LinkedIn Debunks Algorithm Myths In New Video Series

LinkedIn is debunking common myths about its how its algorithm works in a new series of videos rolling out over the next several weeks.

There’s currently two episodes of ‘Mythbusting the Feed’ published, with at least two more confirmed to be on the way.

The series aims to provide greater clarity around the types of content LinkedIn surfaces content in peoples’ feeds, while addressing misconceptions and assumptions.

What Conversation Topics Does The LinkedIn Feed Like To Surface?

People are free to post about anything they want on LinkedIn, but not all content gets equal visibility. The LinkedIn feed is preferential toward surfacing certain types of posts over others, as is the case with most social media sites today.

Does The LinkedIn Feed Only Surface ‘Professional’ Topics?

There’s a misconception that LinkedIn posts should be strictly professional.

LinkedIn sees professional growth and personal growth as intertwined, so it encourages both types of content.

There are times when professional milestones intersect with personal milestones, which make for great opportunity to show your LinkedIn network a side of who you are outside of work.

Source: LinkedIn Debunks Algorithm Myths In New Video Series

Samsung to shut down its LCD business in June, here’s why

Samsung has always been ahead of its game when it comes to phone screens. The company’s LCD panels in the past were used in phones, TVs, laptops, and other devices. However, ever since OLED became widely popular among TVs and smartphones, Samsung continued to work majorly on the modern OLED technology, while the LCD panels’ use case remained limited. Now, reportedly, Samsung will shut down its LCD business in the vow of making OLED and Quantum dot (QD) screens. Also Read – Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 to stick to 25W fast charging, full specs revealed

LCD Prices have fallen over the years

The report comes from South Korea, where Samsung is said to shut down its Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) business in June of this year. This is majorly due to the competition from Chinese and Taiwanese makers that offer cheaper LCD panels. Also Read – From Galaxy F23 5G to Galaxy S21 FE 5G: Best Samsung phones under Rs. 50,000

Samsung was expected to close its LCD-making business months later this year, however, the company decided to discontinue the business early due to rapid losses from falling LCD prices in the market. Also Read – Samsung may cut smartphone production by 30 million units due to Russia-Ukraine war: Report

According to Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), the average price of LCD panels has fallen rapidly. In comparison to 2014’s 100, the price index of LCD panels this year in September will fall down to 36.6. In April this year, it was 41.5, which was considered a record low for the LCD price index.

Another reason for Samsung Display to close its LCD lineup is because its largest buyer, Samsung Electronics is taking screens from Chinese and Taiwanese counterparts like BOE technology group and AU Optronics Corp. It appears to be cheaper that way.

Source: Samsung to shut down its LCD business in June, here’s why

WordPress Turns 19

May 27 marks 19 years since 19-year old Matt Mullenweg partnered with Mike Little to release the first version of WordPress based on the b2/cafelog software. The blog where he shared his thoughts on life and tech was starting to get more traffic and he wanted to ensure its future after the b2/cafelog’s main developer disappeared.

Mullenweg had the vision for what WordPress should be, even before it had a name. It centered on extensibility, a hallmark feature that has made the platform as popular as it is today:

“What should it do? Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger.”

Although Textpattern, the interesting new publishing tool at the time, had everything Mullenweg might want in a blogging tool, he wasn’t sure about its licensing at the time. He decided to fork b2/cafelog, which lives on today in a different form as WordPress, thanks to its GPL licensing. Mike Little joined the effort and the rest is history.

The highlight of this year’s anniversary celebrations is the wp19.day website created by David Bisset and his daughter Olivia Bisset, who also managed the project. WordPress users and contributors from all over the world left their heartfelt greetings to celebrate the occasion. Reading through, it’s easy to get a sense of the tremendous good WordPress has done for the world, giving so many a voice, a livelihood, and a chance to live their dreams.

Source: WordPress Turns 19

Google hits back at claims Gmail inbox filters are biased

Google’s Gmail is easily one of the best email services around, but that doesn’t shield the company from criticism – far from it.

In fact, tensions ran high(opens in new tab) in a recent meeting between Google’s staff and Republican Senators after the lawmakers criticized Gmail for allegedly having a bias against right-wing fundraising and campaign emails.

The genesis for the frustration was a recent study(opens in new tab) of 300,000 emails during the 2020 election that claimed Gmail was 50% more likely to designate messages from Republicans as spam than those from Democrats.

Now, whether unsolicited spam messages should be getting into inboxes in the first place remains a topic for debate, but perhaps there is something there. 

Google certainly disagrees and has released a blog post(opens in new tab) written by Gmail’s Neil Kumaran, who is responsible for product safety. Rather than answering specific allegations, Google offered a lesson in how best to work with Gmail.

Analysis: Threading the line

It’s not the first time a big technology company has been accused of bias against conservative or right-wing users by Republicans – and it won’t be the last.

Google is likely more focused on user retention and whether email users are ‘enjoying’ the content that arrives in their inboxes, as opposed to whether a political party can send countless fundraising emails.

But political problems need to be avoided, especially if Republicans overturn the Democrats’ House majority later this year and begin to launch investigations into Gmail.

Source: Google hits back at claims Gmail inbox filters are biased

More News:

Google Analytics 4 guide for PPC

More FAQ rich results are being displayed in Google Search

Google News new design being tested

3 content marketing strategies to support SEO success

“When we think about [SEO] success, we often think about ranking on the first page of Google,” said Jon Lightfoot, founder, and CEO of Strategic SEO Solutions, in a recent webinar. “But beyond ranking [at the top], there’s something more [important], which is ranking for the right keywords.”

Ranking for the topics your target audience is searching for doesn’t come from keyword stuffing or overemphasizing keyword density. Success in this area relies on crafting quality content that audiences love and search engines recognize as authoritative.

Here are three effective content strategies Lightfoot recommends marketers enact to support SEO success.

1. Identify user intent

“Intent is the purpose behind the [user’s] search,” Lightfoot said. “There are four buckets to understand and nurture when it comes to your strategy.”

The four areas of user intent he identified relate to specific content or services searchers are looking for. They are as follows:

• Informational: Searchers looking for information, such as an answer to a question.
• Navigational: Users looking for a specific website.
• Commercial: People researching a product or service.
• Transactional: Those who are searching for products or services to purchase.

“How do we harness this and use it in a way that’s effective for our companies? The first step is to perform keyword analysis,” he said. “The epicenter of this is understanding what people want to receive from these queries so you can then create the content that serves them.”

2. Prioritize content quality, not quantity

“If you rank at the top of the search, that’s only part of the battle,” Lightfoot said. “The real battle is staying there. You have to be mindful of content quality signals.”

Metrics such as bounce rate, time spent on a page, and the number of page views, while telling little by themselves, can give marketers more context into user behavior when analyzed together. They can show how engaged readers are with your content, letting you know which pieces need to be reworked or scrapped altogether.

“It’s about [optimizing] in a qualitative way so that we nurture the core metrics and Google rewards us by maintaining our rankings,” Lightfoot said.

Instead of focusing on pushing out loads of articles, marketers should spend more time improving the quality of the content they’re already producing. This means making the most important on-page elements as well-written and user-centric as possible.

3. Focus on E-A-T through external linking and footnotes

“E-A-T – building expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – is going to come from not only the things you say but the areas that can support what you’re saying,” Lightfoot said. “If you use external linking to provide more information to users, it shows that what you’re saying is validated by other sources.”

“Linking to trustworthy sites proves your value and credentials,” he added.

Linking to authoritative external sources shows readers you took the time to make your content the best it can be, especially when that content is linked with relevant anchor text. But more than that, this process helps improve your own content’s credentials.

Source: 3 content marketing strategies to support SEO success

Important KPIs To Measure For An Organic SaaS Campaign

The tech start-up sector faces a turbulent time ahead, with market uncertainty, start-up employees dumping stock, and a reported first market retraction in 10 years.

The IPOs and free-flowing venture capital that 2022 once promised are coming to reality more conservatively. As a result, tech and SaaS companies need to closely monitor cash flow and ROI.

Focus on traditional SEO metrics and how they tie into the important metrics for C-level and seniors in SaaS companies.

SEO activities can’t directly influence all these metrics, but we can understand how they indirectly affect them, report on them, and correlate to SEO initiatives.

Essential KPIs & Goal Tracking

Through Google Analytics and other analytics platforms, reporting on form completions, demo requests, and paid sign-ups is nothing new – but not all leads are created and treated equally.

When SaaS companies get a lead, they’ll score the lead. Tying these scores back (anonymously) to channel and landing pages, we can get a better idea of whether the content on the page or content we’re producing is attracting the right kind of user and lead for the business.

MQL

Marketing qualified leads, generally speaking, will be the first stage for the majority of leads that submit a form, demo inquiry, or information request.

From a marketing perspective, they are qualified enough to have made that initial engagement with the company but are yet to be vetted for “suitability” by the sales team or SDRs.

Finance Metrics

While we can’t directly affect these via SEO, we can influence them through effective content that achieves three things:

• Visibility for non-brand queries and around common user problems and perspectives.
• Sufficient content depth to educate and add value to the user query.
• Transparency and valid product information so the user can accurately forecast their product use and how it will meet their needs.

Traffic Metrics

Finally, let’s talk about traffic.

Traffic is a staple metric of any SEO campaign, but we need to go deeper than just session-level data and look at traffic in segments with SaaS campaigns.

The breakdowns we need to make (and can do so by stitching Google Analytics data with Google Search Console data) are:

• New vs. returning users.
• Brand navigational queries.
• Brand informational queries.
• Prospect queries.
• Active user queries.

TikTok Brings Account Management To Third-Party Tools

TikTok will now allow businesses to manage their accounts via third-party social media management platforms.

The initial launch includes integrations with Brandwatch, Dash Hudson, Emplifi, Hootsuite, Khoros, Later, Sprinklr, and Sprout Social.

As an expansion of TikTok’s Marketing Partner Program, which was launched in September 2020, this is the latest initiative aimed at making it easier for marketers to connect with users on the platform.

Integration Allows Marketers to Manage Content via Third-Party Apps

This integration with third-party tools gives businesses an easier way to incorporate TikTok marketing into their workflow.

TikTok seeks to help brands achieve more success on the platform by bringing content management, scheduling, and publishing capabilities to tools they already use.

Brands Can Monitor Cross-Platform Performance

This integration will allow digital marketers to monitor all their social media accounts from a single platform, which will provide insights into what type of content performs best on each type of social media.

By analyzing key performance indicators, brands will be able to develop more effective social media strategies and build engagement, not just on TikTok, but on all social media platforms.

Source: TikTok Brings Account Management To Third-Party Tools

Google came up with May 2022 Algorithm update

Google confirmed the broad core algorithm update. This got called the May 2022 core update. Core updates get designed to make search results more relevant for users. It will take 1-2 weeks for this update to fully roll out. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, noted that changes to site performance in search results are expected.

Danny stated, “Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. While nothing is a core update specific to any particular site, these updates may produce some noticeable changes to how sites perform…”

Google always points to the same guidance it published in 2019. This is when the core update rolls out.

Source: Google came up with May 2022 Algorithm update

More news:

Google Analytics 4 guide for PPC

More FAQ rich results are being displayed in Google Search

Google News new design being tested

Google Analytics 4 guide for PPC

Like many of you, the first time I looked at Google Analytics 4, I immediately closed it and said, “nope!”

A year passed. Then we learned that Universal Analytics was going away in 2023, which finally forced me to explore GA4.

It feels like going from Windows to Mac. You just have to know what you’re looking at.

Universal Analytics is going away

GA4 uses an event-based model as opposed to the old session-based model that UA uses. This allows for a lot more data to be sent to your analytics.

The GA4 tag can send up to 25 event parameters. UA could only send four per event.

GA4 can have up to 500 distinctly named events. The 500 event limit is only for events you set up. This limit does not count toward GA4 events that come by default like page_view, click or video_start.  

I’m not going to go into detail on how to install GA4 because lots of people have already done that.

One thing you should do is turn on Enhanced Measurement.

You do that by going to Admin > Data Streams of the property you are working on. Click on the Web tab and make sure the slider for Enhanced measurement is on.

If you click on the gear icon on the far right you will see all the different things to measure like Scrolls and Outbound clicks.  

Setting up conversions

If you already have goals set up in Universal Analytics, Google has rolled out a tool to move your conversions over to GA4. If you don’t have this you will need to use Google Tag Manager to set up a Custom HTML tag to push your conversion data to the data layer.

Some plugins and third-party services may already do this for you. Once the events exist, all you have to do is go to the main menu and click on Configure and the first thing you will see is Events.

Always check here first when you want to create a conversion. What you want to count as conversion may already be in here. Just find your event and click the slider to activate. 

New concepts

One of the main concepts of GA4 is differentiating between user engagement and session engagement. The main difference is that user engagement statistics can span more than one session.

A session engagement includes data for each session. GA4 is all about engagement.

The biggest difference you will notice in GA4 is that the bounce rate is gone. It has been replaced with “Engaged Sessions.” A session is either engaged or not.

Google Ads

The first thing that you will notice in GA4 is that the menu on the left is much smaller and there are fewer sub menus and many things are missing or buried.

Another thing I noticed is that not all sections have the ability to change the time period you are viewing. Specifically, if you are running a custom report in the library, you can’t change the time period for that report.

The solution is to navigate to another section like the Report main menu that has the ability to change the time period. Then go back to your report and it will reflect the change. 

For paid search, we are missing the Google Ads section. The Google Ads section can be found in the Acquisition Overview submenu under Report > Acquisition on the second row, the third box on the bottom right.

Advanced reporting is extremely limited

The default GA4 seems to be designed for novice users to get overview information quickly.

Many of the detailed reports that were easy to get to and easy to use are no longer available without advanced knowledge of GA4. The custom reports that you can build under the Explore menu are extremely powerful if you know how to set them up.

There is a gallery of pre-made reports, but not many at this time. Once GA4 has been around longer there will be more custom reports and articles on how to create specific reports.

Source: Google Analytics 4 guide for PPC

DuckDuckGo’s Search Deal Prevents Browser From Blocking Microsoft Trackers

DuckDuckGo’s search syndication deal with Microsoft is the root of an issue leading to data being tracked in the company’s allegedly private mobile web browser.

It was discovered this week that DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser transfers data to Microsoft-owned properties when visiting certain websites.

This was confirmed by DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, who is working to preserve the company’s reputation after the potentially damaging discovery was shared on Twitter.

Does that mean the privacy-centric DuckDuckGo isn’t as private as we’ve come to believe?

Here’s what was revealed about DuckDuckGo’s browser, what the CEO has to say in response, and why critics aren’t satisfied.

DuckDuckGo Browser Allows Microsoft Trackers

Security researcher Jacob Edwards posted evidence in a lengthy Twitter thread showing DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser transferring data to Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Bing Ads.

DuckDuckGo CEO Responds To Criticism

Weinberg was quick to respond to the criticism of his company, confirming Microsoft trackers aren’t blocked on the DuckDuckGo browser.

However, he attempts to downplay the situation because it doesn’t impact DuckDuckGo’s search results.

“This is not about search,” he begins in statement published to the Hacker News forum.

Isn’t it, though?

If it weren’t for the search syndication deal between DuckDuckGo and Microsoft, this wouldn’t be an issue in the first place.

Source: DuckDuckGo’s Search Deal Prevents Browser From Blocking Microsoft Trackers

YouTube Analytics Now Separates Data By Video Type

YouTube is rolling out an update to analytics reports that will benefit content creators who make videos in different formats.

You’ll now be able to see the total number of video views for each type of content you publish to your channel.

Previously, data was combined into a single metric that counted views for all content types.

YouTube is making these changes to help you understand and compare the performance of different video formats.

You can compare views of regular videos, versus Shorts, versus livestreams to see which type of content is driving the most engagement for your channel.

Here’s more about the changes to YouTube Analytics, why they’re being made, along with answers to questions you’re likely to have.

Separate Data For Content Types In YouTube Analytics

When this change rolls out, what you’ll notice in YouTube Studio is an absence of the Reach and Engagement tabs you’re used to seeing at the channel level. They’re getting replaced by a new tab called Content.

The Content tab is going to be a merged home where you will be able to follow up on the performance of your different content types.

When you click on the Content tab you’ll see several navigation items that take you to metrics for individual types of videos.

Why Is YouTube Making These Changes?

YouTube is adding separate analytics, as well as the ability to compare metrics for the first time.

No data is being removed, it’s simply getting presented in a different way.

If data appears to be missing it has likely been moved to a new location. For example, traffic sources data will appear throughout YouTube Analytics instead of having its own section.

Source: YouTube Analytics Now Separates Data By Video Type

WordPress reveals its most affordable website builder option yet

Building your dream website could soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update from WordPress.

The website builder has launched a stripped-back platform that costs just $5 per month, offering WordPress managed hosting and unlimited site traffic for what it calls “a revolutionary price”.

WordPress Starter looks to offer a middle-tier option for users, sitting between the company’s current Pro premium offering and its free basic option.

WordPress Starter

“From building your audience with a blog, to sharing your business, design, expertise, or experiences with the world. If you’re looking to make your work visible, and make it visual, the Starter plan has you covered,” WordPress wrote in its announcement(opens in new tab).

Subscribers to the new platform will get access to a wide selection of tools helping them to set up and personalize a website, starting from custom .com domains instead of the company’s basic wordpress.com offering.

When building their site, users will benefit from 6GB of storage for their assorted photos and images, and will get access to Google Analytics as a default alongside WordPress’ own tools. The company says this partnership will allow website owners much greater visibility into who is visiting their site, what content they are engaging with, and much more.

For those looking to dip their toes into the world of ecommerce, WordPress Starter will give access to a number of useful tools and payment platforms, including a Payment Button block that provides a fast way to take payments and set up subscriptions with Stripe. They’ll also get access to the Donations Form block as a way to accept tips and donations, and the Premium Content block for the option to sell one-off, monthly, or yearly premium content.

WordPress says it will also soon be be introducing a range of add-ons that will pair with Starter to give users “an extra boost”.

Source: WordPress reveals its most affordable website builder option yet

More News:

Google News new design being tested

New Video Explores Site Building Progress From WordPress 5.0 to 6.0

New Yelp feature: Request a Call

More FAQ rich results being displayed in Google Search

Google Search seems to be displaying more FAQ-rich results in its search results over the past few days. Both RankRanger’s tracking tool and some SEOs are noticing this increase in the number of times a site is showing FAQ-rich results.

What are rich result FAQs? Web pages with a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) containing a list of questions and answers pertaining to a particular topic can markup the questions and answers with FAQ structured data. Google may then show those FAQs in the search results snippets as illustrated below:

More showing. Google is now showing these FAQ-rich results five percentage points more often according to RankRanger, who happened to be recently acquired by Similarweb. Here is the data chart showing the uplift:

Two links. As a reminder, Google recently limited the number of links you can see within an FAQ-rich result to two links. A couple of years ago, Google also tightened the guidelines around using FAQ schema on your site.

With more FAQ results showing up in Google Search, it may benefit your site if you gained those rich results but at the same time, if your competitor now shows up for these rich results, then it might have the opposite effect. Rich results generally lead to a higher click-through rate from the Google search results snippet to the publisher’s site but not always. In this case, if the searcher gets their answer from the FAQ rich result, they did not end up clicking over to your site.

Source: More FAQ rich results being displayed in Google Search

Google releases May 2022 broad core update

Google is now rolling out its first broad core algorithm update of 2022. It is named the May 2022 core update, Danny Sullivan of Google announced.

The most recent core update was the November 2021 core update, over 6 months ago.

The announcement. Google said “today, we’re releasing our May 2022 core update. It will take about 1-2 weeks to fully roll out.”

“Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. While nothing is a core update is specific to any particular site, these updates may produce some noticeable changes to how sites perform, which we’ve noted in previous guidance on what site owners should know about core updates,” Google added.

Rumors of core updates. The SEO community since May 16 through this week has been seeing signs of a potential Google algorithm update rolling out. Google has not confirmed those rumors

Any volatility prior to today is likely unrelated to those rumors. Maybe Google was testing this core update? John Mueller of Google specifically addressed this saying “when we announce core updates, we start the roll-out at that point, not beforehand.”

The rollout started this morning. Google started this broad core update rollout at about 11:30 a.m. ET. And Google will update us when this update is done rolling out.

Previous core updates. The most recent previous core update was the November 2021 core update and prior to that was the July 2021 core update before that it was the June 2021 core update and that update was slow to roll out but a big one.

Before that, we had the December 2020 core update, which was very big, bigger than the May 2020 core update, and that update was also big and broad and took a couple of weeks to fully roll out. Before that was the January 2020 core update, we had some analysis on that update over here.

The one prior to that was the September 2019 core update. That update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates. You can read more about past Google updates here.

Source: Google releases May 2022 broad core update

WordPress.com Announces New Starter Plan For $5/Month

WordPress.com announced a new “Starter” plan today for customers that bridges the pricing gap between the free plan and its $15/month Pro plan. The Starter plan is $5/month and includes a custom domain name, along with 6GB storage, and the ability to use payment collection blocks (Donations Form, Premium Content, and Payment Button).

When WordPress.com rolled out major, unannounced pricing changes on April 1, slashing free storage limits, users took to the forums to express their profound disappointment in the controversial update and the company’s lack of communication around it. After receiving overwhelmingly negative feedback, WordPress.com increased traffic and storage limits on the free plan before officially announcing it.

Seven weeks after WordPress.com began testing the waters with pricing changes, the company has responded to feedback about the wide gap between the free and Pro plans. Many customers were disappointed to learn that they would have to pay $15/month to have access to custom domain names, even though they do not need the commercial themes and plugins included in the Pro plan. Some users expressed that they felt “trapped in the net” with the pricing updates and planned to shift their sites to new platforms.

Source: WordPress.com Announces New Starter Plan For $5/Month

Google Launching May 2022 Broad Core Algorithm Update

Google confirms a broad core algorithm update, called the May 2022 core update, is rolling out today.

Core updates are designed to make search results more relevant for users. Though the update is launching today, it will take 1-2 weeks for this update to fully roll out.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, notes that changes to site performance in search results are to be expected.

When a core update rolls out, Google is known for pointing to the same guidance it published in 2019.

Nothing has changed there, as Google references the same document with respect to this update.

To sum it up, Google’s general advice regarding core updates is as follows:

• Expect widely noticeable effects, such as spikes or drops in search rankings.
• Core updates are “broad” in the sense that they don’t target anything specific. Rather, they’re designed to improve Google’s systems overall.
• Pages that drop in rankings aren’t being penalized; they’re being reassessed against other web content that has been published since the last update.
• Focusing on providing the best possible content is the top recommended way to deal with the impact of a core algorithm update.
• Broad core updates happen every few months. Sites might not recover from one update until the next one rolls out.
• Improvements do not guarantee recovery. However, choosing not to implement any improvements will virtually guarantee no recovery.

It has been six months since the last Google core update, which rolled out in November 2021.

Source: Google Launching May 2022 Broad Core Algorithm Update

More news:

Google News new design being tested

New Video Explores Site Building Progress From WordPress 5.0 to 6.0

New Yelp feature: Request a Call

Google News new design being tested

Google is testing a new trail version of the Google News portal at news.google.com. It is a limited trail, I was only able to bring it up once in Safari private mode, but then I lost it. The new home page is more visual, brings the navigation menu from the left side to the top and overall cleans up the look of the home page.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the top of the page that I was able to screen capture when I saw the test – you can click on it to enlarge it:

Here is the bottom portion of the page where you can see the “Fact check” section. Again, you can click on it to enlarge it:

When will you see it. Again, this is just a test, just a trial, Google is running to see if those in this test group like the new Google News design and if the responses they expect from the new design is positive or negative. Google is constantly testing new user interfaces across all their platforms, so this should come as no surprise.

Source: Google News new design being tested

Open Source Initiative Launches News Blog on WordPress

The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a public benefit corporation and steward of the Open Source Definition, has launched a news blog on WordPress. In 2021, OSI’s board appointed Stefano Maffulli as its first Executive Director, and he is leading the organization in overhauling its web presence.

The blog was launched on a subdomain of the opensource.org website, which uses Drupal 7, self-hosted on a droplet from Digital Ocean. It’s also tightly integrated with CiviCRM to manage members’ subscriptions, donations from individuals, tracking sponsorships, and sending the newsletter.

As Drupal 7 is approaching EOL in November 2022, the team is planning to move everything to WordPress. They explored managed hosting with Drupal but found it was more expensive and also required them to migrate to a more recent version of Drupal. Themes and plugins made for D7 are not compatible with D9+, so they didn’t see an advantage in terms of time or simplicity.

Although Maffulli wanted to avoid creating a blog under a subdomain, and preferred using the old URL (opensource.org/blog...), mixing Drupal self-hosted with a managed WordPress site was not a common use case with straightforward solutions. If the new blog design looks familiar, that’s because it was inspired by WP Tavern’s new design.

Since the Tavern’s theme wasn’t yet on GitHub, Maffulli contracted a developer who used WordPress’ new full-site editing features to create a simple child theme based on the Twenty Twenty-Two default theme. He said he is glad overseeing the project gave him a chance to learn the basics of FSE.

Some members of the OSI staff were already familiar with WordPress, which contributed to the decision to use the software. The wide range of functionality and third-party integrations were also a factor.

Maffulli said he wishes the WordPress media library offered a more standardized way of storing and tracking copyright information, like the author, source, and license.

The OSI team has opted to keep comments closed on posts at this time, since they do not have the capicity to properly moderate comments.

OSI is also looking into creating a way to give its members the privilege of commenting. This would require a way to integrate authentication with CiviCRM to access members’ records.

The new Voices of Open Source blog has started by featuring the network of OSI affiliates, which boasts 80 organizations, including Mozilla, Wikimedia, Linux Foundation, OpenUK, and more.

Source: Open Source Initiative Launches News Blog on WordPress

Google Unveils New Ads Manager Tools For Video Ads

We all know how important it is to deliver the right message at the right time, to the right customer.

When Google introduced Video Ads, this was a way to reach users in a different way.

However, Google Ad Manager wasn’t built to provide such in-depth insights on a campaign type like video.

If you’ve ever had a difficult time gathering insights for video and programmatic ad performance, this update is for you.

Google Ad Manager announced a new array of tools to save you time, manage your video streams, and grow revenue from videos.

Programmatic Video Health Tools

More in-depth insights from the Programmatic Video Health tool can help you understand the performance of inventory at auctions compared to others.

A new video signals card will show an overview of how your specific video inventory is performing. The signals it reports on include:

• Viewability
• App or web domain name
• Audience information

In addition, these signals report the potential revenue impact from videos. The signals above will make it easier for you to place a value on your video inventory and identifying where certain metrics can improve.

The second tool added for programmatic and video is called the Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) errors insights card.

The VAST errors card uses automation to easily show the amount of errors on your video inventory. It also shows what line items are causing errors.

Real-Time Video Reporting

The YouTube Ads Delivery Tool can test ad delivery in real-time on YouTube inventory.

You’re able to see data such as:

• Ad requests
• Key-values
• Details for winning line items

Why These Tools Matter

Before the video signals and VAST error cards were introduced, you likely spent a lot of time digging through video inventory.

With automated insights, you can cross a lot of manual tasks and report pulls off your list.

On the VAST errors report, you can sort the line items of errors by highest impact on revenue.

Focus on high-impact areas of improvement for your video inventory to drive faster growth with these new tools.

Source: Google Unveils New Ads Manager Tools For Video Ads

Instagram teases quirky, new, eye-catching font as part of identity shift

Instagram is rolling out new brand identity materials for users and influencers to use as part of a “visual refresh” that it hopes will foster creativity in the platform’s various communities.

The refresh is split into three parts: a brand new font for the app called Instagram Sans, a new layout and design system, and a new logo with moving gradient colors. Admittedly, it’s a little confusing as to how users and creators are meant to use the moving gradient logo, but it appears to be a beacon of sorts to bring more eyes to content.

Eye-catching content

Speaking of eye-catching, Instagram Sans was created for that very purpose. It’s the platform’s new global font, which was inspired by the Instagram logo itself. Instagram said it worked with experts to make sure the font works with all types of languages, including those that don’t use letters such as Japanese and Arabic. Instagram Sans sports a circular motif that’s supposed to invoke friendliness. You can play with Instagram Sans on the platform’s website where you can check out the various sub-fonts like Sans Script and Medium.

Growing its audience

We also asked Instagram when can people expect these features to roll out, but we were met with silence. What can be said with some confidence is that this is all probably a part of Instagram’s plan to go after TikTok’s audience.

The layout feature will be full-screen, and back in early May, the platform announced that it’s testing out a new vertical feed that takes up the entire display. It remains to be seen if chasing after TikTok is the way to go in the long term. Instagram’s new font and layouts are certainly interesting, but it’s up to the users to decide if they’re worth keeping.

Source: Instagram teases quirky, new, eye-catching font as part of identity shift

Is Google Search showing fewer sitelinks

Google Search seems to be showing fewer sitelinks in the search results. Google would show as many as six sitelinks per search result snippet, now Google seems to be showing a maximum of four sitelinks and often just two sitelinks.

What are sitelinks. Sitelinks are links from the same domain that are clustered together under a web result. Google Search said it “analyzes the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they’re looking for” in the search results.

What changed. Google seems to have changed to a vertical format for large sitelinks and is only showing up to 4 sitelinks. Even the example from Google’s very own help documentation shows six sitelinks.

Screenshots. Here are screenshots showing how a search for [tesla] is showing four sitelinks:

Source: Is Google Search showing fewer sitelinks

More News:

New Yelp feature: Request a Call

New TikTok Tool Surfaces Useful Insights For Marketers

Link building: the least favorite part of SEO

New Video Explores Site Building Progress From WordPress 5.0 to 6.0

Do you remember what it was like to use WordPress 5.0? Three years and ten major releases have radically changed the site-building experience. Still, it’s not always easy to recognize when focused on some of the more minor, iterative changes that slowly add up. Anne McCarthy, WordPress product liaison at Automattic and co-release coordinator for 6.0, has created a short 13-minute video that shows the immense amount of progress contributors have made on on-site building features.

McCarthy takes viewers back in time to WordPress 5.0, released in December 2018, which introduced the block editor and the Twenty Nineteen default theme through the work of 400+ contributors. She demonstrates using the Customizer with the default theme. These were simpler days and it’s clear now how limited the Customizer was for implementing the most basic changes.

McCarthy quickly demonstrates the 6.0 site editing experience, swapping out template parts, and showcasing the breadth of the customization available for images, colors, typography, controlling the posts that are displayed, style variations, and the impressive array of design tools available.

Ten major versions later, nearly every aspect of a WordPress site is customizable through the site editor. For those who have not yet made the leap into full-site editing – it’s essentially like the old Customizer but with superpowers, better instant previews, and the interface is a panel on the right. At this point, I don’t think the usability is at a level where someone can just get in there and immediately know what they are doing. It takes a little bit of exploring, but it’s moving in the right direction.

Source: New Video Explores Site Building Progress From WordPress 5.0 to 6.0

New mobile Google ad experiment puts favicon in line with display URL

Google has confirmed that the search company is experimenting with a new Google Ads label display, this was after this has been spotted in the wild by some in the industry. The test includes different verbiage like “advertisement” and “sponsored” above mobile search ads, instead of just saying “Ads.” In many cases, the site’s favicon is featured directly to the left of the ad domain & display URL.

Google confirmed. A Google spokesperson confirmed the test saying “This is part of a series of experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query. We are always testing new ways to improve the experience for users on the search results page, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.”

A more organic feel? Google has consistently evolved the visual display of ads over the past 15 years. Ads have graduated from a heavy blue background to today’s smaller bolded “Ad” text typically found to the left of the domain:

One can argue that this new test has ads taking yet another step toward replicating an organic result. In this view, the ad/sponsored/advertisement text is removed from the right side of the ad and moved above the site and domain. Replacing that label in some cases in now a favicon that is appearing to the left of the domain/display URL, much like a mobile organic result.

Source: New mobile Google ad experiment puts favicon in line with display URL

Google gives 6 JavaScript Optimization Tricks

Developer Advocate Alan Kent shared six ways to optimize JavaScript. This is to improve the performance of your website.

The first way is to avoid proliferation in the number of JavaScript files on your site. To fix this issue, combines smaller files together to have a single, larger file to download. Another way is to support HTTP2 on your site. It can improve performance without joining files.

The second way is to avoid excessive DNS lookups. Excessive DNS lookups slow down a user’s first visit to your site. To fix it, one should reduce the number of DNS lookups. Google also suggests hosting a copy of externally referenced JavaScript files on one’s own site.

The third way is to reduce or eliminate inefficient JavaScript. This is because it slows down web pages and leads to poor user experiences. To fix this, write JavaScript code differently. Techniques also include profiling existing code. And writing one’s own scaled-down versions of more powerful components.

The fourth way is to eliminate unused JavaScript. Unused JS is a common problem. To fix this, Google recommends a technique called tree-shaking. This gets used to identify JavaScript that gets never called, which is safe to delete. The fifth way is to make sure your JS files remain compressed when downloaded.

Source: Google gives 6 JavaScript Optimization Tricks

Last Call: 5 Tips To Capture Last Minute Ecommerce Sales

Gift giving is like targeting in digital marketing. You’re attempting to “message map” the perfect gift based on what you know about the person while sticking to an agreed-upon budget.

For some, this is a delight, and they knock out all their shopping in the weeks (or months) leading up to Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Then there’s the other 79%.

Klarna surveyed 40,000 U.S.-based shoppers who bought at least one gift during the holiday season and found that 79% waited till the last two weeks before Christmas to make their purchases.

As marketers, this is fantastic news, as it means our success or failure isn’t contingent on a one really good weekend.

We can plant seeds throughout the holiday season and all year-round to entice shoppers to convert with last-minute campaigns.

To make the most of that buying behavior, we need to ensure a solid digital presence and operational infrastructure.

Consider these five strategies:

• Countdown to “Shipped In Time.”
• One-stop shopping.
• Product recommendations with gift cards.
• Charity add-ons.
• Gamifying upsells and lead capture.

While mostly focused on e-commerce/physical gifts your customers can buy, you can apply many of these lessons to local services.

Source: Last Call: 5 Tips To Capture Last Minute Ecommerce Sales

How Data Is Reshaping The SEO & Digital Marketer’s Landscape

There is a new data revolution happening, and it’s sweeping across the industry so quickly that many SEO and digital marketers are struggling to make sense of the insights and intelligence at their disposal.

To utilize this opportunity, marketers need to evolve their mindsets and use technology to analyze multiple data formats and understand the new opportunities it can bring.

SEO marketers of today and digital marketers of tomorrow will need to extract, structure quickly, and manipulate data to drive the most critical business outcomes.

Data has always been mission-critical to digital decision-making.

The Economist, back in 2017, declared it the world’s most valuable resource.

Fast forward to today and the future, and we can see that the exponential growth of data fuelling this revolution is staggering.

According to the IDC, the amount of digital data created over the next five years will be greater than twice the amount of data made since the advent of digital storage.

Think about that for a second!

The Data Revolution Means More Sources & Complexity For SEO

The data revolution has gone on for some time now, and it’s changed our concept of what counts as “data,” rightfully so.

In the past, we thought only numbers mattered.

But, in this new digital world where everything is converted into ones and zeros, data is broader and contains text, audio, and visual information – all bits waiting to be processed!

Data Is The Currency Of An Accelerated SEO & Digital Age

By 2025, Worldwide data will reach 175 zettabytes.

But unfortunately, the human brain can’t process, structure, and analyze all that data.

So technology engines have to help, and digital marketers should be the driver.

There is a massive opportunity for companies that can utilize data to create more engaging experiences.

Technology & AI Are Helping SEO Evolve

Advancements in technology and, in particular, AI and Natural Language Processing has meant that SEO and digital marketers can become data analysts without having to become an actual data scientist.

This is key to unlocking structured insights from your company’s big data to make more precise predictions about what is coming next based on existing information.

Source: How Data Is Reshaping The SEO & Digital Marketer’s Landscape