like users will get a Repost tab within their profile. This tab will likely house all reposts a user has shared to their account.

This news becomes relevant again, as it seems that Adam’s profile is the first to be spotted with the Reposts feature in the wild. Instagram may have been planning this for quite some time and is quietly rolling out the Beta test now.

Keeping Up With Other Platforms

The report feature on Instagram seems to be a long time coming. The platform already allows users to share posts within their stories, but not in their feeds.

Twitter has long held this type of feature with its Retweet function, enabling users to reshare tweets from users to their Twitter feed.

TikTok has also joined the resharing bandwagon by testing out its own version of reposting. TikTok currently has a Repost feature that shares specific content with a user’s followers. However, it doesn’t have the capability to show all the user’s shared posts.

Source: Instagram Beta Testing New Repost Feature

WordPress.com Defies Marked Increase in Russian Takedown Demands

Automattic published its bi-annual transparency report this week, which highlights the different information and takedown demands received across the company’s services.

Historically, Automattic has used these reports as an opportunity to publicly reaffirm its commitment to actively pushing back against requests that violate users’ freedom of speech and bring attention to abusive takedown demands. In 2014, the company open-sourced its DMCA takedown process documents to help others implement their own processes. Past transparency reports have included information on intellectual property disputes, IRUs (reports from dedicated government Internet Referral Units), national security letters, government information requests, and other issues related to the hosted content.

In 2021, Automattic published a unified landing page for WordPress.com and Tumblr’s transparency reports, which are now hosted on the same site, aimed at making it easier to navigate and compare the data. In the future, this may include the company’s other products like Day One and Pocket Casts, as relevant requests come in.

The most recent report for the first half of 2022, includes information on the Russian censorship requests WordPress.com received.

“Over the past six months, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have seen a marked increase in the number of takedown demands that target content which is critical of the Russian government and associates,” WordPress.com Community Guardian Stephen McLeod Blythe said. 

Source: WordPress.com Defies Marked Increase in Russian Takedown Demands

Read more:

Yahoo Acquires Source Credibility Algorithms With Latest Acquisition

YouTube updates Masthead ad requirements to allow sports betting

WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update

Yahoo Acquires Source Credibility Algorithms With Latest Acquisition

Yahoo has announced a deal to purchase The Factual, a news rating company that scores media bias and credibility. Yahoo will implement this score to provide users with additional insight into the accuracy and reliability of the content they consume.

“The acquisition continues Yahoo’s commitment to bringing trusted news and information to its nearly 900 million consumers worldwide and builds on the company’s future vision of news,” the search engine company said via press release.

Financial terms of the deal which closed on August 23, were not disclosed.

Purchase Shows Commitment to Fighting Disinformation

The Factual has just eight employees, all of whom will join Yahoo news, but Yahoo clearly sees potential in its services. By completing this acquisition Yahoo is investing in a commitment to fighting “fake news.”

Mis- and disinformation have becoming increasing concerns in an environment where social media and information overload have facilitated their propagation.

Algorithm Scores News Using Artificial Intelligence

The Factual, which was launched in 2019, uses artificial intelligence to score news stories on a 100-point scale using four criteria:

• Site quality, which tracks the site’s history of producing high-scoring, well-sourced articles.
• Author expertise, which considers the author’s expertise on a topic based on previous articles.
• Article tone, which considers how opinionated the language in the article is. 
• Source quality, which measures the quality and diversity of sources and direct meaningful quotes.

Source: Yahoo Acquires Source Credibility Algorithms With Latest Acquisition

Google reports issue affecting Ads Manager Data Transfer

Google has been experiencing an issue with Ads Manager Data Transfer reporting that some advertisers may notice missing data dating back to August 30.

What Google says. Google has not commented on the issue.

When will the issue be fixed. There is no ETA on when the issue will be fixed but advertisers can keep checking the status dashboard here.

Not new. Google has experienced several outages this year including those from Ads Manager, API, Impression Share, and Auction Insights, to name a few.

• API
• Impression Share and Auction Insights
• Search Console Discover report
• Search quality and indexing
• AdSense and Analytics issues

Source: Google reports issue affecting Ads Manager Data Transfer

Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress

Bluehost, one of the largest WordPress hosting providers in the world, today announced the launch of its new commerce solutions that make it simple for customers to launch their online stores and makes using WordPress easier by bringing together YITH plugins and WooCommerce. Addressing the need for a simple, convenient online selling solution for all, Bluehost’s new commerce solutions, bring together the power of WordPress, the versatility of WooCommerce and the elegant simplicity of YITH plugins to empower users to easily create online stores that truly stand out from the rest.

From a mobile-responsive eCommerce website to powerful connections with all the major online marketplaces, Bluehost’s commerce solutions enable users to sell products anywhere and everywhere confidently. The affordable all-in-one commerce solutions allow users to build a robust online store.  Users can easily accept payments, sell across popular marketplaces, schedule calendar appointments, ship new customer orders, print labels, and add advanced features like GiftCards, WishList, Customer Account Page, and more. Site owners will save time and energy maintaining every aspect of their eCommerce business, all from one platform.

Bluehost’s commerce solutions make selling online easier and save customers hundreds of dollars by bundling enhanced plugins.

Bluehost’s commerce solutions offer the functionality, and the perfect mix of tools, plugins and guidance online sellers need to start and grow their online business including:    

• Easy Online Store Creation: Bluehost’s new commerce solutions come with an easy-to-follow onboarding experience. Answer a few simple questions and within minutes users will have the right foundation pages to launch their site. The guided onboarding experiences walks users through the set-up process for commonly needed features of an online store, like payment processing, tax information, shipping and managing product inventory.
• WooCommerce and Enhanced YITH Plugins: Both of Bluehost’s commerce solutions come with WooCommerce and enhanced YITH plugins. YITH is one of the largest sellers and developers of WooCommerce Plugins for WordPress, with nearly 2.3M active installs and more than 100 plugins that expertly solve critical eCommerce needs. Payment Processing, Gift Cards, Wish Lists, Appointment Bookings, Shipping, Product Search/Filtering and Customer Account Creation are included, providing users with everything they need to build an online store for a simple low price.
• Sales Across Multiple Marketplaces: Whether users are selling on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, BigCommerce, or any other kind of marketplace, the Bluehost Online Store + Marketplace plan allows customers to manage their inventory from one centralized dashboard. This allows them to analyze which marketplace is the best place for selling their products, as well as keep track of inventory in real-time without having to log into multiple dashboards.
• Yoast SEO: The #1 WordPress SEO Plugin powering more than 13 million websites. Yoast SEO is made by world-renowned SEO experts and is packed full of features, designed to help visitors and search engines to get the most out of their website. Newfold acquired Yoast in August 2021.
• New WordPress eCommerce Block Theme “Wonder” Pre-installed: Take advantage of WordPress’s Block Editor with Wonder’s 24 patterns, focused on shops, and six different style variations. YITH, a leading global provider of WooCommerce plugins acquired by Newfold in March 2022, built Wonder leveraging their WordPress commerce expertise.
• Professional Services and 24/7 Expert Support: In-house Bluehost experts are readily available to help customers get online and support customers if roadblocks are encountered while creating an online store, via online chat or over the phone at +1(888) 401-4678.

Source: Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress

Instagram is cutting back on its shopping features

Instagram is planning to scale back on its shopping features to focus more on e-commerce efforts that directly drive advertising.

A change in priorities. In an internal memo this week Instagram staffers were told that the Shopping page would eventually disappear “given shifts in company priorities.” The memo states that Instagram isn’t going to abandon shopping altogether, but instead test a simpler, less personalized version of the page known as “Tab Lite.”

TikTok Lite. Instagram has come under criticism as of late for focusing too much on Reels and short-form videos, giving the platform more of a TikTok feel rather than the photo-sharing app it used to be. Celebrities like Kylie Kardashian made headlines when she shared a post urging Instagram to “stop trying to be like TikTok.”

There is a petition on Change.org to “Make Instagram Instagram Again.”

Will Instagram retreat. According to Reuters, this latest effort is an attempt by Instagram to move away from some of its longer-term projects to double down on video.

Source: Instagram is cutting back on its shopping features

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YouTube updates Masthead ad requirements to allow sports betting

WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update

YouTube is testing a new “Promotions” Tab

YouTube updates Masthead ad requirements to allow sports betting

YouTube now allows sports betting ads to serve on the masthead as long as the ads comply with the related gambling and games policy.

Recent masthead updates. Additional masthead updates were released in June for alcohol and prescription drugs. Full-day masthead reservations were discontinued and replaced with more targeted options. The new CPM option allows mastheads to be more accessible to a broader market of advertisers. 

Read the announcement. You can read the information from Google here. Google’s guidelines for advertising sports and gambling can also be found here.

Advertisers who run YouTube campaigns for sports and gambling can now have their ads in the most prominent ad space, so long as they comply with YouTube policies.

Source: YouTube updates Masthead ad requirements to allow sports betting

Google is rolling out new campaign and ad group Setup columns

Google is slowly rolling out new Setup columns at the campaign and ad group levels.

What is a Setup column? The new Setup column was first noticed by Steve Seeley, who posted about the update on Twitter.

The Setup column includes information about:

• Disapproved ads
• Disapproved keywords
• Eligible ads
• Eligible keywords
• Eligible Responsive Search Ads
• Eligible ad groups
• Responsive search ad-strength details
• Eligible site link extensions
• Eligible image extensions

More Setup column info. You can read more info about the new Setup columns here.

This info should help advertisers identify issues in their campaigns and ad groups as well as quickly find images, keywords, and ads that need to be adjusted. If you have access to the new Setup column, you should see it in your settings at the campaign or ad group level.

Source: Google is rolling out new campaign and ad group Setup columns

Google has updated its Traffic Quality site with new text and policy visuals

Google has just announced an update to their Invalid Traffic site.

What is Invalid Traffic? Invalid Traffic is “any activity that doesn’t come from a real user with genuine interest. It can include accidental clicks caused by intrusive ad implementations, fraudulent clicking by competing advertisers, advertising botnets, and more.”

What Google says. The site revamp was announced on Twitter by Google Policy Transparency staff member Aurora Morales.

Invalid Traffic examples. In their update, Google provides 12 examples of Invalid Traffic but adds that this is not an exhaustive list.

• Accidental clicks
• Ad hiding
• Ad stacking
• Clickjacking
• Pop-under ad

Invalid traffic affects Google AdSense, Ads Manager, and mobile apps. Advertisers who consistently see increased clicks, lower CTR, or suspect that their ads are being clicked by bots or competitors may see their ad spend decrease as Google works to stop the fraud and lessen the costs to account holders.

Source: Google has updated its Traffic Quality site with new text and policy visuals

Google Will Reject Ads Leading To Pages With Intrusive Advertising

Google is giving advertisers until October to comply with a new policy, or their ads will be disapproved.

Google Ads is implementing a new policy requiring landing pages to meet the “better ads standards,” as the Coalition For Better Ads laid out.

A change to Google’s destination requirements policy states if an ad leads to a page that doesn’t comply with the better ad standards, Google will disapprove the ad.

Google is sending emails to advertisers informing them of the policy change, which leaves roughly a month to make necessary updates.

The email reads:

“In October 2022, the Destination requirements policy will be updated to include a new policy requiring ad experiences on destinations to conform to the Coalition for Better Ads’ Better Ads Standards. Destinations containing ad experiences that do not conform to the Better Ads Standards will be informed via the Ad Experience Report, and any ads that lead to such destinations will be disapproved.”

If you’re running Google Ads, this new policy means you must be extra careful about the pages people land on.

Google doesn’t want advertisers sending people to pages that contain intrusive or annoying ad experiences.

Your landing pages may be complying with the better ads standards already, especially if they’re optimized for Google’s page experience update.

If you’re unsure whether your landing pages meet the standards, Google will inform you in the Ad Experience Report.

Source: Google Will Reject Ads Leading To Pages With Intrusive Advertising

Skills for next-generation employees by LinkedIn

LinkedIn has published a new report today. It lists the top 20 skills that will be in demand and looked for by most recruiters. The report studies the postings of different companies and has analyzed that 78% of the required skills are from the list.

LinkedIn concludes that there is a drastic change in skill set requirements over the past decade. The requirement has changed by 25% since 2015. The company expects it to change by 41% by 2025.

The top 20 skills required in the market are not surprising. Customer service, Sales, Accounting, Businesses Development, marketing, and Leadership are a few skills that have made it to the top.

Apart from making this list, LinkedIn has made job search and hiring easy. For example, LinkedIn will update search results to surface job listings that are more relevant to a user’s skill set. This will ease the process for both the job seeker and the hiring company.

SQL, Social Media Marketing, and engineering are also part of the top 20 skills by LinkedIn. With a general list, LinkedIn also released a list of top 10 marketing skills today. The list includes Digital marketing, SEO, Adobe Photoshop, Email Marketing, etc.

On top of this, it has also launched 10 related courses that can help upskill an employee’s resume. The courses are free till 30 September’22. After that, however, there will be charges for exams and a digital certificate.

Source: Skills for next-generation employees by LinkedIn

WordPress To Drop Security Updates for Versions 3.7 Through 4.0 by December 2022

WordPress’ Security Team announced it will be dropping support for versions 3.7 through 4.0 on December 1, 2022. To give some context for how old these versions are, in 2013, WordPress 3.7 introduced automatic background updates, and 3.8 updated the admin with a new design based on the MP6 plugin.

WordPress’ official policy is that the security team only provides support for the most recent version, but as a courtesy has extended backporting security fixes to older versions that are able to receive automatic updates.

“Until now, these courtesy backports have included all versions of WordPress supporting automatic updates,” 10up-sponsored Security Team member Peter Wilson said. “Versions WordPress 3.7 – 4.0 have reached levels of usage, namely less than 1% of total installs, where the benefit of providing these updates is outweighed by the effort involved.”

More than half of all WordPress sites are on the latest version – 6.0+ (54.3%), and security updates will still be available to more than 99% of sites on older versions after this change. Wilson said the decision to drop support for 3.7 through 4.0 was based on the information reported on the statistics page.

Source: WordPress To Drop Security Updates for Versions 3.7 Through 4.0 by December 2022

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WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update

YouTube is testing a new “Promotions” Tab

Twitter To Let Users Filter Unwanted Replies

WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update

WordPress released an update containing bug fixes and security patches to address three vulnerabilities rated as severe to medium severity.

The updates may have been downloaded and installed automatically, so it’s essential to check if the website has indeed updated to 6.02 and if everything still functions normally.

Bug Fixes

The update contains twelve fixes for the WordPress core and five for the block editor.

One notable change is an improvement to the Pattern Directory, which is meant to help theme authors serve just the patterns related to their themes.

The goal of this change is to make it more appealing for use by theme authors so that they use it and to present a better user experience to publishers.

Three Security Patches

The first vulnerability is described as a high severity SQL Injection vulnerability.

The second and third vulnerabilities are described as Stored Cross-Site Scripting, one of which is reported not to affect the “vast” majority of WordPress publishers.

Moment JavaScript Date Library Updated

One more vulnerability was fixed, but it wasn’t a part of WordPress core. This vulnerability is to a JavaScript data library called Moment that WordPress uses.

The vulnerability to the JavaScript library was assigned a CVE number, and details are available at the U.S. government National Vulnerability Database. It is documented as a bug fix at WordPress.

What To Do

The update should be rolling out automatically to sites from version 3.7.

It may be helpful to verify if the site is functioning correctly and that there are no conflicts with the current theme and installed plugins.

Source: WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update

Google shares 4 examples of how to improve a meta description

Google’s help document on controlling your snippets in search results has added some examples of “bad” and “better” meta descriptions. 

The bad. Google advises avoiding these four types of “bad” meta descriptions:

• List of keywords: “Sewing supplies, yarn, colored pencils, sewing machines, threads, bobbins, needles”
• Same description used for every news article: “Local news in Whoville, delivered to your doorstep. Find out what happened today.”
• Doesn’t summarize the page: “Eggs are a source of joy in everyone’s life. When I was a small child, I remember picking eggs from the hen house and bringing them to the kitchen. Those were the days.”
• Too short: “Mechanical pencil“

The better. Google’s examples of better meta descriptions:

• Explains what the shop sells and details like opening hours and location. “Get everything you need to sew your next garment. Open Monday-Friday 8-5pm, located in the Fashion District.”
• Use a snippet from the specific news article: “Upsetting the small town of Whoville, a local elderly man steals everyone’s presents the night before an important event. Stay tuned for live updates on the matter.”
• Summarize the whole page: “Learn how to cook eggs with this complete guide in 1 hour or less. We cover all the methods, including: over-easy, sunny side up, boiled, and poached.”
• Are specific and detailed. “Self-sharpening mechanical pencil that autocorrects your penmanship. Includes 2B auto-replenishing lead. Available in both Vintage Pink and Schoolbus Yellow. Order 50+ pencils, get free shipping.”

Source: Google shares 4 examples of how to improve a meta description

Twitter Starts Testing An Edit Button

Twitter is internally testing an edit feature that will allow users to modify tweets for up to 30 minutes after publication, the social media company announced in a tweet.

“Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more,” the company said in a blog post.

A feature high on users’ wish lists for some time, edited tweets will follow Facebook’s lead and display an icon, timestamp, and label to indicate original tweets have been modified.

“We’re hoping that, with the availability of Edit Tweet, tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful,” Twitter said in the blog post. “You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that.”

Edit Feature Will Initially Only Be Available to Twitter Blue Subscribers

Currently undergoing internal testing to identify and resolve potential issues, Twitter plans to expand Edit Tweet access to Twitter Blue subscribers. 

Users of the opt-in paid monthly subscription will receive early access to the feature as part of their subscription and ongoing testing. 

Concerns About Misuse

One of the reasons Twitter has been so slow in developing an edit feature is concerns about misuse. For example, people could edit a viral tweet to include spam, misinformation, or harassment after it has already been shared thousands of times.

Twitter hopes that its 30-minute edit timeframe and the inclusion of version history will prevent abuse in this manner and “help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said.”

Edit Feature Will Help Maintain Post Momentum

Social media professionals and personalities can use the edit feature to correct typos and add hashtags to published (and potentially liked and shared) tweets without deleting and reposting.

Source: Twitter Starts Testing An Edit Button

Google updates privacy threshold for Analytics Search Queries report

Google is updating the privacy threshold for the Search Query report in Universal Analytics, and the Google Ads query, First user Google Ads query, and Session Google Ads query dimensions for the explorations in Google Analytics 4.

What is the privacy threshold. Google announced new privacy thresholds last year, ensuring user anonymity by only reporting on terms that have seen sufficient search volume across all Google searches. They also committed to giving advertisers more data.

What this means. The new thresholds should make what advertisers are seeing in their Google Ads accounts more consistent with what they see in GA4. But Google says that “Due to differences in data models, with this update, search query terms reporting in Universal Analytics will be more limited than Google Ads reports.”

Source: Google updates privacy threshold for Analytics Search Queries report

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YouTube is testing a new “Promotions” Tab

Twitter To Let Users Filter Unwanted Replies

A 3-phased approach to proactive online reputation management

YouTube is testing a new “Promotions” Tab

YouTube has added a Promotions Tab to let creators promote their channels and videos without needing to go through the Google Ads Manager.

The new Promotions Tab is within YouTube Studio and is a way to make buying ads easier, versus going through the traditional Google Ads Manager route. If creators have access to the new tool, they’ll find the tab within the Promotions section on the Content Page of Studio.

What YouTube says. YouTube thinks the new Promotions Tab will get a lot more channel managers running quick promotions for their content.

“We’ve heard that creators want more tools to help grow their channel and reach a wider audience, so we are testing a simpler end-to-end workflow in Studio instead of through Google Ads. If you’re in this experiment, you’ll see a new “Promotions” tab in the Content page of Studio.”

Source: YouTube is testing a new “Promotions” Tab

Apple’s quest to kill off the password is heading in the right direction

Apple has made public new figures that suggest its bid to eliminate passwords once and for all is heading in the right direction.

In conversation with 9to5Mac(opens in new tab), Apple revealed that 95% of iCloud users have already enabled two-factor authentication (2FA), a prerequisite for the adoption of its new passwordless authentication standard.

The data suggests that practically all accounts are set to benefit immediately from Apple Passkeys, when the system begins to roll out with iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura.

Apple Passkeys

Detailed at WWDC 2022, Apple Passkeys is a new way for users to log in to accounts and services, without ever having to create a password.

Based on FIDO standards, Passkeys replaces traditional passwords with digital keys unique to each account. These keys are end-to-end encrypted (meaning not even Apple has access to them) and remain on-device at all times, never sitting on a web server.

To create a new passkey and log into an account using an existing one, Apple users will have to verify their identity using Touch ID or Face ID. And passkeys will also sync across all Apple devices via iCloud Keychain, simplifying the log-in process.

Source: Apple’s quest to kill off the password is heading in the right direction

Microsoft Ads (again) extends RSA migration to Feb. 2023

Advertisers now have five additional months to migrate their expanded text ads to RSAs.

The new extended deadline. In April we reported that Microsoft was extending the original June 30 deadline to August 29. Today Microsoft announced that they were once again, extending that deadline to February 1, 2023. Microsoft says the extension is in response to advertisers need for more time.

Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) will continue to serve with RSAs but advertisers will no longer be able to create new or edit existing ETAs.

What Microsoft says. Microsoft says that advertisers who have switched from ETAs to RSAs see an average of 7% conversion rate improvement in their performance.

You can read the announcement here.

RSA best practices. If you’re still migrating your ads, Microsoft suggests the following best practices:

• Ensure all your ad groups have at least one RSA
• Use the Recommendations tab to add AI generated RSAs based on your existing ETA assets.
• Use auto-apply recommendations to help automate implementations
• Use the Google import tool to mirror Google ad campaigns

Source: Microsoft Ads (again) extends RSA migration to Feb. 2023

Netflix considers a new ad-supported plan

Netflix Inc. is considering charging about $7 to $9 a month for its new advertising-supported plan, half of its current most-popular plan, which costs $15.49 monthly with no commercials.

The company plans to launch its budget-friendly option in the year’s final three months across at least half a dozen markets. However, as Bloomberg reported, the full rollout may have to wait until early next year.

The streaming giant plans to sell about four minutes of commercials per hour for the ad-supported service, far less than most of its peers, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

The company will show advertisements before and during some programs, but not after. It’s also telling advertisers it wants to make smaller deals upfront, so it doesn’t overpromise and overwhelm viewers with the spots, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private.

Netflix has declined to comment on any specifics about its plans, and many advertisers, partners, and investors still have questions.

Netflix’s goal is to attract subscribers willing to watch some ads in exchange for a lower monthly rate. As the streaming TV pioneer prepares to introduce advertising, it’s trying to strike a careful balance between reaching a more cost-conscious consumer and offering a pleasant experience.

Source: Netflix considers a new ad-supported plan

Google tests Quick Read, 5 Min. Read labels in search results

Google is testing two new labels in search results:

• Quick Read
• 5 Min. Read.

What it looks like. The labels were shared on Twitter. Here are screenshot of both types, via @Ozaemotion and @lilyraynyc:

Short content can be helpful content. For nearly a decade, skyscraper content and 10x content have been popular concepts. In short, the idea behind both was that “length is strength.”

Some SEO correlation studies appeared to back up the idea because Page 1 of Google is full of articles at 1,000+ words.

However, word count is not a ranking signal. And searchers have been growing tired of clicking on articles that discuss the entire history of a topic before finding the answer to their question buried somewhere in a 2,000+ word blog post.

Axios has built an entire news strategy around smart brevity.

Does that mean all long-form content is bad? No. In some industries, longer content is good, necessary and acceptable.

There is also no need to revisit your content strategy at this point. Don’t edit or break up all your stories so they have a reading time of 5 minutes or less.

Source: Google tests Quick Read, 5 Min. Read labels in search results

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Twitter To Let Users Filter Unwanted Replies

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Twitter To Let Users Filter Unwanted Replies

Twitter users will soon be able to filter out potentially harmful and offensive replies with the help of an automatic reply filter.

The new feature was uncovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who shared a screenshot on Twitter.

Twitter advises that the reply filter will do the following:

“Replies to your tweets that contain potentially harmful or offensive language will be filtered and appear here. Others can still see these replies.

Keep in mind we use technology to help us identify such replies, so while we’re always improving, we may not get it right all the time.”

Located under the privacy and safety settings, users can turn the reply filter on and off with a toggle switch.

There doesn’t appear to be a way to customize the filter; it’s either on or not.

Filtering Does Not Equal Censoring

A key point to note here is that the filtered replies will be visible to all other accounts on Twitter. They’re only filtered out of the stream of responses that appears in the notifications tab.

In other words, Twitter isn’t censoring tweets. It’s unlikely anyone else will know when particular replies get filtered from the user’s’ view who published the initial tweet.

The intention behind this reply filter is to reduce the negativity Twitter users or account managers are exposed to.

Source: Twitter To Let Users Filter Unwanted Replies

Google out-of-home ads available for Display and 360

Google has just announced digital out-of-home ads for Display & 360. The new ad formats help to engage shoppers when they’re “out in the real world” in front of screens in public places such as stadiums, airports, bus stops, shopping centers, elevators, taxis, and more.

How they work. With digital out-of-home ads in Display and 360, brands can harness the same power of traditional advertising with placements on public screens, all in one dashboard where they can control strategy, reporting, and optimization.

Digital out-of-home ads also allow brands to run multiple versions of their message and can be based on location and time of day.

Google’s programmatic partners. “Display & Video 360 already partners with exchanges Hivestack, Magnite, PlaceExchange, Ströer SSP, VIOOH and Vistar Media. These exchanges give access to large media owners around the world like ClearChannel, Intersection, JCDecaux, Lamar and Ströer. All of this inventory can be secured via programmatic deals.”

Limited targeting and personalization. Google says that digital out-of-home ads are not personalized and no unique identifiers are used, as well as no user location data. However, advertisers are able to reach people based solely on contextual information such as the screen location.

For example, Google says a fast food business can quickly advertise on a billboard in a busy spot during lunch hour. Later that day the same billboard can promote a concert or event.

Early testing. Retailer ASOS used digital billboards in heavy footfall areas to generate awareness for their brand and drive passersby to visit their online store. Their marketing team arranged Programmatic Guaranteed deals with leading publishers like Intersection in the U.S. and JCDecaux in the U.K. and booked hundreds of digital billboards, generating 22 million viewed impressions across the two countries.

Source: Google out-of-home ads available for Display and 360

Internet Archive Website Offline for Hours

The Internet Archive, also known as The Wayback Machine, suffered an outage around midnight east coast time on August 25th.  Disappointed fans around the world who were unable to access the site expressed their patient concern as well as thanks for the website.

Updated: Networking Hardware Failure

The problem affecting the Internet Archive was equipment failure related to networking hardware.

Jason Scott, an archivist who works for the Internet Archive tweeted the reason:

“A core piece of Internet archive networking equipment has failed and a replacement is being sourced right now.”

Internet Archive Down

A check of the headers via the Webconfs.com website showed that the website sends to a browser indicated that the site was sending a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable Error Response.

This error message code is typically sent when the server is taken down for maintenance or because the server is overloaded and is unable to respond with a webpage.

Tweet Announcement

The Internet Archive posted a tweet shortly after midnight to alert the public that the website was down.

The tweet didn’t offer any information about what was wrong, only that they were working to bring the site back up.

Wayback Machine Fans World Wide Express Concern

Many people were inconvenienced but those posting comments were more concerned than upset, with many simply posting messages of gratitude.

IsItDownRightNow had over 300 comments expressing concern.

Some people were students who needed the site for their research.

Another was a Grateful Dead fan who posted that their attempts to stream archived Grateful Dead concerts were unsuccessful.

What Can Be Wrong?

There was some speculation that the site might be down due to multiple lawsuits filed by publishers that object to the free distribution of books.

But the error message provided by the website seems to indicate that there’s a problem at the server level, the cause of which can be a myriad of issues.

Source: Internet Archive Website Offline for Hours

Google adds 3 new content guidelines for Education Q&A structured data

Google has added a new Content Guidelines section to its help document on Education Q&A structured data.

The new guidelines. Here are the new guidelines Google has added:

• Education Q&A pages must follow the same content guidelines for Q&A pages.
• Your page must contain education related questions and answers. There must be at least one question and answer pairing on your page, and the answer must be related to and answer the user’s question.
• You are responsible for the accuracy and quality of your education Q&A pages through this feature. If a certain amount of your content is found to be inaccurate based on quality and pedagogical review processes, then all or a subset of your Q&A pages may not be eligible for this feature until you resolve the issues.

Why Google added this. Google said these guidelines were created to “ensure that our users are connected with learning resources that are relevant.”

Failure to comply. If Google finds you are violating the guidelines, Google could either:

• Take manual action on your site.
• Not display your content as a rich result.

What is this page? Google released the Education Q&A structured data help document in May. This help document provides guidance on how to add Quiz structured data to flashcard and single Q&A pages so it appears in Google’s Education Q&A carousel, Google Assistant and Google Lens results.

Source: Google adds 3 new content guidelines for Education Q&A structured data

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Twitter has launched new and improved Pixel, Conversion API, and App Purchase Optimizations

A 3-phased approach to proactive online reputation management

Apple Search Ads can now be edited in bulk

Twitter has launched new and improved Pixel, Conversion API, and App Purchase Optimizations

Twitter announced that they’ve launched three new and improved measurement solutions to all advertisers globally.

Improved Twitter pixel

The new Twitter pixel has additional functionality such as allowing advertisers to measure more actions, such as add-to-cart.

Twitter has also simplified setup, troubleshooting, and the event creation process. They have also added updates to their Pixel Helper Chrome extension to help advertisers better understand the impact of their campaigns and provide support when seeing if the pixel is installed properly.

Conversion API

The Conversion API (CAPI) enables advertisers to connect to the API and send conversion events to Twitter without using third-party cookies.

App Purchase Optimization

App Purchase Optimization enables advertisers to deliver ads to people most likely to install an app or make a purchase by using machine learning to identify audiences that are most likely to take action. Early testing saw that 89% of advertisers saw a reduction in cost-per-purchase.

App Purchase Optimization is now available on Android, with an iOS launch in the future.

Upcoming launches. Twitter also announced a few more launches coming in the near future. These include:

• Collection Ads: Brands can display a primary hero image and have smaller thumbnail visuals below. Images can be used to drive consumers to different websites or product pages.
• Web Conversion Optimization: Helps improve how the algorithm reaches people most likely to convert on a lower funnel website action, such as purchasing or adding to cart.
• Dynamic Product Ads: A new ad product that will deliver relevant products to the right person at the right time based upon on or off Twitter activity.

Source: Twitter has launched new and improved Pixel, Conversion API, and App Purchase Optimizations

Google Search Console Update: More Data In Core Web Vitals Reports

Google Search Console will start reporting on the Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores of specific URLs, in addition to aggregate scores for URL groups.

What this means is more granular data for Search Console users.

The updated Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console will allow you to identify URLs holding your site back from achieving “Good” scores.

With the information available in the updated reports, you’ll know where to focus your efforts if your CWV scores aren’t up to par.

Here’s more about what’s changing and how to read the new Core Web Vitals report in Search Console.

Core Web Vitals Report – What’s New?

Before today’s update, Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report provided aggregate scores based on groups of URLs.

Google will continue to evaluate Core Web Vitals for URL groups, though you can now go one level deeper.

Clicking on a URL group in the Search Console report will bring up a new panel on the right side with URL-level data.

See an example in the screenshot below:

This example shows someone investigating CLS scores that need improvement. When they click on a URL group in the report, they can see the individual URLs that require attention.

In addition, the report shows which URLs in the group achieved “good” CLS scores. So you can likely skip those pages when going through and fixing CLS issues.

Source: Google Search Console Update: More Data In Core Web Vitals Reports

Pinterest introduces hosted checkout for merchants

Pinterest just introduced an easier way for shoppers to check out on their platform.

Hosted checkout is here. Hosted checkout is being launched first on Shopify and provides Pinterest merchants and advertisers an easier way for their shoppers to check out. The new feature should remove several steps from the current purchase process, which should increase conversions and decrease cart abandonments.

Improving the current process. Previously, merchants and advertisers who used Pinterest to sell products would be required to tag products on their Pins.

Now merchants who use the Shopify platform can promote and sell products without requiring that buyers ever leave their page.

Early testing. Pinterest says that shoppers who used hosted checkout were more likely to make a purchase.

Source: Pinterest introduces hosted checkout for merchants

WooCommerce 6.8.2 Fix Release

WooCommerce 6.8.2 is available for download. Some version numbers were incorrectly updated in 6.8.1, causing problems for some sites. These version numbers were correctly updated in this version of WooCommerce. No changes other changes were made, so if your 6.8.1 install is working feel free to skip the update.

The WooCommerce team is updating automation to prevent this sort of error from reoccurring. We thank you for your understanding.

You can download the latest release of WooCommerce here or visit Dashboard → Updates to update the plugin from your WordPress admin screen.

Source: WooCommerce 6.8.2 Fix Release

Microsoft is now putting ads in Outlook mobile

Microsoft has started putting ads in Outlook on iOS and Android and the response from users has been less than accepting.

What’s the deal. In Outlook users have two options for organizing their inbox. You have a “focused” tab with important mail and an “other” tab with everything else. Previously Microsoft had only put the ads in the “other” tab for free subscribers, but now users are starting to see ads in the “focused” inbox as well.

A negative response. Microsoft has been rolling out the new ads for a few months. Free users are finding it more difficult to avoid ads in Outlook mobile. However, Outlook mobile app users aren’t thrilled and many have been leaving one-star review complaints on Apple’s App Store. Seemingly the only way to avoid ads is to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription.

What Microsoft says. “For free users of Outlook, ads are shown in their inbox and they can choose to enable the ‘Focused inbox’ feature if they would like to see ads only in the ‘Other’ inbox,” says Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston in a statement to The Verge.

Source: Microsoft is now putting ads in Outlook mobile

More News:

A 3-phased approach to proactive online reputation management

Apple Search Ads can now be edited in bulk

Google to release August 2022 product reviews update in coming weeks

A 3-phased approach to proactive online reputation management

During my digital marketing career, I’ve helped several brands with their online reputation management (ORM). 

Unfortunately, most of this work involved trying to help the brands recover from a crisis.

Even more unfortunate was that the damage to their reputations could have been greatly mitigated with some proactive effort.

What follows is a basic, three-pronged approach to a proactive ORM strategy.

1. Own your name

Often, what looks like a reputation problem is more of an SEO problem related to entity optimization. Because the search engines seek to understand brands as entities, it’s important to amplify the signals that help them know who you are and what you do.

For most businesses, using the Organization schema is a significant first step in letting the search engines know who you are. 

This simple tagging system hides in the source code of a page on your website and acts as a data feed to show information about your brand or business. 

At a minimum, the following information should be tagged:

• Name.
• Address.
• Link to your logo.
• Links to official active social media sites (and to Wikipedia if you already have a page).

Another aspect is to claim your business name on major social media sites. Even if you don’t use a channel, it’s a good idea to grab your brand to keep someone else from trying to impersonate you.

2. Own your story

In SEO, we say, “content is king.” This concept is also true in ORM. 

Owning your story often means creating content on your website that will potentially outrank any negative content that others may post online. 

The more content you can rank in branded searches on owned and controlled channels like your website or social media accounts, the more you can push negative content off Page 1 of search results and out of view of most searchers. 

As the old joke goes, the best place to hide a dead body is on Page 2 of Google search results because no one will find it there.

In extreme cases, it might become necessary to create content to hit on a specific topic around which a brand detractor has generated a lot of content.

When this happens, bringing in an ORM and SEO expert would be helpful if you don’t have that expertise in-house.

3. Own your reviews

Some businesses revolve around reviews. For them, this can be life or death. 

I’ve worked with many brands that had trouble recruiting. The reason? Too many negative reviews on Indeed and Glassdoor. 

If you think your company doesn’t live and die by reviews, I recommend you take heed anyway.

One primary key to reviews is to respond to each one. Respond to positive reviews with a quick “thank you” and move on. Negative reviews take a bit more work.

Many negative reviews are the result of missed expectations. You can often diffuse the negativity of the review by how you respond. A simple apology, an offer to make things right, and an invitation to give you another chance can mitigate the hit of a negative review. 

It’s important not to be too defensive or shift the blame for the problem back onto the complainant. This will nearly always backfire. 

Source: A 3-phased approach to proactive online reputation management

Google Readying A Product Review Algorithm Update For August

Another Google product review algorithm update is scheduled to roll out in August 2022.

The forthcoming update continues Google’s efforts to show more helpful, in-depth reviews based on first-hand expertise in search results.

Google’s timing for the next product review update aligns with the conclusion of the just-announced helpful content update.

When you add in July’s product review update, that’s three confirmed Google algorithm changes in a month.

Google appears to be on a mission to purge the front page of low-value content, with an acute focus on content people use to inform purchasing decisions.

Google’s next product review update is slated to start rolling out around the time when the launch of the helpful content update is complete.

The proximity of the helpful content update and product review update suggests a possible connection between the two.

My guess is the helpful content update will allow Google to better identify product reviews that add unique value or demonstrate first-hand knowledge.

Source: Google Readying A Product Review Algorithm Update For August

Google ‘Helpful Content’ Algorithm Update Launching Soon

Google announced it’s launching a new algorithm update next week called the helpful content update. It aims to boost content written for people and devalue content written primarily for SEO.

Unlike the recent product review update, which targets specific kinds of pages, the helpful content update is sitewide. That means it has the potential to impact all pages.

The helpful content update also introduces a new signal Google will use to rank web pages.

Although Google is giving a heads up regarding these algorithm changes, a week isn’t a long time to prepare. However, one could argue that all sites should be written for humans in the first place.

Google published the following announcement on Twitter today:

“Next week, we will launch the “helpful content update” to better ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, rather than content made primarily for search engine traffic.”

The tweet links to a blog article with more information, including details on how websites can continue to succeed after the helpful content update rolls out.

Other Notes About Google’s Helpful Content Update

Lastly, here are some final notes about the helpful content update:

• The update is not a manual action. The process is automated using a machine-learning model.
• People-first content can still rank even if it’s published on sites with large amounts of unhelpful content.
• The signal is weighted, meaning some sites get hit harder than others.
• Only English searches will be impacted, to begin with.

Source: Google ‘Helpful Content’ Algorithm Update Launching Soon

Google’s ad market can be subjected to Antitrust Suit

The US Department of Justice can file the suit. The department is planning to file a suit against the ad market of Google. The expected date is next month.

Google reportedly used anti-competitive practices. They happened in online advertising. Google is under extreme scrutiny because of this practice.

The US Dept of Justice can report Alphabet Inc. Alphabet is Google’s parent company. The report’s subject can be Antitrust violations. Bloomberg reported this from the ground.

Google was under repeated allegations earlier also. The Federal Dept of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google. It was in October 2020. We should also note that Google has an 83.84% share in the market. This is on a global level.

The suit’s filing took place under the Trump Administration. They also alleged that Google is dominating the online advertising space. They said that it is illegal. It makes up a monopoly.

In December, Attorney Generals of several states sued Google. This was again for violations at the state level. In addition, it was in connection to Antitrust Laws. The suits remain unsettled as of now.

Alphabet Inc also faced these serious allegations. The allegations came from the European Union also. The company now has to pay a fine of $1.8 billion. As a result, Google wants to split the business.

Source: Google’s ad market can be subjected to Antitrust Suit

More news:

Apple Search Ads can now be edited in bulk

Google to release August 2022 product reviews update in coming weeks

Apple is expanding ads on iPhone and iPad

Apple Search Ads can now be edited in bulk

Apple has just launched a new bulk ads editor that allows advertisers to update multiple campaigns and ad groups all at once. 

What does it do. The bulk ads editor allows you to make edits to settings, daily budget, max bids, audiences, and more. You can access the bulk editor from the Actions menu of the campaigns dashboard. From there you download the settings you want to edit. Then upload the new spreadsheet and your new campaigns will go live. 

Apple’s official advice. Apple offers the following guidelines regarding the inputting of campaign and ad group settings.

• You can add a maximum of 500 rows to your spreadsheet. Each row will contain information for a specific campaign and ad group. All campaigns must be in the same campaign group. 
• When entering multiple values, use commas to separate each. For example, if you wanted to set a campaign to run in the U.S., Italy, and Greece, you would enter the values US, IT, GR in the Countries or Regions column for the campaign. 
• All monetary data, such as daily budget and bid amounts, will use the currency set for your Apple Search Ads account. Note that cost-per-tap (CPT) pricing appears as CPC, or cost-per-click, in the Pricing Model column. 
• Search tab campaigns previously created using cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing will list CPM in the Pricing Model column. However, all active Search tab campaigns now use CPT pricing. 
• When formatting dates and times for campaign or ad group start or end dates and times, use year-month-day and hour-minute-second formatting: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. Dates and times will use the same time zone set for your Apple Search Ads account. 
• If you want your ads to run only on certain days of the week or at certain times, you can enter times in the Dayparting column. Numbers should range from 0 to 167, representing the hours of a week beginning at Sunday 12:00 a.m. So if, for example, you wanted your ads to appear on the App Store on Fridays starting at 6:00 a.m. and run until Saturdays at noon, you would enter 126 to 156. 
• Applying any audience refinements to your ad groups will automatically exclude customers with Personalized Ads turned Off. This will limit the number of customers who see your ads on the App Store. 
• You can use the Include Returning Users and Exclude Returning Users columns in the template to focus your ad group on specific audience types. Here’s how:
• All users: Leave cells in both the Include Returning Users and Exclude Returning Users columns blank in your spreadsheet.
• New users: In the Exclude Returning Users column, enter the app ID of the app featured in your campaign.
• Returning users: In the Include Returning Users column, enter the app ID of the app featured in your campaign.
• Users of my other apps: In the Include Returning Users column, enter the app IDs of any of your other apps. Ads in your campaign will be shown to users of those apps, allowing you to cross-promote your products.

Source: Apple Search Ads can now be edited in bulk

1 million subs and features added to Snapchat+

Snapchat+ recently reached 1 million subs. The platform released new features owing to this achievement. The platform had its launch 6 weeks ago.

Snapchat+ has a premium membership tier. In addition, it gives access to new exclusive features. Snapchat+ is adding 4 new features. The features need no extra cost. The platform came with many features. The platform included a badge. The ability to see who rewatched your snaps also came as a feature.

Other services included Ghost Trails. The users can also use this tool to see the location of their friends. Ghost Trails applies for the last 24 hours only.

Users can now choose a best friend. They can pin them. Pinning your best friends will place them at the top of your feed. Four new features of Snapchat+ are rolling out this week. Priority Story reply is the first feature. So your replies will be visible to influential people.

Post-view Emoji is the second feature. However, you can show your contacts a specific emoji. This happens after they see your snaps. Bitmoji Backgrounds is the third feature. Bitmoji will also have more backgrounds to choose from. You can select any one of them.

The App icon is the fourth feature. The user can change the main snapchat+ icon. The platform also added several designs through this update.

Snapchat+ is definitely on a good path. The platform has a lot of subs. More features are being added. The users are happy and engaged. The rival platform Twitter Blue is also not under good circumstances. It is more expensive. It has fewer features.

Source: 1 million subs and features added to Snapchat+

Google releases Ads API version 11

Google has just released the newest version of the Ads API, version v11_1. 

What’s changed. Here are the major changes according to Google’s release notes.

Assets

• Added AssetGroup.ad_strength to represent the overall quality of the asset group.
  • When advertisers mutate asset groups or assets associated with the asset groups, this field is recalculated. Until the recalculation is finished, the value is PENDING.
• Added AssetLinkError.EXCLUDED_PARENT_FIELD_TYPE.

Audiences

• Added FlexibleRuleUserListInfo and RuleBasedUserListInfo.flexible_rule_user_list.
• Added more values to the LeadFormFieldUserInputType enum (used as predefined questions for lead form extensions).
• Added the following fields to UserAttribute:
  • lifecycle_stage
  • first_purchase_date_time
  • event_attribute
• Added the following errors to OfflineUserDataJobError:
  • FIRST_PURCHASE_TIME_GREATER_THAN_LAST_PURCHASE_TIME
  • INVALID_LIFECYCLE_STAGE
  • INVALID_EVENT_VALUE
  • EVENT_ATTRIBUTE_ALL_FIELDS_ARE_REQUIRED

Bidding

Added Campaign.bidding_strategy_system_status to show the system status of the bidding strategy, such as whether it is learning, limited, or misconfigured. Learn more.

Campaigns

• Added support for the following metrics in the campaign report:
  • all_conversions_from_click_to_call
  • all_conversions_from_directions
  • all_conversions_from_menu
  • all_conversions_from_order
  • all_conversions_from_other_engagement
  • all_conversions_from_store_visit
  • all_conversions_from_store_website
• Made metrics.phone_call compatible with segments.hour in the campaign report.

Experiments

You can now create experiments using GoogleAdsService.Mutate(). Previously, it was possible only when usingExperimentService.

Planning

• Added Targeting.audience_targeting, which allows for specifying affinity and in-market categories to generate a reach forecast using ReachPlanService.GenerateReachForecast.
• Added support for YouTube Select:
  • Added support for returning YouTubeSelectLineUp as product metadata when callingReachPlanService.ListPlannableProducts.
  • Added PlannedProduct.advanced_product_targeting, which allows for specifyingYouTubeSelectSettings to generate a reach forecast using ReachPlanService.GenerateReachForecast.
• Added AudienceInsightsService.GenerateAudienceCompositionInsights (available to allowlisted accounts only), used to find attributes strongly associated with a particular audience, similar to Insights Finder.

Source: Google releases Ads API version 11

Upcoming Free Workshops: Learn How to Convert Figma Files to a Block Theme and Take Block Patterns to the Next Level

If you’re not following Learn WordPress Online Workshops on Meetup.com, you may be missing out on some high quality events. WordPress experts from across the world have been collaborating on virtual events with instruction at the same caliber of excellence that you might find at an in-person WordCamp.

On Thursday, August 18, at 3:00 PM EDT, WP Engine-sponsored developer advocate Nick Diego will be hosting an online workshop titled Taking Block Patterns to the Next Level. Diego will be uncovering “some lesser-known pattern implementations:”

Diego identified the following learning objectives for participants in this workshop:

• Learn how to register a pattern in a block theme as well as with the designated registration function.
• Learn what properties are available to patterns during registration.
• Learn what semantic, contextual, and page creation patterns are and how to use them.

This session is aimed at intermediate to advanced builders and will be held via Zoom in English with live Zoom transcription. More than 127 people have already signed up to attend this free workshop.

Source: Upcoming Free Workshops: Learn How to Convert Figma Files to a Block Theme and Take Block Patterns to the Next Level

More News:

Google to release August 2022 product reviews update in coming weeks

Apple is expanding ads on iPhone and iPad

IndexNow attributed for 7% of all new URLs clicked on in Bing in the past month

Google to release August 2022 product reviews update in coming weeks

Google will be releasing another product reviews update, the August 2022 product reviews update, in the coming weeks, the search company also announced along with the helpful content update.

Google said they are launching another update “in the coming weeks to make it even easier to find high-quality, original reviews.” Google said this is another refinement to the product reviews ranking system that aims to “make sure you find the most useful information when you’re researching a purchase on the web.”

Timing. Google will post on its updates page when it launches and when it is done rolling out, we will also post a new story when it begins rolling out and when it is completed here on Search Engine Land.

Google did tell us they are targeting to roll it out the week of August 29th but the date may change.

Previous updates. This is the fifth version of the product reviews update, a search ranking algorithm update targeted at ranking product review-related content on the web that is most helpful and useful to searchers. The first product reviews update was launched on April 8, 2021, the second was launched on December 1, 2021, the third was released on March 23, 2022, and now the fourth was released on July 27, 0222. The fourth one was named the July 2022 product reviews update and released on July 27, 2022, and completed on August 2, 2022.

Google product reviews update. The Google product reviews update aims to promote review content that is above and beyond much of the templated information you see on the web. Google said it will promote these types of product reviews in its search results rankings.

Google is not directly punishing lower-quality product reviews that have “thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.” However, if you provide such content and find your rankings demoted because other content is promoted above yours, it will definitely feel like a penalty. Technically, according to Google, this is not a penalty against your content, Google is just rewarding sites with more insightful review content with rankings above yours.

Technically, this update should only impact product review content and not other types of content.

Source: Google to release August 2022 product reviews update in coming weeks

Google adds additional CTV buying options in Display & Video 360

Audience guarantees are based on Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR). The Nielsen DAR is used to understand how many unique viewers CTV and video ad buyers reach within their core audiences and prove campaign impact across digital media platforms. Google is releasing Nielsen audience guarantees to make it easier to plan and measure CTV, Display, and Video 360. 

When advertisers are setting up their guaranteed deal, they can select specific ages and demographics and pay only for the ad impressions that reach their target audience as measured by Nielsen DAR. 

Advanced Programmatic Guaranteed. Google audiences for Programmatic Guaranteed will now be available across Google Ad Manager, Xandr, and Magnite. Google said they hope to add more soon. 

Google has already expanded reach capabilities with Google audiences on CTV campaigns when bidding on open auction inventory. With the new update, you can also use affinity, in-market, and demo segments while buying Programmatic Guaranteed deals across a variety of participating publishers, which should give advertisers additional flexibility in audience strategies for CTV. 

Google is also aware of frequency capping. Once your campaign frequency goal is reached for certain users, whether via open auction, Programmatic Guaranteed, or a combination of the two, Display & Video 360 will stop showing ads to those users.

Consolidated CTV workflow across YouTube and other CTV apps. Google is implementing a consolidated workflow to help advertisers plan, manage, and measure performance across YouTube and CTV inventory. Google also allows YouTube ads to be purchased within Display & Video 360’s insertion order dedicated to connected TV ad buying.

Having YouTube and CTV inventory side-by-side makes it easier to optimize for common goals, Google said. 

Source: Google adds additional CTV buying options in Display & Video 360

TikTok Introduces 3 Types Of Shopping Ads

Advertisers can now run shopping ads on TikTok with three different formats to choose from.

TikTok continues its e-commerce push with the introduction of three types of shopping ads with expanded placement options that go beyond the For You page.

The three ad types include:

• Video shopping ads
• Catalog listing ads
• Live shopping ads

The new advertising formats are accessible in TikTok Ads manager through buying objective ‘Product Sales.’

Advertisers can utilize these new shopping ads with or without an e-commerce store on TikTok.

Video Shopping Ads

Video shopping ads allow advertisers to create shoppable videos for display on the For You page.

This ad type combines features from existing TikTok ads — collection ads and dynamic showcase ads.

Video shopping ads will dynamically combine video creative and product cards into different variations. The format can be either product-specific to drive sales or a broader brand message to drive consideration.

As TikTok gathers data, it will optimize a campaign’s performance by dynamically choosing the top converting combinations.

Catalog Listing Ads

Catalog listing ads allow advertisers to promote product catalogs at scale with new placements across TikTok.

Something advertisers may appreciate about catalog listing ads is that they’re not required to create video content.

The ads allow brands to get in front of the TikTok audience without making videos, which is a first.

Instead of video, catalog listing ads pull product images from a retailer’s catalog and promotes them in shoppable placements. Users discover the ads through branded content on the For You page.

Live Shopping Ads

Live shopping ads are specifically designed to promote live shopping streams.

The ads help direct people from the For You page to a live shopping event.

TikTok says these ads can boost traffic to a live shopping event by getting it in front of people who are ready to buy.

Source: TikTok Introduces 3 Types Of Shopping Ads

Google confirms the issue with indexed pages

Google’s search console recently reported an issue. It was a bug causing misinformation. Also, it was reporting an incorrect number of Indexed pages.

Google has fixed the issue. Google also warned the users. The warning addressed the Index Coverage Report. The users will see less number of pages this time.

The bug is not a website issue. The bug is a reporting issue. There is no problem with the website. It is working fine. Indexed pages caused worry among many users. However, Google’s index did not drop them at all.

In reality, the web pages were not indexed at all. This caused the major part of the problem. So, if the pages are not indexed, how can Google drop them?

This issue went unnoticed. Because of this, the world also went forward with its business. This caused a major problem. After Google fixed the bug, people started ignoring this. They should not ignore this issue. What about those people who worked with those indexed pages?

Those people did not know about this grave error. They continued with their business. What if they compiled reports for their clients? What of those reports included these indexed pages? This data is now incorrect.

However, it is important to update yourself with information. One should look into the data provided by Google. Affected people can show this data to their clients. This will help the clients to understand the anomaly. The clients will also understand the reason behind low-indexed pages.

Source: Google confirms the issue with indexed pages

More news:

Apple is expanding ads on iPhone and iPad

IndexNow attributed for 7% of all new URLs clicked on in Bing in the past month

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